Mark Albrighton

Anyone else think of Fred Dinenage when they see or hear Fred Dibnah’s name? It’s only for half a second, but it’s literally every damn time for me.

Jack was a factor in that bad run, the biggest factor admittedly, but there were others things at play I think. If we played those dozen or so fixtures right now, without Jack, I reckon our points return would be much higher. Regarding resting him for this match, I’m unsure/indifferent to it. I can see the argument for playing our best players, going for the win, keeping the momentum going. I can see the argument for not tempting fate and resting players. I really don’t mind. What could have been a pivotal fixture for both teams (almost a season curtain closer) now appears more likely to be a damp squib. In answer to your question, yeah, I think we could rest him and get a result, because I think this game is almost going to be like a friendly in it’s manner, potentially a bit of a free-for-all. Both clubs will be playing with one eye on the fixtures in May.

Without wanting to turn this into another thread about our previous manager, this season, how many games do you think we won with Jack in the team before Smith came in? It was 3 wins in 12 (pre Smith). So in answer to your question, yes, it is much better.

I think De Gea can regain his form and become one of the best again, but he won’t do so at Man Utd.

Everyone is trying their luck, trying to work out what’s allowed and what isn’t. You can bet if clubs knew you could have shares in a particular sports agency, a few more would have looked into it, the Leeds bloke basically said as much. No doubt Gibson will have looked at things today and wondered whether it’s viable to sell Boro’s stadium to themselves or whatever it is that Derby have done. The whole thing is a shitshow frankly, the better the whole lot is thrown in the bin*, the better in my opinion. *or reworked and clearly defined and implemented, but if not, see the bin option.

@Keyblade raised it elsewhere but what has been everyone’s favourite of these ten? I see the argument for Rotherham, it was the sort of game that other clubs seem to grind out on a regular basis despite things going against them, like Man Utd under Fergie (obviously the levels are different but the principle is the same). It also arguably had the best goal of this run in Jack’s winner. Of course the small heath game is memorably satisfying. The complete performance against Derby which started the run from almost out of nowhere has got to be a consideration. Part of me holds the Sheffield Wednesday game in the highest regard. Admittedly not the best performance, up against our former (unbeaten) manager, a bit of a grudge match, overturning a goal deficit, penalty save, last minute goal(s), but with the added craziness of results elsewhere going our way at more or less the same time. The final few pages of that match thread are a delirious read. They’ve all been enjoyable in one way or another, but they’re the ones that immediately stand out in my mind.

Not too worried, Boro are rarely on target against us.

Looking back at my opening post in January, I hadn’t even included Brighton in my “as things stand” table. That now looks like a bit of an oversight on my part. At the time they were 13th on 26 points with a 4 point cushion on Palace in 14th.

If the bloke has run onto the pitch to celebrate them scoring...meh. A few of our lot did it recently, notably against Wednesday. World of difference between running on to the pitch to cause harm and to be a bit exuberant in celebrating. Another successful season of also ran mediocrity is something to be appreciated in their case I guess. Having a player be photographed with someone while being in a police van is fairly pathetic though, however it’s fairly representative of that club.

I believe a match day squad has to feature 10 players who featured in the previous fixture’s squad. Unless there’s a good reason like a spurs style lasagne situation I guess. The rule comes into play from the end of March.

Staggering to the end of this now. Assuming Southampton have done enough - Brighton 34 points Newcastle (h) Arsenal (a) Man City (h) Cardiff 31 points Fulham (a) Palace (h) Man Utd (a) Well I thought that the Brighton - Cardiff game would have sorted it out, but this weekend might just be the last real chance for Brighton to add to their points total. Looking at Cardiff’s fixtures, they have two very winnable games remaining and also Crystal Palace.

Good to hear, guess that means you can have plenty of red, red wine...

2.444 ppg I believe, with a 77.8% win rate.

Just an observation but this run has helped highlight how much more traffic these threads receive when things are going badly. Over the bad run of 13 matches this thread increased by nearly 300 pages. Across the record breaking 10 wins, it’s increased by about 60 pages. Now ok, the 13 matches were spread over a longer time (about 30 days), but still the conversation rate slowed right down when things are going well. Like I say, just an observation, not an exact science. I would imagine it would be the same for every club, regardless of the sport. Just mildly interesting. Anyway keep up the good work Dean, it’s fantastic. I hope to congratulate you on securing promotion in about 8 pages time.

Billy McNeill has died, aged 79.

I do indeed. I’m not very knowledgable on Bielsa so this is all kinda new to me. I’m still wary of them, but not as much as I was, even as recently as a couple of weeks ago. That may change after our next game, but there’s been a sufficient enough decline to suggest they’re not as fearsome as they appeared to be. Completely arbitrary, but over the past 20 games, the top three would be Sheff Utd on 44, Norwich on 40 and Villa on 39. Leeds would be 9th on 31 points. Haha well, it’s close enough.

In the 19 league matches they’ve played in 2019, they’ve lost 8. For context Norwich have lost 1, Sheff Utd 2 and Villa 3.

Derby penalty.... 1-0

Indeed they were.

Funnily enough Derby’s final league game of the season is against WBA.

Forest 3–0

Derby really need to be taking advantage here.

Utterly pointless bit of data, but it took us 173 days to record our first 10 victories this season, it’s taken us 51 days to achieve the last 10.