I actually think some of the players he recruited in the summer look decent Palmer, Rothwell Brereton etc but he wont play them so if that remains the case you'd have to say it was a very poor window. Prior to that, Dack apart, his recruitment record has been very patchy. We're still lining up in most games with the majority of the side consisting of players he inherited.

I'd be excited by Chapman coming in, whether or not he could stay fit might be a different matter. Gallagher on the other hand I'm not overly impressed with at the best of times and what's he been doing this season anyway, just rotting away at Southampton? Two things strike me, are we incapable of signing anyone other than players we already know about because they've played for us and more pertinently, is there any real point bringing anyone else in in January if the manager won't play them? There is, but not if the manager views them once again as a bit of window dressing to fill out the squad and basically just sticks with the players who got us promoted from League one

Yes. Last season TM had to look at it differently as it was deemed that automatic promotion was the minimum requirement. This season expectations are relatively low, the general consensus appears to be that consolidation would be a good season and we are playing down to it accordingly when the opportunity often seeme to be thete to kick on and do slightly better. Frequently failing to convert winning positions, throwing in 2 stinkers against Wigan and Preston after working our way into a promising position, failing to win yesterday playing ten men for 70 mins with a one goal head start etc etc.

I don't agree with a lot of what Darren Lewis says on Talk Sport, he always seems to be banging the race drum and trying to create problems where they don't necessarily exist. Prior to the World Cup he was trying to make a big thing out of the possibility of there being some racist chanting and saying that if there was any the black players should walk off the pitch (regardless of how the referee dealt with it or what the team had decided to do as a whole should it occur) and in general he appeared to be trying to differentiate between the black players and the rest whereas to me they're all "our lads" regardless of skin colour.

Duplicate post sorry

I wouldn't say we're overachieving particularly. We're almost equidistant between top spot and the relegation positions and the odd game apart, the football has been extremely drab. I would say we're doing very slightly better than I expected but not by much. If we do manage to finish roughly where we are now then I would say that that was acceptable on a one off basis as a team that has been newly promoted but I wouldn't say it was a cause for popping the champagne corks or putting out the bunting. I'd say overachieving would be spending most of the season in and finishing in the play off slots regardless of the eventual outcome. Where do you see us as a Club? Do you see us as a Burton Albion for whom staying in the Championship is a massive achievement or something?

Graham was terrible today, might as well not have been on the pitch. Not the first time by any stretch this season either. He's either very very good or shocking. There's very little inbetween. I think Brereton deserves his chance in the middle. Graham's body ought to be able to handle 30 mins or so at the end. Failing that we need (at least) another striker.

Spot on. I've just got back from Boro and I was absolutely fuming immediately after the game, at one up we had so many dangerous situations and potential opportunities to kill the game off but we didn't seem to want to do anything worthwhile with the ball and just passed it about sideways and backwards until the danger fizzled out. Sure enough we were punished for this lacksadaisical sort of attitude by a moment of individual brilliance and we only showed any real sort of urgency after we were pegged back. The side has well and truly lost its winning mentality from last season and we must be top of the league or thereabouts for points conceded from winning positions. A really poor result for me after playing ten men for seventy minutes with a goal start. On the plus side Rothwell showed in his cameo rolewhat we've been missing, a midfielder who can drive forward and spray the ball about accurately. No doubt he'll be dropped again for the next game.

Me too, my daughters live up there so can make a weekend of it. Might be pushing it to beat them 3x on the trot but if we can beat them twice on the trot with Coyle in charge who knows? Hope TM treats it as seriously as a League game.

Never expected that from that lineup, I didn't want to go down when I saw the team at 2.15 but the clear the air talks must have done the trick, the intensity and desire was better than for quite some time. Having slagged him off before the game Conway produced an excellent performance and if he is capable of that you wonder why he's been so poor for the last two and a half years or more but nevertheless if he can produce that consistently he gives us an extra option we didn't think we had. Graham and Dack linked up better than for some time, Graham will probably never have scored an easier hat trick of tap ins thanks to the brilliance of Dack but returned the favour superbly for Dack's goal and was in the right place at the right time which is all you can ask of a striker. Downing was also excellent. I quite like him and I think he gets a very rough press on here. The thing that pleased me the most today apart from the result was the fact we twice kicked on and scored again after being pegged back to 2-1 and 3-2 respectively. That sort of desire hasn't really been apparent this season and we've been happy to try and scrape one goal wins. Much better all round from both manager, players and in twrms of the general attitude.

1) Both. 2) Yes.

What an appalling line up. Timid Tony retreats further and further into his shell. Sharpe's line up (which was still too conservative would have been far better). What's Conway ever done to deserve a recall? He is so far past it it's untrue.

At first glance that looks an exceptionally dull line up dreamt up with a view to not conceding as opposed to striking fear into the opposition. It might work if Bennett was moved into central midfield, otherwise we've seen time and time and time again that lining up with him and Conway on either flank simply doesn't work. Massive pressure on Dack and Rothwell to produce a flash of inspiration in that set up. Smacks slightly of desperation to me in that TM is falling back on his three old favourites Graham, Conway and Bennett and doesn't know what else to do. Could be worse I suppose. Could be Bennett Smallwood Evans and Conway in midfield at which point I'd be tempted to turn the car round.

Hmmmmm............ football isn't such a simple game when players are being played out of their normal position where they're not particularly comfortable and I wouldn't say Palmer was anywhere near the next most likely player to score up front either. Having spent £9m on two strikers over the summer I'd have thought they'd be the obvious candidates. Still, TM claims the "clear the air" meeting went well so lets see what happens this afternoon.

Agree with the above. We're learning a lot more about the players as the season unfolds. Who's really good enough to kick on at Championship level and hopefully beyond? Probably only definitely Raya, Nyambe, Reed and Dack (when he's up for it) Palmer, Rothwell, Brereton, maybe but we don't really know for sure as yet because TM won't give them the chance. As for the team spirit thing I think it's most likely the players are simply bemused by and not buying into things like the "false 9" bollux, having 8 defensive outfield players on the pitch and no real out ball and seeing your main striker being substituted to make way for a defender when you're one down. It is of course not impossible that something has upset the players over the interational break. Mulgrew not beig allowed to play for Scotland, Dack being told he is moving/can't move in Jan, the squad getting upset about the treatment of certain players on their behalf etc etc. However the team spirit seemed exceptional during the promotion season and at the start of this season up to and including West Brom so you would expect TM would have enough credit in the Bank with the players for them to shrug off a disagreement and take it on the chinand het on with things rather than down tools.

Rotherham wasn't too bad but QPR was an absolute shocker imo notwithstanding the result. This sort of has been coming for a while for me albeit I never expected us to fall off a cliff as badly as we've done over the last six days.

Yes, was speaking to a Celtic fan two nights ago who wasn't TM's biggest fan and who pointed out he is apparently the last Celtic manager not to win the League. Said it all ended with a 4-0 defeat to St. Mirren who they should never be beaten by and certainly not by a margin of 4 goals. Said TM looked clueless on how to try and change it.

Although if you look at his managerial career as a whole I think I'm right in saying he's had good times followed by bad times at a couple of his former Clubs. The fact he took us up last season would be no or little consolation were he to take us down again and whilst last season earns him a bit more leeway than if he'd had no success here, it doesn't (or at least shouldn't) earn him a completely free pass. As the old saying goes "You're only as good as your last game". Hopefully all this type of talk will prove to be academic and by the end of the season we'll be laughing at this 2 game "blip".

But what if we were to lose the next 4? The next 6? The next 8? Depending on performance levels I'd say that could well be a case of "Need to look at it" "You've got 2 games" and "Sorry but it's time for a change" respectively. Hopefully of course nothing remotely approaching that will happen and results and performance levels will stabilise. Starting on Saturday.

Well yes. If we try to be a bit more expansive, it might not work and we might get walloped 3 or 4-1! Oooo errr hang on ..........?

The problem with dropping Dack is that whilst theoretically he might benefit from the kick up the arse of being benched for a couple of games, no - one else has looked particularly capable of scoring in his absence. Whilst he was really poor at Preston I thought his commitment levels were far better at Wigan but he was fighting a losing battle in that side on the night. Massive shake up needed for me, whilst the manager might have caused it with his bizarre selections, the players still need to know that the lack of commitment shown in the last couple of games isn't acceptable. Personally I'd go Raya Nyambe Mulgrew Downing Bell Travis Reed Rothwell Palmer Dack Brereton Maybe go 2 up top with Graham and Brereton together up front after an hour if that isn't working. Doubt TM will do anything like that, I would expect changes to be kept to a minimum with more of the same and a primarily safety first approach again.

Completely disagree about Chapman. Signing him obviously wouldn't solve all our problems, it wouldn't turn Williams into something resembling a ledt back, it wouldn't make Lenihan, Mulgrew and Rodwell into hardened specialist centre backs, it wouldn't turn Evans and Smallwood into creative central midfielders, it wouldn't make Bennett capable of putting a decent cross in and it wouldn't knock five or six years off Danny Graham. it would however go some way to addressing the lack of pace and width in the side and if we signed a really good left back, a hard as nails centre half, a creative midfielder and a quality central striker at the peak of their game we'd look correspondingly better again. Trouble is, TM obviously doesn't think so. As Neal says it's insane to be talking about signing a player only to loan him straight out again. Especially when it's one who in imo should be walking into our side.

or e) "all of the above".

Nail, hammer, head. Normally I'd be full square behind the manager calling out the players after the last 2 performances but I think it's TM who needs to go "back to basics". Stop playing players out of position, stick with a formation and system they can buy into and get your best attacking players out on the pitch and give the opposition something to think about for a change instead of treating every game like we're playing Man City. Also, games last 90 minutes. It would help if occasionally we tried to tear the opposition a new butt hole and win the game in the first 20 minutes instead of coasting through the first half trying to stay in the game and then invariably having to go **** or bust to try and either win the game or retrieve a deficit after about 63 mins.

Wouldn't blame Dack tonight , he was having to come and collect the ball off our two converted midfielders masquerading as centre halves. Hope we've got enough credit in the bank already to limp to safety as we look like relegation fodder at the moment. The players look completely demoralised and demotivated by the manager's constant tinkering and bizarre team selections formations and substitutions. Tony did well for us last season but I'd be keeping a close eye on the situation right now, we don't want to allow the situation to deteriorate to the point where it is too late to get out of it like we did with Coyle.