Partly but I find it difficult to be critical of any player until they're playing in their natural position. Didn't Mowbray play Armstrong as a wide forward for years and we thought he was crap too? The current scenario is - key player gets injured and we just carry on as is expecting someone else to play well in an unnatural position instead of having a plan B shape wise to play to an available players' strengths. Buckley will not get you goals, we know that, we've seen it many times recently. It might look nice but he's very clearly not a goalscorer. Giles and Dolan should have been peppering Gallagher tonight in the middle at some stage to see if he could do the business. Who saw Gallagher - Buckley - Giles on the team sheet in that order and thought we would score from open play tonight? Maybe Mowbray, although I'm not sure why if he was at the previous 7 matches. It shouldn't have been left like that for so long. The manager is constantly misusing the attackers he has available and the result is over 12 hours of football without a goal from open play.

This. It's criminal and some fans still say we didn't need one even after not scoring for so long. Everyone could see that if Brereton got injured that was it. Markanday got injured and we didn't respond to that like a team in 2nd place usually would. We were a signing down at that point. Hedges wasn't the answer and I think most suspected that, he was a target for a team that wanted to avoid relegation from the Championship... not see through a promotion. The expectations changed but we didn't try to better ourselves, it was a signing that lacked ambition from the very beginning. We have a squad of players that's been completely let down by poor recruitment in January and stubborn tactics in February. It's painful to watch and has cost us 10 or 12 points.

Cameron Archer was the kind of signing we needed. We'd probably still be second now.

Our refusal to play with an ST/ CF is costing us points and has probably already cost us any hope of promotion. We've essentially tactically chosen not to score from open play in 12 hours of football. We've had a great season but the blame for those costly stats largely lies with a very stubborn manager and poor January signings. Carry on like this and there would be no point getting in the playoffs anyway.

Missing out on transfer targets isn’t a excuse it’s a failure by anyone involved particularly if you don’t move on to another target for the position that needs filling and get them! I’m absolutely sick of fans saying “but we offered x for him” or “we wanted x but he joined x instead” that is a recruitment failure no matter how they try to dress it up - unless you can say “so we got x instead”. We blew it in Jan and very naively / bizarrely didn’t think we needed to strengthen all over to get promotion.

The lack of investment in January or whoever was responsible for bringing in players that couldn't make an immediate impact on the starting 11 has let current group down. It seems to be a combination of recruitment team, manager and owners. There was a huge amount of effort tonight, it was just missing that extra bit of quality to kill it off. An extra 500,000 - £1m spent could have done it, who knows! Instead we've been left hoping the bounce goes our way in "17 cup finals" and that nobody gets injured. To get promoted you have to control it, if we go up it will be an absolute miracle - deserved by the players but completely undeserved for the not very savvy and uninterested owners. It's worth remembering we felt their current investment or lack of was going to get us relegated this season, that is the expectation with their current rate of investment in permanent singings. The players are defying the odds and this is still largely thanks to Jack Walker... but sadly the reality is that we still aren't set up right to execute or expect a promotion.

Wasn't this fee agreed based on a Rothwell sale? I think it's very kind to say the owner's are showing ambition after all recent windows. It seems to always be the bare minimum.

This miss was worse than Swansea for sure. It was a simple, simple finish and the keeper shouldn't have stood a chance. He should not be playing in that position now unfortunately and I'd consider dropping him for the next game, unless he's going to start putting his foot through the ball properly!

Our defenders are chasing opposition players deep into their half to commit fouls and pick up yellow cards. Is that discussed in training? Seems bizarre when there is no threat. It was happening a lot against Swansea too leaving the back line all over the place at times. Surely this is an alarm bell that something isn't working on the day and an extra tackler is needed in the middle i.e. Davenport or Johnson... or perhaps... a change in shape during a game Tony?

Only ourselves to blame... and the owner's of course but a terrible, terrible performance.

I think the reality is we're overachieving and being found out... it was never going to last, this is why January was so important. It's a miracle we are where we are and had to take advantage of that by spending. We didn't, end of story.

We're losing this in the middle. It was clear after the game against Hull that we desperately needed a better central midfielder imo (even with Travis back) and ideally rotate Rothwell/ Buckley. The January window was a massive opportunity missed no matter how you try to dress it. If we weren't getting a number 9 we had to get a CM.

he lethargically tries to pass everything into the net like he's in an under u18s training game. Needs to stop.

He seems to side foot most shots high and wide no matter the distance. Definitely a part of his game that needs drastic improvement and quickly. If he can figure that out he'll be some player...

I've just watched Ryan Giles cross a football for 90 minutes. Really poor tactics executed well.

It just seems very, very unusual to me that our budget wasn't increased slightly considering we're 2nd in the league. What a huge opportunity missed to get a few more permanent players in while the club was looking so attractive. I expected quite a bit more and I bet the players were hoping for it too. Hedges was a target for a team that finished 15th last year. Hope he does well but it's hardly inspiring, he was coming for free in the summer anyway. Zeefuik and Giles are good signings but not really what was needed, so that is a bit disjointed. An odd window overall given our position, and it started so positively! I would like to know who is responsible for us being totally unable to sign a striker in any transfer window, someone is hindering us (Manager? Owners? CEO? Scouts? )... Overall a 6/10. It really will be something special if we go up!

The frustration isn't at the posters for sharing the info, it's at the incompetence of the club for the infuriatingly unrealistic targets (if true). We're 2nd, plenty of players would have joined... if we can't do it now when the hell can we? 😒

Every fucking time! I'd sanction my money too if I knew it wasn't going to get spent.

Gallagher's goals this season albeit with some poor performances have decided a total of 8 points. He also got the opener in the 2-0 home win against Reading so that's 3 more you can add if you like. He's part of the reason why we are 2nd in the league. There have been times where he has contributed well defensively too. Without him and his poor first touch we'd be 8th or 9th right now, sorry if that upsets some people.

Hard to criticise his consistency when he is consistently played out of position.

It's an insulting bid but we have been asking for it.

That is 2 strikers and a CM needed. Get moving.

TIME TO SPEND VENKY'S!

It was crying out for a change or two well before the second goal. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but that's what the manager's there for. Hopefully he's learned that whatever he tried today selection wise, doesn't work.

The officials have been an absolute disgrace tonight and need calling out.