Still delighted to win, impossible not to enjoy a win regardless. But doesnt in any way change my opinion that we urgently need a change of manager, it was a really poor performance, hes built a squad laughably short in certain areas considering he claimed with a straight face that we can hit the top 6. The performance lacked quality, ability, urgency and passion. Start with the useless drip in net, 4 huge errors leading to goals in only 6 games. Absolutely dreadful. Miles more error prone than the incredibly error prone Raya, and his kicking is shocking too. Bennett is absolutely terrible on the ball, every cross is overhit, passes often astray and I think his first touch is so bad so that he can slide tackle for the second. Bell possibly not quite as bad as he can be but typically docile and sluggish, no use going either way and often kicks or heads the way hes facing rather than taking a touch. Not sure how much blame you can attach to the central pairing but you could have got a double decker bus through the middle for the first and no reaction to our goalkeepers inadequacies for the second. Travis gives us some energy and he was involved indirectly in 2 goals but his use of the ball is often horrendous, gave the ball away so often, no matter who we play in there we cannot keep the ball so why try and play that style if we simply cant. Rothwell was probably our best player, he just gives us that urgency and increase in tempo that the others dont seem to want to exit their comfort zone to play at, the antithesis of Armstrong who I will come on to. Also often switched on defensively. Holtby is the other one who tries to speed things up at times but it doesnt seem right him playing central, he often played clever penetrative passes wide (for Bell to usually stop and turn back) but hes wasted playing so deep. Dack justifies for me Mowbrays claim that he always plays. Hes our talisman, often our only goal threat. Not overly involved but scored 2 poachers goals that again were invaluable. Gallagher on the other hand, admittedly today somewhat hamstrung by another Mowbray masterstroke to play him wide, is a woeful footballer. He lacks intelligence, repeatedly gives the ball away and adds nothing at all. Useless. Armstrong also doesnt seem to understand the offside rule, another footballer lacking any intelligence yet plays every game. Infuriating. The pair would be lucky to make the bench. Subs wise, Graham a big difference, has to be first name on the team sheet, actually knows what he is doing unlike Mowbrays batch of expensive no hopers. Downing adds a touch of class but Buckley added the square root of nothing.

Armstrong, Gallagher and Bennett all deservedly keeping their places in the team.

Ultimately at this level Barnsley have as weak a group of players as youll probably find. At home, have to win and should be pretty comfortable if you have anything about you. My point was about the hypocrisy of saying that Rothwell, a very fast player, doesnt play because of a lack of end product (even though he doesnt start games to provide end product) whereas Armstrong is guaranteed a place solely on pace, regardless of repeated ineffectiveness.

Ive no idea what that first sentence is in response too. And no, today we are playing at home against a side with crap players who havent managed to win since the opening day. New manager bounce, injuries, whatever the excuses are, they are moot, nothing less than a win is acceptable today. Why does Armstrong get in the team due to solely to pace when hes been failing to provide an end product for months? Rothwell shares blinding pace so why is he being treated differently. Because like Bennett and Gallagher, Armstrong is one of Mowbrays favourites, and the three of them bring the quality of our team down quite considerably.

Hes talking hypocritical bollocks about Rothwell yet again chaddy. In isolation, demanding more end product from a player is fair. That said, hes started him 3 times, all in tough away games, all in isolation before being singled out and dropped immediately. 20 minutes here and there is no good. This is on the back of an outstanding run at the back end of last season. He says he picks Armstrong because he is fast, but Rothwell is just as fast, yet Armstrong is repeatedly both ineffective and disinterested. So why the double standards? Why doesnt Rothwell get a few games together to give us that pace and see if he can do more than Armstrong, it wont be hard. I agree with his comments on Dack because he is one of only 2 players we have who guarantees a source of goals. The other has sat on the bench all season for a terrible striker in Gallagher who contrary to popular belief mainly has played in his favoured position and has done so bar for one half incredibly ineffectively. He mentions Travis, again I dont disagree that he needs to work on his ball retention. That said, Mowbray has signed players like Johnson (incapable of playing on the half turn) and Gallagher (technically very poor) in his attempt to remodel us into a technical side. His supposedly and as of yet very much failed "philosophy" is full of holes. His comments about Bennett are unsurprising but shocking. Bennett is crap, he is quite simply not good enough as a footballer at this level, albeit Mowbray doesnt touch on his football ability, suggesting he picks him solely on character. But if Bennett is the driver of the team, he is driving it to stagnation, hes hardly leading, its repeated limp performances.

Thats not a fair comparison. Nyambe, Lenihan and Williams were in both squads, the main difference is Mulgrew out (pre his recent decline) and Adarabioyo in. Greer, Hoban, Brown and Hendrie were all shite to varying degrees were all squad players. Weve also added Bell, moved Bennett and added Walton so weve lost some shite back there and added some. No doubt that overall the squad has improved but of course the main fact is that 15m worth of attackers have been added and none are worthy of being in the team.

The "heights" of last season? To describe Downing as being "brilliant" is massively overstating what has been a decent season for him, not sure you could say any more. And Gallagher and the phrase "great player" do not belong in the same sentence.

He may argue that he hasnt played enough minutes down the middle but to be fair he never has looked like a competent footballer full stop. All looks very unnatural to him. The only striker we have who deserves a run of starts is Graham.

Im sure hes desperate to do well but hes an employee, his club is Boro.

Why would he put in loads of work for other people to take advantage of? He wont be sacked barring a real disaster whilst his mate is advising our absent owners. Thats my point.

Downing has been ok, I raised serious doubts about his lack of influence in terms of goals/assists last year and he has contributed to 4 goals, the ones v Leeds, Hull and Charlton all being good dead balls. (although he is certainly no Mulgrew in that regard) I do think that he often struggles to assert any influence from open play however, the only direct contribution to a goal was v Reading and it was very much creative license of using the term assist! I am not sure he has the mobility to have the impact he once was capable of out wide and I also remain very unconvinced that he is able to make the transition to central midfield successfully and dictate games like Gallagher does for example at PNE. Ultimately, hes usually between neat and tidy or ineffective. Johnson has been a disappointment, Walton has been poor, Gallagher worse, Cunningham immediately injured, Adarabioyo underwhelming bar one performance and Holtby has not featured enough yet and his role seems a little confused at the moment, so Downings overall average start is arguably the best of all of the signings.

Theres no chance that Mowbray will be sacked with his mate in the ear of the owners. Waggotts a waste of space, both in being an unbiased soundboard in terms of deciding/helping/advising on the managers future, and in terms of hitting sales targets due to needlessly aggressive and poorly planned pricing strategies.

I believe Holtby played in central midfield for Hamburg. One thing is for sure, he needs to play the majority of games in a settled position. It makes some sense to have him in central midfield where he can perhaps dictate games and give us a step up in technical ability on what we have in there but I thought he was really poor v Leeds in there. Im not sure playing wide suits him best either, but with a license to be a bit more positionally fluid he has looked brighter looking to play one twos with Dack and just generally being more incisive with his passes than our other wide options who all seem to flatter to deceive. For all of his obvious talent, I do think there is a reasonable chance that his spell here will be underwhelming just because I am not convinced exactly where he can fit in best. You would want him in a number 10 role but theres no way you can drop Dack.

Would echo Stuarts reply to this, why would you gain any satisfaction from one of our players who undoubtedly has talent, who plays in an area we have struggled with consistently throughout the last few years, whose time at the club (on a permanent deal) has been a total failure?

If you cant see that the kick off choice is detrimental to the vast majority of potential fans then you are perhaps beyond reasoning with.

Because he keeps making mistakes hence his demotion from Forest number 1 to being unable to make the bench. How many times have you seen Kingsley? Only commenting on the one time I recall seeing him.

Pantillimon is a liability, and no better than the inept Walton. Ayala would be good but suspect he might have bigger teams in for him. Daniel that is, Roberto a bit old I suspect now. Remember seeing Kingsley play at Ewood last year and he was absolutely dismal, as bad a left back as I saw last year based on that performance.

Ideal for you perhaps, but quite clearly picked at an incredibly stupid time in terms of getting people through the door. Why market kid prices when they will be at school. Doesnt affect me as I wouldnt have gone regardless but just commenting on the decisions made by Waggott and co and it is yet another failed one.

Armstrong is the first player that deserves dropping, and Graham the first name on the teamsheet. It was primarily Dack and Holtby that linked up well to be fair.

Cant see anyone interested in Lenihan, a rash and injury prone defender, and whilst Travis is young and of course our best central midfielder I cant see many people outside of Ewood taking much note. I would agree that we wont go down, there is too much crap in this league but not sure that we are much better ourselves. Cardiff are far better than us, they have not coped well with relegation at all and being mid table is a huge surprise but you look at their team, their goalkeeper, centre backs, full backs, central midfielders and wingers are all very good for this league. They are just a bit toothless up front, their big money signing hasnt settled. Hull have some really poor players but theyve got a couple of good ones and one outstanding goalscorer which sets them apart from many of the others you mentioned. Boro are massively underachieving under a novice manager. Huddersfield again were struggling post relegation under a novice, got plenty of quality, Schindler, Kongolo and Simpson in defence, and again a proven goalscorer in Grant. And Stoke have been in a decline under a terrible culture that is difficult to shift for ages, their new managee may be the man to shift that because ultimately their squad is quite obviously not a bottom 3 one, O'Neill got an instant result playing players in a simple system in their correct positions. Even though Luton beat us with little in return, I suspect your bottom 3 wont be far away from being correct, and I think we will stay up, but I am far from convinced that we are better than the teams you mentioned, with some getting new managers and Boro due one.

We must be watching different games as I dont recall any improvement in performances!

If hes judging the team on performances then I would suggest that he should be even more concerned than with our results. The level of performance has been consistently shite throughout the season and we have repeatedly failed to have anything over than minimal shots on goal. He has tried to make out as if drab home performances v the likes of Charlton, Luton and Forest displays were dominant and we deserved more from them, total bollocks. I cant think of a single good performance all season, Hull maybe is the best and that was a poor game settled by a missed penalty and a set piece.

To be fair, wont he need to continue to exert himself when senior players are around to make it in the first team, rather than holding back?

If we appointed Ainsworth and it was even 1% because of who he supports then it would be for the wrong reasons. He should be considered simply for work hes done as a manager.

Of course, we are in agreement that obviously a manager makes a huge difference and we need a new one but you can only do so much and our squad is lacking in so many areas. Never mind a defence not being top 4, ours isnt top half, its one of the worst in the league!