- I suspect Gestede got overexcited by Montgomery shining at Chorley and saw him as a pet prospect he can tout (and fill the squad with someone who can't be on more than £2k/week!). Kinda feel for Montgomery, who deserves praise for showing some promise on a couple (non-league) loans, but is now getting needlessly exposed when a L2ish loan would do him well. (Having said that, he's 21 and will be 22 by the end of the year, so he's not that young). - Tyjon needs to bulk up a bit, like any 17 year old, and needs to develop some 'guile' (was regularly caught out by Bradford players earning 'clever' fouls), but definitely has something in finding space, slippery movements, ball control/passing. Doubt he'll turn into a speed demon, but looks to me like he'll turn into a player who will find a way to succeed in spite of lacking size/speed. Of course, the question is whether he'll stick around with PL clubs allegedly circling... - Shame about the gaffe, as I thought Michalski otherwise looked fine. In fact, thought his distribution was quite good the rest of the game (or at least I was relieved after being nervous every time he touched the ball thereafter!). Although I note Parsonblue's observation he's also made such errors for the u21s... If/when Pears is shipped out, we obviously need to find an experienced ~35ish keeper to sit on the bench (which should be affordable...) and find a L2/NL loan for Michalski, but whether that'll actually happen... - I'd be curious to see how Buckley would do at L1/L2 as he's absolutely walked some of our past cup games against lower league opponents. Just gets caught out too much by the added intensity of the Championship. Didn't get much of a chance to do much last night... Would've thought he'd have been started to showcase him if they are keen to ship him out, but perhaps need to get Tronstad back into shape. - I've been worried about Kargbo's seeming inability to cross with his left foot. His cutbacks and crossing didn't work at all against West Brom... but he actually managed a couple clever ones last night, including the one Ohashi should've buried..

I wonder if I should switch to Derby myself. They seem a lovely club.

Blur - End Of a Century

More cost cutting of course.

Hard to believe anyone could blame him in the first place. It was never his fault and like JDT and Lambert before him, their only fault, was listening to the shite there were fed, to hook them in, initially.

Whether he stays or goes remains to be seen, but whatever happens, it won’t be the clubs fault. Some feeble excuse will be rolled out and as usual, most will see it as bullshit and a small element will accept it. Rinse and repeat.

Boro made 5 changes from Saturday's game, but kept the same front 3, & 2 out of the 3 starting centre backs. They did change out their keeper and central midfield though

A secondary frustration to Trav going Derby is how close some fans are to making the mental leap away from 'Eustace is a snake who wants our players' to 'Maybe there's something wrong with us if our ex manager and starting 11 all want to leave to a second rate team'

I’m struggling to see any positives in being a Rovers fan right now. As bad as everything currently is, it’s almost certainly going to get worse. Every time you think we must’ve reached the nadir something happens to prove that we haven’t. I wish I could stop caring.

Take away the goal, de neve did nothing. Seemed reluctant to try and impress himself on the game. Axel is worryingly keen to make a late tackle but also not to track runners. We can't afford to carry a player who won't do defensive duties. On the plus side he played some decent through balls, but then stopped.

The above post is a prime example of why some people should be allowed nowhere near social media. No doubt Jack is a fervent member of the plastic snake brigade.

Same people who want Travis gone will be moaning when forshaw is starting. Absolutely beyond stupid not to have him tied down to the point he wants to go derby.

If we are eventually reduced to seeing what's left on the loan market at the last minute (as usual) I think we'll be sadly disappointed. For every Elliott/Van Hecke/Beck there's a lot more Barry Douglas's/Clarkson's/Poveda's/Cozier Duberry's/Woodrow's/ Dennis's who are either completely shite and/or a complete waste of money. It's the only thing I agree with VI on.

Might be disappointed on the loan front. VI has openly said he doesn't favour loans, in fact he was describing them as 'pointless' at the kit launch as they just obstruct development of our own youth players. To an extent I do agree with him, but you at least need some decent options in your youth team to bring through. Now whilst Adam Wharton has set the bar high, I'm not seeing anyone looking remotely close to being first team ready coming through! Ideally you want to be bringing youth players through when we're stable and doing reasonably well on the pitch, not for our relegation battle that's looming. Hopefully he has a rethink and recognises we need some decent loan players in ASAP if permanent are beyond us!

Is he unhappy? He's been quite blasé about the impending departures of Brittain and Travis as though they're only to be expected and he's known about them for some time.

King crimson - Twenty first century schizoid man

Don’t get me wrong here, as the asset sales of our core squad highlights the dysfunctional status of our club. But we’ve been poor in the attack for a while and I think part of that is down to the fact that Trav and Trondstad are both deep lying defensive minded players. Neither one provide much going forward and replacing one with a more box to box player that can help in the attack. Should they be sold, of course not the should be in competition with one another.

Who was the genius who first looked at their squad and said, “we should play our attack through you.” And pointed at his fucking keeper?

For all we know he may have tried resigning already and been told that his release clause is x Wouldn’t be the first one If not: he needs to either step up and work with what he has or quit (or at least make it known that he wants to quit) as he clearly isn’t happy and the team look lost

On Buckley, no one will take him.... and we see time and time again why. Can't give him away.

Ive been told many times that everything is aligned and all of the signings are exactly tailored to what he wants. He seemed seriously pissed off post match, again. He also cant be happy with the business we are doing.

Everything about him is lazy and half arsed. Doesnt put any thought into anything he does, and he isnt very good to begin with.

I don’t understand why we’re so intent on getting rid of Pears & Buckley in favour of Michalski and Montgomery, when the latter are so far off the quality required. As others have already said Montgomery was far and away the worst player out there tonight and how he stayed on for the whole 90 baffles me. Personally I’d have replaced him before half time. And Michalski is no where near ready to play senior football. Aside from the blunder for the second goal, his all round game was poor. He didn’t claim any high balls into the box, preferring to stay rooted to his line, the saves he made he generally pushed back into dangerous areas, and he looks an absolute bomb scare with the ball at his feet. (Incidentally, whilst there wasn’t much he could do about the shot for the first goal, he could have prevented it before that by coming and catching the ball that was put into the area with no one around him. Instead he stood and watched it go right through the box and eventually Pickering was forced to put it out for a throw in, from which the goal came) And it all has a knock on in terms of confidence for those ahead of him - I’ve played in teams where the keeper just isn’t up to it and it just causes panic in the rest of the team, especially the defence. The rest of the team - Tavares looks decent, Miller looks a better cb than rb to me, De Neve works hard and might pop up with the odd goal, but generally not good enough - looks like we’ve replaced Dolan at least - and Hennrickson will probably be a really good player this time next season when he’s adapted to the English game, but at the moment he looks some way off. And finally, a new striker is an absolute must - neither Gueye nor Ohashi will score enough goals to keep us out of trouble. If it means we have to lose Travis so that we can afford to bring one in then, it’s not ideal, but so be it - we just cannot afford not bring someone in up there

Injured.

I thought Cantwell was excellent, when he came on, pity there were no strikers to finish his moves off, by sticking the ball in the net.