Admiral Nelsen

Not going to go game by game, but I think we'll need to break the back of the points total that we'll need by the PNE game. I wouldn't like to go into back-to-back derbies, Luton and then Millwall needing more than 3/4 points. After last night I think we're just about more likely to do it than not, but it's a close run thing. All the games are big from here on in, but that Norwich game in a few weeks looks like a huge opportunity for us to put some daylight between us.

Biggest complement I can give him is that he keeps the shirt when Dack gets back fit. If you would've told me a few months ago that i) Dack would get back near his goalscoring best but that ii) Szmodics would still deserve to get picked in front of him, I wouldn't have believed you.

Did he though? Let's not forget that most of our worst spells happened during Covid, and by the time the fans could come back properly, we looked like we had a half decent chance of at least getting a play off spot. I'm sure there was a poll on here a couple of seasons back which asked if people wanted either or both of Mowbray & Waggott out, and it was literally 90-95% who wanted him gone. Obviously that's not going to be representative of all match going fans, but playing behind closed doors definitely helped shield him from any fan reaction when we were at our worst.

Very close to how I see it. By the end it was the right call for him to go. People rightly talk about the horrible form we went on from a great position last season, but it was actually the season before which changed things for me. That was the season where our squad was good enough to really have a go for the top 6, and we fell woefully short. Slightly unlucky with the injuries we picked up at centre back, but that only goes so far as an excuse. He rightly got some more credit in the bank after the unexpectedly excellent form before Christmas last year, but then the inevitable slump just felt all the worse after it. The best manager we had since Big Sam, but then again that isn't saying much at all! On JDT, I still think that there are a couple of question marks but overall I'm really excited to see what he can do with a full summer. He was always playing catch up this season, but he'll know exactly what we need to be competitive next year.

I think it's just the phrase being used differently. It's not must win in the sense of if we lose, that's effectively the season done. But yes, this looks on paper the most winnable game that we have left, and we probably need to win about half of our remaining games, so it's 100% one that we should be taking to the bank.

I think it definitely has it's uses, but the tendency for some fans (often who don't have much of a clue of how it's put together) use it as a proxy for 'were we the best team or not?' without questioning it is really annoying. When you get a situation like ours when xG has us as relegation fodder and the results show that we could get promoted, the response is always 'they must've fluked their position' instead of asking if there is something about the way that we play which means that xG isn't capturing our performance as well as it seems to do for other teams? Instead it's treated as this magic formula which measures whether you deserved to win or not (although I'm sure that clubs themselves won't look at it in that way). It's probably a bit of both in our case, because we weren't that fantastic before Christmas even though we were riding high. But equally how many games have we won this year when the opposition would've come away thinking that we've done a smash and grab on them? Only a few. The games where we've been poor, we've tended to get beat.

If we're being completely honest that was the case earlier in the season. We banked more points than our performances deserved going into the World Cup. That said, we've been very good recently, so that's where the optimism is coming from. Comfortably outplayed some of the lesser sides, but looked even more impressive in the last two against teams with much bigger wage bills. I saw someone on your message board say the first goal wins the game, and I think they're bang on. I just hope it's Rovers who get it.

To be fair, that's exactly what he's trying to do. It just so happens that instead of having a team full of generational talents, he has a squad full of average second division players. It must be so frustrating for their fans seeing their team dominate the ball every game without doing anything with it.

Happy to echo the praise for Gally over the recent weeks, but we shouldn't forget that lots of his very forgettable performances this year have come as a centre forward. He has real strengths which he has showcased well over the last few games, but he also has two or three serious flaws which hamper him as a centre forward as much as they did when he was playing further wide. It has been good to see him be more of a handful for defenders though. If he can keep that up and chip in with another 5 goals before the end of the season, he'll have contributed very well.

Yes, certainly since the 3-2 win there in the first year after promotion. Absolutely mad game which summed up the good and the bad of a Mowbray team in 90 minutes. 3-0 up and cruising and by the end of the game we were seriously lucky to come away with the three points. On reflection, we've actually got a decent record there over recent years. 3 wins out of the last 4.

Crackers indeed. I think one thing which is an important factor is that we take a very old-school Italian approach to protecting a one goal lead. Scoring the first goal then shutting up shop is something we've done plenty of this season, but that's always going to harm the number of chances you create per 90 compared to teams who don't do that. Having said that, I think the position that we were in just before the World Cup did flatter us pretty significantly. Equally, our form over recent weeks I think shows more that we're capable of being one of the better sides in the division when it all clicks, so hopefully we can cash in on our slightly fortunate first few months!

Tends to give the ball away trying things though, which you can accept if a decent number of them come off. I was concerned that he would be a bit of a flat track bully, scoring and creating against the lower teams when we're on top, but not the sort of player who you can rely upon if you want to get promoted. Let's wait and see, but the last couple of performances have really impressed me with his quality as much as his work rate.

Agree with that. It should be pretty extreme circumstances that we ever take a point before kick off in this league. Maybe once or twice a season at a push. Having said that, we probably need 4/5 wins plus a draw or two to secure a top 6 finish. A tricky looking away fixture as one of the draws is a decent result.

Im never confident playing Stoke for some reason, especially at their place. If we have aspirations of top 2 (I don't think we do, realistically) then 6 points from the next two games are probably needed to keep us in touch going into the quarter final. For the top 6, four points will put us in a very strong position going into March, so I'd not be overly disappointed with an away point here so long as we back it up with beating Reading.

We have so many games in April, we will definitely need them both before the end of the season. Having said that, if we are going into a must win game towards the back end and they're both fit, I don't think you can drop Szmodics on current form.

His performances since coming back has gone a long way to convince me that he will be money well spent. His early performances showed the could be useful enough and create/score the odd goal, but they tended to be against the poorer sides and he wasn't that great in general play. Against a Premier league team and a team that will probably be there soon, he has been brilliant. The spell yesterday before he hit the bar he was looking imperious. If he can keep those levels then we have a very good player on our hands.

If we get United at OT or Spurs away, it will literally be millions once TV money is added into the equation. Not trivial. Obviously Fleetwood at home would be nicer though!

I criticised him a couple of pages ago, but I wish I didn't now because his 15 minutes (where we barely had a kick) was such a minor part of what has been a magnificent evening. For what it's worth, I think it was probably more a lack of agility rather than a lack of application. I'm not having that a young player in his position trying to get in the side and make a name for himself wouldn't put the effort in for the final 15 mins.

You can't. We have so many games in April though that we'll be glad to have the options!

Not in the league!

Definitely need another option there. He might end up having a decent career but as things stand, we can't be having him as our only out-and-out striker after Gally.

I think it'll be interesting to see how he wants to replace BBD. Signing Thomas has really highlighted that Mowbray left us with literally zero 'proper' wingers, so I wonder if we will look to get a more creative player to start on the left alongside a goalscoring number 9? In any case, two new forwards are easily the most pressing issues. If getting the right option there takes 90% of whatever budget we have, that'd do me. Our starting options elsewhere can be good enough (albeit with more consistency needed in a few cases) so any improvement there (beyond needing extra legs to replace Morton/Ayala) is a bonus.

The injuries we're carrying means that (unlike the West Ham game) we don't have a huge amount of scope to make changes, even if we wanted to. I'd expect maybe 2 or 3 changes from QPR. Hedges & Morton could well be in for a start. Possibly bring in Pickering for JRC too. It's great to see him finally stay fit for a decent spell, but I wouldn't want to push our luck too much before the run in.

I didn't really buy this until last season, but increasingly it's hard to ignore the trend. I remember an old head of department of mine was a Cov fan. He said not long after we began our L1 season something like 'I hope you enjoy being top at Christmas and not winning a game after', or something to that effect. Took me about 4 years to realise that he was on to something!

Game of opinions! For me, his ability is definitely there. Not anywhere near the Elliot level if we're comparing him to other loans, but enough that he's already Championship standard. He has made some bad errors though, and now that Trav and Buckley are looking more like themselves then I'm glad they're in the team. The thing that winds me up the most about him will probably do him good in the long run. I remember when his error lost us the game away at Wigan, there was some talk from the club about how he is mentally strong enough to not dwell on it and carry on playing his natural game, taking risks. That's all well and good for Liverpool, but if he carries on giving chances away by overplaying (as he has done) I struggle to shake the impression that he's playing more for himself and his development and less about making sure that Rovers pick up as many points as possible. That's probably no different to lots of other youngsters who go out on loan in fairness, so it probably shows how selective you need to be when signing these sorts of players more than anything else.