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I don't buy into this idea that Speedie was a bad buy for us. For much of his time with us we were top half to mid table and were never close to being relegated as I remember. The flowery reminiscence of the Houchen/ Regis partnership is also a bit of a fallacy. Yes they worked together like a...

Is there a definite sell on clause or are we just presuming there is? Also what happens to the sell on payout if Wilson transfers in a player exchange deal?

Don't really get the Kelly love in from some He has played well in recent weeks but I thought he made quite a few basic errors today, while Bayliss was the star turn in midfield today making some quality passes in the danger area that our forwards should have taken better advantage of. Burge - 6...

I thought we were poor throughout. Our defence struggled with their physicality and made too many basic errors with so many miscued clearances, which we got away with for much of the game. The team as a whole made too many poor passes and made bad decisions. Up front we offered nothing until JCH...

Surely not. It's all Doyle's fault that we're not playing well!! They have been very physical, right from the off with the ref letting them get away with it. They have also pressed us high up the pitch and neither Chaplin or Hiwula have held the ball up front, meaning they have consistently...

A good professional performance, where we made a poor team look like a poor team. No weak links today. Burge - 7 Sterling - 7.5 Willis - 7.5 Hyam - 8 Mason - 6.5 Thomas - 7 Kelly - 8 Shipley - 6.5 Chaplin - 6.5 Hiwula - 7 JCH - 7.5

Just watched documentary on Netflix about Sunderland's relegation last season from the Championship. I found it quite fascinating, but one of the biggest things that striked me, which shone through was the fragile confidence of professional footballers, even experienced ones, and the negative...

In his first few games Sterling didn't look to get involved, passed the ball on as soon as he received it, and made a few basic defensive errors. Now he is a completely different player, he is defensively sound and confident in possession, looking for the ball and holding onto it when needed...

Of course it shouldn't be relevant in an ideal world but for League 1 team we have our share of short arses in the team, and although our central defenders are as good as any in this league, not playing JCH does leave us very vulnerable at set pieces against the bigger teams in the league. MR...

His pace always offers us an outlet, and I suspect he is the player whose absence will impact us the most. I presume he will have to miss the next 2 games, so it might present an opportunity for Allessani I guess, although I'm not convinced MR believes he is ready yet.

Surprises me Bayliss is getting such criticism - I thought he did ok today. He's a similar player to Baker was in that he doesn't take the safe obvious option, and as such is prone to making some mistakes. On the flip side though, he creates more openings for the team. I accept his end product...

You mentioned them in the same post so of course you were comparing them. The fans who were against Wise coming were wrong, but the one's reacting against Ireland are not. End of story.

It is nearly 10 years since Ireland was a decent player. He has done nothing since then. The comparison to Wise is ludicrous. Wise was a leader on the pitch who always gave his all & played consistently well at the top level for 15-20 years. Wise and even Doyle are exceptions, as most older...

Looks like JCH to me, who to be fair is usually fairly good defensively.

Burge - 6 Sterling - 7 Willis - 6 Hyam - 6 Brown - 5 Thomas - 6 Kelly - 6 Ogogo - 4 Bayliss - 4 JCH - 4 Chaplin - 4 Hiwula - 5 Brown loses a point for the petty unneccesary foul for the free kick they scored from - he always seems prone to that stupid kind of foul. Kelly played well enough...

Yes opposite wing to Thomas - I guess Bayliss would be more comfortable on the right.

Now Kelly has got a couple of games under his belt I think we have to go with the Doyle, Kelly & Bayliss combination in midfield that finished last season so well. Not sure they have started a game together yet this season.

Burge has been good this season but the mistake was a real howler. He had already made to bad decisions before that about coming off his line when he misread the flight of the ball which he got away with, so he should really have learnt from them and stayed on his line.

Let's hope Kelly really steps up & shows we can perform without Doyle.

Quietly confident?