Stoke have only won 1 game in the last 5 and were thumped 4-0 last time out. After our morale boosting performance, I am expecting another good victory. Only real question is who replaces Hirst. Azon or Akpom? 2-0 another clean sheet. We are on a festive run!
Hopefully there will only be a couple of players rotated rather than the usual half a team. I’d rather Akpom up top than Azon, as I think the latter is best used as an impact player (hopefully with the game already won). Although the fixtures are piling up - and a trip to in-form Leicester on the weekend looks a tougher match on paper - we’ve got to the keep the momentum with a more settled starting eleven. I’d definitely keep the back five unchanged. Maybe start Cajuste in central midfield or move Nunez back there. It might be a scrappy game, but I’m confident we can get back-to-back home wins. I’d back us to beat any Championship side at home. 2-0 Town win.
2-2 draw, it's all very well getting excited over the Coventry win but most teams won't come to PR and play open, expansive football. Which was covs downfall apparently!! Stoke will be different, will probably be happy to sit back and counter us, something we struggle with and any manager with half a clue will know this.
I was feeling quite confident Gaffer, then I read Spanish s post and i thought, blimey, he's right, but not quite miserable enough
Carry the momentum from Coventry and get an early goal and we'll go on to have a good victory. Start slowly and it'll be frustrating evening. I'll be optimistic - another 3-0.
I'm not sure about this one...my head is telling me we'll carry on from Saturday and produce another win, but supporting town for 45 years tells me its never easy... But I'll stick my head out and go with a laboured 1-0 win....Akpom the winner
Hmmm, I'm more optimistic having seen the line up and less changes, not 6 or 7 today. I've made my prediction bed, so will lay in it but I think we may just win this
Not the complete package but that team for the first time this year started showing some characteristics of McKenna's first team. Much better going forwards and partnerships starting to develop, some nice one touch football and good pressing. Azon showed some really good movement and I think he has harshly been criticised this season for his finishing, I think he's been unlucky, but today was the exception, poor decisions and some poor decisions on the ball today. Much better today but still a bit concerned about the balance, with Philogene and Davis wanting to occupy the same space on the left and Egeli wanting to occupy similar space to Nunez with Furlong not regular overlapping. This means we've got lots of space in the positions where Broadhead and Burns would have occupied. It sometimes means some spaces are too crowded and we don't play it through the middle as much, meaning we dont hold onto the ball as well. Wasn't a huge thing today but definitely something we need to think about against better teams. Good to see not many changes. I thought CBs were outstanding tonight and for me O'Shea man of the match, he intercepted everything. Again our CBs defended more how Woolfenden and Burgess did tonight, reading the game and intercepting rather than going touch tight to players and it left us looking a lot more comfortable.
