DE.

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.

Ridiculous tackle from Smallwood. What a fucking plank. Their red looked very harsh.

Needs to win both for me, considering our recent form and assuming we'll get beaten by West Brom. Losing to either would be unacceptable at this point.

The teams we've beaten this season: Hull 0-1 Rovers - quite a close match but a clean sheet and a goal from open play, so pretty good. Rovers 1-0 Brentford - another clean sheet, but we were lucky in that we scored with our only shot on target. Brentford largely dominated. Stoke 2-3 Rovers - we all remember this one. 3-0 up and everybody confused by what was happening. Two goals in two minutes suddenly makes it 3-2, Stoke then win and miss a penalty. Again, very lucky to get three points from this one. Bolton 0-1 Rovers - another clean sheet, but it was a poor match and Bolton actually had double the amount of shots we did. They just couldn't score. Rovers 2-1 Leeds - probably our best performance of the season so far. Matched Leeds and won the match after being pegged back just before half time. Rovers 1-0 QPR - direct quote from Mowbray - "It was a pretty poor horrible football match I would have to say I don't think we should be trying to disguise that fact". Terrible match decided by a late penalty. Rovers 4-2 Sheff Weds - a good performance against a very poor team. Sheffield Wednesday is the only match we've won by more than a one goal margin.

Go back to November and it's even grimmer. Hard to believe at one point we were all discussing the possibility of a top six finish - some more seriously than others. Now we're looking far more likely to end the season in the bottom six.

Technically, but he's played a significant portion of his career at CB so I don't think we can really say he's out of position. He just needs a certain type of defender beside him - Lenihan is not that defender.

No clean sheet in 9 games now. We've shipped more goals than Wigan, Brentford, Millwall, Reading and Bolton, and the same amount as Rotherham. All of these teams are currently below us. It's very clear that we are a defensive shambles. Mulgrew/Lenihan is not the answer, neither is the pairing of Evans/Smallwood. Not sure any of our full backs are realistically good enough either. Severe surgery needed long term. Short term bringing in a decent CB and a competent LB (Williams & Bell are both L1 standard) might be enough.

His post match interviews over the past few weeks are sounding increasingly desperate. They don't give me any confidence he has a handle on the situation. It feels increasingly like he's burying his head in the sand and waiting for something to magically change. Very concerning.

50 points seems a long way off at this juncture.

I'd take 21st right now if offered as a final position. This team is a shambles. Hard to explain how we got as many points as we did before November.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Time for big Ben to show us what he's all about.

It was just a vague comparison based on their attributes. Emerton was supposed to come in as a top quality right winger, but it never really worked out for him there. He always looked far better at right wing back and I'm sure I remember him giving good performances in centre midfield as well. I can see similarities with Bennett in that regard, although Emerton was obviously a much better player.

The results with Bennett in the team versus Bennett being out of the team speak for themselves really. I don't think it's a complete coincidence that this shocking run of form has coincided with Bennett being injured. I think the only match he's played in since we beat QPR 1-0 is Preston? And he was playing with a fractured foot in that one too. Obviously one player doesn't make a team, but I think his influence is underestimated.

Evans and Reed would be my preferred CM pairing. Nobody can question Smallwood's determination and commitment, but it's obvious he isn't on the same level as most of our other players in a technical sense. His passing is really bad at times. No issue with using him as a harrier to come off the bench and disturb the opposition if we're in the lead, but that's generally what I would limit his role to.

Emerton is a good comparison, although with Bert it always felt like he was playing within himself (a bit like Ben Marshall) whereas with Bennett it feels like his high work rate compensates for not being the most technically gifted player. It always felt like Emerton could have given us a bit more.

He doesn't contribute much going forward though. Maybe his best position is RWB? Or just CM.

Bennett is OK at right back (arguably better than Nyambe at both defending and crossing) and has always looked decent in CM (definitely better than Smallwood), yet ironically his natural position of RW is the position he's always been least impressive in. It's not just Bennett's work rate we miss when he's out of the team, but his overall experience. I'd have him back in the starting eleven ASAP.

Agree, the signs are all there, although we should have enough in the bank this season at least to stay up. If our only creative player, Dack, leaves in January then it really will be a difficult second half of the season for us - and by that I mean for both the club and even more so the supporters. We aren't great to watch at the best of times, but without our only creative spark it will be a real slog watching eleven cloggers try to team spirit their way to victory every week.