[robnewbold]

If it were Van Gaal, Martinez, Wenger. Moyes or any other Manager /Head Coach in the Universe a failure to win at home against Burnley , given their current form would be equally unacceptable.

Its a must win for us and AI....my point is it wont get much easier then this one...and it gets a damn site harder as the season progresses.

No one wants us to lose, i predicted a win last week, and it was a great result, as was the Southampton game.

But we all know the Albion, as i suggested its a roller coaster and always has been...a win this weekend and our season is up and running.....a loss at home and its a disaster...until next week.

[BB74]

Credit to Kiely and Downing who are still pulling the strings apparently.

[glosterbaggie]

Well done AL and the players!!

[BB74]

I'll reserve judgement on AI until before that horror run in come April. If we are safe by then he will deserve every bit of credit but until then I am sceptical.

[overseas baggie]

A top performance. Amazing what a bit of confidence does.  I never thought we could play this well without both Mulumbu and Yacob.

Gardner, Lescott, Wisdom and Pocognoli all looking like excellent new signings.  Dorrans superb. Berahino excellent. Good all-round team performance.

And another clean sheet.

9/10 performance. Apart from a little 10-minute spell around 60-70 minutes when we got a bit sloppy at the back it would be 10/10 for me.

[Quakes Fan]

Credit to Kiely and Downing who are still pulling the strings apparently.

Does Irvine owe you money or something?

[maccbaggie]

Credit to Kiely and Downing who are still pulling the strings apparently.

Where have you heard that? (Out of interest- I'm not doubting it).

[BB74]

Does Irvine owe you money or something?

I wish! 

Just pointing out that when things are bad it's because AI is useless and because Kiely and Downing are pulling the strings still. So it's only right that when we do well and AI gets praise that Kiely and Downing do aswell. That's a fair point surely?

[BB74]

Where have you heard that? (Out of interest- I'm not doubting it).

Read it on here, hence the 'apparently'.

[glosterbaggie]

Good post Lee.

While I have noticed some fans who were hyper critical of AI up to the Spurs game now suggesting we should give him more time, there are still those clinging to the hope he fails, as you say some of the comments are cringeworthy & I keep reading how todays game is 'the big test' for Irvine.......... personally I think going away & winning at Spurs (deservedly) was 'a big test' getting through to the next round of the cup against Prem opposition was 'a big test', for me Burnley is 'the next test' Liverpool will be 'the next test' after that & so on & so on, the sooner fans get used to the fact that Alan Irvine is our head coach & IS doing a decent job, the better.             

Good sensible post Sir! Well he passed this test looking at Burnley results only Chelsea have scored more than one goal.They also conceded in Burnley 1-3 Chelsea.Three clean sheets V Man U,Crystal Palace and Sunderland all 0-0.And lost to Swansea 1-0 . Every game as you say is a "Test"

[Hong Kong Phooey]

Three wins in a week - what negatives are the boo boys going to come out with now?

Not posted much since the end of last season - partly due to the embarrassing comments regarding AI's appointment!

Didn't particularly want him here in the first place but I cannot understand why you would not give him your total support regardless of your personal opinion of him and his credentials.

If he was responsible for those inept displays against Swansea and Everton he certainly deserves praise for the wins against Spurs and Burnley.

[Adder]

Credit to Kiely and Downing who are still pulling the strings apparently.

It's quite incredible the power they have to run things while the manager does nothing.
So are they insisting on Saido and Dawson's selection ?
Jeees they are no doubt doing their jobs but can we quit with this running things stuff ? Strange they are never running things when things go badly.

[OldburyWBA]

Fair play to Irvine, still not sure how he got the job and never will but 3 wins in a week and an excellent performance today is the best way to go about sticking two fingers up to the doubters like myself.

[Legend]

What a great week and really pleased for our gaffer.

In Irvine we trust 

[dont ask me to choose luv]

Fair play to Irvine, still not sure how he got the job and never will but 3 wins in a week and an excellent performance today is the best way to go about sticking two fingers up to the doubters like myself.

Touché Phil 

[WBARoberts]

Full credit to AI and the players today - absolutely fantastic performance. It was great to see, whilst I've openly criticised AI today there can be non of that, he set us up well and we looked in control for 95% of that game.

The jury is still out, all I know is that if he continues in the same way and performances like that continue I'll very happily eat my words and congratulate him wholeheartedly.

For now, enjoy it everyone, three wins in 7 days is a great feeling and Alan, you've done brilliantly this past week.

[Sessegod]

no mistakes, looked solid, well done

[Dan]

I'll reserve judgement on AI until before that horror run in come April. If we are safe by then he will deserve every bit of credit but until then I am sceptical.

Funny how you weren't "reserving judgement" after the Everton defeat... A shame there'll always be that few who would rather be right about Irvine than him actually do well. Glad to see the majority judging him on results anyway, as it should be.

One thing he's done particularly well so far is trusting our less senior players. He's given Berahino the opportunity to play as our main man, put Dawson in over McAuley/Olsson and he's been repaid handsomely for that these past few games.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Very pleased with the results and performances in the last week.

We look a totally different side to the one that started the season and a different side to the Wednesday side I saw under Alan Irvine. I've mentioned in previous posts that I wanted to see improvements in certain areas, a case of learning from your past mistakes and in fairness to Irvine he is delivering on that. Our ball retention, movement, crispness of passing and our mentality is totally different.

He's made some big calls in the past week or so and he's passed them with flying colours. I wasn't happy with his appointment and maybe I reacted a bit to hastily at the time but if he continues with similar results and performances as the last week have been then he'll have thankfully proved me wrong.

Well done gaffer, have a Scotch on me.

[east-stand-nick]

Fair play to the bloke, had an excellent week. Maybe he will prove many of us wrong after all?

Although those members saying "I told you so" or similar are just as cringeworthy as those slagging him off.

[BoingFlyer]

Dropping Mulumbu, Yacob, Ollson and Mcaully was a big decision and it has paid off so full marks for doing that. Freezing Ollson out of the team for costing us two games shows his no mug when players form is off.


Also really pleased to see the youth players being given a chance and flourishing in the first team which is no easy feat again full marks for pulling that off.

The players seem to responding really well to him and improving each game.

[Legend]

Fair play to the bloke, had an excellent week. Maybe he will prove many of us wrong after all?

Although those members saying "I told you so" or similar are just as cringeworthy as those slagging him off.

Nobody's said that as far as I'm aware, just giving praise when warranted. It's of course too early to say whether he'll be a success here or a failure but he deserves credit for the past week and rightly so. Personally I couldn't be more happier for him.

[Adamstv]

For me the positive thing is that we have so far had 3 clean sheets out of 6. That's a massive plus because if you don't concede you can't lose. He seems to have instilled a mentality into the players and a system that has taken me back to Roy Hodgsons days  of being tight and compact. Ball retention and one touch football was excellent albeit against a poor team but you can only beat what is in front of you. In his interview he said he was happy with most things but there was a spell we were a little sloppy and for me that means he may appear task master and strives to continuos improvement  - no bad thing . The signs are looking a lot better than at the beginning of the season.

[gerry m]

Dropping Mulumbu, Yacob, Ollson and Mcaully was a big decision and it has paid off so full marks for doing that. Freezing Ollson out of the team for costing us two games shows his no mug when players form is off.


Also really pleased to see the youth players being given a chance and flourishing in the first team which is no easy feat again full marks for pulling that off.

The players seem to responding really well to him and improving each game.

You hit the nail on the head regarding the players! That is half the battle for a manager, lose the players and your toast. As ive said before i wasnt happy with his appointment but he is ticking along very nicely and long may it continue.

[Rheneas]

Fair play to Irvine, still not sure how he got the job and never will but 3 wins in a week and an excellent performance today is the best way to go about sticking two fingers up to the doubters like myself.

Still too early to say that his appointment was an inspired gamble, but although I would have preferred someone with a Premier League track record all along, I also said at the outset that I wanted AI to do well because that'd mean the team would do well.

The more matches he wins, the more respect and regard he'll earn from us lot, so more power to him.

He's coming across as a hard-working and quietly confident type which impresses me. It's clearly rubbing off on the players too.