Saint Pete

Perhaps it would have been better to start him in his natural position on the right though rather than playing all 3 attacking mids out of position from the start? Just a thought.

Not a complete disaster after the wins earlier in the week. But definitely a missed opportunity to close/keep up with the top 2 and the kind of game we should be winning. Tonda needs to stop pissing about with formations and playing people out of position and keep it simple from the start of games. We got away with it vs Pompey, but dropped 2 points today that we might not have done if we had started players in their natural positions. If the starting team doesn't work, then is the time to try different things later in game, not from start vs a team we should beat.

Because Tonda is determined to play all of our attacking players out of their normal positions by the end of the match?

Haven't been watching the game, but feel a little sorry for Fellows if he's been given a start but played out on the left. Don't understand the logic from Tonda. I'm a big fan of his, but think he is starting to try to be too clever with formations rather than keeping it simple. Which is all we need to do when our players are significantly better than the opposition.

Shocker of a start for Burnley really, 8 points from 11 games and only 1 win. Surely auto chances gone already. I guess with play offs going down to 8th place now you can't totally rule them out of that yet but will need quite a turnaround.

I think that's a good sign Tonda is learning what works best with this set of players. Putting extra defensive players on to defend a lead isn't that effective when your defenders aren't that good! Far better to have players on who can help you keep the ball further up the pitch away from our goal.

I think that IS a negative way to look at it. A more positive view would be that after less than a quarter of the season, we have already fully reversed the impact of the 4 point deduction on 17 of our 23 competitors (74%). We have another 36 games to pick off at least 5 of the remaining 6 teams to get top 2, and we have already started reducing the 4 point deficit on 4 of those teams. Yes, there are 2 teams that have outperformed us so far this season, but there's no guarantee both of those teams will continue at the rate they have achieved so far. I don't think we will be far off if we continue the way we have started and I also think we have potential to improve, particularly away from home.

Yep, fair point. Wasn't writing him off in any way, just probably not the ideal debut getting brought off at HT, which I'm pretty sure was not pre-planned. But sure he will get more chances and of course we know he was bought primarily as a CB anyway so no judgement should be made on 45 mins at RB.

2 clean sheets in a row with Stephens at CB. Who would have thunk it?! Importantt win for a few reasons really - Keeps momentum and feel good factor after the derby win - Gets us over the hump of our first away win of season - Gives us confidence that we can still win a tricky looking away game while resting a few key players, which we will need to do as season progresses Main downer on the night (excuse the pun) is Downes injury, he has been so important for us so far this season, just got to hope he is not out for too long. Also not a great start for Abbott getting hooked at half time. Other than that, a good night that makes me a little more confident our squad outside first 11 may possibly be good enough after all (but still more needed from a few).

Interestng line up! At some point, we do need to work towards trusting our backup players more and I think that does mean biting the bullet and starting some of them so we can rest the likes of Larin and Scienza. Intriguing that he's gone with Dobbin in preference to Mubama, will be interesting to see how he goes up front. Very powerful bench available if the score is tight in the second half.

I don't know him either. But I would think most sensible Geordie fans would take 8 points from 6 games and mid-table after losing their best players and their manager plus bad injury list so far. They won't be happy about last night though obviously! Not sure about club strategy, Eddie Howe clearly wasn't happy about the player sales!

I don't think it would be right to play all 3 of Downes, JWP, Jander regularly, agree you need the balance of another more natural wide player. There's enough games in the Championship though that all 3 will get plenty of game time if we just play 2 of them and this will also keep them fresher. That' s what we did last season with Downes/Jander/Charles so see no reason why we wouldn't do that this season now we have JWP instead of Charles.

In fairness, he's been given a tough start. Lost most of their top level players (Gordon, Tonali, Guimaries) and quite a few others out injured at the start of the season (Burn, Joelinton, Livramento, Ramsey). They signed a bunch as well but that's a major upheaval to handle as s new manager.

Yep, Coventry seem over their dodgy start now. It's early days but I fancy all 3 could stay up even if it was the usual 3 spots, they all seem to have a bit about them.

Agree. I wouldn't say it was the best throw from Manning but Bragg needs to be much sharper and his poor touch was quite typical of how he started the game, he looked very edgy. Another point on Manning who folks seem keen to find fault with; Azaz has rightly been praised for his 2 superb through balls for Bree and Scienza, but Manning also deserves credit for his excellent long through ball for Larin early on, which could equally have resulted in a goal.