Westfield Owl

If we tried that sh*t, we wouldn’t get to take the shot; our players would be booked for unsportsmanlike conduct and a free-kick would be given to the other team.

Yes. A point away at Cardiff isn’t a bad result. But Cardiff were nothing special last night, they aren’t a team in good form and they there for the taking yesterday. If we’d taken our chances in the first half, or if it wasn’t for the free-kick debacle, we would have taken the win. 2 points dropped IMO.

Hmm, on the one hand I’m understanding that we really don’t need more trams smashed up because of a minority of morons (both Leeds and Wednesday) always end up causing damage to a public service. On the other hand, it’s a shame that once again it’s the vast majority of normal, law-abiding types that end up having to jump through hoops because a small minority cannot go 2 hours without behaving like tw*ts.

£23 for a pint of larger? Don’t give Chansiri any ideas. That’s still way cheaper than a matchday ticket. All jokes aside, they won’t give you a refund straight away. Give it 5 working days and if you’ve still not got your refund, ring the club back to chase it up.

We may have a tough few weeks ahead. But it’s also a fantastic opportunity to finally take some points off the sides that are expected to be contenders. Which is what we should be aiming to do if we’re serious about a promotion push.

I mean, being handed a very gentle set of fixtures to start the season does help keep the ‘goals conceded’ column to a low number. I’d say it’s the easiest starting fixtures for us in a generation. That doesn’t mean the defence doesn’t need to be worked on. Monk should be actively trying to improve our defence in January IMO. If you genuinely don’t see the need to bring in a LB at the very least then you’re very much in the minority Oh and bringing in an ‘upgrade’ on Bannan or Reach in January would either cost millions, or would require us to get a huge break in the loan market when we’re already sufficiently stocked in those areas. And even though he’s been underwhelming, as 4th choice wingers/wide forwards go, you won’t get many better at this level than Murphy. Some clubs in this division don’t even have 4 senior players who are wingers/wide forwards.

Kosovo’s recent record is more than respectable for a country of their size: P 17, W 11, D 5, L 1, GF 38, GA 17 So yeah I’d say they’re no mugs.

Regardless of whom gets credited with the goal, that Kosovo team have shown they're no mugs at international level, so to get in the team and contribute towards his nation scoring is a credit to Atdhe.

I negged your post because your response to @FreshOwl was a very simplistic refute to the point he made. Budgets don’t dictate final league position. Otherwise why did Norwich and the pigs get promoted last year? Why did Sunderland get relegated in 2018 despite still paying Premier League wages? There’s dozens of other examples I could give. Take the 15/16 season for example. We finished 6th in the league that year despite not having the 6th best budget. On the surface you could argue that year should be classed as an over-performance. But scratch beneath the surface... If he hadn’t finished in the playoffs in the 15/16 season, then in my mind that season would have been underperformance. The reason for that? Try comparing the quality of player that we had in our squad (not what their wages were on) with McCarthy’s Ipswich team or Slade’s Cardiff team (those clubs finished 7th and 8th that year). The quality of players in our squad, compared to those clubs was a few levels better. Then try going down the league table. Which clubs did we finish above that had better players than us?

Try reading what I actually put @Sham67 I said with the quality of the squad, a better manager would have got us promoted. I haven’t commented on the budgets. Have I?

No I understand perfectly. Thanks for patronising.

But Carvalhal didn’t outperform with the quality of squad we had at that time. Over the 2 and a half seasons, I’d say he underperformed. A better manager would have got that squad promoted. He left us battling against relegation and as a club we’ve only just started to recover from his spell here. Hiring Carvalhal has been Chansiri’s biggest mistake since he bought the club IMO.

We should thank the likes of Paul Alderidge, Stuart Gray, Glenn Roeder, Milan Mandaric etc for the shrewdness of many transfer deals between 2012 and 2015 where we recruited some very decent players with relatively small outlays and sensible wages. Not Carvalhal. Carvalhal inherited the reigns of this club at a fantastic time. What an opportunity. Sadly he left us in a right old mess.

But the I’m Alright Jacks keep arguing that our pricing strategy is acceptable. Personally I’m baffled that anyone would defend the club when it comes to what we charge for POTG tickets. Put it this way, if I didn’t have a season ticket (and there’s loads of totally rational reasons why a big SWFC fan wouldn’t automatically have one), I’d have to really consider whether buying matchday tickets is worth the cost of going. Because at least 80% of the time, it’s a rip-off. I’m sure there will be thousands of fans who will have had similar thoughts on this since the price-hike in 2015. Also while we continue to charge Champions League prices for Championship football, the club is unlikely to attract the casual fans back to attending regularly.

We generally do alright against relegation candidates. Last season, our record against the ‘real’ bottom 8 (Stoke City included, Birmingham City omitted) was: P 16, W 7, D 6, L 3, GF 20, GA 16 And that was with a worst squad than the one we have now. And with Luhukay’s garbage tactics for half of those fixtures. The pace we’ve recruited since then in Harris, Odubajo and Murphy will help us break down some of the stubborn defences that come to Hillsborough and set up for a 0-0. Hopefully this will help turn those frustrating draws into wins against the relegation-battlers, such as Wigan.