RevidgeBlue

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. ?

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)