Cheated out of three points.

You have to take your chances. Still time to get back into it.

Big Club two down at home to Ipswich.

If we had any other realistic options Lenihan would have to be dropped. Can't afford to have a player in the team constantly giving penalties away. You can overlook a couple as bad luck, but three in a row? Something not right there.

Bruce is the one I'm most interested in. There were some pretty strong rumours he was going to be ousted in the summer in favour of Henry, but that suddenly died down and it was business as usual. I don't think Bruce has done as badly there as the Villa fans do, but there's no doubt they should be doing much better this season with their current squad. Three wins out of nine matches and they were very lucky not to lose to us as well. They're conceding a lot of goals which isn't typical for a Steve Bruce team. Makes me wonder if it's just gone stale there and it might be time for a change. Villa surely want to get promoted, and early signs during this campaign aren't good. I said before Hurst desperately needs a win from at least one of the next two matches. If Ipswich can't get at least 3 points from the next couple of games then surely they need to seriously consider a change before it's too late.

At least Burnley had a humiliating night, and United did as expected and got knocked out by a better team. There are positives to take from tonight, the big negative is obviously another late goal conceded. We were realistically never going to win the Carabao Cup so time to put our focus back on the league and then look to have a decent run in the FA Cup in a few months time. Considering our lack of depth in defence it might not be a bad thing to have less games to risk injury. You always want to win and have a good cup run but sometimes it just isn't meant to be. We got a tough draw... and at least we didn't get beaten by a mid table League 1 team

It must be a mental thing. It's a shame as that aside we're a decent team.

This team never gives up, does it?

I'd generally agree with that, except I think we need one more decent striker on the books. If Graham went down with an injury I wouldn't be confident that Palmer, Armstrong or Brereton would get us the goals we need. Dack does score goals but he's more like a Frank Lampard type - will score plenty from an attacking midfield position, but doesn't necessarily have the attributes to be a pure striker.

Yeah, worth noting I wasn't solely placing the blame on Lenihan there. If we hadn't conceded two goals in the space of two minutes he probably wouldn't have been so hyped up and thus wouldn't have committed the foul. We had the chance to see out the game with a comfortable lead and totally blew it, leading to panic in the last ten minutes. The players still gave everything to finish the match with three points, and you can't fault that resolve, but if Stoke had a decent penalty taker we'd be talking about another two points completely thrown away. So far we've only conceded last minute equalisers against Ipswich and Villa so I wouldn't say it's a big deal at this moment in time. We managed to hold Derby last Tuesday as well despite coming under heavy pressure. This is just something Mowbray needs to nip in the bud before it becomes a bigger issue.

Our tendency to self destruct towards the end of games needs to stop if we want to make the playoffs. Lenihan's panicked shove on Berahino at the end of the Stoke match was a prime example of the type of behaviour we need to remove. I don't know if it's a mental thing or just tiredness but we could have easily lost a 3-0 lead in 13 minutes and that's concerning. Mowbray will hopefully be working on it as a priority.

Yeah, agreed. The sad fact is that top level football is now all about catering to players' egos. The days of the fire-breathing manager are gone - at the top two levels anyway. I think it'll still work to some degree in League One and below, but it's a totally different game once you get any higher.

There was an interesting post match quote from Hurst in the paper: "I spoke to the players and said if I, in any way shape or form, am making it more difficult for you to play then please come and see me and I’ll try and take that away. Because it’s not a difficult place to play of in terms of fans getting on at the players. There are a helluva lot worse places." Once again subtly blaming the players and absolving himself of any wrongdoing. He's essentially telling them (via public medium) "if you've got a problem with me, say so, or you're the ones at fault, not me". IMV that's bad management. Good managers rarely shift the blame onto the players, they take it all themselves. There's a number of reasons the players were so loyal to McCarthy and that was one of them. Hurst has a lot to learn.

The fans turned really nasty and Mick responded in kind. Once it gets to that point you're basically done (unless you're Steve Kean). Ipswich fans were aiming their anger in the wrong direction though. Yes the football was shit, and yes they were paying a premium to watch it, but it all comes down to Marcus Evans and the tight budget restraints the club is working under. Mick was never the problem there, he was just the guy who took the bullets because Evans likes to hide in the shadows. I don't wish ill on Hurst or Ipswich as a club, I obviously have a soft spot for them (except when they're playing us), but a lot of the fans are reaping what they've sown and are still struggling to come to terms with the reality of the situation. They had a very good Championship manager at the helm who was focused purely on getting results from a team that could generously be described as average but in truth was pretty poor. His departure alienated the few better players there who knew Mick was getting the best out of them and their less talented team mates. Hurst's biggest hurdle would have been winning the respect of those players. He's come in as a much less experienced manager and almost immediately started shooting his mouth off about how the team wasn't good enough and players weren't at the level he felt was necessary. He came in and undoubtedly got some player's backs up instantly with such blunt public comments. The start they've had will only solidified in the players' minds that they're working with a much less talented manager and the motivation to play for the fans probably isn't there either as most of them fully backed Mick whenever asked about how he was being treated. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't advocate removing a manager so early in his tenure - but there are a lot of things working against Hurst, some of which he has brought on himself. How many games without a win do they go before they make a decision? 12 games? 15 games? 20 games? Right now they're fortunate enough to still be within a single win of escaping the drop zone. In a few games time they may be looking at a much bleaker picture. Their next two games are Birmingham (A) and Boro (H). Fail to win either of those and there would have to be some serious consideration towards making a change before it really is too late. We saw with Coyle that waiting too long means that even if you get the right guy in, it may not be enough. I genuinely believe Mowbray would have kept us up in 16/17 if he'd been brought in a month or two earlier. None of us wanted to give Coyle until the end of the season because it was obvious we were dead in the water with him in charge. That time may come for Ipswich, too, if they don't start picking up results very quickly.

Totally forgot I made this post. Hah. At the time I never would have thought he'd be signing for us. Obviously hoping he proves everybody wrong and shows the talent he obviously had at one point.

Hurst seems to have basically transplanted his plans from Shrewsbury to Ipswich. Buy a bunch of league 1 players relatively cheap or on loan, and see if it's good enough. Obviously much bigger expectation at Ipswich though, especially as McCarthy had them finishing comfortably away from danger on the same budget Ipswich fans shot themselves in the foot with their disgusting treatment of McCarthy (including peadeophile chants) because they turned most of the players against them too. Much like Rovers fans 8 years ago, Ipswich fans want champagne football on a budget that would barely buy a big mac. Totally clueless.

I found this comment on an Ipswich forum quite amusing: An improvement except for the most important part - winning?! Just shows how it really is "anything but Mick" for a lot of the fans. A total failure to see the forest for the trees. Some of them still don't understand WHY they were playing that way.

I agree that Mulgrew is still an important part of our team, no doubt, but I think we could find a player to replace him and still be fairly comfortable defensively. We seemed to struggle in the transfer window to identify a backup to Graham, and finding a player like Dack is one in a hundred. So much seems to hinge on those two as far as our attacking threat is concerned. Still, I'm not going to worry about it tonight. Three points and it's fair to say we've had a very good start to the season. I haven't agreed with some of Mowbray's dealings in the transfer market this summer, but he's brought our momentum and team spirit from last season into this one and it's serving us well. A million miles away from that hugely depressing start in 16/17 under Coyle.

Personally I don't think Mulgrew is as important to us now as he was last season. A fantastic free kick and penalty taker, but as a defender he's pretty slow and has some real lapses of concentration positionally. If we're sensible we can replace him without too much bother imo. Graham and Dack would be much harder to replace. Bennett a bit of an unsung hero as well, he'd be missed if he wasn't around.

Another terrible result for Ipswich, 0-0 with Bolton despite having an extra man's advantage for an hour. Apparently a dire performance as well. Ipswich fans now calling for Hurst's head. https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/442150/hurst-is-surely-gone-after-that/#26 Mick's still available lads

I did the same thing, except at 3-0 rather than 2-0. Imagine my horror when my phone takes it upon itself to let me know it's 3-2 with ten minutes left. Thanks for that. Great result though, especially after the performance at Derby. Well done Rovers!

W t feck?

What is going on here?

I should have added "in theory" there, as yeah, plenty could change between now and the end of the season to make next season very difficult indeed. Dack potentially departing along with Mulgrew and Graham would be a major rebuilding job - arguably our three most important players all gone. It's possible Mulgrew and Graham will sign on for another season but even so, they're both old enough that we can't keep going into seasons relying on them. Mowbray will know this better than anyone so hopefully at the very least he'll be thinking ahead. Difficult to do with the current owners at the helm though.