Agree that his best position doesn't appear obvious, but I wouldn't say that's because it looks particularly unsuited to playing in various positions. He reminds me a bit of Ben Marshall in his versatility & seeming lack of pace, but the only thing stopping Marshall being a brilliant player was his head. The fact that he's been tried in so many positions should, if anything, just be taken as a sign of his natural talent in my view. Not too dissimilar to Bentley, he might be a few seasons into his career before he really nails down a position.

He was interviewed about that on 'Quickly Kevin Will He Score?' (an excellent 90s football podcast) a few months ago. Apparently, there was an agreement with the England squad that if anyone scored a Golden Goal, the whole team would have run straight into the tunnel without celebrating the goal. Amazing to think how different football folklore could be based on such tiny margins.

Lenihan booked!

Little harsh on Samuel. Thought he fairly ineffective as an outball against Brentford, but that was a tough game and he did well in his previous two. In any case, I'm seriously bloody nervous now. Don't care how we win, so long as we do. COYB!

I know the score was only 2-1, but by all accounts they were battered against Hudds too. A team not exactly on blinding form themselves.

Lovely set of fixtures, that. Either drags them into a very catchable position or harms several of our other rivals. Possibly even both.

To a point it's poor, but it also suggests how much time we've actually spent behind in games this season, certainly in recent months.Since losing to Forest on New Years Day, the only time we've spent behind were the 25 minutes against Fulham. You're much less likely to come from behind to win points if you spend less time losing! Equally, if you play in such a way that you come out of the traps quickly and score the most early goals in the league, you're a team that is in more winning positions to begin with, so are much more likely to lose more points from these positions. Not saying the stats are meaningless either, or that we should be satisfied with them, but they are stats which are heavily context dependent.

You get silly results in this league. I think if we end up a couple of points behind PNE come the final whistle next Saturday, we're all licking our lips, even if it comes from drawing one of our next two.

No idea how to feel about that. Disappointed not to win from 2 up, but equally Brentford played well, were at home, and relied on a dive and goal of the season contender to draw. Would have taken the draw before kick off, the challenge is turning this into at least a 5, preferably 7 point week.

I've been, and may continue to be a Bell critic, but that was a very good 45 from him. I thought Buckley showed on maybe 3 occasions that he has the ability and vision to make him an exciting prospect. That said, this game may be dictated by how well we can perform out of possession. Would be surprised if he makes it through the 90.

Looking at Fulham at Ewood and now tonight, it's obvious that they have some very tidy players who can keep the ball, but if they lose Mitrovic then they're sitting ducks in the play offs for me.

We'll probably only know in a few weeks, but I'd say so. Really interesting one, as if we assume that we put the sort of form together that could get us to around 6th, then Fulham are on the cusp of being catchable, but equally we're just about catchable for an improving Derby. Given that we've got Derby away in a few weeks and potentially could face Fulham in the play offs, the best outcome is probably them kicking each other off the park!

I think the issue was more that he didn't come for crosses, rather than making that many mistakes when he did. He made a few like you say, but I think the extra demands that are placed on our defenders was seen as the bigger issue.

You may be right, but all I'd say to that is that lucky men don't tend to stay lucky forever. After a while the law of averages kicks in, and then it's only right to judge a manager on his record in those circumstances.

Duff yes, but as much as I love Matty I'd rate Bellamy higher. For the season he was with us I'd even put him slightly higher than Benni and Santa Cruz

I'm not sure I'd even go as far as that. The carrot for winning is massive, no doubt about that. But we can probably lose 3 or 4 of our remaining games and still have a good chance of finishing 6th. If we're edged out in our hardest looking away game, we live to fight another day.

I don't think these ideas are necessarily contradictory. Look at Brentford, they continually invest in good young project players and implement principles about how to play etc whilst occasionally selling the crown jewels for big money, then reinvest. You could argue this was the Hughes model when he was at Rovers.

More I think about it, the more this week coming looks quite a lot like the one a fortnight ago. A 3 game week, starting with a very tough fixture before a very winnable mid-week home game, before a tricky game to round it off. Like last time, 6 points from 9 represents a successful week as I see it. Brentford away is as hard a game on paper as we have left, so not a must win by any stretch in my view. It does mean that the pressure is heaped on the Stoke & especially Swansea games though. If we do win, then I'll believe for the first time that we're actually going to get in there this year and not fall just short.

Take that result in a heartbeat. I've a feeling that we'll put in a decent performance but be edged out 2-1. Obviously hope I'm wrong, but on paper this looks like it may be the hardest game we have left. Apparently Jensen went off injured for them on Saturday. Meant to be an important cog in their machine, hopefully means they won't be at their most fluent.

Enigma certainly. Wouldn't call the boy average though. Clearly has the talent to hurt teams, the next level for him is finding consistency.

Last season fair enough. I still think there's a meaningful difference between a manager too loyal to players and one giving a promoted side a crack of the whip to begin with though. I'd take issue with a few other things too, Mulgrew may have started our first game but his being sidelined was clearly on the cards. Travis started alongside Richie at Sheff U too, so he was close to breaking through. In the main though, judging off this season alone, TM has been pretty ruthless with the players who were meant to be his pals. Even Benno, who gets far too much grief from some who have short memories imo, hasn't been starting recently. Basically, there are fair criticisms of Mowbray, but I think there are a couple of red herrings which people often use and I think this is one of them.

Not sure that's true actually. Who would we put in that category? Smallwood's not had a look in all season. Mulgrew the same. Williams has barely played all year. I have criticised Evans plenty, but this season he has thoroughly deserved his spot. Like others, I would've preferred to see Nyambe replace Bennett earlier than he did, but I think the Mowbray plays his mates idea has always been a bit of a myth to be honest.

Agree with this. A win makes it a good week despite losing to Fulham. Anything less is disappointing, but we still live to fight another day, even if it looks very tricky.

Before the Fulham game I thought we would've needed 6 points from this week to keep us in touch. I was really deflated after the game for that reason, but after yesterday I still think it's possible. The Brentford game aside, we've got plenty of winnable games before the end of the season. Charlton, Wigan, Barnsley & Luton away, and we know that we're strong at home. In my heart of hearts, I think we'll probably finish just outside, which I'd see as progress and sets us up for a pivotal summer in the transfer market.

Swallows, summers etc. But if a 20 year old from the academy made his debut yesterday with that performance, we'd be going mad. Not defending the money spent at all, but it's fair to say that at his age, most players are only emerging to be first teamers. His touch still looked very heavy, but very much improved from anything we've seen from him. Just hope he manages to kick on until the end of the season.