Obviously we'll be missing Odoi and by the skin of our teeth we almost lost Fredricks as well (even though he was on 5 yellows). In today's press conference the Gaffer confirmed that the only other players not available are Piazon and Ayite. Birmingham will also be without a defender. Their ex-Brentford centre half, Harlee Dean, was sent off against Wolves on Monday night. The only other thing to say about them is they've not scored more than a single goal in a game since beating Bristol City 2-1 in August. Nor have they scored more than once in any of their last 18 games in all competitions. Indeed scoring only 9 times in those games. Oh, oh .... In his press chat Jokanovic said, "we’re working with 23 players and can’t play with the same names in each game". Which is quite a revelation since, allowing for injuries and suspensions, he has indeed been consistently picking the select few - a core of 15 or so !! Is he hinting that we'll see one or more of the 'In Betweeners' starting tomorrow? Very much doubt it. Not even the goal keeper. The only change will be Ream back and Jokanovic reverting to his favoured formation - the diamond/false 9 using Johansen being an utter failure last weekend. .............................Button............. ..Fredericks....Kalas...Ream...Sessegnon.. ...........................McDonald.... ................Cairney..............Norwood... ......Ojo.................Fonte..............Kebano....
So far this season we haven't beaten any team that starts with the letter B' in 5 attempts. I'm sure our defence is as nervous as me with Button being told to pass the ball out, so I'd like to get Bettinelli in. Not sure why it's taking so long for Soares to get into the team so try Edun at FB to release Sessegnon to his best position. Johansen sounds like he is playing injured and needs a knee op. Bring in one of the youngsters DeLa Torre or O'Riley as replacement. Not sure I like the combo of McDonald and Norwood in the same team. .............................Bettinelli............. ..Fredericks....Kalas...Ream...Edun... ............McDonald....De La Torre.... ..........Ojo......Cairney..............Sessegnon... ............................Kebano....
Why didn't I think of that? Like that team SuperBri and the logic behind it. None of Edun, de la Torre or O'Riley are playing for the U23s tonight, so who knows. I'd probably query your exclusion of Norwood. Not because I disagree with your point about him playing with McDonald - I don't. But because Jokanovic doesn't seem to see what we do ... and the off chance we get a penalty !
Today, the man looking after things is Tony Harrington. please log in to view this image Don't know how the powers that be assign ref's to matches but this is a strange one. Harrington ref'd the corresponding game against Birmingham last season when he sent off Madl just before half time and gave them two penalties. Button saved the first one but the second was enough to give B'ham a 1-0 win. Those decisions were contentious but even if correct, overall he was awful. The Teesider, who started reffing at 14 and still looks no older, also handled the 1-1 draw against Cardiff at the Cottage this season. He booked 7; Button, McDonald, Johansen and Mollo for us. Harrington's performance that day was simply dreadful. For the record he's ref'd 19 games so far this season, dishing out 63 yellows and 3 reds.
We don't half make it difficult for ourselves. Suppose the upside is that this was what's known as 'winning ugly' since, even though there were some decent periods of good play, there was an awful lot of huffing and puffing. One of the best ... no, the best ... passage of play was the build up to the goal, which unfortunately is missing from this clip: A clean sheet to boot, although that says more about how pathetic B'ham were than our defensive elan. But hey, let's celebrate not only two wins on the trot at the Cottage but two clean sheets as well. And that's the first time since October 2014 that we've had two clean sheets in succession at home.
