The morning after. In one dugout a man who had been given a bottomless pit of money to win the league. In the other, a man whose recruitment team got the paperwork for an excellent loanee midfielder wrong, and couldn’t even be bothered with his main request for a centre forward. This meant that against our fiercest rivals we didn’t have a single senior striker in the squad. But that’s not the full story. We still outfought and outplayed them despite our obvious limitations on and off the pitch. The difference was a well taken goal by a €4m substitute. Not many teams in this league can do that. In contrast we brought on a 19 year old academy lad. I would hope Steve Waggott and Gregg Broughton had a sleepless night, knowing that they are responsible for the failure to achieve at least a play off place from our January position. They’ve let the club, the fans, the players and the manager down. Though I’m sure they slept soundly.

Enjoy it while you can. I’m still hoping Pace pockets the cash and Kompany leaves for a team like Crystal Palace - and fails 👍🙂

Having doggedly followed Rovers under the ownership of Venkys, I can easily believe it sadly.

He gave an interview after the Jan window clearly pissed off that we'd sent out two attackers and only brought in Thomas.

He was on a yellow which may have made a difference, but Pickering vs Benson (or any tricky winger) is only going to end one way.

I agree with much of this but harsh on JDT considering he hasn't been backed. He clearly wanted an extra option in midfield and a striker in January and didn't get them. So I'd say the season has been sabotaged but not by the manager. A couple of players could have made a massive difference. Also Wharton is only 18 and clearly struggles to play a full 90 and we shouldn't be relying on a teenager at a professional football club when there were resources available. I do agree that it's frustrating to not see Adam Wharton more (and Morton's costly mistakes), but even with him, as we saw tonight, we would have still struggled to get the ball in the net. Jack would be deeply disappointed that his family enabled this continuing nightmare to happen.

Scored because they brought on a player they signed for around £4m and conceded none because we haven't invested in a striker since 2019. Had Benson not been on the bench it would have ended 0-0.

He's only 19, Vale is 22. It's ludicrous that we're having to bring on a 19 year old against the team at the top of the table tbf.

He hasn't had 5 years to build a team. He didn't decide that playing without centre forwards was the way forward. He didn't f*** up the January transfer window. I don't think roverfan99 is one for context.

Yeah as I said that wasn't my point.

Every team has played Rovers for about 18 months knowing we struggle upfront. The opposing manager knows he can go at us without much fear, and that's why you see lowly teams looking shocking against other teams, then they come to us and are under orders to have a go as there's always a chance.

And for good reason.

That wasn't my point. On the night we needed a goal, he scores for someone else and plays out of his skin. I just remember him jogging about like a schoolboy who'd won a competition.

We've improved at playing football, but regressed with scoring goals, which was the same as last season. You'd think Waggott would have highlighted that as a priority considering that's how we missed out on the play offs last time.

George Hirst scored tonight and apparently played very well. Football can be cruel.

We didn't have a DOF, DOF was brought in to aid in recruitment, recruitment gets worse. I don't know how anyone can defend this.

If you read what he said earlier in the season, he had no intentions of seriously bolstering the squad in January. The league position was a complete surprise and they weren't prepared for doing any proper business, and it showed with the speed in which they were moving in Jan and then when opportunities came up. And to send off Markanday and Hirst before bringing in replacements is amateur hour.

At any other club Broughton would be sacked, but then so should Waggott.

He's scored 4 goals this season and has two assists, another player that struggles to score is absolutely not what we needed. A cursory glance at the Championship top scorers and the clubs they are with tells you what we need. It's phenomenal that we're still in with a shot. Someone the other day said, are we really worse off than Luton and Coventry? Two teams with 20 goal strikers. If only we'd had a 20 goal striker.

Dolan and Hedges aren’t even strikers, that’s the biggest problem, Mowbray’s bizarre experiment of playing without centre forwards.

This is their Premier League title win 😂

No pressure on anyone from above, so this is how you end up with a chairman with his feet up, a recruitment team not delivering any of their targets and only one senior centre forward who struggles to reach ten goals a season.

He’s going bald so it’s a start.

We keep saying that and Venkys keep delivering.

Oh well, it’ll be sweet seeing them fall. We’ve outplayed three teams and been cheated in two, only 2 points better off. If only we could bring on a £4m player when we’re struggling against a team. The people to blame are off the pitch. I hope Rovers fans never let them forget it. Never forget when Venkys, Waggott and co allowed this to happen.