Mason 47

I think all the talk of systems does actually ring true- Jerome''s got the physical attributes of a top striker, which is where most of his goals come from. It''s the technical side of things that holds him back, but ultimately even if he doesn''t touch the ball he can contribute effectively. McCormack on the other hand, whilst very good in possession, if he doesn''t touch the ball he''s pretty much dead weight. Not that he isn''t a decent player, but he isn''t £12mil good.

He''s been passable at best in this game, but the potential for a game-changing moment from any of our attacking midfield is astounding. What a hit.

It''s early days, of course, but Oliveira seems to be exactly what I thought we needed in a striker. He probably hasn''t had many more touches than RvW used to average per game for us, he makes so much more of a difference with them. If he can add goals to this sort of performance, fantastic.

If you were to punt a ball at goal and say, stop this or you''ll lose the game, Bennett would cry ''YES BOSS'' and find a way to get his head in front of it. Martin would be side-skipping cautiously. If you were playing a lesser, more defensive side at home and you knew keeping it on the floor and utilising clever movement would get the win, Bennett would still cry ''YES BOSS'' and thump the ball out for a goal kick. This is where Martin''s receptiveness to instruction and tactical play will win through. It''s quite a nice mix to have, at this level.

The way I see it, the main reason for all this aggro is simply because every man and his dog could identify that the main issue this year (after confirming Klose would stay) was that we needed strikers. Deadwood was slowly shipped out, decks were cleared, rumours abound, and it seemed for all the world we were ready to welcome our new goalscorers. Then we get one ''could-be'' good signing, and are scrambling about for loan deals on deadline day because we still hadn''t got that job done.

I would say, however, that I believe Pritchard will surpass the achievements of Redmond whilst at our club. In that sense I would say his quality has been replaced with a few million dumb profit.

Bumped again because I want to see how many requests for loans it will take before kio explodes

Whenever I see Maddison in the squad, of course knowing that it has only been cup or u23 games so far, I expect him to set up a goal as minimum. He is the most natural Wes replacement that I have ever seen and I think it''s a real shame that we have Naismith smogging up our attack in place of JM. If the season goes to plan, and we go back up, will he then be ready for a Championship loan? Most disappointing deal of the window

But, if Pritch is fit, where does he fit? At the moment we can''t drop Wes as he is in the form of his career with us. Naismith seems to have a playground-style invisible shield that stops him being dropped. We''ll be rotating Canos, both Murphy boys, Pritchard and Jarvis when he recovers in one position.

And Andreu finally left! If only on loan.

RE: the youth at posh For me it really showed that the unit of Jacob + Josh Murphy with James Maddison have that naturally link into each others games- I thought it might be worth a shot if one of them hadn''t been chucked off on loan to Aberdeen. However if this does one day come good, I officially coin the term ''JMx3''

My worry now is that we potentially have a strike force of 5, with 2 that are historically incredibly ineffective in the art of scoring goals and have seen moves away fall through. Making up the numbers are a youth who has not played a higher level game that SPL, a currently injured sprinter and a smiley Portuguese who did ok for Forest last year. We can only hope that Jerome and Oli avoid any knocks because without them we will be hard-pressed for goals.

I know it''s only the EFL trophy, but a look at Andreu last night shows you what Naismith should be for our first team. Arriving late and poaching goals from the top of the box. Unfortunately Naismith has hardly arrived at all, let alone late. This is by no means a call to get Andreu into our first team- just an example of what I expected when we signed SN, and moreso coming down to this level.

If Lafferty and Naismith left and consequently a startable striker was brought in, I''d be dead chuffed. Naismith is currently an £8mil millstone around the neck of our attack and as such in this particular deal I wouldn''t care about the couple of million lost. The guy doesn''t fit.

It has occurred to me that the very fact that we have one established striker may be the reason we are struggling to add to that at present. You have to convince the player coming in of his game time against a player in Jerome that would get into most EFL starting XI''s. You would then also have to keep Jerome happy being potentially replaced when he''s worked hard to be our starting forward. You also have to convince the accounts that spending however many millions on two more strikers, with only one starting each week and one probably not even in the squad, is a good idea. The last time we did that we made a net loss of about £11 million.

Last year a tactic that AN actually saw some results with was allowing technically superior teams to dominate possession in unthreatening areas and played the counter- Man U game at Old Trafford a prime example. And that, essentially, is what teams are now doing to us. Blackburn got caught cold and played us at our game, but teams have increasingly been allowing us to play our game in our own territory but put up a 10-man wall once we get to the final third. We''re creating overloads at the top of the pitch and are baiting teams to break rank and try to win it back, then nip through the gaps. Say what you will about Ipswich but McCarthy has them well-drilled and they just let us walk it up to the 18-yard line, hit a wall, then kick long for Murphy to scrap for. Unfortunately Jerome isn''t technically-sound enough to really help open up teams, nor is he suited to a hold-up game- he''s a sprinter that wants to get into a race with defenders. Our absolutely key player will be a forward that can give us an effective, different option when the wall goes up.

We all assume that it''s all down to us and our team, when it must be mentioned that BCFC had a game plan and it was well executed. Happy to let us have non-threatening possession in our own time but putting it to us when caught off-guard; that was actually AN''s key tactic against the technical sides of his last Championship bout. All today does is underline the severe necessity for a plan B when technical-territorial doesn''t work. They have 2 weeks.

I agree with Making Plans in that we aren''t setting out our side to expect a win- we''re still hoping it''ll maybe be enough for a result. With our raft of attacking midfield we should be causing any back 5/6 a problem. Trouble is we keep getting drawn into playing other teams games and not our own, which could be potentially devastating.

Naismith for me came in as a ''blood and thunder'' signing that would chase down every lost cause and pull games by the scruff of their neck- he''s ended up being more of a ''tomato juice and a wobble board'' signing. You can see a higher-level thought process in his play, but his legs just aren''t in it I think. ''A quick touch past the defender and ahh pish I''ve lost the thing, I bet it''s that Murphy boys fault'' There''s time for everyone to improve but if there was ever a sign that Lafferty isn''t considered a real NCFC asset it was today.

I think this deal has some really exciting potential. Not the most prolific, but certainly suits our current style and has a decent pedigree. I, of course, had never heard of him until he was linked. It''s got a wonderful ''Wolf v Holt'' thing brewing too.

All but confirmed in AN''s presser today ahead of Birmingham. Not likely in time for this weekend but with 2 weeks now to get fit and ready, I don''t mind that. Good signing.

Now just wait for Alex Neil to assign him the #16 shirt and bring about the collapse of civilisation as we know it.

He seems to be a ''thoughtful'' finisher- that is, he has an understand of how to contact the ball properly to make it go where he wants it. Sounds straightforward, but it''s surprising if you look closely how many forwards build a career on getting the ball on target enough times- Wells and Rhodes seem that way to me, and even Cam Jerome isn''t exceptionally technically blessed. I''d be quietly optimistic having this guy around. Would stlill want another, mind.

Dependent on how many strikers we manage to bring in eventually, I think Morris (loan) and Lafferty (permanent) would be on the way out- in that order. With the knowledge that it may now only be the one coming in, I myself would rather the more experienced, international striker kept back for a PL promotion push rather than a relatively unblooded youngster with a couple of uninspiring loan spell under his belt. That is not to do the young boy down- look how well his fellow starlets did tonight- nonetheless I think it would be more important for Kyle to get game time with the first team at the moment, and the game was won.

Godfrey seems to be the man that nobody quite knows what to do with. Looks to me however like he will take the mantle from Tettey in a year or two.