nzlatic

It's hard to compare, but the losing finalists had Dean Brill in net. And they're 5th in the Premier league.

I'll donate £20 too when we stay up.

Me too, for pretty much the same reason! Plus all the promotion work done on here. Well done to everyone involved.

I don't have the quote either but I think he said that it helped them as it energised Baxter or "puffed his chest out" as I think the quote was. Which was probably true. And at the time I was thinking the same and questioning why we did it. But he didn't say we lost because of it, that's different entirely. Just like "we lost because of the ball boys" isn't what he said, nor was "we lost because of the fans". Also, did he say "my tactics were working great until then" or something along the lines of us playing well? He's been critical of a few things and that's up for debate if you want but he hasn't said the things you're slagging him off for.

If you show me a quote from him saying that then I'll agree with you.

I was going to respond to that part of the post until I saw this. Couldn't sum it up any better really!

The phrase "on the cheap" keeps cropping up. Is there money available to the club that isn't spent on either the day to day running or the playing staff? Where is this money supposedly coming from and where is it going to? What is the black hole? Or who's pockets are being lined? Doesn't the club have to show all this in published accounts? It's so easy to trot these same old accusations out but I don't see any evidence being put forward. Happy to say I'm wrong if someone can prove otherwise?

True if there were no clauses in the contract based on poor performance. If there are no clauses then it's a stupid contract. If there are clauses that say prevent us losing him for nothing if he comes good and prevent him costing us a fortune if he has to go - then it's a pretty astute bit of business.

I'm sure they do. But watching Preston on Saturday, they may get promoted but would come straight back down in my opinion without a major overhaul of the team. There's too much quality in the Championship and they would get found out quite easily. Even we weren't all that far off getting something out of that game.

I do think we have a bit of an obsession in this country with rejecting players too quickly because of their size. But it is a bit of a problem for us when just about every match up on the pitch is won by the opposition in terms of size and strength. A real oversight in recruitment.

There would be a drop off in away attendances as there are fewer big clubs in the league below. Would we have to reduce season ticket prices? Maybe. The new stand may help but would funding for this drop off if we were relegated? I'm not against us going down purely from the idea of us possibly challenging at the top next year - for something different if nothing else! But there's just far too much doubt about what'd happen if we did. I don't think it'd be catastrophic but I do think there would be enough change financially to mean we wouldn't be sure of a promotion challenge and expectations/ambitions could change over time. Imagine 17 years in league 2!

It's not like Gregory went to Crewe on a free and is banging them in. No other club thinks he's worth the asking price so maybe Murray wasn't far off the mark.

True. It's a shame more ex players don't get in to refereeing. Would help with stuff like this and diving etc.

Fair enough, sounded like we were going down the road of cuffing everyone's hands behind their backs! I still think it shouldn't be necessary. If you put your hands up when facing a cross then you're risking handball. If they're by your side then it comes down to whether you've got time to avoid contact. Refs should be able to make that call.

What you're basically saying is that refs can't tell the difference between deliberate and accidental handball so players should run around with their hands behind their backs just in case? Not the same as not jumping into tackles.

I for one am sick of Johnson the tinkerman and his team of undroppable mates. Love the OWTB oxymorons.

Genuine question as I don't know and can't be arsed finding out but what is a good number of shots to have had? And what midfielders in our league have achieved that?

Not sure I agree that he doesn't get forward enough because he's regularly around the box instrumental in attacks. The problem might be that he's not doing a duxbury and getting on the end of crosses in the box. But we don't have that kind of midfielder.

At half time I sat there thinking that I'd watched this game before about 10 times over. Grayson has assembled a team to get promoted - mostly 6 footers who are well organised and strong on the ball (except when there's a free kick to be won and they're straight to the floor). They had 1 or 2 quality players, one of which won them the game with 2 bits of skill for each goal. They might go up, but they'll come straight back down, they won't be able to handle the step up in quality. As for us I thought 2 small strikers was a mistake against that team and also it doesn't work when we have wingers who like to cross early - we needed more of a presence which showed when JCH came on. Also thought korey seemed off the pace and the first half in general was flat and we seemed to accept that we weren't going to win. My other negative is that I can't remember a time in the whole match on either side of the pitch where the full back overlapped and got to the byline and put a cross in. Then we came out in the second half and stepped it up. We had a belief that we could get something out of the game. I must be in the minority but I just don't see aimless hoofing. I thought we tried to pass where we could and had some good opportunities against a well marshalled defence. Lockwood should have scored from a corner, JCH came really close to a header and the keeper made 2 or 3 good saves. Then they go up the other end and sneak one against the run of play. I'm not "happy clapping", i can usually judge how we've played by my mood when leaving. Against Colchester I was thinking why do I bother? Yesterday I was thinking about fine lines and how I like what Johnson is trying to achieve and hope he sticks at it and makes it work. Sooner rather than later though obviously.

My mate has a bee in his bonnet about standing and how some let it happen, some don't. He asked the fa (after a cup game) and they basically admitted that if enough people do it then they don't enforce sitting. It's seen as less of a disturbance to just let it happen. But if it's a smaller crowd doing it they can enforce it more easily.

I saw that one. Preston fans in it flagging people off probably not realising they had to stop and turn round. Unlucky.

I don't go that often so watched Connor Brown quite closely today as he gets a bit of stick from some on here. Played really well apart from 2 mistakes in the first half where he made the wrong decisions. But he's still a kid. And how is he no good with the ball at his feet? Seemed to have decent control and rarely gave the ball away. I'd like to see him bomb on down the line a bit more but that might not be his fault. And I thought running over to shake Philly's hand when he went off (too slowly considering we were losing!) showed good team spirit. Definitely not one to write off yet and a run there til the end of the season will do him good. Same with mellor. Let him learn the game and let's have a settled defence.

I don't think anyone is saying that the amenities are "fantastic" in the RRE, just better than in the Chaddy. I don't think anyone can argue with that can they? I used to sit on half way in the lookers and 100 away fans singing in the RRE sounded louder than 1000 fans in the Chaddy. I think it's worth putting the singers from the Chaddy with the singers from the RRE so whatever noise they do make sounds louder. It's not a magical solution that will see BP rocking every week, just makes the most out of what singing there is so it's worth a try in my opinion.

Great footwork from mellor in the build up to the first. Great ball to Worral for the second, Lockwood? Awful defending for Lowe goal.

Rarely get chance to go these days so doesn't really count. But here is my record for this season: Brentford (A) Lost 0-1 Colchester (H) Lost 0-2 Sheff Utd (A) Draw 1-1 Coventry (A) Draw 1-1 Liverpool (A) Lost 0-2 2 goals in 7 and a half hours of football. Not great!