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Being honest, I'm yet to be fully convinced by him as a right back in a flat back four - he looked a bit awkward at Hyde, but I suppose they all looked off it.

That's not to say I can't be convinced, I just haven't seen enough of him there yet. He looked brilliant against Stockport in pre season, but I'm pretty sure he was a wing back.

I think he played at full back for Chorley the other night though.

Couldn't make the game last night as working until 6pm, streamed it, commentary from BBC on the stream was overall good and they were bemused as ourselves to the 5 changes. First half looked like a master stroke as we dominated but didn't get that all important second goal we deserved. I thought they would come at us, they changed shape and then errors from outfield players and keeper cost us. bemused why we changed shape and didn't freshen up keeping the shape that was creating opportunities. In the end lost by 1 goal in a game we had by the scruff of  the neck. Looking  to see a positive reaction on Saturday and get our play off push back on the rails. For me the keeper is the big dilemma, if Ross not fit then do we bring in Byrne. I now believe he deserves a chance.

Ollie Byrne is absolutely NOT the answer at this stage.

Matty has enough credit in the bank to go again on Saturday, Ollie (sadly) was consistently costing us results for a prolonged period of time.

How we ended up coming away from that with nothing after that first half is anybody's guess - it looked as if the team selection would pay off, but we did miss some golden chances to go further ahead.

Matty Gould had a horror few minutes, with the decision not to come for the first one undoubtedly affecting his decision to come for the second one which he shouldn't have done.

One potential positive is that we'd probably get away woth more rotation than we think - as long as we have our first choice goalkeeper and back four in place.

In terms of the tactical changes, I think Parky needs to get a glass of wine with Kevin Phillips and understand how to make simple but profound system tweaks that gain maximum results.

They would have been delighted with us taking off our wingers, something the commentary team alluded to. I was pleased to see Matty Kosylo looking sharper than he has done for ages.

Hopefully this will be similar to our Eastleigh/Rochdale blip, ultimately two challenging away ties on paper so we'll need to dust ourselves off and put another run together.

As an aside, after reading today's JL page, is Joey Jones staying on the books/payroll until the end of the season whilst recovering and then goodbye? Or is he in our plans longer term?

Tough one this - a lot depends on the length of contract he'd be on, but I certainly wouldn't be retaining him if it expires this summer.

I have this horrible premonition that we'll achieve our initial objective of finishing 2nd or 3rd, get a really tough home semi final (I'm thinking Oldham), we'll give them half the popular side and let them tug at the goal nets all afternoon, and then we'll get to wave them off to Wembley instead.

Maybe Halifax isn't out of my system yet!

The pitch might look bad but it seems to play OK and as long as it doesn't damage our brand of football, that's good enough for me. Hopefully things will only get better from here.

As for the performance, well it certainly didn't look like it would play out that way after the first ten minutes when they were first to every ball and absolutely dominating - but after that it was completely one way traffic and we were just brutually clinical compared to them.

Big game next week, a point will keep us on track.

Yep, depends on how heavy the showers end up being this afternoon, although predicted to be sunny and warmer from Saturday late morning so hopefully that'll see us through.

EDIT: forecast seems to be shifting all the time... heavier stuff now predicted for this afternoon, but sunnier for longer tomorrow morning - so hopefully balances things out.

Ironically, the weather conditions look really pleasant for the game itself - temperatures creeping up towards double figures and only a gentle breeze.