Not at all chaddy. People are bound to be very critical of such a terrible performance, in isolation, just as they were very complimentary about previous performances, for example the way we dug out a win last Saturday. You are in the match thread of a game we got hammered in, not sure what you expect. The fight and never say die attitude on show v Reading and seemingly v Brentford seemed to run out at half time.

Disjointed first half with 2 or 3 chances we should have scored. Horrendous and embarrassing second half in which we lost our shape and our heads completely. Raya having a typical day at the office. At fault for the first, a fairly well hit free kick but at his side, and badly at fault for the third. Also a typical rush of blood in the first half where he needs to learn to kick it out rather than back into play. Made a few very impressive saves though, but one or two he parried straight back into danger, something he did which cost us v Reading and something else he needs to cut out of his game if he is to become the keeper so many seem to think he will. Defensively, we were so disjointed, have to suggest its a collective effort there as to why we toiled so badly. Both full backs were really shaky at times, and Lenihan has very little composure on the ball. Totally disagree that the middle 2 are midfielders, they both didnt have their best games but they were often left isolated. Mowbrays faith in Smallwood is at risk of becoming blind faith, hopefully hes down the pecking order after another poor show. Evans has a lot more credit in the bank but he was quite ponderous at times, back to the Evans we have seen at times before. Elliott Bennett was as poor as anyone I would suggest, so, so poor going forward, and defensively I don't think he did the job hes become so well thought of for. Palmer and Armstrong were off the ball today, both talented and important, Armstrong will have more scope due to the lack of a quick winger being brought in, leaving him as the only really quick player we have. Both missed sitters and their decision making was poor. Graham as per usual was very good at holding it up etc and should have been left on longer but the supply up to attack was thoughtless. Once Graham went off, we lacked a focal point, as you would expect. Not sure on the use of subs either. Graham was doing well and Brereton should perhaps have been put alongside him. He didnt really do much, a clever effort at the end, some really poor movement much earlier when he looked like he didnt understand the offside rule. Obviously not enough to judge on properly but Graham holds the shirt for now. Rothwell was really positive but I'm surprised that Palmer and himself have been rated so differently by people on here. Rothwell was very similar in that he was positive and bright but his end product was universally poor. Take the excellent run near the end when he should have slipped someone in on goal and he instead chose to tamely shoot wide from distance. Nuttall is a pointless sub, never impacted the game and for me Reed for Smallwood was the change to make. Think this makes for an average, middle of the road start, nothing more, from a favourable run of fixtures. We either look well drilled or all over the shop, as we saw also v Reading and for half of the game v Millwall. I do worry that our lack of defensive reinforcements will catch up with us at some point, and also that Raya will cost us a few times as he has done in the past. Fitness permitting, I'd probably line up like this against Aston Villa: Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Williams Reed Evans Armstrong Dack Rothwell Graham Subs: Leutwiler, Bell, Palmer, Conway, Brereton, Bennett, Davenport

Very shaky and unstructured at times. Missing Dacks composure going forward. Both Palmer and Armstrong should have scored. Typical Raya performance. 2 good saves. Then a rush of blood and kicking it straight back into a Bristol player. And then you cannot be beaten on that side from a free kick like that. Our best player has been the ref to be fair, if this was the other way wed be furious! At least twice hes got the ball back for us and 50/50s all going our way. Hope that doesnt change with the crowd against him.

To be fair, I dont think Stuart was our best player at any point, apologies to him if I am wrong. That is the aspect that people are failing to understand, professional footballers arent just like your average joe who works in an office, they need to be in top shape most of the year. Don't think hes "let anyone down" last night but its a concern if its done with regularity, with him being an athlete. Something which I am not sure if it is.

I think much of the assumption is that Dack is binge drinking with regularity, based on social media. If its occasional, then its not a big deal, if it is a regular, recurring theme then it is a concern and a potential problem because hes an athlete ans its not good for him to be doing that, and thats before bringing in the potential of trouble that he has seen in the past. I also dont get why you claimed to know for sure that Mowbray knew where he was.

Millwall had every right to be incensed yesterday, young player or not. The tackle was an absolute disgrace and could have broken his leg.

Happy with that team in the absence of our best player. I would have played Reed over Smallwood who must be on his last chance. I'm glad to see Armstrong back with his pace, and I think Mowbray has made the right call choosing Palmer over Rothwell, albeit its a very harsh decision on Rothwell. Palmer is more of a goal threat, and more exciting in my opinion, Rothwell would have been a safer choice. Hope to see Palmer in a 10 position and Armstrong out wide.

Palmers 2 goals mean he has to play. Surely Palmer as the 10, ie the position in which allows most attacking freedom, would allow Bennett and Rothwell to provide more discipline to stop them from.getting 2 on 1 v our full backs, and allow us to set up with 2 banks of 4 when required.

For me, Dack and Armstrong are along with Palmer, our 3 main players who can give us that bit of X factor behind the striker. Rothwell has really impressed me so far but hes not quite at the same level as the above 3. But hes also impressed me with his work rate. What do you make of the tactical change I suggested? Bennett made sense as a 10 to give us that third body last week against a team reknown for their possession football. Tomorrow, Bristol City may only have 2 in there and Palmer is undoubtedly better going forward than Bennett, with a bigger goal threat, and will provide better support as to not isolate Graham. Bennett and Rothwell can be either side of the central 2 giving us more discipline against their midfield 4, in a more rigid way than usual in the absence of our best attacking player and our main pacy outlet. If Dack and/or Armstrong are fit, it will be interesting to see who makes way. Mowbray wont move Bennett back so id suggest that Rothwell would be most at risk of a harsh dropping to the subs bench.

Assuming he is physically fit, do you not think at least cameos in the under 23s is the best way to build up said match fitness?

It would be a blow if Dack and Armstrong arent fit, but especially with Dack, if they dont start id be surprised if they made the bench. Assuming neither make it, your front 4 picks itself really, although I would personally go with Palmer off Graham, where he is best, and where he is least likely to become a defensive liability. If Bristol City play what is essentially 4-4-2, Palmer could be the spare man and is far better in an attacking sense than Bennett. Whereas Bennett's defensive work could be used to counter one of their wide men, probably Eliasson who has started the season well. I would also like to see Reed start ahead of Smallwood who has had a below par start to the season.

Would people think considering the free agent market for reinforcements, baring in mind that Mowbray apparently tried to get bodies in yesterday and didnt manage it, at least to get players in for a week over the international break to have a look, to be something Mowbray could consider? Nedum Onouha could be someone who could, fitness permitting, provide experienced cover for Mulgrew in Lenihan. James Collins, Gareth McAuley and Russell Martin are also all free agents, although there would be question marks about whether the first would be realistic, and whether the latter 2 would be physically capable anymore to provide an upgrade on Downing remains to be seen. Out wide, Bakary Sako would be a very good addition, he apparently went back to Palace who were considering re-signing him if they could get rid of a couple of players according to Hodgson, one of whom seemed to be Puncheon who ended up staying at the club. Whether he would be prepared to take a step down again remains to be seen.

Thanks @Way down West and good luck for the season, after tomorrow of course. I had a feeling he wasnt entirely and universally popular. Reid was never prolific was he prior to last season, I thought Johnson was doing a poor job when you had Abraham scoring so many goals yet obviously in general you was near the bottom of the tab, the same year we obviously went down. I remember being impressed watching Bristol City in the cup against the Manchester teams though so i presumed hed turned it around somewhat. Looking at your signings, I thought Adelakun would be a really good signing, quick, direct winger, whereas I have never really rated Weimann so im surprised hes doing so well, suppose at Villa and Derby he was never one of the main men so maybe he will continue to thrive in a central role. Selling Bryan and Flint was always going to be a blow but I thought Da Silva, Hunt, Webster and Kalas were all pretty good Championship signings too. Bit surprised that you didnt sign a more high profile keeper, that Maenpaa hasnt played much recently so I suppose hes a bit of an unknown quantity. I don't think either Bristol City or Rovers will be particularly fancied outside of our own clubs really but I suspect both can be comfortably mid table with a bit of luck, looking up rather than down. Theres a bunch of teams, Reading, Birmingham, Rotherham, Ipswich and Hull who on paper seem far inferior to both of our teams. Definitely agree on League 1, luckily we only had one season and the success was a lovely change so Rovers fans will have a fonder opinion of it I imagine but the quality was terrible.

Certainly much better than the one we were in last year.

Why do you predict that we could lose by a few, what have we done to suggest that a comfortable defeat/thrashing could be on the cards soon? In the last game we played, v one of the early front runners and highly fancied teams, missing Dack, Armstrong, Graham as only a sub and the likes of Brereton and Reed also yet to sign, we won 1 nil. We've yet to lose and are a point ahead of our opponents. A loss will come at some point but theres no reason to suspect a thrashing is on the cards. Going into the international break, if we win tomorrow weve had a terrific start, draw and its a decent/pretty good start, lose and its an average one. @Way down West what do you make of Johnson as a manager? And what do you make of your summer business? Think you may be stretching the truth describing this as a "great league!"

Yout put Abraham, Bolasie and Admoah in that side with Grealish and its a different proposition.

A lot is based on the signing of Brereton in my opinion, hes the key for the swing in opinions, maybe its the price tag and the potential of the player, but it has to be assumed that he will play a big role, and give us a new dimension in our attacking options. I suppose from the closing of the window, in essence that he has just replaced the injured Samuel, but I personally didnt see him as a player who could contribute anything at this level anyway. If Brereton isnt as good as Samuel then we really are up against it! I think there was also a feeling that regarding our first 4 signings, Davenport was one for the future and in terms of our attacking players, Palmer was only a loan who has already got 3 goals in the last couple of weeks, Armstrong was a snip but he was here last season so it doesnt feel like having a new player, and Rothwell has perhaps shown in the last couple of weeks since the window that he is ready to have more of an impact than anyone could have reasonably predicted. I am very happy with the signing of Reed, although I dont forsee Rodwell making a big impact. You mention the Lincoln game (who themselves made 7 changes) but im not sure people have or should read too much into that. Raya, Nyambe, Bell and Graham are regulars. Caddis has since left. Nuttall and Downing both scored against a changed League 2 side, but it doesnt answer big questions about their abilities not being to Championship standard. Travis has plenty of potential but may struggle for game time. Conway youd think will barely play and Grayson is only a kid. I still think it was an imperfect window, in that although a lot of really good potential work has been done, there are a couple of gaps were we could become a bit thin on the ground in 2 or 3 positions, and I get the feeling that anyone proclaiming that it was perfect is overlooking these obvious gaps.

Personally try to get to about half of the away games as I did last year, but regarding the midweek ones, they tend to be ones that I struggle to do unless local anyway, so this is beneficial to me to be able to watch it. Similar to what @chaddyrovers said in regards to working during the week. Out of interest chaddy, how many away games do you get to in general? Sadly, I do believe that season ticket holders will not attend as religiously, midweek home games, even though they have a ticket already bought, if theyve had a long day at work, if the weather is miserable, and its cold and wet, whatever the minor reason is, if its on TV some people will stay at home and watch it sadly. I personally would always prefer to go and will attend home midweek games regardless. I also agree with @Stuart and his points on walk on pricing. Part of Waggotts remit had to be taking advantage of a natural increase of demand with the team doing well, he failed to do that, primarily with the sharp increase in ST prices, and also things like moving the DE fans didnt help. As you said though, walk on pricing needs to be reduced or there will be no uptake, the increase in price in the hours before kick off is a joke to be honest, and I cant see the penny dropping, and as a result, midweek home attendances will be low.

If he played again he would get supported like anyone else. Hopefully he never will play again though because he is dreadful. And I dont think he will.

Links with the likes of Albert Adomah, Yannick Bolasie, Jed Wallace and Luke Freeman, and Pulis' public frustration at not being backed to sign any of them, suggest that he wanted to sign attacking, flair players and was unable to. Read this: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/16412667.pulis-frustration-exposes-tension-behind-the-scenes-at-middlesbrough/ I am not a Pulis fan like I am probably sounding like now but I feel like you are letting a strong dislike of him to get in the way of facts that disprove your points.

Agreed on Nuttall. Disagree on Travis. Its counter-productive to keep Travis for such limited game time, Evans, Reed, Smallwood, Davenport, Bennett and Rodwell in central midfield, and Nyambe, Reed and Bennett mean that we have enough reasonable cover in them positions to allow Travis to play week in week out. I know, but my point was why would it be a panic buy, if Mowbray has lists of various players in said positions? I acknowledged your point in that I dont like Pulis' style either, but I gave you one strong example of Adama Traore, and also that Lewis Wing has started games this season, but you seem to have refused to acknowledge these facts in preference to mentioning a game tonight which Pulis was clearly happy with a point, a very good point at that. His development of Traore, a winger full of pace yet very little defensive awareness, shows that he is not 100% against the idea of playing pacy, attacking players if they are good enough. And Braithwaite wants to move abroad.

Leeds have looked very good so far. If they are still in that sort of form when we go to Elland Road and we stink the place out and get a draw, id be pretty happy. I dont like Pulis and I do think he often goes past the point of being overly negative, but you cant argue with the results hes had so far. They were missing Savile, his replacement for Traore, Hugill is not match fit and Braithwaite has had his head turned apparently by a move abroad, so tonight, his arms were somewhat tight. Them 2 teams will almost certainly finish above Rovers.

Both have 4 wins and 2 draws from 6 games

Almost identical views to mine, albeit more clearly put!

Get what you mean about leaving ourselves short in terms of keeping Nuttall to an extent, especially after Samuels injury, but not Travis, he has mainly played in central midfield, a position in which we signed 3 players yet to be involved that will more than cover that position, and we have Nyambe, Bennett and Reed to cover right back. He isnt needed just to make up the numbers. Why would any buy be a panic buy? Mowbray has talked about lists, which is why I dont really understand why we didnt resort to an alternative, even if it was a temporary one until Bauer and Chapman become unavailable. Not bringing in a centre back and a winger have made a potentially perfect window, only a good window. Dont get where you are coming from at all re Pulis' tactics meaning he will never play. Whilst I would agree with suggestions that Pulis is a bit of a dinosaur, regarding this situation, your comments are blatantly untrue. Firstly, Mowbray only started him once in half a season in a weaker league, and has repeatedly said that he doesnt trust him to start games, so you could argue that he wouldnt play much here. More pertinently, look at his treatment of Adama Traore. He was a player with so much raw pace and natural ability, but one who was untrustworthy and had failed to nail down a regular place or consistently affect games positively, both at Aston Villa and at Boro prior to Pulis' arrival. Under Pulis' management, he turned into one of the best players in the Championship in quite a short period of time and earnt a big money move to Premier League Wolves. Also, more recently, he has given starts to Lewis Wing, a young wide man similarly through the academy, fact of the matter is part of the reason that Chapman may struggle for game time is because he is one of 3 talented, academy wingers at Pulis' disposal, along with Wing and Tavernier. My comment earlier was tongue in cheek, but is this mate the same guy that made that stuff up about Kent and Gallagher and you then initially blocked? Or a different one? A lot of people wanting to pretend to be in the know at the moment (this isnt aimed at you btw) that just take what is already public knowledge and put their own spin on it to get attention.