We’ve been told this is a transition year and I have to say it’s not going badly.
The team are playing attractive football and appear better organised than has been the case for the past two seasons.
In JHT we trust!
Have to add the atmosphere inside the ground is also better than it has been for a couple of years thanks to good work from Ben Knapper. I think we can see a plan coming to fruitions, which is a big relief.
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Pot. Kettle. 
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Years of going nowhere had drained my optimism but Ben Knapper seems to be the right man at the right time.
A young team endeavouring to play entertaining football helps.
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Some very wet Welsh fans and players in Montenegro tonight. Remarkably reminiscent of recent experiences in Cardiff. Have never quite understood why some managers don’t wear weather appropriate clothing too.
Bellamy revolution out on hold. Clearly subject to appropriate weather only.
Great result but an extraordinary night really. Enjoyed Darlow’s somewhat belated and reluctant debut. First pass nearly cost a goal. His goal kicks found touch with remarkable accuracy and consistency. He was nearly beaten by one of the more extraordinary shots we’ll see this season. Thank goodness their player only hit the crossbar. On the other hand he made three fantastic saves. The first two, a double save, were extraordinary. Not much between him and Danny Ward but I got the impression Darlow’s yelling is more focused.
1st rule of football: don’t lose to a promotion rival/at least take a draw.
2nd rule: don’t repeat one seasons mistakes in the next.
3rd rule: ensure transfer business deals with squad weaknesses.
4th rule: don’t mess about with the ball when there’s no defender behind you.
All rules broken. In all but finishing we were arguably the best side (Burnley well organised & took their chance, as ever an error by lufc). This is the 3rd season I’ve lost sleep over Bamford - starting yet another season with him as first choice 9 is madness (Joseph is nothing like the finished article). Then it’s the same old same old, 2 defensive mids (Bielsa managed with one), no lock picker/no.10 (we’ve never replaced Pablo) and the same result. Defend us into submission - East Lancs have done it twice on the bounce now, Bburn last season. Saints did us at Wembley. Could go on but Farke doesn’t have a balanced squad but he has to find a way to beat teams which sit back and score their 1 chance.
Today, The Mighty Whites, whenever they advanced into the final third, found themselves invariably outnumbered, and yet, when Burnley came forward, the defence were often outnumbered too.
We’re way too slow in getting the ball out wide, and much too slow at getting back.
M.O.T.
Your last post now an exemplar in how to curse your own team?
I’m astonished to find us still in temporary 1st after everyone else bar us played today. Statement win for Huddersfield and there’s a sense Charlton are going to be relentless. Is it now Ian Evatt able that will be losing the Bolton job soon? It does put our early season form into some kind of perspective to note that our 0-0 with Bolton away is now a result against a team in the relegation places as was our 3-0 against the Slops.
We would have to lose 4-0 on Monday night to lose 1st place but one only has to look at the number of occasions we’ve conceded 5 in the past 3 seasons to understand that it’s not exactly beyond the realms of possibility.
Your positivity puts me & @JohnF to shame!
Early indications suggest that we will have more to moan/be concerned about this season than you!
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Our bright start has been lovely but I’m not daft. This is a tough division. We need to have much more possession and impose ourselves on games rather than pick teams off and we have an obvious weakness at left back. I will still, genuinely, be thrilled with 10th to 15th.
I’m not too down heartened by yesterdays performance as I think it will take until Christmas before we are playing as JHT intends.
At least there is a plan for brighter football which hasn’t been the case for the past two seasons.
We are also in the middle of an ownership transfer that should secure the future of the club which wouldn’t have necessarily been the case if Delia had hung on.
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What a tremendous advert for the game that was. A full house despite a live broadcast. Both sets of fans going hell for leather for 98 minutes. Despite our quick start we never looked in control and McClean, Rathbone and O’Connor all struggled. Ultimately it was a first defeat of the season built on the fact we’ve just broken our transfer record paying £500k whereas they paid £10m. They played like Bolton did for 15 minutes but they did it for 70. It will take one heck of a team to stop them being in 1st place and we were not quite it.
We suffered because of the insistence in playing McClean at left wing back; Mullin, Mendy and Cannon not being match fit but at best that may have brought us within a goal of them. First time in 3 years a team in the same division has pinned us back and outplayed us. Can’t complain at that at all.
A £10m transfer fee in League 1 is insane. How can that be sustainable?
Well it’s not is it. None of this stuff is sustainable in terms of a business model.
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Salvatore Schillaci, Italy’s 1990 World Cup icon, dies aged 59
Noooooo. Schillaciiiii
What a summer. What a guy. This is so sad
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