Mick

Snow on our pitch will not be a problem, we've got heating under the grass.

Hughton is talking Boro up, expect a 4-5-1.

It's still hard to believe that he's gone.

I don't think we could both win, the teams and fans who were based in Sunderland would have to sleep in tents or grubby refugee hostels.

I can't believe you check out that site for anything.

I think he's right to be concerned and he's right with almost everything in his post.

Whatever he does will turn to shit so it doesn't matter, I hope he does nothing then nothing will go wrong. We're more likely to lose our best player than bring in somebody who will make a difference.

It was a clear case of thinking outside the box and an inspirational choice. Others will be thinking “why didn’t I think of that.”

You should be safe with that one.

I thought Shola scored directly from the corner in that game, I could be wrong though.

More often than not they go to the opposition, not always though. He's just a kid so maybe he's learning, we'll see as he seems to be getting a few games.

Carroll's flick ons would be great if somebody knew where the ball was going to end up. His head must be the shape of a 50p piece judging by the randomness of where the ball goes.

I think you'll find that he is at the club unless he's gone out in the last couple of days. He was loaned out last season then returned to the club and has been playing reserve team football for us this season. He scored two weeks ago for the reserves in the Northumbria Senior Cup win over Benfield and played less than a week ago against Grimsby.

I actually liked Troisi, pity he looked as if he'd made the grade and didn't have to put any effort in.

Our current midfield would create next to nothing in the Premiership. We must have the only midfield in the country who struggle to keep up with the match officials.

I'm not too sure how effective he would be in the Premiership, he wouldn't get the space he gets in this division and he's useless without his goals.

The Football League Show was shit coverage, we used to get more on MOTD. All we were shown tonight were the goals, nothing else.

He's got pace and he's direct, I'd like to see what he can do in this division because I think he could be a decent enough footballer. We'll never see that in the reserves and I think he'd give us some much needed balance when going forward. We've virtually played the full season so far with one wing so we don't spread the game enough. Even though we have a left winger we're too narrow because we have little or no option on the right. If we spread the game when going forwards we'll create more room through the middle and give the opposition something to think about, his pace alone will do that. Watching the reserves isn't the best indication of how a player will do when called up into the first team. He has something and I'd like to see if he can make the grade rather than watching players who will never do it on the wing.

I'd go with Harper S Taylor Coloccini Kadar Enrique LuaLua Guthrie Smith Jonas Ranger Lovenkrands

I think the Macheda link is shit but looking at our bench today does give me doubts.

It doesn't matter who he brings in if he doesn't know how to use them.

He will but it will almost certainly be too late.

The daft thing is that we keep playing Smith, Butt and Nolan who are never going to play in the Premiership and win games. We're not in the Premiership but we look like we're going to be in it next season so we should be looking to develop what we have. We've had opportunities to balance the team and play some adventurous football and we've failed miserably because we haven't tried. Results wise, we’re doing all we can really ask of the club but that shouldn’t be seen as the holly grail because if that’s the limit of our planning then we’ll be back in this league the season after next. We’ve got a great opportunity to see what we can do with what we’ve got and we haven’t got the balls to try anything different, even though we have players who are match winners in this league, even when coming off the bench if something is going wrong. Why play Harewood who is almost certainly going back to Villa when we have players who need to gain experience? Why play Pancreas when we have players who we need to gain more experience? Why play Butt and Smith together when we have players who need the same? I’m not suggesting for one minute that we should drop everybody, that would be suicidal. We do need to plan for next season and we’re missing our chance. Kadar looked an excellent prospect but was dropped as soon as Taylor returned, Hughton could have put Taylor on the right and allowed Kadar to carry on gaining experience which will prove invaluable in future but the manager drops him straight away. Nolan was given a ban which should have allowed us to see what Guthrie could do in his preferred position, Butt came in so nothing was learned. Shola, Lovenkrands and Ranger have all scored in the last two games and yet Carroll who was in a cell less than a week ago is brought straight back into the side, it doesn’t make sense.

We've been very lucky on a lot of occasions this season, both home and away. I don't think we're getting the best out of what we've got and I only say that because it's a shit league.

Agreed.