DE.

We can add our name to the likes of Crewe and Forest Green Rovers as teams that have beaten Oldham this season. That might be the last we ever see of Smallwood, and Evans being hooked early on in the second half hopefully doesn't bode well for him either. Rothwell producing again will surely mean he's a first teamer going forward... right? So there are some positives. Happy to get the win in the end but that was frightening. We had Nyambe, Cunningham, Rothwell, Evans, Graham, Buckley, Downing and Brereton on the pitch at some point in the match for at least 40+ minutes and just scraped a win against Oldham. We simply must perform on Saturday or there could be some serious trouble ahead. Mowbray needs to sort himself out, start putting our best players on the pitch and find a way to stop conceding two goals a game.

At least we know we can outscore Oldham. Rothwell on the bench Saturday?

Can somebody explain to me how Oldham have only had 26% possession but had eight shots on goal and MORE SHOTS ON TARGET THAN US?

Dear God. Even against Oldham we can't help but concede two.

#WeAreGoingUp

Shouldn't have needed to bring him on to beat Oldham in fairness. Although if it was up to most of our fans he would have been sold in the summer so Tony could bring in another striker, so at least he's still here to pull the manager out of the shit for the millionth time.

The plus points of having a shot on target, you actually have a chance of scoring.

All three subs used within 18 minutes of the restart. OK. Far be it for me to second guess the manager, but maybe a double sub of JRC/Chapman for Smallwood/Platt might have been a better plan? Then bring Rothwell on for Downing and you'd at least have some semblence of balance. This is just madness.

Honestly, at this point I can imagine Mowbray on the touchlike like, "Mark, why is Richie still on the pitch?" "You didn't make any changes at half time, gaffer, remember?" "Didn't I? Bugger. Get him off." "Might be best to wait another ten minutes chief, he might be a bit annoyed if you take him off now." "It's only Richie, he'll be fine with it..."

To be fair I'd be pretty annoyed if I was subbed off 8 minutes into the second half as well... what in the world is Mowbray thinking? Is he trying to humiliate Smallwood on purpose?

Why so early in the half? Did Smallwood get injured or did Tony just forget to make the sub at half time?!

Waggott, who was brought here by...

Just for reference, Oldham are 22nd in League 2. We haven't had a shot on target against them in 45 minutes.

Managers under pressure tend to get tunnel vision, become stubborn and continue to make the same mistakes even though they are blindingly obvious to everybody else. They stop using common sense and plough ahead, usually over a cliff to their doom. A fresh pair of eyes would be able to easily locate a fair few major issues and get them sorted relatively quickly. Our squad isn't so bad that nobody could help, like Ipswich last season, so I'm sure an upturn in form would follow. It may not last but it would be better than what we're seeing now, as Mowbray is steering Rovers off the ledge and has lost control of the vehicle.

For so long Graham was the one striker we had who had avoided being shunted out to the wing. Now he too has fallen. Tragic.

To quote Didier Drogba...

Even if we end up winning tonight, I simply can't get my head around the starting lineup. Walton needs game time, not being rested for Leutwiler. I'm fine with bringing one of the younger lads into defence, but two of them? Appreciate we're low on CB cover but that is 100% Mowbray's fault. Evans/Smallwood, just fuck off. Why the hell is Buckley out wide? Why is Graham starting? Put Brereton up top and Chapman on the wing for goodness sake. Feels like Mowbray has totally lost the plot now.

Good. I don't understand why players bother with twitter anyway, it's a toxic cesspool for the most part. If you want to interact with the fans there are better and more controlled ways to do it - Facebook, Instagram, etc. Hell, start up a website and a blog like MGP used to have. Opening yourself up on Twitter is just asking for trouble.

I don't understand why we didn't start with Evans/Buckley in the middle and give Chapman a start on the wing. What's the point in even starting Smallwood? He's so far down the pecking order it doesn't even matter. Plus he's awful. At least give Chapman a go from the start to see how he holds up in a proper match. If he gets injured again then oh well, it would be an inevitability anyway.

For sure. That has been a consistent problem throughout his time here. We never seem to have two good, energetic halves. It's always one good half and one turgid half. Usually the first half is the bad one, although he mixes it up every so often just to keep us on our toes.

Good lord. That's Sunday League level.

Sounds like standard Rovers tbf. Mowbray couldn't coach a team to defend to save his life. His career is littered with teams who couldn't defend and we are unfortunately now one of them.

Can't even keep a clean sheet against Oldham.

There's no point in booing Bennett at all, let alone because he's captain. It all rests on the manager's doorstep. Bennett has a fair point when he says he doesn't demand to be picked at RB, but if he is put there he can only do his best. I'm sure he knows just as well as the rest of us that RB isn't his best position and he doesn't perform particularly well there, but if he's selected he can't do much else other than try his best. You can make a lot of criticisms when it comes to Bennett, but his commitment has always been second to none. It's not usually enough but there isn't anything else he can do. He doesn't deserve to be booed for that, regardless of how poorly he performs. It's up to the manager to replace Bennett if his performances aren't up to scratch, and any ire should be pointed in that direction.

The problem is whilst there are plenty of out of work managers people could make an argument for (Hughton, Pulis, Adkins, Rowett, Monk, etc) it's practially guaranteed Venky's would choose none of these. Every single time they have made an appointment completely out of left field. Kean, Berg, Appleton, Bowyer, Lambert, Coyle, Mowbray - none of these were even mentioned let alone considered before they were appointed. Bowyer is the only exception due to his caretaker stint, but even so when Appleton was sacked nobody was saying that Bowyer should/could be our next permanent manager. If Mowbray does go, he'll be replaced by somebody none of us expect, that much I'm sure of.