Lee Johnson admitted that he had considered making all three of his substitutions early in the first half in the match against Colchester. He said his side was lifeless from the start in one of the worst displays of the season at Boundary Park. He also suggested the threat of transfer-listing some of the players who did not perform on the night. Sidney Schmeltz, who was not even in the squad, could be the first player down the road as he has fallen out of favour. On the bench were three untried substitutes in Wade Joyce, Danny Gosset and John Pritchard. Pritchard did come on and was unlucky with one effort which hit the angle of the crossbar. Charlie MacDonald, James Dayton and James Wesolowski are all sidelined through! injury and Genseric Kusunga is struggling to make the trip to Sheffield United on Boxing Day - hence the inexperienced sideline.
Johnson blasted, “I very nearly made three subs after 10 minutes and that would have been ridiculous. I would have been hounded. But I just felt we didn’t have any energy out there. I wanted people who would run around and put their foot in. It is going to be a nasty couple of weeks for me because I can’t have that and I won’t have that. I don’t care who it is. With that sort of performance they will be transfer listed. I don’t like it and I won’t move forward with it. I need a side which is going to compete in the top six. You don’t with a side that showed the level of desire we showed against Colchester.”