JHRover

Really pleased and relieved with the win today. It's the fine margins that count. A scrappy, hard fought 1-0 against an awkward horrible side who we've failed to beat previously and I go to bed happy and wake up Sunday and Monday with more of a spring in my step. A drab 0-0 or defeat would have been horrendous. Credit that we kept going and ground out the win - a lot of sides have struggled to break Luton down this season and it is easy to see why, that's before you get on to their other antics to grind their way through games. But it wasn't a good display and we didn't create enough to cause them any serious problems. It seems through December and January there has been a shift in our performances because at home especially we have been consistently quite dull and low scoring in the last few months. The results speak for themselves - and they are impressive - but they are tough watching and we've relied on slender margins to scrape past the likes of Millwall, Rotherham, Barnsley and Luton. In the end I find these scrappy 1-0s just as if not more enjoyable in some ways than the hammerings against 10 men earlier in the season. Time will tell if anything has changed but I still fully expect us to now be hitting the glass ceiling again before another 4-5 game poor spell takes us back into mid-table. I desperately hope I am wrong on that because I look around and think we should be first in line ahead of Boro, Stoke, Bristol etc. to take a slot if it opens up. But it comes down to consistency and avoiding the bi-monthly death spirals that we usually have when hitting 7th and 8th and being within a win of the top 6. Saw on the BBC website they described it as 'controversial' that Luton didn't get an equaliser. Strange as I've not seen any serious suggestions that it wasn't a perfectly correct decision by the linesman. The poor TV footage isn't clear but it looks offside. I'm still concerned nonetheless that they had such an opportunity at that late stage and even more concerned by them having 3 players reacting and charging in on goal after the cross without much happening on our end. Fragile and poor - need to be more switched on than that.

And his wailing has worked. Just watching Norwich v Middlesbrough and the gormless commentators are gushing with sympathy for poor Neil and the injustice, the indefensible challenge blah blah blah. He's got them wrapped around his little finger. Not a mention of their performance.

Isn't that how the last 3 managers got their jobs?

Not sure about that. There was no mention by anyone of any options for Nyambe or Rothwell until it slipped out in a story over Xmas and it doesn't seem to have been mentioned since. Either way those don't provide much comfort. We need to work to a longer plan than just relying on clauses to buy us more time.

Well our net spend for January is probably in minus figures having sent quite a few out on loan and only brought in Braithwaite on loan so looking forward to seeing this backing of Venkys in the next 2 days. I see Mowbray is communicating with India and getting himself out of the firing line with his Joe Rothwell comments. Strikes me that there has been little to no progress on that front, with Mowbray basically repeating what he came out with in September, October and November but now adding that Rothwell is a Premier League player in waiting. He knows he's set to leave for nothing soon and what a fiasco that will be for the club. Putting the ball in Venky's court to get it sorted. Expect this will carry on and on and on.

How have Reading gone from relegation battlers to automatic promotion contenders in a matter of a few months during Covid, a short summer and without substantial spending? Answers on a postcard for Mowbray to be delivered next time he starts bleating about budgets or slow builds.

All of what you say is correct. But much easier just to believe Southampton are a far bigger and better club and leave it at that.

The issues affecting Preston are similar to those here - a substantial number of their first team players out of contract soon - and they are taking steps to address part of that now. We can only hope that a decent portion of our out of contract players sign up to new deals because without we are going to have to do a hell of a lot of work in the summer and it will cost a lot of money to do it.

That was supposed to be the case at their place in the summer but once they had the lead all the staff who put the balls out for the players to collect vanished. Suspect we are too nice for such tactics but we need to become nasty. Jones is one of the worst.

I hope Mowbray and the coaching staff are drilling our ball boys to go and hide if we are winning. That's what Luton did at their place which wasted minutes of the game, got them 3 points which kept them up and saw David Lowe lose his rag. If we have a lead and I see balls being thrown on quickly I am going to be very unhappy.

Could, would, should. That's how it has been for 3 years yet we've never actually done it or stayed there for any time. It's not over yet this manager has repeatedly shown he can't do it so unless something radical changes in the next few weeks there's no point getting worked up about it. I predict 4-5 points from the next 3 to keep us ticking over but not making serious headway and then 3-4 defeats through February to take us away again.

Makes you wonder why Cardiff, struggling at the moment and in the bottom half, are allowing Cunningham out to a rival mid-table side, especially having just changed manager. You'd think McCarthy would want a look at him unless he's already made his mind up after a few days on the training ground.

If the plan is to spend £2 million on the pitch, and that's a big if, then that is very impressive indeed. With sort of outlay I would expect to end up with the best pitch in England. A desso pitch, which are standard bearers these days, usually cost in the region of £1 million or so, so almost double that is very significant. Unless the £2 million applies to all the pitches including the academy and training ground in which case it ends up more like £200,000 per pitch if evenly divided. As I say, I'll believe it when I see it.

Did anyone else pick up on the big news let slip by the commentator on Sky Sports yesterday? They mentioned that we had been having problems with our pitch this season but that this summer we would be ripping it up and replacing it at a cost of £2 million. Impressive that they've identified the issue and agreed on such a significant outlay in the space of 4 days. Or maybe it is just more bull to try and keep people quiet for a few months. I'll believe it when I see it.

I think Kappa have all but disappeared from English football at present. I know they did Leeds a couple of years ago and Portsmouth and they were nice kits, think Villa have them now but that's about it. Hummel have significantly increased their club and operation over the last 3-4 years and now do quite a few clubs - Everton, Middlesbrough, Coventry, Bristol City, Cambridge, Southend - I think they've really pushed the boat out on effort in their designs - Coventry have had some really nice ones especially. Macron do Forest, Bolton, Bristol Rovers, Reading - quite nice - the Italian manufacturers tend to be good. Always liked the Southampton Under Armour ones but they don't seem to have much of a foothold in England at the moment.

Sounds like we are back to the good old days then. Distant owners not communicating. Representative making decisions apart from the manager. CEO and manager being bypassed. The Mowbray side with him, Venus and Waggott then the other side with Pasha, Silvester and presumably Lowe. Wouldn't surprise me but if true I would expect Mowbray to resign in the near future.

Warnock reckons it 'endangered the life of the player' and after that the result was irrelevant. He's good at it, I'll give him that.

First half dreadful, and relieved to get to half time at 0-0. I thought second half we improved as it wore on and after scoring we were the better side and started to threaten more on the counter. Once we got 1-0 up they seemed to have no answer to get back into it other than to launch balls into our box and we dealt with it pretty well. A good win and I'm always delighted with the 0-1 narrow wins. Middlesbrough are rubbish but well organised and managed which is why they are above us in the table. Sky, due to having nothing else to talk about, massively exaggerate the penalty 'incident' reading rules out and analyzing it in minute detail to make it more controversial and to justify Rosenior and Monk's punditry fees. Warnock the master of diverting attention away from his team and defeat and putting the spotlight either onto the opposition or the referee. He's managed it again and the media all fall for it. Mowbray's going nowhere so we'll just have to get on with it. I don't think anything has really changed but a win against one of the top 7 is a welcome boost. Very satisfying to be the subject of opposition and media ire and anger rather than pats on the back for turning up and playing nice stuff but getting beat.

I won't be happy with mid table in the Championship no. I won't be happy with wasting years making the same old mistakes rather than learning from them and making efforts to get promoted. We might not get promotion because it is tough but that doesn't mean I should be happy to be here or accept the attempts to diminish expectations and make out like we are lucky to be in the same league as Middlesbrough and Stoke. Does that make me entitled or never happy? I dont think so. I just expect better and want better and won't accept excuses from a failing manager. This club is capable of better and unless we demand better we won't achieve it. The day we accept mid table as good or 'our level' then promotion can be forgotten about.

Mowbray attempting to further ingratiate himself with the owners by publicly thanking them for their help and support in agreeing to sanction a move for Branthwaite, despite all the budget being spent for the season. How ridiculous. Any guesses for what we are paying a week to help develop Everton's player? If the Tom Trybull figures from Rich Sharpe are correct then I expect a few grand a week at the most. We've probably saved more by sending Harry Chapman to Shrewsbury than it has cost us to bring Branthwaite in. It's a six month loan. No transfer fee, no contract, no substantial commitment yet he's going out of his way to hail our great owners for their backing. I hope/suspect he's feeling real pressure here having got us into this mess by wasting his resources and ending up with yet again a patched up injury riddled defence and knowing he has had to get a big favour from India to allow this. If the club is really so hard up that we are struggling even to bring in a short term loan of a teenager without having to hail Venkys for their help we are in a worse mess than I thought. As predicted though Mowbray dangling the prospect of another defensive addition off the back of the Branthwaite deal has now gone silent. Amazing how this keeps happening.

I very much doubt there will be any serious forward planning or succession plan in place even if Waggott is leaving the club in the summer. As far as I'm concerned him and Mowbray should be sacked at the same time and replaced with much better as I don't think Waggott has done a good job in any sense of the word in his 3 years + at the club. Do you think he has done a good job and if so in what way? As for succession as it was Mowbray who got the owners to bring Waggott in who he knew from Coventry I very much doubt Venkys are poring through CVs as we speak identifying a suitable replacement. They'll just sit and wait for applications to come in then either promote from within or just abolish the job (we had no CEO from 2011-17).

I think McCarthy would fit Cardiff like a glove. Last two managers Warnock and Harris both of which use similar styles to McCarthy. They aren't a side or squad used to playing pretty passing football. A very shrewd appointment. He's in the bracket with Warnock, Hughton and Bruce where everywhere he goes in the Championship he will quickly organise and improve teams even on a tight budget. Sort the defence out and go from there. What he could do with our squad plus a couple of reliable defenders. Would be ideal for us but sadly we think we're a mini Barcelona with a manager incapable of getting it to work. So instead we go around in circles asking 'who would we replace him with?' Well there's one name going elsewhere.

Definitely release Mulgrew, Downing, Bell and Bennett. I would prioritise new deals for Nyambe, Rothwell and Rankin Costello The middle bracket consists of Holtby, Johnson and Evans. I'm not sold on any of them and don't think it would be disastrous to lose them for nothing as it would Nyambe or JRC. Holtby and Evans obviously have fitness issues which prevent getting close to a full season out of either BUT I do think that when fit and playing both have something to offer. I would keep both under review. Holtby I think will be wanting out - seems he divides his time between here and Germany and has a wife and child out there so can't see this being a long term arrangement. Evans I still come back to his partnership with Travis in the first half of last season. It really worked for us. I also sympathise with his horror head injury last season. But the reality is since then he just hasn't been able to get a run of games going and he needs to quickly to earn a stay here. If he does I think he's worth keeping. Strangely all very quiet with his injury after 2 months out. I half wonder has he had word from Mowbray or decided he's moving on and as such is just coasting through the final year. Williams has clearly had a fall out of sorts with Mowbray presumably after our failed attempts to sell him last summer. He won't be staying unless a new manager comes in and asks him to stay. Probably end up somewhere like Cardiff under McCarthy who can get more out of him.

Waggott must have had well over £1 million out of the club over the last 3 years. Can anyone identify what improvements he has delivered to the club? It seems he has little to no input in the football operations, which are managed by Mowbray and budgeted for from India. He may be a good administrator, but that salary seems excessive for that alone. Has he improved attendances, ticket sales, commercial performance, facilities? I suspect whatever improvements there have been probably amount to less than his salary. As for ticketing and commercial policies those leave a lot to be desired. He's reduced our already diminished fanbase. As I've said before we need better - someone who actually has a track record of delivering growth and development in professional sports. Cast the net wide. At £300,000 a year we should be able to scour America and Europe for top drawer executives with ambition and know how of how to grow clubs and numbers. Instead we've got Mowbray's mate counting down the days to retirement and experienced at basket case lower division clubs Charlton and Coventry. All very strange but this club could and should be doing much better. Hopefully the two come as a package and we get a much needed upgrade in both departments. I see Mick McCarthy favourite for Cardiff. There's another obvious and sensible manager who is a better manager than Mowbray will ever be. Results will prove it so. "But who would we get to replace him"?

Brace yourselves for the pre-match drivel about what a massive, great, titanic club Middlesbrough are and how Warnock has had loads of money to spend there to get them into top 6 chasers (all B.S.) They had a setback recently at home v Birmingham who are garbage but had a couple of decent away results. I expect it will be a narrow and low scoring game one way or the other. I honestly wouldn't be surprised with a 0-0 or 1-1. If they take the lead we'll struggle to get anything.