DE.

I can't disagree with that, I just thought his reaction was interesting as I haven't seen that before from any players during Mowbray's reign.

Ipswich looking doomed at this point. 1-0 up at half time against Millwall at home, then threw it away and ended up losing 3-2. Now ten points adrift so it's looking like mission impossible. I wonder if Lambert will stay on for their League 1 campaign, or decided to once again move on to pastures new?

Positives: The result - obviously unexpected and a much needed three points after a dismal run of form. I was expecting us to get hammered today so fair play to the manager and the players on getting a very good win. Holding onto the lead - something we haven't been able to do recently. Travis - if he performs like this in the next two games then there is no excuse for bringing Smallwood back into the team. Whether you agree that Smallwood's challenge deserved a red or not, the fact is it came about because of his own stupidity with a needless tackle. He only has himself to blame for losing his spot and Mowbray needs to be strong and make him aware that stupid actions have consequences, as he did with Travis last season. Negatives: Not many, but... Self-destructive tendencies still apparent - considering our recent run of form, giving away a needless penalty after going two goals up is just unacceptable. This idiocy needs to stop. We managed to hold on today but giving WBA a lifeline with half an hour still to play was totally unnecessary. Dack's reaction to being subbed - in one sense you'd say it's good that he wanted to stay on, but on the other hand it makes you wonder whether some of the players are starting to get fed up with the manager's decisions, particularly when it comes to substitutions. We won the match today so ultimately you have to say Tony's decisions were correct, but it's still a bit of a concern to see a player having a strop when being taken off the pitch. A little less pressure now for the Milwall match, a draw there now wouldn't be the end of the world as long as we beat an Ipswich team who are dead in the water at this point.

Another match where we enter the final minutes with only a one goal advantage.

Looks like we've started really well. That only makes me more nervous though.

That was my assumption, just couldn't remember reading about it.

Is Williams injured/suspended, or has Mowbray totally bombed him out of the squad?

Looking at that team just makes me realise how lucky we are to have the points we have. Fingers crossed for a WBA off day.

Possibly, but if so then he needs to completely abandon this idea of using inside forwards and set us up with a much more traditional formation using proper wide-midfielders/wingers. People keep asking why he's bringing in strikers to play out wide, but I think the reason is that in his mind they shouldn't be playing out wide, they should be tucked in alongside Graham supporting the attack in the middle of the pitch. I'm not convinced this can work with our current personnel and mentality.

What's frustrating with Mowbray is that I think I understand what he's aiming for, but the way he sets the team up at present doesn't come close to achieving that. I think his preferred tactic would be a 4-2-1-3 when we're attacking and a 5-3-2 when we're defending. What we're currently seeing is a static 4-2-3-1 that forces our inside forwards out wide as ineffective wingers who aren't providing enough cover for our full backs. For his preferred tactic to work we would need at least one, if not two better centre halves alongside Mulgrew at the back. Nyambe/Bennett might be passable at RWB but we'd need a massive improvement on Williams/Bell at LWB. We also need a box-to-box midfielder alongside either Evans or Smallwood who can support the attack when we're going forward but get back to provide defensive support when we're defending in our section of the pitch. I don't think we have anybody at present who could fill that role. Possibly Reed but as he's only on loan at present he isn't a long-term answer unless we bring him in on a permanent. We would also need proper back up/competition for Graham as the target man. I can understand having the likes of Brereton, Armstrong, Palmer, Rothwell, etc slotting into the inside forward roles in theory but it only works if they aren't constantly ending up out wide as wingers. For Mowbray's ideas to work going forward I think we'd need a change in mentality to be braver going forward, but the formation would also need to look something like: Raya Nyambe/Bennett - NEW - Mulgrew - NEW Reed - Evans Dack Brereton - Graham - Armstrong Evans would spend most of the game sitting back with Mulgrew and our other centre half. Reed would push forward when we're on the attack but be able to get back when we need to defend. The full backs would also need to push up the pitch to support the attack as otherwise the pitch becomes too narrow and there are no spaces for Brereton or Armstrong to exploit, meaning they have to drift out to where our wing backs should be. It's a pretty bold set up and, from what we've seen so far, very much at odds with Mowbray's extremely cautious approach.

Mowbray's ideas on football are, imo, totally opposed to his natural disposition. The inside forward tactic he wants to employ does indeed rely on high pressing, but Mowbray's cautious nature means the team is instructed to sit back too often making the idea of inside forwards and wing backs completely ineffective. Mowbray would be much better off with a Big Sam/Tony Pulis mindset of percentage-based, counter-attacking, direct passing style football. That's generally how cautious managers set up their teams. Instead we get this weird hybrid of a team in theory set up to attack from the front but who either aren't instructed or aren't able to produce the high pressing football necessary to make that tactic work. If TM genuinely thinks we spent last season pressing teams high up the pitch then that is concerning as that is not even close to what most of us saw.

I don't even agree with him on this. I saw almost every game we played in L1 last season on iFollow and I do not recall us "pressing high" on a regular basis at all. Most of the time it was exactly the same as we see now, directionless passing between players around the centre circle and defence eventually leading to a punt up the pitch. There's a reason our results dramatically improved once Graham came back into the team - he actually worked as an outlet in a way the likes of Samuel didn't.

I wouldn't say 'stole a point' is an entirely inaccurate description of the first match. They had 20 shots to our 9 and Reed worldie aside we never looked like scoring. Wasn't that the first game we tried the ineffective Dack up top experiment?

If that's not what he expects then he clearly doesn't see the problem. Hopefully that's just public bravado. I can't imagine anybody could be stupid enough to not take notice of the fact we repeatedly crumble and concede again very soon when a team scores against us. vs Reading - conceded on 12 and 25 minutes vs Stoke - 79 and 80 minutes vs Sheff Utd (@ Ewood) - 66 and 79 minutes vs Swansea - 64, 68 and 85 minutes vs Preston - 2 and 10 minutes, 74 and 85 minutes vs Birmingham - 78 and 80 minutes vs Leeds - 91 and 94 minutes vs Sheff Utd (@ Brammall Lane) - 73, 77 and 82 minutes That's eight matches this season where we've conceded a second goal less than fifteen minutes after the first one went in. Often it's literally only a few minutes after. It's clearly a pattern and something that seems to be getting worse rather than getting better.

Nobody would have said he played well though. I'm not sure how Brereton could have played well if he was involved so little in play. It's not necessarily his fault, but still.

4-0 or 4-1 to WBA. WBA are the highest scorers in the division and our defence is one of the shittiest. WBA concede a fair few goals too so we might get one or two back, but a drubbing here is highly likely.

Some of our boys from the 2014/2015/2016 era... Matt Kilgallon - left on a free transfer to join Bradford in League 1. Was their player of the season in the 17/18 season. Contract then cancelled by mutual consent and now he plays for Hamilton Academical in the Scottish Prem. Lee Williamson - left on a free transfer to join Burton, who were in the Championship at the time. Made 14 appearances with 8 starts. Released at the end of the season with Burton having stayed up whilst we got relegated. Most recently assistant manager of Belper Town, but was sacked in April 2018. Chris Taylor - left on a free transfer to join Bolton. Made 16 appearances in two years, but only 3 starts. Was loaned to Oldham between Jan-May 17. Released by Bolton at the end of the 17/18 season, currently playing for Blackpool. Reg - loaned to Ipswich, then joined them on a permanent in December 2015 after rupturing his achilles tendon in the playoff semi-final in May 2015. Overall scored 5 goals in 56 appearances for Ipswich. Contract was cancelled in January 2017 and he joined Burton. Scored one goal in 33 appearances before being relegated with Burton in the 17/18 season. Released and now plays for Cheltenham Town in League Two. Josh Morris - left on a free transfer to join Bradford. Only stayed for one season, making 13 appearances and scoring once. Released at the end of the 15-16 season and then joined Scunthorpe, where he's become one of their better players. He's scored 34 league goals in 103 appearances (with 101 starts). Leon Best - career gone right into the toilet, to the surprise of no one. After we released him he spent most of the 15-16 season at Rotherham, scoring 4 goals in 16 appearances. Rotherham decided against extending his contract. He joined Ipswich with a lot of fanfare but as usual screwed it up, and after a particularly shit display in Jan 17 against non-league Lincoln City Mick McCarthy said Best would never play for the club again. And he didn't. Released at the end of the season. Signed a two month deal with Charlton but after 5 appearances and no goals he picked up a serious knee injury and is currently available on a free transfer. Sacha Petshi - remember him? No, me either. Now playing with Creteil in the lower leagues of France. Bengali-Fode Koita - ah, that one time he hit the post... memories. Has been playing in Turkey for Kasimpasa since 2016. Wiki claims 6 goals in 42 appearances but no idea how up to date those stats are. Jake Kean - surprisingly joined Norwich in the PL after being released by Rovers. Made no first team appearances and cancelled his contract a year early in May 2016. Joined Sheffield Wednesday, made no first team appearances. During his time at Norwich & Sheff Weds was loaned out to Colchester, Swindon, Mansfield and Grimsby. Only made regular appearances for Mansfield, who he signed for on a short term deal in December 2018, having been available on a free since August 2018. Since August 2015 Jake has made 28 first team appearances at all clubs. Somehow he was in nets 37 times for Rovers. Amazing. Danny Guthrie - played briefly for Oakengates Athletic in the Shropshire Premier League (seriously, wtf) before joining Indonesian Liga team Mitra Kukar in Jan 18. I think he's still there. Nathan Delfouneso - played a season for Swindon in League 1. Scored one goal in 18 appearances. Currently plays for Blackpool, scored 19 goals in 80 appearances. (No) Hope Akpan - helped Burton get relegated in the 17/18 season. Joined Bradford where he remains today. Simon Eastwood - signed for Oxford United and won their players' player of the season and supporters' player of the season for the 16/17 season. Has made 106 apperances for Oxford in two and a half years. Seems to have done better for himself than Jake Kean, although I'm guessing Kean earned more during his time at Norwich & Sheff Weds? Tommy Spurr - signed on a free for Preston after we released him. Has made 23 appearances since July 16 and had injury problems. Currently on loan to Fleetwood. Chris "Browny" Brown - joined bury on a free in August 16 but didn't make a first team appearance. Had injury and fitness issues. Scored the same amount of goals for Bury with 0 appearances as he did for Rovers with 37.

Yeah, I was going back to 14 Dec to get the four games. If you look at the purely festive fixtures it was indeed 0/9. That was a pretty miserable time. After beating Rotherham on Dec 11 we didn't win another game until Feb 16. 9 games without a win, 4 points out of 27. Still ended up staying up pretty comfortably in the end.

Hanley always needed a smarter, cooler head beside him to be fully effective. I think that's why he's ended up back in the Championship rather than making the step up to the PL. Hasn't quite got everything he needs mentally to be a top player. He was a good centre back for us when his big head was on straight though. Mulgrew could be a good fit beside him.

We got 1/12 under Lambert.

Apparently Brereton only had twenty touches yesterday, so did he actually do well or were people just seeing what they wanted to see?

Good post. Mowbray talks a good game and is obviously very passionate about his ideas, but those ideas don't seem to be translating onto the pitch at all. It often looks like a patched together combination of hoofball and counter attacking play. This is no knee jerk reaction, either. It's frustrating to see certain posters call this "knee jerk" when a lot of us were bringing up the same concerns last season, but were shouted down and ridiculed because we were beating terrible teams. Now we're facing better teams and the same criticisms come out, it's suddenly knee jerk.

In the article I read he spent two or three paragraphs complaining about the referee, then added at the end "but it wasn't the ref's fault we conceded three". Begs the question of why he's going on about it so much. Seems like deflection and desperation to me.

"“The outcome of the game, especially when we went down to 10 men...no-one would have seen the result coming.” Wouldn't be so sure about that.

He needs to focus more on the positives and complain about the ref.