80

I mean... I'm not his biggest fan, but it was only last week that everyone was saying he'd he had a tremendous game and really started to fit into our modern way of doing things. He won't be perfect at that yet, and the whore-madonna treatment he gets is over the top, particularly considering he wasn't the odd man out yesterday.

He needs to watch himself...

Mainly hoping we come out of this with our spirit in tact. I'd take a fighting 2-1 loss.

Fair comment, but given the conditions I was imagining we might have had 4 out of 5 subs on by the 70 minute mark, rather than token subs at the end of the game.

Sounds like it wouldn't have been rude if it finished 3-0 though?

Didn't see the game but sounds like we got a hiding despite the result. Disappointing. Can't really comment, but our (lack of) use of subs didn't sound inspiring?

Admittedly, Dan Ashworth wasn't in back then, but I remember him discussing Longstaff's future much more vividly 6 months ago.

I read Howe spoke about his contract at the press conference and it came across as quite cagey to me.

I can't believe our fourth kit of the season is still largely going to clash with Brighton. 'Got blue? Damn. Got white? Damn. Let's mix blue and white together, they won't have that'.

Would be disappointed with a defeat. Certainly hoping for a win and somewhat expecting it too. Wouldn't take a guaranteed draw over playing the match, put it like that.

Agreed. On a side note, this is one reason why I'm a bit less concerned about a) doing deals in this transfer window and b) Callum Wilson's fitness. Circumstances are gonna make this a strange season with some unexpected upsides and downsides.

Feel bad for him. Don't mean to take the piss, but it would be ironic if he ends up not playing enough games to get his contact extension after all...

I support three at the back against Man City. No shame in gunning for a draw in those circumstances. Drop Willock, Saint Maximin or Almiron, I can see arguments for all. The best teams and managers in the world do adjust to the opposition sometimes, I'm satisfied that we set out to play 'our game' 95% of the time, it doesn't need to be 100%.

Changing the subject a little, I've not seen anyone mention the clear red card a Forest defender should've had for a last man foul after Bruno set Murphy away with a through ball at the end. They were already buried by that point, so it didn't really matter, but what a ball he played!

I know where you're coming from. For what it's worth I don't get the vibe off him that he'd drop everything and lose his head to go somewhere like that, though, he seems to want to make his own path. Fingers crossed we don't have to cross those kinds of bridges.

The girl that used to stalk our training ground?

Saw the last 35 minutes of the match. Probably the most complete performance I've seen from him. Inventive going forwards, plenty adequate in defence and a real team player. Didn't see him on his arse whingeing once. Keep up the good work!

You could argue the pressure of an ultra significant game should factor in?

I think that's a really key point.

It's more interesting than daytrippers though, right?

Really, I can't see anything other than a win here. We've made our training drills into bloody battles, so we'll turn our battles into bloody drills, as the phrase goes. Even if we went a goal down, I think this team would just double down and not shrink.

I'd be happy to totally reformat the pre-match music/period.

Yeah it wasn't a disaster, just a sense of him needing to paddle very fast to keep up. Seemed like the seniors were aware and covering him. Sure he could learn a lot from today, that's what friendlies are for ultimately. Better that it wasn't a league game!

Looked a bit overwhelmed today. Bilbao started hammering the right when he came on. Spotted a counter and ran full pelt down the left to overlap Ritchie which was nice, just a pity he didn't get fed the ball until the momentum was gone, but that wasn't his fault.

Slid a great though ball out of defence in the first half, created an attack out of nowhere.