Best Of

Let's not forget in the 1st half their goalkeeper made 2 really good saves, Simons saw McCleary free and set him up with a great cross-field ball from which he ran on and delivered a ball across the goal which none of our forward players got to. Then Wigan set up shop.

If 1 of those chances had gone in the game would have been different and Wigan would not have set back defending a 1-0 deficit. We need our strikers to score early on or perhaps make more of the chances we have. As MD said, he has to work out a way of making more of our 'final third' opportunities.

When you say, we "attacked at will", we didn't really, though, did we? Just for example, my memory of the away game at Wigan was that we started well, scored early and as the game went on, found it more and more difficult to get out of our own half, with just the occasional breakaway. At the end, the players were falling to their knees, punching the air and man-hugging all round, reflecting the backs-to-the-wall nature of the win.

And even where we found it easier, a lot of the attacking was punctuated by long, patient passages of Wanderers passing the ball around the back four, into midfield and back again as we tried to move the opposition around and create the gap or spot the run. Saturday, to my mind, was not much different from that, saving that we scored in all those early games (often early) and didn't on Saturday.

Anti-football Anonymous?

I'm going to set up a branch of AA in the Shrewsbury region where people like myself can secretly enjoy a certain type of football.

As others have said the first half of the season we played without fear and attacked at will. Now we seem too safe and our first instinct is to not lose.

Which is another one of them nubs...we have something to lose, which is bound to have an effect on players. I am sure if our exciting attacking players wanted to bomb forward and destroy the opposition at will...the coach will not be saying...'If you see a great opportunity...just pass it back to Joe or Caleb. Safety first.'

And even if he did...they probably wouldn't. The fact is there are two teams...and one of them wants to stop the other one from winning.

I thought he'd gone to Shrewsbury!

I watched Man City get schooled by Liverpool yesterday. The lauded Pep and his panto coaching was totally found out and I think the era of his passing teams to death is clearly over. 66% possession and nothing to show for it.

Liverpool pressed at the right time, showed tempo at the right time and were ruthless in attack. I am not comparing us to either team but I think English football has certainly tried to imitate City throughout the leagues and I hope that is now going to go away. It's boring. It's attritional. It's clearly beatable.

We have some great players capable of playing some fantastic football and I hope we exploit those talents and nothing else. As others have said the first half of the season we played without fear and attacked at will. Now we seem too safe and our first instinct is to not lose.

Who said we were playing for a draw?

But this is the nub of it, the absolute nub. We're second in the league. We're going to face lots of team who play cautiously against us. We've tried and failed to break them down by playing with control, a double pivot, long balls over midfield etc and it's not worked. Given the talent we've got in the squad, surely we should trust our players to bamboozle, to play with panache, to overload, to bomb forward, to get at 'em and up 'em. That's what I want to see from our team of many talents. Not an abundance of caution and the hope we might nick a goal somehow.

I'm sure he mentioned on comms last week he was needed elsewhere today.