Enda

Ghey. Not a half bad footballer is this lad.

I still think we need a better LB. That said, he's had the grand total of three league starts. Against three of the best five or six teams in the league. He is doing himself proud and, in fairness, we can't complain about him. Fingers crossed he keeps improving.

In fairness, when Vlaar went off and Enda Stevens was up against Arshavin, were you saying "I think we're gonna win this one"?

We all would have accepted that result before the game. Should have beaten Utd. Hammered against City. Held on against Arsenal. The up and down season continues Tuesday will be a big match for us. We'll stay up, but it will give us a lot of confidence if we win.

Wouldn't be that confident. We always concede in the second half

Very, very strange to see that team/squad selection. Lambert, what are you at? I hope you have something up your sleeve.

From the Twitter machine,

Sad but true

Also flew in a brilliant cross at one stage, too.

He did a lot better than many of us expected. Far from a nightmare of a debut. Well done to him, and shame on us for giving him more backing. I still think it's the weakest part of the starting XI, but on the basis of largely keeping Valenica quiet he's challenging Bennett for that starting place.

Looking only at the effect on the league table right now is your problem. There's 1-0 loss where you show absolutely no desire and where on another day you'd have been thumped 4-0. And there's a 3-2 loss (still 1 goal difference) where you create chances and on another day you'd have taken all three points. Just because the result is the same doesn't mean everything. The evaluation of the performance is how you determine what's going to happen over the rest of the season.

Heartbroken. Same old, same old. At least I like Hernandez more than Macheda. Nonsense. Generally goal difference gets worse when you lose. No offence but you come across as not having the first clue about football.

He'd be delighted to come to sunny Brum. The weather is friesin in Poland.

I see the Irish U19s beat PSV U19s 2-0 today.

Herd said on Twitter there's nothing to it at all.

First of all, he played fantastically well yesterday. But how many long balls/long passes did he aim at Benteke's head yesterday? Was I the only one thinking that it was all a bit Stoke?

Dodgy video of it here - http://www.101greatg...-v-aston-villa/

Lambert should pick the team most likely to get a result. That's not the same thing as setting up the defend or trying to look brave but getting hammered. I'd put Ireland/Holman on the wing and put KEA in the middle with Bannan and Westwood. I know I rate KEA much more than most people at the moment but we'll need that extra bite in midfield to have a chance IMO. He should have done better. Keeper got under pressure (well done Gabby) and had to overhead-kick it out. Came to Ireland about 25 yards out who volleyed it first time. Didn't connect with it right and it was going five yards wide. Should have done better, but it was it dipping and moving reasonably fast so not exactly a sitter either. If it had been a normal cross and Ireland just didn't strike it properly, nobody would have said anything. The open goal made it much worse.

Nothing wrong with that, but time and place and all that. This is a "Waheyyy we finally have a young player who's playing well" thread. Give it a rest?

And Delph and Albrighton today.

Seemed harmless enough by Cuellar at the time. Ball came in and he threw a leg at it.

Best bit of the match for me was when MON brought on Frazier Campbell and put Seb Larsson at right back. MON loves throwing on shite footballers and putting random midfielders to right back when his team are losing. Some things never change. I hear he's making an £8m swoop for Zat Knight and Nicky Shorey in January.

Agree completely. I was puzzled why were going 4-3-3 against a MON team. Putting two forwards on the wings in a 4-2-3-1 was a great move. Still very unconvinced by Bennett, but it looks like Lowton, Vlaar, Benteke, Westwood and KEA look like excellent value for money. Excited by January. Some world-beating exotic-sounding winger from Luxembourg's second division for 20p, and a left-back please Paul.

Didn't look happy to be taken off today.

Alas I've got a few years on Enda Jnr. He got absolutely skinned by Saha within two minutes of coming on today. Lesson learned, hopefully. Think he made a good challenge from a cross, though I wasn't sure it was him. Was anyone watching him closely?