WUGGAMONKEY1

I was thinking similar. Not just Luongo either. I’m not sure Toney gets his second goal if Iorfa or Lees is marking him. We missed Brown to a degree too. Essentially, you could argue that we were missing 4 of our best players. With that context, I can’t be too critical of the performance or result.

Aside from his block, which was excellent, I also thought he played some really good passes into the feet of our forward players throughout the game. Allowed our forwards to keep hold of the ball much easier, which took pressure off our defence.

I thought the same about the two players you have mentioned. Bradford had a young player - Staunton I think - that looked OK too. Not saying we should always look to L2 for players, but we never seem to take a punt on them do we.

The reason I don’t hold Francis totally responsible is that, with better handling of the DiCanio situation, we may have been able to build a team around him. I think the team with him, Carbone, Alexanderson (I think he was part of that team?) was probably only 3-4 decent players away from being a competitive top flight team. Danny Wilson and Dave Richards are a big part of our current predicament in my opinion. Saying that, I guess it’s all if, buts and maybes!

Maybe the Francis years, but not necessarily Francis as manager. In my opinion he inherited a great side but, when it came to building his own, he was found wanting. Replacing Palmer with Taylor, and then playing Taylor out of position. Letting Pearson go, who went on to have 3/4 good years at Boro. Not being able to convince Roland to stay around, who later returned for Big Ron at Coventry. Worthington, same as Pearson to some degree, and then replacing him with Ian ‘no left foot’ Nolan. Did he buy Andy Pearce too? Not saying he ruined us, but I believe he played a part

I don’t think so, he’s just out of form & Monk is possibly trying to promote youth (with the inclusion of Shaw). Palmer on the bench offered him cover at centre half. Just a bit freakish we have lost 4 centre halves through injury in the last 24 hours.

He did some decent things, won a few flick on’s. Worked hard enough.

Dawson couldn’t go anything about the goal - good cross and thumping header. I thought Joey was slow closing the crosser down. That said, their scorer seems to be in acres of space so, without watching it back, I’d say it was poor closing down and potentially poor marking in the box.

I thought the same about us not getting out quick enough, but I thought it was Joey’s ball to close down. He seemed to be telling Odubajo what to do rather than closing down. It gave their player an age to pick out a player and put a cross in.

Does anybody know how long he has left on his contract? I’d like to think we’d ask £8-10m if he had another season after this on his contract. If not, we’d probably be looking at a lot less. There will be other bargains out there to be had & the new recruitment team seem to be coming up with the goods - Iorfa being one of them.

That’s a very good point. Maybe I should refrain from doing anything before my first coffee if the day! Oops

Alan Biggs tweeted that he wouldn’t be surprised if Windass didn’t sign for us this week. I‘m assuming he means that he will sign for someone else, rather than join us the week after! .

If we struggle to get players in, I think he could be used to play just behind the striker. In a similar role to what Reach has played in the past. Not ideal, but maybe a necessity!

I didn’t think he was quite good enough first time around, steady at best. That was in a back 4 & he may be better in a 5. 25 games in 2 years since leaving raises a few questions in my mind too.

He’s did OK on loan. He works hard but his end product and decision making isn’t great. However, if it was, he wouldn’t be playing for SWFC on loan from Wigan. In my opinion he’s worth a punt as I feel there is something about him.