DE.

In fairness it could be argued our decline started when the Trust pulled almost all funding around 2008 and decided they no longer wanted the club. Mark Hughes became frustrated after not being allowed to spend (I think it might have been Diarra that was the straw that broke the camel's back?) and so he departed, and Paul Ince arrived to nearly relegate us. We then made a smart move in bringing in Sam Allardyce (albeit six months late) but it was a sticking plaster on a growing problem of funds drying up. The Trust's final act, further twisting the knife into the back of the club, was selling to Venky's and ushering in the true decline which we still very much feel the effects of today. Venky's are the ultimate villains of the piece but IMV the Trust aren't far behind.

Evans has coasted under every manager we've had so I'm inclined to side with Mowbray on this one.

No, he isn't. He has purple patches of form which inevitably fade away as he re-establishes himself in the team, gets injured or the international period ends. Even Mowbray said he has to keep Evans on the bench to motivate him.

In my dreams maybe, but in reality I'm resigned to the fact Evans will be here until he retires. I genuinely don't ever remember hearing of a single club even being interested in him.

Back to the glory days of 2015 when we were signing "talent" like Fode Koita, Danny Guthrie and Nathan Delfouneso. Good times ahead.

He's been saying this more than once over the past few weeks. Seems to be daring Evans to sack him - he was doing it earlier in the season too.

I've got up to Esthar on Disc 3 at the moment. I imagine I'll have finished it in the next few days and that'll be £10 well spent! (spoilers ahead) A bit of a shower thought but I was thinking that FFVIII's ending actually makes starting a new game quite interesting. The general suggestion from the game is that the characters are caught in an endless time loop where the heroes defeat Ultimecia, which sets in motion events which cause Ultimecia's birth in the future and subsequent attempt to compress time. So theoretically every time you start a game of FFVIII you're beginning another instance of the endless time loop. Small things can change like time spent on things, characters being in certain places at certain times, weapons, GFs, etc... but the overall plot and destination remains the same. It's kind of cool - whenever you start a new game of FFVIII you really are starting a new game, albeit as part of a time loop which can't be changed. Obviously it could just be the translation explaining the concept badly and there is no time loop though, rendering the above total nonsense.

It's a strange one as last season we were starting a lot of games quite poorly, rarely scoring in the opening twenty minutes. We seem to have solved that problem to some degree but only for the first 15-20 minutes of games, then we revert to type. I'm not really sure what to make of it. The overarching issue of only being able to perform well for parts of matches rather than significant portions remains, despite our openings tending to now be brighter and more intense. It's almost like we throw everything we have into the first 20 minutes of games and then only have a little bit left for the rest of the match.

Shines a light on Mowbray's poor defensive recruitment doesn't it? Derrick Williams or bust, and with him being injured it's bust.

There are a lot of players who 'work hard' but achieve nothing in matches. None of them cost £5m. We should expect far more than just hard work from Gallagher. What worries me most about him is that he doesn't seem to have that instinct that all decent forward players need to be in the right place to score goals. He's got a good shot on him but he's rarely in a position to show that. People can blame the other players in the team for 'not creating enough' but it hasn't stopped Dack or Graham from notching regularly since they've been here. Rhodes was similar in that even when he wasn't getting great service (particularly towards the end) he was still scoring because he just had/has that instinct of knowing where to be. I don't see that in Gallagher at all. What's strange is that for the first 15 minutes or so against Huddersfield we were pressing them and causing all sorts of problems... then we just stopped. The entire team seemed to get rattled after a couple of mistakes, collectively retreated into their shells and never recovered. I'm convinced it's poor mental conditioning. Once our confidence is rocked we really struggle to come back from it, and unfortunately rather than just spanning 90 minutes it tends to span entire portions of the season.

We tend to pick up something in the games everyone expects us to lose. Weirdly I'm less anxious about this match than I was about Wigan, Birmingham or Huddersfield. With that said a draw would be a decent result albeit tempered by the amount of points we've dropped over the past week and a bit in games we should have gotten more from. I can't see a clean sheet so the optimist in me will go for a 1-1. A loss would mean 2 points from 12 and mean we are definitely in the throes of another downward form spiral. Although it's not like 3 from 12 is much better.

I suppose it's possible we were, but if you were Brewster and looked at how most of our strikers are shoehorned ineffectively out on the wing... maybe you'd think twice.

The main difference being last year we were actually on a pretty bad run at this point in time, conceding last minute goals left and right. There was a belief that we simply had to strengthen the team or we would potentially be facing a relegation battle. We then went on a four match win streak in January, coinciding with Travis' introduction to the team in place of Smallwood, and that seemed to convince Mowbray (who claimed at the time money was available) that we didn't need to bring in anybody. Obviously in hindsight that decision was foolish as we got injuries to central defenders, having let Paul Downing go, and proceeded to go on our worst run since Venky's darkened the doors of Ewood (9 losses out of 11). This season we've just finished our good run and look set to go on a bad one just as January comes into sight. 2 points out of 9 from teams significantly lower than us in the table, injuries biting hard and our 'playoff push' beginning to derail. Theoretically it's the perfect storm for the manager to go out and bring in some bodies to strengthen the team. This year however he's saying there's no money (where did last January's reported 10m go? Or the Raya money that was to my knowledge never reinvested?) and unless Buckley suddenly improves dramatically we don't have a Travis ready to step up and bring some new energy to the team. Instead we have Samuel, Chapman, Brereton and Davenport.

Indeed, and that was in the third tier with a budget that eclipsed every other team in the division - including Wigan.

If we stop spending ridiculous amounts of money on strikers who don't score goals then maybe we can rectify that problem.

Dack played through most if not all of our 9 losses out of 11 run last season didn't he? Our swing in form back to being shit has nothing to do with Dack being injured, it's just the natural order of things under Tony Mowbray. His injury is just a convenient excuse that can now be used to cover up the real failings which extend far beyond playing level.

Honestly I'd say it's more a Rovers trait at this point than Mowbray specific. We were dealing with the same shit under Bowyer. Our form wasn't quite as dramatically polarised as it is under Mowbray but the same basic problem of not winning matches where we would be considered the better side was still prevelent. Our form suddenly imploding when within touching distance of the playoffs was also happening regularly during Bowyer's spell. It's a mental issue which has afflicted the club for some time. A combination of bringing in soft lads and employing soft managers. The talent is there but the desire and will to push beyond the boundaries and refuse to accept mediocrity just isn't.

I heard that as well, something like "even Mowbray admits he's not the best footballer, but he's a big personality in the dressing room". Ridiculous.

Have noticed a few comments about Walton bring rooted to the line for Hudds goal, but on replay you can see he actually is out initially then starts backpedalling when the ball comes in leaving him in a vulnerable and ultimately useless position.

I thought Gallagher worked hard but his anticipation and positional play is just abysmal. It's something he should really be learning from Graham before Graham leaves in the summer. Dack is the only other player who has that intelligence in our team and obviously he's not going to be around.

A stunningly poor performance from the 15th minute. We were somehow even more turgid in the second half and save for Buckley's field goal attempt and Tosin's header from a corner produced nothing of note. Walton - 6 - a couple of good saves but poor for their first goal. Couldn't do anything about their second. Bennett - 2 - atrocious. How Nyambe was below this guy in the pecking order for so long is beyond me. Shocking pass which led to Huddersfield's second goal. Lenihan - 4 - gave the ball away numerous times. Could easily have given away a penalty and got sent off early on. The lad is not good at all with the ball at his feet, asking him to try and play out from the back is just asking for trouble. Tosin - 6 - Not as bad as Lenihan and had one of our only decent chances at the end with a header from a corner. Not one of his better games though. Downing - 6 - decent first half at LB, ineffective at LW/RW in the second half. Buckley - 5 - bright start but faded quickly and lost possession often. Should have done much better with our best clear chance of the second half. Johnson - 5 - he was there but that's about it. Travis - 6 - great cross for Graham's goal and did some decent things going forward, but another who gave the ball away countless times. Rothwell - 2 - totally ineffective. Has probably played himself out of the team at this point. Gallagher - 5 - worked hard but did nothing, so in many ways a typical Sam Gallagher performance. Graham - 6 - as above mostly, but at least scored a goal. Bell - 6 - didn't do anything badly wrong but didn't have any kind of impact on the game either. Armstrong - 5 - zero impact. Chapman - 5 - looked rusty. Fouled himself and ran the ball out of play. Can't think of anything else he did.

Tosin header from the corner produces a great save from the Huddersfield goalie.

Same as when we were 3 or 4 points off the playoffs last January. A winning run in this league boosts you into contention due to there being very few consistent teams. Sadly our only consistency is a nosedive in form and performances as soon as a good patch of form comes to an end. Watching this is unbelievable. This lot don't even look like footballers. They can barely control the ball let alone pass it. We are so incredibly weak mentally.

We're definitely on another Mowbray downward spiral now. Like clockwork, as soon as the winning patch comes to an end we fall apart. Wonder how many months this latest dip will go on for?

We give away the ball for about the millionth time in our own half and are finally punished for it. Absolutely shocking performance from our team today past the 15th minute, and we're on the verge of 2 points from Wigan, Birmingham and Huddersfield. Top six? No chance.