There will be a whole range of clubs after him but Scot Twine banged in 4 goals for Mk Dons at the weekend. I think he has something like 33 goals + assists for the season now at the age of 22. As it stands we wouldn't have a hope of getting him since if he's to move on I'm sure he'll have his pick of a few clubs. But he's the type of player that if we did have the club in order, with a new and attractive manager and backroom team in place quickly, we could be swooping in for him.

Mowbray talking about them performing now that the pressure has been removed. I'm pretty certain the correlation was the fact he started with the formation he's been switching too at half time every game after giving the opposition a 45 minute headstart. It's always the way with him. He's stubborn and takes a huge amount of time to switch things up bar rotating Square pegs in a certain formation. It looks as though we've left it too late. If only he'd done this a few games back. However history does say that when we finally stumble on that winning formula it is followed by a real purple patch. If and it's a massive if we can sneak into the playoffs, there is suddenly reason to have some real hope.

I'm not actually watching but all I can do is be pissed off. Its so predictable that we pull out a performance once the playoffs are basically out of reach. Nothing could be more Mowbray.

My bet is the season ends. He's still here. He'll say its in the owners hands. Still nothing. Everyone will be off on their holidays. Still nothing. Nobody will know whether we have a manager or not, including Mowbray. Then sometime late June we'll find out if there's the dreaded India trip or finally we'll get some news he's finally gone. Only for us to wait another month for a replacement to come in. I draw all of that from 12 years experience of the Venkys

I thought Atwell got every big decision correct

Mowbray is a man with a very fragile ego. He can't take criticism. He takes no accountability. Our owners are like parents who pander to this as they also don't hold him accountable. I think Mowbray genuinely does think he's an hounable guy, but a fragile ego can make you blind. And when it comes to the actual business of football. He's not very good. There are worse than him, but he's definitely below average. All exasperated by owners who never hold anybody to account and allow things to rot. If he flies to India he'll have a new contract. My hope is they ghost each other. He's arrogant enough to think he deserves better. They're spineless enough to avoid upsetting him.

It's because we're in a cycle. I'm fairly certain if a fair wind blows and a manager who sucks up to the owners comes along the money will be there again. Mowbray spaffed his lot up the wall in 2 seasons with the above mentioned transfers and some crazy contracts. We've had to downgrade to not fall foul of ffp. I'm certain that after the money saving season we've had if Mowbray was looking like the messiah he's painted himself as then he'd have decent money again in the summer. We can point to recent transfer windows as an argument we're not being backed, but that's like looking at form in isolated stints rather than ongoing trends. It can be skewed to suit an agenda. Not that, that is what you're doing, but Mowbray has been backed. He just blew his load all in one go.

Regardless of his reign as a whole. Surely 90% of the fan base is in agreement now. Mowbray out!

Exactly. It would make sense for him. A lot more money. No need to move his family. Negative being that it is disrespectful to Rovers fans. But will that be enough to influence him. With Dyche leaving this morning though Burnley do now represent somewhat of a risk, career wise.

It's one of the most frustrating things about Gallagher and about our coaching set up. Gally is a big strong bloke. If somebody just sat him down and just tried to get him to stop actually going for these long balls as headers he and we would be so much better. All he needs to do is position himself and let it hit him. Chest it, let it bounce off his thigh, anything. If that happens the balls going to be in a 5 yard radius. Graham was an expert at it. I remember somebody telling me Fellaini rarely headed the ball. When I then specifically watched him it was true. 75% of balls into him he took on his chest. What we see is Gallagher galloping across the pitch and launching himself at the long ball. Rather than it being kicked too him and him just standing his ground. This galloping leap is actually quite a hard technique to master so it's no wonder he misjudges the flight of the ball half the time. And the most frustrating thing is that on the occasions he gets it right it bonces off his head at such a pace that nobody has a clue where its going and its no good to anyone.

Well put. I agree tactics have advanced dramatically, especially at the top level. Data is obviously a huge thing in football now too and all added together it can become very easy to get completely lost in a mindfield of ideas, information, analysis and ultimately confusion. It's no coincidence we were doing pretty well when it was all fairly simple. 3 big lads at the back put their heads and boots in. We had low possession and got the ball forward quickly. When we had the ball the aim was to get up the pitch and score a goal. If you can pull it off then there is obviously a place for the fluidity you see at the top level. But there's also a place for simplicity. We've struggled against clubs that are direct. Keinan Davies, Gary Medine, Matt Godden, the Luton lads. Our battering ram plays on the wing. Physicality is a great leveler. Burnley have survived for years doing it. How many broken noses have our back 3 seen this year? Each one of them has had blood pouring out their faces in the last month or so. You can get away with it at this level even more. We've got some talented players. Keinan Davies especially. Could you imagine us if we'd loaned him in. What a difference he'd have made.

I missed the first half so can't comment on that. But what on earth is this ref playing at?

Repating myself and a few others but it's criminal that we are where we are. Injuries have had an impact but they're no excuse. For me the key impacts are as follows 1. Mowbray actively choosing not to bring in a striker in January. I'm sure he's too stubborn not to admit to his mistake, but it's the biggest of the lot. 2. The signing of Giles. He's looks a good footballer but it's played into the Mowbray handbook of cocking things up. As competition for Pickering an excellent addition. But seeing him line up in attack time and again has had a huge negative impact. It again points to stubbornness and favoritism that it keeps happening. Pickering is clearly one of Mowbrays boys. And Giles his recent signing. They both play the same position yet he wants both in the team. 3. Diaz injury. It's unfortunate, but we put all our eggs in one basket by not signing a striker. 4. The persistent use as Buckley as a false 9 and Gallagher out wide. I like Buckley. A lot. I think he's one of the best our academy has produced in a long time. But he couldn't finish his dinner. I'm certain he wasn't a false 9 in our excellent run. He took up the most advanced central position where we were out of possession as he's a good presser. But it was more fluid. As times gone on he's become more advanced and less effective. It pushes Gallagher wider which makes me want to cry. 5. Khadra missing the pen against Sheffield United. That coupled with their last minute winner. Dacky then doing the same against Bristol. As much as we've been poor. There are games in this run that we've dominated, deserved 3 points from and not seen it over the line. Some key moments have gone against us. That's on the players losing their composure. There has been an element of bad luck too. Mowbray has made baffling decisions in this run in. But he's definitely not been a lucky manager in the last few months either. 6. Post Derby mess. It seems apparent the players took over at half time against Derby. Johnson publicly ridiculed Mowbrays tactics. Wholesale changes and the manager sulked on the touchline as we turned it around. They are a young team but I do think there's some real leaders. Lenihan, Van Hecke, Dacky, Brereton. I genuinely believe after the Derby match just letting the players go and run things would have seen a surge. Mowbray has talked about letting players manage the dressing room before. That's all he needed to do. No tinkering, keep it simple. Speak to a few of those leaders and follow what they felt was needed. Instead he made himself the most important man in the club by imposing his peculiar tactics on the group in the very next game after they had dug us out a hole. What could be more demoralising and halt momentum. Those are some of the key moments for me. There are others and the odd decisions have just continued. There's been bad luck at times. But the manager has really cocked this up. There's still a chance. We're just outside the playoffs and the thing that brings me hope is our 2 goalscorers being back in Diaz and Dacky. But I don't have much hope because I think the man in the dugout is stubborn, an over thinker and overstates his own importance. Sometimes a good manager has to grab a team by the scruff of the neck and drive it in a certain direction. But they also need to know when to stand back and let the talent around them step forward. Ours doesn't recognise this.

It's all what if etc. Which is not something I usually like to go into. But if we'd scored those 2 penalties against Sheffield Utd and Bristol we'd be four points off second right now. 2 points had we somehow not chucked away the points against Coventry. It's absolutely ridiculous that we've fallen out the playoffs. I'm not sure many sides have ever fallen away as badly as we have.

Exactly this. 110 minutes was insane. I've never seen a ref willingly go so far beyond the alloted amount of added time before.

Players were doing a lot of gamesmanship at the end to waste time but that was an absolutely ridiculous amount of time added on by the ref. He had no control the entire game. Absolutely useless

This is abysmal. If Lenihan were on the pitch I'm sure he'd be close to wanting to lamp JRC. The guy just plays his own game. Our only hope is to get to half time for wholesale changes. Everyone could see this coming when the line up was announced. Its shocking

Worst signing we could have made. He's a great player but Mowbray has got it in his head he wants to play him wide right and it massively unbalances us

If he was fit he would have been on the bench against Brazil just a few days ago. After being out for a couple of months to go from completely unfit to 80 mins in just a few days to me means they definitely gambled on him

The Chile fairytale has been great. I've loved watching it. But at the end of the day it's clear he wasn't fit and they've played him for 80 minutes. That's unprofessional and it's putting their star at risk and ours too. Not only did they play him for 80 minutes but they were doing so when they needed a 3 goal swing in the Peru game, a 2 goal swing in the Colombia game and obviously for them to win their own game. There wasn't a cat in hells chance before the match let alone at half time and they still kept him on the pitch. I've enjoyed the Diaz story as much as anybody but the debacle of how they've acted in this international break needs to be observed in isolation and its completely unacceptable.

It's a complete joke. I could understand him making the bench. But if he wasn't fit enough to be in the squad a few days ago he's certainly not fit enough to be starting tonight. Chile have acted disgustingly. They should do one.

It was a freak goal. I wouldn't pin it solely on Raya. 50/50 between him and the centre back. But he's caused confusion by coming into no-man's land.

This and some bloody instructions to get Khadra and Brereton narrow as soon as we have the ball. One of the big things I've not understood with how our tactics have adapted over the season is how we've come to be playing with our wide strikers as wide as they have been. My interpretation of our formation when we were on our run was that Diaz and Khadra dropped wider and deeper when we were defending but when we had the ball, they came far narrower as we had the width from the wing backs. Half the time it now looks like we have 4 wingers when we have the ball and only Buckley scuffing chances in the middle.

I'll be interested to see where he ends up. I was raving about him pre February. It's a good analysis you've given. I'd like to see him resign, though I don't think there is a cat in hells chance that he will. But given his second half of the season form, I think he'll be pretty lucky to see a Premier League team come in for him now. You never know he might go to a relegated Burnley 😂

I've been very Pro-Mowbray like a lot of us were during our phenomenal run. I said it to a few friends of mine and a lot of people on here said it too, that they felt as though our form was down to stumbling upon something that worked and a few really good characters amongst the playing staff. I was Pro-Mowbray because he was part of the run and it was important we kept things as we were to maintain momentum. In my eyes the only real thing Mowbray had to do was not mess with it. Keep things simple, keep things ticking. Think Ranieri in Leicester's title win. Was he a tactical genius? Not at all. Something just clicked and he had the good sense to just stand back and let it flow. Here's the issue. Mowbray has always seen himself as the most important cog. It's often him vs the rest. Players know when things are working and when they are not. We were always going to have a bit of a sticky patch. All Tony had to do was bring us back to basics a little, but he's out-thought even himself. The decisions have become absolutely baffling. From not bringing a striker in, because we don't play strikers, to the persistence of tinkering and putting players out of position, the further we've gone into this death spiral. Basically he's absolutely fu**ed it. The point of no return was yesterday. Player power took control against Derby and the players won it. Tony sulked on the touchline. All he had to do, was go home, reflect, come back in and congratulate the players. Hands up and be open with them. What do you guys think is working? What isn't. I'm certain the likes of Lenihan would lay it to him straight. Things need to be simple. And then we saw that masterclass of tactics yesterday. As a player I'd be looking at my teammates thinking why. And knowing that the squad and manager were pulling in different directions. You can see the confusion in the team. And then Mowbray lays the blame at the feet of the players post match. Hands up.... Who wouldn't be seething when arriving home? Moving forwards, he's become a hinderance. I think we'd see an upturn in results if player power picked the team. There are big characters in the squad. I've been massively impressed by Lenihans leadership qualities this year. I think Mark Venus would even see a temporary upturn. It's been widely documented over the years he and Mowbray have different ideas on tactics. Even Mike Bassett would get a tune out of them. Essentially I really believe if anybody came in with a laid back approach to management and just let the players off the leash, we'd still stand a massive shot at promotion. There literally couldn't be a better time to part ways (except for a few weeks ago). It won't happen. He's here until the summer, wallowing in his own gloom because his players aren't following his befuddled tactics. Go now and the club have a huge opportunity. Stay and we're done. I don't think there even needs to be much of a short term plan. Let the men on the pitch compete and man for man I think they'd get us over the line.