Well well well, wasn't expecting that, we've been crying out for a performance like that in the first half at home all season and the way we pressed high, passed the ball through midfield and took the game away from the opposition inside the first 20 mins was imo the best we've played under TM since he came to the Club. Second half we understandably eased off a bit and reverted back to our normal style of play hoofing long balls and losing possession. But then the third goal on 70 mins settled any potential nerves, the introduction of Nuttall provided a bit of fresh impetus up front and after that we were comfortable again. Travis and Rodwell were absolutely awesome. Travis is so good It beggars belief that he hasn't been playing before now and Im not entirely convinced that like Palmer he wasn't playing at Sheff Utd. to put him in the shop window to send him out on loan before Smallwood's suspension forced TM's hand. However he's taken his chance brilliantly and we're all the better for it. He's so influential you can actually get away with playing either Evans or Smallwood alongside him, although to be fair Evans had his best game for a long time today. Rodwell looks so composed he seems to bring an air of calm to the back line and am I right in thinking we haven't conceded a goal since he's been brought in? Let's hope it's not too late to convince him he has a long term future here. Bennett had a much improved game at RB. The only slight negatives were Graham who once again was poor and never in the game and Dack's recent tendancy to drop way too deep when we really need him in danger areas where he can do some damage. Overall though, much better in terms of performance especially if we can play like we did in the first half more often.

For me too much quantity and not enough quality at CB. We have three converted midfielders and a guy who's been playing at LB (badly) for the majority of his time here vying for the positions. Our only actual specialist centre backs are out on loan. Really good defenders can sniff out danger in advance. People merely filling in and doing a job can't. Up until the last couple of games when Rodwell came in and did surprisingly well I think I'm right in saying the Mulgrew/Lenihan partnership was shipping goals at roughly the same rate as the season we were relegated. There's plenty of room for improvement there if the manager saw it as a priority which seemingly he doesn't.

Seconded. That would be absolute madness.

Better give the bench a new lick of paint! This week would be better.

I thought Downing was a lot better than many on here gave him credit for, but I can understand the lad wanting to leave to get more game time. What I can't understand given our current situation is Wharton being loaned out again. He's 22 in October, by now we should know whether he's good enough, n which case he should be starting games for us, or whether we need to move on. Wonder if he'll turn out to be the next O'Connell, not deemed worthy to see the light of day here but a very decent player elsewhere?

Agreed. Saturday's game will be an interesting test of bottle as much as anything else. Have we got the stomach for a potential play off challenge? Under Bowyer whenever we looked as though we might do something we seemed to manage to blow it and earlier this season when we got to within a point or two of the play offs we chucked in the horror shows against Preston and Wigan. Has anything changed? We'll soon find out.

Spot on. To me it doesn't seem as though the owners have snapped the purse strings shut , they spent plenty (eventually) in the summer and I was told money had been made available this window but TM was reluctant to spend it. imo it all boils down to TM not wanting to upset the players who are already here and the apparent assumption that anyone coming in won't be dislodging the regulars and will only be here as back up. There's also an article in the LT today with Evans who's basically saying how great it is that the senior players get a large amount of input in regular meetings and get a say in how we play etc. This all smacks a bit of the inmates running the asylum to me. Might not happen this season but I can't see it ending up in anything other than tears eventually.

On the evidence of the last 2 games should be Rodwell. Wonder if we'll play 5 at the back like against Newcastle to shoehorn all 3 centre backs into the side though.

He's off then.

Get your point, I was wondering the same. Imo if we went up we would be cannon fodder with the current squad but surely if the worst came to the worst we'd still be far better off going up and coming straight back down with £100m to go again than never going up at all? Would put TM in a dilemma. He couldn't possibly stay loyal to the current squad then. Could he.......? Don't actually think there's any chance of it happening. I suspect if we get any nearer to the play offs than we are now we'll bottle it like we did before the Preston and Wigan games. I would love to see us contest the play offs at the new Wembley though.

Terrible game, great result. Reminded me of the QPR game, don't think we'd have scored until this time next week had we not been gifted a rather soft penalty. After that it was comfortable, Ipswich looked as bad a Championship side as I've ever seen. The positives apart from the result were Armstrong who drew a needless penalty out of nothing and who looks much improved from earlier in the season. Rodwell also looked very assured and deserved his MOM award. Does Mulgrew get back in? I wouldn't say so. Well timed run from Nuttall for his goal as well. Gives us the mobility we lack when Graham is up front. Thought Bennett Dack and Graham were poor but overall a very good result after not the best performance so you'd take that most weeks.

Hope Nyambe hasn't been dropped simply to accomodate the useless Bennett. The usual boring 8 +3 line up at home. Not mucn entertainment value in prospect. All about the end result I suppose.

I disagree completely. Nothing wrong with giving them a wage rise on being promoted. However I don't know when everyone's previous deal expired but of the players you mentioned, with the exception of Lenihan, none of them needed a deal beyond the end of this season. If they didn't like it "See you later." We're not a Charity although we're certainly acting like one.

Surprised people aren't making a lot more of these comments. With the exception of Reed ( not even our player anyway) and Dack the players he has mentioned are specifically some of the ones we will need to improve on and replace if we are to progress. We need experienced 27 or 28 year old replacements for Mulgrew and Graham and Smallwood and Evans aren't good enough. If TM is just making these sort of comments as some sort of man management to keep the existing staff happy until better players come in fair enough. If as I suspect he believes what he is saying in that we can't do any better I think we're in serious trouble. We're coming across as an old boys club, not a professional team looking to improve and win matches.

Like I said I think Rothwell has shown signs of promise although if I had the choice I think Palmer looked a better player. One thing I will say in defence of Palmer/Rothwell/Brereton though is that as the season wears on and you're only getting a few minutes here and there every few games, it must get harder and harder to impress because of the lack of match practice and obviously the pressure is on to plait sawdust or you'll be dropped again. Even harder in Brereton's case when you're out of position. Not that he's shown a huge amount obviously.

Hee hee. Enjoyed that rant. Spot on and quite Churchillian. 'We'll fight them on the beaches......"

Incredibly harsh to judge Rothwell on the basis of the limited opportunities he's had this season. Sheff Utd apart (which Otg seems to be focusing on) I think he's done quite well in his brief cameo chances although I must say out of the two Palmer looked a far better player to me. We do however need someone of that ilk in the side with a bit of flair and creativity as otherwise the balance in the side is wrong and you're completely reliant on a moment of magic from Dack. If he doesn't produce, as a rule we're stuffed.

Exactly. I hoped we'd be eyeing the play-offs flirtatiously this season. I think we'll finish way short of that The major problem though is not so much where we finish given as long as we stay up that's broadly acceptable for this season given we've just been promoted. The problem is that the nucleus of the squad that took us down and brought us back up again is not good enough to do anything other than survive in the lower half of this League. Despite that transfer activity seems to be viewed as a bit of window dressing to pad out the squad and provide bodies to fill in occasionally due to injury. In the summer we needed 2-3 players to come straight in and improve the first eleven. Maybe one new face this month to spice things up and keep everyone on their toes. Another 2-3 more in summer and you've got the basis of a side capable of challenging next season. Instead if nothing happens this month come the summer we'll be in exactly the same boat as 12 months previously, about 7th favourite with the bookies to go down and likely to finish accordingly.

I think if there's two people in the world we don't want coming to Ewood and turning us over they would be Paul Lambert and I have been stopped from posting this by moderators. Coyle so I desperately hope we don't have a disaster this weekend. Did Lambert bring Wolves to Ewood after he left or is this the first time he's been back since he walked out? If it is I'd hope he gets dog's abuse off the crowd for treating us as a 6 month stepping stone to boost his bank balance and get himself off the managerial scrapheap and back into the job market.

Reed is a no brainer IF he's brought in to play in central midfield. I'm not sure we'd get particularly good value out of him if we paid a big fee for him to play makeshift RB or RWB because TM doesnt like genuine wide men. Not sure what all the fuss is about Gallagher. Tries hard but just isn't very good. Not a prolific finisher at all.

If they're that good, why hasn't he come back in for them at any point then? ? Graham's been better for us than Bennett tbf just that age is catching up with him now.

I think we need another striker but I would certainly hope it isn't Gallagher. When I watched the re-run of last night's game I thought Nuttall actually did a lot better playing out of position than I thought at the time. I'd take him over Gallagher every day of the week.

Ran his bollocks off? He could barely move. Didn't say Graham shouldn't be around at all, said we needed a first choice striker. DG would probably be capable of a really good half an hour from the bench as back up even next season but I'm not sure that warranted a new deal per se. BTW Bennett was atrocious last night as well. He's only any use in central midfield and even then we potentially have better options there in Reed and Travis. Constantly shoehorning him into the side in positions where he isn't particularly effective isn't doing us any favours. They both need replacing if we're to progress.

As everyone seemed to think Graham played well I watched a rerun of the match in detail this morning to see if my live impression of Graham's contribution was correct. He was even worse than I thought. Good first half which included setting up AA's goal then in the second half he only touched the ball ten times, six of which were to concede possession in one form or another and four of which weren't particularly significant. In the first period of extra time he touched the ball three times, one of which was the excellent pass to Conway leading up to Dack's miss. I don't think he even touched the ball in the second period of extra time. The other thing that struck me was that the first three Newcastle goals were absolute shockers from our point of view. For the first we hadn't come out of the dressing room and no-one was attempting to close down tbe shot from the edge of the area. For the second Bennett was caught in no-man's land and Bell was out of position leaving Nyambe and Raya to try and retrieve the situation. Raya did his best by making a decent save and that should have been adequate time for the others to get back and snuff out the danger but no-one did and as the ball flies into the net you just spot Bennett ambling casually back into the picture. The third was the most basic of blunders from Raya and its hard to have any sympathy for or feel any affinity with this set of players when they keep displaying a lack of professionalism, keep making the same sort of errors and keep conceding soft goals. So if I had to sum the match up in a nutshell we lost it by conceding yet more ludicrously soft goals and going forward we were hamstrung by the fact Graham was a virtual passenger from the second half onwards.

Damn. Busted. People also used to say the same thing about Jason Lowe before they finally realised he wasn't up to it either. ?