Hair today hair tomorrow.

 

Harry Anderson has not had a haircut all season. I did hear him mention it in an interview but can’t remember the reason. Superstition presumably, all players seem to be susceptible to that. Anyway he’ll soon be displaying the sort of embarrassing, at least I’d be embarrassed if I had enough hair, barnet increasingly seen in the prem.

Harry wasn’t named in the starting eleven last night although his performances seem, to the untutored eye, to merit it. That’s one thing I’ve noticed about Michael Appleton. There are no favourites who continue to play however badly their previous outing went. There are some players who have made themselves indispensable, Alex Palmer, Lewis Montsma, Jorge Grant spring to mind, you’d expect that and you have to have some consistency. Most successful teams don’t chop and change all that much but Appleton has shown players have to perform or they’re out. Similarly if a player has performed well but the manager having studied the opposition believes a change is advantageous he’ll make that change. It keeps the players on their toes if nothing else. Grant of course had the hairdryer treatment sometime last season but I think that has saved him from the sort of downward drift we've seen from some talented players in our team in the past and surely placed him on a course that will see him play in the championship if not above?

Last night we saw another masterclass. Plymouth are one of those sides we haven’t seen much of lately but always strike me as one we’d have to be at our very best to beat. Well we were and we did. I was amused, it doesn’t take much, that one of their fans was putting it about that Argyle were the better side, the referee wore red blah blah and they deserved to win. It’s generally fans of bigger clubs or rather fans that see their club as bigger than us, the MK Dons episode made me laugh too and of course Forest Green Rovers who have some fans, not to mention the manager who see themselves as the guardians of footballs soul. Wonder what happened to them?

Blackpool, Charlton, Oxford, Plymouth, it’s certainly been a baptism of fire for our young team and they have sailed serenely through it all with the air of those without a care in the world which is a precious gift bestowed on the young. Ipswich Town are next.

Let’s hope it’s some time before those earthly cares start to weigh more heavily on  youthful minds. I seem to be drifting into a state of footballing bliss. You can’t blame me though.