I was actually disappointed with last night's performance. The same old problems seem to be evident in particular: -

1) Marking from Set Pieces - Who was marking Jagielka and why was he allowed to run that far and head a ball not particularly that far in the air?

2) Hawley, Ormerod and Lewis Neal again showed why we MUST get them out of the club. They haven't got a clue and offer nothing to the side other than poor play.

3) The left side is still a problem. Neal isn;t good enough and Whaley is a right sid4ed player who shys away from tackling. When Irvine arrived he said he would play players in their correct positions yet Whaley is playing left mid and Sedgwick came on in central midfield last night and looked lost. I also feel Nicholson is no good as a right midfielder and must play CM.

4) Mellor was perhaps trying too hard against Everton but had a very poor 45 minutes. WE are DESPERATE for a quality striker. We MUST go out and sapend the money to bring one in or else we will struglle for goals again.

5) Midfield did ok but Chaplow had a poor game and couldn';t find a white shirt and Kenna persists in passing the ball sideways and going nowhere. At least when Carter came on he passed forward!!!!

I was impressed with teh back 4 and in particular MMichael Hart who looks class and should have been MOTM. However i get the feeling that Irvine doesn;t know what his best 4 in midfield is yet and if we don;t get it right by the time the season starts it could be costly. I agree they had a very good back 4 but i hadn;t heard of the rest of the team!!!

Tom, I don't know how you can say Chaplow had a 'poor' game. I'll admit his final ball was sometimes lacking in quality, but he was very much involved in the match and he impressed the Everton TV commentators, too. As for McKenna passing the ball sideways - sometimes you need to do that (and not be afraid to pass it backwards as well) to create space and set someone off on a run - we had too much of the 'forward at all costs' style of play under Simpson. I thought McKenna had a good game. I was disappointed not to see Mells start off alongside Brown. I know it was 'only' a friendly, but the way we controlled the game with slick passing was very promising - Everton couldn't get a look-in at times and Lonergan had little to trouble him. Cheers all.

Thanks for your imput David.

I thought Chaplow was industrious but at times he appeared to be chasing shadows.

In respect of McKenna he doesn't move the ball forward enough and i take your point about sideways passing. But when Carter came on he put through about 3 balls that were very dangerous and far more threatening than side to side crab football that had been played previously. If you know my views on Carter in the past you will realise how much of a step up this is for me as i thought he waqs an awful signing on past performances.

There was some good p[assing i readily admit and Hart and Nicholson linked up well down the right but Nicho got dragged in tooo much and we were left with no width down the right where Whaley or Sedgge should be. I think Nicho should play centrally instead.

I wonder if you would have commented if we had won!!!!

don't be negative if you look at what irvine said on pne.com it says the team haven't worked on set pieces yet. Last night although we didn't create much we kept the ball and passed it very well. and for you to say you were dissapointed is fair enough but just look at on the bright side we are starting to pass the ball around which is what we want to see. The new stand looked fantastic last night i must say. Onwards and upwards i say.

DVDA.....

You can';t honestly believe that Ormerod, Hawley and Lewis Neal are good enough to win us promotion?

Ormerod scoring ratio is about 1 in 8 and nothing i have seen in pre-season has suggetsed to me he will get 10-15 goals this term. Hawley has had to step up a division and to me he isn;t good enough for this level and Lewis Neal flatters to deceive. To lightweight and can't go past a man.

Elma.

I concur Deepdale looked superb last night and the new stand is fantastic.

Well Done Derek Deepdale looks superb now.

i agree with ormerod not being good enough tom but you need someone to run about and work their socks off and ormerod does that BUT we need a striker who will score goals and ormerod won't and im not being negative it's my honest opinion. Joe garner anyone?

post#2, Roy. Sounds like £4.99 well spent ? I was out yesterday evening in the West country, so wasn't able to take my own advice and register myself. How did you rate the commentary/viewing for a fiver ?

sorry one more ... I actually believe Alan Irvine know that Mellor/Brown is his best option. He was looking at other options last night, but I believe we all know the answer to that question, but let's remember, he did say all players start with a clean slate, so he has been 100% fair to them all - it's up to them to deliver the goods !