James Nursey, usually in the loop, reckons Warnock could be in at Ipswich soon. Probably too much for even him to do now with a 6+ point gap and only 11 to play but he's their best chance. Wonder if he could be persuaded to have a crack next season

It's a real odd one with Ipswich. First few months of the season they were in brilliant form. I went to their game at Accy Stanley and I think at that time they were clear at the top and unbeaten. They were terrible that day, lost, and since then have been woeful. If they hadn't had such a brilliant start they would be bottom half now. There was that odd thing around December when Lambert started having a wobbler talking about leaving and then a week later had been given a new 5 year contract. Since then they've fallen away. I wonder if the players have seen through it and aren't responding to him. Or whether Lambert has just given up now he's got a bumper deal and is waiting for the sack so he can go off on a break. I watch his interviews and they are very repetitive and uninspiring. Like he simply doesn't care and is just waiting for the inevitable sack.

So why did they sell everyone of value between 2015 and 2017? Please dont say Ffp because no other club behaved as we did and no other club was sanctioned. The suspicion therefore is the lenders in India wanted some back so instructed a fire sale. We can agree pre contract deals with players, yes. But why would we do that and commit to summer signings in January when we might get promoted which would change everything. We've never done this before and it is unlikely Mowbray will know his budget until he goes off to India. I will eat my hat if foreign players arrive in the early days of the summer window.

A move of the Leeds game was always on the cards. Anyone seriously pinning their expectations on that one being a 3pm Saturday game must not follow life in this division very closely. Leeds going for promotion? As if Sky were going to miss that one. Sort of makes a mockery of the nonsense claim from Rovers/police that the game has to be a lunchtime kick off. On the cusp of promotion there will be thousands of Loiners coming over with a day on the beer.

I think it is highly unlikely that Tosin will be back here. Both he and City will have higher things in mind than another year in his prime at a club hoping to get into the top 6 in the 2nd division. I also think we will be lucky to hold on to both Nyambe and Lenihan given their progress. Just have to hope the Bank dont want the overdraft reducing. All set with attackers - I hope not. I think major question marks hang over Brereton, Samuel and Rothwell. Graham finished at least in the managers eyes and Dack and Holtby long term career threatening injuries. How can European signings be agreed? Does Mowbray even know his budget yet? I presume you are referring to free agents but they will not have signed pre contract agreements with us. Why would we do that when we dont know what division we will be in?

Couple of hundred grand on Derrick Williams. After selling Hanley and Duffy for £10 million.

Mowbray has tried to justify what happened with Raya going and nobody coming in. I'm afraid I simply don't accept that selling our 1st choice keeper to a club like Brentford without anyone else lined up to come in is reasonable or appropriate. Mowbray can repeat excuses about the market until blue in the face. It isnt acceptable. For the manager to be talking about recruiting an entire new defence this summer is ludicrous. No matter how you want to dress it up. It is a consequence of over reliance on loans and cutting corners on those positions and is not healthy. This has been going on since 2012. The owners will not allow funds to be used on those positions. Imagine if we got up in late May and then had only a few weeks to assemble a defence ahead of a Premier League season. Madness. Likewise any hopes of going again with momentum next season to go one better hinge upon us getting early good business done and those players settling in quickly. Won't work on past evidence, when it took all summer to get Tosin in and Cunningham at the 11th hour once we found a taker for Mulgrew.

We've heard all this before. Rightly or wrongly there will be no appetite to overhaul the defence in the summer, even if by some miracle the owners authorise significant expenditure on it. Mowbray attaches a lot of weight to trust and doing his homework on players. He won't want to risk upsetting the apple cart by bringing in 2 keepers and 3-4 defenders. I expect one of the first pieces of business will be a new contract for Bell and possibly also Leutwiler.

We need a win. We aren't going to move upwards by drawing or losing and hoping our rivals all drop points. Sooner or later we need to make up the ground. We've wasted 3 good opportunities in the last week to do so, and now the requirement is to do it away from home at a ground not many teams win at. A draw is a good result if you are happy with a mid table finish. If you want promotion then 0 wins in 4 games isnt good enough.

Yeah, I didn't mean that Pulis was a bad manager, just that there appears to be little to no idea what they are doing there. To go from spending fortunes under Monk, to bringing Pulis in, then getting fed up with him and giving it to Woodgate just suggests that there is no plan.

Depends on how seriously they consider relegation to be. If it was me I'd be terrified of the prospect and I'd be prepared to take whatever emergency action necessary to try and avoid it. I'd be on the blower to Warnock in the morning giving him a big bonus and a 10 game contract for survival. It clearly isnt working there. Loyalty and patience are commendable in some circumstances but facing imminent and disastrous relegation I'd be expecting proper action. It's a bit like arguing that we might as well have stuck with Coyle in 2017. It is the duty of those running the club to take action. A fair few Middlesbrough fans are fed up with Gibson and given their recruitment over the last few years - Agnew, Monk, Pulis and Woodgate - I can see why.

Not at Championship level they don't. Sadly investment into our facilities and pitches has been more in keeping with clubs at League Two level, and the result is there for all to see.

Half the teams in the division do. Anyone above Reading can still do it, although unlikely without a winning run. That's the point of the playoffs. In February half the division will be in the race or thinking they can be with a couple of good results. Being in our position is ok but it is clear there is another step we need to take to actually get in there, never mind stay there. Sadly what I've witnessed against Brentford and Stoke doesn't give me confidence that we have that extra thing in our lockers. Can't hold a lead away from home and can't overcome the poorer sides at home are longstanding issues which have come to the surface again.

Wellens signed a new contract with Swindon. Not sure why Wellens or Robinson would leave their current jobs to join Blackpool. Swindon top of the league and Oxford with a chance of the play offs. Blackpool going nowhere. Expect they will end up going for Evatt from Barrow. Probably best just leaving it to the summer from here.

Hull looking a prime example of what happens if you sell your best players mid season and don't reinvest properly. Luckily for them they were in a decent position before the sales began but still not safe yet. Reading also looking poor again. Bowen has surpassed expectations there but that's a shocker against Wigan and suddenly a potential 11 point gap becomes 5 with Barnsley up next.

Can't have worked that religiously on it given the second of those hammerings was 10 days ago and they've also had Cardiff to play since then. The alternative is that we are too easy to predict and set up to defend against and have no plan B.

Fun fact of the day. In their previous two away games Stoke had conceded 8 goals. 4 at QPR and 4 at Derby....

I can see Middlesbrough potting Woodgate very soon and perhaps parachuting Warnock in until the summer to keep them up.

It's also a nonsense to keep harking on about how 'dominant' we are. Dominance to me is not having the majority of possession at home but producing nothing with it. Teams like Stoke will be more than happy for our midfielders and defenders to keep passing it around in circles before sending it back to the keeper whilst their banks organise and nullify our few threats. Dominance is actually making things happen and creating proper goalscoring opportunities, not being limited to a handful of mainly long range shots that the keeper deals with comfortably.

A completely predictable performance, game and result. I think all of us knew, deep down, that Stoke would be resilient and hard to break down and this team wouldn't have an answer for it. We simply don't have that extra string to our bow of being able to grind out the wins when teams make it tough for us. Lets not pretend that it is a result of injuries, lack of options or just that Stoke offered something unexpected. We had the same way back against Luton and Charlton and even going back to League One v Wimbledon and co. at Ewood. The reason that Preston are on course for the play-offs and us a mid-table finish is that they have snatched wins from these sort of games by finding a way to finish teams off at home - even if that means going direct, bullying teams or cheating. We don't do any of that, we just persist with the same slow build up play hoping that sooner or later it drops for us. It does irritate me to see people 'taking the point' or claiming there's no harm done because other results were favourable this week. I think those people need to realise that we have a chunk of points to make up to those in the top 6 and we aren't going to do that if we celebrate not losing ground on them. Next news is we'll be quaking at the prospect of tough sides in Swansea and Derby. My regular mention for the laughable Darren Bond and his performance tonight. I challenge anyone to explain to me how he could arrive at 3 minutes injury time after that second half, and sadly was all too happy to allow Stoke to slow the game down at every opportunity. Just a shame we didn't get such luxuries at Brentford when the referee was on to Walton at every goal kick to get moving. Lenihan's upcoming absence surely means Mulgrew has to at least be on the bench, yet I suspect there's more to this particular scenario than people believe. It seems the Telegraph are assisting with the propaganda that Mowbray has 'moved on' from Mulgrew but with our options he simply has to be called upon. A refusal to do so gets me thinking if there are non-footballing issues in play here, again.

It may well be tough but the sides that achieve things find ways to win when the pressure is on and there's a carrot dangling to close that gap and make a statement. Truth is that if tonight at home is the sort of fixture that causes panic and apprehension against a poor struggling albeit improved side then we are going to have a rough end to the season. The next two, Swansea and Derby, are more difficult fixtures yet we need a decent chunk of points from. Failure to win tonight puts huge pressure on those. I'd rather not be going to Derby under pressure to win, nor indeed v Leeds or WBA

Pretty sure Huddersfield (home - draw) and Sheffield Wednesday (home - win) are the only times we have come from behind to take points from a game. So 4 points.

Bristol are a bit like us in that they seem to alternate between really good patches and then terrible patches. They're on a bad one now with 3 straight defeats but to be fair they've just had Leeds away and WBA at home, prior to a tricky away game at Huddersfield so probably not crisis stations just yet for them. What i like about the table most at this moment in time is our goal difference. I can't remember the last time we were in positive double figures at this level and we are comfortably better in that department than anyone outside the top 6. It looks like a top 6 goal difference. If we can find a way to make up the 5 point shortfall we currently have that GD could count for a lot. Ever since Bowyer's days at this level we've always hovered around the 0 GD mark or been in negatives. Lovely to see a +10 at this point.

Draw ideally, failing that a Swansea win then Fulham beat Nobbers on Saturday and we beat Swansea, gaining points on everyone.

As with Hull a few weeks ago you simply won't get more than a couple of hundred turning up on the day in dreadful weather to pay £25+ to watch the game. That isnt just Rovers. Looking at games on tv tonight some terrible attendances. It was never great but Red button and expensive tickets are killing midweek games.