A more confident SG for example heads in against Hull, he has had a few chances in each game but nothing guilt edge. Neither has Dack, Armstrong, Graham, Rothwell, etc etc. In both roles he’s performed, the pressing, linking and holding up has been good for me. He is a physical presence most teams will suffer against. Just because he hasn’t bagged, does not mean he’s done nowt, imo.

That’s an opinion, not a fact - and I would also add that I think you’re completely wrong. Example - the goal vs Hull.

I prefer his contributions on the pitch to tabloid / towie trash, I have no interest in. 85 starts, 37 goals. Plenty of assists, performances and persistence. In his third season, I’m more inclined to suggest he deserves a little bit more respect and patience to start scoring again - regardless of whether his girlfriend is a vacuous C list celeb.

Or after a season of scoring and setting up goals, opposition managers are more aware of his gifts and will attempt to stamp him out. Bacuna hardly gave him a breath yesterday. Grant McCann seemingly didn’t see the importance of man marking him in a similar way, and thus he ran the show at times.

You come this conclusion using Barnsley - when it’s quite obvious to see why we’d have less fans now due to the last 10 years. Barnsley for example, most of their history in the second tier. In fact I think they’ve only ever spent one division in the top flight. When we’ve very recently just visited the third tier for the first time in 35+ years, it seems rather obvious why our attendances have gone backwards. Thats not to say more can’t be done, it’s just tiresome to see the symptom of our worst spell in 30 years ignored.

I’m talking about a recently relegated Neil Warnock team in case it needed pointing out!

Inept going forward or thwarted by one of the best defences in the league?

On a different day at Hull we score three shots outside the box, AA bags one of his 1 on 1s, and this argument is invalid. As it stands, my main concern this season was a repeat of the constant individual errors. If there is one main talking point of our first 6 games, for me; we look a far more organised outfit. Thats not to suggest we’re in a promotion movement, it’s just legitimate areas we look better: even if we’re not yet scoring the chances we took last term!

I think it’s a bit rich to ignore everything to favour the criticism for signing a couple of young forwards. Everything that seemingly comes from the club these days references a “learning culture” so I personally can see why they favour investing money into youth as opposed to filling the squad with big wage older lads. The two we’ve picked up by the way, Johnson and Downing - look a damn sight better than their recent equivalents too, hence why it’s rich to ignore those two (seemingly, it’s early days) good signings, to criticise others!

Created some great chances, Sam G’s knock down for Dack, to lay off to DG was only stopped by fantastic defending! The final thing about our defending- we did the basics well mostly. One Bell mistake stands out but, that for me is a much better platform to build a season on.

Thought we did well overall. If Cardiff are a favourite, I wouldn’t say there was a massive difference. Only some luck and heroic defending kept it 0-0. Another step in the right direction for me!

Good to see another youth (Rankin Costello) getting towards the first team!

Cheers for that - not sure it’s open for all to see. I think I was between good / neither good or bad at the time but couldn’t remember what I plumped for.

Any way of me finding out what I voted? I’m getting rather forgetful in my dotage

Context of other business is key. Had Evans stayed, and Richie left - I don’t think I would’ve been too fussed, but I’m not massively bothered either way. Obviously hindsight helps when you’ve 50+ games to play, but I’m sure we’d both be pulling our hair out if either BJ/LT get injured and we’ve only have Evans for a huge chunk of the season. With both, you’ve at least different pro’s/con’s between them - even if we’d all agree they aren’t good enough first XI.

I do find that a bit patronising if I’m honest MB. If he and Smallwood had left with only Johnson in, I know exactly what I would’ve thought. Especially in the aftermath of Davenports most recent knock.

Still, with Travis being relatively green - I’d say Smallwood was the nearest to his “type” - Evans being even less likely to put a foot in but both inferior to Lewis. Davenport has had numerous injuries. Had both lads left, and Travis/Johnson had a knock - who plays? The main bone of contention over the summer was lack of defensive cover, thus I’m happy we’ve got such midfield depth. You may well be right about Richie, but maybe he wants to try his hardest to get better here? A manager, fans and club he obviously loves, even if his ability has been usurped.

I think both of you may be a bit too expectant of how quick a squad should turn over. To me it seems perfectly appropriate to have Evans/Smallwood as backups - and I doubt both would’ve been put onto mega wages either.

Even the championship winning teams will have poor spells, and we’ve seen many fast starts fall away. I think it’s better to just look at us. One tiny example, the hull away game last season was an identical result, at the same time of year - but a complete different win with different elements. As the man said himself, there is still a way to go to be a team good enough to boss games out, and I just feel I already knew, he knew this.

I think it’s disrespectful I personally don’t mind a Mowbray good/bad/ugly thread, I’m happy to contribute but even if there are a section of fans who think the man should instantly go, I think it makes the website look super-over-reactive and unpalatable. Just a thought lads.

Seasons have been defined by injury before, even if your wage bill is 3 times ours. Look at Boro last year. Last few months of the season they lost Fry, Ayala and George friend. Not many teams would’ve survived that tbh.

I think many are completely forgetting Nyambe is no different in that respect at least Even if he is slightly more in tune defensively, arguably quicker and stronger - Bennett again showed why he’s being preferred at the minute last night; Full impact, full energy, up and down the line, supported the forwards on the overlap, helped combine with Johnson, Travis and Dack to keep the ball. Made a few shocker passes, got caught out once or twice - but also made some great challenges. Nyambe is just not as good technically for me, or does he react/read the play as well. A really recent example is Oldhams opener. He was literally half the pitch out of position. Ideally - there is a Cunningham esq RB up the clubs sleeve. I think Nyambe (like Lethal Derek) will eventually find himself more comfortable as a CB

I don’t think it’s an experiment. Its no secret Mowbray likes to play a shape or style based on the opposition. Some call it negative but others proactive - I think if you look, we beat Hull 1-0 with Armstrong playing central on his own 12 months ago. Maybe they have a full back poor in air, and a slower set of central defenders compared to most teams - and thus at home, expected to push on, more room for Adam (I agree has to improve movement) to exploit. His other quote in the interview was also great on Travis; ”I think he gives it away to win it back”.. Now he also called him a warrior, a Trojan, a spirited individual who makes us tick - and I think it’s got to be mentioned just what a player our club is developing with him. Absolutely wins balls for fun. Good old fashioned ball winning midfielder, and the signing of Johnson might be a masterpiece since he’s the experience to guide Travis on and is a huge upgrade on Evans et al.

Didn’t Gallagher's fantastic take down win the free kick for the goal? What I saw was a high intensity performance with a few errors, but effective at times, particularly at bringing Dack into play further up. We don’t play conventional flying wingers so I’m not convinced there is an argument to suggest he isn’t suited for some variant of a pressing wide forward.