So we won't win eh !

Now if Burnley fan thinks like you,

It's a nailed on DRAW !!!

I'd probably settle for that after recent results.

I can't be happy with the prospect of a draw right now. A win on Saturday would be a big win, not just for the sake of going ahead of Burnley, but because they're not in great form either - They may have beaten Barnsley at home last weekend, but the BBC stats suggested that they had only 40% possession, and at home. Burnley also have a very good home record so we could do with taking our opportunity while we're at home.

Add to that the confidence that could be gained by knowing that you can defeat a team in Burnley's position while on a bad run and keeping our points tally ticking along while in a difficult run of games and I think it's a really big 3 points for us to fight for on Saturday. True, if we draw then Burnley won't get further ahead, but I'm still not convinced that they're the ones we're likely to be fighting for promotion anyway. I'm more concerned what Reading, Leeds and even Forest are doing in that regard.

So yes, to get Andy D'Urso for this match is pretty disastrous. It's almost a certainty that he'll brandish a red card at some point. Let's hope it gets pointed at a Burnley player.

DM- you missed Derby off your list of threats!!

No I didn't.

Good job we are not playing the Ref just Burnley.
So much is made of the Ref's and yes i think they could be better but come on.
First thing out of the managers mouth after the game its down to poor desisions. No its not its down to cheating players, poor desigon making by players and snd the standard mistakes everyone makes in life.
When you check the stats on Ref's they get 95%+ right do the players or the managers get the same number of desisions right rowlocks they do.

No ref no match

Well said Nev. Burnley are anyway as at much risk from D'Urso's folly as ourselves. I assume NP will remind the more...enthusiastic of our lot to keep their noses clean.

I too believe that a draw won't cut it on Saturday. After the last two misfires the team needs to show everyone, but more importantly needs to show itself, that it is really as good as the earlier run has suggested.

I have always worried that we aren't thumping anyone like a top team should (the Watford result was in all truth freakish), that the enterprise looks somehow fragile, and that a bit of bad luck and some poor results could knock us utterly off-stride again, as last year.

We need to beat Burnley, give Man City a game, and get (or at least have deserved) a point from QPR, to begin to stop me worrying.

We have i think never won a league match under Durso.
The main problem in the game today is not cheating players, but unaccountable and lets say questionable refereering decisions, which basically decide the game.
The best way to stop this , is to pass on to them the relevent ban which the player receives when he is suspended, if that card is rescinded,be it the ref or linesman who made the error.
So the ref who got the decision wrong last week with the Sunderland player , would have to serve the 3 match ban themselves.
This i am sure would make them more focussed and i have to say honest than they are present.
Anyone who witnessed the debacle at Charlton surely would find it hard to believe that some refs do not have their own agendas,

No ref, no match. That is very true. However, equally true is Bad ref, bad match.
A bad ref makes a match a lottery, and is particularly concerning given that the best (and necessary) approach to this match for us is to convince the players that it's like the Forest match from last season and to go out there and fight for their lives for 95 minutes. To have a referee who whistles more than he breathes in this scenario is bad news.

Dunge , at the Forest match last year we had Mike dean who is the best ref at the moment, in my opinion.
You only have to watch MOTD to see are.how quite appalling some prem refs are.
The most interesting thing was Peter Schmeichel lambasting the quality of the championship refs he has seen, and with his experience he must be right.

Thorney and theres the thing these refs are no worse or fitter and better than in the past but they are watched by six cameras and slow motion. Then you have the media and Alan Young is one of the worst as a player he would argue with everyone now he still going at the Ref's.

So who cares who the ref is we can be paranoid and then we are watching the ref for every decision just get on with the game.Yes the ref might make one desision that cost the game at worst well you had another 89 minutes when it wasn't his fault.

Suspending the ref is an intriguing idea, Thorney, well deserving of attention. I hope it is getting some, somewhere.

Building on it, probably into the realms of fantasy, one might even contemplate the fourth official substituting himself for the ref on the field, if he concludes that said ref is having an absolute shocker, has lost control etc. Or perhaps even a retrospective decision that a match should be replayed, if on reflection it were to be concluded that the result had been too greatly influenced by p-poor refereeing.

Bonkers I guess, but I hope that somewhere someone is ensuring that some brainstorming is being done, with nothing ruled out, about the future of refereeing. I don't believe it has got/is getting worse - I believe it has always been awful, and that a faster game and TV slo-mos etc have revealed just how fallible it is.

In some games you just know the ref is not going to allow one team to win.Can think of several over the years involving City ,England and Chelsea.
Reme Harrell ring any bells,??

Thorney...I am sure you made similar comments pre Charlton away and I witnessed that absolute debacle.

He just gave you a penalty - lol