nebneeb

He was offered a contract which he didn't sign. Maybe he doesn't think that is the same as rejecting it, but in reality it is.

Tin pot pitch invasion. Forest will hammer them in the final.

I've been paying attention for the past 6 years.

Obviously forward thinking Chairman on top of their brief will always be on top of succession planning. So will permanently have a dynamic list of possible successors, aligned to the long term philosophy that runs right through the club, for who would come in either because the manager decides to move on, or we decide there is a better option to turn to. Obviously we don't have that, though. So if he left for whatever reason, we wouldn't have a manager for weeks/months, and the new one would be once again starting from scratch.

Even if he was planning to leave, and the club were wanting him to leave, it hardly makes business sense to announce it and invite derisory offers. At the same time, if a decent (i.e. above our valuation) offer comes in from a team at a higher level, it would be odd for us from a business/development perspective, and him personally for ambition to play at the highest level he can, to stay here.

Pity the way of playing he's been creating all season wasn't used, and instead we went to playing without a midfield and trying to see if we could kick the ball so high it would come down with snow on. We have the best squad in the league this season, on paper. So the playoffs were already a failure, but a chance to get out of jail. Over the 2 legs, but particularly tonight, he just looked lost on the touchline. Couldn't calm the players down and get them playing, too slow to make changes. No idea what the half time team talk was but the way we played at the start of the 2nd half was atrocious. That all said, there's no point sacking him unless there's someone better lined up. At this level, I'm not sure who we can get that is any better. So we're going to have to stick with him for the time being.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Sammy getting smashed in the back of the head so badly he had to go off looking dizzy. Clearly no penalty as head butts are fair game if the recipient is in blue and white.

Maybe he'll be on the bench and get subbed on with 20 seconds left. Obviously he has a great record of saving penalties, but I also think when a team brings on a "specialist penalty stopper" it gets in the oppositions heads a bit. Gotta love some mindgames.

Can't believe how empty the ground is. Whether it's us or Sunderland at Wembley, it will be like it was when we played Hull and had a view of empty red seats. Shame it couldn't be us against Sunderland in the final. Would've been a proper occasion in a packed Wembley.

It's fairly obvious winning at least 2-0 is the aim. But it isn't the be all and end all. If we only score 1 and don't concede, or do get just the 2 but also concede 1 (which I think is likely, probably from a set piece from a silly free kick we don't need to give away) we buy ourselves another 30 mins. No need to panic.* *Unless we are 0-2 down on the night.

Of course. I've seen Alex Neil's Preston shïthouse to perfection. If you do that and get through then fair enough. Nobody will remember the style of play, it's the result that matters. Personally it's not what fans want to see, and I'd like to see referees not falling for it. But we know they let it happen, which is why teams do it. On the other hand, setting up to do it for 90 minutes is pretty negative, and a bit of a dangerous game to play if we did get 1 back?

Same here. I think on paper we win. But will we actually do it on the pitch? Basically the biggest concern I have is whether we can handle the pressure, and whether we are intelligent enough. 100% expecting time wasting from the start. Going down if we so much as breath on them, and plenty of rolling around. Going down holding their head if we are building sustained pressure as a virtual timeout to take the sting out. Also expect a few hard challenges, like the one on Bannan by the touchline. Can we stay disciplined and keep at it?

2-1 3-1 AET

Everyone loves penalties, right? (I don't, but bear with me...). So the semi final starts with penalties for the side who finished highest, where each point is an extra penalty. So yesterday, we'd have had 1 penalty at the start of the match. Franchise would have had 6 penalties at the start of theirs. Incentive to keep playing for points even when a playoff place is secured. Much more incentive to try and beat the teams around you in the league. Rewards teams for having a better season.

Bookies had Portsmouth favourites to win after 5 minutes in the in play market. I think there's value in the MK and Wednesday odds. We have 90 minutes to score a goal, or 2 goals if they score 1. On average we have scored twice at home this season. Sunderland have also regularly conceded a couple of goals when playing away. If after 90 minutes we've only won by 1, we get home advantage for extra time. Of course this doesn't mean we will win. Got to hope this team has more about them than the one that bottled it at home against Huddersfield.