Boro's appointment of Chris Wilder made my heart sink. The naive, deluded part of me that still dreams we might have a chance of sneaking into 6th place realises that Boro now have a realistic chance of squeezing us out of that equation, however we perform. Just hope that it takes Wilder a few months to get the team to play his way, but I doubt it will....

As good as we were from 1 to 11 today, and it really was all 13 players contributing more or less equally, for some reason Sheff U were walking/running in concrete. Poveda's goal was a good example. They were physically and mentally unable to match us for the whole 90 min. Strange to watch, but obviously very enjoyable....

Even in the depths of introspective, emotional, desperate despair on Wednesday at around 11.30pm, I somehow wrote on here something about how we would feel different at 5pm on Saturday when we have beaten Sheff U. Even as I was writing it, it seemed surreal and unlikely, but someone had just ironically highlighted the table, showing we were still only 2 points off 6th. That's why I was so euphoric when I checked the table when I got home tonight and (ahead of the Blackpool result) we were in 6th. It unf shows that we will probably never actually finish as high as 6th as TM will unconsciously sabotage our chances with his crass inability to select the correct personnel and tactics, esp when we reach the heady heights of 7th or 8th. But that was far from my thoughts as I watched the sublime pass from trav, the perfect cross from Pov, and the perfectly positioned finish from BB. It was incendiary, inspirational, joyous, euphoric (sorry to repeat the word) and all the better because of how far we had come in 3 short/long days. This is why we keep coming back. I love this club....

Sorry....I think I agree with you on Ben...but what did you mean again....I also on the red wine?

The feeling I get from people I know going for the 1st time this season, and general hearsay, is that they have sold a good few thousand more than usual in the home ends. It will be a marked contrast to tonight's 9000, despite the on-field carnage... Does anyone have the current figures?

Don't know how I could stomach it but just watched the goals again, and Edun was allowed to be so far out of position so many times, he was at inside left or playing next to Nyabe, more than he was at left-back. Please look at their 4th goal for evidence, tho I'm basing my comments on watching him for 90 minutes, and no-one on or off the pitch (except the ref) said a word of criticism or encouragement to him throughout 90 minutes. He was allowed to roam wherever he desired, when he should have been marking the best wide player in the division. I was worried for his mental health from the 5th goal onwards, and that's why the ref had a word with him. Mowbray seemed more than happy with his performance, in terms of encouragement or motivation. This was all somewhat lost as the rest if the ineptitude distracted from the Edun debacle.

I was more highlighting what a bizarre and talentless division this is, when we can be so abject and still be challenging. No-one believes we will be anything but mid-table fodder, and although I provocatively dared to suggest we may win on Saturday (in front of 20000 screaming kids), it will take a real exercise in man-management to get us in a position to even compete....

It's ironic that when we win on Saturday, we'll be one of a number of teams being talked up as play-off contenders. Don't get me wrong, I was very disappointed TM didn't start BB more centrally, that he hung Edun out to dry, seemingly to teach him a lesson or toughen him up, when he should've taken him off at 3 nil, and that he thinks our best option at No.9 is Rankin-Costello. But still, we'll be daring to dream again on Saturday at 5pm. Funny old game.

I can and do accept that, but TM doesn't appear to have become any better at managing that situation in 20 years, and I suppose a lot on here see other managers at this level that are statistically better at not giving up a 2 goal lead. I agree, though, that Stoke fans will be waking up this morning saying exactly the same about Michael O'Neil. I'm happy to see some reasoned comment/discussion on this, though. Long may it continue....

I think that's exactly the point most of us make. He does reign us in when we are 2 nil up. It has happened every time we have had a 2 goal lead (except Cardiff), so many of us think it is because he tells the players to now 'stay solid, and don't concede' or that is his default position, and we are just not tactically or technically good enough to do this. So all we can do to ensure we win from 2 nil up, is to push on and score a 3rd. I agree it's not as simple as some on here make out, but it IS a result of Tony's defensive outlook, and causes us to lose numerous points over a season, especially when we approach 6th place. Fulham will be a very good contest. COYB

Brilliant, considered assessment. I agree with every word. Cheers.

More than ever, we need our hard-core fans to just reign-in the half-time booing. One minute you are praising the young squad, applauding Dolan etc, the next you are booing those very same players, without the 1st clue that it might dent their fragile confidence. Surely give them 10 games before you let your own depression and home life seep out in the form of booing and cat-calling of the youngest team in the division. Before you start, I'm as frustrated as anyone by Mowbray's generally negative tactics, and brainless substitutions etc etc, but I have never booed us off at half time, it's pointless and counter-productive, and many of us on here still do it. Please give it a quarter of a season before the bile is released. And if you don't agree with booing, challenge it, I do.

Please. I know we are performing way below our potential, but we are not going down. We have enough to worry about, without having to argue with relegation-merchants.... That doesn't mean I'm happy, I'm angry and frustrated at TM's impotence, but I guarantee you we will comfortably stay up.....

We were sh1t tonight, but surely we give any new signing a few games to settle in. He is a good player.

This exactly. Anyone care to remind us when we last played well for 90 minutes? We have the highest goalscorer and the player with the most assists, yet we couldn't buy more than the odd, scrappy, scrambled win. For me, it was harder to go backwards from the Deepdale performance than to go forwards and build on our good form. But go backwards into our shell we sure did, steadily and consistently backwards..... Clueless.

That was comfortably the weakest, poorest, least effective 45 minutes that I can remember. From ANY team, at ANY level. We have given up. Mowbray, you are so lucky there are no fans allowed, home or away. I am devastated. What a waste. We have turned decent players into insecure cloggers. Pathetic.

You mean Gallacher ran around with vigour. That is NOT the same as playing well. He is fine until he gets anywhere near the box. He is not a footballer. He never will be, but he'll score a goal next week which will keep him in the team for another 10 ineffective games. We may well win this game but we have stagnated since the Deepdale win and it is becoming harder and harder to witness.

This.....sigh....

This

Our January results mean he will be here til the end of the season. His last chance is Harwood-Bellis performing at centre-back, and Johnson and Holtby coming back this month, but they will need to do it despite Mowbray, not because of him. He will still play Gally in defence or on the wing, and he will still try to play Davenport, so the players will have to play even better to nullify this managerial genius.....

We will not play fluent football until Holtby plays. We have not repeated our Deepdale performance once, which backs up my thought that TM stumbles on a fluid, effective line-up accidentally 3 or 4 times a season. We really do not have the quality individually or collectively that we thought we would be oozing by now. Most of us thought that we would be gelling as a squad by now, but we genuinely look like a bunch of strangers. We win the odd game when one of two of our players individually snap out of the tactic-free zone and/or show the quality that TM's lack of genuine footballing awareness usually totally stifles. The right back fiasco tonight shows real desperation, not a considered plan. We just cannot keep going through games playing Dack, Elliott and Armstrong and only trouble the keeper once or twice. Preston really didn't need to be anything more than hard-working to beat us, ditto QPR. I think we have a decent squad that Mowbray is not utilising effectively. I really don't think Davenport is the answer any more than I thought Williams was the answer. Tony takes a bit longer to work things out. I would play Downing every game until our midfield re-appears. F**king pointless signing decent young loan players unless there is a decent system for them to fit into. We were, and usually are, clueless. Another hard-working, quality-free Championship where we can't seriously threaten the top 7. 'If' we play at our best for the rest of the season, we'll be seventh, but we won't. TM under pressure now, as I don't think much has been made of the wages we are paying our loan-players, and Mowbray must have made some guarantees about where he hoped we would end up if we secured them. January saved him, but now WE WILL NOT REACH THE PLAY-OFFS so he will know his chance of glory has passd him, and us, by. I'm truly sick of it. Bowyer mark 2, but more disappointing.

Mowbray seems to have committed to playing Harwood-Bellis in every game, and now he can/will play him alongside Lenihan.

Hope

It's ironic that we haven't played well for more than 15 minutes at a time since the Preston game. Davenport inneffective. No fluency. No tactics. No leadership. No hope.

We can now concentrate on signing a decent, championship defender well before deadline day. We have been generally disappointing since our annihilation of PNE, who'd have thought it? Trouble is, there will be hopes to be dashed until April. Not a happy prospect. Sigh....