Millwall Hudds and Forest QOR are the two that affect us most. Draws might be most useful for us in those games. On paper looks like some promotion chasing teams should be getting 3 points so let's hope for some of the championship's unpredictability.

Indeed it really does skew opinion - mine included - and perhaps does detract from things. This is a really helpful post not least as it helps me think why the runs are problematic in themselves. As you say the end result is more relevant. I think my legitimate issue with the poor runs areas follows: 1) it shows a lack of accountability. Anywhere else such runs would not be tolerated..there's a frustration there is no accountability from on high or even contrition from the man himself. 2) It shows an inability to react. That the poor form.has come three times in the latter half of the season shows a lack of any plan B - once we are found out it can't be arrested - and insufficient work in. January to capitalise on good form. It seems as a club we are a bit of a one trick pony that gets found out. That's on the manager. In short circumstances do matter. For example whilst Coyle was and is a useless manager the record has to show and mitigate for the fact he was utterly shafted with funding. I think the circumstances do have some baring albeit less so than perhaps the focus warrants.

Enough games in hand to limp to safety. Hardly a great achievement by Lampard given there's been no up turn in form, but as you say it'll be hailed as a great success. Ironically it's Benitez's early form that will keep them up.

I'm no TM fan and I don't think he is very good. But Ince is a whole other level of useless. Reading are a weak team and with Ince at the helm I'm certain we win that one. Too much is in our favour not to. Derby on the other hand. Fighting for their lives. A decent number of points barring the deductions. Think that one we will struggle with.

Quick question: TMs good and bad spells have all come in runs. Do people think fans would look more or less positively on TM if our results were more interspersed rather than a run of wins or losses? If it was more WLWLD would fans look on him more or less favourably? I appreciate the runs show other things as well but I do wonder if it skews opinions on his ability.

He spiked Gargano on his head from a power slam last year which was very.nasty too. Like the character but he's a liability in the ring imo.

Am on ignore but could someone please highlight how the manager is to be credited with having us in the playoffs (for now) but excused from being blamed for our poor run of form. Genuine question - how can he be credited with the league position and absolved of recent performances. Surely the same person(s) are responsible for both?

I am astounded that anyone couldn't see the double standards in this. (actually I think he can and on the wind up.) If you are responsible for extending contracts then as you say by definition you have to be responsible when players don't sign. It's either your responsibility or it isn't. Mind you, if the club is as brilliant and as flawless as Chaddy says, I'm at a loss to know how we haven't got promoted as yet. I mean if we are that error free how come we haven't been promoted?

What's really annoying is it should be quite easy to limp into playoffs. Goodness we are still in them despite a dearth of goals. Sure teams have games in hand and I expect us to drop out sooner or later but given how poor we have been it's been remarkable we are still in them. Just winning one more game in the latest horror run would have made a huge difference. We could have afforded pretty mediocre form to still make it and yet we are making heavy weather of it all.

It gets me as well. Fwiw if you have to justify it in the local paper it probably isn't the smartest move you could make...

Y'know I honestly think if you did a blind quote test Kean or TM to a new fan they would struggle to do it. It really is that bad.

I think with so many players it is really hard to know when played out of position. Personally I think performing at his best Gally would be an average championship centre forward, a decent plan B. However he clearly isn't performing at his best or going to do so when stuck out on the wing. Reminds me of Buckley a bit in that his best form came for us in a settled midfield position. Or Rothwell in a midfield 3. It's not rocket science, find positions that work for your players and they should perform to a decent level. If they can't with that or don't suit the formation then get rid. As it is he is being set up to fail and hasn't the ability to compensate for this.

I think my issues with TM fall into a few categories: First and foremost the most basic errors that he makes repeatedly. His competition to see who is the worst possible choice at right wing being one of them. For.all his other merits beyond basic mistakes like this aren't really acceptable. Whether you think our position is good bad or mediocre just imagine how much better it would/could be IF the utterly daft, blatantly obvious mistakes weren't made. That alone to me.is why he isn't good enough as a manager for Rovers. Two other issues that really bug me with him. There's the fact that every year we seem to be short of a squad with little long term planning. "Defenders are coming" took years, we still haven't replaced Armstrong, too many key players are able to run down contracts. Of course the owners also carry some of the blame for this too but we seem to match from issue to issue. Seems poor planning all round imo. Then there's his comments. No manager has completely told the whoppers that he has or slated the fan base as he has. Particular lows include resetting the clock, lies about being new to the championship, fans thinking it was 95 and the inciting fans to confront other fans if they express criticism. All of which, I struggle to get behind a guy who is like that. Of course there are other issues. The death spirals are inexcusable whilst the failing to capitalise on strong positions is frustrating too. However whilst both may see him booted anywhere else and aren't great, neither of which are massively underachieving (just failing to capitalise on great opportunities.) So yeah got to go at the end of the season. For all our players missing sitters that seems to be the dislikeable one's speciality too, failing to seize opportunities. Will he leave us in a better place than the end of the Lambert era? (Coyle was useless but utterly shafted by the owners so not a fair comparison imo). Probably just but not much progress for the time he has taken.

Bit of a naughty post (again). The contested use of the word good. It's a bit cheeky to state something as fact - and one that hasn't been proved.at that - however any challenging of said "fact" is merely an opinion or choice. Great to see the go posts moved for different posters. Also it's a bit naughty suggesting a poster is saying to break the wage ceiling when they clearly aren't advocating that but a more competitive offer. Nor was the poster suggesting a transfer embargo is fine - and offered evidence that this may not happen - yet again this is stated as their position. Like there's two totally different conversations going on. Shame as the original posts were imo rather clear.

On Leeds. The manager has only succeeded in smaller leagues not the big ones he has been in. I would suggest the latter is more akin to the Premiership which doesn't bode well. Also on Leeds no Plan B shows the former manager's weakness. Even Mr Stubborn himself, Souness, pragmatically moves to a diamond in midfield in the season it went really badly to ensure we ground our way to safety. Bad move for Leeds that they didn't beforehand. Will the new guy be more flexible? He needs to be if they are to stay up. I hope they don't mind. On Burnley - all to play for. Brentford are running out of steam which surprises me, I don't rate Lampard as a manager, Watford and Norwich look doomed. It's all to play for for them and they could well grit and claw their way to safety. Mind you whatever teams go down really should be kicking themselves as plenty of other clubs are doing poorly to offer alternatives for relegation, providing they have a modicum of success and a few wins.

Sorry thought you meant over Obafemi. Think that lad has potential and would suit our system better. Over Carroll I would agree. Gally can stay fit for a start.

Admittedly he has the odd good game. The Preston one, a few cameos from the bench but more often than not his game is pretty lacking. Of course being stuck on the wing when he has more attributes to go through the middle really doesn't help this either.

The Gally thing surely is a wind up? He totally doesn't suit our system and constantly plays poorly. As for WBA would agree that it's imploding. The grass it seems isn't greener without Ishmael. Given they were arguably underperforming then, under Bruce it's going chronically badly.

But does he know that you know that he knows? Probably from said post.

Where is Rothwell?

Going out on a limb here and reckon the loser of this won't make the playoffs. Too many in form teams, slides need arresting from both clubs. If they can't beat such an out of form team then the slide won't be arrested in time. Here's hoping it's a Rovers win. Great minds @arbitro. And at the same time too.

Y'know I really didn't rate the new Sheff Utd manager but he seems to have turned them around. Tough game for us. We should have the fitness advantage and really need to capitalise on that. In isolation a point is a good result. In the wider perspective we need 3 or we will continue to slowly sink. It's a tough run of games and we need to break the death spiral asap.

That's the thing. There's no such thing in the championship as a banker. (I'm surprised by the score too mind.) It's a league where upsets do occur on a regular basis. Look at how the midweek results fell for us.

Pretty sure Derby are going to stay up 😟 Peterborough and Reading have a must win game Vs each other and neither can muster the win. A win for either would have put Derby in a bit of trouble but as it is neither can manage it.

Fence sitting but to me it honestly depends on how we do in this run. You can't really afford to have too long a period without picking up some wins, so only a point or two extra from the next few games and I think we will have blown it. Scab a win or two in our challenging run and playoffs minimum- going for 5th. Given the next set of games feature a lot of promotion rivals they are the clichéd 6 pointers, so a bad run here becomes even more harmful. So whilst it's a deferral and obviously the picture becomes clearer the further you go on, to me I think these next few games are the make or break ones for the season.