Got a feeling you are right. I know Wilder played down any suggestion of protecting players when 3 points are available but he knows how much this match means to us all and Billy won't want to risk missing it.
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I'm not saying they haven't had injuries, but we played a striker with an injury, didn't we? Billy and Donny might have been 90% and played, but my guess is that Tufty wants them 100% on Sunday. We still have a chance of being top of the league this season but we can only spank the piggies on their turf next week.
Yes but what if Billy and Donaldson weren't 100%, and the injuries they have (e.g. Hamstring) could have been exacerbated if they'd played yesterday leaving them both definitely out of the derby?
In that case I think that I'd go for caution hoping that with the home advantage and crowd we could even get a patched up team to a draw or even win. Let's face it we weren't that far off we're we? The alternative would be to risk yesterday's patched up team or worse in the one of our two biggest games of the season and even worse it's live on Sky. A bad defeat could knock either club back.
I hope I'm right mate because having fit goal scorers in the side next week is ***** mate. As we saw yesterday, once a team realises that there's no real threat up front from open play barring a bit of brilliance, they can adjust accordingly and it'll give them a boost like it did Norwich. Hopefully the opposite will happen if Billy and the Don turn out next week with old boy Clarke on the bench, and they'll have a lot more to worry about. UTB