I think Harry must have told the players " you can play where you want" such was the bewildering array of formations - definitely 3 at the back for a while in the first half while the second half delivered a cunning 4-2-2-2 for a while - which puzzled all of us in FL block.

A lot of this can be explained away by MBia's utterly bizarre display across the entire 90 minutes - duplications, errors and omissions overlaid on a rampant puppy-dog runaround punctuated only by ground-writhing from imaginary fouls

These performances remind me so much of David McCreery, a 1970's signing from Man Utd - totally dissimilar to our dear Stephane in stature but he was a player who would - in common with our new so-called 'cult hero' - approach every game with all the subtlety of an air raid.

Cult Hero? Bit premature that...

Anyway we're in the hat for the next round thanks to the second in our new series "Goals from the Unexpected" - a last gasp but very neat finish from Kieran Dyer.

Well done him!

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Yet again Coleman and his mates let us all down....just not up to the fight again and again........this against the bottom of the league at home!

Coleman please leave now with a tiny,tiny bit of dignity!

You signed this lot...the buck stops with you!

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Last week we totally outplayed Bradford by having 3 men up and supporting them from midfield - today we played one up against the bottom team and managed just one strike on goal!!
Why oh why do we bother to bring Donnelly on he is sxxxe and should not even be at the club.
I don't want Hill back but today was the pits and JC must go.....

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What idiot designed our stadium so we have to give away our 12 man singing end on cup matches.

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felt like a freindly match atmosphere at LR was non existent thought DJ and Tal did ok Cesar played a binder and saved us from certain defeat WBA are a good side with some quality. enjoyed Dyer scorng at the death shut up the smug wba fans

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It isnt the design of the stadium, its the fact that people choose to be next to the away fans

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Very disappointing second half performance. Mata had so much room he must have thought he had a personal freshness problem

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Cesar was by far the best player and made a number of great saves-he is world class. Good to see DJ and Dyer back Surprised at Ben Haim did not want to attack the open spaces by perhaps Harry has a plan for him. Disappointed with Park-seems to lack confidence and is a sahdow of the M Utd player
Fair result but like another comment seemed like a friendly match If Rangers had dropped the prices further perhaps we could have got more kids in.
Feeling good for the future-I for one think we are on the right track to gte to 17th place by May

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Agreed, Geraldo. In my opinion, we are far too defensive at home with the midfield playing too deep and lacking creativity. As a result, our strikers are isolated and we invite the opposition to attack. I haven't watched Dale playing away this season but it looks like we put out the same line-up (and formation?) away as at home. Don't the most successful managers vary selection and tactics for home and away games and in the light of the likely opposition line up? In short, at home we play like an away side.

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Villa looked dead and buried in the first 7 minutes of the second half. We didn't score a second and that is worrying - we gifted them the initiative carelessly, as you can't be 100% concentrated throughout the whole game. So this lead to Villa's desperate push in the closing stages. It looked as if their destiny was to kill themselves - had a couple of their changes were finished "normally", it could have been our logical and deserved undoing. A very lucky win indeed, but I hope it would work wonders for our confidence.

The Chelsea result makes me expect two scenarios on Wednesday: they will either take us by storm with a 3 or 4-0 ending, or will struggle to motivate themselves, thus giving us a chance for setting something of a surprise.

We really shold improve our attitude towards a second goal in matches of that type - otherwise it will be a very stupid loss of points this season. I don't expect so many heavenly gifts in the remaining games.

Nevertheless, a good approach from NA. I was somehow expecting to see Tadanari in the closing minutes, however given the circumstances De Ridder was the right substitution.

Final conclusion: we should really have more belief to keep calm and score more goals when having the lead.

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