Rovers commentators (probably) = "nothing out of the ordinary here"

Walsall put 3 past us back in August.

Gone way beyond acceptable now, even with the myriad of genuine reasons JDT can point to. This inability to defend is absolutely embarrassing.

Good to see JRC back... Gallagher kind of... just hope we aren't rushing them back too soon. I was under the impression both were initially penned for a February-ish return to the team. Maybe a case of needs must.

Sometimes it's like watching somebody who won a competition to be out there.

That'll take a while.

Ennis making Vince Grella look like a bastion of fitness, assuming he's once again injured or unfit.

Yep, but what we need to be successful and what he's said are two different things. His remit is developing players to increase value, mine as a supporter is for my team to be as successful as possible. Ideally the two would go hand-in-hand, but for that to be the case one imagines JDT would have been more practical by this point.

Indeed, if you look at our goals scored column it's perfectly reasonable compared to other teams in the division. The primary issue is the goals against column which is second-worst in the entire division. We need to find a way to grind out scrappy 1-0 wins when required - mainly because due to a weak mentality we can't win when we go behind, so scoring first is a must.

We know from his time here never to take anything he says to the press seriously. Good appointment for Birmingham in the circumstances, although only required because they completely unnecessarily hit the self-destruct button.

I'm guessing his age factors in somewhat. If he was a couple of years younger I'd assume he'd have a lot more attention. Clubs may see this as a one off/fluke season for him, at this level at least, based on him spending most of his career in League 1. Not how I see it, as I think he's extremely hard working with solid ability, but one imagines most clubs at this level and below will be looking for a younger prospect to drop significant cash on. But then again, maybe someone should offer to loan him. We can then get a cheap youngster in to strengthen the almighty model.

Probably the last 13 years to be honest mate. Not sure what to tell you if that doesn't make sense.

Cup run is probably the only thing we have to potentially look forward to this season, so obviously nice to progress. Just hope we can score enough to keep our heads above water in the league, as defensively we are nowhere near where we need to be.

Also may have been very different for him at Rovers. Hirst was useless here but has been solid at Ipswich. Sometimes a different club just suits better.

Lol, I wouldn't worry about that JDT. Considering they're 8th and we're 17th I can't imagine they'll take much offence to being told a player they weren't using suits our style of conceding two games a game better than their style of not doing so.

Quite strange to me that a player who purportedly asked to leave the club (twice) was kept on as captain.

It is, but that is a desperately depressing interview.

Yeah, pretty much. With a bit of backing I think he'd have us right up there, but he's been given fuck all - in fact less than fuck all compared to the bloke who came before him. With the situation as it is, he hasn't got the experience or perhaps the inclination to adjust his style of play to adapt to our current predicament. As much as I love watching JDT's football at times, the sad reality is that we need a Neil Warnock type to make this lot compact, gritty and tough-to-beat - and even then I think our ceiling would realistically be mid-table.

Based on the amount we've scored and the best I would expect us to achieve with the current squad (mid-table), I think we can afford to score less. We don't need to score more than WBA or Sunderland, we just need to defend better. A few clean sheets and 1-0 wins are what is required, not gung ho football where we concede two or three every game. At this point it's got to stop, because we are in free fall and it isn't realistic to expect us to score 3 or 4 goals per game just to win. I don't blame JDT as he was not brought in to get a poor team to play defensive football to grind out wins. That is the position we've been left in thanks to the owners, though, and I don't see where JDT fits into that reality as he isn't suited for what we now require.

I often see it said that we don't put our chances away - but we've scored 39 goals this season, which is on the higher end of teams up to 5th and we've actually scored more than WBA in 5th and Sunderland in 6th. It's not being able to defend that's the problem, as evidenced by the 48 goals we've shipped, second only to our illustrious opponents today who have conceded 50.

We need someone in who can organise a defence. The amount of goals we concede is criminal and it can't all be put down to injuries. This team just does not understand how to defend. Do we put any effort into that side of things in training at all?

You're right, old age making a fool of me. Marcus is indeed who I'm talking about there.

The only way JDT leaves is if he walks, and whilst I wouldn't blame him at this point, I don't think anything like that is imminent. We'll get on another decent run eventually, as always eventually happens. Might even get back to within a sniff of the playoffs before falling short as is customary. More than likely I think we'll just finish lower mid-table this year, which will be an achievement considering the clowns operating and owning the club leaving us with a threadbare squad and a wage budget rivalling Plymouth and Rotherham. It's not impossible for us to run into major problems this season, but I'm mostly fearful about how horrific next season is likely to be unless a miracle happens and Venky's sell up.

Yeah I'd probably go with Spurr. No world beater but you'd get a 6 or 7/10 from him consistently. Very rarely below or above that, but he was steady. Nyambe too injury prone and lacking in supporting the attack, although he wasn't bad either. Always felt like Martin was a pretty big downgrade on his brother. Can remember the year he won player of the season his highlight package was comedically anaemic. From memory he was okay, but yeah, a long time ago now. As was Spurr tbf.

Just have to hope they don't score first.