Season opener at Cardiff

For lineups, my guess is:
Smith
Pringle Ross LVC Cairney
O'Hara
Kavanaugh Burn Bodurov Richards
Betts

Back four is a crap shoot except for rb & I won't be surprised if it's Cauley instead of Smith.

Think I'll pass on Jim at 6am. May change my mind though.

 

So much for setting the dvr, Leeds v Burnley is on instead. Usually have to take the mutt out pretty early so might be able catch the final 15-20 minutes. Would gladly take a point and press on, but not going to overreact to a road loss if it happens.

 

I'll be in SW Indiana in the Central Time Zone at the digital island known as my wife's mother's house. BarryWhite, HELP! Will try to follow as best I can and if I get some connectivity, I'll try to join you in the chat, Sir Hatter. I think Matt's lineup forecast is spot on. I think Grimmer is an outside shot to start in the back, but other than that, yeah, Smith or Woodrow is a toss up, probably based on what Kit saw at Motspur this week. I'd lean toward Cauley, given that he sent Smith to the Colchester warmup instead of keeping him at home for Palace, but that's just a hunch. Cardiff have owned us recently, to the tune of three victories and a draw. They appear to have the nucleus of their midfield and defense returning, losing Kevin McNaughton and Adam LeFondre. Kenwyne Jones is supposedly out with a muscle problem of some sort, but Sean Robinson, whose loan goal beat us in January, is fit. I think we'll start faster this season (how could we not?), so I'm predicting a 2-1 victory for the good guys.
COYW!

 

Disappointing to concede late from a winning position, especially since that's been a problem for us in recent years. However, I'd have been happy with a point on the road v Cardiff before kickoff, so onwards & upwards. Conceding only 1 goal would seem a positive as well.

Looking forward to see if there will be full replays on the Offal later or condensed versions to see how we looked.

 

HD, what did GJ think of our performance? From the brief match report it sounds like it was a very solid performance and it took a 25 yard cracker for Cardiff to share the spoils.

 

Only 1 point? Against Cardiff? We're relegated for sure.

 

I just got back from cruising the Mediterranean for the past week and I was really hoping that the ship would have a sports bar that might have the match. So such luck. They only carried the Premier League matches. I met a bunch of folks from England, but no Fulham fans - and only a handful that cheered on Championship clubs. One family from Huddersfield was split between them and Burnley. I said "That must be fun for you all when they face off" to which they responded "Mmrrrr". Maybe not.

I'm pleased with getting a point on the road, although I'd have expected McCormack to do better with that late opportunity and I'd really like to see someone other than Voser on the left side. I missed seeing Bettinelli start, but Lonergan seemed solid from the bits that I saw. Cardiff had 7 corners and I feel like last year that would have been enough to give them at least 1 goal, so that's an improvement.

Let's get things going at home with a win against Brighton! If we can pull that off we'll have as many points in 2 matches as we did last year in 9.

Edit: While catching up on stuff I saw that Garbutt was out with an injury which explains the presence of Voser. So I guess I'll get my wish in about a month.

 

I've only seen the highlights so far, so I'll limit my observations to these: They were lucky to get a point on a pretty indefensible shot that may not have occurred at all if Pringle stays afoot. Yes, they had more possession, but possession doesn't win, more goals than the opponent does. And Ross buries that sitter 99 times out of 100, so we were just unlucky to get all three points. Will hopefully sit down tonight and watch the whole match, but I'll echo what others have already pointed out...we're way ahead of where we were this time last year. It's a long season, but we'll definitely be more competitive than last season. I can only surmise that Kit saw something in practice that explains Lonergan over Marcus, and Dembele over Woodrow. But why only one substitute? If Kit has a glaring fault, it's the unwillingness to effectively use subs to tip the match one way or another, hopefully in our favor. Why not use all three if you don't have an injury?