saintant

He is far too good for the Championship - would be a real coup to keep him but I think he'll be snapped up by one of the mid-table Prem sides.

Great start to the season. It wasn't perfect by any means but lots of positives. We moved the ball well although not always with enough purpose but hopefully that will come. Che's goal was an example of how we can open up defences. Rather than go down the wings which we did far too much we had the run of JWP into the box which created the opportunity and Che finished smartly - more of that please. This is the way to go rather than down the wings and hopeful crosses to our forwards who are not the tallest. I loved the way we managed the 9 minutes extra time which was far more comfortable than we are used to. One worry for me is that we are a small side and will struggle to defend corners and crosses into the box - that was how Wednesday scored and, in truth, you couldn't see them troubling us any other way. Lots to be encouraged about and we will get better.

Wednesday are playing like the away side. They know that if they don't keep nearly everyone behind the ball we'll rip through them with our slick passing - this is making it difficult to create clear cut chances. At some stage you would think they are going to have to come out and that might give us more space.

KWP had a superb first half. Are you watching a different game?

Total domination, some lovely passing Phases and great shape. The only thing missing is goals - apart, of course, from AA's deft header 🙂

I hope we have a plan to prevent 33 year old Barry Bannan from running the match.

Not an unexpected line-up.

Know nothing about him but his pedigree is pretty good. Let's hope he is able to improve our set pieces for and against because, other than JWP's goals, we score far too few and let in far too many. It's an area we need to improve vastly and this guy may be the one to do it.

I bow to your obvious superior knowledge.

At times in these clips he looks shambolic. Easy to see why we might want him 🙂

Orisic did score some incredible goals - along with others I am baffled by what happened to his game when he joined us. I guess we'll never know.

I haven't said he'll never improve over time - he's just not ready to be our first choice at this stage in his career from what I've seen.

Lots of mistakes, unconvincing on crosses and poor with his feet - he'll fit in perfectly as an alternative to our existing keepers.

Maybe swap him for Aribo.

Either you can save shots or you can't. Which division you're in is not so important.

Seriously!

Not sure why McCarthy would go. Isn't he on a contract and one of our highest paid players. Poor decision making by those in charge leave him tied to us as no other club would touch him with a barge pole on his wages.

While some of the more perceptive judge by what their own eyes tell them. Let's see how many are singing his praise after a dozen games - I wager they'll be in the minority. That's not me scapegoating Baz and I'm sure we'd all be delighted if he has a fantastic season but he gives me no confidence I'm afraid. Still think we'll be making a huge gaff if we don't sign a new number one.

So why not buy a keeper in his late twenties/early thirties instead of weakening our chances of an early return to the Premier League with a youngster still learning his trade?

Tino has proved he can cope with the demands of the Premier League whereas Tella has only thrived in the Championship.

We need a new number one keeper not a third place one. Is the club not serious about promotion? I'd be amazed if we make top six with the current set up.

No way Newcastle or anyone else would be able to foresee whether Tino's very bad injuries will affect his future performances. The only way we'd ever have been able to keep him is if he suffers a recurrence or demonstrates that he'll never fully recover to be anything like the player his potential shows he could be. For the here and now it's a very good piece of business for us and I wish Tino all the best at Newcastle.

And we've only scored 5 of which 2 were against a very poor Reading side.

Wouldn't be wanting Stephens as a starter to be honest. He dithers on the ball and seems quite slow of thought so not suited to the pass out from the back tactics. Also he is a ball watcher who never appears to be aware of danger in the penalty area so does not cover players in space. On the plus side he's a good leader, not bad in the air and can tackle.