3 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

That fact that we splurged potentially up to £12m on 2 strikers only to then decide that we want to play a brand of football that requires we play with none should be reason enough for TM to be handed his P45 at the end of the season. Absolute madness.

Laughed at this. If I didn't I'd probably be crying on the floor. What a mess. You genuinely never know what'll happen next with Rovers these days. 

Looking better, which is something I guess. Shown more in this 5 minutes than we have in the previous 45.

Anyway, iFollow has been particularly awful tonight with the visuals. Showing unremarkable replays over and over whilst you can hear the match carrying on on the audio. Missed the Millwall goal and had that corner gone in we'd have missed that too. Not expecting the world from it but bloody hell it's so amateurish at times.

4 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Currently Millwall are joint 6th.

Absolute crap this.

Have we even had a shot yet ?

Was thinking this, just Arma's shot inside the first few minutes is all I recall.

Been completely outclassed in the few minutes leading up to that goal. Got a nice audio commentary of it though whilst iFollow showed about 15 replays of a replay...

What a goal Arma!

That was fun while it lasted.

Got lucky there, how many chances did we need to clear that?

Just a thought - maybe we are continuing to play Walton as we intend on having him back next year... 

Bennett, Rothwell, Holtby and Gallagher out for JRC, Downing, Samuel and Graham... What did I say, same revolving door of players. Right players were dropped at least, sadly all bar JRC were the wrong ones to bring in!

Just now, roversfan99 said:

I think its all about ensuring that there is a semblence of balance too. The objective has to be to see if the younger players closest to the first team are capable of not even necessarily being first team starters next year but reducing where possible the amount of surgery on the squad that I suspect is necessary but financially impossible.

Rankin Costello is a perfect example. Hes often name dropped as one of the main youngsters breaking through and his natural position is where we are very weak. Theres no point playing him at left back and theres no point giving him 20 minutes at the end. Give him the last 5 games starting on that left wing. Likewise, start Chapman on the right. Theres no point giving him 10 minutes when we are 2 down and down to 10 men. I dont see any players in our squad that are competent wide, so if either or even both impress it could lessen the pressure of summer recruitment. Davenport is being dripped fed quarter of an hour cameos, what use is that? Sadly we can expect Gallagher and Johnson bumbling around ineffectively in those positions.

To give these a chance though it should be within the framework of our main players around them. You cant expect to throw too many kids in together and put in a a competitive performance against an in form Championship side.

People have mentioned players like Vale and Carter and theres definitely scope to have them on a 9 man bench rather than players like Samuel and Smallwood who should be about to leave, as well as Mulgrew and Bennett who we know arent up to it. But its not constructive to stick them all in at once.

Agreed, probably should have clarified before I still want our skeleton of Nyambe / Lenihan / Tosin - Travis - Arma present by and large, just the usual suspects rightfully dropped and, instead of being replaced by more filler or dodgy formation changes, replaced by actual lads hungry to prove themselves. It won't be good for either anyone concerned if we essentially field the u23 squad.

Still not sure how I feel about Holtby - expected big things when he signed but he seems to have spent most of the time injured or having very brief flashes of brilliance (which is sadly wasted by and large because of the people he leads the line with!).

Once again, absolute piss.

I will be honest I only kept half an eye on the game after their third goal, we all knew it was just going to fade into nothing, so I'm not going to pass comment directly on Buckley, Davenport etc who came on essentially for the sake of it.

The whole thing honestly struck me as a Firsts v. Reserves game you'd have on the training ground. Dull, uninspired, sort of a general aura of 'we're not meant to win anyway'. No Rovers player comes away from today looking good, the best you can say for most of them is that they aren't Gallagher, Johnson or Walton. Leeds, though they didn't look like world beaters, completely played us off the park today. As much as some of their antics annoyed me (how I would loved to have seen Bamford up against Andy Todd), we had no response.

The game all hinged on that Gallagher chance just after Leeds went one up. There is no excuse at all for scoring that. The whole SG situation used to humour me more than anything, now it just pisses me off. The fact that we paid £5M and that he still features is an absolute scandal.  

I think the most telling thing today was when Arma got us back into it. The camera panned to Mowbray who was just sat there like he was in a waiting room or something. With a man like that leading you you can well understand why the journeymen and almost mercenaries in the squad don't look arsed half the time. All hell should break lose after our dismal week, but we all know nowt will happen. It's a disgrace.

Couple of other quick points:

- Sadly no point in wishing Walton was dismissed to force Mowbray's hand: we'd only end up with Canadian Buffon and not a youngster.

- As much as I like the iFollow commentators, they really need to stop being so blindly optimistic. More chance of us going down than reaching the play offs now. Tuesday's a must win for Cardiff, aye, doesn't make the slightest difference for us now.

Fair play, good finish. Think that's it.

Can only wonder what might have been if Gallagher could play football...

Just now, K-Hod said:

Not sure if anyone else can see this, but I keep getting a series of numbers rolling across different parts of the screen.

Like I’m looking at the matrix...

Happens every time. Disappears after a while.

Given what our form and consistency is like I fully expect us to reappear for this one and the two games thereafter. Not expecting a result mind, narrow defeat for me. Play anything like the last two games and it could be painful though.

Lenihan back in, shift Mulgrew or Downing to left back, and bring back Travis but only if he is genuinely ready. Would suggest things for up top but there's more chance of Elvis turning up than there is of us changing that system. Will be interested to see what Mowbray does 60 minutes in when he can't do his usual direct swap of the front three he seems to have favoured since the restart. Will probably end up with Buckley leading the line flanked by Arma and Graham or something.

The EFL have said the 12 point deduction will only be applied after the season is finished. If they finish outside the relegation places, it will then be applied. If the finish in the relegation places, it'll apply from next season and they'll start on -12 in League 1.

Basically they have to finish 13 points (or 12 with superior GD) clear of 22nd to ensure safety.

What?

This has got all the makings of Wigan - will be 2-0 before it's 1-1. We're being had here.

I honestly don't have words for Samuel, how many chances does he need?

I'm sure we've done Bennett throw in to Mulgrew, pass back to Walton, launch it and lose it about ten times so far.

Starting to get into this mind, decent couple of chances for Armstrong.

Well, dropping Gallagher is a start I guess.

Feel sorry for Brereton, he's looked like a different player since the restart. Great way to harness the confidence he must have gotten of late... Doubt there'll be an easier game on paper this season to score in either.