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I actually thought Morishita was getting caught in possession too much in the first half but he seemed to be predominately on the right side. He moved inside in the second half and had a far greater influence on the game. Let's hope last night was a turning point as he appeared to be adapting to the rigours of the Championship. As you say Yuki must be a nightmare to play against. He is relentless in his pressing and last night worked the channels really well. His bravery is commendable too as he is not deterred by some big gorilla of a centre half.

Wrexham our next away game. I hope we can break the curse of not winning against newly promoted sides. Would take a draw there.

That's the worry and whilst Pickering and Ribero aren't being used and are clearly being eased towards the door (10k pwk guys probably) they do give us some depth on the bench. Cantwell is also clearly a gonner and of course the biggest question is shove two or three of those out the door who replaces them ?

I don't think he's that arsed about us, he has no connection beyond managing us for almost a year, I don't think it's that deep for him. Like many he probably saw us as a stepping stone, it's just that on this occasion he made a sideways (at the time a step down) away from us which was galling for us, I don't think it keeps him awake at night. Out moronic owners keep me awake though. It's probably the satisfaction that came from the performance. They completely mugged us off in that game, it was the perfect away performance. Any manager would want to hang their hat on it. They've barely won any matches, so not surprising it stood out.

Yes, exactly.

"Pratt seemed to cope ok"? He was brilliant!

Perhaps the decision was made by the same people who couldn't see that Adam Wharton was a decent player ?

I predicted a while ago that heading the ball will be banned at some point in the future.

To be fair to our friends on PNE online they have admitted we were the better side on the night and deserved the win...just need to stop all the cocky pre match bollox and eat that humble Spud!.

I doubt they actually practice heading goals at training, its a fading art.

Great performance that I didn't see coming. We do seem to be a completely different outfit away from home. Maybe playing with less pressure and not expected to take games by the scruff of the neck. Regardless, we were definitely the better team last night. Apart from the crazy 15 seconds which led to the Preston goal, that back 3/5 looked okay. Very pleased for Pratt to see him step up and deliver. I couldn't really fault the performance of any of the starting 11 who all worked their socks off. The subs all did well when they came on. One exception was Maktar Gueye, who honestly. I give up with. I know he has put the ball in the net on a couple of occasions, but he might be the least gifted striker we've ever signed and his attitude stinks to boot. The poor man's Grabbi

I love that green kit but its virtually never seen. What's the point----money?

By switching to a back 3, we've now shot ourselves in the foot with the summer business, quite spectacularly. We need another centre back, although huge credit to Pratt for last night. Huge question marks over the long term fitness of Wharton and Carter, although Wharton did sign a new deal recently, so he's going no where. We need a commanding centre mid, who can really impose himself on the game in the middle of the park. Tronstad was excellent last night and Montgomery played his part too but oddly, he drifted to the left hand side a lot. Not sure if that was tactical or just the player. Neither are the commanding midfielder we need though. Wingbacks need a serious look, we've got 4 left wing backs, Hedges, De Neve, Riberio and Picks and only Alebiosu on the right. Crazily unbalanced. I suspect both Riberio and Pickering will be binned off in January. Attacking midfield also presents a problem as we've now got Morishita, Henrikson and Cantwell vying for 1 place. The obvious candidate to depart would be Cantwell, based on his wages alone but he's captain and probably the better of the 3. Kargbo now doesn't really have a role, likey used as a striker when back but not sure if he even is one or indeed anywhere near good enough. Jury is well and truly out on the lad. After a crazy amount of recruitment in the summer, we now find ourselves needing a reasonable overhaul of players again across the next 2 windows.

The thing is it soon will be. Everyone's for sale.

Alebiousu again had an massive game... could had scored some goals from his crosses.

He set out to hurt Baradji with that challenge, no doubt.

Maybe they should play the home games in that beautiful gold kit too. They look at each other and think they're Brazil.

We now got a long break until wednesday night. We need 3 points at home against QPR.

Such a daft comment after the Indian series earlier this year, did you miss that series Tyrone?

Following Rovers away from home this season, Charlton apart, has been a real joy. We look solid at the back and swift in attack. I thought some of our football last night was a joy to watch. The interplay between Ohashi and Morishita really caused North End no amount of problems. Ohashi's workrate is unbelievable as was that of Tronstad and Hedges. These three players epitomise how Ismael wants to play and it's so enjoyable to watch. I thought young Pratt did ever so well on his debut and looked the part. Prior to the game I heard fans criticising his selection and saying what a state we are in when a kid has to play. Yet I remember other youngsters in the past being thrown in - England, Pickering, Metcalfe, Faz, Barker, Jones etc - and it proved the making of them. There is no point in having an Academy if these youngsters don't get a chance. Yes, they'll make mistakes but that's part of the learning process. The home form remains a conundrum, but if we can get that right we could have a more than decent season. This team is nowhere near as bad as some are making out.

I thought after a rough 25 minutes or so we took control of the game and were much the better side. We just played football and they didnt like it, they tried to kick us off the park and intimidate and bully us and it didn't work at all, we stood up to it very well. Morishita, Montgomery, Tronstad and Hedges were superb I thought. Full of energy, determination and a bit of quality at times too. Pratt deserves a special mention though, the lad was playing against Congleton Town 2 months ago and to come into a game like that for your professional debut and not look out of place or too shakes, I thought was brilliant. Need to sort that home form out now.

Pears is a below-average Championship keeper. Nothing more, nothing less. And that includes spells where he's been terrible or where he's been excellent (Nov-Dec 2024 under Eustace springs to mind) Can imagine the bean counters have been fuming that he's sitting on the bench on a decent-ish wage (if it wasn't for Toth's injury, I presume they were going to try to flog him off again in January. To be fair, now that Toth has supplanted him, they probably should try to reallocate the budget accordingly...), but could certainly do worse for a backup keeper.

100% they’ll drop off. They just don’t have the depth. Have a couple of quality players that’s about it. Good manager, don’t get me wrong, but squad wise, horrendous. I’m just glad we’ve finally put them in their place and just dominated them as we should.

Jim, that’s all they know. They can’t play any other way.

To lose in 2 days like that requires a special kind of uselessness. McCullum and Stokes have questions to answer about the approach to that game in view of England's poor preparation for the series and the players need to look at themselves and rein in the Bazball nonsense and play proper Test cricket, which means patience and playing each ball on its merits.