Probs most important thing for Gallagher is what sort of partnership he strikes up with Douglas. Thats where his crosses are coming from in this system. They should be working on that every day in training. Ideally you want to get it where Conway and Gestede got to, where Conway knew exactly where Gestede wanted the ball. We haven't really had much quality crossing from the left to be honest since Gallagher has been at the club. Downing ended up playing more centrally.

Reckon Holtby will be decent to at least 32-33. We should offer a long term deal.

I am pretty confident going into these games if we can keep the key players fit - that's Kaminski, Lenihan, Wharton, Holtby, Rothwell, Arma and (I cant really believe I am saying this) Brereton. If you have those seven out there we look a real handful for any team. Take any of them out and our system looks a bit fragile. Team for me : Kaminski Nyambe Lenihan Wharton Douglas Holtby Johnson Rothwell Gallagher Arma Brereton Subs : Pears, Carter, Bell, Trybull, Davenport, Buckley, Elliott, Dolan, Chapman Barnsley are on a decent run, won 4 of the last 6 including beating Watford. So obviously no pushovers. Look like they play pretty direct so Wharton and Lenihan to get their head on it. Really like them as a pairing, makes me much less concerned about aerial bombardment.

He's scored three goals in 415 minutes (less than five 90 minute games) which is pretty impressive. Does seem like the ultimate super sub rather than a starter at this stage. When he has played against well organised teams he has struggled, but when the opposition are a bit loose or down to 10 men he's fantastic. With the 5 sub rule he is going to get a lot of opportunity to come on and stretch the opposition in the last half hour.

Best keeper we have had since Friedel. Totally exceptional. Probs the one player in the team who you would say, even more than Arma, will have big Premier League interest come the summer. You can see why he is in the Belgium national team squad. Great signing, can't really believe we pulled it off.

Johnson coming back provides a bit of a quandary. Hopefully he doesn't do something mad like swap out Holtby or Rothwell. I don't think he will though. Mowbray knows they are our best mids. Trybull played pretty well but I think Johnson may come back in for Saturday. Reckon rest of the team the same. We really do look like we have great strength in depth. Once Travis and Dack are back we will have some subs bench. In the era of 5 subs that is going to be a very potent weapon.

He wasn't really put under any pressure today. To be fair to Joe he Bark played the other side. I agree with Joe that Douglas lack of pace and defensive focus will ultimately be an issue for us. But hey, let's enjoy the win!

Fantastic team performance. Not sure we can read too much into it though because Preston were so poor it is hard to judge who has cemented their place. A couple exceptions to that though : 1) Wharton was absolutely brilliant, and continuing a trend of the last few games. Seems to be a properly physical dominant defender of the old school. Was also pleasingly composed under pressure. Think he may be a real prospect for us. 2) Davenport showed some real bite and quality when he came on. With Rovers just starting on an intense seven week schedule of two games per week and the five sub rule I think he could finally get a run of games. Our system needs 2 of the 3 centre mids to get up and down and we only have Rothwell, Holtby and maybe Buckley who can do that. Surely Davenport will get a run next time we are short rather than playing Evans, Johnson or Trybull in a box to box role they can't deliver.

Yes he has the sort of engine we need from the midfield in our system.

Dolan's goal to minutes record must be exceptional?

Feeling sort of confident. Wharton and Lenihan seem to have them outmatched physically, which was the big problem last few years against Preston. Plus we've got an extra man. And they've been unbelievably crap. So we've got to see this out.

They're much better organised, but they haven't strung 2 passes together all game. Really phenomenally bad.

Preston fans watching this must be absolutely disgusted with their teams performance. They've been abject.

Woohoo!

Once big positive from this is Wharton really looks the part in a physical game like this.

God Preston are a tough team to like. Probably worst footballing side we've seen. Tight in their defence though.

Midfield balance of the side looks a lot better, and we are dominating the ball. But can't really say we look look any more like scoring than Preston. Gallagher to be fair to him has been decent. We're obviously trying the "false 9" system with Armstrong dropping off with Brereton and Gallagher getting in the box. Makes us quite narrow though. Don't think Douglas is getting up enough on the left to give us the width. Wharton has been defensively decent.

Reckon we will see Brereton, AA and Gally swap quite a bit. That's happened everytime Gally has played.

I guess Gallagher got the goal so Mowbrays given him a start. Can't really figure out how we play 433 with him though. Elliott retains the ball well and supports a passing game, Gallagher certainly doesn't. Will be interesting to see if we just boot it to him or try and move it around.

Interested to see how Trybull plays with Johnson out. Hopefully in that sitting role he can look the part. Not been convinced by him at all recently. Kaminski Nyambe. Lenihan. Wharton. Douglas Holtby. Trybull. Rothwell Elliot. Armstrong. Brereton Subs : Pears, Bell, Carter, Grayson, Downing, Buckley, Dolan, Davenport, Gallagher

Overall this is why I am concerned about Douglas in our system. We expect our full backs to get up and down and cover a huge amount of ground. I am not sure Douglas can do it...

Really hope Holtby is back for this one and we drop Trybull. If he isn't lets play Buckley.

Well as expected the balance of the team was all wrong with Trybull and Johnson both out there. Trybull a very very conservative player, and Johnson was expected to run up and down the inside right channel which he clearly doesn't have the legs for. In the 433 we play it's crucial 1) the two wider central midfielders have exceptional workrate to link the forwards and midfield, but can recover to defend if we lose possession, 2) we play a high back line to get the midfield close to the forwards. Today we played about 10m too deep and were really static in midfield till Trybull came off, then we improved a lot. Honestly think we would have won if we'd started Buckley/Johnson/Rothwell across the middle. I'm stunned Buckley didn't come on at all. Have to agree this is shaping up to be another 8th-13th season. A real shame as the squad is a top six squad.

He's not going to increase the amount of ground the midfield covers though, which I would say is our primary problem at the moment.

Yes and if one of them isn't available Buckley is next best shout.