Suspect the Gaffer is hiding a bushel under his press conference this lunchtime. Kamara ended Tuesday night's game holding his knee and Jokanivic says "we will analyse the situation". My sources tell me Kamara has joined the '2 weeks out club' along with Ayite and Cairney. The gaffer also made no mention of Fonte who went off injured, after 68 minutes on Tuesday. Hmmm ??? QPR are coming to tomorrow night's game on the back of two, not very impressive, draws but that counts for nothing. Olly will have them bursting with his rhetoric and you can probably put your house on Matt Smith making an appearance. With the injury list mounting - honestly don't expect either Kamara or Fonte to be available - Jokanovic has very few choices. Kind of worrying of course, is the lack of a recognised striker; not sure of the story but the only outsider, Stevie Humphrys, doesn't appear to be around at the moment. Guess the team picks itself therefore. ..........................Button............. ...Fredericks...Kalas....Ream....Odoi...... ..................McDonald..Norwood... .....Ojo...Johansen.........Mollo.....Sessegnon..
Mollo seems a bit of a feisty type of player, may be not one to start in a local derby. So may be Kebano instead. If Fonte has recovered I think Sessegnon will drop into LB. Wonder why Graham has not been played more often, Ojo seems to have jump above him in starting line. Need Button to be in top form as their keeper seems to have good games against us. QPR seem to have been more stable recently, with our injuries to key players it's going to be a tough score to predict.
I'm usually Mr glass-half-full, but I'm not optimistic about this one, particularly if both Fonte AND Kamara are out. Let's just hope my gut feeling is wrong this time.
The man in charge tonight is Peter Bankes. please log in to view this image We saw Bankesy just the once last season. A game to forget, the 4-0 home defeat to Bristol City. Four got booked; Sigurdsson and Parker for us before Kevin McDonald got sent off. The scouser (well from Bootle anyway) is racking up the games this season - he's done 12 already. And the cards - 46 yellow and 3 reds so far. At the ripe young age of 34, and with only 2 years experience of being the man in the middle, he was appointed to the Select Group cabal and given the job full time. The cognoscenti say he's heading for higher things. Mind, they said that about Stuart Atwell.
And second half ... Fonte ensures a continuation of last season and misses a penalty .... then this - Gutsy performance all round.
On balance I think we edged it but I did not like the last 15 minutes or so. Good result but our mounting injuries are starting to show. We didn't play as well as we can but got the result which in the end is most important. McDonald for me was MOTM. Robinson for them stood out. Good result and am happy to go to work on Monday.
Great win, haven't been at our best but back to back away wins moving us to the edge of the playoffs going into the international break is just what we needed.
