After Saturday's game I started really thinking about the realities of league 1 next year, there seems to be talk amongst some that when we go down at least we will have the fun of a promotion season (I seem to remember the same things being said a couple of years ago), which got me thinking about the chances of us going straight back up. It really hit me for the first time that we could really struggle to compete financially even in league 1 with the current policy of spending absolutely nothing. We are almost certain to lose all the players out of contract, loans will all go back, leaving us with about 6 players of which I expect Mulgrew and Graham to move on. Mahoney will almost certainly reject any contract offer and I can see Lenihan moving on. Now, look at the loans we have brought in this year, they've been of a decent championship standard but not exactly been world beaters, think on the fact that next year we will be receiving loans of lesser quality. To succeed in league 1 you need the quality of players like Bradshaw, Dack and Billy Sharp to name a few, could we realistically bring any of these players in, could we heck, we couldn't even finance a deal for Bradshaw when he was looked at 18 months ago let alone now. So based on the above where are we bringing these players in who are suddenly going to fire us to promotion in a tough league?

Add Bournemouth into the list with Leicester. And P.S. it did happen to us under Kean, we are currently nursing circa 130 million of debt as a hangover from his reign.

The Leyton Orient situation is a funny one though in terms of fit and proper, the owner has put money in, loads of it, he's just wasted some of it on overpaid rubbish, however they could've turned out to be world beaters. The situation or the O's could have been very different should they have won on Penalties against Rotherham in 2014, the one saving grace for them is that Hearne put the ground into (self managed) trust when he sold the club.

The pace of the game in Italy suits Kalinic as there is more emphasis on technical ability over speed/strength, he drops into little pockets of space really well, he always did, he was just totally unsuited to Premier League football and I'd say he still is. N'Zonzi ran the show for Sevilla last night, it's interesting to listen to people like Sid Lowe and Phil Kitromidis (Spanish football experts) talk about N'Zonzi, they are just as surprised as many Rovers fans he's made such a step up as he certainly wasn't viewed as being capable of doing so when he was signed from Stoke.

I seem to remember his scoring against Chelsea and also against Lyon in our very short European adventure.

Souness took a lot of absolute no marks on loan, Hughes has his share of bad loans too. Johann Vogel was dross.

We had some real duffers during the Hodgson/Kidd period, Sebastian Perez came and went very quickly, although he did score a few goals. Souness signed his fair share of useless cloggers too, in fact Souness signed a lot of dross come to think of it. Javier De Pedro was bobbins. Yildiray Basturk getting hooked after 45 minutes. Herold Goulon looked like he had no idea how he'd got on the pitch, absolute impostor. However they would all be a marked improvement on the useless bunch we find ourselves paying to watch these days.

The issue we face with Gallagher and Emnes is that as soon as their loan period expires plenty of other clubs will be already on the phone with the green light. We wont.

We struck lucky with Gallagher, nobody expected him to contribute so many goals, Emnes has performed exactly how he has for most of his career, bright patches but in the main absent.

Rotherham and Burton are the two certs for me. Leaving one from us, Wigan and QPR. Wolves and Cardiff will spend in Jan. Ipswich will grind it out. Outside bet on Barnsley if they lose the centre half whose name escapes me and/or Houraine, Brentford if Hogan goes or gets injured and Bristol have been in reverse for a while but will spend in Jan and/or get a few decent loans in.

It also begs the question of why the MLS club that signed him are willing to let him go?

Ha ha if you look it at like that, Chris Brown was deemed better by Doncaster than Giles Barnes, I rest my case your honour!

Emnes won't be signing for us permanently, we wont match what he is on at Swansea and why would he walk away from a contract for a pay cut when he can go out on loan and get his full wage. Also, Giles Barnes is garbage, there is a reason he is playing in the MLS lets not try and convince ourselves that someone who was average in a poor Donacaster side 4 years ago is going to improve us or be some form of coup.

It's about quality, the whole package, physical fitness impacts on mental fitness. We unfortunately have been found lacking in both areas this season, we are often slow to start and tail off at the end of games. Good teams start on the front foot and score early, bad teams get caught on the hop and concede early. We are guilty of both conceding early and late.

It's not a stupid post at all, football matches last 90 minutes at least and you should be judged on the result/performance on those 90 minutes. You should aim to not concede at any point. We do concede a lot of late goals, we've also conceded a lot of early goals, the simple fact is we concede too many goals full stop and until this is addressed we will find ourselves languishing around the bottom of the table. Away at Barnsley who are in freefall and look as if they couldn't buy a win at the moment.

Matches last 90 minutes though. It would be interesting to know if my auntie would be my uncle should she have testicles. I think there are several teams currently above us on a downward spiral Brentford, Barnsley, Burton are right in it now. Forest seem to be intent on staying down there, I can see QPR falling too and an outside bet on Bristol.

I bet there has been a few fellas who've 'gotten behind' Elton, or visa versa.......................

Whilst I agree we were abysmal there are still a number of other teams with equally poor if not worse teams. The only advantage we have over them us a proven goal scorer, which could well be the deciding factor. I thought Marshall was dreadful today, not that that's a great change from when he's played as an attacker. Duffy tried hard but he characteristically made a number of errors. Henley is beyond woeful, the way he got himself square on for the first was embarrassing. Lowe was at fault for the first, giving the ball away in a dangerous area and both he and Duffy were culpable for Hoolahans as they both could have covered the space before the ball was passed to him.

I think the MK Dons missed penalty a couple of weeks ago pretty much sunk them, they look like a team with the wind kicked out of them.

Like I say, its only what I heard. Came from someone in football admin so as much chance of it being untrue as being true.

Yep, the people who were bankrolling him have decided to pull the plug. The court extension and admin dates fall into line, if they don't find a buyer they will be forced into admin and be deducted points. The FL/FA will be keen to get it settled whilst there is still a mathematical possibility of the staying up to avoid a situation like Boston/people calling foul play. I don't see why Bolton would fight it at this stage, its in their interest to take the hit now.

Most the bottom 5 play each other in the next 5 games, should get a pretty clear picture who is in the hottest water after those games. Heard today that the Holdsworth money had disappeared at Horwich, if true that could see them go into admin and a 12 point deduction, not that it makes a great deal of difference as they're pretty much relegated already.

The way we are playing and the momentum we seem to have it's not unreasonable to look at a return of 7 points from the Leeds, Ipswich and Brentford games. Brentford are on a terrible run and both Ipswich and Leeds are very inconsistent over the last 6. a 7 point return would put us on 50 points, pretty much guaranteed safety and looking up the table. I've just done a prediction table and it has us 10th with 64 points. Bolton, Charlton and MK Dons make my bottom 3 with Rotherham and Bristol escaping by 1 and 2 points respectively.

I think we are more than safe, we have a game in hand over a number of teams in and around us. Whilst Rotherham are winning games and look the team most likely of escaping there are a number of teams who seem to have gone into reverse. Brentford have dropped like a stone, Fulham look in real danger of capitulating and MK Dons and Bristol City have both been down there all season. I think MK Dons are most likely to join Charlton and Bolton, they have a tough run of fixtures over the next 5 games; Hull, Brighton, Fulham, Wolves and Rotherham. The Fulham and Rotherham games could sink them should they lose.

They still managed to put out a team with 7 or 8 established and or international players last night.