Hopefully after today 'the mysterious case of Joe Rothwell' can be consigned to the history books as an unsolved one, like the Mary Celeste or who shot JFK.

He looks better there. I think that's partly because of how weak we look there when Mulgrew or Rodwell play instead though. I still don't trust him in the team.

As well as another one for the 'criminally underused' category.

Some sort of injury for Reed. He wasn't on the bench either.

No pressure, and finally giving Rothwell a run.

He doesn't have to 'go'. He's still a promising keeper, young for that position. He does, however, need someone better in front of him.

I was about to post, for the last few minutes anyway. Where the hell did he pull those two turns from?

Wow, that's poor from Dack.

I'm sure he clocked that already from the scouting reports. I think Bell has had a very inconsistent game. He's actually done a few pretty good things, including being the main creator of the second goal. But he's also done a similar or larger amount of shambolic things. I really hope TM can swallow his pride and sign the third left back of his tenure.

That would only make things worse. Partly as Williams is an even worse LB, but also because we've been incredibly porous with Mulgrew in defence.

Striker appeared to be the only position we truly tried to recruit in January. I think it's inevitable we will be looking there again.

Sounds to me more like TM doesn't really know the price. He basically just said 'it was 6 million, or 7 million, or, hell, whatever it was we paid'.

Or maybe he could have had this kind of contribution all along. Ehh...no. His version of developing players seems to be to bench them for as long as possible.

Agreed, not without a sustained run of eye-catching form from now to season's end, at least. If he reverts to his more recent form again I think we will keep him, as we would value him more than other clubs. If he does somewhere in between though we could spend the summer worrying about top-end Champs clubs coming in.

If it's as likely as those, it's most likely to fail badly. We need someone a lot more likely than those. Not another low calibre, inexperienced offering.

People aren't rewriting history by rating Rochina, they just rated Rochina. Like I did, at the time. Wasn't perfect but should have got a lot more game time. Rothwell is more direct, quicker, with very good technique (though not as good as Rochina's). He needs to hone that end product to be a serious star, but he needs to keep getting games.

Not meaning to be snitty at all, but obviously I know why he doesn't have experience with transfers and that it's not his fault. But he still doesn't have experience with transfers. It's very much like the difference between international and club management. The former, and reserve football, are about working with what you're given, often under an extended period where you get years to make it happen. Club management is partly about taking what you're given, but then rapidly turning it into something better is usually the expectation, under huge pressure, with the transfer market being probably the most important tool for doing this. It's absolutely possible to move from reserve or international management into being a great club manager. Hughes is a terrific example. But it's a risk we'd be unwise to take at this time, as it really is a different world.

I acknowledged he was missing some regulars. First team went up to a higher level too, a much higher level than DJ has managed. TM has missed opportunities in the transfer market, but DJ doesn't have any experience of it at all. Johnson is doing great work, but we need a proven Championship-level manager, not another gambit.

It has. And they're still not safe because they were that bad at the start of the season. Adapting to a new league and missing several regulars from the prior season, sure, but it's a results business over a full season and they can technically still go down (I make it they need just 1 more point though from the last two tricky games). Those clamouring for him to be first team boss need to reflect on how little experience he has. We need to get an experienced pro with a track record, not repeat the Kean and Bowyer experiments from within.

He could be much worse than Bell there. It's not his position and he's athletically derelict.

In fairness, having the reserve team manager give the first team manager tips is very insulting and if you think it's gotten to that stage the first team manager needs firing instead (he does). Not so sure Johnno is imminently off. They have been very good for several months now but let's not forget they're not actually safe yet.

I didn't actually think Mulgrew looked a particularly great defender at League One level to be honest. He had his moments, but the goals definitely papered over the cracks even then. The cracks are just bigger now, plus as you say he's a year older. I've generally felt his biggest problem is a tendency to go walkabouts positionally though at the wrong moments, which age should improve not worsen. Pace is only his second biggest problem for me.

As one of those posters, it's fairly simple. It's one poor result too many. Too long of him being unable to see the glaring errors and correct them. Everybody has their own breaking point, this was mine. It isn't really the performance, it's the result. I said before the game, days ago, in the Mowbray stay or go thread that a defeat today would be the final straw for me. I'm not being reactionary, it's all perfectly measured. Obviously, I've been concerned for quite a while now, then very concerned, and questioned decisions/tactics etc throughout his reign, but I've just given him the amount of time I personally thought he'd earned to turn it around. Factoring in the terror that Venkys next potential appointment leaves me with. If yours was expended a while ago, fair enough, I can see why

I didn't understand why you said this earlier either. To my knowledge Raya has been criticised in public once, and entirely rightly so. He did excellently today. Not at fault for the goal and two super saves. TM will probably blame Rothwell (yes he's only done that once too, but Rothwell is an attacker, not the goalie who has made plenty of mistakes this year or the absolutely porous defence who rarely get blamed considering).

That settled it for me (as I fully expected it to). Put my vote down for go. His comments make increasingly less sense and bode badly for the future, his tactics are baffling and ineffective, his team selections mysterious at best, and he has lost the fans, maybe some of the players too from some of the performances. Made a valiant effort to keep us up last time, met expectations by getting us promoted, started strongly this season...but the wheels have well and truly fallen off and we need a new car. Thanks Tony, hopefully bye soon Tony. I wish him well going forward if/when he goes.