Players?

[LaxtonLad]

It's not that we are short of midfielders in terms of numbers, but Husin looks hopelessly lightweight and Crawford and Patching are apparently regarded as too young to be deployed. They are seriously at risk of becoming our latest "ones for the future" who never are. David Vaughan has also been a massive disappointment so far, but I think the 4-2-3-1 system is best suited to him, so he might yet have a significant role to play.

What seems certain is that we need one if not two more "little rats" as John Sheridan once termed them: really energetic, tough-tackling, ball-winning battlers who can protect our defence better, win the ball more often and feed it regularly to the more talented and creative players like Boldewijn, Alessandra and Thomas, whose confidence and influence will grow if there's a solid base behind them.

We weren't short of midfielders till Nolan elbowed O'Connor amd Milsom and I must admit I was wrong thinking they weren't up to the job and we wouldn't miss them. Milsom is back now and in my opinion playing better than before. I suppose Vaughn could have taken the midfield position that O'Connor vacated, and I do mean could have but he hasn't, has he? Crawford and Patching have got to be given their chance sometime and with Hewitt only sometimes doing his job properly and Vaughan never, it might be worth giving C and P their chances. I do mean a proper chance too, not brought on when three-nil down and ten minutes to go, that's the way to destroy confidence.

The last "little rat" we had was Liam Noble whose return to Notts wasn't exactly outstanding. I think it became quite clear he didn't want to be with us but I agree, we could do with a couple more like him, like the little rat he was the before he went to FGR - but without the red cards.