Very true Rev. I was thinking the other day when we had slipped into the old Division Three for the first ever time. Money was tighter then than at any time in our long history. In came Ken Furphy on a mission, wholesale changes and a plan. The club started to gain momentum, unfortunately Sheffield United then nicked KF but he was replaced by Gordon Lee and the plan continued with the club making its way back to the Second Division. Not long after that, we almost made it back to the top flight. The Chairman and Board of Directors were local men in those days. Their stake wasn’t particularly high but they had a pride in the place. Both Ken Furphy and Gordon Lee had a presence and wouldn’t it be nice (understatement) to have someone of their calibrate at the helm now.

I dont know whether to laugh or cry with Mowbray's comments. Our route to promotion is unlikely to succeed if we are trying to copy the top 4 for style. Leeds and West Brom have appointed world class managers and have spent millions on players to go with it. Fulham have a ridiculous squad and have spent fortunes on the best players around. We can't copy Brentford because their operation is on another level to the rest of the Championship. We are incapable of replicating that, but if Mowbray wants to try then the first job is for him and Venus to resign so the club can appoint a head coach and director of football. We need to be trying to copy Burnley, Cardiff, Brighton and Hull. Limited sides that got promoted through organisational ability, good management, a set way of playing and minimal disruption to it. Mowbray thinks he is better than he is. I'd just like him to put a side out that can defend and is hard to beat.

"Im not stupid." Elliott, you are at left back today, Sam, right wing!

They had a plan and they brought in players to suit that plan. They weren't necessarily top players but they fitted into the plan. Plus, I include Howard Kendall here, they all brought a winning mentality.

Come on JH, we don’t even know what league we are going to be in! I know Forest, Fulham, Brentford, Leeds, Derby, Bristol City, Swansea and Millwall top end. Barnsley, Charlton, Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Hull and Luton bottom end all have them on sale and our club is very worried about lack of cash flow currently, but it would be a daft idea to follow the lead of these clubs, wouldn’t it Chaddy?

From that article- ‘I shouldn’t be throwing JRC in at left back, that’s not where he plays’. If only he would apply the same logic to Elliott Bennett...

They clearly don't see Thompson as anywhere good enough as is evident by the fact that he cannot make then bench even when Williams, Bell and JRC are all injured. Have you not seen enough of Bennett at full back yet to realise that he is not good enough? Buckley needs to go out on loan he is a million miles away from being ready for the Championship. As for Chapman I think it must be quite clear to everyone that the manager does not see him as an option. If he can't make the squad when we have 9 subs and a fair few injuries then when is he going to? If you want to move up the League then you are going to need to improve that midfield. Evans cannot be relied upon, Downing is will be 36, Johnson has ability but is has not looked in shape all season. And Davenport needs to play between now and the end of the season to see if he is capable. I like Graham but come on the bloke is clearly past it, you can almost here him creaking every time he moves. He's only managed 3 goals this season and will be 35 soon, time to move on from him if we want to progress. That leaves us with only Armstrong who can score with any regularity, Brereton has one goal in nearly 2 years and Gallagher isn't much better and also is Gallagher a Striker? The manager does not appear to think so.

Dear Tony, Please can we have round pegs in round holes and also no Elliott Bennett, no matter how many of your secrets he has? The truth will come out eventually anyway. Yours sincerely, A frustrated fan.

Dont know if this is the best place to put it. But I really think at the moment we are at a crossroads in terms of naming our best side. I sort of understand the thinking behind this new elaborate formation to an extent but it needs to be binned, Holtby like Dacks influence is massively compromised when you ask him to essentially lead the line. Of course we have to try and get that unlikely 6th spot as long as we mathematically can but perhaps we also need to be trying to finally come up with a successful way long term to bring together an imbalanced squad. What formation do we play? We HAVE to play a number 10 because our best player is a 10 so theres little point planning a formation without him, plus Holtby is best as a 10, and even Buckley has had his only good game at Charlton as a 10. That sends you towards 4231 again but the problem is we have absolutely no competent players to play wide roles, and that leads to this wide strikers bollocks. This is where our previously imbalanced recruitment hits us hard. We already need a GK, CB and LB minimum defensively. We also need a real revamp in wide areas. Sadly with the current situation any hope of adequately fixing all of this is unrealistic. We need to come up with a way whereby we can use our technical players to dominate games, but still have that attacking threat. Looking ahead to Tuesday night, I think the most obvious change to make first is Downing to left back. Not ideal but in the absence of our 2 LBs hes the only option and a competent option at that. Id pick Davenport over Johnson (who again looks a busted flush) in CM, and Armstrong up top is an obvious one. Always reluctant to move Holtby but again when Dack is back he may need to go somewhere else anyway, maybe have Rothwell (so lucky to have another chance) coming in from the left, Holtby from the right giving us technical players at LB, Adarabioyo at CB, then the 2 CMs and ahead Rothwell and Holtby cutting inside to hopefully get us plenty of possession. Nyambe and Downing overlapping, and Brereton as a 10 off Armstrong? Walton Nyambe Lenihan Adarabioyo Downing Travis Davenport Holtby Brereton Rothwell Armstrong

Sheff Utd was the other one but we've in no way ever resembled what they'd been building for years apart from flirting with a back 3 maybe. Preston as well although i think that was more comparing improving finishing position year on year. There's probably another in there as well but can quite recall who. Now he's bemoaning the constant not converting chances whilst highlighting Armstrong as our most potent weapon but totally absolving himself of the signings of Gallagher, Brereton and Samuel. The one's most guilty of missing chances but also the one's nobody else is surprised they do given their lack of goals before HE paid money for them. I'm done listening to him now he's a total waffle merchant and to be honest some of it is insulting now really. However we have a director who'll always have his back because he basically works for him and owners who swallow any old guff by the bucket load if they like you. We are still on course for our best ever Championship finish under this lot even if we miss the play offs so for that he deserves credit if we manage it. However it's always tinged with a large dose of a feeling we are blowing a good opportunity that might very soon evaporate and some of that is down to him as well.

Just proves what we've been saying all along this guy has no real core style. That's why his signings are scattergun and he's constantly swapping around. He's trying to copy other teams but he keeps changing his mind which one. How many has he held up now as the benchmark in the last few years ? Problem is he's trys to mould players he already has and the square pegs for round holes he's signed into something resembling what other clubs are doing. How about sign some bloody players to fit a style instead of the opposite way around.

Call me cynical but the reason Gally and Ben play wide forward is because it lessens the focus on their lack of goals and it keeps them in the team when they aren't good enough to lead the line.

Spot on. Mowbray doesn't know he's born when you consider the sort of wheeling and dealing Ken Furphy had to do to turn us round. The difference between the likes of Lee and Furphy and Mowbray though is that they recognised what needed to be done in terms of changing personnel to try and make us successful. There'd be no standing on ceremony being loyal to players who might have been good servants in the past or dishing out new contracts like sweeties to players who'd not really done anything to warrant it in the first place. Said players were packed off and replaced by someone Furphy or Lee thought could do a better job.

Also a problem that Downing is 36 and Tosin is a loan! Holtby is ours but can't play much more than 60 mins when he is fit...

I was just thinking the same thing after reading Mellor Rover's summary. To sum up, after X amount transfer windows building the squad, we need a new player in every position (in some cases, x2 players)

Beat me to it. Sounds like he's peeved off with a few of them from Saturday. But what's the betting these two escaped any rollockings and keep their places for tomorrow?

Bennett isn't much of a footballer..............full stop!! ?

Let’s hope Bennett and Gallagher are amongst them.

Or Brentford ? Always a lower league team in my lifetime.

Walton Nyambe Lenihan Tosin Downing Travis Davenport Holtby Brereton Graham Armstrong

I'd be extremely wary of selling any defenders as we are yet to buy any decent permanent defenders. Tosin & Cunningham both loans and the latter got injured almost immediately. Mowbray has had a fair few transfer misfires up top as well but at least we seem to be willing to invest in the attacking side of the team... not so much the defensive side,

Because playing a tall striker on the wing instead, with barely any of the attributes to play there obviously makes more sense.....

Even the idea that our best players would make a ‘big move’ to the mighty Crystal Palace, what a depressing decade we’ve had...

Yeah I am good with this team, Armstrong and Brereton could switch periodically.

There's 20 players on the books I'd sell before Nyambe to get us back onside with FFP. For the sake of his own career he'll probably leave - but he's one of our few standout players so it'd be a shame to see him go.

Is anyone else watching this set from Bowie at Glastonbury recorded in 2000? Legendary stuff and sadly missed.

As another poster said if we got a £5 million offer we'd probably snatch their hands off but whoever buys him could have a bargain on their hands with the right development. If we're ever going to do anything other than tread water we need to hold on to our best players.

Yes it was a dire decision, and I'm not saying it just with hindsight. I made posts on here to that effect at the time.

Tony will talk like we are playing Brazil, baffle us all with his team selection. Then set us up so we dont look like scoring...Best players and leading goalscorers on the bench. Then finally after thirty passes round our own 18 yard box we give the ball away and it's in our net...How many times have we seen that this season...

Why would 200k have been refunded? Only a small proportion of the ST base would have requested a partial refund, so it wouldn’t have been close to that figure. I certainly wouldn’t have asked for £40 back, neither would most fans I know. But it was still a pisstake laying the sob story on thick that it would be loyal fans on the bones of their arse risking the ‘survival of the club’, whilst we have and continue to piss money up the wall...

Massive fan of Davenport thought he looked tidy and should be starting in a midfield 3. Shocked we signed Chapman and never play him. We CANNOT play wide Strikers and we also CANNOT play Bennett LB.

Win or bust this one,win and we go back to thinking we have a chance to get into the top 6 and lose and the seasons over and we're back to looking at another mid table season in the Championship with an uninspiring manager and no money to spend on improvements.

If we lost over two legs how the hell could we BE at Wembley to lose again??

Why are you worried at all? We're not going to be in the playoffs, it just won't happen

Any club serious about challenging for the playoffs would have strengthened in January, having lost their best player.

He still needs to be getting in the box if he's going to be scoring goals. That's what MGP did when he was scoring goals. As time went by he stopped getting in there and the goals dried up. You don't get many 25 yard shots into the top corner in a season. If you're on the left wing and the ball is out on the right hand side - get in the bloody box !

I wish we have the Brentford model of scouting and finding these gems. Its something the club should have implement years before Mowbray time. We have a good scouting network under Hughes then after he left we seen to go backwards in terms of scouting. Hopefully we are heading back to having a good scouting network and knowledge I suspect that after Mowbray leaves we might end up going to the Sporting Director and head coach structure route. With Damien Johnson taking over as head coach which i would be happy with. Others wouldn't. We have tried this director of football/sporting director thing 3 times with Shebby Singh or Paul Senior or Simon Hunt. Am I right to think JHRover that you would like Mick McCarthy or Chris Hughton type of manager ?

Manfred Mann - Mighty Quinn

The 4-3-3 should be ditched, 2 of our only 3 competent attackers are number 10s so why come up with a formation that doesnt include one? Gallagher cannot play that wide striker role as much as Bennett cannot play at left back.

Not to mention we currently do not own a Championship competent GK, LB or 2nd CB going into next season...

I'm missing attending games and so are the people I attend with. I enjoyed going to watch my team play. I was looking forward to attending the Barnsley game before the season stop in March. I have been going for over 22 years to Ewood Park as Season ticket holder.

I will renewing as soon as possible

A stupid decision to only give him a one year extension last year. But that's probably because he was not playing at the time so that Bennett could be shoehorned in at right back.

How long do you think it would have taken for Warnock to put a rocket up a few of our lot ? It didn't take him long to work Gestede out at 'Boro.

I'm most worried about Derby. After last weekend I felt Forest were within reach but now 8 points above us, we aren't overtaking them either. 6th is the limit and with Cardiff and Derby hitting fine form at the right time, along with our tough run I can't see it happening.

That is why you train. To test fitness. The reason someone is on the bench and not starting should be for ability or tactical reasons, never fitness.

Just been watching Huddersfield and wondered how on earth we only managed to take 1 point of them. So I watched the highlights of us playing them home and away and imagine my surprise when the reason was Walton and Bennett.

Exactly. And it has been like this for a many years. It's about time we started making our feelings known a bit more vociferously. ( in my opinion )

Thats what sets Dack apart and makes him our best player. For all of his skills and entertainment, he scores regularly because he knows where the ball will drop, so many scruffy goals. Even Armstrong I dont think is the best at anticipating chances. Rhodes was the master at it and Dack is not so far off. Armstrong has scored quite a few goals in recent months (well apart from in the break!) but long term the 25 yard screamers which he has 4 or 5 of arent a regular type of goals and he needs to be getting more scruffy goals. Even one on one when Armstrong goes through, he probably misses more than he scores.

Brilliant, that. Understatement is such a tonic- especially when I am raging!