Take the Dack situation in isolation and ignore all the other issues in our squad. We lost Dack v Wigan well before the transfer window opened. We knew the moment it happened that he would be out for the season, possibly longer, and that we would have to cope without our best attacking talent. I simply can't believe that we just sat back and allowed another window to pass by without any attempt to fill the Dack void, even just with a loan. Given the position we were in it seems senseless to not strengthen.

I agree, but IF we were to push for the top 6 over the next 7 games I think Derby would be the ones to fear and watch out for, more so than Cardiff, PNE or Swansea. Derby have had excellent home form all season but were hampered by dreadful away form. Now they've sorted that out they are on a roll. Always one side comes up on the rails late on. They slaughtered us at their place.

I'm most worried about Derby. After last weekend I felt Forest were within reach but now 8 points above us, we aren't overtaking them either. 6th is the limit and with Cardiff and Derby hitting fine form at the right time, along with our tough run I can't see it happening.

And they can defend, keeping plenty of clean sheets. Something we need to improve upon.

Some good managers out there ready to get to work. Mick McCarthy and Chris Hughton. Slavisa Jokanovic. Middlesbrough getting Warnock in a masterstroke. More or less guarantees survival this season and if they had any sense they'll offer him another year with a huge bonus for promotion. Promotion can be done on the cheap as he showed with Cardiff and for all Middlesbrough's problems this year he could rapidly turn it around. Never really got what the fuss is about with Johnson. Steady but unspectacular in 3 jobs. Seems to always have Bristol nearly in the top six before dropping out again. Bristol fans aren't happy with him.

We've been over this many times before. For some reason we don't invest in the keeper or defence. We haven't done since relegation despite going through 7 managers all with different styles. The result is that we can't turn to decent alternatives when struggling and players are as safe as houses even when they don't play well.

Luton and Barnsley have to be favourites for the drop but both have responded well after the break. Luton under new management and have an excellent 4 points from Preston and Swansea. Barnsley an excellent 4 points from QPR and Millwall. Both have work to do but some momentum, whereas Huddersfield, Stoke and Hull don't really have any. From a selfish point of view I'd like Stoke down as if they survive and sort themselves out they could easily challenge next season, the others probably won't.

I fear we are now embarking upon one of Mowbray's cycles. Impressive win against rivals puts us on the cusp of the playoffs. Poor defeat in a derby sets us back. I expect we will struggle against lowly Barnsley battling for their lives. Then we will play Leeds and probably play really well and get a good point or three. Around it goes on and on.

I see Warnock has sent Gestede packing after he failed to commit. Can't imagine him dishing out new deals to people just to keep them happy and not play them.

In two games against them this season we've barely had a sniff, when on both occasions a win would have put us in the top 6 (or very close to it, without checking). Bitterly disappointing but that's the story of the last two seasons. Sooner or later if we are to kick on as a club we have to learn and change. Unless we are happy to be mid table for ever more in which case the cycle can just continue. The managers who resort to the darker arts like Neil and Cook have been able to have the better of Mowbray. Mowbray won't change because he has principles which is all lovely when we play nice stuff and win but we need that extra string to our bow to get out of this league.

Gap now 9 points. I wouldn't bet much on that lasting the season on form and today's performance.

Bayes is a nob ender. He hides it well but scratch beneath the surface and it's there.

Mark Venus was sat face down staring at the floor twiddling his thumbs with 10 minutes to go. Not what I want to see.

Rather Brentford go up as it's one less long away trip next season. With Norwich, Bournemouth, Watford and West Ham looking like coming down it's going to be full of Southern clubs. Then again would like to go to their new ground if possible. Top 4 won't be caught now. 5th and 6th are the aim.

A big concern for me is that this busy fixture spell is going to see Mowbray go bananas with his chopping and changing. Fair enough it is going to be tough with so many games in quick succession but I can see Mowbray confusing himself with too many changes in an effort to keep everyone on their toes and fresh and happy. It's a fine balancing act but we've seen too many unenforced changes over the years. I suspect Evans will be wrapped up in cotton wool despite his excellent performance last week. Barnsley will be in Mowbray's mind and he'll probably have Evans down for a start there and not want to risk him twice in 4 days. Thing is with Evans despite his horrible injury and long absence he himself talked about how he managed to maintain fitness quite well as it didn't prevent him working in the gym and running. Problem was always going to be contact stuff and he coped well last week.

I think we're seeing yet more evidence of the 'two clubs' system that our esteemed owners have put in place. On the one hand we've the club down at Ewood, which includes staff, facilities and essentially has to wash its own face on the income the club can generate. Waggott is tasked with scrimping and saving, minimising overheads where possible. End result is desperation levels of fundraising and penny pinching, evident lack of investment into the ground, ever increasing ticket prices to cover it and Waggott's shameful act of denying supporters the option of refunds or compensation for missed matches. On the other hand we've Tony and the boys, who never struggle to find wriggle room on the pay-roll for contract extensions and the go ahead for all that seems to come directly from India and the owners funds. End result is we can afford another month of paying squad fillers never good enough for this division goodness knows how many more thousands of pounds yet your minimum wage or recently made redundant supporters can forget about it. Doesn't make sense but then again we are the club that finds millions under the mattress to splurge on a 19 year old from Forest yet operates on ever decreasing lines and competency due to endless cutbacks. Disappointed in Mowbray not realising how grotesque his comments are in light of Waggott's statement last week (though admittedly Mowbray won't have had any input into the season ticket fiasco.

They got away with murder last season with a disgraceful challenge on one of our players in the first few minutes that the referee didn't deal with. Presumably it was too early. Then the season before Bennett got a very soft sending off. They are a nasty side in the image of their manager and will bully and outmuscle us if we allow it. I do worry about these sort of fixtures because I don't think we've enough nastiness to deal with it at times. We'll play some nice stuff but digging deep and countering the physical side of things against teams like this is a worry. Make or break time again though. We are at the glass ceiling with in theory two of the weaker teams to play whilst direct rivals play each other. In times gone by we'd fluff it in these two then probably beat Leeds. Let's see if we've progressed or can benefit from Covid 19.

No deals will be done for external players because Waggott and Mowbray will not have the authority until India has assessed and approved the next budget. That won't happen until they go to India which won't happen until the season is finished and Venkys are willing to meet. If we get in the play offs another 3 weeks or more could be added by which time we will have lost any initiative or advantage over rivals. Same old despite freak circumstances. God help us if we did get promoted having to recruit for the Premier League with so little time.

I'd put money on him staying if he keeps them up and they ask him to stay. He can't say no. He can't give it up.

Warnock in at Middlesbrough replacing Woodgate. That's them safe then.

Credit for what? If I bought a house on the cheap, proceeded to run it into a derelict condition, never visit it, upset all the locals through my neglect, installed a succession of undesirable tenants I continued to at least pay the mortgage each month would I then expect the local community to thank me for it? I dont think anyone expects them to come to games on a regular basis. Not many foreign owners do. But once every 9 years might be nice. I'm sure if it's a choice between keep paying the bills or get the receivers in their advisors will be telling them to stick at it for now in the hope of a promotion. I always find it funny that the people who award Venkys credit for sticking around and not leaving are the same who argue nobody else is out there who would buy BRFC. Perhaps the two are linked? As we can now see, Venkys are potentially 11 games from promotion to the Premier League and the cash bonanza that comes with it. What have they done to potentially deliver that? Stumbled upon a decent manager prepared to compromise and work with their bizarre system. I suppose it depends on the individual whether you believe they've learned lessons and have become decent owners or are just as clueless and disinterested as ever, only underlings have been able to put something in place remotely workable despite them.

Yes the cut out thing was tacky and frankly bizarre. It seems someone made a late decision to make ones of the owners sat in Jack's box. Ironically Mr and Mrs Desai themselves have now sat in that box less than their cardboard cut outs have. They've only ever been to one game and sat upstairs with the directors rather than above the tunnel. All very weird. I think it is a Suhail Pasha stunt, though not sure what the idea is behind it. If it is to show their interest/commitment/one-of-us then it would be far more productive for one of them to have jumped on a plane at some point in the last 6-7 years and actually been to a game. The photos they have used are also stock photos from when they last came to Ewood - the ones of Mr and Mrs Desai you can see the blue railing in front of them from when they were sat upstairs. They haven't posed for photos. So those photos are now 8+ years old and if they had any real interest would it really have been so difficult for them to email over a few proper up to date selfies to transpose onto the cutouts. No this has Pasha's fingerprints all over it. You might notice from other pictures that he also had his photo there, albeit a few steps down from Jack Walker at the back of the players dugout area. Nothing wrong with it as it is their club and they are entitled to do as they wish. I'd actually embrace the idea if they genuinely had interest and wanted to show it with the fans but the fact they've obviously not been involved with this themselves just shows it up as something of a hollow and cheap stunt.

We will get plenty of chances to get back ahead of Cardiff, including when we go there, so not too worried about them winning. We need to focus on doing the business against bottom third teams this next 10 days.

Sky in full on Leeds drooling obsession mode. Not even trying to pretend otherwise. Horrible to listen to. I'd love it if they cocked it up again like last season but have no faith in either Fulham or Brentford being capable of catching them.

Suspect that Middlesbrough and Charlton might survive despite being dreadful by virtue of Hull's collapse. There's no way they're surviving now. Question is will either Barnsley or Luton cobble together a couple of wins to really send things crazy down there. If not then the likes of Middlesbrough, Huddersfield and Stoke may all survive through drawing odd games.