Cronky

A bit ragged at times, but a well deserved win. The spirit in the side looked good, players were taking responsibility and trying things, no-one was hiding. The midfield three did well as individuals as well as a unit. Steve Harper didn't have much to do, but he dealt with whatever came his way. He's really stepped up to the mark since Given's injury.

I didn't have faith in that side against Brum, and I'm still worried. We look weak defensively, esp down the flanks. We'll see.

Sadly, that would be my view of the first team squad. No-one is in the irreplaceable category. Actually, one exception, and that's Lua Lua. He looks like the most promising young player to come through our ranks for many years, and I would hate it if the likes of Wenger were to get hold of him.

Wouldn't be sad to see Owen go... but if that's your criteria, how on earth can you pick Owen over the likes of Smith/Butt? I think there's a pressure to pick Owen that doesn't exist with any of the other players. If he was an automatic choice on merit, or if he was the sort of player that suits our situation, then fine, but I don't think he is. I also feel that Owen's an old-fashioned 4-4-2 man, and if he's picked, that limits our options. I know Keegan tried him out in a 4-3-3 on Monday, but I'm not convinced that's the best way forward. The failure to solve the Owen conundrum was a big factor in Allardyce's downfall, and IMO Keegan is struggling with it as well.

Well his current record is P9 W0 D3 L6, and that's the one that counts right now. As for his past record, a lot of cherrypicking seems to be going on. His trophy count is zero, and while he was here first time he did have the advantage of being able to outspend all but one of the opposition.

Owen. He's not the worst player by any means, but he's far more limited than his reputation would suggest. He seems to have an undroppable status which inhibits our thinking and planning. Trading him in would feel like a fresh start.

The thing that worries me about Keegan is he seems to be a trial and error man. He's not very good at working out problems and solutions in his head beforehand, but tends to take plunges and then react to what's happened. That's why he couldn't hack it as an international manager, where there's only a very limited scope to learn from your mistakes. You only have to get it wrong in one game to be out of a tournament. There's that famous story from Scott Sellars, about when Keegan announced to the team that they were going to play 3-5-2, an hour before the kick-off, having never practiced the formation in training beforehand. The formation on Monday felt a bit like that - a bit desperate and impulsive. The players looked completely lost in the first half, but finally managed to get it together, to some extent, in the second. It would be nice to think that it was some words of wisdom from KK at half time that made the difference, but it really looked to me like the players were having to work it out for themselves. Keegan only has a limited amount of time to get things right, and so far there's no progress. Neither the results nor the performances have improved. No amount of philosophising about how much better or worse some other manager would have been is going to change that.

In other words, whatever happens, appointing him was the right thing to do. If he succeeds, he's a genius, if he fails, it's someone else's fault.

And we won promotion the following season... History could repeat itself!

P9 W0 D3 L6. F 4, A 21. Well I don't know about you, but I'm worried.

My pattern too. I'm just hoping I don't go back to gutted.

Sorry, it just sounds like people are persuading themselves that we were up against decent opposition based on some previous results. Well whatever got them those results, it didn't show last night.

Birmingham away are pretty tough nuts, especially since McLeish took over. Fulham, Sunderland and Reading at home definitely looke the easier fixtures before last night. Mr Hindsight has entered the building I think. Did they look like 'pretty tough nuts' to you last night? they have not lost there since november or so i heard yesterday so yes. That doesn't make sense. I'm talking about how they looked last night. You can't just cherry-pick a dodgy 45 minute period to say they're s**** man! Maybe we made them look s****? Is that what you really think? That the quality of our play made them look s****? You reckon they just weren't arsed then or what? I thought they were a Championship standard side, with only one class player in McFadden.

Birmingham away are pretty tough nuts, especially since McLeish took over. Fulham, Sunderland and Reading at home definitely looke the easier fixtures before last night. Mr Hindsight has entered the building I think. Did they look like 'pretty tough nuts' to you last night? they have not lost there since november or so i heard yesterday so yes. That doesn't make sense. I'm talking about how they looked last night. You can't just cherry-pick a dodgy 45 minute period to say they're shite man! Maybe we made them look shite? Is that what you really think? That the quality of our play made them look shite?

Birmingham away are pretty tough nuts, especially since McLeish took over. Fulham, Sunderland and Reading at home definitely looke the easier fixtures before last night. Mr Hindsight has entered the building I think. Did they look like 'pretty tough nuts' to you last night? they have not lost there since november or so i heard yesterday so yes. That doesn't make sense. I'm talking about how they looked last night.

Birmingham away are pretty tough nuts, especially since McLeish took over. Fulham, Sunderland and Reading at home definitely looke the easier fixtures before last night. Mr Hindsight has entered the building I think. Did they look like 'pretty tough nuts' to you last night?

Well that's where we differ. I think there are tougher games ahead. Birmingham in the second half were terrible. And we do need to start actually winning. Martins did well, and can create problems for better defences, with his strength and pace. But that won't be enough.

It all hinges on our three home games against Fulham, Sunderland and Reading, and on last night's performance, I don't fancy our chances of getting more than 4 points from those three. They aren't worse than Birmingham, our home form isn't great, and it'll still be mighty close.

We're all pleased we came away with a draw, but a lot of people are getting carried away here. It shows how low the expectations are that avoiding defeat against a team like Birmingham is celebrated like it was some great performance. Martins - Viduka - Owen is not a natural trio for a 4-3-3, and it showed. You need players who can go wide and drop back, and all three are out and out strikers. We got away with it because they have a very weak defence and they couldn't handle Martins in the second half. That was the only threat we carried, and it won't work against a better side. And forget the recent results, last night Brum were piss poor.

With that team, we will struggle against Fulham in just the same way as we struggled last night. I didn't think the new formation worked well at all. I couldn't see any sign of co-ordination or understanding. Fair play to Martins, I'm not his greatest fan, but he really saved our bacon. He moved inside and used his strength to cause problems - trouble is, he may have been acting on his own initiative, as was suggested when Keegan took him off. It worries me that Keegan might think he's found the way forward. I don't think he has. Fulham will be a tougher nut to crack.

He could have taken Viduka off, brought N'Zogbia on and moved Martins up front. More shape to the team but still with Martins threat there to win it. It's a decision that made no sense especially when many of our other players were knackered. Agreed... but with the emphasis on not losing I can see why he'd keep Viduka on as a player who can (in theory) hold the ball up. I'm glad you said 'in theory', because for the last 20 minutes he certainly wasn't doing it in practice. This game has really convinced me that Keegan doesn't know what he's doing. It showed that we've got the individual quality to beat a team like Birmingham easily, but we struggled.

Very relieved at the result. Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, I'd replace Keegan. We managed to scrape something on individual quality - in particular Martins' athelticism causing them problems. We didn't look like a coherent team out there. Brum were very poor. Fulham will set us more problems.

I dont' like that sub at all. Should have been Viduka.

Viduka needs to be subbed. He's got nowt left. It's like we've got 10 men

We're doing better now because Martins has come off his wing and is just going where he pleases. Whether he's ignoring or obeying instructions I don't know, but he's brought hope. The goal was caused by him using his strength to make a pest of himself, which he's good at.