Not sure what it is, can see a bit of something in him. He looks short on confidence though and whether he'll ever get chance to show it is a different matter. Agree with Mercer though. If it does turn out to be £7m wasted the buck lies 100% with the manager. IF it's not his signing and someone else is signing him ( which I doubt) he shouldn't be putting up with and agreeing to it.

Or we could give him a run of games in his favoured position before writing him off completely. Brereton makes a mess of something on the wing tonight and the crowd goes "Brereton you're ****!" Graham comes over to the wing at one point, makes a mess of something in much the same way as BB and the crowd go "Unlucky Danny, go on lad!" Not saying the crowd have got on BB's back unduly but the point is neither are wide men and DG would probably look ust as bad if not worse if he was being played out of position out wide.

Good post. I think there may be some potential in Bell and (tin hat on) Brereton but more or less spot on. We also need a first choice striker in his prime imo. Not one who is nearly 34 or a 19 year old. I don't think there is any chance whatsoever of challenging for the play offs, neither are we likely to go down so the only interest left in the rest of the season for me is seeing if we can make any quality permanent additions in January who'll improve the starting eleven or seeing if we can integrate some younger lads into the first team set up. For example I'd recall Wharton straight away and give him some game time to see if he's likely to be an asset moving forward. Does TM have any appetite to do either of these things? Not sure.

That's the way it looked to me and unsurprisingly it didn't work at all with everyone apart from Lenihan being out of position. It was a fairly bizarre effort even by Tinkerman Tony's standards.

Yes but he's had very few decent games. As for tonight the lay off to Dack was his only contribution in 75 mins of the second half and extra time. You need a lot more than that and he should have made way on the hour mark with Armstrong who was doing ok moving more central.

Is it April 1st already? I'm very much a fan of Raya on the whole but he needs to know blunders like the one he made tonight aren't acceptable. If he wasn't confident about catching it, all he had to do was pat it down in front of him. Not lose concentration and let the ball bounce off him to the striker. Maybe being benched for two or three games might be the kick up the backside he needs.

Bell was poor first half but had a really good second half. Brereton looks short on confidence and who can blame him after on start in his proper position in half a season. Still thought we looked more threatning with him on the right than Conway though. Agree on Bennett. Graham showed exactly why he shouldn't have got a new contract. Great for 45 mins then faded out of the game completely. You never know a) If he's going to be available or b ) if he is if he is going to be on his game and c) if he is whether he can last 45, 60 or 90 mins etc.

So what? Downing is still on the books and shouldnt be sold until a replacement comes in. No need to play Bennett, Reed Nuttall and BB out of position either.

We did well to get back to 2-2 but once we were level we were extremely disappointing. Never showed the drive or desire needed to win the game. So ended up soundly humiliated by Newcastle's reserves. Season over, roll on August by which time Derek, Corey, Richie, Elliott, Craig and Danny will no doubt have new five year extensions to their extensions.....

Why? Two years in there's no evidence either he or the players have the slightest idea what our best line up/formation is.

Of a fashion. He had a great first half but hasn't been in the gane at all 2nd half or extra time. You're always hoping a chance drops to him though I suppose. Conway's been shocking since he came on. We looked more dangerous with BB on the pitch. And he wasnt playing well. Poor miss by Dack. Needs to do better there. Edit: Raya - Im a big fan but that's shocking.

Wasn't expecting that when we went two down. If we can concentrate 2nd period we have half a chance. Need to sort the back line out, Bennett is playing neither one thing nor another ten yards in front of where he should be if he is playing LB. Leaving Bell horribly exposed when Newcastle come forward and not getting forward or contributing anything worthwhile when we have the ball. I'd move him to RB and Reed who is completely wasted at RB into central midfield I think. Square pegs into round holes Tony strikes again.

Surprisingly there was a large queue for walk ons and a massive queue round the block for collections. Decent turn out in the end. Shame about the score.

Its more like 5. Bennett Bell Lenihan Nyambe Reed Bennetts having a shocker so far. Not moving into space when he gets the chance. Like being a man down. Bright start from Brereton. Edit: Game over. This lot have no heart whatsoever Sick to death of them.

I don't think we'll ever get a better chance of beating PL opposition, Newcastle certainly didn't look like they didn't want to be out therr in the first game either and I hope we don't manage to blow the opportunity.

That's pure conjecture. No way to prove that one way or the other. We'll see how many finally turn up. If it were to get to around 15k home fans tonight I'd tend to agree with you.

Disagree. Whilst its possibly slightly more than if the tickets were "normal" price I think its still a very poor turn out. Evidence imo that £10 tickets have no or negligible effect.

Just been to get my ticket.A few in purchasing for tonight. Currently 10 k Rovers tickets sold, just less than 2k Newcastle but obviously we may sell some more today.

Or "Smallwood's rush of blood saves Rovers millions". Wasn't TM talking about Travis (and one or two others) going out on loan prior to the window and Smallwood's suspension? Still. If you can claim it as a stroke of genius on your part so much the better I suppose! (And yes I know they both started the Sheff Utd game. ONE game)

It doesnt get others goals though. Seven (and 2 og's) other than Dack/Mulgrew/Graham.

Going down for my ticket in the morning. Still can't imagine this is much of a priority for Newcastle and really really hope we win this one after the way the first game went. N.B. It clearly states on the website that tickets bought after 5 p.m. are £20 before anyone starts moaning about it.

I don't, at least not without very major surgery elsewhere. It would have echoes of selling Rhodes on the last day of the transfer window. The season after we went down.

So that's your own view and it's purely coincidental that it's word for word what Pep Guardiola said on Sky the other day? ? My view is that if players are available who will improve the team on a permanent basis are you have to sign them whether it's January or July. Otherwise if you just fiddle about with the odd loan you're back to square one in August. You'd have to go some to unearth a player who'd improve the City team. However I can't believe there aren't any players available in January Europe wide who would improve our first eleven.

I think it's stretching it a bit to say that the players TM is talking about have done particularly well by the Club. In the last 3 seasons in the Champoonship we've finished 15th, relegated, and are currently 14th. And let's be honest, we wouldn't have been anywhere near bouncing straight back were it not for Dack, and without him we'd be in serious trouble this season as well. Imo there's no way the core of the players TM feels so loyal to are going to deliver anything other than a lower mid table finish at very best. We had this problem when the late Ray Harford took over and he was being too loyal to players who'd won the Premier League. Not ones yo-yoing between Leagues 1 and 2.

He's done ok but even at this stage only has one really good game every four or five. The rest of the time he looks miles off the pace.