The View From Churchmans

(FA Cup Tie) Well, overall it was a fine performance and one we didn't deserve to lose. I think Southampton were better than they looked, having come to contain us without any particularly positive ambitions, but most of our team rose to the occasion and we had most of the better individual performances on view. What says it all though is that despite all our possession and effort, Richard had as many saves to ... More...

A mixture of an encouraging gradual return to form (Johnson), continued poor form (Clapham, Scowcroft), more Burley stupidity (taking Brown off), and classic Ipswich switch-off (the second half). Although the return to the Mowbray back five had given us three clean sheets, Burley decided Crewe weren't worth wasting a fifth defender on, and he would have got away with it were it not for his normal inability to spot who's playing well (and who's ... More...

AAAAGH! The last time I came away from a game this angry with someone at the club, it was after Bobby Petta's pathetic performance at Everton. Last night the brickbats were aimed squarely at George Burley. Is this man SO arrogant that, after having made a decision, he just WILL not accept the evidence of his own eyes that certain things need changing? So Tranmere put up one of the most negative displays ... More...

Interesting performance - a good one, although if we'd been more ruthless it could have been five or six. And on balance, we certainly deserved three or four. Grimsby were poor, and their fans singing "You're not fit to play for Town" showed that. Almost everyone played well, and the most encouraging thing was the performance of two of the players who've been borderline of late, Wilnis and Jermaine Wright. Wilnis wasn't given much ... More...

Yes, I know most of the List (including me) has written "we'll probably go and thrash Charlton now" over the last few days, but who'd have believed it really? What was most interesting of all about this game was the way that we saw a team rejuvenate itself not between games, as is usual, but steadily, and gradually, during the course of a game. One up with a (fortunate) goal within five minutes, then ... More...

The after match comment "that was the worst Town performance I can remember for several years" seemed a bit exaggerated, but it's hard to argue against that if you can't immediately think of a worse one. And I couldn't. QPR must have loved it. They weren't worth a three goal win, but we almost certainly deserved a three-goal defeat. For a while at the start, we almost forgot the dreaded letters D-A-N-S-O-N. There's nothing ... More...

Well, Birmingham came with a plan, to stop us playing our flair game, and succeeded well. They made sure they kicked the ball around in the air for 10-15 minutes to put us off, they played (very) hard, and they packed the midfield. You can only admire Trevor Francis for that, even if you feel like decking him. Unfortunately we weren't anything like as tactically sharp. What this game should have been was a ... More...

When we're scraping 1-1 draws at home to Walsall later in the season, let's remember days like these! Clear daylight at the top of the table, and Naarij just as clearly bottom. Barnsley were rubbish. Just clueless. Quite frankly, we could have scored six today. Oh hang on... we did. And we were well worth it. How brilliant is it to see us dispose of crap opposition instead of playing down to their level. ... More...

'Can we play you every week?' - the North Stand prove it's not the originality which makes a chant good, it's the timing. Perfect. Because before extolling the virtues of a tremendous Town performance, we should bear in mind that Forest were a shambles. However, let's not gripe! ...for the third season running GB opened up with a new formation which surprised not only the opposition but even the supporters. A fluid 4-3-3/4-4-2 hybrid ... More...