Best 45 means nothing if you lose. Just like last season having all of that possession meant nothing. Results are all that matters, especially at the business end of the season.

Standard Mowbray second half of the season death spiral. Every single time. Get him gone and get someone with a braincell in the door.

Seemed obvious at the time we were doing well but if this run wasn't confirmation that Tony got lucky and is the biggest thing holding back this team I don't know what is. We absolutely must get rid in the summer if we have even the tiniest bit of ambition.

I though that this one season we may have a chance, that something will change but no, same old garbage, same old death spiral. The only way Tony should get even a sniff of a new contract is if we make the play-offs. Get someone who isn't a complete bottle-job in.

May seem harsh but if we lose here I'd be looking at options for a new manager. Continue like this and we won't even be in the hunt for the play-offs. With someone new we can start planning for when we lose all oir decent players and can maybe squeak in there with the new manager bounce.

You watch this dross and it's clear this team was riding momentum which has well and truly gone. Play like this for the rest of the month and you can forget about 6th, nevermind 2nd. Question is, has Tony got the nous to sort it?

Does every ref in this league think that every foul is a card? Last few games have been carnage in that regard.

Buckley should never ever be played up top. He offers nothing there. Need Breo up there ASAP

Looking at Tony's comments we couldn't be much further from full strength, certainly at the top end of the pitch.

I think any talk of a new deal needs to wait until the end of the season. We have traditionally completely nosedived over February / March in the past. If he can keep us in the hunt (I'd be using 6th as an absolute minimum from our current position) then for me he'll have at least earned another crack at it. If we get promoted then he'll have earned a crack at the big time, even if I don't rate him as a manager, However, if we do what we have every other year and go on a massive loss streak he has to go. To be honest I'd be getting rid the second it looks like we're going to drop out of contention and then seeing if we can ride a new manager bounce to save the season. In any case, all hypothetical and we should just stick with how we are for now. Maybe the chance of a new deal will give Tony extra motivation to see the job through.

I imagine they would have been if we were 15th rather than 2nd

Butterworth out with no striker in seems mental to me. I understand he was hardly setting the world alight but we are clearly lacking in attacking options at the moment.

Especially when it comes to transfers, Tony has always waffled and it rarely pans out the way he says.

Not to mention he's probably on a small fortune down there.

Ah right, fair enough. I thought I'd read that Tony thinks Edun and Gallagher will be back next week anyway, but it would be good to have that cover there rather than force JRC for sure.

It could also free things up to allow Edun back into the middle in front of the back 3, giving us cover for Travis or to allow Buckley to move forward. Could be a very good move for us if Pickering is still a few weeks away.

Not sure they can upset the team if they're coming in to shore up our massive injury problems. I'd agree if we had a fully fit squad though.

They've gotta pad the squad so that Parker can just throw things at the wall and hope the money helps it stick. Massively overrated manager who has barely achieved anything even despite managing big money teams in this division.

Can't help but think that this backfires on Tony a bit now - if he had just kept to the injury story he could have just dismissed any Bournemouth interest tomorrow and got on with things with everyone behind Rothwell - now there is almost certainly going to be some discord amongst the squad/fans. Especially if we don't get anyone over the line ourselves today.

I know we've got a lot of injuries but we're doing that thing Tony does occasionally where he puts as many defensive players on the pitch as he can and then wonders why we can't do anything other than sit back and defend.

This game is exactly why we need to forget promotion and get rid of Tony. No plan B and death spiral incoming. He just got lucky with a formation and players that worked.

As expected, the home one is worse... could they have not at least colour matched the blue?

Well even if they get new stock that has taken what was a must-buy shirt and put it in the never-in-a-million-years category. That's ghastly, and that's the shirt it should fit best in theory. I can't imagine how tragic the other two will look.

All of the shirts have been sold out since Christmas in M/L sizes, at least online as I was going to grab at least the away one but now can't. Last I looked the yellow one was still on Macron's website though. Not a fan of the new sponsor at all, but if it's just temporary until the end of the season I can understand the reasoning to a degree. Shame really as recoverite was the most aesthetically pleasing sponsor we've had in a while.

A decent performance following on from the other day and I'm sure the Tony and his supporters will use it in earnest but let's just keep this in perspective - it's (currently) a bottom half team. Let's not pretend it shows any change from the norm at all. We've always been decent at punching down under Tony, we just have no idea how to perform against teams around us.