Sorry I wasn't clear, I meant that due to the general nature of some of our play we looked to have a lot more potential "going forward" I.e. "looking to the future". I didn't mean we were dynamite going forward in an attacking sense yesterday, indeed we looked quite toothless up front which is why I don't think we can afford to lose BBD without getting 2 quality replacements in.

Thought Ryan Giles looked quality playing at LB for Boro under a decent manager. Not one of Lenihan's better games though

It doesn't take much these days! 🙂

Had this argument over and over with John Williams back in the day. If you're planning on the basis that you're going to fill the Darwen End with away fans half the season, you can never put into motion serious plans to fill the ground with home fans. I know we're a long way off even those days now but I'm sure there were home fans who enjoyed going in the DE lower when it was possible to do so and I'd have kept that going and been looking at ways to give us a credible presence of home fans at both ends of the ground.

Yes, with our own fans.

If there any actual evidence he's sulking though or is it just some nonsense posted on social media?

Rather more to do with Mowbray sulking and falling out with all and sundry, refusing to sign a striker and playing Bradley Johnson as a false 9 and losing the dressing room I'd have thought!

I strongly disagree on this. Keep away fans as far away from the pitch as possible imo. Why would it save a few pennies sticking them up top as down below? Wouldn't make any difference would it?

There seems to be quite an agenda building up against Dack in certain quarters, he's had two serious injuries, a very lengthy absence and then picked up a minor injury in pre-season didn't he?, I'm not sure at this stage his current absence can necessarily be put down to him not being willing to get fit enough or the manager not fancying him. If he hasn't featured two or three months into the season then maybe there's something in it. For me personally though, Dack on one leg is still preferable to Gallagher.

Can't agree. Gallagher offers nothing. I'd rather persist with Vale out of the two although I would say bringing in a decent striker should be a priority - just as it should have been in January also.

I think most of us would agree that even after one game there looks to be be a lot more potential going forward under JDT than Mowbray. But come on for Christ's sake the Club need to give him the raw materials to do the job. We got away with it yesterday, but It seems to me that we would be absolutely stuffed if we get a serious injury to Travis, Brereton or Kaminsky. We would also be struggling if either Scott Wharton or Ayala were out for a considerable period which you have to say is more likely than not in Ayala's case. Added to that Pickering's form appears to have fallen off a cliff and we could do with a better LB if we want to be challenging. (Which if QPR are indicative of the standard in the Championsip this year, should be possible) So let's not repeat the mistake of January when we failed to bring in cover for BBD and tanked as a result. CM Decent striker (2 if BBD leaves) CB LB Back up keeper Come on Waggott and Broughton, pull your fingers out and get the job done. No more weak excuses, it's obvious where we need strengthening.

Can't believe anyone would criticise Vale on his first appearance but but exempt Gallagher after the latter's quite simply embarrassing performance yesterday. He offers nothing. That's far more of an issue going forward for JDT to resolve if we want to be successful than Vale having a quiet game on his debut.

Well......if he's given £7m to spend and finishes higher than 15th ......he'll have done better than Mowbray in his first full season in the Championship.

Great three points, some encouraging signs, but we'll have to play better as the season goes on. Buckley played well but was a very lucky boy on 27 mins, already on a yellow he needlessly pulled someone back in the centre circle. The ref reached into his back pocket then realised he was already on a yellow and let him off. Most refs would have said "Tough shit mate!". Thought Wharton and Ayala were the best two performers today, very impressive I thought. Travis and Brittain were decent, didn't realise Lewis had a shot like that in him. Thought Dolan was very good when he came on. Negatives for me were Pickering, very shaky defensively and seems to have lost all his confidence when he gets the chance to go forward, opting to check back instead. And Gallagher, JFHC, even by his usual standards he was atrocious. Only JDT knows how he stayed on the pitch 90 mins. If I'd had a fiver for every time he gave the ball away I wouldn't need to work for the rest of the week. And the guy marking him was about 5 ft 8 and got the better of him nearly every time. Just remembered: Thunderstruck before the game! Great stuff - keep it up!

Almost entirely agree with that, are the owners not entitled to expect those they pay handsomely to do their jobs to do them properly though? Either way, if we get things right from top to bottom, we will do well regardless of whether we have less revenue than certain Clubs. I still maintain that our overall revenue stacks up well against all but a few Clubs after the owners contribution is taken into account.

When you get over your huff and log back in tomorrow, could you explain what infrastructure costs we have that PNE and Bolton don't?

Don't spoil the narrative with any facts.

Completely agree. I posted similar a week or two ago in response to Glen. I managed to come up with a long list of stuff I considered to be detrimental. As I said at the time "What have the Romans ever done for us?" but in reverse.

Yep, the mods can correct me if I'm wrong but there seems to be a whole bunch of brand new posters popped up in the last few days eager to defend Waggott and tell us nothing is his fault. That's not suspicious at all. What's more baffling is the established posters on here leaping to his defence when his record across all areas has bee atrocious.

Don't be silly. That would call for a bit of ingenuity and thinking outside the box.

Good post JH. It's all too easy to throw your arms up in the air and say "We can't compete, we've done all we can". Anyone could do that. All we're seeing at the moment is failure to secure our better players on new contracts resulting in them leaving either at a discount or for nothing, failure to bring in players of equivalent quality to replace them, and now seemingly an inability even to sign up our better Academy prospects. If we genuinely can't compete and secure our better players, bring in the right quality, or hang on to our Academy prospects, then why are we paying a CEO a salary commensurate with solving these types of problems? If there's nothing we can do anyway, we'd be better off bringing in someone on £50k p.a. and use the saving to pay an extra player or to reduce the FFP deficit. I'm not exactly sure what Broughton's role in this either, if his remit is to get more Academy lads into the first team we could have told someone to do that with the cream of the crop. We didn't need to bring someone else in on hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to do it.

Obviously not. If he'd rather do that than play regular first team football in the short term that's up to him.

On the other hand, Markanday came the other way and joined us from Spurs so that rather shoots a hole in your argument......

Bit of a smart Alec reply from you but theoretically the way to get him to sign is quite obvious isn't it. Offer him a bit less than Spurs are offering on the basis that the prospects of regular first team football will probably be a lot higher than there. And allow him a release clause so that if any PL Club wants him badly enough he can have his dream move and we get a decent fee. Everyone (fairly) happy. IF we've done all that, then fair enough. I'd rather wager we haven't though.

It might, it might not. It's impossible to have a definitive view on the situation without knowing the full facts.