Chris Kirkland

Gary Woods is out with a shoulder injury, hence Maxted was on the bench last night.

Oh dear! When we signed Kirkland on loan I said to a friend that he would be fine as long as he didn't trip over a Twix bar and hurt himself. I thought it was a joke.

Donaldo - great observations on both counts.

Sullivan was brought back into the starting line-up by SOD v Reading. As far as I saw he did little to merit being dropped by DS for the Leeds match. In stepping straight back in last night and performing very well by most accounts, he puts me in mind of Beckham at Resl Madrid and with England.

Becks was twice told by the same bloke (Capello) that he'd never play for his team again. First it was Real then England. On both occasions Capello was forced to make a U-turn and Beckham was asked to play again. On both occasions he came back and played very well (he was Real's player of the month shortly after coming back for them).

Sully is the same type. Totally professional. It makes you think when another of DS's acquisitions was in Canada sizing up where he's going in January. The rest of the squad were playing practice matches at this time.

On acquisitions, I find it concerning that scouting has gone a little out of fashion. Has anyone actually cast an eye over these players in competitive matches before they've been brought in? I know Illuna trained with the squad before DS signed him and that is if course good. But you can't beat a match for seeing what they've got!

gary woods says on his twitter he should be back in a week or two..

fuzzy just to let ya no chimbO was quality last night

I actually wonder if the back injury to Kirkland is just a line we're being fed. Paul Goodwin on Twitter is saying Saunders was cagey about it when he asked him. Maybe after Friday's performance and conceding 3 he decided that a move to the Rovers may not be career reviving after all....or maybe I'm just being cynical.

My thoughts exactly babykiwi.

Don't doubt it Bri, and it's good to hear.

But him going to Montreal when he should be training with us doesn't look good plus it can't exactly have impressed his teammates much.

Scouting is a general comment as we've had enough experience of big names not delivering (Kilgallon, Cademateri)

Good that Chimbonda put in a good shift though.

Just a little scouting related story...

3 or 4 years ago I saw a young man about 18 years old playing Centre Back for Liverpool in the Champions League. I thought what a fantastic prospect, and English. He was big, strong, quick, aggressive and a good ballplayer. He played a couple of Premiership games, got caught trying to be clever and lost his confidence. I couldn't believe it when Liverpool released him at the end of that season, and came to the conclusion that something had seriously gone wrong between the club and the player. I also thought he was exactly the sort of player SoD would have relished.
I think he ended up at Northampton.
Anyway he is now playing for Norwich, very well, apparently.
Everytime I see him play I wonder why nobody at a higher level was willing to take him from Liverpool, and was it because nobody had ever seen him play that makes these decisions.

Zak Whitbread. (I think that's how it is spelt).

Sullivan was excellent against Blackpool - would like to see him retain the starting spot on that kind of form. 2 of the saves were absolutely superb.