Agree completely, once we lose a 2 in a row the vitriol on here may be horrendous.
I think that will also be Darren's biggest test mate. The sign of a good manager is how they deal with a couple of bad results and stop it turning into a bad run. Steve Clark was great for a good while but once the results took a turn, he had no answer. Pulis on the other hand was a master of halting a slide (apart from the last 10 games of a season, when he was already safe, whereby he actually appeared to encourage it), but even he came unstuck in the end and, once he couldn't stop the slide, he had to go, thank god.
Personally, i think DM has enough in his locker to deal with adversity and get us through any inevitable sticky patch,but only time will tell.
You are right though, if Mears is in the side at the time, he will likely take a lot of the flack.