3 minutes ago, JohnD said:

poor

no

no

Bit harsh, we grew into the game as the half went along. We restricted QPR to just the one shot, which hit the crossbar. Some good linkup play was being developed toward the end of the half.

The major disappointment was Buckley, who is very lucky not to have been sent off. That would have changed the game and we'd have been up against it if he had. He needs to mature as a footballer...and fast. 

We go in 1-0 at half time. Can't complain about that!

That goal seems to have given the lads a bit of confidence. Suddenly trying much more ambitious balls, going on the attack. 

5 minutes ago, Blackpool_Rover said:

On mine yes but QPR is the same issue

How do you get the QPR commentary on? 

Travis..goal!!!!

I wouldn't be surprised if a big part of it is just fancying a change. He's been with us over a decade, it's natural to want to freshen things up at some stage. With the management team leaving, it probably seems like a good time for him to leave too.

He was a good player for us, nowhere near great. No hard feelings and good luck to him, just not when playing against us.

On 10/04/2022 at 16:54, JHRover said:

Tony Mowbray will be our manager next year, provided he wants to be. Little doubt in my mind on that and I will be surprised if he isn't.

What happens now is that we get through the next 5 games with no news or announcement. A couple of weeks after the season is over and Mowbray has been on holiday we find out when he is going to India with Waggott.

They go, we hear nothing for another week or two, and then at some point in early June they confirm he is staying on, references to the 'young team' and going ever so close this season and building on that. It will all be about how the owners have reaffirmed their commitment and are determined to keep building.

By this point everyone else has another major head start, made worse by the shortened summer break and early start to the next season.

 

Something to look forward to this summer! What on earth happened to our once-proud club...

7 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That’s what I don’t understand. If they’ve decided he’s going why waste the rest of the season on him ? 

Mowbray leaving is speculation. The Venktards are as likely to give him another contract as to pot him. Knowing what they've been like with us, there's more chance they haven't a clue what they'll do than they do. 

2 minutes ago, lraC said:

If I didn't know any better, i would think he was setting us up to lose and not score in some of those games.

I had hoped this sort of thing was over, after the strangest game I had ever witnessed (away at Spurs) suggested to me that we were being duped as fans.

Perhaps it is total incompetence with Mowbray, but I can help but feel suspicious about what goes on at times.

His comment to the BBC over the weekend were bizarre, in the extreme.

It's certainly felt like strange things happen regularly at our club since 2010.

People seem ready to believe Mowbray when he says Venky's would have given him the funds for another attacker but he wasn't interested. Really? Surely he's clever enough to know never to bite the hand that feeds him. Better to say that then say the bosses wouldn't give him any more money. Why care what the fans think, if him taking the blame for that will make him look good in Pune?

We've blown our best chance of getting back to the Prem since we relegated through sheer ownership incompetence. Does anyone except the fans care?

Outfought and out-thought by Ince. Take away that second-half against Derby and we've barely scored at all in 2022. I'd love to be proven wrong but we've been here time and time again. He can't stop a Death Spiral until we've nothing left to play. 

If we fall outside the play-offs, then he has to go in the summer.  It'd be a massive failure over a six-month period to consolidate on the best position we've been in for over a decade.

This was his big chance under us, it's looking like we've blown it... 

Just now, dallydally said:

No. He is a donkey! End of

Donkeys are useful!

He might be a donkey but here's our donkey so play him in as a number 9, Tony!!!

2 minutes ago, J*B said:

I’m telling you he’s not a 5m pound player but if he’s played down the middle and you put crosses in he will score 10-15 a season. 

It's been said time after time but Mowbray sticks him on the wing.

Get him as the number 9 next game! No more false 9 crap...

Thank god Dack's coming back just at the right time to save our season.

Gally a real handful when played up front. He might be as graceful as a pissed-up donkey but he unsettles them by his very presence. Gally up front frees space for Dack, Dolan, Khadra and Rothwell to exploit.

It's not rocket science Tony, so stop this false 9 crap with Buckley and Johnson....

He's Van Hecke of a player that Paul!

8 minutes ago, rigger said:

Playing in that wide forward position, I think Sam Burns would be a better option than Gally. Shame that he was allowed to go out on loan.

I think George Burns would be better in that position...

and he died in 1996. 

14 hours ago, rigger said:

Gallys problem seems to be, that when our midfield get good control of the ball, his first instinct is to go towards the ball instead of towards the box. He should be being told to let the midfield do their job, and get in the danger area. I thought the team as a whole played fairly well. Bring on Brizzle.

He should be told to stop looking for the ball. Just stay up front. By his very position, he'll force at least one opposition centre back to stay near him, opening up space for the rest of the attackers to exploit.

Not having someone staying up front is making it easy (game AFTER game) to defend against us. We're not giving them anything to have to think about.

Either play Gally up front as a striker, or don't play him at all. He offers us nothing on the wing. 

4 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Much ado about nothing-nothing

Best chance of promotion in 10 years blown

It's a Shakespearean tragedy

Much Ado about Nothing is a comedy. Which I think sums up our farcical attempts to score!!

If the teams below us win their game in hand, we'll be in eighth...

Gallagher up front in the centre, please. We need some kind of presence there. Even when not playing well, it means their defence has something to keep them occupied and Giles has someone to aim toward. It might just need a ball falling off him that lands well for us to get a goal...and not many goals may be needed to win this one. 

8 hours ago, rigger said:

Our excellent season has been mainly down to the way we have defended, but the Swansea goal yesterday was criminal. With 3 centerhalves playing, how is the only attacker in the box allowed a free header. Anyway, we are still second, so bring on Forest.

It's because two of our centre halves went AWOL. Zeefuik hardly covered himself in glory, but you can see that his man to cover was on the right, yet there was only one centre half back to cover two Swansea players in the middle. The goal was down to the lack of our back three defending together. 

While the central defenders have been doing well, it's still the case that none of them are as good as Ayala, plus isn't his strength in organising those around him? A bit of rotation might be called for on Wednesday. 

Feels like we've thrown away a great chance to real put a marker on this promotion challenge, move four points clear of third and force those behind us to get something from their games in hand to stay in touch. Instead, we threw away a glorious chance (with glorious chances) to really put down a marker. Suddenly, 1 win in 4 games means we're under pressure. One point from three away games in Hull, Luton and Swansea...that's not what is needed for a play-off spot, never mind the automatic places!

We're now going to watch Bournemouth and QPR overtake us. WBA have serial championship promotion specialist Steve Bruce who knows how to get out of this division more than any other manger (or at least...equal with Neil Warnock as they hold the record for four promotions from this league). Will we be able to turn this mini-slump around or will it see us instead battling instead for the 6th place...with a resurgent Middlesbrough and Forest??

Suddenly...Wednesday now feels like a must-win game. We need our best players starting again and we need to show that we're not just going to slide down the table while watching the likes of our next opponents overtake us. 

The JRC substitution seemed to drain us off any kind of momentum for a while. 

We're so bad at coming back from behind that we might as well bring out the deckchairs and allow the lads to have a snooze to rest them for the next game when we concede. We'd end up with the same points at the end tof the game!

The crazy thing is that we really didn't look like scoring for long periods of the game, yet still managed to miss a few of the easiest chances we're going to get this season...

56 minutes ago, garnersfags said:

I don't believe we were unlucky tonight. 

No, we weren't unlucky. Missing incredibly good chances is not bad luck, it's incompetence. 

3 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

If Buckley and Lenihan are the guys we supply those chances to, we are going to miss a whole lot more.

Those were so easy that no professional footballer has any excuse not to score...