Despite the perception of improvement Stoke have lost 3 of their last 5 including defeats to QPR, Preston and Derby. QPR and Derby both put 4 past them as well, so I don't think we have anything to fear from them. They are capable of good results (they beat WBA and Swansea last month) but overall if we play as well as we have been recently we should be able to handle them comfortably.

One thing I think everyone can agree on is that ours was much more a penalty than theirs was! Still, on balance of play I can't begrudge Brentford a point. Walton proved his worth more than once this afternoon, another who has really improved in the past couple of months. Not sure what's been introduced to the diet at Ewood since Christmas but it's certainly working.

Raya's momentum took him into Buckley, but choosing to drag Buckley down was where the decision became clear. Perhaps Raya didn't mean to do it and it was a natural reaction to falling into somebody, but it is what it is. I thought it was pretty clear cut and on Quest there didn't seem to be any suggestion from the commentator or from Colin Murray/Nathan Jones that it was anything other than a foul.

Mowbray has shown in the past he doesn't let emotional connections get in the way of making decisions for his career - he refused to talk to Ipswich when we got promoted from League 1, despite his history there, and I believe he did the same when he was at Hibs many years ago. If he left us for Boro I would be very concerned about the future is it would, imo, point to severe cutbacks incoming.

As ever was I suppose, we all do it.

He had no comment to make on the blatant dive from his own player that gave them their equaliser I assume?

Seeing the goals again on Quest - our penalty was pretty clear imo, whilst theirs was clearly soft and a dive. Not much to argue about either of them IMV. Watkins' strike was an absolute peach but poor defending to let him get into that position. Still had it all to do from that position and absolutely no blame attached to Walton, but we should have had him closed down long before he got a shot away and arguably could have stopped the ball from getting to Watkins before he even had the chance to shoot.

Hurst's position at Ipswich was already completely untenable by the time he was sacked, however if he had been hired at the start of this season I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be doing worse than Lambert is at the moment.

Generally speaking you're right, these clubs are always a huge risk for relatively unproven managers. You can see the appeal - a big wage, the prestiege of a 'big' club (although not sure Huddersfield really fall into that category on the back of a couple of PL seasons, one of which was totally embarrassing), a selection of theoretically good players to use and a platform of fairly low expectations. However failure can come at a heavy price, as the likes of Paul Hurst, Chris Coleman and others have found out over the past few years. The reality is that these clubs are often cutting back on costs, have players on big wages who don't really want to be there and may not respect managers from lower levels, an already irritated fanbase with little patience and owners who may already be in a state of panic and quick to push the panic button if things don't pick up quickly. The Cowleys will have to hope they can keep Huddersfield up this season and are then given a genuine chance to have a clear out and rebuild from a sturdier foundation. Moving poor players on big contracts on can be painfully difficult though, as we've found out a number of times over the past decade or so.

Man Utd wanted him for something like £30m but Bournemouth rejected their offer. Obviously United were pretty desperate as their eventual signing of Ighalo showed, but even so we definitely wasted King's talent whilst he was here. From recollection he was behind Rhodes and Gestede as far as striking positions were concerned, and Bowyer preferred players who could cross the ball out wide as opposed to players who would cut in and run at defenders, so the likes of Conway, Marshall and Cairney were preferred in those positions. With that said I seem to remember King playing quite a lot in the first half of the 13/14 season then not so much the second half. Can't remember if he got injured or whether he just wasn't the preferred option. From recollection he did have quite frequent injury problems during his time here as well.

He's had more impact than King, absolutely, but that's more down to Bowyer's ineffective use of King than a reflection on his ability imo. The fact Bournemouth signed him and he went on to have a very solid impact there pretty much from the get go proves he was ready, he just didn't fit into Bowyer's sludgy style of play because he had pace and creativity, which weren't exactly welcomed at the time.

The interesting thing about Armstrong is that often even when he wasn't playing well he'd still chip in with a decent amount of goals and a few assists. That's a very good trait to have as a player. He isn't the finished article yet but I don't think he's too far away from the level King, for example, was at when he left us. He'd definitely be one of the first to go if Venky's decided to pull the plug again and I reckon he'd likely end up at a PL club - even if only as a squad player to begin with.

Tbf if Arma added that to his arsenal then he would 100% be gone to a PL club in the summer. The lad isn't far away from being a top level player based on current form. Honestly I think he may have some serious interest in the summer anyway, as much like Josh King he has that critical ingredient of pace which will intrigue top tier clubs even with his weaknesses taken into account. Newcastle must be kicking themselves for selling him for such a relative pittance. I wonder if there's a sell-on clause in there?

Bolton are gone. No way they're getting out of it now. 20 points away from safety with only 16 matches left to play. Sunderland with 4 wins on the spin are looking like they might be awakened from their stupor. Wouldn't surprise me to see them and Rotherham take the automatic spots. Coventry also in good form at the moment but think they'll end up in the playoffs along with Wycombe.

Boro and Huddersfield had both started picking up a bit of momentum but seems to have stalled for both and with Wigan winning today they are now looking over their shoulders nervously again.

It was ten days ago so a bit early to be having another poll!

He must have spent the week watching those finishing videos Jason Roberts did for the BBC.

Ipswich go down 1-0 to Oxford at home. Lambo really has fucked it up there.

Fortunately I got a screen shot to save that moment forever.

Next two games are season defining imo. At least 4 out of 6 would set us up very nicely going into the final stretch.

Yeah I'll take that thanks!

To keep improving you need to look at what led to the opportunities in the first place I suppose. Either way I'd take a draw here, but a loss would be very hard to accept.

According to the stats we haven't had a single corner today!

Need to hold on until HT and then regroup. Been a difficult half and I don't think we'll survive another 45 playing like this.

Drink it in lads, this is a rare event!