menzinho

From what I can recall Lucas Ness had surgery on his ankle when he was still at Charlton, but I've no idea when this actually was. Guessing we're just waiting until he gets the OK from the doctor. Good that McGoldrick will be back in contention for Chesterfield though.

We are going to have to work on a few different strategies/ideas to break down the teams that just put everyone behind the ball and are actually well organised because the space won’t just open up. That’s going to happen again against the better teams this season. I thought we were too slow and didn’t try to be creative enough we kept opting for the simple pass to feet. We were taking 3 touches at times when we needed to take 2 and even sometimes try 1 touch stuff around their box to break through. We had them more stretched with our wing-backs on their natural side but the two attacking midfielders closest to them didn’t really link up with them that well. We are usually so good at slipping the ball in behind and I think we did it once or twice. Still think we need Crowley higher up, look at last season he was making runs into the box and scoring, other than his chance early on I think he was far too deep. At the end it looked like he was partnering Platt at the back! I will say I was quite surprised Port Vale adopted the low/mid-block approach, thought their team had enough quality in it to come at us a bit more, but there you go. Definitely got a tad lucky in that they barely ventured forward and still scored but they did defend their box very well. We didn’t do enough to win, far from it, given how much of the ball we had we were pretty toothless with it.

Tough today because we didn't really have much defending to do, but at the same time none of our attacking play was very good. Probs have to say Crowley but please can we get him closer to the opposition's goal than ours!

Good idea to have this, I'm always losing track of who is and isn't it fit. As for signing additional players for cover under the new rules we can't sign anyone on loan now, that has to be done in the window. You used to be able to as it was classed as an emergency loan. Essentially we can now only bring in free-agent/unregistered players. I'm hoping we don't pick up any more major injuries, knocks and strains are always going to happen and I'm sure Grant and McGoldrick will be back pretty soon.

He might not be as skilful as our other attackers but you can always count on him to press, make good forward runs and get into good goal scoring positions. Plus he can play out wide as he's capable of putting in good crosses. I agree he’s definitely underrated.

I don’t see why it caused such a big complaint after their initial allocation had sold out. No idea why some of their fans thought they'd get the whole stand. We aren’t ever going to offer that when teams won’t fill it due to the need for extra police and the closure of the road behind. To be honest I thought our initial allocation was fine, that’s still a lot of tickets at this level. Will their fans be moaning when they don’t get 2,000 tickets at Accrington, Bromley, Barrow, Carlisle… (add pretty much every other L2 club here!) Anyway, as for the match itself, I think Port Vale will be more focussed on their off the ball tactics for this one. I could be completely wrong here but I’d expect them to press us man for man like Morecambe did and look to take the ball off us high up the pitch. I’d be surprised if they adopt the sit-back with a low block approach, they are too good for that. There’s a possibility George Byers won’t be fit for them and he’s a very good player, but they have a good squad for this level and can bring in someone like Croasdale to replace him if needed. As for us, I’d like to see Crowley switched with either Robertson or Abbott, I think we’ve got to trust Palmer a bit more to be able to keep the ball moving in the deep midfield role. We over-did in terms of passing in midfield and went nowhere at times against Carlisle. I’d like to see Tsaroulla as the LWB and Gordon on the right (I don’t think it’ll happen though). Austin and Crowley behind Jatta with Abbott or Robbo supporting Palmer. Back 4 picks itself, McDonald will push someone for a first team spot soon though. I think it’ll be a close game, if it ended in a draw it wouldn’t surprise me.

Coventry City 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday ???? Watford 1-2 Middlesbrough Mansfield Town 1-1 Blackpool Rotherham United 1-0 Reading Accrington Stanley 1-1 Morecambe Swindon Town 0-0 Harrogate Town Eastleigh 2-1 Forest Green Rovers Halifax Town 1-0 Tamworth

In a way it was kind of nice to not have Jodi as an option, even though he won it in the end we all know how good he is!

Yeah, as a comfortable as we were at times and even though Crowley got applauded off by the Carlisle fans, Bass was crucial for us especially in the later stages of the match.

Great result in the end but I felt like that was a weird game. We were in total control for 60 minutes, having actually rarely attacked them. It was like a training session at times, but then we just stopped playing for that last 30. Crowley was great on the ball, but at the same time he was so deep at times, he was just basically toying with them and taking the p*** out of their players. But I’d have liked to see him doing that closer to the opposition goal, he’s too good to not be used as an attacker. We did defend well, but at times it was far too easy from them to get balls into our box and I feel like a half decent team could’ve punished us. Maybe after watching us defend last season I’m not used to us being able to deal with any sort of attacking pressure from the opposition!

Honourable mention for Abbott, really impressed considering he is so young and hasn't played competitive football before. But it's between Platt or Bedeau for me, I think they've both been as good as each other really so it's really hard to say! So in the hope of causing a tie, I've voted for Platt.

Norwich City 1-2 Leeds United Sunderland 1-0 Derby County Birmingham City 2-0 Huddersfield Town ???? Crawley Town 1-2 Mansfield Town Leyton Orient 1-0 Exeter City Doncaster Rovers 2-2 Barrow Newport County 0-1 Salford City Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Swindon Town

The players at some of these Premier League Academies are just a lot better than the younger players we have and that is just a fact. Abbott hadn't played a proper competitive match before he came to us (I'm not counting 1 minute v Leeds!), yet he looks like he's played in League 2 before and is a lot better than hundreds of players at this level. He's a very good player and Spurs will be hopeful in a year or two he'll be good enough for them in the Premier League. I think a lot of our young players show a lot of promise and I'm hopeful one or two will break through into the first team in the future but that doesn't mean we can't also sign other young talented players on loan too. I think we'd be daft to turn up the chance to sign good players on loan and at the same time I don't think it will greatly impact the chances of our own youngsters getting into the team.

I'll say Gary Liddle, a player who was very good for us in League 1.

By the sounds of it Morecambe came with plan to press and disrupt us all game and it worked. Playing direct to McGoldrick isn't his game, that's why Jatta is vital in helping combat teams that do press. He's got both the physicality to compete and a bit of pace to stretch defences too. We are struggling with injures and that showed in the team, last season I moaned because we didn't play any defenders today we played all the midfielders! All a bit too samey in terms of McGoldrick, Crowley, Grant, Palmer all like to be on the ball and pass it, a lot! We needed the likes of Jatta, Jones and Edwards who naturally make more runs. I'd like to know if playing inverted wingbacks is helping or hampering. I totally get why Jodi plays on the right, he did it his whole career before joining us and his skill level allows him to. I think it makes it harder for the players not as naturally blessed. Tsaroulla has spent his whole career on the left and likewise LWB is an unfamiliar role for Austin. But credit to the team, for getting the equaliser and keeping at 1-0 gave us that chance. Still need a touch more concentration when it comes to set-pieces, which brings me nicely to the topic we seemed to just totally avoid in the post match interview their "ghost goal". The Morecambe manager claims some of our players agreed it did go over the line. And if it didn't go over the line would their player really have got so wound up to the state he got himself sent off... I'll take that draw!

Now that we’ve had the press conference and heard nothing I’m slightly more positive - in that I don't think it's season ending that is! From what was said in the Martin signing statement they are currently assessing him, which to me suggest they aren't still 100% sure of the issue. Something major like a big tear/snap will be obvious and immediately picked up in a scan.

As a former Arsenal and then Norwich youngster he'll have been coached in a style that will be very similar to ours. I've no doubt he's technically good enough. He did well on loan at Doncaster a few seasons in league 1 by all accounts but hasn't really pushed on since then. It's got to be a positive that Pompey, a team pushing for the Championship at the time, extended his contract for the whole season after also signing him short term like we've done. I think he just needs a chance and with the injuries to Scott, Edwards and Jones he'll probably get it. I'd love him to turn into another gem!

I don’t think Pep has ruined football, nobody is forcing anyone to play a possession style but I can see why lots of teams adopt it. In theory it sounds too good to be true. You have more of the ball so you should be able to create more chances and by limiting the opposition's time on the ball they only have a short window to try and score. I guess to counter that you now have teams that play a very aggressive press and look to take the ball of teams who play out from the back. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have teams who will set up to frustrate with a low-block. That can make things a tad boring, a bit like watching attack v defence instead of an actual match! I do agree sometimes coaches ask too much of players that aren’t capable and it relies on bringing in the right players for the style. But that goes for any style of football really. And sometimes the coaches won’t admit it but they aren’t always good enough to coach it!

Middlesbrough 2-0 Stoke City ???? Millwall 1-0 Preston North End Blackpool 2-0 Burton Albion Wigan Athletic 1-1 Exeter City Gillingham 2-1 Barrow Newport County 0-1 Crewe Alexandra Woking 1-2 Sutton United Yeovil Town 2-1 Aldershot

Some footballers will be more suited to certain styles of play so I get why players and managers clash, especially when new managers come in and change the style of football. As long as you do what is required of you as a player you don’t have to like the manager, but getting along with someone always makes things easier. A bit strange for a goalkeeper to have such strong opinions about the style of football though, their roles are so different to the on field players the fundamentals of what they do are basically the same. And also by not passing out from the back so much it would’ve made his role even easier!

I really hope it's not true, no pre-match interviews released either yet and we usually get them on a Thursday. Suggests to me either there's nothing wrong (I doubt it though) or he'll be waiting for test results to see how bad the injury truly is...

I know the club have spoken about the academy and wanting it to play a big part of the club’s future and nights like last night will help to promote it. Given the competition we face we definitely need to showcase that there are opportunities to train with our first team and then even get to play. For Kameron it’ll be a night he never forgets and it’s brilliant for him (and all the other academy players that were involved too). But for the club to give him his debut at such a young age they must really rate him. I just hope he stays around as he could potentially be an excellent player for us in the not so distant future!

When you're off on holidays and someone asks; are you going anywhere nice? No, I've paid all this money to go somewhere unpleasant to have a horrible time!

I'm also going to continue the trend of not really having any interest in this competition. I know there’s a trip to Wembley at the end of it but I really don’t see the point of it. It’s basically like a best of the rest competition for the teams that aren’t ever going to get close to reaching the final of the League & FA Cup. They’ve put in rules that stop teams from just playing their reserve/kids which is exactly what I would do (along with the players who need it for match-fitness) but it’s not as restrictive as I originally thought. I thought you had to start a minimum of 4 outfield players from the last league fixture but the rules stretch to also include; any outfield player with 40 or more first-team appearances in their career and any outfield player on loan from a Cat.1 academy. It’s a minimum of 4 from that, so as long as for example we started; Chicksen, Cundy, Abbott and Brown the rest of the team could be from our academy! I doubt the changes will be that dramatic though. Potentially a good time to ease McDonald and Robertson back in if they are fit, but I wouldn’t risk them if not. This competition is just about avoiding injuries for me. So rather than picking a team here’s who I don’t want to feature: No Bass, no Bedeau, no Platt, no Tsaroulla, no Palmer, no Crowley, no Didzy, and no Jatta please (obviously no Jodi too but that’s highly likely given the possible injury!)

Was half expecting to see Colt Construction listed on the wiki page as a club given he moved to America and played over there! ???? I’ve looked a few up, in their second division they have teams named El Paso Locomotive, Charleston Battery and Oakland Roots. They sound like industries not football teams!