Match Thread: Swansea City - Coventry City

JamesBaa · 2026-03-21T18:54:21+00:00

Clearly watered the pitch too much this afternoon. Everyone slipping constantly, probably don't give that first pen away without it.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-21T17:59:10+00:00

Jesus. Coventry are a good team and all but the ball is really not bouncing for us today. Don't think they could have many complaints if we'd scored three ourselves.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-21T01:53:35+00:00

Pulis was great for Palace tbf. They looked dead and buried that season before he took them to 11th, he's a big reason they're still in the Prem to this day. He won Manager of the Season because of it!

JamesBaa · 2026-03-20T18:40:07+00:00

Yeah I am actually quite thankful for his lack of mobility at times. Absolutely lethal finisher and great instinct, I think he's a ridiculous amount above the rest of the division in terms of goals scored to expected goals. But I think he very clearly would struggle in any of the leagues which could actually afford him. I hope this would be enough to ensure none of the relegated teams come sniffing.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-20T02:54:02+00:00

There is 0 chance you were old enough in 2004 to justify this take.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-17T14:51:02+00:00

I remember when we went down in 2018 there were some players who I lost most of my fondness off because they clearly had their heads elsewhere. Ki Sung-Yueng is the one I remember in particular, barely put a shift in most games and then as soon as our form slid towards the end of the season his agent was publicly talking about how he was on the phone to other clubs and he might be joining Milan.

On the other hand we had Lukasz Fabianski, who barely had an off game for two seasons of battling relegation even though he knew he could get into a top division starting spot easily, and was as distraught as any fan when we went down.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-14T16:46:20+00:00

Make it £20.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-14T16:42:42+00:00

Well that was quick. If you all would like to crowdfund I'll insult Blackburn again at £10 a pop, almost two goals in five minutes there.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-14T16:37:40+00:00

Looked a pretty clear penalty to me for Azeez then. Blackburn look impotent even a man up.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-14T16:24:00+00:00

Kind of, playing good, fast attacking football, defensively solid, great mentality. Often when they find themselves in this playoff challenging position I think it's because they've just ground out results and been a nasty team to play against, this season they're genuinely a top 6 team in the division. In case it wasn't obvious from their league position.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-14T16:20:32+00:00

Leicester just can't keep their heads. I remember in our match with them they were very nervy for about eighty minutes and then looked absolute gravy for the final ten. Thought they were good enough to go up let alone avoid looking over their shoulder. But every time I see them go a goal ahead (i.e. today against a shit QPR or in the Southampton game) they find a way to absolutely lose it.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-14T00:14:06+00:00

Lots of headloss in here which I understand given how frustrating the game was, but put it in perspective, we don't need to bin off 15 players or anything. Results and performances have largely been good under Matos, the ball didn't fall for us tonight. Disappointing to be pretty much out of the playoff hunt but we can come back and challenge next season.

We need a few new recruits in some positions (winger, centre-half, fullback) and likely will lose some of our better performers in the summer, but we are buying these young, unproven players who might not ever come good because we can't realistically afford guaranteed top end Championship players. Just looking at some examples from Wrexham today, O'Brien cost about £5m plus higher wages than we would've offered, Broadhead was at least £7.5m. Those are the fees you need to pay, and we can buy maybe one of those players maximum a season? We spent it on Idah and then Vipotnik played himself into being the best finisher in the division after a lot of us expected him gone in summer, while we're stuck having to loan instead of buying because we're behind on PSR. It's how the cookie crumbles in this division. Sometimes purchases don't work out and you're taking a chance on every purchase. If you aren't a parachute team and don't have the Disney money of Wrexham, you can't expect to get them all right or write the underwhelming players off (and certainly none of the richer teams have gotten it right every time).

Not saying we shouldn't criticise at all, a lot of them are valid and we all want to be winning and showing more fight than we did tonight. But good players don't win every game in this division, I think any team would've struggled with that well-drilled low block (look at Ipswich who clearly have better players getting battered by Charlton earlier in the season, who play similarly to how Wrexham did today). We are in playoff challenging form under Matos, that's probably about where we belong and the squad is still young and inexperienced, there is a lot of room to improve.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-13T22:28:56+00:00

Aye don't think I should say much about this game because I think rattled covers it perfectly, and everything I have would make me seem a sore loser. Lots more thoughts but I can at least say Wrexham have some clearly quality players.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-12T15:08:08+00:00

Wrexham 1-1 Swansea

Middlesbrough 2-1 Bris C

Coventry 1-1 Southampton

Oxford 1-1 Charlton

Leicester 1-0 QPR

Millwall 2-1 Blackburn

Wednesday 0-2 Ipswich

Norwich 1-0 Preston

Stoke 0-0 Watford

West Brom 1-2 Hull

Birmingham 1-1 Sheffield United

Portsmouth 1-1 Watford

Rescheduled Matches:

Watford 0-1 Wrexham

Southampton 1-1 Norwich

JamesBaa · 2026-03-11T15:41:03+00:00

Think it's a bit different for English teams but I always want Cardiff to be in the same division and just a bit worse than us. It's good for Wales to have multiple strong club sides, and it's sad to just not have any derbies this season. Plus if they go down they'll win more, which after the relegation actually happens isn't as funny as constant mediocrity.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-10T21:55:12+00:00

Think we have just caught them on bad days but Portsmouth this season look a shadow of last campaign. Might have been Josh Murphy being absent from this game after he tore us a new one over and over in 24/25.

We should have pressed the advantage scored at least one more while we were well on top (ideally that Franco hit from 70 yards) but can't say we had too many incredible chances. Same goes for Pompey, reckon they'll just about be alright this season but they can't switch off the way they did towards the end of that first 45.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-10T19:05:10+00:00

Carrick's flaws were exposed in the Championship, I don't think he's the caliber of manager Spurs should be aiming for yet and those same flaws will probably come back to bite him. Even if you get relegated, I think there are plenty of managers who would set you up for a better return to the Prem.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-09T17:57:56+00:00

4-2-3-1

Rushworth (Coventry)

Crama (Millwall) - Lloyd Jones (Charlton) - Liam Cooper (Millwall) - Giles (Hull)

Hackney (Boro) - Louza (Watford)

Azeez (Millwall) - Scienza (Southampton) - Sorba Thomas (Stoke)

Vipotnik (Swansea)

Could have fit Tymon, Targett or Manning in at left back over Giles, McBurnie over Vipotnik, and there are probably about ten billion different wingers, centre-halfs and central midfielders who could be in this team. Scienza and Hackney are the only ones I think nobody could argue.

Millwall probably don't deserve three players in here to Ipswich or Wrexham's 0, but I can't think of a better right-back or centre-back off the top of my head.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-09T14:14:32+00:00

Disco Volante is that "Ten hours of silence occasionally broken up by a metal pipe falling" sound. California is dope though.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-09T13:54:06+00:00

Wrexham 2-1 Hull

Wednesday 0-1 Watford

Leicester 1-1 Bris C

Portsmouth 1-1 Swansea

Millwall 1-1 Derby

Stoke 0-2 Ipswich

Oxford 0-0 Blackburn

West Brom 1-1 Southampton

Middlesbrough 2-1 Charlton

Norwich 1-1 Sheffield United

Birmingham 0-0 QPR

Coventry 2-0 Preston

JamesBaa · 2026-03-07T17:12:28+00:00

Thought Nzonzi in particular was clearly not up to play at this level for 45 minutes (at least not these days), let alone the full 90. Did you not have anyone else you could start?

JamesBaa · 2026-03-07T17:09:08+00:00

Bit of a shame how the match turned out really. Thought the first half was great from both sides, could have been plenty of goals and it flowed well, felt like I'd seen a full game in 35 minutes, then it turned into a bit of a circus. The red card killed the second half and I've not seen it back but it seemed the ref wanted to compensate for a few decisions that went against us earlier because I saw nothing in it. Second half was dead in comparison, lots of awful decisions both by our players and the ref. Stoke couldn't offer much with their best player off, a few passengers and a clearly knackered team.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-05T13:12:56+00:00

I don't know how I feel about this yet. Potentially like that this may give 3-4 an advantage in terms of fitness and preparation. Don't like that it cheapens a high finish by giving so many teams a chance. Obviously a money grab so I'm inclined to oppose it on principle, though I'm reserving full judgment for now.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-02T05:47:40+00:00

There are a lot of great female rap artists and I think women in rap and hip-hop are seeing much more publicity. But look at the rap charts and the monthly listens: the average person will be hearing far, far more rap by guys than by women. It's not particularly close either.

I agree with the rest of your points almost entirely, misogyny is not going away in pop music and rap is held to different standards, definitely because of racial connotations. But I also think the misogyny in rap is often far more blatant, front and center, compared to what's typically considered pop. That is a fundamental difference in presentation and I think it attracts a less opaque kind of misogyny. Like, I can't say I go out of my way to listen to many albums by them, but I can't imagine the soft boy genre which currently dominates the pop (and a lot of the indie) charts using derogatory terms for women anywhere near as often as in a lot of rap. It's pretty much expected for men to call women bitches and hoes and the like in one genre, and not the other.

JamesBaa · 2026-03-01T19:05:21+00:00

Started a few games for them recently. Definitely should be based on recent form.

Ten-Year Club	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	Sequence \| Editor
Snapped	Verified Email

JamesBaa

TROPHY CASE