Angry_Pirate

My #1 criticism against the manager was (is) his team selections. Reed and Travis behind Dack, Rothwell, +1 and Graham is how we should have been lined up since Travis got his first run in early 2019. For what it's worth, Nymabe still deserves to play over Bennett at RB, however, having 24 shots, attacked to defend as opposed to whatever the plan is with Smallwood and Evans made Bennett, Bell and Williams's night comfortable. If, huge if, TM has finally learned all this, then happy day. 5 more games to prove if he has or not. That could be our best performance in years.

Was about to fully like whole post, but l, and I expect plenty of fans, will argue with at least 2 of that team. Nyambe - Bennett Rodwell - Williams Conway - ? I am however thrilled with the other 8. Reed and Travis in the middle, Dack and Rothwell in the team and Smallwood out of the 18, long may that continue. Brereton cannot go the whole season without scoring if he wants any form of confidence, I'd be starting him every game now for that reason. It's not like buying a cheap £2 pint and it being minging so you leave it on the table and buy another, that's a £7m cocktail your girlfriend has bought... she needs to f*cking drink it until all the ice has melted.

100%. Find me just 1 fan that would have picked Bennett, Smallwood and Evans and I'll be gobsmacked. I like TM as a person, very much so. But he must go. Or at the very least smarten up rapidly.

Our defense has been shocking, but besides Raya who missed 1 game. The rest have been chopped, injured and changed repeatedly and unnecessarily at times. Bell - Mulgrew - Lenihan - Nyambe As a 4, that team has not played enough matches this year due to injuries to 3 of them at times, the Bell/Williams time share and the Bennett factor. As a 4 they have obviously underperformed individually and collectively but we have ZERO depth behind them as Williams - Rodwell - Magliore - Bennett is just worrying. Even Maldini - Nesta - Stam - Cafu would struggle if they had Smallwood and Evans "protecting" them and our rubbish tactics. You could make a case we need 4 new defenders but is the backup players which bring the unit down. So much to do this summer, which needs to start now. These last few games need to be trails and tryouts of the young kids and formations... not the old guard parade.

So TM says you cant play the back 3 formation against "better teams" - So we play it against Newcastle... okay. Personally I dont hate the idea of a 4-3-3 (my FIFA Ultimate Team formation ?) but that formation will 100% not work if any of Evans, Smallwood or Bennett are in it. Maybe he sees Brereton/Samuel as the RW, Travis as the "mobile" holding midfielder with Dack and another in the #8 position. (It wont be Rothwell - Reed would have been nice). But 4-2-3-1 would also still be working if he chose his best 11. Get (Bauer) in, a proper #8, and an actual Winger, and we can look at this new formation Tony.

The best managerial move this club has made since King Kenny was in 2000. Even though Tony Parks was doing his usual classy treading water job and the season was going nowhere, there was no pressing need to get the next manager in. Graeme Souness was brought in around Easter and you cannot underestimate how crucial it was due to those 6-10 games finsihing 11th why we were able to get promoted the next season. Jansen and Dunn were nowhere near the starting 11 and our GK and CB options were poor. Souness brought in Berg, Bjornebye, Curtis and Friedel and built the team around Jansen, Duff and Dunn. Mowbray would have continued with Carsley, Ward, Dailly, Fettis and Peacock. Tony Mowbray is 2019 Tony Parks... very likeable guy and we owe him a lot but.... Out.

That made me want to vomit. Honestly, I'm past caring if we lose now for the rest of season, we're going to finish 17-19th now regardless so please TM look to the future. We simply have to play as many under 23's as possible who are close to the first team. Smallwood, Evans, Mulgrew, Conway, Bennett, Williams, maybe even Dack and Graham, can all begin their holidays now as they are the known commodity. Raya, Lenihan, Nyambe, Bell and Travis all feature regularly and should continue to do so as all have struggled at times and more games is what they need. Give Chapman, Brereton, Rothwell, Davenport, Magliore, Nuttall, Butterworth, Buckley, Rankin-Costello, Mols etc 6 games to show what they can do. The crowd will understand this and support, even if they lose. Ps. does anyone else notice that as soon as Reed said in the media that he wanted to weigh up his future in the summer, he's spent more time as a substitute... seems a bit childish from the manager. "Well Smallwood, Bennett, Evans and Conway would sign lifetime contracts here, so they will play instead, thanks Harrison".

Get spinning...

Good (long term)

Go and enjoy your afternoon. Nothing to see here.

We've moved six points clear of a team originally 3 points above us, without even playing. Thats better than Preston form. Mowbray in!

Start the petition for Joe Rothwell to win Player of the Season... seriously. Could you imagine if he did after not being used even 10% properly. Yes, I know Danny Graham deserves it.

⭐ My thoughts precisely.

Going forward it is realistic to anticipate we won't average greater than 1.0 point per game from the final 8 fixtures when we only have 16 points this YEAR, 4 points in two months, and 26 points from 25 games. We have ultimately endured half a season averaging 1 point per game... Relegation form, no excuse about it. We will drop below 1.0 per game over *33* games, unless we can beat a Bolton and or another from here on out. 1 point a game is good for 21st in the league every other season, relegated the other half. Sack the manager.

Yet Smallwood, Rothwell and Bennett religiously take part in the pre match shooting drill. ? Interesting points on Mulgrew... however many of the games he played also didnt feature Nyambe at RB nor Darragh at CB and had Smallwood in midfield and Bennett at RB. If we could have lined up with the below all season (when fit and available) I think we would be in a playoff race... regardless of other failings. Raya Nyambe-Lenihan-Mulgrew-Bell Travis - Reed Bennett Dack Armstrong Graham Personally I would only play Bennett as a cm rotation and would rather have seen Rothwell and Kasey Palmer given more game time (now I'd include Brereton and Chapman), and i think would be starting and tearing it up in one of the wing positions. Rothwell, for someone with such a horrid injury history, it is ironic he will probably have been fit to play all season and never really used.

25-1 on Preston to get promoted. Worth throwing away £4 to jinx it, as unlikely as it is. Out of the teams in the mix for relegation (Ipswich are gone), my preference in order of relegation would be: 1) Wigan 2) Reading 3) Millwall 4) Rotherham 5) Bolton* 9 years out of 10 I'd usually laugh and enjoy it were Bolton to go down, but I genuinely fear that a relegation for them could put them in serious danger of even existing. Can't wish that on any club. Of course it's almost certain they are down. Lambert going down is the highlight... For what it's worth I hope the promoted teams do not include Sky Sports FC (Leeds), Middlesboring, Derby or Nobbers. So I guess that leaves Norwich, WBA and Sheff Utd as my preferred picks.

It's not picking in a negative sense or a criticism of a solid and comfortable debut, but the fact is he did lose a lot of headers which will need to be an area he improves. It seemed that TM actually tactically planned for this and Williams, Raya and Nyambe all did a responsible job as sweepers. (I just said 'TM' and 'tactical plan' in the same sentence!) It's like with Raya, he can make 3 world class saves but we can still nit pick that he kicked half a dozen straight out of play. It has to. Especially now were all but mathematically safe. They should be unused subs (at best) going forward.

I'm happy to take the positives, however let's not get carried away and claim all is fixed... Wigan were appalling, truly woeful. Can't quite get over how bad they actually were, the goals we scored. Haha. I was (for once) happy with the team selection, especially seeing a youth player getting a start ?, and Reed and Travis all over the pitch second half makes you continually wonder why we haven't done that since Travis came into the team. Bennett at left back might just be his best position ? I thought Tyler Magliore played well and showed many solid attributes, and big props to Nyambe, Williams, Bennett and Raya for how they helped and had his back. There is no coincidence that Raya seemed like a true sweeper keeper tonight as he was always ready for any error made... and for as happy as I was for Magliore, not to be too giddy as I saw loads of positives however he lost a lot of aerial battles over the 90 mins... like a lot. But I'm proud of the lad and he seemed comfortable in there. Danny Graham must have secured the Player of the Season trophy now. Can we keep that 2nd half performance going into Sheff Wed? I'll reserve full praise until that game is in the past. But tonight was easy.

Wow, nail on head. The myth that TM plays nice football has been stored in legend faux pas with that '£50 war chest' and the Ronaldinho signing. Strange that 6 weeks ago I felt like the only "Mowbray out" in the world. Now I feel like the momentum has shifted well passed 50%. Is tonight finally the night the result leads to terrace boos and verbal discontent? The tannoy will already be set to 100% volume in anticipation to protect poor Tony as soon as that whistle blows.

Fully agree, Rodwell (Mulgrew or Lenihan) to challenge for the first header from CDM, drop back into the defense to form a 3/5 when needed for Nyambe/Bell bombing forward, allowing 2 of Reed, Bennett and Travis to headless chicken around the pitch to get the ball. Dack to top off the diamond and Graham +1 up top. Basically the Aaron Mokoena role. That bloke knew how to play CDM and never got enough credit for how much he covered for Warnock/Neil when they pressed forward. Unlike Smallw*nk and Evans who offer zero protection. Can't wait to see 7 defensive minded outfield players lining up in 4 hours time as TM worries about the "strengths" of a team with 6 away points all season. SMH.

Que the team in 4th place sacking their manager, as even though he did a admirable job last season despite relegation (sound familiar?) they have decided that since our 1-1 draw, 36 points in the time we have amassed 22 is enough to warrent the sack. Mowbray for WBA. Let's get it trending. Ps. That Danny Graham "foul" is a disgrace and only a referee with a clear agenda would have given that. Shocking. That's in the same category with Henning Berg Vs Man Utd and Tevez for WHU for terrible Ewood refereeing decisions.

Agree, lots of Preston fans I overheard couldn't believe they had won it. Ultimately, our best chance (thanks to the ref) would have been an OG. What was the Preston fan consensus as the ref gave the three free kicks against Reed-on-Gallagher, Nuttall-on-Fisher and the Graham "goal"? All three decisions probably saved almost certain goals and all seemed incredibly, nah, ridiculously soft. Certainly felt the ref was your 12 man in that second half.... even though the red was possibly harsh, but in the 93rd minute I guess he sent him off to mask his pure awful one-sided performance. I was hoping that if we had lost this we would have been outplayed and had our flawed managers tactics and team selection exposed, so Preston really let me down ?... and still won!!!

I'm actually bored of writing about how Smallw*nk is. The counter attack he started for PNE sums him up. Those people who acclaim him to be "committed" need to seriously watch him, especially when the other team is attacking... the only time he even approached a sprint today was when he was being subbed. I'm not even joking. Ironically I thought we grew into the formation today, however Bell HAS to be the left wing back and you cannot carry Smallw*nk and Evans in the CM. If he isn't going to play Reed or Bennett in there, surely it is time for Buckley, Davenport, Mols etc to come in alongside Travis in the last 10 games. Also, glad Rothwell doesn't start, he's far too positive. We are 11 clear with a huge GD advantage (somehow) over Rotherham, meaning if we win 1 game they realistically need to win 5 to get above us. Time to wave bye bye to the waste of shirts L1 legends and give Damien Johnsons army a run out!

"The referee blows the full time whistle and turns to applaud the 7,500 travelling fans." The "fouls" against Reed, Nuttall and especially Graham were disgraceful and almost certainly cost us THREE goals. Graham's obviously, but the Reed one left us 4vs1 and Nuttall had already skinned the defender. Serious question. Amari Bell is the most obvious LWB in BRFC history, however each time Mowbray plays his beloved three (5) at the back formation he is never at LWB?!?!? Nyambe played well. Raya (bar a couple of kicks) was equally good. However, an 'undeserved' 1-0 and a terrible 'referee' doesn't help highlight just how bad we actually are. Time to go.

How Mowbray can talk about others going through sticky patches and not place his name promptly at the top of that list is yet another reason I want him gone. Man has no accountability. Tomorrow is without doubt his last, last chance for me and after reading this board and talking to many fans over the last few weeks it now wouldn't surprise me if about a 1/3 of the fan group will be feeling the same if tomorrow goes badly. "You don't know what your doing", booing substitutions and the like. Being embarrassed away to Rotherham is one thing, being embarrassed (again) verses PNE, and at home this time, culminating in a 10th defeat in 15 matches is not acceptable at any level, for any manager... especially one stuck in groundhog day, who can't/won't take any ounce of blame. Believe it or not in genuinely do hope I'm wrong, but this appears to only be going in one (downward) direction, I'm almost sure of that. 0-3, 1-3 or 1-4 and a truly miserable day all round.