Was...that a thing?

Got completely outplayed, were very lucky to be 2 up but then conspired to throw that away. That's what they did wrong.

Why would anyone from Lancashire even ask that?

Agreed, I don't like this either, but he has just never been much of a fan of putting defenders on the bench. He loves to put several strikers on, and the rest mostly mids. I feel like we are constantly walking a tightrope in that area of the pitch as far as our bench is concerned. I think his thinking tonight is that if a CB gets injured, Bennett or JRC to RB, and Nyambe inside. Goosed if Nyambe is taken off too for any reason though, and he does have a vulnerable hammy. I guess Downing could cover LB.

I hope the LT's predicted formation layout is wrong. They show 4 4 2 with Downing right and Rothwell left. If we are playing two up top I'd say it's essential our wingers play on the side their foot is best, otherwise there will be no crosses and the formation is unlikely to avail us much. Personally I'd have brought Rothwell back on the bench to start with. He won't be 100% and we have another game on Saturday. Would've been more logical to give him 20-30 tonight, recover some match sharpness and be fully firing by Saturday. If he proves key to winning tonight and doesn't get injured tonight or Saturday, you won't hear me complaining though.

Might have a point there. But not wide though.

That leaves Buckley still in the team. I think he will drop him for this one. I figure Gally in for Buckley is the most likely swap. There are a few CMs who might come in for Johnson. Maybe Rothwell, and Downing central like you say.

I feel the team merits a little shaking up for this one. Buckley wasn't great, and doesn't suit playing a wide role at all. Samuel might lose his place. He was barely involved against Brentford, though a lot of that was also our lack of attacking nous. Between the two of them, you can be certain Gallagher will be back in the team. Not saying it's what I'd do, but I feel sure it'll happen. Personally, I dont mind seeing him given another shot up front, but after TM's comments I expect it'll be out wide again with senseless 'diagonals' being sent to him. Don't know if this is a game too soon for Johnson to play again, he isn't the fittest.

Didn't feel the angle was that tight. If he had been closer to his post and it had flown to the other side I'd have been really pissed off with him. I'm very critical of keeper positioning in general, and I'll have to watch it back to be sure, but my instinct at the time was he did exactly what I'd have wanted him to do.

Sorry but no, the officiating in this league is absolutely atrocious, almost every game. They really are just incompetent (even though I've said both pen calls were correct today) and entirely inconsistent even within one game. Something that merits a foul and a card one minute isn't even a free kick the next. Don't watch the Prem anymore so no idea what it's like up there.

Very harsh. From memory, I think he was right to be central, the shot could have been aimed at either side from there. I don't fault him for this one in the slightest.

Personally, I think recently our passing game has improved a lot. But today we were wank in that regard.

I'm not that young and definitely prefer when football was more blood and thunder than it is now. But ultimately it doesn't matter what football you grew up on, football is as it is now. And in modern football those are two penalties.

IMO, both penalties were penalties. Johnson bundled into him and also gave a little shove in the back of his neck/head. He went down a little easily, but there was enough for a penalty. I will take today as a sign of small progress. I still felt nervous at 2 up, in fact moreso than at 1 up, due to how things went in this fixture last season. Turned out it was with good reason I felt nervous. However, we didn't collapse quite as badly as last time. That said, our goal lived a bit of a charmed life all day. If Brentford had brought their finishing boots we'd have had a similar scoreline to last time. We did some excellent last ditch defending though. Our passing was a real disappointment today. We gave the ball away with great frequency and in poor fashion, which was especially frustrating as we weren't having that much of it to begin with. I thought we showed them too much respect at times, allowing too much space, but I'm more bothered that we made it too easy for them to win the ball. It's extremely disappointing to throw away a 2 goal lead here again, but it's a point I'd have taken before the game and one that should keep us in contention especially if we can just put away the next two opponents. Anyone who thinks we deserved any more than we got today on the balance of play needs to remove their blue and white tinted spectacles. Brentford look far more ready to step up than we do. The finishing aside, it was one of the most comprehensive displays against us we've seen all season. Despite having hoped we would hang onto the win, I feel lucky we came out of this with a point.

Not sure about 'nothing silly' from the defence, there have been several real kamikaze passes. The last ditch stuff has been phenomenal though.

Yes, it did.

We won't be looking for those, because it's not our game under Mowbray. We don't play a game based on crossing. We don't have bodies in the box with aerial ability to take advantage. I believe this is one of the reasons Nyambe doesn't have any assists despite his surging runs. Yes his crossing needs work anyway, but we don't tend to have good options in there to send it to direct. Nyambe has been involved in several goals, by marauding and laying it off to someone, then a pass or two, or a ricochet, finds its way to someone who can finish it off on the deck. But direct crossing to someone who nods it home isn't something we really do outside of set pieces.

It did last season.

It flushed out responses because the absolute maximum DG has ever delivered for us, as good as he has been, is 22 goal contributions (assists and goals) and that was in League One. His other seasons have had 19, 16, and 7 (which was his half season). This season he has 3. He has never scored 20 goals in a season for us either, which is what you just said SG needs to be to replace him. As much as I like DG and am unsure about SG, the claims you've made don't match the stats. It's also worth pointing out SG did a lot better goals wise in his first spell than this one (just over 1 in 4, versus just over 1 in 10 this time), so saying the spells are the same isn't true either. The rest of your argument is fair enough, but where you've used actual numbers, you're way off, sorry. Personally, I really can't tell yet whether he is going to come good, alright, or a total flop. I also think he should shave his head! He's a big lad and that floppy hair makes him look softer plus seems to get in the way a little. Go aerodynamic, go bully-boy! (Minor point and half joking, but it couldn't hurt)

I wasn't just talking about us. Both clubs seem scared of making this matchup easy to attend.

To keep as many fans away as possible, which seems to be the policy in youth games against Burnley for unbefuckingknown reason?

'They want to play FIFA nonsense football and the ref wants to join in as well.' Uhhh. Yes, they want to play the FIFA rules, as those are...the rules of the game. Gotta learn some time nobber, got to play men's rules where you don't get to raise your hands to someone's head. What are they expecting?

This game is huge. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's the biggest game of the season, because a playoff final is obviously bigger than anything, and all games feel more important at the time. But I think this is a serious litmus test. We are on a good run of form which could get derailed, but if we are as good as we are hoping we are becoming, we should be able to at least avoid defeat (anything can always happen of course no matter how good you are). It's a chance to take points off a playoff rival who are a good side, maintain our run, show we are serious, finally hit top 6, and a chance to exorcise the ghosts of last season's collapse. As we all know it was the reversal from 2-0 up to lose 5-2 which signalled our season ending and we were awful after that. Lenihan's injury that day being a big factor of course. This is a game where even if we go 2-0 up, we will therefore still be quite nervous. The season probably isn't going to hinge all on one game, and good runs can end anytime, and bad ones too. That said, I feel like it is likely to be a big marker and therefore... A defeat and I'm going to go back to thinking the playoffs are still a bit beyond us as we will have returned to our nosebleed tendencies and just given an umpteenth false dawn. A win and I'm going to feel like we are a serious force in this race and have a real shot. A draw isn't conclusive either way, but will leave me feeling we do have a bit of a shot, as we will have gone toe to toe with a good side, a playoff rival, and not come undone under pressure.

Bit hypocritical though, Mulgrew has horrendous positional sense so not the smartest defender himself.

He's definitely looked a lot more likely to turn into something the last couple of games. My worry now is he seems to massively be a confidence player. If he keeps just getting tiny cameos off the bench even if he does well (which we have seen Mowbray be guilty of many a time with other players) that could fade and put us back to square one. He also seems to have a stamina issue, which tbf may be restricting his starts. The way he was huffing after that excellent run to score for the reserves, and I saw him huffing to a lesser degree yesterday despite coming on late. But at least he's working harder.