Definitely something not quite right with Johnson, didn't realise he wasn't even living in the area. Hopefully today was the start of a renaissance of sorts, although it would be harsh to drop Evans long-term considering his recent performances. Great to have genuine competition for those positions though - it's been a while.

Problem for Ipswich is that they started the season well but now only have 3 wins in 14, which is obviously very worrying. I think I read it's only 1 win in the last 10 matches. Lambert needs to sort out their form sharpish or they'll be looking at the playoff lottery at best.

Could happen but I doubt it this time. Obviously I hope so as Leeds post-Xmas collapses are one of the highlights of any season.

This time last year they were 6 points clear of 3rd, this season they're 10 points clear. There's no Sheffield Utd on their heels this year. As much as I'd love to believe they'll collapse and lose out again, I really don't see it this time. With that said they were 3-0 up against Cardiff today and conspired to draw 3-3, so who knows.

Much like most of the teams in and around our position, a lot of it comes down to a combination of confidence and luck. The only teams in the division who are above that in terms of performance are WBA and Leeds, and the table conclusively proves that. The rest of us are at the mercy of the footballing gods and praying for continued good fortune. Also apologies that I seem to be repeatedly quoting you, genuinely not intentional ?

At the end of the day a draw there was still a good result. Plus if we had won I think Mowbray may have been more hesitant about making wholesale changes as he did today, which could have led to a defeat.

It's so important for recently relegated Championship clubs to get out of L1 ASAP, ideally at the first attempt, because it gets much harder the longer you're there. It ended up taking Sheff Utd six seasons, if I recall correctly.

Lambert beginning to lose the Ipswich fans after they were beaten 2-1 by Bristol Rovers at home today. https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/471232/lambert/ https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/471219/he-has-to-go/#25 https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/471229/that-was-a-typical-mccarthy-type-f**k-you-selection./#5 Should be noted they're currently 2nd, a point ahead of 3rd place with a game in hand. At around the same time during our L1 season we were 3rd (although we had 40 points compared to Ipswich's current total of 36, and IMO the division was tougher then than it is now).

For the first time in a while our GD is also back in the positive, +2.

WBA and Leeds are essentially already promoted and have the top two spots locked, but below that is wide open. A lot of very average teams in the division this season which gives us a great chance to seriously challenge for a playoff spot.

Confidence is obviously sky high at the moment across the squad and it shows with how we play. I was bamboozled by today's team selection but fair play, we won the match and looked good so absolutely no complaints from me. TM got it right and has been getting it right for the past few games. I think our defence being largely unchanged was key. Other than Downing being swapped for Bell it was the same backline we've seen throughout our resurrection and it continues to look solid. My biggest fear right now is one of Lenihan/Tosin getting injured (especially Lenihan) as those two look really solid together at the back. Nyambe looking very solid at RB and it's a real shame Bennett was shoehorned into that position for so long at Nyambe's expense. Still, what's done is done and hopefully that position now belongs to Nyambe going forward.

Now that's funny.

What the fuck. It's like his brain has exploded from the pressure of picking so many unchanged lineups and splattered that over the wall.

Sort of. We brought in Walton, Tosin and Cunningham (all on loan) and let Downing, Raya, Mulgrew and Rodwell (who I'd personally class as a midfielder but mostly played in defence for us) go. So we technically ended up on -1 in terms of goalkeepers/defenders and with Cunningham's injury we're now on -2. If you class S. Downing as a defensive signing then you could put it back to -1 I guess. Realistically though all of our permanent signing were midfielders and strikers, we didn't bring in a single permanent defensive signing which I don't think is what most of us envisioned when Mowbray promised that defenders were coming at the end of last season.

This week's audience share: AEW 778K, NXT... 778K. Yes, according to Nielsen they tied at the same number of viewers. AEW slightly ahead in the 18-49 demo (0.28 to 0.24) but overall the shows seem to be locked neck and neck for the moment. Personally I thought AEW was much better this week than it has been as of late. I really enjoyed the overall show. NXT was good but not great. The opening and closing matches were superb, the rest largely passable. I definitely give AEW the "W" this week in terms of show quality.

That time Goldberg joined the #VenkysOut campaign...

I feel like Swansea will be more disappointed than us by last night's result, particularly as their ten man disadvantage only lasted ten minutes and we weren't really at the races compared to previous games. It was a good chance for them to improve their home record and they blew it. We were always going to run out of steam at some point. The question now is how we respond to our winning run coming to an end, particularly with a difficult match coming up at the weekend.

We'll find out in a few days...

Crap game, decent result. Dack being banned for Bristol means our unbeaten run probably comes to an end on Saturday though.

Really disappointing half, as soon as they equalised our energy levels seemed to drop into the comatose range. We look like a team that's lost four in a row rather than won four. Big improvement needed in the second half if we even want a draw out of this.

Can't remember the last time we had such an extended run of consistent team selections.

Yeah he technically left at the end of August, although he only appeared once for us in L1. Fair to say he hasn't been missed.

Seems like a matter of time until Stoke overtake Luton, at which point I think the bottom three of Luton/Wigan/Barnsley will be pretty much set for the rest of the season. Luton and Barnsley especially are well short of what's needed to survive, whilst Wigan will (imo) need a change of manager to stay up.

Well it's possible, but evidence suggests they're more likely to sack him if we're mid-table as that's where we were when Bowyer was given the boot. I'm sure Mowbray knows as well as the rest of us that guessing our owners future actions is a pointless exercise.

Owen Coyle has essentially built an entire career around one lucky promotion, I think the benefits to a manager's reputation outweigh any hypothetical negatives tbh.