A sobering analysis of wage bills in the Championship, especially for a Pompey fan 
Exactly why we donāt need to be going up until we have the outside investment to be able to compete. Our wage bill was last estimated to be 5.5m.
Very happy with an away point against a good West Brom side, considering our current injury problems.
Hopefully McLean will be back for Tuesday night.
Thorup is demonstrating what a good coach he is to get a performance like this out of the team.
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Very unexpected based on recent form.
Letās hope, regardless of the injury situation, this result can be built on & better results follow in the run up to Christmas, setting us up for the new year & the stars who will be arriving, courtesy of the new owners spending spreeā¦
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An additional striker would be nice but one or two key players back from injury would be better.
I think the team spirit JHT is building will be the biggest factor for future success.
Football eh. Lat week 75 minutes of inexplicable awful hoofball.
This week we (finally) drop the too slow OāConnor from left back and bring in Brunt. We have Cannon out suspended so start Marty James for the first time (ex Leicester EPL winner( and then drop Mullin and the useless Icelandic lump in favour of playing Elliot Lee up front with Palmer.
This meant we were playing a team in which each of the three units had never played together before. Most fans, slightly delirious having just watched the Slops beat Birmingham, were sufficiently confused to conclude weād possibly changed to 442.
So, having spent more than a season playing an attacking midfielder at left back we finally put an actual defender in but balance that by playing a tiny attacking midfielder as a striker. Worse still we pair Dobson and Rathbone in midfield despite them looking progressively worse each time we do this. Finally we drop Scarr, who looked like heād made centre half his own, and bring back OāConnell, presumably just to make sure the back 3 still lacked a little pace.
We should probably learn to trust Parky at this point.
Rathbone gets MOTM.
Brunt or James ought to have had MOTM. Latter brings the ball out of defence into space like Max does on the other side so we looked balanced again. James just did everything right and brought a calmness that was increasingly lovely to watch.
Lee as a striker worked brilliantly. He looked set free.
Really tough test on Tuesday night but today was a great day at the office.
Never in doubt 
What a game. Top of the league a little bonus.
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Didnāt manage to see the game against The Swans today, but, by all accounts, it was a belter.
A last gasp goal from Wee Willie Gnonto sees us slide up to top of tā league on goal difference. 
M.O.T.
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I thought weād thrown it away with some very conservative subs. We should have scored a second in injury time tbf.
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Would only add, there were 2 really tight offside decisions today. The Linoās got both correct as it happens but the players and fans were able to celebrate immediately without VAR. No delay, just raw emotion. As it should be.
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I should have added that in respect of our game. The officials disallowed two goals and made several offside calls. Neither set of fans felt aggrieved as the officials were invisible/excellent.
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As I suspect, excluding a major miracle, we will not be challenging for an automatic promotion spot, I wish you well.
Top of the Championship is a position that Mr Farke is not unfamiliar with!
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From what Iāve seen I think Thorup is every bit as good a coach as Farke and I didnāt think Iād be saying that this season.
Our biggest problem is squad depth and I think theyāll move towards addressing this in January provided we can retain Sainz.
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From memory, Farke took his first season to settle in & things rapidly processed in the following season.
From what I gather from the media (on the rare occasions they even bother mentioning us) & your comments, JHT may be establishing himself faster than Farke did & signs of progress may be showing before the seasons end. The end of DFās first season did not hint of what was to follow.
If adequate funds are made available in January for squad strengthening, then possibly, a push for a playoff place may be possible. As it stands, Iām still sticking with my 10th to 16th place finish.
Madison secured 14th place for Farke. Without him I think we would have been relegated.
The parallels are there with Sainz. I hope the new board notice this. I canāt really see the club letting him go in January as they must be aware that forward progress will be next to impossible without him.
Unless they are planning a surprise resigning of Madison in Januaryā¦
I wish it was Maddison and he certainly kept us up in his last season with us.
If only weād kept Idah I think weād be ok now but the problem is Sargent and Nunez injuries as they are critical to Thorupās style of play. McLean coming back will be a big plus.
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Looks like Argyle received payback for the 6 they put past us at their place last September.
It was a strange game in so far that weāve played better than this and lost this year.
We could well have gone in at half time 4 or 5 up rather than 2-1.
Sainz was as brilliant as ever and I just hope we hold on to him until the end of the season.
Iām afraid Plymouth looked a very poor team and made it easy for City who at times also looked very suspect at the back, Iām glad we werenāt playing Burnley.
It looks like weāve turned the corner and players are starting to come back from injury.
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Transitional season for you Canaries I think but at least an entertaining one. Rooney reaction to the defeat, suggesting their under 18 team wouldnāt have lost by that amount, was unprofessional; will lose him the changing room and ultimately cost him his job and end his managerial career. Mind you, Lampard remains in the mix for several jobs so miracles do happen.
Hmm, I might have to become a believer. Exeter should have been a tough test but in the end we picked them off with clinical ease. Lincoln are amongst the five toughest teams weāve played in this league i.e. Wycombe, Birmingham, Huddersfield and Charlton. There are teams in this league in mid-table who could all easily be worthy of promotion. I rated Lincoln very highly before last night and saw nothing to change my mind.
The club highlights are a disgrace. They suggested we created lots of chances before finally taking one and then Lincoln created a few chasing an equaliser. That was absolutely not the game we saw. Lincoln are set up as a 352 mirror of us and they stretched us from the off. Multiple close calls and all our players being tested to the limit. They put 2 on Palmer and 2 on Barnet and when we hit the bar just before half time it was totally against the run of play. General feeling was that if/when Lincoln scored they were so tight there would be no way back.
Ref and liner on our side, in contrast to Saturday, were poor, but the difference for us ultimately came down to 5 things.
1 - Burton in goal whilst Okwonkwo recovers has been magnificent. Made a save at 0-0 which, had it gone in, was at a moment when you could see them going on to score 2 or 3. They certainly had enough chances to have hit 6 on the night.
2 - Brunt at left back has come in for the tediously slow OāConnor and in 2 games made the position his own. Made several key tackles and drives forward in a way which has given us much more balance.
3 - Dobson and Rathbone have been poor for me but last night Rathbone was everywhere and Dobson made the run which led to the goal. Credit duly given.
4 - Matty James was magnificent again on and off the ball. His last injury threatened his career and heās still finding his way back from that but he was again MOTM for most of us. Just calm and simple and a near perfect defensive-mid performance.
5 - Thereās loads of BS about how crowds can lift players; be the 12th man; suck the ball into the net. Have seen it happen a small number of times with us. Last night in the second half was one. They were relentless; the atmosphere went from tense to electric and you could see the players respond. The OG might look unlucky in isolation but it was in the midst of a magnificent spell where the crowd just roared and roared and our attacks started coming in waves driven by the 2 full backs and James.
Got home and to bed at 1:30am. Absolutely worth it.
Due to a dodgy stream, I only caught the last 30 minutes or so of the game at Elland Road this evening, so I was quite happy to join the action with The Mighty Whites 2-0 up.
Daniel Farke, so often criticised for his choice of substitutions, got it spot on tonight, with everyone contributing, especially Dan James who was heavily involved, topping things off with an exquisitely taken goal, and Largie Ramazani, the busiest man on the park.
AND ā¦ ā¦ ā¦ The Mighty Whites ghosted themselves back up to top of the league once more.
Happy days,
M.O.T.
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