And should've made it 3 just there. No idea why he thought he wasn't offside, he was offside for quite a while. Slight correction and he'd have had an even easier time with that rebound and it would've counted.

I think you can 'carry' (I'd call it 'afford') a bit more than that, but fundamentally I agree. If you want top 6 I suppose those numbers are more accurate though. Think we could potentially get away with the current lot and be top 6 if we just had 2 more players of true quality. Gimme Johansson from Stoke and a Sammie Szmodics of last season and I'd say top 6 is doable with the right manager and system. A couple of true match winners. The squad players you mention are capable of being proper regular starters...in spurts. None of them has demonstrated enough consistency and probably never will, to fit in with as you say, Beck, Tronstad, Cantwell and Carter. Personally I think Travis isn't too far off that list, but he does have little patches of being shit. But yeh when the others are in form they're good enough, it just isn't often enough. And you could say it about most players in this division who aren't regulars in the best 8 or so teams.

This one is the most depressing, but looking at it impartially for a moment, the main difference by far has been Stoke's keeper. As I said before, utterly different scoreline if we swapped goalies, we'd have ran riot. (Not that Pears has even had a stinker)

That lad was far more responsible for his handling of the ball there than our lad was against Watford. Had far more time to react.

Pretty much what I was thinking. It's the only way tonight could get worse.

So Stoke have tripled their away goals tally for the season at 'fortress Ewood' (as the advertising boards have been calling it). I don't think we're too many games from calls for Eustace's head at this rate.

If we swapped keepers we would have won this game about 4-0.

Jesus christ Gueye. I think that settles the question of whether he is good in the air and just lacking crosses. Are we scoring before Christmas?

I can't imagine thinking that Travis is more mediocre for us than Lowe, Murphy, Etuhu, Akpan, Brown, Vale, etc. I assume you're not serious.

You have to remember our current gauge for this is Pears. If Pears had made these saves it genuinely would be the game of his life. Probably just another game for Johansson.

Should have been our first signing of the summer.

We nearly were.

Another bizarre comment from our co commentator. Ohashi should have ran onto that and volleyed it apparently. Didn't realise Ohashi had a foot in his chest.

Their 2nd away goal this season.

Sick of hearing commentators saying nothing Pears could do about that. He over-protects his near post time after time, leaving a nice wide space where he can't reach it. His positioning is poor.

Good effort Travis. Johansson always seems to play well against us.

Yeh I don't think there's been outright howlers since then, unless my memory is failing me. But there have definitely been goals he was at fault for.

Christ that was lucky. Sort of side note, but relevant there, I wish Pears wouldn't over-commit to his near post. Does it nearly every time.

When he was here everybody was giving Markanday dogs abuse and saying he wasn't even a League One player. As soon as he plays a couple of games I'm sure I'd be seeing comments saying 'not good enough, get rid as soon as possible' etc. Personally I don't mind him and think he's a useful squad player (don't think his goal contribution numbers are any better than Ty's though). But that's the problem, we have lots of useful squad players up there, but nobody who can rip up the league or be a guaranteed starter we can all be happy with, so everybody throws exaggerated insults at the players we do have, because we are over-reliant on average and below average players, so we misfire too often.

And the answer would be that they're worse than Dolan and Hedges. Except for possibly ACD, who mostly has struggled to play due to injury niggles (but for me should have had more game time when he was fit).

I wouldn't say all his performances this season. He has been reasonable for the most part in the last few games. There was definitely a point I wanted him dropped for Toth, but his current form has been acceptable. He hardly looks undroppable though, and I wouldn't say he had a good game last time out. A decent keeper is probably stopping one of those goals, Hyam spared his blushes with that clearance on the line, and the saves he did make were fairly basic. Definitely a concern if Toth isn't considered a better keeper (guess time will tell on that though).

At present, I'd certainly be recalling all three. Markanday because that level is proving beneath him as I expected, and the other two because they're simply getting nowhere near enough game time.

This post did not age well.

Which in turn leaves the door open for Mr Cockup...if we didn't apply for it in the summer, I assume we couldn't apply for it now regardless of what the terms were at the time he became eligible, as he no longer qualifies. I have to presume his numbers would be calculated at the time we applied. We know we like leaving the door open for Mr Cockup, and this would leave us with no free slots unless we shunt someone out. I feel confident, if that's the right word, that the club didn't get this permit sorted in the summer. Purely because it seems like the sort of thing that would have been announced or at least told to the LT. So hopefully the permit is assessed from the prior season not the prior 12 months, and of course, hopefully someone is competent enough to get it done.

Don't be so sure...the powers that be may very well have not applied for one! I feel like the discussion concluded we probably had one slot even without it though. Tronstadt didn't need one, he qualified anyway. Toth just replaces Wahlstedt. Did either of Ohashi or Gueye qualify without the exemption? If not then Siggy takes us to 4 slots. Hang on, wasn't there Mafoumbi too? Surely we don't have 5 slots...I feel like one of these players must have qualified for an exemption. I think youth players are subject to slightly different rules so maybe Mafoumbi got a permit. Otherwise we have Toth, Ohashi, Gueye, Siggy and Mafoumbi...so the only other explanation would be if Siggy's permit got sorted.