MATCHWATCH : Queens Park Rangers (h)

[Norfolk Royal]

Towards the end of the game, on the radio commentary, Dellor made mention of Ady "smelling a rat" before the game started and he had now spotted it. He said he would explain later but as usual, I could get past the usual Rita reading out the texts before I switched off. Did Dellor elaborate? I assume he didn't mean literally there was a dead rat in the commentary position, but something odd was happening.

I didn't hear anything said after the match. Smelling a rat was referred to before the match as well. Think it was something to do with a previous match, does anyone know what they we talking about?

Apparently it was something to do with the flush not working in the commentary box toilet.

[Westwood52]

TBF where we are from four seasons of relegation fodder is a pretty good achievement.I suspect the Owners however would expect us to be at least comfortably in the Play Offs.Pauno may well be the scapegoat and ditched.Pre season acquisitions were poor barring Ovie and Laurent.We went for Semedo who Forest didnt fancy and two trainees learning their trade in Estevez and Gibson.This means Pauno had zero options when it came to bringing players in once the usual starters lost form.His weakness as against say McDermott is that he didn’t recognise say L1 or L2 players like Laurent who could impact performance without costing us much in terms of salary and purchase price.

That's a bit unfair. I don't think he had any say on Semedo and Esteves who were likely Kia signings and we weren't able to sign anyone in the Jan window. Who else apart from Le Fondre did McD sign from the lower leagues anyway?

Wasn’t he instrumental in the build of the 2005 team ?

[WestYorksRoyal]

TBF where we are from four seasons of relegation fodder is a pretty good achievement.I suspect the Owners however would expect us to be at least comfortably in the Play Offs.Pauno may well be the scapegoat and ditched.Pre season acquisitions were poor barring Ovie and Laurent.We went for Semedo who Forest didnt fancy and two trainees learning their trade in Estevez and Gibson.This means Pauno had zero options when it came to bringing players in once the usual starters lost form.His weakness as against say McDermott is that he didn’t recognise say L1 or L2 players like Laurent who could impact performance without costing us much in terms of salary and purchase price.

That's a bit unfair. I don't think he had any say on Semedo and Esteves who were likely Kia signings and we weren't able to sign anyone in the Jan window. Who else apart from Le Fondre did McD sign from the lower leagues anyway?

Wasn’t he instrumental in the build of the 2005 team ?

Was he involved with Kitson, Shorey, Sonko and Hunt?

[Notts Royal]

Mathieu Manset?

[Notts Royal]

I wouldn't be upset with a new goalie this summer whether we go up or not. He's not a goalie that copes well under pressure

I second this.

I think he’s ok at this level, but if we are looking to challenge next season, an upgrade would be required

[skipper]

Anyone got better angles of the off side goal? The only one I can see doesn't look offside at all.

[Zip]

Anyone got better angles of the off side goal? The only one I can see doesn't look offside at all.

Yeah I would like to see this again. It didn’t occur to me that Moore was offside.

[CountryRoyal]

I wouldn't be upset with a new goalie this summer whether we go up or not. He's not a goalie that copes well under pressure

I second this.

I think he’s ok at this level, but if we are looking to challenge next season, an upgrade would be required

I know we had this debate only last week and it rears itself several times. He’s got great reflexes and is a very good shot stopper from short/medium range attempts but that’s it, I’m not minimising that, it’s a huge attribute and no doubt has contribute to having the number of clean sheets that we have kept.

This all being said, his downsides are just really quite big for me, I know some will come on here and say x y z but I’m not interested in opinion one-upmanship. I think I’d rather see us invest the time in Southwood and get him the experience. Jokul on loan is doing bits as well, not to mention CBC coming through the ranks. We are well stocked in the keeper department and you know what they say about not being able to teach a dog new tricks. Sure, for a keeper Rafael isn’t excessively old by any means, but I don’t see him improving his distribution or confidence in commanding his area.

Like I said before in the previous thread, imho he’s our most replaceable player but I actually think I want to add Moore up there to compete with him for that honour. He gets away with a lot because he’s the captain, kisses the badge shows passion and gets a lot of last minute dramatic blocks in, but he flatters to deceive a lot at the back. Shouts and points a lot but doesn’t seem to able to organise a defence and he’s pretty weak too.

[windermereROYAL]

Anyone got better angles of the off side goal? The only one I can see doesn't look offside at all.

Yeah I would like to see this again. It didn’t occur to me that Moore was offside.

Looked to me like the lino flagged one of the other players offside rather than Moore who was out of picture but certainly didn`t look off when he came into shot.

[tidus_mi2]

Oh btw we're now mathematically safe from relegation.

[Snowflake Royal]

I wouldn't be upset with a new goalie this summer whether we go up or not. He's not a goalie that copes well under pressure

I second this.

I think he’s ok at this level, but if we are looking to challenge next season, an upgrade would be required

I know we had this debate only last week and it rears itself several times. He’s got great reflexes and is a very good shot stopper from short/medium range attempts but that’s it, I’m not minimising that, it’s a huge attribute and no doubt has contribute to having the number of clean sheets that we have kept.

This all being said, his downsides are just really quite big for me, I know some will come on here and say x y z but I’m not interested in opinion one-upmanship. I think I’d rather see us invest the time in Southwood and get him the experience. Jokul on loan is doing bits as well, not to mention CBC coming through the ranks. We are well stocked in the keeper department and you know what they say about not being able to teach a dog new tricks. Sure, for a keeper Rafael isn’t excessively old by any means, but I don’t see him improving his distribution or confidence in commanding his area.

Like I said before in the previous thread, imho he’s our most replaceable player but I actually think I want to add Moore up there to compete with him for that honour. He gets away with a lot because he’s the captain, kisses the badge shows passion and gets a lot of last minute dramatic blocks in, but he flatters to deceive a lot at the back. Shouts and points a lot but doesn’t seem to able to organise a defence and he’s pretty weak too.

I'm ok with Cabral, but would like to see more of Southwood. I guess my ideal is we transition between them think I'd be disappointed if we just straight up replaced Cabral over Southwood's head. But that will depend on how good Southwood actually is. One of the reasons I was pissed off at the pathetic cup sides, saw far too little of him and what was in front of him wasn't good enough.

Also happy to see Moore move on. Huge wage and not even our second best CB these days IMO, but he's certainly put the work in and served us well. Would leave us light at CB with just 3 ready and Morrison another year older though.

As for the last ditch blocks, a useful skill to have for sure, but I tend to think probably less needed if you have better positioning and read the game.

[Millsy]

Rafael has had some dodgy moments but so have a lot of our back line with the dangerous style we way.

I agree though, while he's good as a keeper and the best we have he's no top class keeper that will give you that extra 6-8points per season.

With Martinez in goal this season we might have been in an autopro slot right now.

[Elm Park Kid]

Rafael has had some dodgy moments but so have a lot of our back line with the dangerous style we way.

I agree though, while he's good as a keeper and the best we have he's no top class keeper that will give you that extra 6-8points per season.

With Martinez in goal this season we might have been in an autopro slot right now.

So all we need to do is get one of the world's best keepers?

I personally think Rafael is fine for our current ambitions and that what we'd need to spend to bring in someone better could be better spent in other areas. I mean, we might as well as just given Richards a proper contract if we're going to do that.

[Westwood52]

Anyone got better angles of the off side goal? The only one I can see doesn't look offside at all.

Yeah I would like to see this again. It didn’t occur to me that Moore was offside.

Looked to me like the lino flagged one of the other players offside rather than Moore who was out of picture but certainly didn`t look off when he came into shot.

Deffo not offside before he scored.I must admit some rules baffle me;he was offside but before the ball was played in,he had got himself back onside.Or is that still onside Anybody know ?

[Snowball]

If you come back from an offside position to get the ball, that’s usually offside

But players routinely stand offside for free kicks, ball is lobbed in, defenders retreat and then players are on

Usually

At the time if looked like a proper onside goal

Didn’t even look marginal

[JR]

If you come back from an offside position to get the ball, that’s usually offside

But players routinely stand offside for free kicks, ball is lobbed in, defenders retreat and then players are on

Usually

At the time if looked like a proper onside goal

Didn’t even look marginal

Quite annoyed at this (or at least the lack of a replay of the incident) as had a tenner on Moore to score!

[Snowflake Royal]

You might as well just give the bookie your money.

[URZZZZ]

He should have had at least two assists. He was outstanding. We really ran out of stream and the last 15 was a horrible watch. Holmes is a real prospect but at centre back. We have to play Esteves at right back if Yids is unfit. Holmes had a torrid time.

Holmes had his worst game at RB by far, but he's been consistently good there previously. He's ahead of Esteves for a reason.

^^ yeah I'd still tale Holmes over Esteves at RB

Holmes’ best games at RB have been against the physical sides, Stoke, Preston, Millwall, Boro etc. Against teams that play between the lines, try and play football, he’s generally struggled which makes the decision to start him against QPR (I.e. a team that try and play) all the more confusing

Easy to forget that most of Esteves’ poor performances came with Aluko ahead of him, who’s tactically indisciplined and in the select few games earlier in the season he had with Meite ahead of him, he was perfectly fine

[Snowflake Royal]

Holmes had his worst game at RB by far, but he's been consistently good there previously. He's ahead of Esteves for a reason.

^^ yeah I'd still tale Holmes over Esteves at RB

Holmes’ best games at RB have been against the physical sides, Stoke, Preston, Millwall, Boro etc. Against teams that play between the lines, try and play football, he’s generally struggled which makes the decision to start him against QPR (I.e. a team that try and play) all the more confusing

Easy to forget that most of Esteves’ poor performances came with Aluko ahead of him, who’s tactically indisciplined and in the select few games earlier in the season he had with Meite ahead of him, he was perfectly fine

Still think you go with your best player - Holmes, and on top of that you also go with continuing the development of one of your brightest prospects who will be here next season, over a loanee who won't.

[Millsy]

Rafael has had some dodgy moments but so have a lot of our back line with the dangerous style we way.

I agree though, while he's good as a keeper and the best we have he's no top class keeper that will give you that extra 6-8points per season.

With Martinez in goal this season we might have been in an autopro slot right now.

So all we need to do is get one of the world's best keepers?

I personally think Rafael is fine for our current ambitions and that what we'd need to spend to bring in someone better could be better spent in other areas. I mean, we might as well as just given Richards a proper contract if we're going to do that.

Well yes if we want to play in one of the world's best leagues

TBF when we took him he was just a loanee. The point is we can find these people I'm sure before they have their names in lights.

Yeah sure we can stick with Rafael but I'm just saying everything adds up. We can certainly do it with him but a few extra points will always help.

But yes I'm with you on where we spend the money - Rafael is good enough, not a total clown, and so yeah spending elsewhere would make more sense.