Zoo

Really tired but in a nutshell it's job done. Rozemberok parked the bus for 170 minutes (which they are well within their rights to do) and it obviously made it hard for us to break them down. As it happened we limited them to very little chances over the two legs and got the two goals to see us through, the second coming as soon as they came out of their shells and attacked us. Had they done that from the off then we may well have had the four and five-nil's that everyone was predicting.

We're into the hat for the next round now which takes place tomorrow, hopefully we get an easy tie again so that we can get into the group stage. Things are coming together nicely when you consider that this is still pre-season.

DCL on ahead of Lookman and Mirallas? Hmm....

Proper shite that, we look so lost going forward. To be fair Sandro, Rooney and Klaassen are playing well but there's been no key chances to write home about just yet, the best chances (yet again) have fallen for Rozemberok.

Is it just me or has there been about twelve slips in that first half? Seems like this lot have had the sprinkles on since the first leg began.

Pickford

Williams..Keane..Jagielka

Holgate.................................................Baines

Gueye..Schneiderlin

Lennon.........................Klaasen.........................Mirallas

Sandro

Vital that we bring on Lookman around the hour mark if need be to get us the speed we were crying out for on Thursday. Despite Calvert-Lewin doing his best too I wouldn't be against sticking him back on the bench to accommodate Aaron Lennon. Fingers crossed Sandro's fully fit to attack from the off, he looked our best player when he came on and with 90 minutes ahead of him could be the difference between our away goal going in and not arriving.

Thought he broke the track record in qualifying. ?

In Q2 I think it was, he couldn't replicate that time in the next session.

Will it not be hidden behind a red button?

The fact he's still left out of the Swansea side speaks volumes, hopefully he's on the move. I'm staying at the Titanic soon actually so will turn the room upside down to see if it's had an Icelandic resident!

Hamilton will struggle starting from the dirty side of the track at a circuit that's usually a procession. Hopefully there's more type explosions down in the Ferrari garage to give the two Mercs a leg up.

*Written just after the game*

Sitting in the car now so I might aswell throw my two cents into the ring. I'm pleased with tonight's result in the sense that we won but would have liked to kill the tie here and now, going to Slovakia only 1-0 up is dangerous, especially considering this lot turned around a 1-0 defeat to win 2-1 against SK Brann in the previous round.

I thought our defence was pretty solid, even though that was to be expected against a side like this, Williams looked the weak link in the centre but thankfully had Michael Keane alongside him to mop anything up, Cuco Martina to his right however looked total gash. A hindrance throughout the game and someone who has now had two bad games in two, Mason Holgate needs to be thrown back into the side pronto.

Whilst we're talking about the defence Maarten Stekelenburg deserves credit for that world-class stop deep in the second half, an away goal would have killed us so fair play to him for that.

In the midfield Gana Gueye had his usual 10/10 game with Morgan Schneiderlin alongside who looked a little rusty to me, there wasn't much creative juice in the middle of the park but hopefully that will come the nearer we get to the season, Kevin Mirallas on the wing had a decent game but seemed to float in and out of the match whilst Domenic Calvert-Lewin struggled, I'd have preferred to see Sandro up there from the start but can accept that he didn't due to a lack of fitness.

Rooney was solid if uninspirational, he made the odd good ball out around the field but didn't do anything too magic to get bums off seats, I was hoping for a goal or two from the big man but it wasn't to be.

Overall, a solid performance and a job half done but I was secretly hoping for a bit more, hopefully we get the job done in Slovakia and progress to the next round.

The Main Stand is the best in the ground.

side note: what the hell place is stoke? seems like every match is some severe weather event there. wind, rain, sleet, snow. does God hate that place or something?

It's a by-product of the amount of inbreeding that goes on there.

Davies for me.

Stood up to an ugly Stoke side and took control of the midfield throughout the whole game. Had it not been for a fantastic stop from Grant he would have scored our winner too with about five minutes to spare. The lad's going from strength to strength with us and he's someone who you can really see taking games by the scruff of the neck in a few years time.

Joel as others have said put in a decent shift, a few of Stoke's attacks had my arse twitching. Funes Mori deserves a mention too, purely for getting that ball off the line to deny the insufferable twat Berahino a debut goal.

I said before the game that I wouldn't be happy with a point considering it's Stoke but to the home sides credit they gave us a battle tonight. I think that we had the lion's share of the chances (especially in the second half) but every now and then Stoke would wriggle through our defence and lash a shot at goal, it was one of those games that could quite easily have been lost had a few things swung in their favour.

Credit to Koeman for changing shape in the second half as it just wasn't working in the first 45. Holgate was being mugged left, right and centre by Arnautovic and even though Schneiderlin had a few wobbly moments in the second half did well in his new role allowing McCarthy & Davies to get further forward - the latter really unlucky not to get on the score-sheet with that fine header from close range.

Lukaku was anonymous but I think a lot of that was due to Stoke putting pressure on our play-makers and marking him out of the game than him being lazy. Had we more space and time to pick him out I think he could have gave a better representation of himself.

A bore result on paper but this means we're still undefeated with a nice home tie against Bournemouth at the weekend. It won't be easy for sure but it's a lot easier knowing our run is still intact than going against them on the back of a wet, Wednesday Stoke drubbing.

Gana's on his way back after Senegal crash out on penalties against Cameroon. I assume that he should be fit and ready for the Stoke game this week?

Indeed

 

Good to see you back, mate

Good to be back buddy

Heard we're in advanced talks to re-sign Alex Nyarko too.

Joel deserves credit for popping up with that save and then commanding his box when the pressure was on. It's one of the hardest things as a goalie to stand around for 75 minutes or so without a shot on target and then suddenly be called upon in a 10 minutes flurry. I have so much more faith in him when a looping ball gets lobbed into the box than I do with Stekelenburg, hopefully his consistent performances keep him in the team for the foreseeable future.

That said, it's hard to look past Barkley when discussing yesterday's match. He basically ran the show and put in the kind of performance that you'd want from such a player. It's a touch disappointing that he didn't find the back of the net as he really deserved to be on the score-sheet but I'm sure this good game will drive him on to put in more like-minded performances going forward.

Giant slice of luck for the goal but there was only one team ever going to win that one. Thoughts with the fan in the Park End who needed medical assistance but otherwise a very positive day.

Would say Kone but he only played 15 minutes. Gana Gueye was everywhere again - he really is Kante 2.0

Just leaving the ground. Comfortable in the end and we are looking better with every game. Kone's brace was brilliant and Barkley's free kick was top drawer. No fears about Stoke on Saturday.

You learn lessons from losing not winning or so they say.

Hopefully Koeman takes lessons from this dissapointing cup and gets us up to speed before the season starts.

How long will it take us to get ''up to pace''? We've not looked like a Premier League team in any of our games so far.

Joel was wank against Barnsley and he's putting in a similar shift here.

I'm worried about our keeper situation to be honest, neither Joel nor Steklenburg should be first choice.

It's a young defence but that's sloppy. Free header and then nobody tracking the lad who stuck it in.