Oh Heck C-Beck

I thought Mellor played excellent in midfield when LJ first came in. Was really surprised to not see him kick on and command a starting place last season, something is not right and I would guess it is his attitude and performances in training, meaning he doesn't warrant a starting spot. I don't buy into this not enough chances for the young players, if they are good enough and show the right attitude they will get in. I always thought Winchester looked talented but expected him to be another one on the scrap heap, very surprised to see him nail down a starting spot and consistent performances, sounds like he has well and truly proved me wrong and I assume this is down to his hard work. Lets hope Mellor can do the same instead of writing him off. If he doesn't I am sure he will be looking for a new club when his contract runs out.

Sorry just noticed that ;)

Especially excellent if this new lad is much better!

Why should it? Are you saying you never help anyone without personal gain? Surely not...

Because we can help him out quite easily?

It's very funny reading this board when out of the country. Football opinion really does swing from one extreme to the other. I thought the knives were being sharpened for LJ two weeks ago from the tone on here and was fearing the worst for this season. Really shocked from the initial comments this season that we have strung three victories together. Long may it continue. Sounds like Winchester has decided he wants to be a professional footballer too. Always looked talented but most times I have seen him the game passed him by. Really good to hear he is turning it around. Hopefully Mellor can too and Bove and Truelove can make an impact.

Surely someone at Oldham is taking the piss with those highlights truly shocking haha, especially when you compare it to the PNE effort.

There will always be negativity until people wake up to the reality of the situation we are in. I found it baffling the amount of people posting about being top half pre season based on a few half decent friendly results. Since Shez left we have not invested in the squad and and year on year we replace like for like. By that I mean some good players, some average players and some bad players. Whenever we lose good players lots of people talk about how we won't miss them but I feel this where our expectations are really wrong. A team challenging at the top will not lose and replace it's best players. It will keep them and add to them. We are just treading water and it is no surprise we always finish in roughly the same position. Yes on an individual level we might not miss the likes ok Korey Smith, Tarkowski etc but football is a team game and collectively our squad has not become stronger over the last few years. We can give it time, but we will need a lot of luck to be challenging in the top half without more investment.

During Dickov's reign I went about a year without seeing a league win at home, probably went to about 15 games in this time too.

While it doesn't make me angry I do find it pretty cringeworthy and completely meaningless, marketing bollocks.

Not in the UK so cannot really judge but after preseason all the talk on here was about pushing for top ten. Less than a week into the season and it's all doom and gloom where's the optimism gone ;)

Thanks that's more like it:) Listening to LP I forgot Dayton was even playing. Out of the new players Jones seemed to be involved in a few almost costly turn overs of possession.

Thought Col U's equaliser was a very good shot, sounded like a tap in on LP but he had a lot to do.

Maybe most of our 4000 fans are still on the way back from the game. Or perhaps most of us didn't get a chance to go. If you went, instead of moaning why not give us some info on the match instead of shooting your mouth off like an oddball :censored: ;)

I have been away from the UK for just over a year now so can only go off what I read online and what friends have told me, and while I don't think we will be going for promotion I do think it looks like a fairly strong squad for the starting day for a change. It usually takes about a month to get all our signings in place. I know many people are not keen on loan players but a couple of decent ones bought in at the right time could strengthen us further. Fingers crossed for 3 points today.

Disagree with your comment about LJ spouting nonsense, he was just hinting that we are probably playing a very fluid formation so it is nonsense to say we are 352 or 442 etc because it will change depending on the opposition and game. Personally I dont think the formation is the biggest worry, it is the style of play and personnel which will make or break the season.

Everyone says Forte isn't a winger but I am sure I have seen him play on the wing for other teams in the past and his goals ratio doesn't look too hot for someone playing through the middle up top.

On the flip side you could argue a professional football club medical that could result in hundreds of thousands of pounds being spent might be more stringent than what we think. I don't recall us signing too many really injury prone players over the years, just a lot of :censored: ones, but sadly medically don't cover that yet;)

Yes he is replaceable but he will be very much missed and our squad will continue to be weak if it is another pre season of replace like for like. We will struggle to challenge until we add good players to the likes of Grounds to add competition rather than just replace them. I know there is not really much we can do until we get more investment but it is still frustrating.

I guess because all three are likely to do better than us on recent showings. If we suddenly splashed the cash on good players I am sure you would see the odds tumble.

Yes they don't have the full details but wit the figures mentioned surely they should be building up relationships here. Even if they outsource having a list and relationship with potential customers should help with this process.

Utter garbage in terms of improving the national team. Yes it wont be challenging at the moment but that is more down to the fact that a lot of good players have aged and we are in a transitional stage. There are still many good English players at the top level, enough to form a decent national team and we can still hold our own. To actually win something we probably need a successful English club side with a core of 6 or 7 great English players that can star for club and country, who know each others game inside out, like Barcelona and Spain. This will be more down to luck than anything. Maybe the money for winning the Premier League should increase for every English player who has played more than 75% of games, these clubs are motivated by money. Back to the real world they could do a lot worse than invest in grass routes and training additional coaches needed throughout the game rather than this stupid B team idea. If they really want B teams make the big clubs enter them at the bottom of the pyramid with different names and grounds, bound by the same transfer rules as anyone else.

I think the most shocking thing is that he gets paid to write for a living.

Don't really see the problem with it, I think most people sing it in the context of how the season has panned out rather than some mathematical equation that takes into account stature of club, expectations, achievement, division etc.

Sounds like he could be one hell of a player. Sadly only really seen him in the televised pre-season game. Let's hope he kicks on like Chris Porter did in his second season.