I agree about the away kit, it's bloody awful. They play in red and white, why can't we play in our usual strip ?

Even if Graham was playing out of his skin why hasn't Brererton been coming on to play in his position when Graham goes off ?

I got a bit of grief for suggesting that we seemed to be building a team of midfield players at the expense of the other ends of the team.

Yeah Jimmy Greaves in his prime was a tremendous finisher. Put him through on goal and you could walk back into your own half and wait to kick off again.

Didn't Tony Field, Terry Garbett and David Bradford follow Ken Furphy over the hill to Sheffield ? Regarding the game we've regressed to the point were we don't know our best 11again and we have no really noticeable method of getting the ball from our box to their box on a regular basis. I think we'll struggle but I'll consider it a success if we manage to play out the last ten minutes or so with the ball more in their half than ours. When you have all your players back in the last third you'll struggle no matter what level you're playing at. It's as simple as that really.

Shape shifting Lizard ? He could do to shape shift into a Championship standard striker ASAP.

We could always do them a swap for that lad we let go for peanuts a few years back.

If I'd a pound for every " top young prospect " that didn't make it I'd be a pretty rich guy,

We're playing a much higher level than last season.

Maupay is one you've missed out.

Maybe, but at least we might get some goals out of those deal. Goals win you games, propel you up the table, excite the fans, put more bums on seat, more dosh in the coffers. It's not a difficult concept to grasp. ' A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush '.

Didn't Big Sam bring in some handy players - Givet who stiffened up the leaky defence and ' Spit ' who gave us an outlet ball.

Yeah, if you need to ' quieten ' an opponent the sooner the better really.

Yes Dack is an Ace, but the rest of his hand doesn't look too clever. There's a lot of Jack's in there.

The like was a mistake on my part. I'll say we are safe when we get to 50 points and it can't come soon enough for me.

It doesn't sound to me like he was consulted much, it was Hobsons choice.

Did you not read the story Kevin Keegan told at his tribunal. How agents were pressurising the Newcastle board to pressurise Keegan take players for them. They didn't have to play them, even in the reserves, just ' park ' them there !

I get the feeling that Mowbray was told ' We're going to buy this lad because we've been told it's a good investment '. He probably thought ' What have I got to lose , If the kid comes good we're on a winner, if he doesn't I can marginalise him.' Just my view. Going back to prior the signing I didn't see anything on that video that suggested he was the answer to our ' Graham replacement ' problem. They were like chalk and cheese in playing styles. I saw a tall gangling player who liked to run with the ball a lot from out to in but didn't really produce enough end product or goals . And that was his 'Highlights 'video ! If that's what we wanted Gallagher can do that and score a few goals in the bargain. Nothing would have induced me to shell out serious money on him. I find the whole deal inexplicable.

You know the old one about ' Stopping digging '. You're just making yourself look foolish. Of course the fee was a massive amount of money for us to spend !

Centre half completely at fault. He's no idea where the guy he's supposed to be marking is.

Yeah it was, normally if you sign half a dozen players more than one of them improves the team.

Our old inability to impose ourselves on the game for more than a half is still there. We got away with it last season but we won't this time. That and our inability to start games at a high tempo, that's been going on for ages as well.

Excellent post Stuart.

What really concerns me is the implications for our future spending. If this lad is Mowbray's marque signing he may not get another chance to splash the cash. If the Chicken Chokers were advised by somebody that Brereton was a good investment they may be thinking they've had their fingers burnt again.

I'm OTT Chaddy , how about you ?