Be Robertson who comes in for Wood if anyone.

Why does Robertson deserve to take Woodys place? Well be lucky to get half a dozen games out of him good player yes when fit Wood offers leadership not least a goal threat not 100% but hasn’t he played all 5 games we’ve won?

Again where would we be without woody Robertson not even match fit. With the matches coming up we are going to need more options than what we have at the moment. All of the players who have been out injured will be needed with all of the matches coming up. If fit the manager will start with the same team.

We haven't had many games recently so we might well be able to field the same eleven tonight without a worry.

As a general point, you can't really just look at the squad on paper and pick a 'best eleven' and expect that we will wheel them out twice a week, which is pretty much what our schedule looks like. We are going to get a suspension or two. We are inevitably going to pick up further injuries. It is a squad game these days what with up to five subs per game and so many games in quick succession and we are going to need strength in depth.

At the start of the season, I looked at our squad and thought we had a lot of good options. We were then decimated by a series of freak injuries and again then by Covid before Christmas. Despite that we have got almost half way into the season not too badly placed and all things considered I think we have done well at that. We now have the injured players - some of them key players - starting to return, and there is clearly an intention with Miller and Vassell going out on loan to freshen things up with our attacking options, which I think everyone agreed was needed.

So for me same eleven tonight, hopefully a positive result, a full week off to get everyone back up to fitness before we go to Middlesborough next Wednesday, hopefully add one or two before then, and gird our loins to give it a real good go in the second half of the season.

Stoke have a lot of good players with premier league experience, and a lot of size and strength. We gave as good as we got. Their first was a total fluke and so unlucky for Angus MacD. Blackman will or should be disappointed with their second, but as the game wore on Stoke put a lot of quality crosses in and looked very dangerous. Having said that Crooks twice nearly got us a fourth. A good performance, a very enjoyable game and probably a fair result.

Just for perspective, I just spoke to a mate of mine who is a big Stoke fan and he says he thought we shaded it, but just like we will look at our goals conceded and bemoan them, he thinks they gave us three soft goals with very dodgy defending. And thinking about it he might be right. Our first was a clanger from them and the other two we won a number of consecutive 50/50 challenges in their penalty area, which they will be disappointed with. I agree with you about Harding, Derby. You can't fault his effort but he just isnt a left wing back.

Competed well tonight conditions added to some mistakes in defence from both teams. We have to take advantage of the transfer window if we had a bit more to put on after 70 minutes more chance of winning games. What happened to Flo has he gone back?.

Can anyone explain why, with the score at 3-3 and both sides trying to get a winner in an entertaining game, the referee decided to book Olosunde for time wasting in time added on for taking no longer than anyone else had taken for the 92 minutes beforehand?

Blackman got a yellow card recently for time wasting fifteen minutes or so into a game when we were 1-0 down! When did that ever happen before?

We have had quite a few iffy calls go against us this season. That can happen, but we have also had a few really bizarre ones. The blatant handball off the line at Swansea when the ref said it was ball to hand even though it travelled ten yards and their defender (booked earlier in the game) leaned into it to knock it away. That was the same ref we had tonight. The ref at Derby letting their midfielder off - potentially at our expense - with the most blatant second yellow imaginable in an era where referees don't really have a discretion any more. They were scandalously bad decisions.

Going back to Olosunde's booking, does it perhaps illustrate the wider problem? Could it be that referees go into games expecting us to lose or at least be on the back foot, and with a pre-conception that we will be happy with anything we can get out of games? I honestly think we are on the wrong end of a lot of decisions because of who we are and what referees expect to see rather than just refereeing what they actually see.

Good game and finally crookes has delivered the performance twice in a row well done keep it up On wards to boro