one up front

I went to the ticket office and spent £100 on tickets for the Hudderfield and Wolves matches.
After the quite dreadful performance against Blackburn, I felt cheated and wondered if Mr Clough could offer me any optimism or reason to think we will get anything out of those two games.
Will Connor Sammon get an away goal this season. I doubt it.
To hear Cloughs petulant interview after the game on Saturday was embarassing.

He said it was different to "ANY" and it wasn't, it was very similar to the Forest match.

Anyhoo, pedantry aside, it was bloody awful and raises questions about his decisions; questions that he rather petulantly refuses to answer.

He's still done a good job overall

'done' being the operative word, young Milfy.. 'doing' isn't in the equation.

If Adkins would consider Huddersfield, he'd bite GSE's hand off. Go get him, Rushy!

His team selections over the last 3 games have been bizarre at Brighton and accomodating v Forest and Blackburn. He needs to sort out the midfield and pick it balanced as far as i see. My midfield 4 for Saturday would be Coutts,Bryson,Hendrick,Ward...with Sammon and Jacobs up top.

Seems reasonable, Backo, but I'd also look to drop Sammon if we had any viable alternatives at all which unfortunately we do not

Given that Richard Keogh has, according to Your Nige, only made "two or three mistakes this season" then I very much doubt Clough has the nous to make the necessary changes.

I dont see an alternative to Sammon so he has to play....Tyson being the closest and hes on loan. A signing before the window shuts would help. The Simeon Jackson rumour is one i like.

We might as well have the bust of Steve Bloomer up top if he plays the same midfield as he did on Saturday.. I'm not in staunch defence of Sammon because he seems to have lost heart for the role he's asked to play at times, much like Rob Hulse did in the end, but it must be difficult to keep on your toes and try to find space when the midfield are unable to deliver any opportunities at all. Would Jackson do any better..? Only if he gets the service our midfield served up earlier in the season.

If we get the midfield back firing and get Jackson in, I'm sure he'd finish as our top scorer even at this stage in the season.

Yes

Depends

I give great credit to Blackburn on Saturday. I thought they did their jobs especially well and blocked out our attempted little balls through the midfield all day long. I thought they would eventually tire and that we would find a way past them but overall I thought they were very impressively organised and of course they have quality in all areas.

I don't believe Sammon can function as a sole striker because his control isn't good enough. With a different type of striker I think the formation could actually work for us in some games, but for the time being it seems obvious - drop Hughes to the bench, Hendrick and Bryson in the middle, two wide men and two strikers. Hughes can come on when there is a bit more space in the game to weave his magic and regain his confidence.

I was bit concerned when I heard Hughes came on for the Youth Cup game last week, but I read an account of the game on the Ramspace blog. Apparently, Hughes made a difference in the last fifteen & we went on to get the crucial winner.

He was playing against players of his own age group, so he will stand out, & players who had tired. Competing against experienced players, internationals, is much harder, esp when starting a game. So I think it's a wise idea to leave him on the bench and use him later in a game when players have tired, to keep him involved and, in a way, it levels things up.

It was also interesting to read that the blogger was impressed with the two youngsters on the left. It's a lot to ask, but perhaps with a bit of luck/patience, both these players could make the first team squad and bring this understanding. It's almost as if the manager has highlighted an area (the left side) and is trying to develop players for it. He was also impressed with Kwame Thomas who was described as 'a unit' up front and believed he could make the first team squad before the end of the season.