I don't think there's too much to be depressed about. Bristol City lost so the gap hasn't opened.

They were poor today, we were poorer. A half decent performance and we would have beaten them. In the end we lose to a dodgy penalty and a thirty yarder that comes off the bar. Not too much can be done about those types of goals.

Watford up next and another one we need to be winning

What the FuzzyDuck are you talking about ?

The 30yarder didn't go in it came back from the underside of the bar and was headed in by paterson

Yeah I know Azza. Its still a bolt from the blue. It hits the bar and then its where does it bounce. Sadly, to Paterson

Ok fair do's, if you watch the highlights he was the only 1 quick enough to react don't know where hird/oconnor were

We should be able to start with Chimbonda and Diatta on Saturday instead of O'Connor and Hird, come to think of it, where was Diatta today, not even on the bench?

We also need to improve the midfield for Saturday, maybe Goulon needs to start and give Bennett a start instead of Copps. Let's attack down the left as opposed to the right. As tated before , Fortune` went back and has so far sat on the bench for both games, what a waste!!!!

Suggested team for Saturday

Woods
Chimbonda
Beye
Diatta
Ilunga
Stock
Goulon
Barnes
Bennett
Diouf
Sharp.

Subs from

Coppinger
Hayter
O'Connor
Friend
Hird
Maxted

Anybody got any other ideas.

There will be several other changes then for the Barnsley game with Bakayoko, Plessis and Bagawhatsit to come into the reckoning.

Isn't Stocky out for the next game for 5 yellow cards

First of all hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, didn't get on before,

We were very poor in my opinion, it was a shade better than Barnsley but we got what we deserved - nothing. It was never a pen but the rest of it involved 9 out of 11 players' first touch being to hoof it as far away as possible, Diouf was different class and Billy was unlucky not to equalise but the rest - gutted I'd already bought a ticket for Watford. Beye was the best of the defence but he wasn;t that good and I still don't see why Ilunga is on £26,000 a week, well I do see why West Ham have a debt ot £80M

I don't think we'll go down though, I don't think thats part of the plan but I couldn't believe Saunders said he thought we played well, I thought he must have been watching Blackburn in Liverpool

DL,
I listened to the Burnley commentary yesterday and they were complementary to Donny even making good comments about Woodsie.
It sounded to me that there was too much of the long high ball game which I think is of little use to Billy. Sam came in for praise and I don't think they even agreed with the penalty.
Now we move on to the Watford game. All being well I will be there as it takes me about 20 minutes. The bad thing about living close to Watford is that all my friends are Watford supporters so I need the win for the bragging rights or I get a lot of stick next week.

Sorry Alex, I don't give a flying monkey what the Burnley commentary thought, we were terrible and almost everyone around us thought so too. Defence was way too slow and out of position too much. All of Woods' goal kicks bar one ended up giving possession back to Burnley, when he passed the ball out from the back he almost ended up putting the ball into the path of their forward. But its not just Woods' fault he did make a couple of decent saves.

I'm sorry I call it as I see it, we didn't deserve to lose against Birmingham, we played well enough against Leicester and got the points but yesterday we never really appeared to get going much like Barnsley. Now if we really did play that well then Burnley must have been amazing. I think everyone agrees it was never a penalty though, when they were showing the 1st half highlights on the screen at half time they showed the actual penalty but not the incident that led to it - enough said!

I'm going to Watford, didn't have any plans for New Year and I like Vicarage Road, just hope we can get something from it because we're halfway through the season, have failed to capitalise on the teams above us losing and Coventry are gaining ground

Alex I'm baffled If they've praised hird they must have been watching another game as he was awful as you say re long ball he was the main culprit and does even bother going through the midfield and he can't pull it off either as DL said about woods's kicking that was pretty much the same with hird

There are two reasons why the Burnley commentators might have thought we were quite good. First, we were possibly better than they expected a bottom 3 team to be. Second Burnley weren't all that good and at times there was not that much to choose between the teams.

Is this encouraging? I guess Donny Lass thinks not, but perhaps it shows that on an off day we are not too far behind a team which has play-off potential.

Poor Sam Hird; if I were cruel I would compile a list of the number of times he has made crucial mistakes. They say if goalkeepers make mistakes they get disproportoinate blame. Sam's mistakes must make him one of the most unlucky outfield players ever.

Azza,

When it comes to the long high ball over the top it can only be the directive form Deano he never did it before.

I actually support Sam and I have been to games where he has taken stick undeservedly but when he makes a mistake it leads to a goal.

It seems to me the partnership with Beye is worth developing.
When your in the bottom three incidents like the penalty always go against you and there is no doubt it all went wrong from there on.

Your only as good as your last game so Donny have to improve to get a result at Watford and I am convinced we will.

Donaldo - we were 3 goals behind this team, OK we should have only been 2 or even 1 goal behind but if we keep being just behind these teams with play-off potential where will we be at the end of the season? Especially as we frequently finish just behind the teams in and around us at the bottom.

Question, "If we keep being just behind these teams with play off potential, where will we be at the end of the season?"

Answer Just behind the play offs Donny Lass, now that would be success wouldn't it?

I'd be happy just to avoid relegation and we can hopefully build from that!

Hahaha NY not going to happen... unless... actually on second thoughts I'm not even going to go there

I'd settle for 4th botto again, as someone said to me a few weeks ago this club cannot afford to get relegated. Mind you I suppose Blades, Owls, Preston etc couldnt afford it either

Since I was not at the match and only listened to the commentary - some of theirs and some of ours - I bow to the view of the first hand witness. Interestingly I have been to only 2 Championship matches this season - Saints/Leeds and Watford/Portsmouth. All my first hand experience is comparative. Next Saturday at Watford will be the first actually involving Rovers!

Southampton impressed me greatly against Leeds and we beat them (but then went and lost to Leeds!) Watford were lively and deserved their win against a side that had then only recently won fairly comfortably against us. We did not disgrace ourselves against them a week later at the ‘moat, but we might have hoped for better. I think that was evidence of inconsistency. Watford have been reasonably solid since then with one win and no defeats, so whilst we may not doing as well as one might wish, I will still be fairly optimistic if we put up a reasonable show on Saturday.

OK, not particularly conclusive, but if we come away with a draw, I'd be content. If we were to beat a side that has shown itself to be solid defensively and capable of scoring goals we could be quite optimistic.

And we should not forget that some of what is erratic about us comes from the fact that we have not had a settled team.

In case you hadn't noticed were are top of the League in one stat - players used - 34 (3 team's worth!) and probably about to rise again, and already 5 more than our nearest "rivals". We can't discount that as a factor in our unpredictability.

Just couldn't resist giving you a laugh Donny lass after suffering at Burnley. I agree fourth from bottom will do all of us.

By the way, I just got back from a typical American Family funeral, my sister in laws mother. My sister in law put the service together and printed the mass sheets. At the end of the mass was the final hymn and Bonnie actually put
" All sin as directed." True, we left before we found out if they did.


The priest who conducted the mass was very short, and, stood behind the lectern, could only just be seen. My wife, step son and daughter in law were unable to take part in the first part of the mass because I had a Tommy Cooper moment.

The Priest started the mass and I turned to my wife and said, " Who said that." in a TC voice,I had three rows in uproar.

Good old Tommy.

I have now seen the "penalty" given against Sam Hird on Saturday. What a travesty, if that was a penalty then I am a 25 year old blonde adonis. For those who do not know me, I can assure you I am not.

The Burnley player jumped in the air towards Hird and should have got a booking for the dive plus a 5.9 for technical merit.

We wuz robbed my'lud.

NY,
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
but I think it would be stretching things.....
25? blond?

What penalty? I wonder if the ref phoned Deano to apologise.
Deano did warn in his pre-match talk about ref mistakes could play a part in proceedings, he got that 100% right.

NY sorry you had to attend a funeral though your story made me smile. It actually reminded me of my wedding. We'd picked hymns, one each though Bri wanted both of his and on the day we're in front of the altar and the vicar announces the hymn as the one Bri wanted but we'd discarded. I looked at him and he's mouthing "I didn't change it honest" Its looking like our first row before we've exchanged vows when suddenly this booming voice comes from behind the organ "You've got t'wrong hymn, vicar"

And he had!

Yes. t's like the day my mate got married. The vicar said, " Doyou take this woman to be your wedded wife? My mate said " Would you?"
The vicar said NO, so my mate asked why he was palming her off on him.

By the way this is a joke, the other wasn't, but as it's coming up to New Year, I thought we could do with starting off in a happier mood than 2011.

99!
MERRY CHRISTMAS

100

Happy New Year