To be honest Joe the performance from most of the starters was disappointing so not sure you can pick out Pickering. Having said that Brittain did make a difference when he came on. As a player I do like Brittain a lot , was just making the point that if you perform you keep the shirt. What that means for Sunday and the cup is now anyone's guess after the Stoke performance and JDT has some thinking to do when deciding which 11 start...

No way you can drop Pickering after last few games though. Strong performances capped off with a goal.

I thought you might say that but 1 aG a game works wonders when you're banging out loads of clean sheets (as we are at the minute)! Anyhow, good luck for the season starting after tonight....

I appreciate xG is in fashion but the one I'm more into is aG (actual goals...) I believe xg doesn't actually guarantee the ball has gone in the back of the net? In fact an xg of 4.75 when a team ends a game goal-less suggests they couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo/ score in a brothel which would be of greater concern for me.....

For sure - look how many clangers De Gea and Lloris make and they continue to be selected...

It's funny you should mention this as I keep remembering the post from someone who said JDT wasn't an upgrade on Mowbray (don't worry, I can't remember who you are). I'd say he is a massive upgrade on Mike 'Mowbray' Bassett as we're now seeing how he wants us to play and the team putting it into practice and believing. We would never have played like we have recently under Mowbray, never.

Agreed - he gives us something different. He seems to be really enjoying being here too - we need to try and sign him permanently...

Brilliant team performance - Sheff Utd got what they deserved, fuck all. I have to say I thought Pickering had a cracking game and has probably reclaimed the shirt from Brittain for now. Good to have genuine competition though.

Getting a bit sloppy with our passing. Need to tighten it up a bit...

Fuck me - that's what I'm talking about!!!

Which he didn't - at one point he lazily allowed Faes to run past him and it almost resulted in them scoring. He's only been on for minutes and should have been full of running but nah, he can't be arsed. I've seen enough of him - not good enough and needs to go in the summer.

Get in!!!!!!!!!!!

Terrific performance so far. It's got me thinking how well we might play next season when JDT gets more of his own players into the club.

Then he clearly does still need to grow up a little. Seems clear to me that JDT doesn't hold grudges given players who've found themselves back in the fold. Wharton needs to get back, build up his fitness, play some games and give JDT a decision to make.

Soundtrack to my development and lifelong love of football. RIP Motty.

Always seems to be about the booze and the betting with you. These aren't everyone's pastimes of choice. Looking forward to the day after a victory when you say you're off for a bit of Reiki and and an Oatmeal Latte to celebrate...

I think what Jim's saying is that dinosaurs didn't use 'stakeholder' in their vocabulary and everything worked out for them just fine...

I think that's rather presumptuous. He's had to begin a pretty much total rebuild given the crappy squad left by Mowbray. JDT deserves next season to hopefully show us what he's about with a squad more in his image. Yes, Mowbray is over-achieving but we all know how that will end - Sunderland out of the play-off places by the end of the season...

Yeah, apart from that of course...

Strong bench...

Rovers: Pears, Rankin-Costello, Carter, S Wharton, Pickering, Morton, Travis, Thomas, Dack, Brereton, Dolan Subs: Hilton, Brittain, Hyam, Buckley, Hedges, Szmodics, Gallagher

Maybe so, but I don't understand why people get so angry about Nixon on here. Yes, he's a bit of an old journalistic hack but no-one has to follow him on twitter and taking the piss out of others that do seems a bit childish to me.

No argument about it if we have no injuries Kaminski, Brittain, Hyam and probably Ayala start..

Could have done without Vale, shame there hasn't been a transfer window recently as we could have fixed that...