Athelwulf

Come on Brentford.

We're stuffed with him in the club.

I've tended to back Chansiri, the reason being that our problems go back many, many years. Failure to modernize the club when the maximum wage was abolished in the early 1960s, and then again with the advent of the PL in the early 1990s, meant that our ultimate relegation was inevitable. There's just no way that our economic system at S6 could compete in such an environment. Add to that our perennial inability to develop players, and the catastrophe of the last two decades isn't difficult to explain. Chansiri has been the first chairman in our history to ever invest big money in the club, and for that I'm grateful. He had a go. However, like you I am now at the end of my tether with his stewardship. Chansiri has brought some very good players to this club, but apart from Bruce his record at selecting managers has been very poor, and he lacks the judgement to know when to let them go. He's streets behind Mandy in that regard, and inferior to the chairmen of rival teams too. They may not have invested as much money as Channers, but they get the right person into the dugout. True, he's had misfortune to contend with - like the loss of Hooper before the play-offs, and Bruce leaving him in the lurch - but nevertheless I too now feel that we'll never improve while Chansiri remains. I'm with you on that.

Moore's making the mistakes of an inexperienced manager who's learning his trade. Maybe one day he'll go on to equal what, say, Alex Neil or Dave Jones have, or maybe he won't. But what we need is the finished article - we're not a guinea pig. Sunderland did it and it's paid off, as it did when Jonesy came in here. We can't afford to be stuck in this league while Moore serves his apprenticeship, on the off chance that he makes the grade one day.

True. Sunderland have simply done what we did when we engaged Dave Jones to get us over the line in the Mind the Gap season. Mandy is streets ahead of Channers when it comes to selecting managers. Sunderland made the change and it's paid off. They've brought in an experienced manager who's managed at a much higher level and has the confidence and expertise to try different things against different opponents. Sunderland were more expansive today - against us, whom they saw as more of a threat, Neil simply outthought Moore and choked us. I'm not convinced, having seen Wednesday against High Wycombe twice, that we necessarily would have won today. I think Ainsworth would have shithoused and stifled us, and waited for us to concede from a defensive clanger or a set piece. I doubt we'd have had the freedom which Sunderland had.

Well played and well deserved. We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

For God's sake Morgs, don't! The thought of it makes you shudder.

Bearing in mind we only managed to take a point off Wycombe, I'm not sure we've gained much. Would Sunderland have gone up had Johnson stayed? Or is it down to Neil?

I'd be surprised if Gregory will still be here, for a start.

But are Rotherham capable of it either, Tewkes? If Sunderland came up against a better manager than Neil, then they wouldn't be playing that way either.

I agree with you Big D. Both these teams stifled us, and were scared to let us play. However Neil isn't allowing Ainsworth to stifle him, therefore Moore is tactically inferior to Ainsworth, who in turn is tactically inferior to Neil. What sickens me is that we have the playing staff to beat either of these, and we're now looking at another season in the Third.

Our opponents won't let us. High Wycombe didn't let us either. Neither did Sunderland. Yet Sunderland are managing to play that way against Wycombe. Could it be tactical?

No, because they didn't fancy their chances against us playing like that. They stifled us, rather than give us a sniff. It's a backhanded compliment to us, so so much for our being a bobbar team lucky not to be relegated.

Welcome aboard. Apart from fans of the other North-East clubs, and those of High Wycombe, the rest of the country's right behind you. All Alex Neil has to do is pin a picture of Gareth Shittus-Ainsworth on the dressing-room wall, and that should do the trick. There are some contests which have to be won at all costs, and this is one of them. Defeat is simply not an option.

If Bannan goes Moore will be out before we put the Xmas lights up.