Updates on some former players:

Marc Richards has scored for Swindon against Wycombe.

Ivan Toney has scored for Scunthorpe against Peterborough.

Alex Revell has been given a straight red card for Stevenage against Forest Green Rovers. It's his second red card of the season, after he was sent off for us in that terrible 0-6 pasting by Bristol Rovers.

2 also for Alfie Potter for Mansfield

So will be play upfront with Long in a 4-4-2? Who is going to be dropped to accommodate him? I guess either Crooks or Grimes.

Could maybe seen the current formation with long pushed to the wing replacing one of the wide players.

JFH confirmed players will be released in January last night .
Interesting to see who will go and who will want to leave .
You would think the likely candidates might be Revell , Kasim , Lobjoit , Hanley , Smith

Surely Bowditch too

1-2 drat

I blame Revell!

0-0 HT

When JJ plays we can score goals we he doesn't we can't.

JJOT on for Poole at half time.

If he's fit enough to play at least a half why didn't he start?

Would love to know the stats this season for goals for us with or without JJOT on the pitch. We never score without him.

We've completely lost it since JJ came off.

Same as always no JJOT and the team falls apart

Hilarious to see Italy join the Netherlands out of the World Cup.

Would be interested to know the possibility of keeping McGugan beyond Christmas and the loans beyond the season.

So, here we go fact fans:

Vs Top half 10 games, 7 points, 0.7 points per game, projection 16.80pts
Vs Bottom half 7 games, 11 points, 1.57 points per game, projection 34.57pts
Season Projection 51.37pts
Still 0 points vs any teams currently in the top 9

What's the point? at any arbitrary moment playing teams in the top half of the table is harder than teams in the bottom half? as a rough guide, maybe, but far too simplistic and doesn't include other factors such as form and the way teams climb and drop down the league.
it's easy to disprove as say we were playing the team in 12th on Saturday, but on Friday the team in 13th can climb the table when playing the top team. This means the difficulty of our fixture is determined by the result of two other random teams which clearly it can't be.

I was wrong about McGugan, did well in the middle, though he does sometimes let people past him. Fantastic first 20, they really couldn’t cope with Powell so a shame he went off. I know this is unlikely but if the Chinese are monitoring any chance of Grimes on a perm please?

How about Ingram too

Not on the bench again. I'm getting a horrible feeling about the Revmeister

Time to retire!

I would argue that if you watched Barcelona live, you would be surprised at how quick some of the players are!?

also, this is league one, we don't have players of a similar ability to Barcelona - the one thing you can't coach is pace, and the one thing defenders can't find a way to deal with is pace.

It's all relative we don't have players of Barcelona's ability but we're not playing teams with Real Madrid's ability either.
I just think at present with the players we have if we were going for pace & width, while it would allow us to break from deep you would be relying on the 3/4 strikers and fast attacking players to create and score the vast majority of goals and if you look at the players that fall into that category (Revell, Richards, Long, Powell, Bowditch, Walters, Hoskins & Hanley) I don't see it happening.
The other option is to try and keep possession better, play higher up the pitch, be more compact, pass through the opposition (have already seen McWilliams show he is capable of this) late runs from deep from midfielders (JJOT & Crooks) and long range shots from the edge of the box (McGugan & Grimes)
There is no ideal solution, I guess with the defence recently looking pretty good you have to look at the most probable way of scoring goals.

no pace and no width - good luck with that.

Barcelona have pretty much got away without width or pace.
What's the point in having fast wide players if they're not good enough to beat their fullbacks, their crosses are poor and we have no quality strikers on the odd occasion a good cross comes over. Would feel more confident of scoring goals with McGugan, JJOT, Crooks, Grimes, McWilliams and Poole in the side.

I must agree with Altobs review of the game and player ratings.What is the point of playing Bowditch?He looks like an old pro going through the motions and taking his money.
Better off playing a youngster who is out to impress.Must give credit to JFH for his 3 substitutions that changed the game.

Can't believe he got a 2 year deal.

Really? Genuine question. I wasn't there but I'm surprised in a game in which we conceded three and he missed a penalty that he was MOTM

Exactly mine too, when we've been keeping clean sheets in league matches then ship three against a team of kids.

Harder games are the ones against ... Well established larger towns showing professionalism in running clubs gaining extra support through civic pride.. Portsmouth wigan Bradford oxford etc.
Or the well run smaller towns who have rich benefactors Sc***horpe fleetwood.
The easier games are usually against those clubs like us who just bounce along on the bones of our arses  making up the numbers with no direction, no growth plans and generating little in the way of civic pride due to being an insignificant part of something bigger to outside controlling bodies.
Hope that clears it up any confusion as to what makes easier opponents .

Sheffield United were a massively big and underachieving team in league 1, they are now top of the championship, it's got nothing to do with the running of the club and entirely down to a Sheffield United supporting manager who threw himself at the club. The board who'd made a string of appointments that had been a disaster just got lucky.

Forget it. 2-0 now. Don't watch it.

Anyone know the result of Oldham vs Sc***horpe today? Asking for a friend.

and the Shrewsbury result?