And two games is the epitome of a woefully inadequate sample size. Of course Brereton looks Championship level, he has 4 games and an assist in 8 matches, mostly from the wing. I feel some people apply a misleadingly high standard to this term 'Championship level'. Is he one of the best in the league? No. Is he Championship level now? Yes. As I said, we need to use the options we have properly. Harsh to say they're not working though, as in at all. After all, we are in 6th as I keep being reminded. But I do think there is room for improvement there. We have had crap attacking options since Graham left and Dack got injured. Basically just Armstrong until BB found form, with two useless lumps on the flanks. Now BB is looking decent if still not fully polished, and we can field a few reasonable options instead of Gally there. That's how we can have our best attacking options in a while but not a CF. We are overloaded in the wide area and limited with reliable players in the CF spot. The options are unbalanced but plentiful.

Premature statement about Poveda. Yes he was poor, but equally he was good in the other game he played for us and has just come back from injury. We need to see more of him before any conclusions can reasonably be reached. 2 years ago Brereton didn't look a footballer of any description as long as he had a hole in his arse. Now he is one of our most valuable players. He hasn't played centre forward, at least not more than the odd game, since he joined us. He is bound to struggle to adapt to not being used as a 'winger'. Actually totally disagree, I think we have the best set of attacking options we have had in a while. The problem is none of them is a natural centre forward. We have two who were raised that way but have been used as wingers for ages, and foolishly didn't buy any this window. On the flanks up front we have a range of decent options IMO. Need to use them right though.

It only shows form this early, not the real standard of the side. And yes, the converse applies that we are in good form, I've never suggested otherwise. I'm not trying to have it 'both ways'. Form is temporary, class is permanent as they say. We have beaten teams in poor form, which has contributed to us having good form. We're doing well. All I'm saying is it doesn't make us a top side in this league, which you seem to agree with. Hopefully we are wrong and it continues.

I've also had this thought lately, that we are finally setting up to counter attack now we have lost our best counter attacker, and what we could have achieved playing on the counter last season. Big wasted opportunity.

Why would I want to find excuses to be negative? I'm just pointing out all angles. Of course I wouldn't have thought we would have 13 points or be in 6th by now, and of course I'm happy about it. But we've had good runs of form before under this manager only to death spiral, I'm not about to be conned again when our squad is paper thin, the teams we have played have all started poorly and we've rode our luck quite a bit. Yes I'll have a crack at predicting it, why not? Just because you don't know the future doesn't mean you can't make guesses at it. I think we will death spiral once the injuries and better teams come along, and I think we will be back around mid-table by Christmas, probably finishing bottom half at the end of the season. Which is an improvement on my pre-season prediction of relegation. If we somehow end up in the playoffs, feel free to drag up this post and say I got it wrong, I'll be more than happy about it. It will, however, just have been a prediction. I predict roughly the right area of the table correctly most seasons, including the last two times we got relegated, but nobody gets it right all the time.

After 10 years and an unscrupulous CEO trying to milk one of the poorest towns in the country, that is.

In fairness, whilst it could be cynical, it's also possible that he simply was bored by it all last year. If you've been working in football your whole life at his age, with the fans in every game, it was probably difficult to keep his motivation going. Of course on the other hand he is paid handsomely to do his absolute best. But we are all human no matter what you pay us.

We have. Most of them would still have had poor starts even with more points against us. Yes we are 6th but you don't honestly expect it to last do you? I know you're a very positive person but you also know the manager isn't up to scratch and the squad is thin.

Correct. They do show form though. And we have played teams in poor form, almost exclusively.

Most of those will take time to get up to speed, and some are prone to mixed form anyway. We will also inevitably pick up more injuries yet.

The most unpleasant journeys are often the most memorable.

And should have been in the back of the net.

Even if he is, then it should have been Edun staying on the bench for Butterworth's sake. Tony has said before that we don't do business like that (guaranteeing loan players game time). But, Tony says a lot of things. If he was telling the truth though, I'd say it has more to do with wanting to curry favour with managerial heavyweights like Bielsa and Klopp.

Results have improved. I do think we are riding our luck though.

The more I think about how Butterworth didn't even get on the pitch, the more pissed off I get. I mean what kind of message does it put out to our youngsters that you can be scintillating on Tuesday but not even get off the bench on Saturday? Instead, the lad you replaced on the Tuesday, who we don't own and has done nothing so far, comes on instead of you!

Manager conspired to try and throw it away, doomed us to a point. Absolute liability, sick of him despite the good points haul so far.

Clarkson missing our best chance of the game apart from the BB one on one. Have to wonder if Butterworth would have finished it with that rocket shot he has in his locker. Khadra looking a threat.

Pickering nearly scoring a bizarre own goal. That's 3 times we have nearly conceded in the last what, 10 minutes? All since the defensive subs brought on to hold onto the point. Fucking clown.

Away draws are fine, by and large. What is going to really stick in the throat though, if we do hold onto a point, is the manager's infuriating decision making AGAIN. Butterworth helped visibly transform the game on Tuesday. So instead of repeating the trick that worked (him and Khadra on, one of them for a more pedestrian midfielder) he repeats the trick that undid us last Saturday (defensive subs). He just doesn't learn.

Should have conceded there. Defensive subs working a treat.

He was excellent on Tuesday when he came on. So of course we made two defensive subs instead. Sucks having a negative bastard in charge

Happy to sit back, how did that work out against Luton again?

Edun on for Rothwell. Another defensive sub on the face of it

Terrific ball from Khadra there, poor first touch from BB saw him overrun it and lose the chance. Barsnley missed a good opening right after.

Kaminski - the only reason we aren't losing today yet.