Attacking Mercer won't make Brereton play any better! The lad won't be reading this (if he's any sense) and he hasn't been the subject of crowd abuse when he's played. That would harm his confidence and would be poor form. Its not just about him and waiting to see if/when he comes good. Its also about what players we might have got if we hadn't signed him. Like strengthening that defence.without late fade-outs we would be in the 6 now. If we just mark time in the Championship we will lose Dack. Its an odd transfer alright in our situation, the Academy is for long-term development.

He won the home games though eh Gav?

Good job the lineman was awake eh? They aren't always!

And we are good at that are we?

Ha! Look again! I wrote "we can't EXPECT to hold on to a 1-0 lead for 65 minutes"! Quite different eh? Based on our experiences this season, and last, we cannot expect to hold on to a narrow lead can we? Or do we not concede a lot of late goals after all? Clearly you have misunderstood my post!

No I didn't.....

Speaking of the Straw Man, I've not read one post which doubts that the players gave everything.

Yes, we came within a gnat's balls of drawing that game from 3-0 up! How can we possibly expect to hold on to a 1-0 lead for 65 minutes? As it was we came within inches of yet another debacle.

You're confident if you expect Tony to know his best side anytime soon. Seeing a side where everyone is playing in their best position will do for a start. Agree about Rothwell, does Tony? We celebrate the win but we know it could have been so much better.

He can ping that ball around alright! Very cultured performance for the first 45 mins. TM got this one right on this evidence so Sunderland fans can just suck it up!

All I know is that we started the season knowing we needed another striker because Graham's getting on and can't play 2 games in a week and we are are still in that same position after spending 7M!! How daft is that?

Yes,fooballers are renowned for their gratitude!

We played them of the park for the first 20 minutes, they couldn't get a sniff of the ball and all he play was in their half! Then we scored! Absolutely ludicrous that it all starts to go wrong when we take the lead!

One's called Thompson, can't remember the other.

Brentford have a couple of superb centre-backs,both 20 years old. and look real class. They won't be there long. A bit more cultured than our two you mentioned though!

It all too often happens though so you wonder if it is the plan. The selections and substitutions often seem part of that same plan.

A win at Wigan and I'm a happy man---2 demons exorcised in one season!

Yes Saxo, it has been mentioned.

Leeds looking dodgy, best 2 chances of the game to Brentford. Very impressed by the speed of their counter-attacking.

If TM knew we had roughly 9M to spend at the start of the window and he chose to spend 7M of it on Brereton as a future prospect then it absolutely beggars belief.

Wonder if he'll go for Freeman to make it 9? Agree with everything you say, in fact have said it often!

Chaddy, can you please spend less time telling us what you think Mowbray or Waggot or anyone else at Rovers said or thinks? Its increasingly annoying.

I said at the time (and was criticised for it) that it was odd that no other club seemed to have any interest in him at all. I worry they were right.

But we were speculating that this would be the case even before the team was announced. TM is just too cautious and he's a bit long in the tooth to change now. Need to lower our expectations I think.

The way we chased him for weeks and weeks and the price we paid, I thought he was some wunderkind. I honestly can't see what TM sees in him. Would a kid from our under-23's have done any worse? OK, he's had limited opportunities, but it looks like that's because we daren't give him anymore time on the pitch. Really disappointed.