Much changed Blues scrape through on Gray's goal

Hopefully we'll see Warrington, Mills & Price at some point this evening.

Interesting line-up with plenty of strength on the bench.

Hope we don't flounder in this one.

What's happening with Nkounkou? Injured or being sent back out on loan?

I'm surprised at Allan's omission too. It seemed an ideal game for him to get more minutes.

That apart, I'm glad Iwobi is still there as our sole creative force. Chance for McNeil to play himself into form. But yeah says a lot about those not even on the bench.

I also thought Frank said, Allan needs game time?

Iwobi seems to be running the show, which is good to see, and Gray is very lively, I quite like Vinagre, but he got done a couple of times near the end of the half.

Was it Fleetwood we played last year who had the big American right back? Can't remember his name but he might have been the best player on the park that day.

On the positive side, Iwobi making that linking defence and offence role his own. Undroppable and with this daft 5-man system no real room for any other players we decide to buy.

No room for a Number 10 if we play with a Number 9. I really don't understand it. Daft.

Staying in the Premier League has to be our priority and risking our best player tonight against yard dogs such as Rooney is stupid, we need Iwobi going forward to have any chance of staying up!

Next round thanks.

People often ask.. why change managers? Because we've yet to find a single manager who learns from their mistakes... its a simple and straightforward process, yet football managers appear to be incapable of it.

Iwobi man of the match.

Good to see some youngsters get a run out and overall a decent result against a spirited Fleetwood who were not afraid to put the boot in (so to speak ) and Onana got a lot of stick.

Obviously a tough one coming up on Saturday followed by the ''new'' Leeds. Still a big problem without that ''go to'' forward and getting 3 points in any game will be tough for quite a while.

We need to play 2 up top. An isolated forward with wide men distant on either side doesn't work.

If you told me a year or 2 ago that Iwobi would be our best outfield player I'd have been calling for a white padded van, but here we are. Here's hoping for some serious incoming this week

I am assuming McNeill was a Kenwright/Mosh deal. "Oh you're going to sue us because we broke FFP? Ok how about we just give you 20 million for a useless player?" It worked with Watford where Brands publicly said we paid a premium for Richarlison to settle the Silva tapping up case.

Had this move been too big for him? He looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights. His performances appear paralysed by shock or something similar.

Is he carrying a knock or a hernia or something?

I've never seen him really have a bad game for Burnley. Albeit I never watched all of their games. But when I did watch them, he always seemed to play ok. Always involved in anything pod they did.

In his younger days Robson played for Newcastle , he rarely scored there either. London's role is to hold the line maintaining the teams shape creating space for midfield and wingers.

McNeill is really unaccustomed to playing in Frank's system. Maybe when he is accustomed to it and new players settle in he might also settle in. himself.

"So McNeil is the new whipping boy after 5 minutes at the club.
Iwobi is the new messiah after being the whipping boy for a couple of seasons."

In fairness there's not much of a differential between the two things. What was the old Barry Rathbone scale metrics? Useless is the median, not quite as useless is in the top 25 percentile?

Warrington added composure to midfield when he came on, looks a tidy player.

Not sure where the goals are gonna come from.

Into the next round is all that matters I suppose.

Oh and fleetwood we're a gang of thugs blatantly kicking the shit out of onana.

Himself and the club are also stalling on getting a striker or two in. Frank believes DCL will be back soon but how confident can we be that he will stay fit.

No Premier League club should limit themselves to one injury-prone striker. Get a striker in Frank and grow a pair and ditch that five at the back. It will see you out the door sooner than you think otherwise.

In fairness there's not much of a differential between the two things. What was the old Barry Rathbone scale metrics? Useless is the median, not quite as useless is in the top 25 percentile.

Only 3 games obviously, but I'm surprised by that -although he does seem to be developing a knack of anticipating and getting his foot in.

The game wasn't great. Standard fare from this current team. Would Cannon have played any worse than Rondon?

Onana took a bit of stick but will be stronger for it. Warrington looked handy. We need to keep Gray fit as he looks like our most dangerous player.

We need more guile up top.

Roll on Saturday.

The only plus was that I got a free pasty when I bought a cuppa, 20 mins from the end!

That Hayes for Fleetwood was head and shoulders above McNeil. As we've previously observed, our scouting system is non-existent.

Thought that dog Rooney shouldn't have been on the pitch after the stunts he was pulling and we had nobody to put him in his place.

What I like most is that he was fouled 10 times in this game and powered right through, and dished out some good thumps as well. He's brave and motivated, two factors that will carry him.

He'll drive us crazy with errors on the ball and an occasional red card, but give him 30-40 games and I believe our patience with him will be richly rewarded.

The other kids impressed me as well. Warrington on the ball simply makes me smile every time -- he's so poised, so calm in picking his passes -- and Welch is just a massive unit with an obvious aggressive streak. Mills didn't get much of a chance today but I'd love to see him start in the next round.

With Davies injured, it'll be interesting to see if Warrington or Mills get game time.

I don't know if Allan and Gbamin are injured again, or unwanted but if they're out of the frame for one reason or another then for a game or two at least it looks like Warrington and Mills vying with Onana for a spot.

Patterson continues his encouraging form so far!

So glad to see that Warrington and Mills got their debuts too!

Mission accomplished by giving debuts to youngsters, minutes to squad players and progress to the next round.

At first all I saw was his wayward passing and, having bigger him up on here, I was disappointed. But the rest of his game was exciting and I loved the way he dealt with getting kicked all over the place by a bunch of lower league cloggers.

Warrington is the opposite in a way, very low key, neat and tidy, and his passing looks good.

Definitely two things at least to give us some optimism in these trying times.

Though of course our best new player by some margin is Iwobi.

If they don't come, last night showed the utterly dire position this club is in.

Off now to forget all about football for the next few days... hope our prospects improve in that time.

I didn't get to watch, so can't comment.

Ian @49, hope you're wrong about the striker. I agree, we're not going to spend big on a backup, but surely we need a backup to Calvert-Lewin. I'd only go with 2 up front if Frank insists on 3 at the back, but it should be a 3-5-2 in my opinion. The 3-4-3 scares the shit out of me.

On Allan, I think unfortunately he's gone but I do hope we have a replacement lined up. I usually overthink these things, but when I look back, I think you could see it in his body language in the footage after the Palace game.

I don't doubt him or his commitment on the field and appreciate injury prevented him last season. He genuinely looked pleased at the end. But watch closely when Lampard is giving his speech and bringing Seamus and Richarlison up with the squad all watching and joining in the relief celebrations, Allan is on his mobile phone. Disconnected.

Anyway, I'm probably over-analysing. We're in the hat and one step closer to the twin towers... Okay, showing my age, one step closer to the arch. Job done. That's what it's about in the early rounds of cup football.

Marching. Tell me Ma.

McNeil was disappointing again (I know he can do better). Welch was decent, Vinagre was interesting, Iwobi was immense again (all those desperate to run him out the club, take note), Warrington looked very assured and there were some exciting flashes from Onana including a surge near the end when he won the ball and then glided past 3 of their players before being fouled for about the tenth time.

Put a solid focal point, Gana Gueye, and a goalscoring winger into this team and it should be okay.

Games like this are often tricky and we made lots of changes and won it without looking too much worry. Clearly work to be done but we'll have worse nights!

Fleetwood made a good account of themselves and hadn't lost a game this season up to last night, they should do well if that continues for the rest of the season.

I know it's early days but I was extolling the virtues of Dwight McNeil after I witnessed his debut against Dynamo Kyiv (second half), but disappointingly he hasn't reproduced anything like since. Still, I am reluctant to totally put it down as another waste of much-needed cash in other departments, till he is continually failing to deliver.

We desperately need reinforcements up front, and with time decidedly running down, considering we have been linked with so many, some genuine, others just pure journo speculation, but not one has materialised.

I suspect the man we all love to hate has had his fat greasy fingers in every negotiation and royally fucked it up as per usual. If he was such a good Evertonian as he proclaims to be, he would commit hari-kari, jump under a (fast moving) bus or train, or into the Mersey on an outgoing tide, then we could progress and rid ourselves of his long overstayed presence and interfering ineffectual involvement.

In other words... Fuck Off, Bill!

Being defensively sound is the starting point for any decent team – ever. I wouldn't expect too much this season, except for Everton being difficult to beat, but a little lacking in goals.

Let's just support the team and a set of coaches who at last have a plan and have started organising the team. It will be much better in 12 months time – patience and holding one's nerve for now.

On a side note, a pal contacted me yesterday to tell me he had found 40-50 match programmes from the 70s and 80s (including the 85 and 86 FA Cup finals, although they hold no fond memories). He would like them to go to someone who will appreciate them. If there is anyone out there who would like them (free, to be collected from Crosby/Formby) please drop me an email at peter@twomillsland.co.uk.

But that's not what they show in the Line-Ups section, with Davies a straight swap for Grey on the subs bench. That's what all the other sources I have looked at all show, except the Mail, which goes with the Crellin story.

Every source that lists shirt numbers shows Davies among the subs. That's what I'm really after, his shirt number. Ah... finally. TransferMarkt have Billy Crellin as #27 – last worn by Moise Kean.

At the moment, playing a false number nine is the equivalent of just that.

If we want the job doing, we have to try and bring in a reliable person, that being a centre-forward, who knows his trade.

From what I have seen so far, Rondon is neither a bricklayer nor a plumber. The commentator kept saying Rondon is feeding off scraps, any centre-forward worth his weight would make those runs, get into positions where we can supply passes to them, but Rondon, apart from the odd knock down is not getting into those positions.

At the moment the rest of the team simply have no-one there for the end product.

When Sheedy played, he did not even have to look where a player was, he would float the ball into the box, expecting our forwards to be aware and make that run, more often than not, Sharp or Gray would run into that space and bury it.

Rondon is simply not giving them options to whip a ball in.

There was 10 minutes on the clock and Rondon was sweating like a pig, yet I never saw how or why.

I just do not know how many more games we can go, without at least another centre forward or two.

We had other chances and played well enough to pick up more than just one point against Chelsea, Villa and Forest, it is killing us not having a striker in, absolutely disgraceful that 4 league and cup games in, we still persist on banking on Rondon coming good, and Calvert-Lewin returning and staying fit, until the end of the season.

We need the centre-forward problem fixing and fast.

The last manager was berated for getting rid of our other decent player (the French guy). So what do you say to the manager who under him we have lost probably two of our best players? Under Frank's so-called 'player pull'… under him, he has brought in 7 players and most of them weren't getting game time. And they play like that.

If we were still in Covid restrictions, we would have been relegated. It was the fans that got them over the line due to the atmosphere you guys created. Not any genius tactical change by Frank, if he was in charge of any of the Top 15 clubs he would have been sacked.

Everyone seems to think he's the best thing since sliced bread but how good is he really? Going by stats, it doesn't look good for him.

Joseph Nee was out on licence from a 45-month jail sentence, being chased down the street by a guy with a gun. Current info is gun fired, mum opens the door to see what is going on, Nee runs into the house, followed by gunman. Gunman shoots, hits the mum in the hand as she tried to close the door and 9-year-old Olivia standing behind her is hit in the chest by the bullet and died in hospital. Nee shot twice, collected by "associates" and taken to hospital and re-arrested for breaking licence conditions.
Police still searching for the gunman.

Not scoring points here, but 9-year-olds getting shot is major news in this state (country). Actually, guys running down streets firing guns is also pretty major news.

To make it more poignant, Monday was the 15th anniversary of the murder of Rhys Jones, an 11-year-old fanatical Evertonian who was in the firing line on his way home from football practice. 😢

What vile comments to wish anyone ill at any time, but especially now as the City tries to come to terms with the awful events of Monday evening. Football is only a game

Find a different way to be offended, appalled and whatever else you're feeling but to call out Derek is, as Will says, ridiculous!

I made my comment because frankly I'm shocked that anyone could harbour such thoughts when everyone is feeling so sad and upset at the moment, or indeed at anytime.

I've enjoyed reading TW over the years, the banter, the arguments, the laughs (& tears), but now that it's come to this, I'm done. Bye all.

"It's been a long journey but an enjoyable one.

"I couldn't have done it at a better club and, obviously, I support the Club so it's made it that much more special"

Lewis Warrington. I hope we see more of him.