Says a lot about Rotherham that we're going for the play-offs and finished the game with 3 youth players on the pitch. 4 if you count Stewart who has barely played any senior football.
Looking at SL&P when the lineup was announced neither were a lot on there. What got me was people bitching about Junho being benched not thinking he has been away with South Korea and probably only got back to Stoke on Thursday after flying half way round the world. I was cursing when I read Gooch was out but relieved when I knew Stevens was available.
Gooch is an alright jack of all trades squad player who can fill in a number of positions but in all honesty he hasn't greatly impressed me and if his absence forced Stevens back early then that could be a blessing in disguise. He's a proper, experienced left back that knows the position inside out and has played it for a number of years in decent teams at this level and it showed. He's obviously ageing and injury prone now and we need to replace him in the summer. But if we can keep him fit till the end of the season he could be an important player.
Seeing that Che Adams miss, another sitter to add to the reel for him. Can't wait for him to **** off in the summer.
Most comfortable game we'll ever have at this level, we never got out of 2nd gear ourselves but still came away comfortable winners, Rotherham look to have given up
One of the stranger games I've seen at Carrow Road in a long while. We were miles off it for most of the game but thankfully found a way.
Thanks for picking a good day to have a stinker. Good luck for the rest of the season hope you make the playoffs .
Thought you were good, could have scored 4 or 5 on another day. Reckon you're 1 good central player away from having a very competitive side.
On way back home, good crack with a group of Southampton fans in Standing order pub before they were in good spirits after watching the Leicester Result. We were average but Carrick changed it (again) and we dug out a point. Scoreboard gave us a laugh thinking Chuba Akpom still played for Boro
Nothing special about today. Another shite home performance and result. We are practically 7 points behind Norwich due to the GD with 8 games left. I don't think it was the nail in the coffin today, but perhaps the moment that shows that we aren't good enough.
Why? Not being a dick because we won but clearly nowhere near good enough for the play offs. 0 shots on goal against a relegation threatened side - seriously??? Probably do them a favour to finish the season on May 4th so they can plan to give it another go next season and not go through the disappointment of losing the play offs.
This Ipswich side really are frustratingly similar to us under Lambert (and not like them under Lambert). Not so much stylistically but both sides are full of players playing about 30% above themselves in systems that are incredibly well suited to the individuals. Then they obviously have that spirit and momentum nurtured whilst winning every week in League 1 during the previous season. It sounds stupid to say about a team 20 points ahead of us that I genuinely think they only have 1 or 2 that would make our 11 on individual talent. A lot of the time derbies end up being not worth the hype in build up but have a feeling next week is going to be a banger.
Stuart Atwell making himself as popular as ever then ! Rested a lot of our International players so not that strong a team really .
I don't mind Hull, got some good memories of away games there particularly the classic win in 2009 which secured our safety in our first Premier League season. The mentals that day were something else and live long in the memory. From what I've heard, today was right up there too. And they're an unfancied, non-parachute team so I always wish those sorts of teams well. They probably would lose in the playoffs but once you're in there everyone has a chance and the best teams with the most pressure on them sometimes bottle it. Of all the contenders, the one I'd most like to go up are Coventry because I think they'd benefit most from the money. Even though they've improved and overachieved in recent years their stadium situation is still precarious and they could be kicked out at any moment. Going up could finally give them the money to buy the stadium permanently and put an end to all the instability that could easily send them plummeting down the leagues again at any moment. But I think the playoffs will be just beyond them this season. I'd also quite like to see Preston go up because they're unfancied and had loads of near misses in the 2000s.
Deserved win for us vs Birmingham. They wanted a point and that was easy to see. No idea why they took Bakuna off though, he was their best player by far. We deserved the win but we never totally dominated. We would have a good chance (Ruddy did well, we hit the bar etc) but then didn't do anything for 5 10 minutes. Weird game though. Both fans were quiet yet rowdy, knowing a defeat would be bad.
