We worked hard in the first half but as an attacking force we've been insipid all game. Armstrong started off strong but seemed to give up after a couple of awful attempts on goal. Dack has been trying too hard to get the ball and as a result been ineffective again. Graham held it up well until he was taken off, but Brereton looks lost. Defensively we're a real mess. We need to forget these ideas of playoffs or promotion. Not happening with this squad. Too poor at the back and too lacking in the final third. Our work rate will secure us a mid table finish, but that's the limit unless we improve significantly in January.

Let's not kid ourselves into thinking we've had this game in the bag save for giving a couple of silly goals away. They've had double the shots we have and far more possession. It most games the team with most possession and shots wins, so we haven't been robbed here. Frankly, penalty aside we've never looked like scoring. A draw here would be an excellent result but as it stands we'll be fortunate to only concede two.

Hard to feel aggrieved about this. Swansea have looked more threatening in the last ten minutes or so than we have all game. We're an industrious team but have literally no creativity or intelligence in our attacking play when Dack isn't performing. It's set pieces or nothing as far as goals are concerned.

A great goal, not much we could do about that. We need to start producing some corners or free kicks, as I can't see us scoring from open play.

A daft challenge but looked worse than it was. The Swansea player made it look like Bennett had taken a sledgehammer to his shin.

We've looked extremely composed so far. Neither team really looks like scoring from open play, but hopefully we can get another to avoid another nail biting end. I'm assuming it'll be exactly that though, as this is Rovers after all.

Thus far a very solid performance from Rovers again.

Penalty Rovers

Oops, you're right. I need to pay more attention.

Smallwood injured. Rodwell on.

Armstrong is a menace on the flank but his shooting is so bad. He just tried a shot from the edge of the area and nearly hit the corner flag.

The problem is that at Brereton's age he's going to need to be playing fairly regularly to improve to the level where he can be a regular first teamer. Twenty minute cameos here and there aren't going to help much, especially if he's out of position.

I'm guessing he brought Conway on for his experience, particularly with another older head in Graham having come off. A bit worrying if Mowbray would rather bring in a 19 year old kid out of position than play Palmer. At the very least I think we should be looking for a loan option to bring in as back up to Graham/Brereton, ideally one who can play the target man position now as opposed to some undefined point in the future. Graham being out for any extended period of time could cause big problems. The last thing we need is all the pressure being put on Brereton to perform when he isn't ready to do so.

Roman Reigns diagnosed with leukemia for the second time, having first had it when he was 22. He's now 33. Really sad stuff. In the modern era it's the equivalent of the Rock or Stone Cold announcing this back in the Attitude Era. Roman is the guy as far as WWE are concerned and who they've essentially built the entire company around. It was surreal to watch last night - he came out to the usual boos, but as soon as he announced he had leukemia the crowd went completely silent. Hopefully he can get past this and get himself back in the ring again.

Yeah, but the fact Brereton was brought on before Palmer or Rothwell to play that position suggests one of two things - Mowbray either sees Brereton as a very effective wide forward, or he was brought on purely because of the pressure of needing to field a player that's going to cost us a significant amount of money. I'd like to think it's the first option, as the second would be wrong on many levels and I don't think Mowbray would compromise the team to do that.

What if Mowbray doesn't see Brereton as a striker though? Thus far his appearances suggest an Armstrong type role of being a wide forward rather than the main striker going through the middle. I mean, he had the chance to put Brereton in the middle on Saturday and instead chose to put Dack there and have Brereton play on the wing. Tony kind of has form for playing strikers out wide (as in he does it constantly).

I agree that DG is looking good at present, but at his age things can change very quickly. The last thing we want to do is get caught out because we hadn't accounted for a 33-year old striker getting injured or struggling for fitness. Whilst the Brereton signing continues to baffle me, Armstrong has clearly been brought in as a wide man. He isn't clinical enough to be a striker anyway. If our entire budget for strikers was given to the Brereton transfer then we've taken a pretty big gamble imo.

Players aren't always the best judges of their own fitness. I'm sure right now DG feels on top of the world but whether he likes it or not the body's ability to cope with physical stress decreases with age. We need him to stay fit until January at least, but at that point it should be an absolute top priority to bring in somebody capable of challenging him for that position. Brereton is not that person, it needs to be somebody who can come in and hit the ground running.

You ever been here chief?

Bowyer would be an interesting one actually. He'd definitely take it if offered and is used to working with no budget. It'd be a hell of a task to get that squad to safety though.

I think that's the first time I've ever seen Moyes and appealing in the same sentence. Seriously though, there realistically are very few options available to Ipswich right now. The likes of Allardyce, Bruce and McCarthy aren't going to touch them. I very much doubt Lambert, Pardew or Moyes would be willing to take that chance either. Even the likes of Carvahal or Redknapp would probably have second thoughts considering the squad and budget. Warburton would probably be their best choice if they could convince him to come. Otherwise chances are it'll be a Burnley and Butcher combo which would be crowd-pleasing but most likely futile.

Part of the problem with forcing McCarthy out is that he had strong support from a lot of the club's better players. After witnessing the crowd turn unfairly on a manager they respected, most of those players then wanted out. Hence Hurst had little choice but to let the likes of Waghorn, Garner, McGoldrick and Webster leave. Replacing them with L1/L2 players was I think just down to his mindset that there isn't much difference between the Championship and L1/L2, and I imagine these were the kind of players he was planning to bring to Shrewsbury if they got promoted. He's obviously finding out the hard way that he was wrong about the quality gap between the leagues, and probably realising he should have come up with a better plan than essentially sticking to the targets he'd already identified at Shrewsbury.

Possibly, but most of them won't admit it. It's just shifted to "it was his time to go" and "it's Evans' fault for hiring the wrong man" - even though the reaction to Hurst's appointment was pretty much universally positive.

Yep, Hurst has made a rod for his own back in many ways. It's just inexperience. He had no idea how to handle a squad that was used to - with no offence to Hurst - a proper, experienced manager. They weren't going to be automatically in awe of a bloke whose career highlight is getting Shrewsbury to 3rd place in League 1 before losing the playoff final. He's come into the club acting like the big man and all it's done is turn a significant portion of the squad against him. Even after the QPR match he was still saying that the players need to take responsibility. He's been shifting the blame their way since day one and it's just further proof that he's way out of his depth. He wasn't ready to step up and Ipswich need to remove him from his position before he does any more damage.

Game stats are more relevent when looking at results over a sustained period of time, on a match to match basis they have less meaning. Look at when we faced Derby a few weeks ago, they had 20+ shots and battered us, but the match ended 0-0. Having a hundred shots counts for nothing if you don't take your chances. However, if Derby continued having that amount of shots over a long stetch of games then you'd expect them to be scoring a healthy amount of goals and winning most of their matches.