Laivasse

Yeah, Sky is sticking with the Cuellar LB Hutton RB line up. Just batshit crazy to me.

LOL Dunne is the 6th most prolific scorer against Man City, with 6 out of 7 of his goals beings OGs.

Heskey in? No Ireland or Zog? Cuellar LB?? McLeish was surely either laughing or crying when putting this line up together. Moving Hutton onto the left would make more sense than Cuellar, who is not even a natural FB. I can't even recall him playing left-sided CB, let alone LB, whereas he's adequate as RB.

I don't think you can make any claim to impartiality on the one hand, if on the other you're saying that 'history says MON failed', as if it was an objective fact. If your only measure of success is silverware then consecutive 6th place finishes could be indistinguishable from consecutive relegation battles, but those obviously aren't the criteria upon which most prem managers are judged.

An even first half, with lots of hard work, ruined by a an unambitious, pedestrian, defeatist second half. Dingbat substitutions ruined our rhythm. If I didn't already hate McLeish, I'd hate him now because he's shown that at HT he's more likely to sub off a strong performer when we are playing well than he is to make a tactical substitution when we are playing badly. To be fair to Bannan and Heskey, they played okay, but the removal of Ireland and Zog signalled our transformation into a deep-sitting hoofball side that was unlikely to ever get anything from the game. Gardner's appearance in the 83rd minute (!) came at least 25 minutes too late. Terrible tactics, deserved loss.

Was surprised at the reactions to Cuellar's performance in the match forum. I thought he was once again the best of our back line despite not having a game to write home about. Dunne, at fault for both goals, seemed to be picking up less flak. The one time Cuellar 'dived in and got nowhere near the ball' was when Hutton handed over possession too easily and Cuellar had to come bombing out of position to make a challenge. Missing it was poor, but it allowed Hutton time to recover and make a challenge of his own. Other than that he got a lot of good blocks and interceptions in, aside from failing to head out a couple of crosses which luckily came to nothing.

Hart's the most authoritative presence on the pitch for my money.

Depends if he got a shout or not. If Warnock called for it and Dunne still jumped in front of him, then he should take part of the blame (but not all of it, it's still no excuse for Warnock sticking it in his own net) If there was no call then Dunne is faultless in my opinion. He couldn't have known Warnock was there and had no option but to try and head the ball. Not his fault he couldn't get there. IMO it is Dunne's fault he couldn't get there. That cross seemed to hang in the air a long time and Dunne needed to just position himself better and be quicker if he was going to go for it. It wasn't his only sluggish bit of movement by that point. As for whether there was a call and what that means in terms of blame, that's not even cut and dry either. If Dunne heard a call after he jumped, then avoided heading it out of hesitation or confusion, then that's more on Warnock for calling for a ball he wasn't certain how to deal with. It can be argued that the lack of a call put's it on Dunne's head, as I say, for deciding to go for a ball he should have been able to deal with but missed. Dunne could just have easily checked himself and called out 'that one's yours'. Whichever way, I'm in agreement with you that this isn't just a black and white case of Warnock being shit. It doesn't take much to turn a cushioned header meant for the keeper into a cushioned header heading for the corner, and becoming unsighted will certainly do it. I think it was just One Of Those Things but made all the more likely for our defence because their communication, organisation and confidence are all at such a low ebb.

I think even that's unfair. He got a foot in with an interception and was unlucky it went to one of theirs. It would have looked like good defensive pressure if Cisse hadn't been allowed the space he got.

Have you seen her lately? She's more of a body double for Alan Hutton, if not Dickie Dunne.

He's wasted out wide, i'd like to see him take up Keane's role just off Bent once. This is the best we've seen of him since he arrived, hope he keeps it up. I agree that he's wasted out wide, but while Keane's here and playing well it's tough to accommodate them both. He was still excellent last night. That pass to put Stan in space for the N'Zog goal was breathtaking, and for my money that's one of the best goals we've scored in a long while. Even so, I agree with you about being stuck out on the right. QPR were poor and we allowed us to do something we haven't managed against many other teams, which is to dominate possession for long stretches. Whenever we did this, Ireland cut in and roamed around more and more, getting increasingly involved with play. However, at the point possession turned over to us he would always be stuck out wide, often little more advanced than Hutton, which cut him off from quickly feeding Zog/Bent/Keane. It was only after he'd laid the ball off and moved up, or Hutton overlapped, that he got the freedom to do what he should be doing for us all the time.

He was very shoddy defensively but that was balanced up by a decent assist. I would still happily sacrifice all of his modest attacking achievement for a bit of competence at the back, which he still hasn't shown.

Weird, for roughly 10-12 games of this season I remember the VT consensus being that Warnock was playing well and what a relief it was to have a natural LB again.

He should have been redeemed in the second half when his cross gave Keane a chance to volley straight in from about 10 yards, but Keane missed it and it didn't fall nicely for Bent. No doubt he was one of our poorest players but Dunne played just as badly in the first half and didn't get the shameful treatment Warnock did, despite being culpable for 2 goals compared to Warnock's 1. If Warnock's part of a conspiracy, what does that make Dunne with all his OGs in the past? Grand High Illuminati Mage of Reptile Monarchs?

Dunno about a pen there but it hardly matters when the earlier one was nailed on.

The cross? Was Stan, no? Ireland set Stan running with the through ball.

Disgustingly good goal. I'm tired of being told our squad is worthless when Ireland, Petrov and N'Zog can pull of stuff like that. Ireland's pass and the finish in particular were jizztastic.

Warnock's work should have been worth a goal, couldn't tell if it was Petrov or Keane who missed that but it was gold-plated.

Beautiful turn and great run Zog.

And just as I say that, Ireland cuts inside and give Keane a peach of a pass.

Ireland is wasted out where he is.

The officiating in this league is a bad joke.

Didn't you see the gigantic irishman jumping like a clown in front of him and blocking his view?

Warnock off won't solve our problems, since Dunne has been utter dogshit also. We can score again against these, but if they start attacking we will concede again also.

Dunne just as much to blame as Warnock. Warnock should have done better but he didn't fully expect the header nor could he really see it. Unbelievable that Dunne can't sort his feet out and reach that in the first place.