firstdivision

You're right. He did get those decisions correct. I've seen a replay of the Scott incident and it looked a penalty. I think the ref thought that Dickie played the ball and he didn't, so he needed help from the assistant. The one that made me laugh - and Matty James - was the 'foul' by Atkinson that led to Weimann's booking for dissent. My frustration, though, is more directed at Andy King for two utterly stupid yellow cards. (Ah, but he brings experience to the midfield. Blah Blah.)

Yes, one of the more extraordinary home-town decisions I've ever seen.

Straight talking? I find his post-match interviews like reading a passage from Finnegan’s Wake.

To be fair, they are below us in the league. That would freak me out, too. ?

Dave, I wonder what he’s (NP) is going to do in midfield tomorrow following our discussion after last Sunday. Also, I worry that one possible solution this month is the return of an injury-prone 33 year old who I often forget is on the field.

All valid points, of course. But he's always made a thing of 'I'm the manager; I do it my way'. And, if he's adept, he can sell a revised game plan to the players. My thought was possibly Weimann in midfield because he has the nous to adapt. As I said, it's not easy but I wonder if someone more tactically flexible would have seen that coming and tried to head it off.

And, I suppose, to continue that theme, we replaced a manager who played dull, safety-first football with a man who plays dull, safety-first football. ?

Really, Dave? You only change once (if) we are down?

This is a really good post, Dave. What fascinates me is this. When we looked at the team sheet today, most of us who have some idea thought 'mmm, look at that midfield: Massengo and Bakinson and Benarous - that's trouble.' So rather than just going with, 'oh we won on Wednesday night, let's do something similar' (with Massengo in for the injured Williams) can we be more imaginative? Problem solve. Can we do something different with the resources we have? No. We don't do that We play that midfield and it gets completely overrun. And this is not hindsight. I was having this discussion before the match. But basically we just said...let's give it a go and see what happens. I'm not saying it's easy. But what happened was what we all thought was going to happen. And it did.

So at what point this season would it be reasonable to pull the plug?

Nor can I, but the point of my question - I suppose - is how far does Dave think 'the project' (which strikes me as an overblown concept - every club should have a project/plan all of the time if they have any self respect) should be allowed to continue before the plug is pulled.

This largely sums up my view as well. Some days, I think the solution is so obvious that it's not just staring us in the face, but whacking us over the head. I don't accept the premise that NP is somehow helpless against a Mark Ashton/Lee Johnson-inspired storm force ten. That's too fatalistic. A big part of management is problem solving. I don't see a huge amount of evidence that it's happening. I see a little, but not enough. I get that we play hideous, safety-first football for a specific reason but I'd love to see a more agile, imaginative football mind in charge. Who? Good question. That's for others to decide. But there are plenty of people involved in the football world. Russell Martin was at MK Dons and someone took a chance of him. Barnsley didn't do too badly taking a punt on Valerien Ismael. Steve Cooper has helped revive Forest, wouldn't you know. Even Hull have managed to win four games in a row. Can you imagine us doing that this season?

Serious question, Dave. Would you accept that rebuild continuing in League One? ie if that's what has got to happen, so be it.

Shocking referee but still not as bad as our performance today, which was truly abysmal. Not sure why Sheff Utd even bothered celebrating - easiest three points they’ve had for about three years.

You are so right.

We are absolutely shocking.

I've been debating this with myself for weeks and weeks (because it's not a new problem - the warning signs have been there for...well, the nearly the whole of his time with the club). I'm torn between the ruthless part of me - 'yeah, it's so blindingly obvious what we need to do' - and the more pragmatic - 'who would we get? Will we improve a bit once the injured players are back? Can we afford it?' If the answers are: someone credible/no, not much/yes...then, I'm making the change yesterday. I'm surprised at how little impact NP has had, especially defensively. We look so disorganised. No club can guarantee that a change will work, but this has the feel of something that is not working. So try something different...it's not always the biggest deal people make it out to be (if you can afford it).

Chris Wilder instead of NP is a no brainer for me. But a very small chance of him wanting to come etc.

Perfectly articulated.

Nige thought the first half was ok. ? I would humbly suggest it was not. I think he must have been influenced by how bad the second half was. If he thinks the first half was ok, be very afraid folks.

To be fair, we didn’t exactly trip the light fantastic at Watford last season.

If you keep on doing the same thing, you will get the same results. To me, it’s so obvious what needs to happen. It needed to happen at the start of the summer. It’s taken a while but quite a few seem to be catching up now.

Simpson for Kalas. Obvs. Either that, or O’Dowda for Bentley.

He’s not written him off. He’s merely stated that in that game and in that situation, he wasn’t ready or able to do what was required. He makes a sound tactical point and it crossed my mind, too, that AB could have been taken off. It’s not a comment about his undoubted potential, just an analysis of what was needed in the last 20 minutes. I agree with Graham - it was a poor choice of sub and the young lad really struggled. But good luck to him. I hope he’s got something about him. We could do with some players who get us excited because we don’t have many of them at the moment.

Derby. So long ago that Chris Martin scored for Derby.