Tell you what, Pears has been first rate. Never thought Id say that.

How many more subs do we have?

Markanday might look like hes from the number 9s but he cant half strike a ball.

Yeah Moran and Buckley have been great - want them fresh for Swansea.

Markanday does look like hes snuck on from the under 9s

Fucking hell Sigurdsson is just jogging about while everyone is pressing

Sigurdsson on. Please please please put the effort in.

Think hes done really well, hes looked after the ball well and found some good through balls. I can see if we had Garrett in there we just wouldn't be able to break so well. Buckley however has looked different gravy. Looks top notch, sure a few Newcastle fans will be saying "whose this guy"?

Yeah its mad isnt it, but take him out of the side and we have a big problem defensively. And all our other strikers are just as bad offensively so we might as well stick with him.

Without the ball hes been excellent...

Moran and Buckley has worked really well. Humble pie for me and a few others...

Have to say been very impressed tactically by Eustace. Were so compact but breaking with some really slick football. Nothing at all like the hoofball nonsense thats been peddled around.

Well if nothing it is bold...

Crikey is it really Moran and Buckley as a midfield two? I mean that is asking for serious trouble...

I dont think its an english thing per se - fans dont integrate in football generally globally (Italy, Spain, Argentina, Germany etc). Rugby, cricket etc all integrate fine in the UK and abroad. Why that is? Not really sure... I would guess combination of being very popular and teams tending to be geographically very close to each other meaning very easy for huge numbers of away fans. In US sports teams tend to be located very far away from each other. Rovers have 12 professional clubs within an hours drive...

Yeah - also from a morale perspective if the best players are not allowed to play in the most anticipated game of the season I can see that being a big problem. Resting one or two knackered players we can get away with, but wholesale dropping the first team and playing kids in a game all the senior pros will be chomping at the bit to play is asking for disillusionment. I think we will probably play close to our best side.

Hes been absolutely useless under JDT as well. I have seen absolutely nothing from him outside the box, he cant beat a man, his passing and link up is poor, he cannot physically compete at all. Only thing hes done well is find a bit of room and ability to finish in the box. Id stop playing him as a wing back or wide forward as he offers less than nothing, and try instead subbing him on through the middle in a two up front as we need him to get in the box. He will get bullied but might be able to drift about and find something to work with.

Yeah, but it feels like that situation is now solved with a combination of better tactics and players back from injury. We should now go more aggressively after a win rather than be focussed on not losing. Tempting fate, but going through the first choice players it's pretty good mid table quality mostly (Hyam, McFadz, Wharton, Brittain, Buckley, Tronstad, Pickering, Gallagher, Dolan, Szmodics plus JRC, Carter and Hedges when back from injury). Only player I really question whether they are good enough to finish mid table is Pears, but he's looked solid since coming back. The issue is really the bench is horrendous (Whalstadt, , Chrisene, Ayeri, Moran, Telalovic, Sigurdsson, Leonard, Markanday). We've got to hope we don't need to play any of them.

Better to win two lose two than draw all four. Part of JDTs success you could argue was from caring little for draws... We probably do need to start adopting a more offensive approach for those four. Defence looking serviceable now. Time to press on a bit.

Really? Brittains ability to take and control a pass into him fron any angle is very impressive. But I dont think he actually managed to create a single shooting opportunity all game despite having the ball in by far the best positions. Gallaghers and our other chances all came from the left and the middle despite there being much less of the ball in advanced positions there.

Yeah, JDT probably could have done what Eustace is doing now once we went on the bad run in December to shore up, but I think he had got to the point where he decided he wasn't here for long so may as well stick to his principles. I do think that run and leaving on such a low will have done massive damage to his career though, more than he thinks. I see Sweden have not announced him....

Gut feel is we're going to get absolutely mullered. Think JDTs strength in the cups is that premier teams couldn't believe how attacking we were and we caught them out. While Eustace approach is the right thing in the league, I imagine we will really struggle to create much on Tuesday

Hes only played 90 mins collectively over the last two games but Buckleys been very impressive not only in how intelligent he is on the ball but also putting a foot in and reading the game off it. Think we will build the team around him now - hes always fitted around others at false 9, right back, number 10 etc. But he will now be the one everyone looks to in the middle of the pitch. I think that focus will really suit him and he'll kick on in the way we have been hoping for a long time.

Its way too early to judge him about anything except is he doing the rational things to keep Rovers in the division. On that score hes doing pretty wel. Anyone trying to get beyond that now is not really connected to what is sensible in my view

Mcfadz looks like the perfect half season signing to me. Hes been so good, and offers exactly what we need.