terriersmad - Comments

James Vaughan, Jermaine Beckford, Sean Scannell, Adam Clayton, Tom Clarke, Oscar Gobern, Keith Southern all out. We're a different team when five of those can play - genuine play-off contenders. Strength in depth is lacking, that's the problem. Will have Clayton back on Saturday, might have Vaughan, Beckford and Scannell.

Need January to come to bring in three high-quality players for the midfield and attack, just to boost competition and numbers. We really are down to the bare bones, and that got exposed against a good Boro side tonight.

Charlton say the pitch played a part in Southern being sent off. They don't think it was a red. By all accounts it was harsh, and we're appealing (which will most likely be a futile gesture - we never, ever have red cards overturned, even when the opposition players and the referee support the appeal and we have all the evidence on our side). The bench was all up in anger about the red, which isn't like Grayson and his backroom team, normally they're very laid back. Nice to get a penalty for a change, though. Sounds like a point was the least we deserved on balance.

Bit worried that we're going into Middlesbrough without Clayton, Dixon, Southern, Beckford, Vaughan, and Scannell.

Update: Chris Powell looks like he'll be supporting the appeal. Thoroughly decent thing to do, especially as he doesn't have to. Also been on the Charlton site - not one of their fans thought it was a red card.

Cardiff, Leicester, Peterborough, Millwall - all managed to beat us without cheating (and some belting goals from Knockaert and Boyd in particular). Watford got the benefit of a borderline last-minute decision which could have been given any one of three ways (booking for diving, penalty, contact but not a penalty - watch the replay three times and you'll see each of those viewpoints, or even an argument for a penalty but still a booking for simulation, as I'd probably give it). Nottingham Forest were the better side (and the best I've seen this season, bearing in mind that we played well on the night but still got outclassed) but didn't beat us. Your lot are the first side to come to us and set their stall out to cheat from the word go. Which is a shame, because you are good enough to beat us comfortably without doing it, and which makes it all the more difficult to stomach. None of the goals had anything to do with your antics and more to do with three shocking defensive errors.

But you were an appalling side two years ago, and you've only got worse.

However, it would be remiss of me not to point out things which irritate me about Town:

1. Peter Clarke holding on corners. Not every corner, but every few games I'll notice that he has hold of a shirt. Should be a penalty and a booking every time. Never given, and it's a sign of sloppy defending.

2. Clayton and Norwood have a habit of crowding the referee prior to a free-kick. Hate it. Wish they'd stop. The senior player closest to the incident should be delegated to speak (note: speak) to the referee if the captain isn't to hand. I can understand a team being angry and appealing strongly (such as when a blatant penalty isn't given - see Ipswich highlights for a great example of a borderline incident), but when it's calculated, just no.

3. Hammill. Keep your feet. The falling over thing against Brighton (after the ref had booked Lynch at the other end after just as bad a dive by Bridcutt) was laughable. And don't twat paramedics. Thought the suspended sentence he got the other day was a bit harsh (community order and fine/compensation would have been enough), but he can't complain.

4. Alan Lee's hair. And occasional unwarranted elbows, though they are very occasional these days. Hasn't done it for 2 years, but it's always a worry when he goes up. Brighton tried it on when he'd won a header against Greer just after coming on.

Imagine Stoke City's set-piece defending combined with the worst of the South American dark arts of feigning injury, diving, crowding the referee and sneaky kicks out at opponents. When they wanted to get the ball down, they could play. But people don't remember that. They just remember the unworthy deception, dishonesty, and hypocrisy. They're cheats. That's the simple truth about it. Cheats. And if they can't play fair, they simply shouldn't be playing. Every last one of them wants banning.

If I had a pound for every penalty we should have had today I'd be able to go on a decent night out. We should have had a penalty on every single set-piece. Brighton defended like Stoke, with players wrestling our strikers to the floor. Then there were the other incidents - Clarke trying to turn away only to be wrestled to the ground. Lee flattened by a cynical block when trying to get on the end of a cross. Hammill brought down (debatable) in an identical situation to that which saw Joel Lynch booked just seconds earlier. Church almost cut in two by a desperate lunge in the last seconds. Poor defending cost us two goals, but the referee was the best defender of their lead.

And if I had to watch Brighton every week I'd kill myself. Absolute cancer of a team.

Sterling isn't ready, and were the roles reversed and he'd just made a breakthrough at Norwich he wouldn't have got anything like the media attention. I'll make a concession that Hodgson will know about him as former Liverpool manager, but the point stands. I notice Andre Wisdom was part of the U21 side last night - how often has he played? We had Robinson and Flanagan being lauded last season despite playing only a handful of games, and tipped for doing great things in the future. Martin Kelly made one appearance for you in the Champions League and won an inordinate amount of plaudits (though it took him much longer to get into the England squad through injury - although God only knows why people rate Glen Johnson ahead of him).

Maybe big club bias is harsh, but it's certainly big club media hype. I could give you a list of wingers (both English and foreign) who are better than Sterling right now, but who the media never pick up on.

Given the number of wingers being called up at the moment, I'm stunned that Anthony Pilkington hasn't got the nod. Top-scoring English midfielder in the Premier League last season, supplier of top-notch crosses, Norwich's best player (look at their results with and without him), and the Englishman who's created the most Premier League chances this season, despite being in and out through injury. Only Juan Mata has created as many chances.

But Sterling plays for Liverpool, so gets the call-up despite not being anywhere near ready yet.

Speedy recovery to Rudolph Austin.

Unconvincing first half against Barnsley where we nicked a goal through Beckford. Absolutely dominated the second, and how it stayed 1-0 is beyond me. The keeper's played an absolute blinder.

One of the most notable things about today was how woeful Mido was for Barnsley when he came on. He made 4 contributions. His first was to almost cut Sean Scannell in two with a very late tackle (for which he was a little lucky not to get sent off), his second was to miscue a free header for a Town corner from the free-kick above, his third was to spray a ball into the path of a Town player in 30 yards of space and set an attack going, and his fourth was to get a final warning after an agricultural challenge on Peter Clarke. Absolute comedy gold!

Didn't think you were that comfortable. We'd had two great chances in the minutes leading up to the goal. Granted, the goal itself was from a hopeful long ball and a miscued header from a defender, but it wasn't like you'd been keeping us entirely at arm's length.

Sky highlights, if you're interested: http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,26947_8234302,00.html

Had we lost to that decision it would have been a travesty. Roger East had a shocking game - summed up by giving that penalty. It was as clean a tackle as you'll see all season, and the linesman even gave the corner. But he gave us the square root of fuck all all night, and so to level with the last kick was so sweet.

Draw a fair result. Blackburn have good players, but they're a million miles from being a team.

If we can play like that and win, then God only can help Bristol City. 7th, only outside the play-offs on goal difference, and a great challenge on Tuesday night. Hopefully Vaughan and Beckford will be fit, we missed them today.

Two away games at places we're always crap, always lose, and have men sent off = two defeats where we were crap and had a man sent off.

Sounds like 4-0 was harsh today and that we were well in it for an hour, but they got the second and we lost discipline. Hunt was daft enough to get himself sent off for mouthing off at the ref (well played, ref, we don't see players given their marching orders enough for foul and abusive language), and he now misses Bristol City and the Venky Army.

And on Tuesday we were monumentally crap. Thing is that Peterborough should have taken us for six or seven but could only manage 3 - all with an element of fortune.

I think he needs to be managed a certain way. Pearson won't coddle a player to get the best out of them, whereas I get the feeling Grayson will. Leicester fans certainly didn't seem too sorry to see him loaned out, but I can only think he didn't play the way he's been playing for us. Clapping the fans, chasing lost causes, putting pressure on, battling for everything and scoring goals - fans love that sort of thing.

EPIC! Game of two halves, blowing Wolves away in the first half and defending like demons in the second. Two top-notch goals (I honestly want to marry Jack Hunt's cross for the first, and Beckford's finish for the second... wow!), and it probably should have been 4-0 before half-time. Sloppy goal to concede, but we dug in, battled, and thoroughly deserved the win.

If God were to pass on a command to you now - be clean of disease - but left you with nothing more to go on, how would you interpret that command? You know that avoiding germs in a day-to-day sense is impossible, but you know certain things are more likely to pass on illness and disease than others - unprotected sex, eating uncooked meat, a dozen other things. So what would you write down in your teachings? The essence of the Word would still be there, but the directions provided would be the directions of a man, and therefore bound to a time and particular understanding of the world around us.

Does that go some way to explaining my understanding of the Bible? Feel free to call me a hypocrite if you want - this is the sort of thing you can ask a dozen Christians about and get a dozen different responses. I personally feel that faith is more important than following the word of Biblical law.

Entity. Of the omnipotent (He started the universe - pretty good case for being omnipotent, that, so far as I'm concerned), omniscient variety.

To look at the Bible solely as history is wrong. But to look at it as largely a collection of fables and morals is equally wrong. There's an equilibrium to be found between the two, which makes reading and understanding it a pain in the backside. Hence fundamentalists who don't like engaging their brain and just take the literal truth and tell anyone who doesn't accept their point of view that they're spending an eternity in Hell.

And just before anyone asks me why there's pain and suffering in the world if God loves us so, I've struggled with that one enough over the years myself. I've always identified as Christian - even if I'm a million miles from perfect in following the teachings - but it's only been the last few months that I've really started trying to understand my faith. And I do think of it as a faith, and not a religion; to my mind, religions are mainly lists of dos and don'ts, whereas a faith is putting your faith into something - in my case, my faith is in Christ my Saviour.

And I now look like a religious nutter. Brilliant.

As a Christian I have no problems admitting that sometimes I hate the Bible. And it doesn't help that I'm kicking about with a bunch of pretty fundamental nutters at the moment (they think the universe was created in seven days because Genesis says so and nothing may be allowed to contradict what it says in the Bible, just as one example of their thinking). But what's forgotten - by Christians as well as by those who knock religion - is that the entire Bible was written in days when hairy men ruled supreme and no one had a clue what a Higgs-Boson was. Even Paul in his letters to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Romans, etc, can't be said to have had the deeper understanding we have of the universe. People who ignore that deeper understanding in favour of the literal words of the Bible (stating that they are the Word of God) have entirely missed the point.

But do I believe God created the Universe? Yes, I believe He did. But I don't believe He did it in seven days and created woman as an afterthought. I know that evolution is an absolute fact. I support gay marriage - despite what it says in the Bible - because I believe I know why the Bible bans homosexuality, and I believe I know why it's utterly irrelevant. Other radical things I think include that it's OK to eat pork or touch the skin of a pig with my bare hands (look them up), or to wear garments of more than one cloth.

Not really. I feel more than a bit sorry for him at the moment. He's a passionate guy who's sacrificed his footballing principles because he's crippled by the fear of losing, which is a massive shame.

I play 5-a-side on Monday nights, and the team I play for was in the Premiership last season (placed into by default, rather than being there on merit). We lost 13-0 to a team who were quite good, and I got to see them again tonight as they tore another set of unfortunates to ribbons. They ought to be bloody good. They had two Town first year pros playing. I wonder if Town are aware of that? Either way, it doesn't seem like such a bad result any more.

Tony Pulis is a hypocrite. That is all.

When Birmingham relegated us on the last day in 2001 their fans sang 'We'll never play you again.'

Oh, hello there, Brum. Thanks for the three points.

Leicester's first goal was a worldy. Their second was the goal of the decade. Backheel volley from a drilled ball behind him, and he somehow got the power, the direction, and the balance to score. Amazing. They deserved it too. We were defensively solid, but they bossed midfield and nullified all attacking threat. Didn't do much going forward themselves, it has to be said, but they were much sharper and controlled the game in midfield.

Oh, and Forestieri got sent off for diving against Charlton after doing it all afternoon on Saturday, including for the penalty. Good player - very good player - but an appalling cheat.

No. We're not good enough. Basic target needs to be to stay up, and being in the top half would cap off a tremendous season. Today showed why: four or five players off the pace, against a technically proficient side, and we struggled. Battered them for ten minutes, then they got the ball down and played. We had better chances, but they used the ball better and were clinical in front of goal when they got their chances. Hopefully it's just a blip.

Will watch their penalty again before making comment.

Signed Jermaine Beckford.

Our options going forward have some frightening pace. Vaughan, Beckford, Scannell, Hammill, Ward... The back 4 probably still can't cope with pace running at it, but it's been years since we had genuinely frightening pace going forward.