Gillingham tickets

Yep, and something along the lines of “they’ll all be needed” was said and this could be the week.

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Hornby
Asimwe McEntee Williams Allen Weir
Jellis Stirk Lakin
Matt Amantchi

Barrett - Browne - Comley - Chang - Adomah - Johnson - Academy player/Injured player

Either play next Saturday or have 4 games in just over a week during Easter as there are no other Tuesday slots available for the rest of the season.

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Irrespective of when it’s played :wink:

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I think that is the deciding factor. Any other time in the season the game would have been off.
16 day break was good in one way but would rather play the week before a big game v Wimbledon to keep the players in a rythm.
However we are an injury in training or an illness away from picking a very poor team for next week.

It’s away though so why would the finances matter much with the directors if hospitality has sold out

It will be a competitive 11.

Bench going to be paper thin in terms of experience as it will include all the loanees who simply haven’t been trusted much for various reasons. If Sadler still dosen’t want to include some it will be a struggle to even name seven subs. At least Hornby has got some minutes which was important.

I think if Harrison dosen’t make it then Amantchi will start. Was DJ injured or just left out the other night. Adomah will be at RWB for this.

This is a gamble as really this is a fixture that needs to be won not just another scraped draw as then the gap to 4th might be down to 4 points going into the next big week.

I’d have left it to the end of the season personally but think Sadler is gambling it can be a sort of 2-0 up by the hour and so he can get through this with minimal subs, maybe give the loanees ten minutes at the end to see it through.

Adomah will play RWB imo given Asimwe hasn’t made the bench for weeks now. Would be strange to just put him in for a start without any minutes.

The rest looks fairly accurate providing they don’t pick up any niggles in training and it’s still a solid enough 11 for away trip to Gillingham who’ve been awful for months.

Wheatley away aswell?

If this game was against any of Wimbledon, Donny or Vale no chance it would be going ahead, indeed Doncaster already cancelled as said above.

There are no games in this division scheduled in the last week of the season between when we play Accrington at home on 26th April and Crewe away on 3rd May.

It would have been possible to schedule the Gillingham game for Tuesday 30th April.

I think that would have been the wisest decision. In fact, I would have given Mat Sadler and the first team regulars a full week’s break to recharge the batteries. They would have returned to the training ground in eight days time, refreshed and raring to go for the last five weeks of the season.

Ben Sadler said on X last night that we’re not allowed to reschedule for the final week of the season.

Don’t look like we had a choice

Im not worried about the bench he never uses it anyway

Take a draw now

Really?

Blackpool FC: 'Blackpool will now welcome league leaders Birmingham City to Bloomfield Road on Wednesday 30 April, kick-off 7:45pm, in a rescheduled game.

It might not affect the Greedy League that much, but to have an international break at the crucial back-end of the season for the rest of us is madness.

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Is that true? That rule has not been applied in previous seasons.

You would have thought that the authorities would prefer using a blank week to forcing clubs to choose between four games in a week, or playing without three key members of the team.

I think that is a useful looking team and I think it is about right. I would swop Allen and Weir and might start with Adomah either up front or better at RWB.

You can bet on the minimal subs, but not seeing out a 2 goal lead for half an hour, we couldn’t even see out injury time at Cheltenham :see_no_evil:

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Aye, form and mentality now is a long way from what it was between late August-January.

Much more likely is Sadler will have to use 3-4 subs in this and actually trust players to potentially see out a game that he hasn’t seen fit to use at all in last three months.

We don’t need 18 players …ok we will be short of options but , on balance, I think it is the right decision. Anyway lots of folk were demanding changes and now we have them and who knows the team selected might just surprise us.

The reasoning for lack of subs at Bromley (that the game was too tight), was odd. It was there to be won and doesn’t say much for Lakin or Stirk…especially as Comley was having such a poor game.

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We are effectively losing Simkin, Liam and Dave from the regular line up.

So,

Hornby in for Simkin - already happened so a known entity.

Centre of defence should not be a massive problem with McEntee, Weir, Allen, Comley and Williams to choose from

Midfield / wingbacks, we have Lakin, Jellis, McEntee, Albert, Stirk, Asiimwe, Weir, Allen Chang and Comley as options

Up front we have Jamma, Levi, Albert, and hopefully DJ and Harrison

Plenty of options / permutations going on there.

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Big ask that from a Walsall team 1 away win (Morecambe) in the last 16games .Against a Gillingham team point away Saturday and a home win against Bradford the week before .things are definitely going to have to look up.