Also highlights what I thought I saw which was how few touches Dack had after his goal.

Anatomy of a fuck up. 1) As the cross is hit, no danger whatsoever: small bloke at back post tightly marked 2) Uh-ohh…Gallagher, as ever, back on his heels and slow to react to a ball that should’ve been his. Nyambe, who had been ball-watching, gets barged when he should’ve been the one barging, injury or not. 3) It’s all over: Gallagher a useless spectator, Nyambe falling over, no idea where the ball is 4) The one determined player involved gets his just rewards.

We’ve never looked solid with a back 4, and I believe that’s due to the gaping hole in front of them that is Joe Rothwell, who does nothing defensively. Travis can’t be everywhere, though he tries to be. Rothwell should’ve been where the guy who put the cross in was but miles away as usual. Then, not for the first time, Nyambe gets done at the back post, nowhere near getting a strong challenge in. My Hail Mary for the last six games is 4-3-3: Whoever is fit in the back 4, Travis Johnson and Buckley in the middle; Brereton, Dack and Dolan up front. If we keep playing Gallagher and Rothwell we have no chance.

Someone who anticipates play and makes the run to get in front of his man - that’s the real difference.

I find it hard to get mad at JRC and Pickering, they are limited players and aren’t the reason we just cannot score. Rothwell and Gallagher have made my blood boil this half though.

Best three chances of nicking a goal all sat on the bench

And not for someone who takes every free kick and corner.

First three months playing 4-3-3 we were a midtable team even with Diaz scoring for fun, because we were vulnerable at the back, which I felt was because our centre midfield is defensively weak: Travis does his best work off the ball so, if someone screws up, he’s not close enough to rectify, plus Rothwell I think is nigh on useless defensively. So we went to five at the back which makes us very solid. Our great run I felt was fuelled by the combo of Buckley’s ability to make intelligent early through passes and Diaz’s ability to anticipate them plus his unsustainably high % conversion rate. Without Diaz’s early runs Buckley holds onto the ball and is much less effective, because Gallagher hasn’t the nous to anticipate his passes and make the right runs. I always thought when we got to 2nd, that was a high water mark and clinging onto a top 6 place depended on avoiding injuries and loss of form, but we avoided neither. Today for me just summed up how fragile was our capability to compete.

The usual suspects not turning up again: Rothwell cruising to the end of his contract exchanging backward and sideways passes; Dolan and Buckley schoolboys; Gallagher back to his soft pansy, back on his heels best, despite playing much more centrally. But for Kaminski we’d be 0-4 down.

Yes. Who do you think is defending to the right of Lenihan?

Except for it being 4-2-3-1 with Gallagher in the middle.

I got the impression from the full interview that the aggression was between the players, and I would have expected no less, especially given Lenihan/JRCs pushing match.

He needs to do it against a couple of strapping centre halves before I’ll start believing.

So what was said by who at half-time isn’t out there anywhere - or have I missed it?

Rather a lot being made of Gallagher scoring from a perfect cross against ten men of a bottom 3 team who’d pushed up in the 98th minute desperately seeking an equalizer. Let’s hope he is equally deadly on Saturday.

Three headers from a team I thought would never score a header again. Best thing that happened tonight was Lawrence finding a way to finally get Gallagher throwing his weight around. Three really class headers just when we needed them, but kudos for Kaminski for keeping us in it first half. A season-defining second half hopefully.

First game in three years and I had a marvellous afternoon apart from the 95 mins bit in the middle of wallowing in our own crapulence. My brother and I - two Tockholes lads - started off with an excellent lunch at The Rock from where the view was as good as it ever gets: Ribble estuary, Blackpool Tower, Forest of Bowland all crystal clear and even the fells of the lower Lake District on the horizon. Parked outside my grandma’s old council house near the Manxman, and walked down under the railway the way I remember being taken to see Billy Smart’s Circus. Back to Settle afterwards for the best fish and chips I’ve had since forever. Ah yes, I forgot to mention the shit in the sandwich - the game. First half far too pedestrian: a combination of Buckley not being at the races and Rothwell continually coming short to get a pass off one centre half before giving it to another, or, in a moment of rare excitement, giving it to a wingback before getting it back so as to give it to a centre-half. The much derided picture above of our two wingbacks in Bristol’s D fashioning a chance of sorts tells a deeper story: JR-C actually ran right past an immobile Gallagher, making the run Sam the Donkey should have been making, something that happened again when JR-C nearly got a toe on a Buckley cross with Gallagher spectating. I watched Sam the Donkey a lot off the ball and his movement is even worse than I’d thought from watching iFollow. I thought there was a marked reluctance from other players to give the ball to him. Second half things improved slightly, Khadra being a real threat until shooting, Trav - our water-carrier - managing three more shots than Rothwell has managed since being retained “to propel our promotion push.” I’ve never joined in the BRFCS adulation of Rothwell but now I get annoyed virtually every time he gets the ball: easy sideways passes to the likes of Lenihan and Pickering - as if they are capable of doing anything with it - and those silly schoolyard runs that take five touches to get going and almost invariably end in a head-down barely-in-control-of-the-ball charge into four defenders. No wonder he has so few goals and assists in ten years as a pro. Add in his almost complete inability to defend and the middle of the park becomes increasingly wide-open, which is why four at the back is always so vulnerable for us. Overall I think we got what we deserved. Bristol fashioned more and better chances. The subs, once again, did not improve things. Apart from the penalty and the missed sitter from Kahdra’s cross, I don’t think Dack had more than two touches. However, not even such a poor display can take the shine of a wonderful afternoon of reminiscing with my only brother who I also hadn’t seen for three years.

Back to the penalty: actually half their team were encroaching, but the ref was clearly unsighted…

More chance of me swimming back to Canada, Mark!

So it looks like not all academy graduates get offered derisory wages then.

First actual must win game of the season for me. So much so, I shall be there to cheer them on.

I felt the same watching replays of each incident - absolutely no striker’s instinct at all. Add poor technique and movement and we have a total donkey. I think the bracketing of Buckley with him by others on here as a major culprit in our failure is ludicrous. Bucko set up two sitters, hit the post and made the keeper make a save - more than everyone else combined. Has Rothwell even had a shot or set anyone up this year? His three “off your seat” runs all ended in lost possession.

Buckley better than the other 21 players put together; Gallagher - playing almost entirely in his “square peg” position - has been totally pathetic. Three decent shots came in from angles, back on his heels for all of them; missed a sitter, crap control, crap passing, crap movement. We aren’t getting in the playoffs with him in the side IMO.

Wtf is Buckley doing in a long sleeved undershirt and gloves!

As are Rovers. Less flash than his predecessor, Ken Furphy, but gave us a fantastic promotion season.