Exiled_Rover

Last season Brereton-Diaz was converting chances at a ridiculous rate - that's why we were successful. A solid, physically imposing back 3 helping to keep clean sheets and Brereton-Diaz scoring 20 goals in half a season (from like 30 chances!). He got injured and that was all she wrote, it was never sustainable.

Watching the replay on SKY Sports now - how that's not a red card for Simpson I've no idea (they didn't show it on the highlights and I didn't properly catch it at the ground). Disgraceful officiating, again. But they all make mistakes, right? That's why Buckley is banned for 3 games for gently bouncing the ball off a Boro player's head and Simpson can try to castrate Garrett and only pick up a yellow. Lovely stuff, EFL.

You'd see a massive difference if we had a big, goal-scoring #9. Having Gallagher as an option to come off the bench on 70 minutes would be amazing. A goal-scoring CF puts us 2-0 up against Boro at half time and allows us to win the Cardiff game 3-0. We missed some golden chances in both games.

I'd love them to ship Brereton-Diaz out for £8m and bring in 2 with the money.

I suspect Leicester will be recalling him - he's not getting a game here.

If you asked a neutral which of the midfield pair was the Liverpool loanee they wouldn't have said Morton. I feel that way when Wharton plays too - Morton must have a clause in his loan contract that states he plays when fit.

It was a very heavy pitch - was cutting up in the warm ups, which is never a good sign. That and two games in four days (with very few subs used) meant we simply ran out of steam at the end.

Ignoring the rest of the game for a moment - that last 20 minutes was a massive statement of intent from JDT to Broughton. He simply refused to put Markanday or Vale on for Brereton-Diaz or Gallagher, despite both being knackered. There can be no clearer statement that we simply NEED a striker in January as he does not trust what we have on the bench - and neither do I. As for the game itself, we bossed it until we ran out of energy. If we had that aforementioned striker that's a comfortable 3-0 win. As it is a woefully out of form Brereton-Diaz and Gallagher conspired to miss golden chances. Garrett had an absolute stormer.

Predictably Ewood is empty.

EFL predictably closing ranks.

Depends if your manager requires you to defend or not - I probably wouldn't bother tracking Nyambe back, for example, but yes I'd struggle to get past him in attack.

They can't rescind it because that's tantamount to admitting that the referee handed Boro 3 points last night. It's an old boys club, they'll rally round their mate.

So he won't be sacked then? And people question why the standard of officiating is so low in this country. Beggars belief that a guy can 'make a decision' that's so unbelievably wrong, ruining the game for 14k+ supporters, and simply turn up for work the next day without a care in the world.

I agree, red cards for all of the offenses above. Will be lovely finishing with 8 men a side for the forseeable.

I'm not happy that he was sent off and the game ruined.

The referee has to be sacked for that decision I'm afraid.

Just read the post-match comments from JDT - I'm incredibly disappointed he's not taken the fine on the chin and given the referee both barrels for deciding the game.

You do remember the summer, right? Where we bumbled around for a month and a half without a manager?

He was warming up, but didn't come back out after like the 60 minute mark - the point when you're thinking we need a CM on to replace one of the front four.

Ah so you long for the days of Mowbray then - we looked like we'd met for the first time on the car park for half of his time in charge.

The manager certainly knows it, that's why he keeps playing down talk of promotion. Did I really hear a '"go back to Sweden" chant from the BBE tonight? I definitely heard boos when Dack was rightly subbed. Baffling.

The club should take legal action against that referee - he's cost us 3 points tonight. If he referees again then the EFL aren't fit to govern the game I'm afraid.

Probably because he's realistic and has looked around the squad and thought "this isn't a promotion winning side" and sadly we don't have £30m to throw about like our neighbours to make it one. People are calling for Adam Wharton to save us - an 18 year old who can't last 70 minutes at the moment. I've no doubt he'll be brilliant in time, but like Phillips he's being managed carefully.

It's because people were burned by Mowbray's talk of a 'journey' so they're reacting in the extreme to anything that sounds similar.

Absolutely not. He can't make those runs in the PL because everyone is athletic as he is (moreso really because they're not knackered after 70 minutes like he was). His end product was also very poor. He's a very good Championship player, there's no shame in that.