In general he doesn't seem to have gone on to better things like we all expected and has probably regressed. You're right about the wages too. But he did look good today and it had me wondering the same as Darwen Rover whether he'd do a decent job here. With Graham on the wane we have nobody anywhere near his league for heading ability. He nearly did us twice in about a minute.

Buckley doesn't even make the bench at the moment so I can't see him starting the next game. TM seems to have realised he isn't ready. Tosin and Nyambe had unusually poor games today. Lenihan and Bell (!) played well. I haven't looked back to see who the two that abandoned the men for the rebound goal were though. Walton mixed. I feel he should have done better with the goal, but it's one of those that just happens sometimes. The defence were more culpable. Fabulous save later on from Rudy. Best I've seen him make. JRC didn't scintillate, but did enough to show he fits into senior football already, unlike Buckley. I look forward to seeing him develop. Worked hard and looked to make things happen. Hard to say what impact the head injury may have had on his mental side of his game today, if any.

Because we did the exact same dumb shit with Cunningham and that worked out swimmingly too.... Physios or whoever makes a call like that need to give their heads a wobble.

Don't like the way Lenihan was hobbling there.

I thought he handled it a bit poorly. But yes it was absolutely on the defence to mark those two at the back post.

That guy on the pitch gives me kittens. Uh looks another odd sub (Graham for JRC)...Arma going wide?

Weren't we 4 points off top 6 before today? Could do with other teams dropping points. Then again you never know which teams will end up there at the end. We may be 3 points ahead of whoever finishes 6th at the mo. Why am I letting myself dream again?

I think you've maybe forgotten how bad Brereton is? I think this is a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder. At least Gallagher has a little pace, a strong work ethic, a modicum of skill now and again, and is better in the air than Brereton. Absolutely shouldn't be playing on the wing either, but definitely better than BB.

Huh, I'm listening to Rovers commentary.

Someone said he was on 60k a week before his release. So probably well out of our league.

Disagree. Before the knocks it wasn't that bad. There were even a few brief passing moves where I thought the link up play was lovely. Flashes of what we showed against Sheff W and the first half of QPR. Ever since JRC went down the momentum died though and it has been utterly turgid.

That's a stretch. Looked like scoring a few times, so did they. A draw is the correct HT score. We were coming into the ascendancy until the JRC and Holtby knocks.

That's...no better. Fucking hell. Even at junior level if I was on the bench I had full kit and boots on. I wonder if that's why TM said fuck it, Bennett instead. Seems a daft sub. Could have just brought one of our three strikers on and put Arma in the hole. Instead we are shifting a few around?

I wouldn't mind but we already knew about the midfield injury crisis and that Holtby wasn't the most robust.

Did they just say Graham went down the tunnel to put his match boots on?? What kind of amateur hour shit is that? Or did I mishear?

Yeh it was skous who said nose bleeding.

Is it just his nose? Just saw a lot of blood on his hand. Bandage on his head. Last thing we need is another long term injury, especially for a young lad trying to make his way into the team. Looks like he will play on though.

Well...I guess I should add I would have considered putting Downing at LB, Davenport in CM, and/or replacing Gally with Chapman, but I understand his decisions and how it's risky to tinker too much with a winning lineup. I'm hoping TM has finally learnt that lesson too, but I've had that false dawn before...

You don't get credit just for not picking Bennett against all logic. Especially when he looked painfully lethargic last time out. Happy with the lineup though. I mean, except Bell, but we don't have an option, and Gallagher where we do have options but none Tony is going to use. He does need to persevere with his 5 million pound lad (not mocking, he really does after BBgate). Down to the lads now.

What's frustrating is we should be coming into this game in high spirits full of hope after a couple of welcome additions to the squad and a few points off the playoffs after two good wins in a row. Instead the game feels clad in a sense of futility knowing it's extremely unlikely we will now have enough in the tank to get over that finish line at season's end, even if we win today. Hopefully the players feel more resolve than many of us do though, and get the win today regardless. It's their job after all.

Or you could just not come back in if you don't want to read it, and let others discuss the outcome and repercussions of the window if you no longer have interest. Zero reason to close it yet.

Why not? It's not as if he is going to be fired. We have the manager we have, and we need to sign players under him as there are glaring weaknesses in our squad depth and even some of our first choices. That needs resolving. Incompetence is no excuse for inactivity. He could always strike lucky even if it was true he didn't have a clue what he was doing. This failure adds fuel to the fire which you seem to think we should just contentedly watch burn.

I've no idea why that confuses you.

Assuming Sharpe is right about that being the end of our so-called business, I'm not sure which part of it frustrates me the most. There are a few leading contenders... 1) That we just completely gave up the ghost at 5.30pm, with 5-and-a-half hours of the window remaining, despite being the only club in the league to sign absolutely nobody and despite an injury crisis in midfield. This one again depends on Sharpe's post at half 5 having been correct. But no checking around old targets to see if the 2) Having said for ages that left back and goalkeeper were our two priorities...I know the Dack injury changed the dynamic, but we then let a young left back and young goalie leave on loan. Admittedly they were low down the pecking order, but if our already poor keeper and LB get injured, we are going to be really scraping. 3) Mowbray's bizarre comments during the window, including announcing that he is a poor negotiator. 4) That our already difficult summer window is likely to now need epic efforts from a recruitment and negotiation team who have shown they aren't up to much. 5) We know wages are our issue. Despite this, we seem to have relied mostly (or at least near the end) on getting charity from Premier League clubs for their players who earn double or more what our highest paid earn. Even though for I think about 18 months now we've been hearing about this European scouting network coming in (even though we haven't yet hired the head scout for it). European clubs and lower league clubs are, as TM himself has pointed out, cheaper targets in terms of fees and wages. Yes we piddled about on the Pole and Curtis (whilst ignoring Maddison), but sounds like we offered 2 when the price was 3. In all honesty, what's offering another 500k or so, a million if needed, really going to matter to us for the right player? Instead we'd rather revert back to the 'lets loan someone we will have to replace again in the summer' model. 6) That Tony apparently never raises his offers (even though we have absolutely done so under him in the past, and even though every other club works that way and expects us to work that way). 7) That we have basically repeated the whole experience of last January, having learnt nothing from it. You all know it...sign nobody when on the cusp of the playoffs, leave some areas of the pitch perilously thin, talk in platitudes about who we 'nearly got' but 'prices were outrageous' while literally everybody else did business, and pray nobody gets injured. The only thing missing now is a critical injury happening imminently. In fact last year was actually better than this one, because we did sign Chapman...then failed to use him. 8- The fact that some fans seem to think all of this is actually fine and dandy. The same ones who are probably going to talk, with all sincerity, about our playoff hopes being good. No, a win tomorrow won't make them good. Overall though the winner really has to be being the only club in the whole league to not sign anyone, despite a pressing need to do so. Ultimately I suppose we now have to hope that either we do sign someone after all, or that this all turns out to be a blessing in disguise, that the youngsters get blooded and prove mostly up to it, reducing our task in the summer.

Even they only lost points which didn't affect their playoff or relegation prospects.