bluebruce

After Markanday's injury (I'm gutted about that) and despite needing to recruit to fill there again, it's good to think we have Dack returning, then the likes of Vale, Chapman and McBride as emergency cover. Today we didn't even have Diaz or Rothwell available, which we will again shortly, but we beat a team in top form. How is James Brown doing?

Interestingly the lineup on google shows Adam Wharton as having played in central defence, whereas he is normally a midfielder. Is that correct, and if so did he look like he inherited any of the same ability as his brother playing there? I know he is generally better known as a good technical player.

And just like that, I foresaw a future where Gally follows the Brereton-Diaz path and renames to Sam Fucking Gallagher. Instantly he becomes the next goalscoring sensation at Rovers, single-handedly fistfucking teams, and begins a trend of players switching names to devastating effect, forever changing the game.

Boro not been any better than Hull tonight and have probably played into our hands more. Great win. Just 31% possession.

Whether it's fitness or attitude, it suddenly makes sense why he hasn't had more minutes.

Gally lucky that was offside! Buckley off for Zeefuik, not sure where he will play...

I was gonna make a similar comment. May have a small injury problem at the moment or just lately, might be really unfit due to not playing enough, or might just have a poor attitude.

I've said for a while he has a good shot on him. Works hard too, but poor decision making. Today has summed him up I guess. Great instinctive strike.

Looked like he had a slight limp. Change was planned before the goal.

Well taken Gally! Not had a great game but he took that one really well. While everyone was celebrating they switched the camera to Mowbray, who wasn't celebrating but seemed to be showing Butterworth how to roll a joint or something. Bit odd.

Think he needs a goal to calm down a bit. Been a bit too eager to do it all himself lately. Looks like I was right about the first half being our 'good half'. Struggle to see us scoring at the moment. Gally not a patch on BB, big miss for us not having him here.

Edun needs to wake up defensively. Nearly gave them a clear run on goal before, and that should've been a pen. Suspect this is our 'good half' so it's a bit concerning we haven't notched. Shame BBD and Markanday are out, all we have lacked is that edge in and near the box.

I will forget it all, if we win on Monday and replace Markanday effectively.

Between those results and Markanday's injury, today was a day of bad news for us.

I didn't agree before that we needed another attacker. I absolutely do now. But 2? Nope. 1. Attacker 2. CM 3. CB 4. Better reserve goalkeeper. I honestly can't see us pulling off promotion without signing all four (unless we get super lucky with injuries and suspensions on 3 and 4, but this shows we don't get super lucky), and I doubt the budget stretches that far as it is. Definitely not gonna be room for a second attacker. People can say we should show ambition and raise the budget all they want, but it's not gonna happen. I'll say again, shouldn't have sent Carter on loan. His development isn't as important as our promotion challenge and we needed him for cover. Would have been one less player to sign.

Really? I'd say if Travis is back, that's almost certainly the team.

Yes, although some stupidly low ratings for this match. Apart from Kaminski who appears to have got man of the match despite being responsible for the second goal (fouled yes, but stupidly put himself in no man's land) and not exactly being worked hard the rest of the time. I tend to think the voting should stay open a bit longer, personally. I suspect not too many got round to voting on that one and it may have distorted the ratings a bit?

Hadn't realised that, thanks.

Given how we played in the last 2 games we played those conditions, I'd have to say it's not to our advantage, no. We got points still, but just barely.

Save yourself the hot dog. Gally is almost nailed on to start, and the lineup is announced for anyone to see a full hour before kickoff.

That must have been a real problem in the 2017/18 season when only 2 players scored 20 or more (21 and 20 goals). Or the 15/16 season when only 3 players managed it. Of course, the season before that, we had Rhodes and Gestede both hit 20+, something only 7 players managed. We finished 11 points away from the playoffs. I don't know if by historically though you meant before it became the Championship. @glen9mullan's initial point though was you need 4/5 players with 10+ goals to go up, and he means now not historically. Rather than go through every season, here is last season... 19 players hit 10 goals upwards. I make it at least 14, I think 15 who definitely weren't in promoted teams. Toney, Pukki, Buendia, Sarr I believe are the only ones who were in sides that went up. Sarr was Watford's only entrant on the list of 10+ goals, with just 13. They finished 2nd. Only Norwich went up with more than one player hitting 10 upwards. So no, you absolutely don't need 4/5 players who score double figures to go up. Interestingly, we scored 2 goals more than Watford last season. They finished 2nd, we finished 15th.

That was a genuine attempt to shove the player over so he couldn't score, it wasn't a genuine attempt to tackle him.

What happened to being sent off because you're the last man?

You're forgetting the other penalty and the red card. We were poor, I said that. We weren't as poor as is made out, and Hull were also poor.

It's even more of a mystery as I don't even think Gally is fully fit. It's only 11 days since he was subbed off with an injury after returning from an injury. The rush to bring him back in ASAP all the time isn't even helping the player himself.