I always knew he could get back to playing well.

I reckon a mixture of Roy and Sakho is rescuing Joel. Very good game today.

Probably because both full backs weren't instructed to get forward much. Ward is at his best at that. Similar with Dann sitting deep. That's a bit limiting when the wide midfielders in front of them aren't naturally wide players and require support. It wouldn't matter if there was a link in midfield but we lack that with the way players are set up. None of it would bother me in terms of staying up if starting from match 1. The prem probably can be safe if you keep it tight or rigid and keep a consistent trickle of points but we need a bit more than that.

It's not a big criticism of Roy because he has the knowledge. It's more a tweak of players changing during the game rather than it going stale when we could assert ourselves and nail wins.

COYP

was last man off the pitch clapping the hf , made his way over that way, alone, seemed strange

Ward is very much a form player. Whenever the team is playing well he is right at the top of the list. Whenever we’re playing poorly he is one of the worst offenders

When you’re knocked on your back and your life’s a flop...

You can read this as , when we are playing poorly he is one of the players that the 'experts' love to blame above their favourites.

I think Tomkins had much more to do with that yesterday. He was excellent today and the two of them work well on the same side.

Goal aside, Sakho had another iffy game I thought.

Employee of the month is a good example of how someone can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.