Win against Boro and I think this could get the team back feeling confident and moving forward. The next 6 games after that are all "easier" in terms of footballing quality - Blackburn, Man City, Southampton, Norwich, Crystal Palace and then Everton who we already beat away and may well be slumping post-Christmas with their thin squad. Man Utd away on the 3rd January may see the introduction of any signings Frank tied up before the deadline opened on the 1st. Either way this losing streak needs to be broken, it's hard enough as it is for a new coach, let alone if he has to get them used to playing for him when they've got no confidence.
There's no way in the world we should be discussing Jol's future. It's not like we can afford to get rid of him or anything anyway. He'll do a good job, play attacking football and hopefully we won't be defensively naive throughout the season. However, playing Athouba, whatever the reason, is just plain wrong, anybody can see the man is noway near up to it. And that's the one thing about Jol that has worried me slightly!!