Just saw a tweet that says with 3 games to go, no club is mathematically guaranteed to be in the Championship next season. Without doubt the best competition in the country.

Wycombe promoted. Whata fantastic job Ainsworth has done at Wycombe.

If Dack is being replaced by Rothwell/Holtby and Graham is being replaced by Gallagher/Brereton, then Dack’s injury and Graham’s age should have provided a great opportunity to get them used to that this season. Instead he has played all four of them predominantly as wide forwards - to poor effect. Personally I’m with @philipl and would expand to say that we’ve not really had much of a plan at all. They just became available. Gally in particular was an ex-loanee so “knew the club”. Rothwell and Holtby were opportune. Brereton is the only curious one. Certainly an investment given his pedigree as an England youth international but how many of those have failed to kick on? The price tag alone may have ruined that lad because of the expectation. Especially when it was one the club couldn’t afford.

Whilst Farke is correct about financial security, the idea that they went about the season the right way is laughable. Burnley and Sheff Utd have shown that with a smart plan in place smaller clubs with limited budgets can survive in the PL. It was obvious when Norwich went up that unless they changed their style of play they'd be coming straight back down, as they conceded the most goals of any Championship winners in over a decade. Failure to address that is a pretty big oversight and as a Norwich fan I wouldn't be very happy with these defeatist comments from a manager who clearly did not put the right strategy in place to give the club the best chance of avoiding relegation.

I will not hold the miss against him, he got in the position. At the moment effort is all I ask for. With effort and an improved defense, this squad could be successful.

Honestly absolutely gutted Davenport, he seems like a top lad and a good footballer- You can see how much it meant to him when he missed that chance. Hopefully he keeps going and gets there.

Ainsworth does it, Wycombe win!

Jesus christ neophox, I don't think anybody is suggesting it will get that bad!!!

No and im not interested enough to watch it. I stand by my comments that it makes no sense to accept relegation and come out with quotes like it was men against boys and that it was almost certain from the beginning. You relish and cherish the promotion and the prize it brings. Theres a happy middle ground between over spending and not spending at all and giving up before youve started. It can be low spending compared to the prize, 10-20m say just to help out the team from last year. That money could be spent in a calculated way and potentially recouped or even profited on even if they did go down. If I was a Norwich fan I would be annoyed not that theyve gone down but that manager and chairman alike accepted it before it happened. We spent more than them last summer. But its something youve grafted for to become one of the top 7 teams in tnlhe country. Even if it does jeapordise your league season slightly, its worth it because of the memories. All of these European away days would be great memories and experiences that might never come round again and you cant sacrifice them in order to try and replicate that league season otherwise you are going round in circles. Absolutely bang on regarding that last comment. We finished 6th twice and 7th in the Premier League post 2001 but the most memorable season is the one we won a cup in. Football is about memories like that. I remember when Wigan won the cup and went down and it created a media driven question, would you rather win the cup or stay up? (Obviously they arent mutually exclusive so its a flawed question anyway) Id take winning the cup every day of the week.

The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down

Weird isn't it, but that's modern football for you for some clubs. Qualifying for Europe is a great achievement, actually being in it seems to be a hindrance. We have been guilty of that at times, I'm thinking the games against CSKA and Genclerbirligi under Souness. On a slightly different note, but it drives me mad that teams situated in midtable in the top flight play weakened teams in the League & FA Cup, these clubs should be throwing absolutely everything at the chance to win a major trophy.

I thought it was pretty ironic, bearing in mind he's got the phrase completely wrong.

Whilst I don't think Mowbray should be saying publicly that he fined Brereton your assertion that the sending off should have been challenged is wrong in my view. Appealing a sending off costs £500 which is non returnable if the appeal is unsuccessful and there is a possibility of extra games for a frivolous appeal. From my viewing it was a clear sending off and wholly unprofessional from Brereton.

I'm not sure Gallagher is a number 10. I remain convinced that Brereton & Gallagher were signed to learn "our way of playing" as Mowbray always puts it, in view to replacing the Dack/Graham partnership from the 20/21 season.

How good was that Brazillian lad ? Pure natural talent. Best player in the Championship surely.

I have to go in the Brown Cow for a queue.

They have Invested based on mortgages on the land they own increasing in value 15 fold since they purchased us and being able to remortgage etc at higher amounts. As land prices are now reducing and the Indian banking system having liquidity issues due to Covid, i would say they may not have the available cash to invest that much at the moment even if they want to.

I believe he did intentionally kick the Barnsley player which is the key point in the referees judgement.

Not a clue why some of you are talking as though he intentionally kicked the lad well after the ball had gone rather than lunging a bit recklessly, but it's not the case. Oldjamfan, we don't have an issue calling it bite when Lenihan and Travis do very similar things but get away with it. In fact we seem to applaud them.

Don't know where this talk of him having no final ball. Whenever I've seen him cross it's always a really good ball. Mowbray just doesn't want him running at players and getting the ball into the box.

And Gillespie, Flitcroft, Berkovic, Short, Hignett, Bjornebye, McAteer, Damien Johnson. Some squad that for the second tier, and no wonder the core of it won cups and qualified for Europe in future seasons.

That challenge wasn't Brereton showing 'bite'. It was silly, and if he can't work out the difference between a good, strong challenge and one that gives the ref a decision to make then he shouldn't be playing professional football. Being able to hear the reactions before and after the challenge from those around it because of the absence of crowd noise shone a light on it as well I think. I do think it was a harsh red, and I was raging at the Barnsley manager's inflammation of the situation, as well as Mowbray's impassiveness, but I don't think - for all his faults - Mowbray could support the lad on this one, though I agree that any club punishment should have been kept quiet about.

As someone on here said a couple of weeks back....Hart is Buffon compared to Raya and Walton. Won the premier league, Fa cup, league cup, englands number one for years not too long ago....Pep drops him because he can't play outfield, and spends 70m replacing him..... The guy is primed to settle down at a club like ours and be a success for 10 years.

Really hope to see Butterworth in the first team. He certainly has the desire. I just hope his injury doesn’t have any lasting effects.

I too would like to see them both under a different manager. Preferably at a different club.

Let’s just hope for better than that FA Cup QF a few years back. Odds on to reach Wembley and we completely bottled it. To think, Wigan went on to win it all

If I was the manager before the Millwall game I would take the team to Wembley and say to them . This is where you could have glory , or you could end up not winning at Millwall. Take your pick.

Personal wealth is irrelevant. Theyve got an unexpected massive windfall. Im suggesting spending a fraction of that on playing reinforcements, not a mad spending spree. You keep going on about risking the financial future of the club. It doesnt make sense considering what I am suggesting. Plus worst case scenario, they spend 20m and still go down. They have additional assets and are still massively in profit and in better shape on the playing side to come back up. You wouldnt be happy if we spent absolutely nothing, and Mowbray said we never expected to survive and it was men v boys. Relegation is not the issue. The manner and the attitude is.

The Championship is a bloody hard league to get out of as many bigger sides than Norwich have found out. For them to get into the top flight and show such little ambition is in my opinion pathetic. Of course a newly promoted side will usually struggle but in Norwich's case they just accepted their fate and never put up a fight.

Excellent to hear Tone, good to know we will be strengthening the back line instead of the usual summer conveyor belt of incoming midfielders...

Some players may react well to a public bollocking like Brereton has received and use it to spur them on. Sadly I don't think he has that sort of character about him.

Never in a month of Sundays am I going to buy that was a red. Just a clumsy, rash challenge that is a yellow every day of the week. It's the ref's decision that was indefensible as there are worse challenges nearly every game. He may well have gotten pelters for actually being sent off. That's not my point, my point is that when similar or worse challenges happen and we aren't unlucky enough for the ref to have a brain fart, we don't see the players who do it getting pilloried.

To stay within FFP guidelines, the above is the minimum we will have to do, i would probably say £12m in trading surplus plus £7m wage bill reduction would be more likely requirment.. If FFP are relaxed for next season then spending a bit this summer would be the best course of action. All depends what happens with FFP rules for next season in the next couple of weeks.

Brereton's kick was about as petulant as the Leicester guy's kick yesterday which he also got a red card for. It's not going to hurt anyone, and once upon a time they would just get on with it, but nowadays if you kick someone without the ball being there you are going to walk.

Yeah I did get the impression that Dack wasn't Ben's biggest fan. I did laugh at the line that I think @Stuart picked up on at the time...."They aren't the brightest tools in the box". I splurted my pint out when Dacky said that.

Secret Affair - Time For Action

Did anyone else pick up on something BD said about Ben in his commentary on Sat? "There's a player in there, somewhere" This might've been a bit of a slip on BD's part, but you wouldn't usually add the word 'somewhere' if you'd seen him rip it up day after day in training.

Not impressed with Mowbray on this one, why is he so much harsher on his junior players than his senior players? Despite what Arbitro says, most of us seemed to clock that it was an extremely harsh red. Think we all expected TM to support him on it. Instead he has levelled a fine against a lad who is clearly a confidence player and was appearing to find some, also discouraging bite from a player who was finally showing some. Given that we have had players do worse tackles since and not be sent off nor fined, I can't imagine it's going to help Ben like TM probably thinks it is.

Although I’m nowhere near as bad as I once was (I swore after Selhurst Park 1989 I would never let football affect me that badly again!) I am still a grumpy old sod for a couple of hours after a defeat. Bloody football, eh? as iv`e got older the defeats hurt less,though i was absolutely fuming when pne beat us this season,after the palace debacle no defeat could ever be worse,if we got relegated 4 years in a row,it still would`nt come close to how i felt that day,it kind of expunged my emotion?☺️

Decent performance against strong opposition. Fair result, but a shame we couldn’t nick it. More of the same over the next three games please. Suppose all we can do now is win all three and keep our fingers crossed for a miracle. If we’d have performed anything like that against Barnsley and Wigan we’d be right in contention. That’s the frustration.

Although I’m nowhere near as bad as I once was (I swore after Selhurst Park 1989 I would never let football affect me that badly again!) I am still a grumpy old sod for a couple of hours after a defeat. Bloody football, eh?

So just as Armstrong has hit a rich seam of form this season and thus become a good "money well spent" signing in his 3rd year here, couldn't that also happen with Brereton & Gallagher (I of course acknowledge that their fees were more substantial and agree that their contributions to date have been underwhelming)? I mean, we saw today a glimpse of what Gallagher can do against the side widely considered as the best in the division, and we all saw a big improvement in Brereton post-lockdown prior to his red card. It would be very typical of football for one of them to hit an Armstrong-like run of form and then for their signings not to look as shabby as they currently do, right? I mean few on here - me included - thought Armstrong would become the central figure he has become did we? Might we be talking about Brereton and / or Gallagher in similar terms in 12 months time? Let's hope so!

I think thats a huge call based on a few cameos. Seems full of energy and enthusiasm but no evidence from a very small number of minutes that he has either the calculated precision, intelligence and positional discipline. Definitely a player id like to see more of but not one ive jumped to any conclusions about just yet.

The fact you can make a convincing case for so many teams going down makes it a very exciting league. The Wigan deduction means that even with their great form they still need to perform exceptionally well to avoid the drop. Is Charlton's best players refusing to play beginning to catch up with them? Is Hulls lack of replacements for talent sold going to hurt them? Are Stoke a complete basket case of a club? Are Luton and Barnsley just too small? It's compelling stuff down there. At the other end if we don't get playoffs then any team other than Derby and their loathsome ethics in what is a swamp of morals and I'd be happy. That a club can make me disgusted even within the sewer that is football is quite impressive in a perverse way. Thing is there are a ton of teams chasing the playoffs all with a decent about. It's interesting stuff. Then there's the top. Brentford, West Brom and Leeds are excellent teams but only 2 are going up automatically. One is going to have to settle for the playoff lottery. Perhaps Fulham should be included in that number but I feel they are handicapped by their manager. So at both ends of the table there is a hell of a lot to play for and a heck of a lot of uncertainty. Tbh I think it once again proves the championship is the most exciting league out there.

TM is accorded the benefit of the wider context of if we get rid his replacement would likely be worse. It's an argument I have a lot of time for given we recruit from a second rate agency. However the wider context should also be applied to how quickly we need promotion and the odds of a slow build happening being slim indeed. Dack, Armstrong, Lenihen all will be gone in the next year or two - it's the nature of football and a pattern under Vs. So a slow build isn't really that viable, and I feel we stand on the edge of another shut down resources and bust cycle. With this in mind IF we can keep the squad together next year it very much must be last chance saloon. As it is, I fear we are already drinking in it. The squad needs a fair number replacing with loans and aging stars and there's never been a more open championship where an ounce more consistency or quality and we would be a few points better off and comfortably in playoffs. Which brings us on to today's game. Another one that shows the skills and flaws of TM's Rovers in equal measure. A point against a very good standard of opposition is not to be sniffed at and shows we are a decent to good side. However we perhaps could and should have won, which would have put us solidly back in the race, but once again failed to do so. We really are a close but no cigar (wherever that phrase comes from) type of team. We clearly are nearly men and won't actually break top 6, but equally and frustratingly we aren't far away. We perhaps could and should have won today and have been in that place before. It being tantalisingly just out of reach, being just not quite good enough is what gets us so frustrated. In a way I see a lot of parallels with Bowyer. The team isn't as good but we get more bang for our bucks out of this lot. If TM was just a bit cannier at signing players maybe we'd be edging it. As it is we're nearly men and I feel we are on the edge of another bust cycle. Could coronavirus be our rescue, with a lack of buying power for clubs keeping the squad together, giving TM another chance at promotion. Perhaps. Certainly bar Tosin - admittedly a huge miss - the replacements would struggle to be worse than what we have. That said TMs record in the transfer market has not been good so it's an anxious time. I guess my theory is we will see another Bowyer cycle through, then get through a few more of our agency's rejects. Hopefully we will get another Bowyer cycle through and third time lucky - this one has the nous to get us over the finish line. That we've come kinda close with the loons in charge, a substandard structure and imo mediocre management, means it is possible. It's the hope that kills you.

Don't think you can overestimate the impact of Dack's absence either. Someone said before, "Oh, everyone's had injuries". How many other sides had their best player out for half a season?

I certainly wouldn't call them savvy changes it was just a shit or bust roll of the dice and to be fair it worked by knocking WBA out of their stride and we pinched the goal. Bold move yes tactical masterstroke no.

Have been feeling somewhat down since the final whistle but my grandson has just been to see me and said he was feeling upset as well. When I pointed out that play offs are all but out of reach and Pope the Burnley keeper might win the golden glove, he agreed. After a moments silence he then said does that mean they will need to make a special glove with six fingers? Now that cheered me up so I thought I would share it with you.

Both him & BB are duds ... Just goes to show that even though TM had a good look at him a few years back he still went back and paid millions for him ... Shocking player .. Not even Birmingham would have him back ...