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.

Good. He was getting a sniff about a month ago, but not really enough to impress with. He might still be a flawed player, but with the injuries in his position this could be the making of him.

There's clearly something, but it might be as much his lack of defensive work/ability which is stopping him. Think how long it took for Rothwell to get in the side, could be a similar thing with Chapman. Hopefully, given our injury troubles, his not playing on Monday was because he'll be in the squad at the weekend.

Pre-Rothwell injury I was lucking my lips at those. Strong home record for a long time now and playing some very beatable sides away. With the squad as it is now, it looks tougher, but you're still 100% right to say that we need wins from them to get in the top 6. On the Bennett at 10 thing mentioned elsewhere, he played the same role against Brentford at home last season and he was MoM. Pressing everything and not letting their better footballers settle one bit. Not saying the same thing would happen this time, or that he should be anywhere near there when any one of Dack, Holtby or Rothwell are fit, but given that we're playing some decent sides and we have to deal with what we have, it might not be a bad solution.

The Holtby injury seems to force our hand a little bit. Either stick with playing the same way but relying more on youngsters, or switch tactic to playing two up top. Fulham's defence has had plenty of off days this season, so I'd be tempted to change things and bring Graham back in. We're not going to out-pass Fulham, so having his know-how and ability to give us a platform could be vital.

Keeping Tosin and Lenihan fit and playing is massive for us. We're stretched all over the pitch at the moment, but they're the ones who we miss the most when either are missing. I still think we can do it, although how we deal with February might be make or break. Even though we're stretched, we've got four games at home and the Charlton game looks winnable as far as away games go. If we can get through those games without anymore major injuries, pick up 3-4 wins and go into March with Rothwell, maybe Evans coming back in, then we have as good a chance as anyone.

Game of opinions, but I seem to remember Andrews going on loan to Ipswich when we were still in the Prem and scoring a silly number of goals. Goals aren't everything of course, but I think, but I think if we were to sign him now instead of when he looked like Ince's lapdog, he would've been seen very differently.

To be honest I'm only going off the Bristol City game, which I didn't go to, so I could be talking nonsense. Just seems to me that given the Rothwell injury, we can move Downing to the wing, Johnson in the middle and have Graham up front.

Yeah, wouldn't expect that any dealings today (or lack thereof) could possibly be affected. Even so, assuming it would be somewhere between 5-8 million, then it should significantly change the complexion of the summer. Come on Ole!

Quite right, my mistake. I'd still look to go 442 though. Perhaps Graham with Arma instead of Gally

Under normal circumstances, with their upturn in form and our injuries, a draw would be a decent result here. But we need 10 wins, so this is one we really should be going for. I'd be tempted to temporarily revert to our Bristol City approach with Gally and Armstrong up top, Johnson in the middle with Travis and Downing on the wing.

It's something he seems to try a lot, probably one of the main reasons that he's played so far on the left. No co-incidence that he hit the post so much last year, with him trying it as often as he does.

Ibe is one of those players who I only know by appearance and reputation, rather than having seen him play a lot. His goal record, apart from a brief loan at Derby a couple of years ago looks pretty dire, it has to be said. Having said that, he obviously must have something about him to get 100+ PL games when he's just turned 24. If it's him, I'd be cautiously excited, especially if it's linked to a permanent deal, although I've no clue how realistic that would be.

Some rumblings (maybe Nixon started, don't know) that Forest are after Freeman on loan. Suggests that he might be available, but then again they might be a slightly more attractive option than Rovers at present seeing as they're potentially going for the top 2.