rovers11

Diaz has booked his place in the prem next season with or without us. Today was a little cameo to show that he's more than ready.

JDT continues to work miracles. How we've beaten a prem league side with the team we put out is astonishing. I know West Ham made changes too but they had a strong side out.

He was brilliant when he came on

Phew

Good line up. Possibly our strongest 11 so no excuses today.

You think we have the second best squad in the league? Lost half our starting 11 in the summer from last season. Manager and Director of Football came in late. I thought bottom 8 this season.

Very poor night for us, I thought Coventry were far better and deserved their win. I don't think there will be a lot to cheer about at Coventry for the foreseeable future so I hope they enjoy the win. It's a miracle where we are in the league so I can overlook this poor result and performance. Hirst and Vale really not good enough.

Never looked like scoring in this game. Borefest.

Pinching myself. This is beyond all expectations.

I think we have a good enough defence to play that way. We were fortunate Chong hit the post though as then its a really tough game. Such fine margins in football.

Brilliant stuff. Soak up the pressure and hit on the counter. I can see a couple more goals in this for us.

Excellent win today. I know Boro are struggling but the Riverside is still one of the toughest places to go and get a win. I thought JDT got the starting line up spot on today and it was a brilliant first half display. Second half was tough but we stuck at it and didn't crumble. What a magnificent save from Kaminiski. Hyam once again showing why he was our best summer signing. The RB Jones for Boro was excellent when he came on. He tore Pickering to shreds.

Why has it taken 5 years to play Gally as a striker? Brilliant stuff. A Wharton is a Rolls Royce player.

Dack just doesn't suit the system we play. I always thought you should build a system around your best players but what do I know. He'll be off in January and who can blame him. He's too good to be on the bench and he needs to play regular first team football at his age. His career is slipping away, especially after already having had 2 years without playing football.

Boro need a win badly...and who is the perfect team to play in that situation? We're a soft touch away from home so a comfortable Boro win unfortunately.

I said this a few weeks ago and it becomes more striking each game that we don't have the forward players - Breo aside - to play the way JDT wants to play. None of them are very good tacticians and are very poor with the ball at their feet. They lose it 9/10 times. The only other attacker with an ounce of technical ability is Hedges, which makes it even more baffling why he's been shunted to RWB.

Downing has got it spot on there.

I think a 0-0 would have been fair. Wigan were awful too and only scored due to a poor mistake.

I gave up when we went one down. You know the result from there. I don't think we deserved to lose though.

One down and it's usually game over. We don't look like scoring.

Tomasson tombola again today. Hedges at RWB when we have Brittain is just bizarre.

JDT has his own career in mind too with the brand of football he wants to play. He wants to manage at the highest level, and why wouldn't he, and to do that he has to show he can not only get results but also that he can implement a passing style of football. There's a reason why a brilliant manager like Sean Dyche will never get a top job - his brand of football is poor despite it being effective. I agree that if we are to develop players with high value in the transfer market then we do need to coach them to be technically adept. You generally can't play at the highest level now unless you are good on the ball. Someone like Travis, for example, who I think is a top championship midfielder and brilliant at breaking the play up, will unlikely ever play top level football as he's poor on the ball. I agree with the vision of the club but I'm not sure tippy tappy football is in our DNA. Interesting to see that Swansea are now above us. They are probably the most possession at all costs team in the league and it seems to be working now.

I'm still fuming about last night. Not about the penalty miss, I would have been embarrassed to get a point with the dross we served up, but about the performance. It was horrible in every way. This possession at all costs football is great if you have the players to do it. But we're not Man City or Barca and this is not the champions league, it's the championship. Our tactics (whatever they are!), formations, and personnel change every game. Quite honestly we got away with it against Millwall because we won the game but that was a poor performance too and I still don't get the Hedges at RWB nonsense. The players look confused, the fans are bored, and the manager will soon run out of excuses. Not impressed. I don't feel like JDT will change his philosophy so I will be surprised if he lasts that long here. Outsiders will say that's crazy with us lying in 6th but us fans watch the team every week and can see where these performances are leading.

I was hopeful Hirst may look half decent when he pulled on a Rovers shirt. He doesn't. Bloody awful player.

Yup worst game of the season for us. That penalty miss in injured time confirms that. What a sucker punch. JDT I really want to like you as our manager but too many shocking performances.