RevidgeBlue

Ridiculous point which demonstrates a willful desire to miss my point and a collective head burying in the sand over Graham's attributes or lack of them. Obviously anyone's penalties count towards their overall tally. But converting a penalty doesn't mean that he's scoring freely or contributing much in terms of overall play. If Lenihan had been allowed to take that penalty would you have made the same assertion that he was in the side and "scoring"? Neither, obviously, does digging up his career stats mean that he is is going to continue scoring at a comparable rate this season given he is visibly becoming more and more static every year. Let's get it right, Mowbray is 100% correct to seek to move away from the long ball up to Graham style of play. DG was only brought in as a bit of an emergency measure after just two games because Gallagher was so dire in the opening games. If Graham can be used sparingly as back up when required then he can still probably be an asset although I still maintain we'll be in serious trouble if he's our main striker over the course of the season. Imo we need one of Brereton, Armstrong or Gallagher to step up this season and as yet there's still precious little sign of that.

He isn't "scoring" as such. He converted a penalty.

I wasn't there Saturday but that's exactly how I view both players. Other than Dack if he hits form, I'm not sure where the goals are going to come from this season.

Vital 3 points which just about keeps our head above water. No goals from open play of our own in 270 mins would be a concern for me but maybe we can kick on from here.

rDon't understand the support for Bennett at all. Nyambe might have had a poor game against Oldham but has been out of the side for quite a while and on previous form is clearly the vastly superior player. However no doubt he'll be dropped today. Bennett had an absolute mare against Charlton and there's no way he should have been picked for the Fulham game but apparently his place wasn't even in question so that just shows the different standards Mowbray applies to certain players. Unfortunately with Bennett at RB we're always likely to ship goals and I don't see it being any different today, especially when the loanee keeper looks like a bit of a doughnut as well. Is this the right time to have the age old debate on whether this is a "must win game" or not? Obviously not must win in that we need the points to stay up but Boro's confidence must be at crisis point with a rookie manager, a terrible start and being dumped out of the Cup by lower league opposition so if we lose today it's hard to see where the first win is going to come from. Or conversely, will the fortunate injury time turnaround against Oldham be Mowbray's "Mark Robbins" moment? As a side note I can't make it today as I'm laid up at home for the next 12 days recovering from emergency eye surgery (cue the obvious jokes) so I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's views who's attending the game.

Give it a rest. The fact you for some reason sit behind Waggott and are on nodding terms with those in authority at the Club doesn't make your opinion any more valid than anyone else's because what Waggott and Mowbray are doing might not be right and, imo, it isn't. If you'd known Iley, Ince, Kean, Berg, Appleton, Bowyer, Lambert, or Coyle, that wouldn't have validated what they were actually doing either. It's only less than a week or so ago you were passing an opinion that if the manager didn't bring in another centre back before the end of the transfer window then the window would be a failure. Instead we lost 2 on the last day. For the second summer running the big money signing again seems to be an absolute flop. But now, because you sit behind these clowns, all seems to be well in your world again. You know as well as I do that unless there is a dire emergency none of those youngsters you list will see the light of day. And in the unlikely event Mowbray does get the sack, it won't be because he's set an "unrealistic" target of top 6. (Which should be every Club's minimum goal really). It will be because we are in danger or returning to League 1. Of which I think there's every chance if Mowbray remains in charge for the majority of the season and isn't replaced.

Depressing to hear. They bloody well should be.

Yet we are.

But is rarely effective in the Championship against better defences.

Looking at the highlights it was the Bradley Dack show after he came on. Nothing much has changed over the last two seasons since League 1 days. He performs, we do ok, he doesn't perform, we struggle.

Now I know you're on a wind up.

Never in doubt. ? Should be enough to guarantee Mowbray a new 5 year deal in the morning. From the looks of the replays the old long high ball towards Graham is still effective against lower league opposition. We just need to find something that works against Championship opposition.

The problem is that that disallowed goal will give Mowbray his ready made excuses for tonight. "Thought if that'd have been allowed we'd have gone on to win the game etc." ?

Offside. Tried looking at it on the replay and it's not in line so difficult to tell When he headed the ball he could have been marginally off but don't know where he was stood when the free kick was played in.

Being better than Evans is not a difficult task! Tbf to Smallwood, ability aside I've rarely found his attitude to be in question. If you wanted someone to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in when things weren't going well, I'd take him over most of the squad.

To be fair to Smallwood that is a bit of a kick in the knackers from Mowbray. Maybe he's trying to provoke him into going on loan to a League 1 Club. Classier ways of doing it though. Just sub him at half time.

Disappointing that the fringe players don't seem to be knocking the door down to be selected but the eleven changes are indicative of the problem that has been evident ever since we were promoted, twelve months on and TM still doesn't have a Scooby what his best side is.

His mate Waggott. "I'll scratch your back by getting you the job, you scratch mine".

Don't be so negative 1864 chill, have a beer, take a pill as you keep telling us! Don't say I didn't warn you, perhaps these guys who "used" to be educated know a thing or two after all ! ?

No it isn't. Whose fault is that? The manager's. He's had 3 windows to start upgrading the team and make us competitive at the top end but has shamefully neglected to do it, because for some reason he is obsessed with looking after the players who were here when he got here and any new players coming in only tend to come in round the periphery or are younger players who can be tucked away under the heading of "one's for the future."

Yet.

Hope he scores 5 otherwise he'll be dropped never to be seen again.

We've had numerous spells pre and post Uncle Jack when we've been at a financial disadvantage but have still performed relatively well due to having a good manager and casting our net wide and operating shrewdly and effectively in the transfer market. That isn't happening at the moment imo, players are being played out of position, favouritism has been shown to certain players whilst others haven't been given a fair crack of the whip, and the last three transfer windows have been an absolute shambles. As for finishing top 6, I'm not sure what is wrong or unrealistic in aiming for that, you don't actually have to have that great a season to finish 6th, you can finish 20 points behind the automatic promotion places and still sneak into the play offs. Aiming for a marginal improvement on 15th is an absolute nonsense for me.

Hypothetically If we offered him enough money, of course he'd come. His stock has fallen dramatically recently so it's not like he has the pick of all the top jobs these days.

For me it became obvious he wasn't the man to take us forward last season and he should have been relieved of his duties around February or March. There then followed an absolutely abysmal transfer window so the only thing that would surprise me is that if anyone was surprised by our poor start. Nevertheless: having not got rid of him last season and given him this window I'd concede you need to give him ten matches or so to try and turn things round. Out of interest, where would you stand if we're on two or three points after ten games and five points adrift at the bottom of the table?