Exiled_Rover

That's what happens when you spend an absolute fortune. 16 players brought in, most for good money - it's the same old PL formula.

I think Mowbray made those comments public because he was smarting at the spanking we handed him (and the lack of crowd reaction to his heroic return to Ewood Park) and he wanted to stir the pot because he's a snide bastard.

He's rightly 5th choice - he'll get the odd game here and there and a few substitute appearances whilst training with the first team. That'll do wonders for his development - personally I'd have him shadowing Ayala.

What are you referring to here?

It's not so much we have a plan, it's that in JDT and Broughton we have two men who are able to sell a vision to highly sought after prospects and seal the deal. Very exciting times indeed.

He didn't play 90 minutes, he was brought on as a substitute when Hedges went off injured on the hour mark.

Only because Kaminski made some fantastic saves (both directly from a #10 header and his knockdowns). You're better than that.

So were Hyam, Wharton and Carter. That #10 beat all of our back line in the air.

Boro - such a massive club that they've appointed a rookie manager to save their season. Mowbray will be rolling in his grave.

With 10 times less silverware.

New 3 year contract for Jack Vale. Bit of a head scratcher for me, unless they're just securing him as an asset for a future sale as he looks way off the standard for the Championship.

What loan move? I thought he'd turned it down?

Just say no if they offer you chip spice on your fish and chips.

Why wasn't Bacuna sent off yesterday for kicking out in the tackle? The refs follow the laws when they want to.

I see Swansea won again thanks to another ref deciding to make himself the centre of attention by sending someone off after 5 minutes, ruining the game. QPR benefitted from it during the week. Very annoying when you're trying to put some distance between yourselves and the pack.

The football Birmingham played when their #10 came on yesterday is what you saw at Ewood under Allardyce - it's dire to watch, but hugely effective. Our back 3 are all over 6' and have dominated aerially for the last couple of games. Jutkiewicz came on and suddenly every cross into the box was filled with danger and every lump forward resulted in a knock down.

I'd argue the biggest improvement has come from Gallagher - he now looks like a good Championship CF. He's scored 1 in 3, which is huge progress and as we all know goals win games - we've desperately needed another consistent goalscorer in this team for games like yesterday when Brereton-Diaz is off the boil. Travis has been fine, although his lack of passing ability has been exposed in this system and Buckley is currently being taught a lesson - fingers crossed the lesson takes as he's a talented player. To me the fact that we're sat 2nd considering the situation the club was in during the summer (5 week search for a manager AFTER Mowbray eventually walked, 10 players with first team minutes leaving for free) is dreamland stuff. Game to game you can see the system and the style of play JDT and his coaching staff are drilling into the team taking positive effect e.g. the A. Wharton goal came from playing it out of the back and we're MUCH harder to score against now. So are we a good team? The table suggests we are. We're heavily reliant on a handful of key players staying fit (Kaminsky and Brereton-Diaz being the two irreplaceable ones), but if we continue to progress I don't see why we can't be in the Playoffs at the end of the season. That would be ahead of schedule for JDT too as he knew this was a massive rebuilding project.

We're 3rd regardless of how teams do with that extra game they have on us.

He genuinely didn't know - it feels like he's only now just getting a handle on who our best players are and what their potential is.

Garrett played 90 minutes on Tuesday and like 20 minutes today. Is he that much further along physically? Not complaining, just find it curious.

It's not that he's playing more central, it's that he's full of confidence and putting himself about that's the difference. He's a very big, athletic CF - he should be a NIGHTMARE for defenders to handle at this level. We're actually finally starting to see signs of it.

Unfortunately his bench options consist of Vale, Dolan and (when he's in the squad) Hirst. Who do you bring on there to 'change it up'? We badly need a mobile striker in January.

Does anyone know why A. Wharton can only last 60 minutes? We're a much worse team when he goes off. Also interesting to see that Garrett has passed Buckley in the pecking order in midfield...

We were comfortable until they brought that #10 on - he won everything in the air and completely changed the game. Delighted to win this one, could very easily have been a draw on another day.

Inject it into my veins - especially after their moaning on Tuesday.