Thanks. Was this from the ticket office?

Exactly yeah and missed them. Him and Brereton offered a threat but missed chances.

No. I would start with the same midfield 3 and front 3 as today. He was bright and unlike Vale, he actually has some attributes that I can see, quite quick and getting into goalscoring positions. But it wasn't an effective enough cameo to alter things when we created so much. It is a hell of an ask going into such a critical last 6 games, it isn't the time for experimenting. He has shown enough to be a potential option off the bench though.

That is different from the point that you made questioning his commitment by implying that his mind was elsewhere. I don't see how based on his performance today that the conclusion could be that he wasn't giving his all. He seemed visibly frustrated a few times with refereeing decisions and things not quite falling his way. End product is obviously a different argument altogether. Aside from his assist I thought that Dolan offered the least threat along the front 3 and Szmodics was also wasteful in the final third so it would be unfair to single him out. Brereton did offer a threat although missed a couple of chances. That being said, even this season you cannot say that Brereton is less productive than either of the other 2, still comfortably our top scorer.

He hasnt had a good season compared to last season but he is a good player and I was thinking it is worth making a change to try and rectify our recent defensive problems. Tight call.

Very much must win territory. I wonder how many Sky have skimmed off the potential attendance with again a lack of consideration regarding the kick off time. Assuming all of our players are available again, which considering that Brereton left in a protective boot is a real concern. Then I would just stick Kaminski back in and maybe Scott Wharton for Carter who has dipped in recent games.

Not a chance that Burnley lie down and take it easy.

Did he say anything about the severity of the injury to anyone?

Where did you hear this? Brereton being in a protective boot is a worry.

The rest of the season is all about the next 6 games and every point is crucial. It's not about player development. That being said, he has perhaps shown today that he could be a potential option off the bench to make a difference.

Its such an easy, lazy assumption to suggest that Brereton's mind is elsewhere. His demeanour doesn't suggest that, hence his frustration a few times with soft free kicks that went against him. He was as involved as any of the front 3, you can criticise his decision making/end product but he didn't play like a player who didn't want to be here. Enough of them, perhaps, but totally writing off our chances of winning ANY of them?

They didn't beat us last season.

League 1, apparently. Will still be here next season.

Dean Smith 😂

Played with a casual nature as if he was on his Playstation. (at 2am)

Really mixed feelings, hard to escape the feeling that a draw isnt enough and with such a hard run in, I am not very confident. Thought performance wise we were as good as I can remember in quite a while. The change to a midfield 3 gave Wharton a bit more freedom and he was excellent as was Morton who was so much better deep in a 3. Rankin Costello was phenomenal, talk of moving him IMO is misguided as he offers us such a unique threat from right back. Brereton has got a lot of unfair stick but he was unlucky with a couple of decisions and was a constant threat, the front 3 lacked ruthlessness but you would hate to play against them. Leonard did more today than Vale either does in the league. The question is what do we do on Saturday. I would be tempted to stick with the same middle 3 and front 3 although there is a temptation to put in either Thomas or Hedges and move Szmodics central behind probably Brereton. I think I would stick with the 3. I think Kaminski deals with that first better and I hope he comes back in on Saturday, he is a better keeper. The centre backs were shaky again and I would be tempted to put Scott Wharton in v Hull.

The standard in general is piss poor really. You look through some of the players on show for both sides and it shows why a play off push is not quite the potentially incredible achievement that some make out, even allowing for question marks within our own team.

Does anyone know how ticket sales are going?

He hasn't scored for a while, not the player he was a couple of years ago.

He scored in all 3 games before the international break to be fair.

He was, including the likes of Aaronson, Adams, McKennie, Kristensen and Wober who he had managed in the past.

Is Kaminski only competent? He was excellent prior to his wobble pre injury when it later emerged via Tomasson that he had been carrying it prior.

Brereton scored 3 goals in the week before the international break, it is very difficult to justify dropping your top scorer. I think the key is having him closer to goal.

The Johnson and Gallagher examples are often quoted but not to justify them, one was a bizarre 45 minute experiment and the other was for about 10 minutes mid game between tactical changes. It is more that the aim should be to finish above last season. Obviously the squad isn't exactly the same but the key difference is the manager. And I would definitely prefer Tomasson in the dug out over Mowbray. I think a big disparity in our opinions comes not from me rating our squad miles more than you do as I don't, it has limitations 100%. I think I have a much lesser opinion of the quality of the league as a whole. You look at Luton in third and it is a team cobbled together of journeymen. You look at Millwall and they are similar, Preston have had no investment for years and they are 2 points away, Coventry are up there with us even though we nabbed their best defender due to their problems. I also think that as we stand in the play offs with us having 7 games to go and that is even allowing us to have lost our last 2, that it would be a huge frustration for us to fall away again. It would also heighten a potential mental block whereby even if we were up there again next season, we would expect to fall away.

I don't think we have any right to finish higher than 8th. I just don't think the situation was as much of a mess as you are making out. He had 2/3 of a side that finished 8th and we paid money to replace the out of contract players. I do recognise the limitations in general, the owners have never reinvested the Armstrong money partly to compensate for how poorly the club is run and Broughton (and the owners) failed to get him an experienced midfielder and striker that he needed. I also don't think that the way we set up last season was necessarily designed to get the best out of Brereton. But as a counter attacking side that played a front 2 with Brereton playing in between that left side that he likes but still central enough to regularly score goals, it suited him down to the ground. The 4231 this season has often had him as a second left back. I feel like you are unable to look past seemingly a hatred of Mowbray, as if Brereton's goals were a mixture of total luck and some sort of divine intervention spending a few weeks with the Chile squad. He was a decent manager who had taken us as far as we could go and was replaced by Tomasson who I see as an upgrade.