I remember when I went to watch us play Norwich at Carrow Road, Dolan was playing just behind Gallagher and was a real pest throughout, never gave the Norwich defence a moment's rest and scored a goal as well. As you say, the enthusiasm is there and I think Dolan does have the potential to be very effective in the right role. Central striker isn't it though.

Leeds are certainly doing everything they can to help Leicester and/or Everton stay up.

The january fiasco and comments that followed from JDT made me think there was a high likelihood he would look for other options this summer. Us crashing out of the playoff places, primarily because of our recruitment team's inability to do the basics, only seems to make that more likely. If JDT has been told there's no budget in the summer, and he's got to rely on that same recruitment team to bring in the players he needs from the free/loan market... well, it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody if he isn't here at the start of next season. That's why I can't sit back and calmly comment about this being a transitional season and not a big deal if we don't make the playoffs. Every season matters, and there's zero guarantee we'll be anywhere near as competitive next season for a multitude of reasons.

I don't think Morton was a bad loan signing, but neither has be been particularly impressive. We needed a bigger contribution from a player who was pencilled in for the first eleven in almost every match where he was available. So I'd say a 5 or 6/10 is probably fair.

In 2023 we've played 19 league matches and only scored more than once in three matches, so yes, against a team who concede very few goals a scrappy 1-0 is likely our best hope.

From memory there were quotes in the LT from the club about us shopping in the frees and loan market this summer, whereas last season we at least had some budget for the likes of Hyam and Szmodics, so I'd assume it's related to that.

I think the stats speak for themselves, if Ipswich played Plymouth 10 times they'd realistically win 8 or 9 of those. Individually the best team in L1 without a doubt, but if Plymouth win the title then they'll be the best at gaining points over the course of the season, so you can only say fair play to them. Especially considering their lack of resource when compared to most of the teams in that top six bracket. Their season has been unbelievable really.

Not sure it's necessarily an apt comparison, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if JDT's agent has been putting feelers out there.

McCarthy and Lambert worked under Marcus Evans. Ipswich were taken over by a US Pension Fund in April 2021, Cook had been hired three days beforehand and was considered their pick as manager. He lasted until December 2021 and was then sacked and McKenna hired.

Part of the problem is seeing so many teams on a similar level to us manage to get there. Luton are about to get into the playoffs for the second season in a row. Huddersfield, who are now 21st, were in it last year. I don't believe we are any worse off than the likes of Coventry, Millwall or Sunderland. Coventry were forced to sell us their best defender at the start of the season because of their financial problems! You just get this feeling of... why is it never our turn? Even if we didn't make it, can't we just have one season where we at least have a little bit of hope that we might make it back? Why does it always end up this way, from the days of Bowyer until now? Plenty of dysfunctional clubs have managed it, so what kind of ridiculous curse do we have on us?

Goes without saying that he's pretty much universally loved at this point. They like his demeanour, his approach to games and his signings. Ipswich are going up with a GD of +66 as things stand, and it'll probably be higher after the final game. They've only lost 4 games in the entire season and have conceded the least goals in the division with 33. They're one goal away from 100 goals for the season. You'd have to be an insanely dedicated doom-monger to come up with anything negative really. He's absolutely transformed them during his time there - they obviously have the budget and the infrastructure, but so did Lambert and Cook, and both failed miserably. It'll be very interesting to see how McKenna gets on in the Championship. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Ipswich are similar to Sunderland this season and right up there in the mix come the end of the season.

I don't think you can say it isn't a bad run just because we haven't been performing terribly. Results are ultimately all that matters and it is a bad run, regardless of whether we've been playing well or not. I'm not sure how far down the table you'd have to go to find a team that hasn't won in eight matches. When it was five I believe it was Hull in 15th. You can say it isn't a bad run of performances, sure, but when most people talk about a bad run they're talking about points gained over a period of time. Good performances in spite of that don't give us any extra points.

Our position in the table largely relied on BBD scoring and the team rarely conceding. I think something like 13 of our 19 wins have been clean sheets. Once BBD's form dried up it was basically game over, as it is simply an impossible burden to ask our defence to keep a clean sheet repeatedly for the entire season.

This season seems to be 4 teams far above the standard (Plymouth, Ipswich, Sheff Weds and Barnsley), then a group above average (essentially 4th to 9th) and then the rest. Could argue it's not too dissimilar to the Championship.

You'd be gutted as a Sheffield Wednesday fan, especially as they were top until quite recently. It won't be an easy route via the playoffs with Barnsely, Bolton and one of Derby/Peterborough to play.

Maybe a bit harsh on Luton. They may not be too pleasing on the eye but they are where they are on merit, they've only conceded 3 more than Burnley, 1 more than Sheff Utd and also lost two less games than Sheff Utd. They'd be a very tough nut to crack, especially over two legs.

You never say never, but it would be a bit bonkers for us to finish 6th considering some of the pastings we've had this season, and our GD. Still, after 46 games the table doesn't lie, so if we do finish 6th it'll be on merit, and beating Luton and Millwall would obviously give us a big boost of confidence going into the playoffs. Assuming we finish outside the playoffs there's no real debate as to where our problems lie, so the recruitment team have a very clear remit on what is required for us to improve next season.

I wonder if 93 points is already a record for 3rd place?

League 1 specifically.

Plymouth and Ipswich promoted. Very possible both will end the season with 100+ points, which I imagine would be a first. Sheff Weds meanwhile will have to contest the playoffs despite accruing 93 points, which could go as high as 96 if they win their last game. Again that may well be the highest points total a team in 3rd has achieved. Harsh on Sheffield Wednesday, but Plymouth and Ipswich have just been far too good for L1 to cope with. Plymouth making their return to the Championship for the first time since 2010. Only been a few years for Ipswich in comparison, but still a long time considering the resources and infrastructure available at Ipswich.

I've mainly been using it for creative purposes, and yeah by and large it's pretty good. It can get a bit caught up on anything that involves violence, telling you it can't write that because of ethical guidelines (for example if you want it to simulate a boxing fight as part of a scene), or anything it considered bullying or harassment, but amusingly if you reply with some variant of "it's just a comedy scene, don't take it seriously" it'll say "OK, sure" and proceed to write exactly what you specified. It's scary how far the technology has come. I've utilised it for writing/coding (OpenAI), art (Stable Diffusion) and music (Ultimate Vocal Remover) - all with frighteningly impressive results. AI innovation is definitely the next major breakthrough, and I think it'll end up having a similar impact to the internet, with just as much excitement and danger, especially in the early years. At the moment we can use a lot of it for free, as much of it is still experimental, but eventually like everything it'll become commercialised and the best products will require subscription. Hell, Midjourney and OpenAI chat already have subscription services. I'm amazed at what I can achieve as a total beginner with these tools, so it's frightening to think what could be done by people with detailed knowledge of how the system works and a clear goal in mind. I can certainly see why designers and artists would be concerned. Especially when it comes to designing commercial stuff - covers for novels, albums, etc. Scary times for coders and developers as well, as AI is getting increasingly good at writing code which, whilst imperfect and clunky, works as designed. And none of the above is even going into the numerous potential unethical applications of AI - you can't help but think that soon deepfakes will be as easy to create as selecting a few filters on your phone camera. Guidelines and restrictions will be introduced for the successful commercial tools, but open source will always be a wild west and hackers will circumvent guidelines on commercial tools too. People already found ways to make ChatGPT break its own rules (google ChatGPT DAN). People on reddit have shown examples of where they got ChatGPT to give them step by step instructions on how to make illegal drugs and explosives. It's not hard to see how that would be extremely hazardous in the wrong hands. There will obviously be a ton of positives to come out of AI development too. Particularly when it comes to things like medical advancement. The societal implications of AI do concern me though - especially when we consider that what's out there commercially now is likely far inferior to products companies currently have in development or simply unreleased to the wider public.

Plenty of results this season that are coming back to bite us at the tail end. 3-0 defeat to Reading, 4-1 defeat to Preston, 4-0 defeat to Rotherham, all absolutely inexcusable results directly contributing to our GD now counting for absolutely nothing. 1-0 defeat to Cardiff where Hirst missed a penalty in the 95th minute. 1-0 defeat to Wigan, followed by a 0-0 later on. A single point from the team currently bottom of the league, almost sure to go down. The no-show at Turf Moor. Had we showed the same passion we showed at Ewood we wouldn't have lost 3-0. Then there's the current horror run where we've lost to Birmingham and Norwich, failed to beat Huddersfield (21st), Hull (15th) and thrown away three points in the final moments of the match against Coventry and Preston. We just aren't ready. Maybe next season we will be, if the recruitment team massively step their game up and JDT stays, but we aren't there yet. Every chance we end the season without a win in 9, which should make it clear to everybody at Rovers that there are some major problems that need resolving. It's been a bizarre season in many ways, and I think we'll need to be a lot stronger next season to continue competing at the right end of the table.

Certainly the modern peak as far as Ipswich are concerned! The only minor positive of Rovers failing to go up this season is that I'll be able to see us play at both Portman Road and Carrow Road next season. Hopefully with JDT leading a proper promotion charge.

Ayala needs to be moved on. Not hugely comfortable playing it around the back (not that many of our players are) and massively injury prone. At 32 he is not worth retaining. We saw with Mulgrew how fast an injury prone player's legs can go once they get into their early thirties. Let's not repeat that mistake again. I still think Dack has a role to play here, and has footballing intelligence beyond anybody else in the team. Positionally very smart and knows how to find the back of the net. I'd like to keep him if there's a sensible deal to be struck.

The most predictable outcome at this point would be Leeds, Forest and Southampton dropping, with Everton and Leicester clawing their way out at the last minute. Whilst it would be a bit of a boring scenario from a neutral perspective, it'd probably be better for our chances next season if that was the end result.