I'd agree, although wayne seems to have completely missed the stability era so it's tough to make a comparison pre-2012 that would make much sense.

He always looks clumsy to me when defending one-on-one, but he doesn't often let the player past him so maybe that's just how it is. I just had a quick check and apparently Nyambe has absolutely no assists (or goals) since he started appearing in the first team, so still some improvement needed there. You'd expect him to have at least a couple of assists considering how often he's pushing forward in games.

Yep, he's obviously not impressing across the board, despite Mowbray's protestations that he's a finishing machine in training. We need to make a decision on Brereton before the window shuts, as him hanging around making the bench every so often for another five months is going to do nothing for him or us.

I don't think Nyambe is a great or even particularly good defender anyway, so I'm not sure it would make much difference. Nyambe's plus points are his athleticism, strength and ability to relentlessly bomb forward which is more important as an attacking wing back than a full back. If we hadn't been conceding late goals for fun over the Christmas period I think Mowbray may have been braver and put Nyambe at RWB yesterday, but if he feels he needs experienced players on the pitch to minimise errors and ensure games are being seen out correctly then I can't say I blame him.

Is it a coincidence that Bennett was out during almost the entirety of our slump in form, and since he's returned we've suddenly improved? It's obviously not all down to him but his contributions are grossly underappreciated imo. Maybe the reason Bennett is in at right back ahead of Nyambe is because TM feels he needs experience on the pitch, rather than young heads who have proven themselves to be mentally weak when they have to defend a lead? Again not a knock on Nyambe specifically as he's obviously been a part of a lot of good moments in the past couple of years, but I can see where Mowbray is coming from as far as getting Bennett onto the pitch, even if it isn't in his preferred position.

To be fair there are all sorts of if, ands and but that other teams in this division could apply to their own stats that would see them placed higher as well. Nothing useful will come of dwelling on the points we could have had - we didn't get them because we weren't good enough to get them. The trick isn't to look back and be annoyed but to learn from those mistakes and make sure it doesn't happen going forward. There are tentative signs lately that we're getting there, although we made unnecessarily hard work of the WBA game by conceding and we nearly let Ipswich back into the game yesterday with a stupid miscommunication between keeper and defender as well. Until those silly lapses in concentration stop we haven't improved enough to say we're over that hurdle.

We made it harder on ourselves by missing chances in the first half, but a win is a win and a rare clean sheet in addition will do nicely.

Another half time at home where we go in 0-0. You could confidently put money on it at this point.

Their transformation since we played them at the KC is remarkable, especially considering they haven't changed manager.

Apparently Lambert has told the Ipswich chairman he wants all of Hurst's signings gone by next season the starting line up seems that reflect that.

Wouldn't be surprised to see him resign "in protest" around the end of June/start of July when he realises Evans is going to sell everyone and expect to get promoted first time with nothing but free transfers and hard work.

Lambert committed to staying at Ipswich, even in the highly likely event they go down: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46918827 I guess you can only jump ship so many times before it becomes damaging to your reputation.

Whoops. Good thing I can't be idenitifed by my profile on here. I hope.

There's nothing unpredictable about Ipswich. They're extremely poor and their only wins have either been total flukes or against similarly poor teams who have usually had the better of the game against them. This is as bad of a team as you're going to come up against in the Championship, and bringing in a few desperados in on a free isn't going to change that. Unfortunately for us, Mowbray's managerial style means that we play the same way regardless of the quality of the opposition, making the majority of games a 50/50 affair. So despite Ipswich being a terrible team I fully expect we will allow them to have an even game against us, worrying about their left back or whatever overanalysis will come into play to hinder what should be a commanding performance against a team nailed on for the drop. I still think the scoreline will read a fairly comfortable victory for Rovers, but the stats will show we gave Ipswich too much respect.

Collins is a very good signing for Ipswich, but injuries have been an issue for him. It's the risk you take when signing an older player, especially in the modern game. Look at what happened to Jonathon Walters. That said that's probably more of a long term concern for Ipswich, from our perspective Collins is likely to be in the team on Saturday and will certainly give Ipswich far better defensive solidarity than they've had for most of this season. That said even a team with our limited creativity should be able to score a couple past Ipswich. As with most games at any level it's about keeping the door closed at the back. In retrospect conceding two against Ipswich on the first day of the season was pretty embarrassing. Can't let that happen again.

To be fair all that ultimately matters in the league table, which shows Leeds in 1st and Derby in 6th, with an 11 point gap between them. That's fairly substantial regardless of how quality Derby's football may be. You can't get promoted on plaudits.

That's some kind of spiral his life is going down. Jeez.

Losing this one would be extremely embarrassing, as Ipswich are by far the worst team in the division. They beat Rotherham at home last weekend, yes, but this is the same Rotherham that had to scrape through the League 1 playoffs to get into the Championship this season so we aren't exactly talking a giant killing. Pretty much all of Ipswich's wins have been total flukes. They've had some new arrivals recently but it's really just rearranging deck chairs on the proverbial titanic. 3-1 Rovers.

There's still time for this transfer to work out, but it's not going to be this season. Brereton's confidence is obviously shot to pieces and bit parts here and there won't bring that back. He'd be better off with consistent first team football under his belt on loan in L1, or if not at least consistently getting a run out and full games in the U23's. Mowbray has to see that what he's doing now isn't doing the lad any favours.

Another chance not taken for Brereton. Time for him to step away from the first team, whether it's with the U23's or on loan. He's not ready yet and we can't afford passengers in the team.

If we can sort our formation and personnel out for the second half this game is there for the taking. Momentum is with us and Newcastle are really poor. Over to you, Tony.

As poor as Bell is, at the end of the day he's a £250k buy from Fleetwood. How Mowbray can think that he is adequate for our current level is beyond me. He simply shouldn't have been bought. We didn't need him mid way through last season and he's never going to be good enough to be more than a League 1 left back. Almost as strange as the Caddis and Gladwin signings.

Ah well, guess we'll have to forget the cup and look forward to our mid table finish in the league instead. Considering the state of the team this isn't much of a surprise tbf. It was never going to end well with Nyambe at centre back with Bell, Smallwood and Brereton starting and Dack and Mulgrew ill or unavailable. Could become embarrassing unfortunately.

It's so frustrating. It's nothing to do with Smallwood's attitude as that is good and obviously appreciated, but the ability to think ahead is increasingly important as you climb the footballing pyramid. You can tell neither Smallwood nor Bell are doing that, they only start to think when the ball is at their feet. You can get away with that if you have a certain level of talent, but not at their level.

Smallwood and Bell are so poor. Their speed of thought is far too slow for our current division, let alone playing a team at a higher level. I really hope Mowbray is looking to upgrade on both in the very near future.