Harry Dowds Green Shirt

I'll go a step further Sly. Having seen the ressies, he has got better as the season has gone on and as I said earlier to the point that he is now scoring for the stiffs. That to me was why he was worth giving a chance off the bench for the 1st team. 10 mins here 15 there to break him in over 3 or 4 months this season. Yesterday he got that chance and took it. I wouldn't start him yet unless we are beset with injuries, but yesterdays cameo shows his promise and that should continue to be nurtured. He is not our saviour but shows promising signs that he can become an important member of the squad. (or could be if PD would use the bloody squad instead of sticking by the 12 apostles) When PD said he wasn't ready I was initially surprised, but if he had said he isn't ready to start but has earned his place on the bench and we will use him as we see fit then I could have agreed with that. If PD is serious that he is not ready then that begs another question. At the end of last season when decisions were being made about offering 1st pro contracts to the scholars, it was said that they would only be given contracts if they were ready to go into the 1st team. That being the case, why did we then sign a player who is probably on more money than our 1st year pros would have been?

SoD was manager at Crawley at the start of the season. Billy Davies has been out of work for nearly 3 years Seems to me that either could well be an option. Hill could be more problematic in the short term as he will have to sort out compo with Barnsley beofre we could appoint him or he risks losing a payout.

Go back to my last sentence. You were there so you will know who was from the management team

Normally I would agree with you, however whilst I understand your sentiments, I don't agree. I've seen enough of the ressies this season and the recent match against Wrexham at Chapel Road convinced me that Taylor was worth his chance. 90 minutes he put in that day played really well and bagged. His movement and positional play have come on a treat and it was a performance starting with a great crossfield diagonal run in the 2nd minute onto a through ball from Mellor at left back to create an early chance to another cracking run onto another Mellor defence splitting pass in the last 5 minutes to bury 1 past the keeper. Now if I can see that in a player why can't the manager? The answer is you have to be there.

Just wanted to give a big pack on the back to Chris Bailey and his team on the groundstaff. 2 games in 4 days with all that rain and the pitch still looked magnificent at full time. Didn't need an inspection today unlike Old Trafford. Well done boys. Well I've been racking my brains to try and find something good to say.

The year was indeed 1982. It was the bank holiday weekend at the end of May. My profile picture is the team that played in that tournament being presented with the fair play trophy by Joe Royle and the supporters club Chairman, the late Col Shaw, prior to Joe's 1st game in charge against Shrewsbury in August 1982.

I don't think there will be that much demand for Millwall away

^ This, this and this again. Couldn't agree more. Fully epxect all the fit apostles to start tonight. So much for having to fight for their place having been out of the side.

When we signed the 3 new players and performances turned round I posted the above on the 14th October. The 1st section highlighted has now been well and truely answered. The shackles are back on and we have reverted to type. As for the 2nd highlighted section I forecast that at least 9 of the available 10 (outfield) apostles will feature on Tuesday unless he plays the following formation which would allow allows him to play all 10 Bouzanis Wabara M'Voto Byrne Furman Wesolowski Croft Simpson Montano Baxter Derbyshire Now that we (actually he) are really in trouble will he have the courage to let the shackles off again?

Yep that will be the square pegs in round holes Wabara is NOT a left back. Won't make any differnece who playes at full back though. They won't be allowed to back up their winger and overlap just like yesterday and Croft and Montano will have to face upto being 2 and 3 manned each time and therefore unable to create for Derbyshire and Baxter just as has happened again over the last few games as PD has reverted to type. Which IMO is the reason the goals have dried up for Derbyshire.

PD said duriung the week that Tarky had done well against Tranmere and that JYM would have to fight for his place. Then he remembered his 12 apostles rule and hey ho JYM walks straight back in the team yesterday

Makes no difference what we think. It will be square pegs in round holes to suit the 12(13) apostles rule. Taking out the 2 keepers, 10 of the following 11 will play every match if not injured or suspended. Wabara, Byrne, M'Voto, Grounds, Croft, Wes, Furman, Montano, Simpson, Baxter and Derbyshire. Those are his favourites and no matter what they must play.

That may well break 3rd party ownership rules ala Tevez

Which means we will play them 3 times over a month or so

Please explain "both were blatant textbook violent conduct" followed by "Granted their lad pushed M'Voto." Off what I saw on the day and what you see on the TV JYM "pushed" Alexander in teh 2nd incident. You call this blatant textbook Violent Conduct" yet you accept that their player "pushed" JYM and should have seen yellow. If they are both pushes why in your view 1 blatant textbook violent conduct and the other a yellow card offence. The only difference I can see is that JYM didn't throw himself to the floor when he was pushed. All you ask for is consistence from referees. I said in the post above that he deserved to go. I just think that it shouldn't have been a straight red but 2 yellows. Also can you explain what is ridiculous about the comment at the end? It is a genuine question asking if the same incident happended at a particular ground with a certain player do you think we would get a consistency of decision I Chose Paul Scholes and OT but I could have said Steve G and Anfield. Based on what I witnessed yesterday with Clatterburg I doubt you would see the same decesion. There again with Clatterburg he would probably have sent off the player that got pushed.

I also stand to be corrected, but I've seen enough of Dermot Gallagher on Sky Sports news and this has been raised before with him and his view was a palming off with the hand below the head was not automatically classed as violent conduct, but to the head is. When I heard his interpretaion of that my mind shot back to the Rick Holden sending off in the incident with Lee Dixon and on that basis Rick shouldn't have gone.

I don't agree. The 1st incident sees JYM pushing his arm out to the palyer as he walks towards him, more in a protective mode. He may catch him around the neck and to be fair to the Crawley player he doesn't over react. Yellow at most especially as the Crawley player also gets a yellow for aggressive behaviour. The 2nd incident is clearly a push to the chest and therefore is a yellow card offence and not a straight red. A raised hand to the face is a staright red, below the face a yellow. So he should and would have gone in any event, however because of the way the ref sees it he gets a 3 game ban instead of 1. Would love to see Paul Scholes do that at OT and see if he got a straight red. Probably not with Clattenberg or Webb in charge

Nice piece, but the fact remains that the manager was under pressure. He took the shackles off after that Coventry game and the result was that once again we saw fullbacks being allowed to cross the half way line to support their wingers as they were doing in pre-season. For some reason come the 1st game at MK the full backs stopped going forward as much and the wingers were being doubled teamed out of the game. Maybe PD was worried about Wes missing who knows, but tactics definately changed. Thank goodness that changed back again at Crewe and we have looked far better for it as we have pushed the opposition back and created plenty of chances, played fluent flowing football and looked a completey different team. Yes there were signs there before hand but imo the players were being held back by the managers negative tactics. But it begs the question why play like we did through pre-season and then change it once the season starts. It was unnecessary and worrying. Worrying because I can see it happening again when things start looking more secure and we revert to type and worrying because I can see it happening again if we start to fall away badly after Christmas as we have done for the last 2 seasons. That said. I've loved the last 3 weeks, just as I enjoyed the pre-season. Keep that style and we will be more than just ok. This is probably the best squad we have had in the last decade (certainly on a par with any squad in that time) and with a bit of look is capable of doing something this season providing they are allowed to play. That is down to the manager

^ This

Effectively we are 12th and in the top half of the elague as Portsmouth will face a minimum 10 point deduction when they come out of administration. Win our game in hand and we woiuld be 9th and just 3 points from the play offs. What a difference 3 weeks make Are we good enough? Yes we are! We showed in pre -season that we were but for some reason the manager put the shackles on when the season started and only let them off when he was under pressure. Why? 3 weeks ago we would have lost that game today. In fact we did against Coventry. We had the better chances that day, didn't take them and paid the price. Today we were the better team and again failed to take our chances. Big Jean should have had a hat trick. The difference is we now have players who give us a cutting edge and PD's changes again made a difference as players came off the bench to change the game. Time to keep those shackles off now PD, the qulaity is there let them show it.

Really! Probably more to do with the fact that over the next month Latics have 2 reserve games including today whilst Chroley have 7 games.

The tweet may well have been deleted, but it was copied and e-mailed to themselves as evidence by a couple of people I know before being taken down. Seen this done so many times now. In the public eye on social networking sites it isn't just as easy as deleting it. Once posted someone somewhere is watching and keeps the evidence so even "destroying"it doesn't work. I'm guessing someone has "advised" the ballboy to delete it

These polls will change all the time depending on results. 7 points from the last 3 games has seen the vote go from around 50% to nearly 100% keep, but if the failings return and the points return drops it will see the poll reverse again. I haven't voted as I don't see any point. I also still have concerns. We have seen that the team is more than capable of competing. Not just match by match but to the point that it is clear that there is no team to be feared of in this league and that we are capable of getting a result both home and away on any given matchday and there is no reason whatsoever that we should be competing somewhere in the top half with the squad we have. The question is will we revert to type. The shackles have been off for the last 3 games and the results are there for all to see. How long will the shackles stay off for though? that is the question. If we continue as we are we will see the type of flowing football that we have seen for the last 3 games and those in pre-season. If not then we can "look forward" to more performances like that against Stevenage. Yesterday we played well again but a point that was put to me was round pegs in square holes to get 1 of his favourites back in the team. We will see next week when elcapitano returns how true that is. I also think, contrary to others, that there is more quality in the squad than just the 1st 11. We have 18 or 19 players in that squad that can step up to the plate. The 11 from yesterday + Furman, Cisak, Smith, Changy, Brown Tarky, Mellor & Winchester The other and probably major concern is post Christmas. The last 2 years we have fallen away badly, failed to score goals and consequently fallen down the table. If that happens again this season there won't be 90% + voting to keep the manager.

Prozac posted nearly 2 minutes worth on his facebok page. I'm sure he'll post it up later when he logs on although it may need some serious editing/bleeping fr such a family oriented forum

You could almost pick anyone from 2-11 (Bouzanis had nothing to do) but Montano gets my vote. His performance perfectly summed up when he chased back 80 yards in the dying minutes to tackle the Preston forward. His fitness levels are now looking right up there and I get the feeling there is still more to come from him. He really could turn out to be a major threat for us.