OK, so what the hell is going on?

[AustrianAndyGull]

Our only fit recognised centre back O'Connor has been called up to the ROI U21 squad as has Bodin to the Wales U21 squad and also we lose Connor Thompson.

Therefore we go into the Wycombe game as it stands with Cruise and who else? The tooth fairy? Fresh air?

Also I presume we would have no sub goalie either?

What I want to know is what the frig is going on?!! The York / Scunny game next week has already been postponed due to call ups for their respective sides so why hasn't our game?

I am expecting that the request has been made already and Knill and the boys are just awaiting the go ahead to get out on the golf course on Saturday instead. Please somebody tell me I am right for Christ's sakes!

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If the game goes ahead then first of all i want to know why. Would it be the decision of the football league solely and therefore we are in the lap of the Gods or would representatives of TUFC have a say and they would liase and reach an agreement?

Secondly regardless, i want to know why Knill has brought in O'Connor when presuming he knew the lads background a little it may have been apparent that he could get called up for international duty leaving us back to square one again (without Pearce / Downes / McKenzie AND O'Connor) and us needing to bring in another centre half this week to replace O'Connor. So instead of having O'Connor and a back up centre half on loan perhaps we have neither at the minute.

To be honest I'm confused but are there methods behind Knill's madness with this or did he just simply not know that O'Connor's call up was impending? Either way i'm staggered.

Can anyone make any sense of what is happening at the moment? Surely this game HAS to be postponed?

[Scott Brehaut]

Andy Candy has already explained that you can only ask for a postponement if you lose three to international call ups, and that doesn't include loans - so O'Connor doesn't count.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Why sign the lad then?!!

[AustrianAndyGull]

Knill was desperate for a centre back so doesn't even find out if this might happen the week after? Crazy.

[TeenageGull]

They also explained this on the main website

[AustrianAndyGull]

To be honest i'm going to reply in the 'groups' thread in a minute but I find no excuse for this. It is truly unbelievable!

[AustrianAndyGull]

I'd stick Hutchings at the back and i'd have done that last weekend too. What's the point in having a youth set up when none of them get a gig? Stick Hutchings in, have some faith and accept that we have to use ALL our squad when the sh*t hits and not scramble around for loanees last minute.

[hector]

By some accounts, one of York's call ups is a loanee. So if that is the case, what is different?

[AlexGulls]

I can only assume the difference is he's a season long loan rather than a month one which would make it slightly different? Other than that I cant see how its right.

[exiledgull]

If you do a little research Andy, o'Connors call up has come as a suprise as usually he is not in the frame!

When we have all our centre halves Injured, it's hardly anyone's fault. I won't be blaming Knill or the board as it's a circumstances that we play within.

[AustrianAndyGull]

He was called up for the first time whilst playing for Burton on loan in January of this year apparently and prior to that had been called up more than 10 times at other youth levels. I accept it is 8 months since he was last called up but for such a vital short term acquisition I would have expected Alan to have anticipated this. It is not as if he has never had any international links whatsoever is it?

I am not ashamed for knocking Knill here because I just think this whole disastrous situation (O'Connor) was avoidable by a manager who should have done some background checks. The info is out there for you and I to look up so why not Knill? I would have approached the U21 ROI manager directly and asked him if there was any likelihood O'Connor was in his immediate future plans and if he couldn't answer the question then i'd have looked elsewhere for an emergency centre half. Who signs someone in an emergency only for him to miss games the week after due to something that could have been foreseen with a bit of common sense.

I'm sorry but I can't budge on this one, I find it truly embarrassing.

He is just making each situation 10 times worse than it need be and given the margins for error at the bottom are likely to be very small indeed come the end, this disturbing trend may come back to bite all of us on the rosies.

[PhilGull]

Was anyone else available though? Perhaps AK took the decision that O'Connor is of such good quality he would rather have him miss this games but play last weekend for the rest of the month rather than have a lesser player or no player at all.

[Richinns]

Was anyone else available though? Perhaps AK took the decision that O'Connor is of such good quality he would rather have him miss this games but play last weekend for the rest of the month rather than have a lesser player or no player at all.

This (Facebook thumb up)

[AustrianAndyGull]

Was anyone else available though? Perhaps AK took the decision that O'Connor is of such good quality he would rather have him miss this games but play last weekend for the rest of the month rather than have a lesser player or no player at all.

I can't buy this either. So out of the hundreds and hundreds of youth / reserve team players across 3 divisions only O'Connor was available and agreed to come down?

Of course you could say he identified loads but they refused to come which is fair enough but he is paid to get them here when needed and get them playing. Simply having a list of players doesn't get the job done. He could ask Wayne Rooney if he wants but there isn't any possibility he would come down so it's just semantics.

I accept the more forgiving liberal views on this scenario and they do make sense but my realistic side just tells me that this should not be happening, it is too hilarious for words and is another calamity from our manager that didn't need to be. I'm sure if he had stuck Hutchings at the back and we got beat by York then nobody would have blamed Knill in the slightest. Likewise at Wycombe. He got O'Connor in and we still got hammered so why all the hassle of getting a loanee in asap? Give Hutchings a go, it can't get any worse and he may just surprise. Ling gave McKenzie the gig at Vale on his debut when we were desperate and it paid off. Never in my life would I be saying that Ling has taken more of gamble than Knill!

[AustrianAndyGull]

I think as a general point about Knill which I would like to put out there as my opinion is that I am fully behind him and share his frustrations about the injuries and how things haven't worked out as planned but I strongly feel that he is making consistently odd decisions and making his job a million times harder than it needs be. That worries me. I'm not on a Knill witch hunt here.