One time where I was he had been lying.

Weirdly I can remember Waggott's August interview, where he stated we're a development squad with no ambitions other than to stay in the division, being widely praised - even on here by some. I was baffled as it did nothing but raise massive red flags for me. JDT evidently felt the same as from that point onwards he needled Waggott in practically every interview for months afterwards - including the many jabs at the fabled coach he claimed we'd bought but are actually leasing.

I may just have a low tolerance for this kind of thing, but JDT was a breath of fresh air when it came to a manager speaking his mind and not treating the fans like idiots. It's one of the reasons I had respect for him even when results weren't good - at least he was honest. It felt like he was 'one of us' regardless of whether I agreed with how he was setting us up on the pitch at times. He's probably the only Venky manager we've had who I actually trusted, which is why I knew he wasn't destined to be here very long. For what it's worth though, and I think you've said similar in the past, I ultimately couldn't care less what a manager says in interviews or pressers if results on the pitch are good. I can ignore the media stuff, but I can't ignore the results or our position in the table. So in the end that's all I'll seriously judge Eustace on.

He speaks like an automatron programmed by Waggott. After JDT's honesty I can't be bothered with hearing that, so am already skipping all of his interviews and press conferences. In terms of the job he's doing, if we don't get at least 4 points from the next two games then we're most likely done for. He says we have a good squad and "no excuses", so let's see.

Our home form is going to be absolutely vital in the run in. We play the following teams at home: Millwall Plymouth Ipswich Southampton Sheff Weds Coventry Draws won't be enough. We probably need to win at least three of these, maybe four. Might get away with two and a few draws if we get a surprise away result against Boro, Bristol City or Sunderland. There's a good chance every team we face at home is going to have something on the line. Probably no dead rubbers. One win in fourteen, two in seventeen, shows the mountain we have to climb to stay in the division at this point. Good luck JE. If we don't get at least four points from Millwall and Plymouth then we're staring down the barrel. Two huge matches. Six points would give us a decent platform to survive - this season at least.

The only successful season we've had during their entire tenure was in League 1. Other than that it's been a repeated pattern of missed opportunities, weak management, weak mentality, dwindling gates and various degrees of chaos and crisis. The Mowbray years have probably been the most 'stable', but even then you had the death spirals, a manager essentially running the whole club and not judged on results, ridiculous transfer fees for average players, allowing players to leave on frees rather than sell and reinvest, the attempt to sell Brockhall, and so on... just a neverending nightmare.

"No excuses", immediately uses Tuesday as an excuse for our slow start.

Yeah, up until around a month ago I figured we'd scrape enough points to survive this season and then drop the next. I think there's a high chance now that we go down this season. Looking at our run in things look bleak.

When was the last time a team went down from this league with a player having scored as many goals as Sammie? Feels like it would be some achievement if we do pull it off.

Could argue there isn't one on the pitch in blue and white either. Not that I could recognise, anyway.

Some ability, perhaps. Mentality? Weak as piss. I'd have Nyambe there instead any day, and Nyambe is no world beater either.

Depends if you're being generous and giving him Stoke or not. For me at best it'd be 85% Johnson and 15% Eustace in terms of credit for that match, but regardless it's been pretty poor considering Brittain's triumphant interview telling us "the shackles are off" and the senior players committee claiming they know it isn't good enough and it'll get better. Any timeline on that lads? Wouldn't want to upset you with some scattered boos again.

We've been the worst team in the league, with the occasional exception of Rotherham, for about 3 months now. Little wonder the drop is looming.

Are people genuinely surprised by this? It's exactly what I expected to happen. Not because of "tired legs" but because cup matches are total one offs and these players have largely only ever shown themselves to perform when there's no pressure and we're the underdogs. Going all the way back to Bowyer's time. Culture at the club is rotten and it seeps into everything. One cup match changes nothing unfortunately.

Interesting how one of the female journalists went immediately to the point of asking about the defensive side of the game. She's clearly seen our goals against column.

Whilst last night's match was a fantastic performance, we were even better last year against Leicester and actually won that match. We then proceeded to win just three of our remaining twelve league games. Cup matches are ultimately just one-offs and against higher opposition players inevitably raise their game for the occasion. The Championship is a different beast as one win in our last thirteen games shows. I very much appreciated the effort put in last night, but it remains to be seen whether the players who have let us down for much of the season can continue to apply that motivation to league matches. If this game does inspire a great run of form then it'll be hats off to Eustace, and he'll have earned some backing in the summer. Not that I'll expect him to get it, mind.

Gutting. Better performance than I thought was possible from us, though.

Whether we go through or not, the players have raised their game to incredible levels and set the bar going forward.

That was the chance. Fuck.

Pears having the game of his life.

Lol, they should be more concerned about the fact they've only won 3 games all season and are 9 points adrift, having conceded 17 more goals than Luton.

From what I just read, Sweden's first ever foreign manager. Good luck to him and hopefully he can mould a team truly in his image. They'll be a joy to watch if it works out for him.

A shame that since 2014 the league cup is just another trophy to be passed around between the usual suspects.

Whilst I think Brittain does have decent ability at times, I'm not convinced by his mentality. I don't think he's reliable when the chips are down, and I don't really want those kinds of players in the team. He's not the only one but fairweather players are only ever going to get you so far.