https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58036095 Strong line up. Bench looks light. We definitely need reinforcements ASAP
FT 0-0 Disjointed game with two teams who don’t look up to speed yet. We had chances but didn’t take them. They did too. I think both teams happy to share the points.
Pratley is better than Dobson. Watson probably is too. Clare was OK Morgan and Stockley had good games, Gunter was fine at LB.
was so good to be back at the game. wasnt as busy around the area as i thought. thought we tried hard, were quite organised. just lacked some quality and had absolutely no squad depth. washington's legs had gone by the 70th minute and we just didnt have anyone to come on to replace him. this blending the u23's in looks awfully similar to skimping and playing the kids. will forgive the guitar on the pitch.... if you own a football club, i guess you can do that. the hall of fame for the curbs stand was good. enjoyed seeing the old names. you can jazz up the pre-game, bring in local draights and all that jazz; but if the football and results are crap... TS will soon start hearing a lot more moaning. he's got 3 weeks now to fix the problems we've had for 3-4 months. cant see him doing it.
It was good to be back there. I don't mind admitting I was nervous of the crowds around the Valley before and after the game, even though they were not the biggest ever. Only maybe 1 in 100 were wearing masks, which kind of intimidated me into not putting one on. Not that I really believe they help much. Hey ho. If I've caught the virus I've caught it. Nothing I can do about it now. Inside the ground itself all was well. Glad to see the closed blocks of seats had been opened again. The Alan Curbishley Stand looked nice and bright, and the atmosphere was generally positive - as it should be on first game day. Floyd and Harvey gave Sir Valiant & Robin the red card. All a bit daft, but I didn't mind that. I know the mascots are pretty much just for the kids, but I never liked the two characters that KM foisted on us. It was a light-hearted pop at the Belgian and the bad old days. Any pop at Roland is fine by me. TS got good appreciation from the Covered end, and I didn't mind his guitar session. It's not like he's going to do it at every game. And the dedication of the Curbs Stand was nice. Some great old names there, including Chris Powell. Lennie Lawrence was thanked more than once, rightly so. Diplomatically, Red red robin was played as the guests came onto the pitch to form a kind of guard of honour for Curbs. I can understand the replacement of Red red robin with that very loud rock theme as the players walk out. It's supposed to stir up the blood I guess, and get players and fans into the mood for battle. Red red robin is such a friendly, wonderful old tune it always makes folks feel happy, but maybe the new administration regards it is too friendly and cosy. Puts the opposition at ease too much as well. In effect they want a battle cry, not a lullaby. Having said I understand the change, I don't agree with it. I think Red red robin will return at some point. Good to see the women's squad at half time. I think TS has done a very good thing there for the Club. I enjoyed the game even if it was scrappy at times and lacking in quality. We started well, had a couple of corners. Then Wednesday gradually took over. Their movement coming forward was much better than ours. I was relieved that we got in 0-0 at half time, but we did have a few chances too. Second half was better. First 20 minutes in particular we applied good pressure and the Covered end sang loud, really subdued the away fans and encouraged our attacking efforts. But nobody had their shooting boots on. We almost lost it near the end, when Bannan ran through I thought he was bound to score. I hope Paterson is going to be OK. Not good to see him hurt like that. All in all I think the day was an 8/10 just for the first game atmos and welcoming/thanking TS. The game was 7/10 for me, and that's being pretty generous. But I'm OK with a point considering how incomplete our squad still is. It could have been a lot worse. Very cloudy and wet in the second half, but the sun broke through late on and created a great rainbow above the Valley. This picture doesn't do it justice...
The lads had a few goes, but nobody could keep enough composure to be clinical. It happens sometimes. Just my opinion
Great summing up Lardi. Thank you. I think overall we do not look like a promotion chasing side. There’s just not enough quality at the moment. When you compare the current squad to the team that won the play off final, or Chris Powell’s league winning team we are nowhere near good enough. We’ve got a few weeks left to bring in some quality signings or loans otherwise it will be a long old slog to try to scrape into the play offs. All a far cry from a 5 year plan to be a solid Premier league team and ultimately a team playing regular European football. I think expectations or even ambitions need to be dampened down from what we were hoping for. But we must NEVER forget what TS saved us from. We have a team, we have a home (sort of) and we still have a choice to go and watch CAFC week in week out. We should all be eternally grateful, even if the Championship ends up being our peak for the foreseeable future.
Thought we had a good second half, aside from a couple of wobbles and the shots towards goal. We didn't do too bad.
