Well, nobody's been able to watch him for more than few minutes have they? Unless they are Notts Forest fans of course, in which case they'll have seen him for a handful of games. Its not a case of writing him off, I personally don't recall any poster doing that, its a case of wondering if that was the best way of spending that sort of money at this particular time. He played for us in one game, out of position and looked hopeless.I'm on the record as doubting the value of this signing before we made it but I hope he gets a chance in his real position and takes it. I suspect most feel he same.

But we NEVER do! 45 mins is our norm

Agree but will it be enough to keep Dack?

Well, Newcastle put Shearer in the nets when he went for a trial!

If you judge him solely by he says..No doubt in my mind that Reed and Rothwell should start but apparently that would destroy the camaraderie built up during our League 1 season. The problem is we are not in League 1 anymore.

Gone from posting ad nauseam to not posting at all. I thought it coincided with Scumley's form. Nasty piece of work that one.

Palmer is turning out to be a typical Chelsea loanee. As if he'll ever play for Chelsea. They just hoover up players by the dozen and the only time they're in London is for away games. Time to roll the dice in midfield TM.

In that case John Claret will apply!

My initial assessment of him is that he's light years away from being either a Shearer or a Ripley! We have to hope that he gets as close to a Shearer as possible because he will never be a Ripley.

Brereton doesn't look strong enough to me at this point.

Assuming Brereton is good enough.....

Should have been a bigger wall so the guy couldn't have scored direct at the near post. With a left foot he would have been forced to put it up for a header which would have been easier to defend.

Like.

I agree re Palmer. Baffling that he didn't come on for Armstrong. Equally baffling, if Graham is going to play the whole game, why bring another striker on for the sake of it? Its good to have so many options but it has to be managed properly. I note Chaddy's comment earlier that "Brereton did fine for me, wide". I thought he was useless and I do not comprehend how that view of Chaddy's is possible!

We had three central strikers on at once when Brereton came on. He's 6ft 3in, and played on the right wing! If we needed a winger, why not sign one? Why try to make Brereton what he isn't and never will be? What's the use of Armstrong a central striker with his right foot on the left wing? I'm sick of hearing that TM doesn't like wingers but prefers "wide forwards". We have a disjointed set-up and it isn't working. Back to basics for me and to hell with daft theories. Agree Brereton did not impress but can't judge him till he plays in the position he was bought for. Also, while I'm in the mood---why isn't Rothwell picked?

There's a few to blame, from the needless foul that gave them a sniff so close to the end of the game, the failure to get everyone but the dog in the wall.,and the failure of Raya to realise that a left-footer had only one option and to cover that option. Very poor, whatever the quality of the free-kick.

Preston in early trouble?

The "for the future" bit is what we should focus on. There's an outside chance that we could snatch a play-off place but you could say that for three quarters of the teams in the Championship! Our mission this season is surely to stay up comfortably and not be involved in relegation? Then build from there and go again. Its a miracle looking at where we were.

Just a matter of time before you run out of posters to put on that enormous list of your's Chaddy! Obviously you won't be reading this!

In the English game the values are inverted. Strength, speed and stamina rate above skill and vision and technique. If you are of the latter type it will be coached out of you or muscled out of you. Duggie wouldn't have stood a chance if he'd been 25 today---too slow, too greedy, too light-weight and no-one to latch on to those mesmerising through passes anyway which would have simply gone through to the keeper. Sad but true!!

No need to feel bad about it Jim. We all underestimated him. The most common positive comment was "at least he isn't Coyle"!! Goes to show we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously, we're not the football geniuses we think we are!

Just read the first page of this thread when TM's appointment was announced! NOBODY thought this was anything to be happy about but some were more cautious than others!!! And the second page is worse!!

No but we shouldn't disparage him because he can't step up from Div 1 to the Championship. He always does his best but sadly that isn't enough now. I've criticised TM for not playing Rothwell and I think he's taken loyalty too far but I have no criticism of Smallwood. From 'King of Ewood " to not good enough must be a bitter pill for him to swallow. TM has to take the tough decision now, indeed its overdue.

Pleased you agree with me!

Why did we sign all these mid-fielders if we don't play them? I assume we signed them because they are better than we had. This hardly surprising because we were a Div 1 team! The problem is that TM is loyal to those who brought us back up. Good in theory but won't achieve the results. Team must be chosen purely on merit.