We still haven't made any subs right? From the man who likes to have done all 3 subs by 70 mins.

This ref really is abysmal. Fuck a duck.

I've never seen someone act like more of a wanker preparing for a penalty than that guy. What a prick. I'd have wanted him to miss if I was a neutral.

Probably spent a half million or so on the loan fee I reckon, and wages. Waste. I'd honestly start Jayson in the next game, that's how poor Walton is. He lets the same kind of goals in general in that Jayson does, but with added blunders. Not getting another second keeper was a huge mistake, as many of us knew. Walton has probably felt very safe.

Thank fuck we ditched that error prone Raya for mr consistent here...JHC

Seen it from the other angles at half time now. You're probably right actually. Depends on whether it crossed the line before Rudd collided with it. Will have to see what the goals panel decide.

Uh huh. It's 2-0.

After posting about how we have had better results with less possession, thought I'd check today's stats. 58 percent to Preston when I looked.

Agree to disagree then, I think it's ludicrous to expect him to take that one gently.

Harsh. He was nicking it off someone's foot. He had to take it at pace and couldn't afford to be trying to touch it gingerly.

What is even happening here?!?! Always seems to be these games we expect fuck all from where we get it together astoundingly.

I've seen the goal. If that gets taken away from Gallagher that's the absolute harshest OG I've ever seen.

Haha nah mate, Gallagher goal.

WOW! I think it's fair to say nobody expected that!!

Yeh he's been poor for a while now after a promising start to life here. But Travis...I see Mowbray continues his policy that if a young player has one bad game they're dropped. Captain Fantastic can do whatever the fuck he likes though as long as he works hard. TBH, I don't particularly mind seeing him in CM with other current options. It's probably his best position. But it should have been Travis alongside him. Gallagher again? He was awful in the last game and has been all-round awful in too many games lately, and hasn't offered a real goal threat all season. You might think you need to play him Tony, to justify that you're not utter horseshit in the transfer market with strikers, but it isn't helping. TM better get a result today or he's going to be in trouble with the fans (not just the ones on here).

So you'd take Smallwood in goal?

And still absolutely nowhere near good enough.

If Mowbray had any sense of self preservation he would completely shut up about the top six until things are drastically different.

Yep, that's what my eyes have seen too, and most of us I think. The stats merely back it up. Pretty strongly at that.

Aye that should qualify him to coach our full backs then. If he'd been a striker he could coach our right wingers.

There's no reason to think we need all three of those things just to survive. Just a good manager will do. We aren't in the relegation zone right now, with the crap one we've got.

Yeh! Roversfan99 Out! Wait...

Sound like decent enough shouts. League Player of the Season as a goalie takes some doing, even if it is the Norwegian league. I feel TM is more likely to target another midfielder or striker.

In fairness, the only time I've heard him say that (I think) was just after the Brum game, so maybe the penny has finally dropped? He has also repeatedly gone on about keeping the ball and 'recycling possession', so he obviously does (or did) focus on possession. Regarding the LT, fairly sure I saw the live match thread, or a tweet from them or something, which said they weren't looking forward to interviewing TM after the match. Which is essentially an admission they're running scared of him. That kind of attitude doesn't belong to someone willing to ask the hard questions.

I posted this in the Birmingham post-mortem match thread, but I think it warrants pointing out here too. One of our most serious problems at the moment (and we have a few), is with our new style we seem to think that keeping possession is more important than anything else, but have no idea what to do with it. It isn't working at all. This season, we have had more possession than the opposition in 12 games out of 15. We have had 60 percent possession or more in 6 games. These were Charlton (L), Oldham (W, cup), Cardiff (D 0-0), Luton (L), Forest (D), Hudds (D). The only win when we 'control' the game so much being when we had 73% possession against League Two Oldham and only scraped victory from defeat in injury time. We let them have 12 shots with only 27% possession, only managing 3 more than that ourselves. We had 67% possession against crappy Luton and yet hit the target twice to their five. Charlton was similar - 62% possession but we hit the target twice and they hit it five times. Cardiff, we had 61% possession but had 9 shots, 2 on target. They had 14, 4 on target. Hudds nearly matched our shooting too (12 off, 2 on, to our 13, 3) despite our 64% possession. The only 60% plus game where we properly outmatched the opposition for shooting was Forest. In 4 out of these 6 possession-thrashing games, we had less shots on target. We also had less possession, yet won, against Boro and Reading. That's half our league wins, even though there are only 3 games where we had less possession. We are actually statistically much, much better when not controlling possession, that's how awful we are at being effective with it. The personnel and/or the formation are clearly much better adapted to playing counterattacking football and/or defending when we let the opposition have more of the ball.This matches with what I've seen, personally. Counter attacks carve us to pieces frequently, yet we do have the pace to transition quickly ourselves. The stats are utterly damning of our possession-based game. Slowing down our play in this way is anathema to our best assets. Took the stats from the google match reports btw, may be some discrepancies with other sources as there usually are with possession in particular. I wonder if these stats form part of our new-look statistical analysis! Can't imagine so.