Cardiff going down in style. Losing 3-0 and down to ten men.

Amazing that Rooney has effectively tanked two clubs in a row so brutally that both ended up going down despite revivals in form after his removal.

Eustace's great escape looking good as things stand. Even if Derby lose they won't go down if Luton can't mount a response.

3-1 now, looking like it's Hull's to throw away

Or not, WBA now 2-1 ahead

Derby and Luton goals would now put Stoke in the drop zone...

Hull 1-0 up, real danger for Preston now.

Great article! Liked the pointed comment to the board at the end as well 👍

To be honest Bilbao looked alright until they went down to 10, at which point they just seemed to fall apart. If they'd kept it to 1-0 I think they would have had a chance in the second leg, but 3-0 seems like it'll be really difficult to come back from. I appreciate the league is a lost cause for Spurs and Ange probably sees winning the Europa League as his only chance of salvation at this point, but still, the majority of Spurs fans are going to be attending their league matches rather than European matches. It's a risky gamble.

They're still performing poorly in the PL, though, so neither of those things have changed. Spurs have lost 5 of their last 6 matches (3 on the spin as of now). United haven't won in 5 league matches and still look as dire as ever outside of Europe. They should both be in the position they're in because they've been poor over the season and continue to be so. I think they'll both improve next season, but it's amazing that this season they are both likely to end up in the Europa League final. it's a huge missed opportunity for the other European clubs imo.

Embarrassing for the rest of Europe that the PL's 14th and 16th placed teams appear to be cruising into the Europa League final. In United's case beating the 4th placed French and Spanish teams along the way. Spurs beat the team who are 3rd in the Bundesliga. Are the other European leagues really that poor these days outside of the top 2/3 teams?

Sometimes context does change the nature of quotes. Sometimes it doesn't. We would need to know the full details to make a judgement. WATR is one of the most risk-averse and historically club-friendly supporters' groups we have, though, so seems odd that they would try to smear a club employee with an out-of-context quote.

Dolan is our second top goalscorer and assister, I think. Imagine he's there or thereabouts most seasons, as his stats are quite consistent. Certainly different to if we were losing someone like Hedges with 1 goal and 2 assists.

When you look at Preston's overall form, and Bristol City's home form, then it does seem unlikely that Preston will get anything. Stranger things have happened though. The main positive from tonight's result is that a draw in their game would now be enough for us to leapfrog them, in the event we beat Sheff Utd (we'll probably draw or lose, but still, hope burns eternal). Bristol City last dropped points at home to Hull on 8th March. Preston last picked up a point on the road at Sunderland on 11th March. Both 1-1 draws.

Tbf Ipswich spent £150m to come 18th and get relegated with four games to spare. Makes me fear what would happen if by some miracle we actually got promoted under Venky's. How much would they realistically spend? Would it even be a third of what Ipswich have? Could genuinely see us taking Derby's crown as worst ever PL team. Meanwhile at best they'd use the PL & parachute payments to reset us to a fairly even keel before going back to screwing us over again for another decade. Positive thinking obviously not my strong suit tonight 🤣

We have to win, but that was the case regardless of tonight's result. I think if Millwall win we need both Coventry and Bristol City to drop points to get into the playoffs. If Millwall draw or lose then we only need one of Coventry or Bristol City to drop points.

I just can't be bothered typing out Bristol City every time tbh, and assume people would know I don't mean Bristol Rovers 😅

Yep, not just a defeat but an absolute hammering. After also getting beaten 3-1 by Luton in their last match, it's got to be a severe dent in confidence for Bristol. Granted Preston are also shit and will be low on confidence, but increases the chances of a draw when they play each other at least. From a GD perspective all we needed was 3-0, the extra goal doesn't really mean anything other than further damaging Bristol's confidence going into the final day.

Looking like a great result for both us and Boro especially.

Leeds have been frighteningly dominant. 17 shots to 0. If they score once more then if Bristol City draw against Preston and we win by any scoreline against Sheff Utd, we'd go above Bristol.

One of those players who rarely dips below 7/10 performance-wise. An absolute steal on a free transfer. That kind of consistency is absolutely vital in the centre of the park. You can get away with a striker or a winger having a very poor game, but if it happens in the middle of the pitch then it's going to cause some major problems. He and Travis work very well together, and it gives the team a solid foundation to work from. We need far better backup than the likes of Buckley or JRC, though. We can't afford to have our form collapse every time Tronstad is unavailable or unfit.

Even if they go down, the turnaround there has been remarkable. From memory they were on something like 29 points when he arrived and in torrid form. I remember going over their team, form and fixtures and posting that the chances of him getting them out of that mess are really low. If they stay up then, with sensible investment, Eustace could easily have them challenging for playoffs next season. If they go down then a lot will depend on how their club deals with that in the summer - as a manager, Eustace is more than capable of getting them back up at the first time of asking. With that said, even if they go down, one imagines Eustace will have seen his reputation rise in the eyes of many Championship decision-makers. To take us into playoff contention and then pull Derby out of their tailspin to the point where their destiny is in their own hands is impressive. Evidence suggests it takes a few games for his methods to kick in, but once they do then things start going in the right direction quickly. One would wonder if there might be a Championship club thinking 'this guy might be our ticket into unlikely playoff contention on a low budget, let's try and convince him to come here'.

Well, now I really hope my calculations were correct 😆

I had a gander on their forums and was honestly a bit baffled by how negative the general sentiment was. It wasn't that long ago they were struggling in League 1, and now the expectation genuinely seems to be that they should have been pushing for automatics, despite not having the wage bill or transfer expenditure to make that a likely possibility. I'm just thinking, lads, try supporting Rovers for a few seasons. Try enduring season after season of catastrophic losses of form which don't just put us in negative momentum, but totally bomb us out of playoff contention despite often being in extremely strong positions. Try dealing with seeing the club sabotage itself in January year after year, whilst watching the playing squad get systematically weakened by cost-cutting despite being in a strong FFP position and supposedly having wealthy owners. They've been in the playoff positions or higher basically all season. Excluding the parachute clubs they've won more games than anyone else. Better GD than everyone else. Conceded less than everyone else. I get that it's disappointing to go through a bad spell where you lose a few matches on the spin, but jeez, you're already in the playoffs. Even if you'd won all four of those you'd still be 4th. You can't drop down any further than that. It's hard to understand how a poor run of form which ultimately doesn't change anything has turned into a massive FUCK YOU to the manager and players for sections of their fanbase. I also don't see how it helps to fracture the relationship between the manager, players and fans before the playoffs. This is why it makes me laugh when people try to paint Ewood as being 'a jury' and our fans being overly negative. Try reading literally any other fan forum. Lose a few matches and most fanbases are the same if not far worse. In fact, Ewood is probably very low down the list of grounds where fans turn on the team. Even during some of our most dire runs you generally get apathy rather than outright anger.

Interestingly despite being sat comfortably in 4th, there's some serious friction at Sunderland. Fans booing and having a go at the players after today's 2-0 defeat to Oxford. Apparently an exchange between the players and fans post-match. Granted their recent form is horrendous (four losses on the spin, five without a win), but still surprising to see such a vocal level of discontent and disharmony with the playoffs on the horizon. Doesn't seem to bode well for them.