Eee dear

Inclined to agree but we’ve had one clear-cut that we put away. Gally should’ve hit the target and other than that they’ve been well-defended.

Genuinely pleased to see JRC playing well. Fully assumed he was finished. Some really lovely stuff being played around and in their box. Not sure why it seemed so much more difficult against Sunderland but fluency is much higher here.

I’ve cracked open a beer, in the hope that it remains an enjoyable watch. Boro are pushing their luck with this high line. Don’t look familiar enough with it to execute.

It’s just happened again, albeit the ball was too far ahead of Gally.

BIZARRE goal. Get in.

Evening all!

That’s a very poor result. Sunderland had a whole stadium behind them, roaring them on and really didn’t bother us much in the second half. At the death, a fresh captain gives away the ball and the striker has about two weeks to figure out what to with the ball. Woeful. We look worse now than before the World Cup. I still don’t think you sack a manager who’s in the playoff spots and I still have faith in “The Project™” but it’s definitely waning at an alarming rate.

Woeful defending, really amateur level stuff that.

First half was poor, but clearly half time team talk had some effect and we’ve looked better. Not great to have as a pattern, really.

Maybe so, but I think even in the lulls that naturally happen in a game, there has to be a way to have him harness that. It could be a lack of movement ahead of him, I don’t know, but he’s much better when he doesn’t have to think.

Great ball from Buckley and it’s instinct that brings it out. How do you turn a footballer’s brain down to just work on instinct?

Interesting that Sunderland have no press on Buckley when he carries the ball. He reliably then gives it away. Given Mowbray’s only just left us, you have to assume he knew that about him, that it’s a pointed instruction.

That was really poor. The entire defence backs off him and he pinpointed it to their defender. No idea.

Nowt like a Rovers match to really bugger the Christmas spirit, eh?

Uh oh. edit: fully expected a red there. Would expect it against us. Borderline violent conduct.

No, no, no. Not having this. In terms of the job they were asked to do, Grabbi at least was a tactically aware forward and sought out his team mates, fair enough. I cannot countenance, however, Ashley Ward being better with the open goal miss at Bramall Lane from genuinely half a yard to hit the cross bar with a nod-in header. Similarly, Chris Brown not only never scored a goal across two seasons as a number 9, but never even looked like he knew how to score a goal. George Hirst is arguably a number 9 having to play a role that’s very different from that. Not at all suggesting he’s been a worthwhile loan, even but those two at the very least were absolute pony. I won’t be convinced.

You’ve a lot more experience than me, but even I can count Ashley Ward, Corrado Grabbi and Chris Brown as very likely much worse than Hirst. He’s not been up to much at all but all three of those gave me migraines to watch.

I would agree with you up to the point of Travis and Scott Wharton who have only quite recently hit fairly catastrophic patches of form at similar times and for no obvious reason. That’s the bit that makes me wonder and warrants some form of explanation.

Feel dreadful for the 9k or so if ours who turned up on a Weds eve before Christmas for that. can’t believe Trav’s trajectory from being made captain to most people thinking he’s not for the first team. No insight into Brockhall at all, but we look an unhappy bunch. Something definitely not clicking.

Do we know what’s going on?

Scott Wharton has had a fucking shocker, what’s going on with him?

And fair enough, if that’s what you want. It’s a hell of a way to make a lot of money and a job is sometimes just a job to some people.

He’s basically on holiday. Is it a one-year deal? He’ll miraculously slim down and hit some sort of form towards the end of the year, to secure another money move. He’d do well abroad, to be fair, but I think he loves the sesh a bit too much.

Lingard celebrating a free kick that ricochets twice on its way in, like THAT, is why he’s absolute finished. Never mind the 5kg he’s visibly put on in Nottingham. I hear the wings at Hooters are quite moreish, but Christ alive…