Mick

He started well for us but couldn't keep it going, his goals will dry up then he'll just end up chasing the ball around the pitch.

Our attack is as good as most but they'll do nothing without a supply of good passes to attack, I've got no doubt that Barton would have made a big difference yesterday, that said, we shouldn't rely on one player.

We need to become difficult to beat and I think we are working on it, if we can get that right then we can look to become more adventurous. Even in the second half against Bolton we looked resilient, we'd have drawn that game 3-3 last season or got beat 4-3. I think we'll not see us at our best until next season although I'm not saying we should expect nothing this season. Allardyce will get to know his players through working with them every day and seeing how they react to his tactics during games, then he'll know what weakness we have as a team and then he can do something about it.

Pre-season is good but you learn more about your players in a competitive match, I'm sure yesterday was just a blip and we'll learn from it. I'd still like to see us go for a creative player who can change games, Emre might be that player but I don't think he's done it for us yet, Barton would have helped us yesterday with his willingness to bring the ball out of midfield, I still think we could do with something else. 2 weeks ago I'd have settled for 4 points from our first two games so I don't think we have too much to worry about. I'm not sure how good our win was against Bolton after now seeing the first 3 results from them but maybe we've done that to them, maybe the first defeat has got to them, you never know. We'll have more setbacks this season, if getting a draw is the biggest setback we have then we'll be flying. At least we kept a clean sheet, you can never under-estimate how much confidence the defence gain from that.

So you would rather Ferguson got sacked than us winning something?

I agree with that to a certain extent but we could have brought Ramage on and pushed N'Zogbia further up, I know Ramage isn't the best in defence but we could have changed to a 4-4-2 and varied our play, we were too predictable for most of the 90 minutes yesterday, we made it too easy for Villa.

4-3-3 wasn't a good formation yesterday, we had no creativity and did nothing to change it, looking at who we had on the bench virtually made it impossible to change the way we were playing. When we made the first two substitutions we went like for like when the game was crying out for something different. Our midfield might work away from home but it's not good enough when we should be taking the game to the opposition. The long ball tactics were not good, I don't mind long ball football when it works but we gained nothing from it yesterday, I hope this isn't going to be what's served up every week. If we're going to play long ball then it must be varied, not just the same type of ball which is so easy to read it becomes pointless.

I like the way you got this back on topic, nice one.

Find a wife and all plans go out of the window, I'd go for plan B if I was you, it'll be cheaper anyway.

Does your lass agree with you?

It's like being a kid at Christmas at the minute.

The club would rather have 52,000 people shouting to get the team through to the next round of the cup than 30,000 paying a higher price, I wouldn't worry too much about the prices for now, I expect that they'll not be too bad.

I'm not sure how much price comes into it, if you want to go then you'll pay the £35, it's not even the price of a night on the beer or a sit down meal.

I'm sure he did ask for some technology but was told that he couldn't have it.

I'd expand on that, I think we've waited a long time for this setup, it's so refreshing.

I think I remember you saying that you'd been to one.

Sir Bobby went mad about our training facilities, he was forever complaining about being unable to do anything during the colder months when the ground was frozen and he as forever complaining about having players training amongst pot holes.

I doubt we do too much that would be classed as secretive, how many players have moved away from Bolton or Newcastle while he's been here? They could even open it up while the players have a kick about or something, it wouldn't have to be the full training session.

Could this be one of the ideas put to the club? I would think that it's an easy one to do and the costs would be very low unless they had to police it, even then I'm sure they could make some cash out of it if they opened a club shop or something outside the training ground.

What would stop it from happening? I can't see any reason for it not being allowed as long as it was controlled.

I agree with that, the PR would be excellent, the kids love going to watch the players train during the holidays.

I suppose somebody had to spoil the thread.

Mad?

More good stuff, if you ask me, all pointing to a more professional approach from the management - something we've been sorely lacking for as long as I can remember. I honestly can't think of anything negative coming out of the club, the transformation has been as massive as it's been overdue.