I'm an Essex Owl

TV pics suggest otherwise

Yes it is the curse because referees who could stamp it out don’t. Of course if we had scored 4 and played like we did for 30 minutes against Portsmouth it wouldn’t matter how bad the ref was but he set the tone for tonight. Not arguing that we weren’t good enough and in balance they edged it over two legs but I can’t stand arrogant p r I c k refs not enforcing the laws of the game and spoiling wha t should be a good game of football. How does he fail to book their lad for that foul on Byers within first 5 minutes. How does he not book three of their players for simulation? How does he not give a foul for that forearm smash on Gregory. How does he not give a penalty for Windass ? Beggars belief.::.

if people like marmite that’s cos they have bad taste not cos it tastes nice. No other player in the league puts that ball through to Johnson with that weight and precision. Lose Bannan and it’s a minimum 3 year rebuild. He has carried us this year - we look clueless when he is not on the pitch. It is for the rest of the team to up their standards (and effort and work rate) to his - then we might get somewhere

Agree we didn’t do enough to win over the two legs but you are wrong to say he had no material Impact on the game. He failed to give us a penalty when he clearly should have done and he allowed them to tomewaste and foul and fake injury and dive to break up the game and frustrate our rhythm. It is basic away side shithousery and his failure to enforce the basic laws of the game ruined it. He was awful.

Not sure where the love in for Sunderland is coming from. Neill even got that Nian lad to do to Byers what Ben Pearson did to Forestieri when he faked a headbutt for Preston few years back. Not sour grapes but they were anti football tonight (time wasting diving faking injury niggly fouls) and we had one of the weakest refs I have seen all season. But we have a core that is soft as sh i t e. That and us not really stringing two passes together all night except for the goal has cost us. Beginning to think we are a cursed club.

In the words of the great Hugh Cornwell- “There’s always the sun…” and I don’t think he meant the slightly contemptible newspaper…

Best performance I have seen by a number nine at Hillsborough for a long time. He was outstanding today. Though some may prefer we start with Kamberi (apparently due to his goals from open play and his “running around the pitch” stats) I think Gregory is a class above

He was just getting a drink with Master Bates

Hutch isn’t on Twitter pretty boy

Me too. My lad reckons Atdhe missed a worse one once but I genuinely believe that is the easiest goal scoring opportunity wasted at Hillsboro in the over 40 years I’ve been going. But we won. Hope he forgets it and smashes in a few more over the next few weeks

Used to be Millwall’s penalty taker - has taken 33 penalties in his career scoring 26 of them I believe

To be fair it’s pretty easy knocking out these Gregory songs… He’s our keeper he’s our number one He comes for crosses, sometimes drops one came from Burnley for a small loan fee And he goes by the name of Bailey He’s our right winger number forty one Used to toot for recreational fun Got banned for coke use that’s yayo in slang) And he goes by the name of Mendez Laing He’s from Burundi number twenty four When he joined he couldn’t hit a barn door But now he’s scoring goal after goal And he goes by the name of Saido He’s our Dutch winger and he’s number forty Yet again we had to sign him for free On occasion he makes you go Wow And he goes by the name of Sylla Sow

Much like the regret I still feel that we never had a song for Lewis Buxton, how can we possibly ignore Bazza after all he does for the team. So I got thinking and with apologies to and a quick rework of the Gregory song… “He’s our captain, he’s our number ten Scores a worldly every now and then Came from Palace without any fee And he goes by the name of Barry (Bannan!)” Unless anyone can think of a more iconic tune for him…

And more culture…

Played very well tonight. I would say one of his best performances. If we can get him some decent gametime over the next couple of years (and he plays alongside Bannan) he could be what we have missed for years. Him and Dennis = the future

Just back. Fantastic night. Great support. Hope it sounded loud on the telly cos it did in the stadium. Excellent first half hour. Confident and controlled and a Bannan wondergoal. Dean coming off was a major blow. It unsettled us and first thing Chey did was needlessly head the ball to one of their lads which led to their goal. Felt we were mainly untroubled and in control in the Second half making them play in front of us. They had a lot of ball but didn’t create much. Apart from that worldly shot which hit the post/bar (and you can’t account for them) 10 minutes added on was at least 3 too many (wish we had that 4th official at Hillsboro with some of the time wasting we have seen at home this year) Knew Twine would score when he lined it up. Great free kick. BUT we held on. Three great points Great away day UTO

All this Rush reminiscing is lovely to see but it does reveal an existential dilemma for the Wednesday, namely that most of fan base will have died of old age in the next 10 years…

I saw this stat before and it is a bit of an eye opener. Maybe there is something to be said for two 30 minute halves where the clock stops immediately the ball goes dead? The ref did his best to spoil that game yesterday. Utterly hopeless

He did throw it in like a 4 year old though

Second half ref performance was utterly embarrassing. Genuinely playing 12 men in that half (and given how under par we were today I am shocked we came out on top) Something about this level that refs feel they have to prove they aren’t swayed by the big crowd by effectively not applying the laws of the game correctly. He ought to resign after that

We might as well close the academy down and do a Brentford - spend the cash on the best scouts and data specialists we can afford and sign players we can actually sell on for millions - Maupay Ollie Watkins Benrhama, Ezri Konza Andre Grey - all sold and replaced before they got to the Prem

Unfortunately Berahino missed an absolute sitter in the first ten minutes which probably changes the whole game. It happens. It’s a shame because if he scored then he would have been absolutely on fire. We looked ragged tonight. They outfought us and they dragged us into their hoofball. We rarely got the ball on the ground and passed it. Mind you the pitch was “lively” tonight to say the least