menzinho

Yeah interesting sounds like 3 at the back will be the 'plan a' next season, I'm a bit surprised as I thought it was a case of the 3-5-2 being the best for what we had. Maybe thought we'd switch back to a 4 and play either a 4-3-3 or a 4-3-2-1. Begs the question where does Roberts fit in 3-5-2? I think you'd probably have to play a 3-4-3 and if that's the case those two CM's need to be able to do it all - battle, run, tackle, pass... Combine the physicality of Rose with the ball playing skills of Doyle, twice! And I always thought Rawlinson might do better in Ellis' role as the central CB, decent in the air and quick so won't be as exposed as Ellis was when he came up against quicker players - so maybe that's where we'll see him. Lacey definitely more suited to the left/right sided CB, he really is the embodiment of what IB wants from a CB. Intrigued to see how the summer signings pan out, given our strong finish to the season and general attacking play the signs are there with IB at the helm we could have a strong season...

I thought Reeves form picked up once he’d got to grips with IB style. I think he was more suited to a three-man midfield and pushing him further forward meant he couldn’t dilly-dally on the ball as much as he did earlier in the season. I think he could’ve more than done a job for us next season. If Doyle is going to be used a lot less to focus on coaching, then we’ll need at least 3 CMs in now. Possibly even 4 if we’re going to play a 3-man midfield for the majority of the season. As for which club he's off too. Maybe Sutton, but I can't imagine they'd actually be able to offer that much more than what he was on here though… Colchester, Stevenage and Leyton Orient also possible options if he want’s a move back to London.

OMG! The Torquay keeper Lucas Covolan scores from a corner to equalise in the last minute of injury time! Hartlepool were literally seconds away from going up, 1-1 in extra-time now...

Sure he’s a centre back that didn’t fit IB preferred style but I’d argue he was the centre back that he needed. Felt like it was just him heading things out our box at times. If he was just a little bit younger and quicker I’d have had him as a top target. We’ve also lost a massive threat in an attacking sense. Not just all the goals but how many times did he win the ball which then lead to a goal… He won the ball for Wootton’s 2nd in the Play-offs, won the pen against Sutton must be a few more too. Wish him all the best at Barrow.

Do you know something we don’t, or do you just think it’s a no-brainer move cos it’s a league club? I really hope he stays too, solid shot-stopping and I think he commands his area well too. Signing someone to compete with him has been hard enough, I don’t really want to be looking 2 new keepers…

Yeah a mad gruelling season and the players will have just about get one month off assuming they're back in for pre-season early to mid July! Given that Coalville are up first and a couple of steps below us I wonder if we'll give those that featured heavily in the run in that weekend off... I'd expect to see more of the fringe players, youngsters and new signings to start with.

Have to agree with the others that have mentioned it but I'm really enjoying the tournament so far. I haven't seen all the games but the ones I have, they've all been pretty good. Really looking forward to England Scotland tonight, I was pleasantly surprised at how well we played against Croatia - we really didn't let them do much. I thought Scotland were a tad unlucky with their result against the Czechs but I think that just comes down to their lack of quality... Their No.9 Dykes plays for QPR and scored 12 goals for them. Compare that to England, we've got arguably one of the best centre forward's in the world. Quietly confident England will win, but Scotland will be doing all they can to make a game of it.

I'm a little sad about Enzio, but I get it, probably our highest earner given we signed him for six figures as part of the “promotion is a dead cert strategy”. I'd have liked to have seen Woots behind a trio of Cal, Ruben and Enzio, but alas... He'll be remembered for his rockets and whist not quite replicating his form from last season he still got us out of a hole at times. The crowd singing his name against Weymouth when he came on and scored was a brilliant moment. Wonder if he’ll end up with a L2 club? Maybe thought J’OB would go but he had a strong end to the season so fair play to him - we probably did miss him in the play-offs. I’d be interested to know if we’re going to keep with 3-5-2 going forward. It probably was the best formation with the players we had but with Roberts back (surely that op has done the trick) and Lacey (who is very comfortable on the ball) I wonder if the plan is to play something more in 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 mould. Also only hopeful of signing one of the loan players. Who’s your money on… Miller or Ellis?

Slocombe 6.5 - Not really at fault for the goals, distribution was solid and came of his line very quick to sweep up too. Brindley 6 - Pretty solid, not able to carry the ball forward as much as he'd have liked. Ellis 5.5 - Ok. Missed some headers, out of position for some key moments. Chicksen 6.5 - Probably the best defender on the pitch, great goal too. But hard to give any higher though when you concede 4. D-KE 6 - Thought he really struggled until his great cross for the goal, decent after that but I thought he was a bit all over the place a times. Miller 6 - Tough one because he was clearly our kind of dangerman, still had some good flashes but a little bit too sloppy at times. Doyle 6.5 - Had a lot of the ball. Generally good on it, one or two doggy passes. Enzio 5 - Just don't think playing in a CM kind of role suits him, effort was there but largely ineffective. Reeves 6 - Again not his best game. Just couldn't really get into the game either. Ruben 6.5 - Lovely goal and set piece again... Best attacking player on the pitch. Wootton 5.5 - Also struggled to get into the game, barely any service first half. Subs Knowles 4.5 - Just gets knocked off the ball too easily. Barnett 4 - Didn't offer much either defensively or offensively. Griffiths 6 - Thought he was actually quite good on the ball, got around the pitch well. Did more than Reeves but he was fresher. I can't remember if was his pass that lead to the 4th goal... (take .5 off if he was). Rawlinson 5.5 - Put himself about as our emergency forward, did what he could.

Yeah, best wishes to Eriksson hope he’s doing ok now. Made me forget about our game earlier pretty quickly. I think the minute the players formed that barrier the footage should’ve been cut. It was quite clear something was very wrong and it was awful stuff to watch I turned over after the camera kept zooming back in to see what it could pick up. God knows how many times they did it before they did eventually cut to the studio. Italy and Belgium looking good after their first games, I think they’ll both do quite well. England Croatia today – I kind of think as long as we beat Scotland and Czech Republic we’ll be okay. It doesn’t really matter if we finish top or not, we’ll have to play one of France, Germany or Portugal none of them are going to be easy. Finish second and we’ll probably get Sweden or Poland...

Conceding in the first 40 odd seconds was criminal. Why was no-one marking Wright? The one guy that’s made a living from heading crosses in… Not switched on at all. And then we last about 1 minute longer from kick off in the second half. Not denying the character from the team, but we made that game hard. Lets be honest, Torquay didn’t cause us that many problems – I thought they’d attack a bit more, (maybe they would’ve if they hadn’t scored so early) we caused ourselves problems. Even though we created some decent chances, that old achilles heel of defending our box was our downfall again. I agree the bench was weak, but we’re stacked for defenders and our only other attacking options would’ve been Knight and Sam. Hindsight it's easy to say one them should've been on for a defender... I’d have been surprised and obviously very happy had we actually got promoted this season – but we never really troubled that top-spot this season. I’m still positive for the future, some new additions preferably some that are quite tall and good at heading and a few more gems like Rodrigues. Two seasons, two top five finishes – we’re not far off. I’m quietly confident we’ll do well again next season but you've pretty much got have the perfect season if you are to get that top spot.

I love how confident and focussed the players seem – it’s not rubbed off on me yet. I’m worried about the home crowd advantage. Although it felt like Chesterfield dealt with it pretty well at the same time I definitely felt it gave all our players a boost. I don’t think Torquay will sit back like Chesterfield did and whilst we are playing better I still think we leave ourselves too open to be easily counter attacked at times. I think it’ll be close, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this go to extra-time…

I think he's one of the guys that writes for the non-league paper...

Purely for the fact he carried our attack for so much of the season I’ve voted for Wootton. I dread to think where we’d have finished if he’d got injured mid-season.

I went for the player who showed glimpses of quality at the start of the season but really starred in the run in.