Luca Toni has been spotted making his way down from the train station!

Bradley Johnson went up an infinite amount of notches for this post alone! Seems to be literally ripping the p*ss out of Mowbray for coming up with the hair-brained idea of throwing him into that position! Sad to see him go, he was a useful player for us down through the years but in all honesty we should have had Davenport in front of him in the pecking order this season to see what he could do with more game time.

Lets be honest, we were never going to get 6th place, especially after Sheffield Uniteds win last night. In a way I am glad that the season was basically decided by a gutless performance by us, in front of a packed home crowd. If we won our last two games and just missed out it would not be an accurate reflection of the second half of the season, it would also lead people to think that we are mostly ok and, heavens forbid, think that we should be pushing to give Mowbray another contract. As it was we basically gave a listless performance when it was in our own hands to get the job done, which encompasses everything we have seen from the latter half of this season (and the latter halves of every other season) from this management.

I didn't know anything about these supposed links to West Brom but probably haven't been paying too much attention. Is it proper genuine? Interesting point about Venus telling the out of contract players not to sign new deals so they can pick them up for free at West Brom. I cant for one second think that any of those out of contract players would want to go near Mowbray again. Nyambe he has basically ruined, especially this year with his insistence on taking him off to play a centre back in his spot. Would Rothwell or Lenihan even want to listen to any more of his unenthusiastic drivel. If I was any of the players currently at the club I would want a break from Mowbray just as much as the fans do, he must be just horrific to listen to on a daily basis. I will tell you one thing though, I would gladly send over all 3 of Rothwell, Lenihan and Nyambe to West Brom if it guaranteed that Mowbray was leaving. My fear that he'll still be here is based of the horrors of last year where most people expected him to walk/be sacked at the end of the season and as the early weeks of summer went by he stayed hanging around. How glorious would it be to see him over thinking things with playing players out of position for a club that's not us! If nothing else it will mean that West Brom will more than likely underachieve and its one less promotion spot to worry about next year

Do we think it’s likely there will be a crowd reaction at the last home game, he deserves nothing but being totally lambasted by the crowd from the 1st minute to the last. It should be left totally obvious to him if it is to be his last game (I say if as I’m terrified Venkys might just throw him another contract) that he is basically hated here by this stage. A shocking excuse for a manager based off yearly nosedives and if that last press conference is true and he’s blaming the atmosphere/fans then a shocking excuse for a person aswell. When the happy clappers on Facebook are now pretty much to a man calling him to be sacked rather than having his contract run down, you know it’s close to getting real ugly.

Ah good stuff, that’s him nullified so!! 😁

Mental decision in my opinion. Dyche is that club inside out. He has set up not just the players, the good defensive organisation and the solid tactics but the whole ethos and mentality of the club as a whole has been inter-twined with Dyche. If they were going down (which still was by no way a certainty) he would at least have them solid and with the majority of players still there he would easily have them near the top of the championship next year. Now though I can see them going for someone else with claims they want to play a more "expansive" game, cue them tumbling down the divisions as the whole setup there is not built for anything different.

I made the trip over from Ireland for this one so I feel I can give a decent critical assessment of the match! Utter dogshit! That is all!

Great topic! Christ what a missed opportunity. Champions of England, potential for many years at the top with a very strong core group of players, and then we decide to go and bring in a player from friggin' Darlington!! I forgot/never knew that we actually swapped Robbie Slater for Matt Holmes, Slater from what I remember was a really good player and if it was an actual swap I definitely think we got the raw deal. Perfect case of what might have been if we had a planned transition to a proven manager after Kenny (or if even Kenny would have given it one more year as manager until we find someone more suitable). Overmars, Zidane and a top defender, possibly Campbell would have seen us well set.

So it looks like we did make a bid for Dembele but the player himself wanted to go to Bournemouth for presumably much bigger cash. If we were the only team in for him I would be fairly certain he would have joined us, and I think the vast bulk of us would be more than happy with the window if he landed (with just the CM position being the only one not addressed). Have a proper dislike of Bournemouth after yesterday though. I have a feeling they went in for Dembele purely to keep him away from their rivals for promotion, I honestly cant see him having a big impact there, especially from the starting X1 (watch him prove me wrong now!). That combined with their pure d**khead pursuit of Rothwell which it seems the main aim was to unsettle him has rightly peed me off!! I would find it hilarious if it all backfired on them, which it may well do with trying to get all those players integrated. If it was the start of the season then yeh would say no problems there but with only 17/18 games left you wonder how long will it take them all to get on the same page.

Yeh definately agree with the above. Its really time for everyone to act like adults. Get Joe back in the team, tell him no hard feelings, it is what it is etc. The offer of the new contract from us is still there but if I was Tony I'd be going back to him and pushing that if he really wants to go elsewhere he has a perfect opportunity here to show it to prospective teams, get the head down and get us over the line for promotion. Could be thing that focuses the minds for all concerned. As you said as well Bar, perfect time to get the chequebook out aswell. We seem to be "glamorous" again! We are on Sky regularly, people are talking about Blackburn getting promoted and the romantic notion of us being back in the premiership. It does feel like we have the sails behind us and would really be pushing out that message. It is probably too late in the day though so opportunity unfortunately missed as far as that goes. After slating them forever though (and this may well go against the grain), fair play to the owners on refusing to budge on getting in a quick few million. Could have been the easiest option and then blame the player but they seemed to really want to hold out and were adamant on him not being sold

What a result last night, had us totally pegged for a loss especially with Rothwell being out. I do get what people are saying about Edun, defensively he does seem to be an accident waiting to happen. I don't know what he was playing at coming in from behind the Boro chap that could have led to their penalty. He seems to have a massive eagerness to get on the ball which was typified by the 50/50 challenge near the end. I love that he knew he was more than likely going to get clobbered but he didn't care, he was getting to that ball first. He would definitely strike me as more of a midfield player, where we could put that energy to good use without having to worry about him being potentially a last line of defense. In the Hull thread I absolutely lambasted Gallagher for his complete lack of effort. We all know he ain't the most technically gifted of players but putting the work in should be a given. It's only fair that I give him massive credit for last night, that was a proper shift he put in. You could see that the goal gave him confidence aswell, the run through from the right into the centre that nearly led to a chance for Johnson is something we havent really seen him do in some time. I'm surprised no one was mentioned it (apologies if someone has) but near the end Boro had the ball on the left and Gallagher legged it from the centre and put in a good tackle to keep them back. Again massive effort by him to try keep them up the pitch, so hats off to the man! Cant stop looking at the table. I keep getting this feeling that we'll eventually fall away and as each month goes by we're still here. Hell, its bloody February now and we are still hanging around at the top!!

Jesus that was a massively hard watch. Haven't read all the comments but I do agree with most of what you said above @Tyrone Shoelaces I posted after the Birmingham game naively thinking that this was a new dawn and citing that Mowbray had left Gallagher on the bench and stuck with the formation and players that were serving us so well. Unfortunately his first chance to make changes (suspension to Nyambe) has resulted in Mowbray shoe-horning Gallagher back into the team. When I first saw it I was of the mind fair enough, let him play up front and see how he does with Khadra and BBD playing off him. But of course no, Mowbray has to shunt him out to the sidelines yet again. It was shocking. And can I just say on Gallagher, I have always wanted to him to succeed even when a load of lads here were being fairly negative on him but by Christ he seemed the most dis-interested, unmotivated individual I have seen in some time. You would think given a rare start he would be chasing everything, coming short to get on the ball, look lively and try to make his mark to give the manager a headache. The fact he didnt even try is unforgivable. It was clear as day the 2 mids was not going to work from around 20 mins in. Mowbray should have pro-actively done something about it then, namely take off Gallagher and throw Davenport back into the middle. Also can I just say that I have never had any ill feelings against Hull, but after the shenanigans to get the first game postponed and then after their player basically bulled into Kaminski for the second goal I'm hoping for a long stay in Leagues one and two for them.

That’s the first thing I think of for a Rovers Wigan game. Even despite all the bad form since (never realised we have had such a poor record against them since). The word Thunderblaster was invented for that hit!!

I was reading through the thread prior to the start of the game and was noticing how confident everyone was and how pretty much all the media were tipping us for a win. Pretty much every year gone by, such a scenario would always have ended in a loss and I was feeling a tad uncertain around the 2:30 mark. Never thought we would slaughter them in the fashion we have. But everything about this just feels different. That glass ceiling of the top 6, which always seemed to be a world away has been well and truly smashed. Even things like team selection. Gallagher was back in the squad for this one, other years that would have meant shoe-horning him into the wide right position to hit pointless diagonals to him so he can head them out of play. Unnecessary change in system and personnel followed. This time Gallagher was rightly left on the bench in favour of the lads that were doing so good recently. The only change was one where Pears could rightfully feel hard done by after some really good performances but again Mowbray did the 100% correct thing of bringing back in our undisputed No1. Seeing out games, be it at 1-0, 2-0 or 4-0 seems to be such a non-event these days. Contrast that with earlier in the season where if any goal was conceded you were pretty much assuming more would follow. It really is just crazy at the moment, considering we all would have took survival generally at the start of the season this is just a stunning turnaround. Well done Tony Mowbray, the staff and the players!

Just signed up there myself, in fairness 10 quid for an annual membership is nothing at the end of the day. I think its a great idea and is definately something that should be pushed out to as many people as possible to become members. You'll obviously get the few numpties on Facebook and Twitter but there definately seems to be a majority from what I can see on Twitter that know we will be forever in a state of limbo with the Venkys owning us. Obviously with all of us here singing from the same hymn sheet as far as that goes I don't see any reason why we wouldn't all get behind it.

I wouldn't mind Ainsworth getting a shot, but to be perfectly honest I would take anyone getting a shot by this stage. Can you imagine the boost the club would get from a fresh appointment. Fresh approach, ideas, every player starting on a level footing. You have players that might be more keen to sign new contracts based on the new guy coming in if they show even a shred of initiative. I would hazard a guess you would get a fair few extra fans in through the gate aswell just to see the new start. You have fans literally leaving in their droves because of Mowbray, everything is stale, no ambition, excuses on a weekly basis. To be honest it again beggars the question how others would not see this but then I happen to take a look on the Facebook groups. Some of them there (not all in fairness, which I suppose is a sign things are turning), good Lord there is no words to describe then with their talk of Mowbray's honesty and "what more can we expect as a club" talk

Frustrating as hell. What sort of level of communication was there with these players agents over the summer, if there was any interest (and it was looking fairly likely they would not sign an extension here) they should have been sold then. This whole line that the money is not there is just ridiculous. Are we led to believe a contract offer to Nymabe or Rothwell will break the wage structure? They cant be on that much and I am assuming the likes of Gallagher and Dack (and possibly Ayala) are on around 15k (again pure guesswork on my part that)? If it really comes down to money, then it comes back to their ridiculous decisions of handing out contracts to players who did zero the last few years. Like what was the purpose of bringing back Downing last year, knowing we had more than enough players in midfield. Could that wage salary not have gone to any of these players to get them signed up earlier. Its a total shambles from a top to bottom, with zero accountability.

I felt we definitely needed a forward to replace Armstrong as I just can't see Gallagher or Brereton matching his 30 goal tally. They have started the season well and hopefully the loans that have come in means they will be used up top as opposed to the wings, but frankly who knows with the muppet in charge. Don't think any of us can rule out Poveda starting as the false 9 with our starting strikers back out on the wings, as utterly preposterous as it sounds! Now that we haven't brought in that forward, I would hope they go on an absolute splurge of contracts. They have the 15/18mil whatever it is, throw the extra bit at Rothwell and Nyambe to convince them to sign. Get longer contracts for Brereton, Kaminski and Lenihan. Tie them down so we aren't in the same position as we were with Armstrong and praying for someone to take him off our hands before he leaves on a free. Its mind-numbingly simple and you think it would be the first thing they would look at, but again logic and common sense just seems to be totally out the window with the shower in charge. Oh for a competent CEO that at least would actually see the benefit of retaining your assets!

In fairness, I think loans can be beneficial but only when its the final piece of the jigsaw so to speak. We took Eyal Berkovic here on loan, and you could argue that his additional input was what got us over the line for promotion back to the prem. The massive caveat to this of course was that we had a very sturdy structure underneath him. Good players that had prem experience, good coaches and a good manager. So the building blocks were already in place prior to us adding that x factor which could help us break teams down. It could be said that Harvey Elliott is nearly a like for like type of player, but the obvious difference is we are/were built on quicksand behind him and all through the dugout! Would much prefer we get our house in order first and be at least somewhat clever with what we do in the loan market, instead at the moment it seems to be basically used for filling out squad places and a total attitude of we'll worry about it some other time.

That’s what I find one of the most frustrating things about all this. At least if it was normal times we’d all be there and there would be zero doubt to Mowbray, Waggott, owners about our feelings about the manager. Nowhere to hide. The LT is probably the only mechanism for fans to get their feelings across to the club. Rich Sharpe in theory is supposed to be some independent journalist and he has a Twitter feed of constant anger against Mowbray, however he just seems totally and utterly gutless to put any sort of hard questions to the manager. If anything he is now complicit in pushing for the manager to stay another year. I remain hopeful that Mowbray will do the decent thing and step away as I always assumed he would if there was some regression, but his utter spin and self-preservation act in the last 6-10 months have shown him to be bordering on Kean-like levels to keep his job. If he is here next season the hope has to be that for the first few games of the season we get a good turn out to absolutely lay into the man. Absolutely don’t buy season tickets but get a good few for the first couple of home games and leave them in zero doubt about our thoughts on both Mowbray and Waggott

I was pretty much gone against Mowbray prior to the winning run, which I really didn't want to as I did want him to succeed as he does (to me anyway) seem like a genuine bloke. The home game against Wigan though confirmed for me that he will not take us any further. You are on the back of a winning run, at home with a bumper crowd willing you on against the team bottom of the table. This was his chance to prove something that no other manager has been able to do and at least show us he has the ability to get us into the playoffs. After so many bottled occasions under previous managers it was a chance to put in a real statement performance. Cement our place among the top teams, show the walk on fans that this is what we are about, show the Sky cameras that we are a legitimate contender in the playoffs. What we got was the one of the most abject and just lazy performances i have witnessed. For the life of me I just cannot understand why he didnt say to the players "right 100 miles an hour, get into their faces fast". Wigan are bottom of the table for a reason, any sort of pressure in the first 30 mins would have seen them buckle im sure. If we are gassed at the end of that then fine, make changes as needed. But no we seemed to be content to let them get the ball from the back, let them out under no pressure. Even when it got to midfield there was no one bursting a gut to get back and close out the opposition. It was all leisurely pace getting back, almost running back just to give the impression that some level of effort is being applied. Upon seeing a few matches on the box lately (which is rarity based on where I am located), the lack of urgency is just utterly ridiculous. It requires zero skill just a willingness to get to the opposition and not give time on the ball. Case in point even today for Joe Lolley's goal for Forest, Bell just a friggin' mile of him and in no way pushed to close him out, either tackle, intercept or at the very least put him under pressure when getting the ball in. For that reason alone (never mind the shambles of the Brereton/Gallagher signings) Mowbray has clearly shown this is as good as it gets. 12th place in the championship is the peak. From here we can only hope that he decides that he has taken us as far as he can in the summer and is happy enough to step away.

Long time lurker (back to the days of Jan, Rover6 et all), second time poster. Generally happy to read the more informed comments of others but just had to chime in on this to offer my two cents. Reason being how frustrating this whole thing is. For 90% of the time since they rocked up Venkys have been just utter toe rags, but if we were all told that over 3 windows they would front up 15mil for players we would be doing cartwheels. Mowbray has just systematically wasted that on fringe forwards for some bizarre reason and just totally ignored the spine of the team. At the very least you learn your lesson with Brereton, if you have a few million to spend at least throw it on an experienced player that can come in, hits the ground running and adds value to the team in a problem position. But no he spends it on someone who again is not guaranteed to start each game. As others have mentioned here 5m would have gone a massive way to sorting out the defence, instead it is ruined further by having to integrate a new keeper that is totally unfamiliar with our shocking back 4. I have always wanted Tony to succeed (still do), what he did to get us out of League 1 and bring the team and fans back together should never be forgotten (especially when you consider the difficulties other teams like Sunderland and Leeds had to get out of that division) but what he has done in the last two transfer windows has been a mess really, especially considering what he came out with at the last forum