M42Owl

Bobby Charlton v Charlton Athletic. Definitely. Possibly Mike England v England.

Wigan this time for me, please.

I was going to mention something to try to understand what’s happening. I don’t believe ref are biased, only incompetent in equal measure against each team. We come up against a lot of opponents, especially at home, that are happy to kill time, so they fall over at the merest of touches. A light push in the back, a little tap on the ankle, and over he goes. Niggling fouls that are annoying when given against you and are not worthy of a booking, even when totted up. How often, when our player is pressuring the defender in possession, do we shout from the stands “don’t foul him, don’t foul”: nudge, whistle, free kick? 30 seconds off the clock, ten yards gained, and possession with the opposition. On the other hand, we are eager to get on with the game. We want to get the ball moving forward through open play rather than a punt from a free kick towards a well organised defence, so our players stand up to these niggling fouls and get on with it. End result is that we get fouled as much, maybe more, but get less free kicks. Of course that doesn’t explain why Gregory gets so few free kicks, but it’s nothing new for Wednesday and nothing specific to L1. Nuhiu for one was often penalised when it was him getting fouled.

Iorfa was terrible today. Not the only one to nearly gift a goal to Wimbledon, but he just looked uncomfortable whenever the ball was near him. I think he’s still suffering from best part of a season out. When we get Storey and Gibson back, I’d leave Iorfa to get fit and ready for next season. I hope he doesn’t cost us in the meantime.

I’m not a fan of BPF, and I’ve still not got over his performance at Ipswich, but his save today, after having nothing to do all game, won us the points. Second game in a row he’s made a critical save.

Can't argue with that team. 3 - 0 Gregory, Iorfa, Bannan.

A left sided defender is a priority for me. A fit Gibson would be ideal, but I feel that if we sign him, we’ll still need another.

But you’ve got G twice. So now you only have five unique picks. Unless you can “double up” on a pick?

MK please.

A, K, L, R, V, Z (1-2)

Top one, entrance to away end at Kenilworth Rd.

But we’ve shown a bit of variety in our corners lately and we scored from one last week.

I think the comparison to Ipswich is interesting. We’ve both gone through a substantial squad rebuild and pretty much spent the same. Difference is that we’ve done it transitioning from championship to L1 whereas Ipswich have been L1 for a few seasons.

If we’ve spent more than 5 minutes this week on our corner routines, we’ll be up to 22 this weekend.

Another ten years and the entire squad will be available: 11 staters and 14 more on the bench. Like for internationals. Ten more and it’ll be rolling substitutes. Bring on the special teams for a corner…

Unless there’s drastic changes, we should have enough to win comfortably, even if they pack the defence. This and Crewe are the games to improve our goal difference: only three behind Oxford. 2-0 if they take the same approach as Accrington. 5-0 if they play like Cambridge.

Can’t remember my earlier predictions, but we were two points down. Wimbledon H 3Bolton A 1MK A 0Crewe H 3Wycombe A 1 Fleetwood A 3 Pompey H 1 Heading for 81 points.

Hello, Can I be the first to say “Moore Out”? N’dat. M42Owl, formerly known as Wallace&Grummitt, but unable to use the “&” on the new and improved site.