bannedfromHandV

Where has our intensity gone? I’m not sure we’ve ever recovered from choking against Sheff United and missing the chance to be top at Christmas.

I know we’re missing one or two but this looks to be a team issue at the moment.

He seems like a real hothead, not sure it’s what we need in the squad.

Obviously he’s young and allowances have to be made but equally, we can’t afford to have disruptive influences in the squad, if of course he is or can be disruptive (largely conjecture at this point).

I’m not feeling too positive for tonight, with the way we’ve been playing their direct and high octane approach may unsettle us I fear

Mandatory jail sentence for carrying a knife, has to be a starting point, obvious exceptions for non-lethal knives (pen knives) and carpenters carrying tools etc.

For anyone else, there’s just no justification for leaving your house with a knife in your pocket, I’ve never once even considered doing so.

1 minute ago, Follyfoot said:

Who makes jam

Duh!

31 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

It was a bit jammy

How?

Fair play, I’d written England off for this entire series let alone this match.

All over them here 

If Maidstone pull this off it’s the absolute definition of a smash and grab, it shouldn’t detract from what an amazing achievement it will/would be but my word they’ve had the footballing gods smiling on them thus far.

Really great to see Portman Road full and with 5,000 travelling fans, that’s a huge money spinner for Maidstone, that’s what the FA Cup is about, a single match gate receipt can provide enough to fund a club for an entire year potentially.

On the plus side, we’ll be in the draw for the 5th round

Meh, didn’t really want the replay but given how poor we were, individually and collectively for most of the game I suppose we’ll take it.

We only really started to look semi competent once Chelsea tired (after their midweek exertions), we seem to have lost that spark and cohesion, perhaps the result of our worst patch of injuries. 
 

Going to need to improve to get through to the next round and for the rest of the season in general if we want to even get close to achieving our aims.

Hopefully Chelsea tire in the second half and we get some more of the possession, largely quite poor though, Lenglet fortunate to have not gifted them a goal, our players often seem isolated when we do get forward. They’ve been wasteful admittedly.

All that said we could be leading ourselves so all to play for!

The firing squad thing could work well you’d think, they could get local kids to do the shooting as part of their prep for dealing with an inevitable pending massacre at their school, two birds, one stone, boom.

3 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

Been saying that to the Mrs for years 

Can she play right back? 

Was really hoping ‘Boro would have turned up tonight and at least given them a game, Chelsea will be brimming with confidence for Friday now, particularly if they bang in a few more second half.

He looks absolutely shite this evening, let’s be honest about it.

34 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

No guarantees of course, but my strong suspicion is that that's a take that is going to look very silly very quickly. I mean he literally only needs to have one half-decent performance to prove that wrong, and I think they'll get more than that out of him. 

It’s going to be interesting, he’s had essentially a year-plus long hiatus, he may not come back the same player again particularly after living on easy street at City 

Something’s up with Trippier I think, no idea what it is but a while back I think Southgate alluded to him not being in the best place mentally and then Howe said something similar and about how he’s ‘pushing through’ (paraphrased) some off-field stuff, this has all coincided with his form nose-diving and now him potentially leaving the country

8 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

its like no one has ever seen a free kick taken in midfield where a player picks the ball up in his hands and then casually throws it in front of him with a bit of back spin before taking the free kick from that position 

how many free kicks do we see per game where the foul was near a byline and the free kick is taken about 3m inside 

this is pearl clutching because its Toney

No it’s not. The vast majority of the situations you reference do not happen around the box and they don’t have the lines drawn / sprayed.

If you’re setting up a defensive wall based on where the referee has marked the spot for the ball to be placed, and then both the ball and the mark are moved, that’s not right at all.

Yes, players take the piss constantly now, it’s cynical at every step from the placing of the ball on the very edge of the corner quadrant to the constant play acting and rolling around trying to get other players booked and sent off, but this one should not have stood, particularly after he moved the refs mark.

Feel like every time I visit the news these days it just makes my blood boil further.

News item on the beeb site now with further accusations against Doug Barrowman (Michelle Money’s partner).

So alongside being invited by the Tories to defraud the nation he also for a number of years ran and publicised a business whose sole aim was to help ltd co contractors avoid paying any tax on their earnings.

Its the impunity with which these people act that I just can’t get my head around, I feel bad sometimes if I leave a shop knowing I’ve been undercharged for an item, how do people committing industrial fraud even sleep at night (other  than on a massive pile of cash).

4 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

About Newcastle wanting a player who is nowhere near good enough and what the **** is Ashworth doing? 

Or the dodgy Saudi stuff? 

 

The latter.

Saudi paid what was it, £12M plus whatever they’ve paid out in wages already but are suddenly so amenable to just terminating his contract?! Seems odd.

If Henderson ends up at Newcastle in the next few weeks serious questions need to be asked.

I see the conversation has really moved on in here.

Israel are bad but because other people are bad they should be allowed to continue being bad.

Okay cool.

Very stop start match, hard to get fluidity but still came down to fine margins and overall we controlled enough of the game and created enough chances to have won comfortably.

Thought Watkins actually played very well today up against big lumps kicking through him every time he got the ball. Luiz and McGinn hit and miss, there’s lots to like with Duran but also plenty to frustrate, he needs to realise it’s not theatre and just get on with the game when something doesn’t go his way.

Not the worst point in the world and keeps things ticking over, need to follow up with a win in the next game against the barcodes though.

All to play for second half, if Bailey had just taken one step forward we’d have gone 1-0 up, Lenglet nearly cost us though in not holding the line, thankfully we have the world number one in nets.

Feel like it’s there to be won if we can get a bit more intensity out of Diaby and Bailey but it’s on a knife edge as we could easily concede and lose.