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I don’t care what you say - I rather like watching these games. Seeing players you’ve never seen play before.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn up at the CG and pay, but free on iFollow and I quite enjoy a stress-free game.

I like watching them, I just couldn't give a toss about the result. It's a mid-season friendly comp and that's fine.

Possibly controversial, but I'd really like to see us play a strong team and revert to 5-3-2 for this one. We've clearly recruited for 5-3-2, and I think we need to give it more than two games worth of a go before junking it and playing a tactic we've not for the squad for. It might be a terrible idea, but I'd rather we gave it another go than just played a bunch of kids in a throwaway.

Maybe something like

Ward

Harries
Baudry
Clayton

Shade
Hutton

Aguiar
Khan
Darcy

Wakeling
Adeloye

I like watching these games, the result is totally irrelevant, I like to see how the young players are shaping up against half decent opposition, and to see if the fringe players are up to the job if needed.

Big game for Harries, Brennan, Adeloye to show us what they have got, I expect the team to be something like this if the rules allow.

                    Ward
         Brennan  Baudry   Harries
Hutton   Aguiar  Dworzak  Darcy      Dabre
               Adeloye   Massey

Well, yeah, I'll watch it on ifollow too.

Ditto.

No idea of the team but Palace are bound to have some decent young kids playing.

Swindon 0 Palace 3 Att: 2,245

I did wonder if we might see Jake O'Brien, but Google suggests he's joined RWD Molenbeek of the Belgian second division on loan. Bit of an odd one.

Surprised you missed this on Saturday mate, started a bit of a Belgium thread :)


He joined alongside another Palace striker on loan, looks like they have a bit of a tie in with Palace.

Molenbeek are owned by American John Textor who in August 2021, Textor invested £86million for 40% ownership in Crystal Palace Football Club, joining Steve Parish, Josh Harris, and David Blitzer as a co-owner.

It's a tenner to watch for me on if

I think those calling it free are iFollow season ticket holders

Oh right. Cheers

A reminder that this is a 7pm KO.

Good job I spotted it. would have missed first half.

I certainly won't be putting a penny into this comp

The only thing I ever hope from these games is that there's some decent prospect in the Prem side that may join us on loan after an impressive game. Never happens though.

If Adeloye doesn’t play tonight I’d say his time at town is up already.

I will be a on a long haul flight otherwise I may have paid to watch. I am always interested to see how we set up in these games and interested in how fringe players perform. Couldn’t give two hoots about the final score.

£10 is worth it to see how the outsiders perform, not bothered about the result.

He surely will start unless injured. I just can't see any other scenario

I see McKirdy is there tonight, does his ban count for the JPT games? last season yellows, reds and existing bans did not count in this tournament.

If he is not banned for this maybe SL will put him on the bench and maybe bring him on to keep his match fitness up.

I would imagine he's not banned as this isn't regarded as a competative fixture is it?

:shrug:

Definitely counts as one of his 3.

So it IS a competitive fixture then, interesting, goes against what many fans say about the Mickey Mouse cup..

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FbbHsPFWYAYkmM1?format=jpg&name=large)

Adeloye is not involved

Thats a kick in the teeth for Adeloye if hes not injured.

Can you get injured doing nothing?

Can’t afford for him to get injured, key player for us now!  :doh:

👏👏👏👏🤦🤦🤦

must be not fatigued enough to pay

Fatigued😀

Perhaps he's hurt his feelings...

I would think we will line up ...

                    Ward
        Harries  Baudry  Minturn
Brennan  Aguiar   Darcy   Kanu   Hutton
             Dabre       Shade

or

                    Ward
Brenna   Baudry  Minturn   Harries
Hutton  Aguiar   Darcy   Kanu   Dabre
                    Shade

That is...  difficult to make a team out of. I'm assuming Kanu is a forward? (and isn't Nwankwo)

Four centre backs? Three or four wing backs? Hutton and Shade both supporting the forward as attacking wingers?

If Kanu is a midfielder (per PV above) we have no forwards on the pitch. It's the old Craig Levein 4-6-0!

Excited to watch the game to see how mad it is now.

Off to Chippenham  :(

Kanu is a midfielder.

Gunna be a right larf watching this!

It will be good to get game time for the youngsters and see if the other new players have anything at all, Brennan, Harries, Shade and Hutton have shown very little so far.

We will see how Aguiar, Dabre, Minturn and Kanu shape up against so called "better" youngsters too.

Ward could be playing for a move if he performs well and Baudry is getting game time to keep himself fit.

We also get to see Darcy probably in a more central role to see what he can do there.

With 5 youngsters on the bench we could also see a bit of them.

At least the result tonight doesnt matter.

He’s picked more first teamers in this game than the fucking Carabao Cup game hasnt he

Not quite but close :)

That line up was

                        Ward
            Minturn  Harries   Clayton
Cowmeadow          Aguiar               Shade
                 Darcy      Williams
                 Adeloye      Parsons

Is that Hal Robson Kanu come back?

Its his son Abu Kanu :) (its not his son BTW)

He came on for the last 10 mins of the Cardiff friendly.

Can it really tell you anything?  Most of the players playing out of position, in a team overbalanced with defenders and no forwards in an odd 5-5-0 formation or similar.

I think it can show you their work rate and some level of ability with and without the ball.

Usually these yougsters only get game time against younger opposition in the U18s up against opposition such as Plymouth, Rovers, FGR, Oxford and Northampton etc not against the better level of the Premier youngsters.

We are playing the, yet to be seen in public, Guardiola False Everything Bar the Central Defender formation.

If you go by the players actual preferred position then yes that is very hap hazard.

Ward GK
Harries  CB
Baudry  CB
Minturn CB
Brennan  CB
Aguiar CMF  
Darcy  CMF
Kanu CMF  
Hutton WB
Dabre LW
Shade WB

If you go by positions the players have played at other clubs and previously for us (in brackets) then its

Ward GK
Harries  CB (LB)
Baudry  CB (DMC)
Minturn CB
Brennan  CB (RB)
Aguiar CMF  
Darcy  CMF (RWB RW)
Kanu CMF  
Hutton WB (RW LWB RWB)
Dabre LW (LWB AMC)
Shade WB (LWB RWB LW RW CF)

Disjointed somewhat to say the least.

I presume Adeloye got lost trying to find the changing rooms?

Are we surprised to see Massey missing too by the way? He's not gone out on loan and I've missed it, has he?

No not on loan, I heard he had an injury a few weeks back but no idea if hes back to fitness yet, would have been a better option on the bench I would think if he was fit.

How have people ended up tucked right up in the top corner of the Arkells.  I presume only just over 1k will turn up, surely they can find a better seat.

iFollow have Minuturn at left wing, so it would be fair to say nobody has a clue.

Hawes suggested he will be at DMC but thats an alien position for him so could be anywhere.Last year we had more than 1,700 in all 3 home games.

Awful backpass from Harries there put Ward under a lot of pressure.

Where is darcy playing??

If he’s going to persist as a RB this would be an ideal free hit of a 90 to get more minutes in the position. But I can’t work out how he’d fit in there from the lineup

Central midfield

Left side of the central midfield.

I saw the Walsall game and all the players worked hard and tried their best but you couldn't tell anything other than Harries was better than we were led to believe and Ward is not our No1.

I'm pleased he's treating this game with the contempt it deserves, although, having treated the league cup with the same distain I have a feeling Lyndsey doesn't see the point in cups

Odd little break in play, don't often see a 4 minute delay and then the guy walks off...

Thank you.

Seems weird. Guess it can also be argued as allowing hutton to play himself back into form

The line up seems to be..

                 Ward
    Brennan     Baudry     Harries
Hutton         Minturn          Dabre
    Aguiar               Darcy    
             Kanu        
                   Shade

Kanu seems to be playing a number 10 role so far and Shade is playing anywhere he wants, Minturn is basically playing as a stopper in DMC.

So I think the shape is...

                  Ward
Hutton Brennan Baudry Harries
                Minturn
       Aguiar Darcy Dabre
            Shade Kanu


... is that right? It's actually quite hard to tell.

Well, the fact that PV and I have gone in completely different directions suggests that it isn't especially clear... Let's be polite and say that so far it's fluid.

It is fluid, I would say 3 at the back though as Hutton seems to be sat on the half way line most of the time as does Dabre, Kanu sitting in an advanced midfield position which doesnt suit him so far.

I think Dabre is supposed be LWB, but he just plays like a school kid still.  Running furthest forward quite a bit - but the LWB hint is the fact he keeps remembering he is supposed to be taking throw-ins.

So the formations a bit of a mystery. However, how are we playing?

A few fairly bright attacks, Shade has had one shot hilariously high over the bar and two since that have been a lot closer, he's actually doing alright as the focal point of the attacks. Darcy and Aguiar look a bit above the level, and Harries has made a couple of very decent tackles. A couple of pass backs to Ward have been dangerous.

Minturn is playing in sat in front of the back 3(4) to try and break up the play, which he is doing ok so far.

Dabre has bags of energy and a bit of pace and skill but looks a bit lost at times.

Shade and Darcy are linking up quite well so far.

OKish - Palace are a youth team though, properly.  be surprised if we don't win.  Darcy looking lively, Shade getting a lot of the ball, one poor finish, one a bit better and only just wide, then on that bounced of his foot and hit the post.

Shade with another decent effort but too close to the keeper.

Harries and Brennan have grown into the game, Baudry is Baudry, strong and solid.

Defender taking a goal kick klaxon! Lovely Sunday League stuff.

I'm there and I'd say they're definetly set up like you said. D'Arcy is running the midfield and is the standout performer. Minturn is looking good as dmc

I would still agree with Hawes and Smith that we are playing with 3 CB's today.

I've come round to your formation, for what it's worth. I *think* we might be playing something slightly different in possession to out of it.

Good pass by Dabre there, not sure he entirely meant it when passing to Hutton, Huttons first touch was awful though.

Out of possession we seem to be playing with 4CBs and 2 fullbacks with Minturn sat in there.

FWIW I wouldnt take a single Palace player on this showing over what we have. No standout players for them.

I honestly think it's just Dabre having no concept of playing a position.  He just wandered up to striker for a bit.

Aguiar has been a bit loose in midfield so far for me.

Whereas Dabre has no idea how to stay in position, Minturn seems like he might have a rope tying him to Baudry.

Hes blatantly far more of an attacking midfielder/winger than a wingback. He makes Iandolo look a skilled wingback.

Shade is our best player so far IMO.  Looking lively, willing to take a player on, make something happen and not scared to have a shot, which is a big problem for us so far this season.  He is doing what Mckirdy does and doing a good job.

Darcy and Aguiar doing well controlling the MF.  This really is the Palace kids.

Lewis Ward clearly doesn't have any fear of the Palace attackers, taking all sorts of risks - he's a minute or two away from attempting a seal dribble past their forwards.

Shade and Darcy the stand out performers so far, Shade having the freedom to go where he wants makes him look head and shoulder above the Palace defence.

A special mention for Minturn who has hardly put a foot wrong in an unusual position for him.

:D

Impressively instant impact there

(Minturn heavy first touch loses the ball, lunges in to try and recover and a clear yellow)

And with that he gives the ball away and then makes an awful challenge for a yellow!

Haha - two misplaced passes and a yellow card follow right after you post.  He had indeed been very safe up until then.  I would question the point of him and 3 central defenders though - it rather limits us going forward.

Baudry and Harries in an awful mix up should have cost us a goal.

Dabre is making his position up as he goes along

He also likes to go to ground easily!

Aguiar falls over the ball in the box, good chance.

Good save by Ward low down.

Kanu has been pretty anonymous today altho he made a couple of good runs early on.

I would rather see a natural striker off the bench (Wynn-Davis) rather than a midfielder playing out of position.

HT 0-0 we should be beating these.

Odd little game. Low standard, as you'd expect, but rendered interesting by the fairly wide range of abilities of the players on the pitch, more than you'd see in a league game. Palace players are all pretty much something and nothing, if pushed to pick a standout I might go for the DM Ozo.

Shade has been the main character, focal point for our attack. Getting plenty out of the Palace defenders, who look more equipped to deal with a big man than Shade's movement. He's done some good stuff and some bad but has been very involved.

Darcy looks a higher class of footballer than anyone else on the pitch.

Our defence have been individually fine, but have combined for a few seriously dodgy moments.

Dabre is attempting freestyle Jazz football.

It kind of gradually got worse as the half wore on.  No presence upfront - Shade looked good, but it is mostly wandering off the front role.  Hutton is made to look a lot worse than he is by the fact nobody tries to get into the box for crosses, but then you would ask why is Hutton whipping them in every time if nobody is there?

Darcy still looks worth a proper look in that role in the first team game.

Baudry starting to look a bit like the player from Sheridan's season.

Not seeing much progress from him - looks good on the ball at times, nice strike on him, but really struggles to stay in a game.  Just drifts in and out so often that it's like not having him on the pitch half the time.

Dabre is so much fun to watch - provided you don't care about the result.  It's like some kid has been given a prize for the day but actually has a bit of "skills" about him.  Like he was playing 5 a side right before he won the prize.

Haha, when I saw him play against Man City it felt very much like this, just kind of warbling all over the place with apparently no logical purpose, just lost in his own world.

I like him, he's either footballing genius or completely useless but I don't care either way.

Shade's making a case for him starting at the weekend, or alternatively Lyndsey is resting Adeloy as some great master plan of 4th dimensional chess.

Att: 2,021 (40 Palace)

Oooh Darcy. Post!

Darcy with a great Ricky Villa dribble but hits the post at the end of it.

Harries take the ball on the balls!

Ward with a terrible fumble nearly throws it into his own goal but Harries clears it off the line, really poor.

Pauld Jr coming on for his debut.

Tom Wynn-Davis hes one of our own on the TEF, coming on for his debut.

Great play by Shade and a shot by Aguiar from 20 yards hots the post.

Go on Tom lad

He should have started ahead of Kanu being a natural attacking midfielder/striker whereas Kanu looked out of his depth playing out of position.

Excuse my ignorance, but who is he??

I am sure Tom is a better finisher than PaulD

PaulD's son

PaulD's son.

Shade off for Dworzak.

Darcy off for Cowmeadow.

And Darcy off for Cowmeadow. Two best Town players off, fair enough for the weekend.

Baudry heads over the bar from 6 yards.

Cunt, hope he scores (and nearly does!!!)

This reads like the policeman from 'Allo 'Allo.

Hots the pist?

Wynn-Davis has a good effort from 20 yards out just wide.

Either the lad coming off for Palace is tiny or the guy coming on is enormous. Possibly both.

Tourettes?

Proper shocker from Ward there.

Ward a real fuck up 0-1

Nicky Hammond style clearance from Ward to the striker just outside the box who finishes it really well in the top corner 2ns touch.

Oops, he's Kovarred it

Wasn't even under any real pressure. Tough one, but that's Exhibit A for why he isn't first choice unfortunately.

Other than our own fuck ups at the back Palace havent threatened us at all.

100%

and that's why he's not playing.

same as Walsall

great finish though.

Fucking hell I thought Dabre had gone off this half, he just touched the ball!

Any wonder why Sol Brynn is starting league games ahead of Ward. :doh:

Good free kick by Aguiar but the keeper tips it over the bar.

That's my fault, I posted something nice about him in the other thread and that's cursed it.


Surely the classic TEF welcome is appropriate for a lad on his debut?

Kicking has always been a problem for Ward.

Ah, i didn't realise that was the rule for the real world as well :D  Next time I see somebody for the first time I will try it out..

Sonny Hart on for Hutton.

Harvey Fox on for Brennan.

Yeah I find it works really well.

C'mon Town, I want someone young to get a last minute equaliser.

Some of the young players look pretty decent. Minturn will make it, I’m sure.

Same as last season, we ever seem to have enough bodies in the box.

Minturn has had a solid game, Fox has impressed me previously and Wynn-Davis has looked lively since he came on. Dworzak has been good at times too.

Harries sent off.

Should have been 2-0 but that was a woeful finish from 15 yards unmarked.

Oh fucking hell, down to 10 and 2-0 down.

That is 2-0

Oh dear

And to add insult to injury, young Wynn-Davis had to lie down and be the draft excluder.

God we are so crap. :suicide:

Without Darcy and Shade we were never going to win today after they went off.

The young lads havent let themselves down at all though.

Eh, we were the better team when we had some first team pros on the pitch. Now it's Baudry and the academy, not so much.

Indeed, the average age of our side on the pitch must be under 22 even with Ward and Baudry playing.

Tbf the ref has been giving everyone yellows consistently for the same offence all game so not a surprise.


Now he's a dirty cunt. :D

I think if we'd have had a bit more luck, and one of the post hits had gone in or the keeper hadn't quite got his fingers to Aguair's shot, we'd be in a better position.

It's a pisspot competition between reserves and youth (and Baudry and Ward). I shan't set too much stock by the result.

3 red cards plus an additional ban in 8 games is not a good look..

Wonder if Sandro will be poring pints soon after some of these players recruited?

Wonder if discipline is factored in the data soapy tit wank

The average age of the 11 that were on the pitch prior to the sending off was 20.

Well done boys you did well, some good performers today.

Shade and Darcy were easily the best players on the pitch until they went off after 60 mins, that double sub showed we didnt want to win the game today.

We may of been the better team yes, but even with first team pros we still cant score against an under 21 that offered little until we gift them a goal.  :badmood:

Harries had a poor discipline record for Rovers, so it's no surprise.

Pointless competition but none the less the cup competitions have proven the improved squad depth statement to be an outright lie. McKirdy apart this squad has next to no goals in it.

Not read back but assume Adeloye is finished already if not playing tonight?

or injured? waiting for post match with lindsey

he thought we looked good and dominated game start to finish

Tomi Adeloye has thigh issue and has had precautionary scan

Massey has family issue back soon

Missed out the inverted comma’s!

"yes".........and "no"?????

yeah, When asked if he (potential new striker) can make an immediate impact into first team he said

"Yes and no.. All will be revealed"

Phil S suggests it's someone who needs to gain fitness, which fits. I mean Smith doesn't know, that's his interpretation

Simpson?

Partially agree with that, clearly some are not up to it but Wakeling will get goals too and so should the midfield.   The fact that we don't have a focal point and, for the most part, not appeared to have a clear plan to score goals are the bigger issues.

Stockport was better but still didn't really make the goalie work.  

Hepburn-Murphy

He’s injured until december isnt he

Doesn’t mean he’s not signing especially after what was said after the game.

Its no good if he cant play now is it

Hopefully Adeloye genuinely has a knock and isn’t being cast aside a few weeks in, because we need him to be available, and to turn into useful backup for the striker that does come in if we are to learn from the lessons of last year when there was no back up to Simpson or Davison.

If PdC was here he would straight out the door and paid off already!

You’ve gotta admit though, signing a player that can’t play for 3 months would sum us up at the moment.

It’s all fine though as Lindsey says we “showed Palace how to play football” tonight. The stuff he comes out with at times is baffling at times.

A  good performance, I enjoyed it.

Wouldn’t be a first for us though would it.
Singing an injured player who can’t play!

Done deal!  :pint:

He’s been at the club working with the sports science chap

Not exactly a prolific scorer.

Though if he's out injured anyway....next

Decided to watch this last night. It was pretty much a hotch-potch game against a very young Palace side. I think had we played more of our fringe players rather than the majority of the youths that would have been a comfortable victory. It makes sense that Adeloye and Massey were unavailable as that was the perfect game to see what they could have done.

Obviously Shade and Darcy were the stand-out players, both unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. After they went off it was more or less our youth v Palace youth and whilst a lot of our youngsters showed a few decent bits, it was the premier league side that left with the victory. At times we were a mess at the back and I suppose it was only 'right' that their first goal came from a Ward mistake kicking out from the back. The second was a good finish I guess.

Of the youngsters I'd say Minturn looks like someone not afraid of a hard challenge, Wyn-Davis looked like a player and Sonny Hart has the build of a boxer. Dabre is an interesting character, I don't know if he is absolutely useless or has the potential to be a good player, I'm sensing the former sadly. Third red card of the season and whilst it was quite 'soft' our discipline is a little concerning.

Presuming Shade would take over the McGurty role - if he leaves. Although he looked very capable last night let’s not forget who he was up against. I don’t know how, but Darcy must be a starter in midfield - rotate Gladwin/Williams, I suppose.

Based on what I've seen I'd have Darcy over Williams at the moment - I didn't see the game on Saturday where Williams apparently played well but he has flattered to deceive in the past and I think Darcy looks like he has more about him personally. Can then bring on Willo later in the game to add fresh legs and impetus.

We seem to have 7-8 really good players in this squad. The issue (so far) is that they're all central midfielders. God knows how you fit them in a team!

I would take Williams over Gladwin 90% of the time, he offers far more and Gladwin goes missing, I would play Williams and Darcy in the middle.

(this doesn't happen a lot but) I'm in disagreement with you JJ. I think Gladwin personally in the final third offers more and I think Williams goes missing. As long as you keep Gladwin away from his own half where he has a tendency to give the ball away you have a real matchwinner there and he's started this season very well. I think it's fair to say both players on their days have it in them to be exceptional, or appalling and both also have been guilty of inconsistency.

To leave Williams out would be an error I think. For me,he's simply the best player we have

This is where fans and manager differ with their opinion. Listening to Lindsey on the radio pre-match Palace he said he was really happy with the squad assembled so have to assume he thinks we have 20+ really good players!

Absolutely I can see your point mate but for me Williams offers more, one we will have to disagree on :)

Gladwin in our half is a liability, going forwards he offers more but is still like watching a player running through a mudbath, Williams tracks back more, as he did on Saturday and won a fair few tackles in our half and also created far more.

Its good to have options but for whatever reason Williams and Gladwin just don't seem to work well int he same team, it could be that they are both "all or nothing" in style, when they go missing they may as well not be there but on their day both can be as good as any, so if they are both off form in the same game then we can be down to essentially 9 players, at least for me though Williams puts in more effort, or appears to.

yeah i've seen you mention that before Adje, I simply can't agree. Maybe i'm mesmerised by the way Gladders glides over the surface, or maybe my bias is clouded by the fact I think Williams plays for fouls too much. Either way I don't think he's the best player we have, useful squad player for sure, first name on the team sheet, sorry not for me.

Its really weird how 2 players in Gladwin and Williams can totally polarize opinions.

that's the beauty of a lower league footballer isn't it, as well as the musings of one football supporter to another. :) Opinions, as we know, just like erseholes.

Unless like some posters who appear to have colostomy bags :)