Faraway KAB

I really can''t see that Clingan would get into this team. He was a decent, not spectacular, player who was made to look better than he was by playing in a rubbish team. For me, Russell, Smith, Hughes and Juan Carlos are all better players. I''d forgotten Clingan until someone posted this thread!

I was there last night and we looked every bit the equal of Leeds. I didn''t see that Otsemobor had a worse game than anyone else. Our problem seemed to be overcomplication - trying to walk it into the net rather than having a go. We need to get better at this. Martin is really the only striker who is prepared to "shoot on sight" and is worth his place for that, but I can''t disagree that somebody quicker next to Holt would help. Leeds were wobbling badly in the middle of the second half and maybe putting Cody on to stretch them even further would have been an option? As regards our chances of automatic promotion, I don''t see why we shouldn''t achieve that if we can take our chances. We were easily as good as Leeds, Charlton were incredibly lucky to take a point off us and the ref beat us at MK Dons.Our last home game against a top 6 side was a 5-1 win! Good earlier point about Holt though - if he gets injured, we''re screwed.

Absolutely bang on that we won it in midfield. We were tight and never gave the Wycombe players any time on the ball. I also agree about Askou & Spillane - the Wycombe goals did come from mistakes, but generally they looked good. It does mean that we have to rely on Otsemobor (who had a decent game to be fair), but I suspect we''ll see another right back brought in. Another major plus was how much better balanced we looked with Lappin instead of Hoolahan. I''m a big fan of Wes, but when he plays we are too reliant on him and he doesn''t always produce the goods. Lappin hasn''t got the trickery, but he''s solid and has that fantastic delivery that yielded 2 goals. The last point I''d make is about Adeyemi. He does look like the real deal - powerful and skilful with it. Have we finally found our new Damien Francis? What makes it for me is that he always seems to have time on the ball - this to me is the mark of a true quality player. There''s a lot to come from Tom and I''d like to see him start a game with Hughes, who looked in a different league to Gill and Tudur Jones.

Well, that was the worst experience I have ever had at a football match. We were absolute garbage from the point the first comedy goal went in, having oddly enough played quite well up to that point. One game isn''t a season, but it was utter humiliation and Gunn is on borrowed time now. Some specifics: 1) Theoklitos - was this a one off, or should he really be in a circus? 2) Otsemobor. Words fail me. I never, ever want to see this idle w4nker in a Norwich shirt again. That''s never, in case I wasn''t clear enough. 3) Nelson. I have to say I''d bought into the hype, but he just looks like a div 3 donkey. I hope Askou proves to be good because I can''t see Doherty/Nelson being much other than a disaster. 4) Holt/Martin won''t work. As a partnership they lack both height and pace, and you have to have one or the other. There were a few positives though, believe it or not. Holt looks a decent player, and Cody proved why he needs to start. We only carried any kind of threat once he was on the pitch. Gill and OTJ looked like they might have some potential and shouldn''t be written off yet - it may well be though that our centre mid combo ends up being Hughes/Adeyemi - the latter is clearly a very good prospect. Wes did some great stuff at times, but held on to the ball too long at others and at times looked (unsurprisingly) lightweight. I hope he doesn''t get hounded out because he does have some fairly unique qualities at this level. Where we go from here is a big test for Gunn. Ideally you wouldn''t want to make changes in the second game of a season, but certain individuals were so biblically poor that they have to lose their places - Otsemobor, Nelson and Theoklitos. If they play on Tuesday and we don''t win, things are going to get worse than in the Chase Out era. I will finish by saying I can only hope this all acts as a reality check and kickstarts the season, otherwise it''ll be worse than we ever dreamed possible.

We''d have to be absolutely nuts to play Cureton. He is past it, fact.A great shame, but there you go. People seem to be forgetting that Martin looked a decent striker when he had a chance in the Championship. Given that he definitely appears to have improved in the meantime, why won''t he be a success in League 1? The best we can hope for is Maric signs and we manage to somehow offload Cureton, that would get rid of the problem.

The point that I''m not convinced Delia has grasped is that over the last few years, her board (especially Mr How In God''s Name Do I Still Have A Job? Doncaster) has destroyed the worth of the club, through consistent mismanagement and poor decision making. It is absolutely unrealistic for her to expect to get her money back (if that is indeed what she expects) - in fact anything ought to be seen as a bonus.   Until she takes this on board, the club won''t get sold and will continue its decline. I am simply not prepared to believe that there is nobody out there who would buy the club if she put a sensible value on her shares (i.e. something close to zero).

I too was at Watford last night and the Times/Guardian have it about right. We were by far the better team, but gave them two soft goals (the space Smith was given for the second was disgraceful) and failed to take any number of perfectly good chances. Watford had no answer to either Bell or Croft, but there was nobody there to put the crosses away. Russell was awful, but guess what, just like our friend Antoine he''s not a striker. I can''t disagree that Lupoli should have been brought on to give us something different, he must be sick of sitting on the bench watching midfielders play up front badly. Personally I think Roeder has got the team playing some good football and what we really need is another finisher - we have to hope Carl Cort is that man.

If Cullum is in any way serious about doing a sensible deal, surely now''s the time? He must be in a better position now to do the deal he wants to do (and which might be acceptable to Mr & Mrs Delia). If he doesn''t come back to the table now with his proper negotiating head on, as far as I''m concerned he was never really interested.

My observations: Marshall 8 - didn''t have much to do, but did it very well. The save from Phillips was fantastic, like seeing Greeno with tidier hair. Bertrand 8 - worked very hard, won an awful lot in the air and got forward well. Stefanovic 9 - pure class and never broke sweat. I have no idea why he isn''t captain. Kennedy 8 - looked strong and assured. I''m not convinced Taylor is any better than Big John. Otsemobor 6 - did OK defensively but offered nothing much going forward. Surely he could use his pace better than this. Hoolahan 5 - I can''t agree with some of the praise for Wesley. There were some great touches, but he gave the ball away cheaply far too often. Fotheringham 5 - just didn''t do much all game and looked distinctly second best next to Clingan. Clingan 8 - very solid performance, did all the simple things right and made a proper nuisance of himself in the middle of the park Pattison 7 - worked hard but this isn''t his position. The 7 is as much for a great attitude as anything else. Russell 7 - again worked hard, but just isn''t a striker. That said he did score again and won some great flick ons. Lupoli 8 - looked a real threat and will only get better as his fitness improves. Victimised by the ref from minute one. Subs: Cureton 3 - just hopeless. A player like Jamie needs pace to be effective and he hasn''t got it. Surely he won''t feature once Lupoli is fully fit. A great shame as he loves the club, but he just doesn''t look like scoring. Croft 5 - vintage Crofty - bags of enthusiasm, got into some great positions, no end product whatsoever.   Overall as others have said a very encouraging performance, that underlined just how much we need a striker.The big test for me will be whether Roeder has the balls to drop his captain, as surely our best centre midfield is Clingan and Russell. Maybe he could solve the dilemma by making Stefanovic captain?

There''s an awful lot of comedy gold on this thread for something that started off "Let''s get serious...."! I don''t believe for a minute that the (growing?) dissatisfaction with Delia has anything at all to do with her being a woman. Most people were pretty happy when she took over, and that wouldn''t have been the case if this was purely to do with gender. I would hope that most people would also accept that you don''t amass the sort of wealth she has without at least some degree of business sense. The problem I think is that she doesn''t appear to have the kind of money that the club needs in order to progress in the modern game. This on its own doesn''t make her a bad person, it''s just the way it is. What would make things difficult is if she starts to stand in the way of others who do have the necessary funds. Her previous comments around wanting to only sell to a true local fan weren''t a great start as that clearly cuts down the potential buyers. I''m not sure it''s morally right to put this type of restriction in, but she owns the club and can therefore make her own mind up. The whole Cullum saga I''m not so sure about. None of us KNOW what if anything was actually offered. Cullum played the press very well, no doubt in an attempt to put the board on the back foot from the start. A lot of people just assumed that he made a very generous offer, because that''s what they wanted to believe. However, Mr Cullum is very rich indeed and you don''t get that way by being generous, quite the reverse in fact. My suspicion is that he probably wanted to nick the club off the current owners and just spend on the squad and take the glory, but I have no more solid evidence for this theory than anyone else has for theirs. I do hope though that someone (maybe Cullum) does come back with a realistic offer and when the time comes Delia doesn''t stand in the way, because without a chunk of money in we''re going nowhere.

You never lose sight of your sunlounger on a crowded beach when it has a yellow & green towel on it. And Germans don''t dare move it, as they all remember Munich.

Can''t believe a name as great/daft as Caroline Seagull was allowed to die. Tragic.

Some interesting comments in this thread, and a bit of hysteria I think - 2 League games is only 2 League games. We are all agreed that we need at least one more striker, of the robust variety. I do wonder though if the situation up front has been thrown into greater focus as there is less to moan about elsewhere on the field. The defence looks pretty good and I''ll be surprised if we concede every week - let''s not forget 2 of the 3 goals conceded so far were penalties, and 1 of those was dodgy. The midfield looks OK as long as Rusty plays and Bell is as good as we''re told he is. It will be a big problem if we don''t sign someone though. If we don''t, and I can''t believe I''m typing this, we''d do better playing the Ginger Pele (once he''s fit) and 1 other up front than 2 midgets on the basis that he''d at least win some headers! Still wouldn''t be a platform for progress in the league (would be an utter disgrace in fact), but we might score a few more that way against the more physical sides.

Hello boys & girls. As you can see this is my first post. I''ve been a regular viewer for some while and eventually decided it might be more fun to participate. Hey, we all need some fun at the moment. By way of background I''ve had a season ticket for about 10 years and rarely miss a home game. I don''t get to many away games though as the Mrs won''t wear it. I suppose I''m a fairly middle of the road sort of chap in my views on the club - I see things at the moment as follows: 1) It was jolly nice of Delia to rescue the club, but I''m starting to wonder where all the money''s gone. It does seem to be a simple fact that we are not going to progress without spending some money, which she either doesn''t have or isn''t willing to spend. 2) Roeder is a more than adequate manager at this level and performed a miracle last year keeping us up. That said, he has some strange favourites (Matty P anyone?), and to get to this point without signing a striker doesn''t look too clever. 3) If we can somehow find a decent striker, lose the Matty Patty fixation and stop playing the Fotheringham/Clingan clones together, we could have a much better season. The defence looks better than it has for many a year and there is at least decent competition in midfield, plus a bit of quality with Hoolahan and hopefully Bell. That said, if Omozusi is better than Otsemobor then I''m Dean Ashton. That''ll do for now, I look forward to the cut & thrust as the season progresses.