Why the heck are we still letting him take penalties? He's been consistently useless from them since rejoining us, can barely be a 50% conversion rate

No Nicky Adams on that list??? Ricky with 4, not bad considering he has been out injured

Not on the League One assists list, no.

He's top of the League Two 'assists' table with 14.

I think the main thing showcased in this thread is actally that a lot of the people who voted 'leave' in the referendum are incredibly sore winners.

If zakuani, Maloney and Williams were all fit for Tuesday would anyone change the team after today?

Zakuani for Nyatanga still, definitely.

Moloney and Williams would probably have to settle for the bench as far as I'm concerned

JJOT

Nyatanga was good yesterday. Buchanan lost the plot again.

Agree with this. I think buchanan has been the weakest link in our defence for most of this season but seems strangely immune to criticism.

Evidence, if nothing else, that competition for places is a good thing

Will be a tad disappointed if we don't manage to take a fair few (1000+ ?) to this one. Relatively local, reasonable ticket price and cheap to get to. A win for us could potentially drag them back into the relegation picture as well.

Where are people planning on drinking beforehand? Football Ground Guide doesn't seem to be particularly positive about the offerings close to the stadium so is Birmingham city centre the best bet?

There were no takers by yesterday afternoon so I have withdrawn it. By the way you can match however much you want you do not have to natch all of it. So if you are happy with a tenner match a tenner.

After Tuesday however I have formed the view that our relegation odds are far too big, 14 to 1 against what I currently believe to be about a 4 to 1 chance. I have had a small bet, that's all I was allowed.

I think the main reason for the long odds on us going down is that there are five truly, painfully awful teams in the bottom five at the moment. The fact that Bury have lost 11 in a row and are still ahead of the other four at this stage in the season speaks volumes I think.

Bury - Lost 11 on the bounce, financial troubles (possible administration), player sent off every game
Coventry - Poor finances, half their team is teenage loanees, manager who didn't want to the job
Shrewsbury - We absolutely battered them away from home. All you need to know.
Oldham - Scored twelve goals in twenty games
Chesterfield - The only ones I really feel are capable of recovering, but they seem to leak goals even when they're winning


I'm not too concerned about relegation because I feel like our current squad / manager are still better than those clubs which are really struggling (not that this means I'm satisfied with his performance). I think if we did get relegated this season it would be particularly embarrassing because the quality of most teams in League One seems to be really quite low (I honestly don't think it's much of a step up from League Two besides the 'big' three / four clubs at the top).

Big game, Rochdale's away form is very poor so if we do turn up we should win this one. Completely down to how we / Page responds to the Stourbridge defeat how this one will go I believe.


I would play:
Smith
Phillips--Zakuani--Nyatanga--Buchanan
Anderson--O'Toole--Taylor--Gorre
Hoskins--Rico

Cornell, McDonald, Hanley, Beautyman, McCourt, Iaciofano, Revell



I don't expect this to be anywhere close to Page's team, however.

What are we saying, full strength XI? Or 'risk it' and make a few changes with a tough but very winnable league game to come on Saturday in mind?

Minimum forecast temperature is 7* in Stourbridge tonight so the pitch should be okay on that front, heavy rain forecast in the morning though so slightly worried about a potential waterlogged pitch. Should be fine though hopefully.

I'd go with:

Smith
Phillips -- Zakuani -- Nyatanga -- Buchanan
Anderson--McCourt--Byrom--Gorre
Hoskins
Rico


Subs: Cornell, McDonald, Revell, D'Ath, Beautyman, Potter (is he fit??), Iaciofano


Give Revell a rest as he seems to have lost his form recently and I'm hoping it's mainly from playing too many games early on in the season when he was excellent. I think Gorre deserves another chance and his pace could be a serious threat against a non-league team. Also think Matty Taylor will struggle with three games in a week and his set piece delivery will be much more effective vs Rochdale on Saturday I think, plus Byrom deserves another chance after Peterborough.

Also, not necessarily suggesting that we 'drop' Cornell. I think if he's our first choice keeper then Smith should be playing for us in FA Cup games. Freezing out a young lad and not giving him any first team games is in nobody's interests. Of course if he plays outstandingly well I'd consider reintroducing him to first team action in league games.
 

Does anyone know if we've managed to resell our allocation after the returned tickets?

Very impressed with the result today although I personally felt we only deserved a point - will definitely take the win though and thought we had a fair few good performances particularly Buchanan, Hoskins (who has been incredible recently) and Anderson. It's worrying though that Revell and Richards both appeared to remain relatively anonymous even though they were both up top, although I guess I wouldn't be saying that had one of them put a way the couple of chances the had. Hold-up play slightly better from Rico in particular though so I guess there's definite improvement all round. Definitely cause for positivity.

Some of our fans wound me right up though. The bloke and his son shouting "make a change Page you c-unt" every 20 seconds for almost the entire second half were both asking for a slap, a right irritating duo. Thought the turnout and atmosphere was fairly good overall though considering recent results.

Anderson.

Mentions for Hoskins & Buchanan

Would have absolutely loved the same tie but at the Hawthorns, not sure I'm bother with a home game. Outside chance of being on TV I guess with Burton - Liverpool the only stand-out game

Archer not that bad - he was Millwalls first choice last season.

Pretty sure he was also the goalkeeper in the League One team of the year (might be wrong tho)

If McDonald doesn't start on Saturday, that would be incredibly harsh considering his performances in the second half of last season.

Tozer from Yeovil to Newport.

He is the definition of a League Two player.

What happens if they get drawn to play against each other? How many would turn up to see Swansea B play Bournemouth B and where would they play?

I'd assume the draw will be "set up" so as to ensure that they can't play each other unless it's inevitable (eg if three of the four semi-finalists are B teams), in the same way the Champions League is set up to prevent teams from the same country playing each other. I might be wrong though, pure guesswork. Nobody's gonna want to watch two B teams face one another.

Fleetwood, home.

Hands up who thought one goal was going to be enough to win it.

I thought we'd hang on.

The substitutions were truly shocking though. Rooney who I don't rate but was having a good game, replaced by someone who isn't even slightly match fit and whom I don't recall touching the ball, then bringing Milner on for the only player who was offering us pace on the counter attack? Sat way too deep, especially considering how weak our defence is.

We were crying out for Jamie Vardy, and how Lallana lasted the full 90 is beyond me.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36503204

So we're now getting three JPT "group stage" games, potentially against Leicester or Aston Villa reserves in front of one man and his dog.

Mental they're making us play extra fixtures in this at the same time as scrapping some FA Cup replays. Will lower league clubs still be forced to name a strong starting XI?

Would love to see Newcastle Academy vs Villa Academy in the final, see how many turn up to that...