Meet the new boss...

OH, it's a wonderful new era.
We Gasheads are skipping to work, smiling in the face of adversity, feeling that we have found a shiny, bright new penny on the pavement.
And perhaps we have. A new Penney to be precise.
Ok, so we only drew at home to the bottom club in League One.
Dave Penney's mighty Blue and White Army 2,
Miserable Black country town where I once broke down on Boxing Day 2
But there were signs...
Signs, that we can turn around our dismal form of 2010.
Signs that, though now three points adrift in the relegation zone and bottom of the current form table, we actually still have a few decent players at the club.
And signs that our new boss actually has some tactical acumen and isn't just going to try to baffle us with bullsh*t.
Don't get me wrong. Trolls was a nice fella and I am sure he was a decent coach.
But if one thing really infuriated me during his reign it was his version of management speak in the press.
He would say things like, "We tried to put pressure on them in the right areas but for some reason we weren't quite able to do that", when actually what he meant was "We tried to get hold of the ball but they wouldn't let us have it".
Followed by the infuriating, "We played well but unfortunately weren't able to perform to our full capabilities in both boxes" ... Roughly translated: "We couldn't score and they got loads".
And there was the various talk about new systems, playing a "fluid" way where the forward-looking players would switch positions at various times.
I'm sure it all looked great on the chalk board but sometimes I wonder whether he confused his own players with the new tactics he tried to introduce.
Whatever, the new man seems quite straight forward. Perhaps it's his northern upbringing.
(Please feel free to put on a Yorkshire accent at this point...)
"Ah'll play four-four-two tha' knowst, getting blokes up t'front to tackle back, fight for the cause and keep us in t'other arf. I want ma wingers to play on t'wing, to chook in crosses and a big bloke t'win t'ball or become a bloomin' nuisance anyhow. Ah want to keep our goalscorer Hoskins so that he will be able to pick up t'pieces and add to his phenomenal tally.
"At t'back ah want us to tackle, block and stop t'other buggers using our goal like Phil t'Power does with the trebles on a dart board.
"Tha' knowst football is a simple game and that's t'way I want to play it."
Actually, I don't think DP (as we are already referring to him, though this could be confused with Darren Patterson our, for the moment, assistant manager) speaks quite like that but the sentiment is real. He wants to play a highly pressurised 4-4-2 system in which everyone works their butts off to keep us in League One.
And A-men to that.
I do believe he started the job on Tuesday night. Our first half performance was nothing short of disgraceful and we could have been three down to Walsall at half time.
But in the second half the Gas came out firing, immediately turned the game on its head and in the end were unlucky not to win.
So what did Penney do?
Visibly, he made an important half-time substitution, bringing on Jo Kuffour for young Eliot Richards and watching him turn in one of his best performances of recent times.
But what we don't know is exactly what happened in the dressing room.
Certainly we looked more organised, defended further up the pitch, and players like young Ben Swallow on the wing were given license to run at defenders and attack.
As far as the back four were concerned I felt our loan signing from Brighton James Tunnicliffe - so far a huge disappointment in the quarters and getting his fair amount of stick from fans - looked far more up for the task.
Gary Sawyer, our left back signed from Plymouth, was an absolute revelation after a pretty ordinary first half and was possibly my choice as man of the match.
An interesting first outing for our new manager.
What wasn't so exciting was what followed afterwards.
DP announced that he would be trying to bring three or four new faces into the building and was hoping to name a new assistant manager on Wednesday.
By Thursday he was forced to admit: "We tried to get t'big striker but 'is club wanted to keep him in case of injuries" (memories of the Chris Wood/West Brom saga last year)
"Another blook we were after chose to join another club he had been on loan at." Doh.
"I tried to bring in an assistant but after chatting to the wife he decided he didn't want to join me."
Disappointing, and echoes of Trolls and Lennie Lawrence in the January transfer window last season.
As it is, we will be going to Carlisle United with exactly the same players that have got us into the current mess we have found ourselves in.
Rather than continuing to tell us they are "too good to go down" it's time they dug us out of it - and hopefully the motivational powers of DP, plus another couple of days on the training field, will help them do it.
Meanwhile, I can only hope that next week brings the shiny, happy new faces that we Gasheads crave.