Apparently the Indian illegal betting market is the biggest with over a billion being wagered in a single day more than 12 years ago.

Sticking to my guns- must not lose. Not losing to the club most likely to slip into the bottom 3 if we don't is absolutely paramount. The other fixtures see fellow travellers in distress either playing each other - Millwall v Birmingham QPR v Boro OR facing opponents at the top end desperate for 3 points - Wednesday v Leeds PNE v Stoke Huddersfield v West Brom So a point is unlikely to lose us ground to 22nd place. Incidentally, Brum v Boro which is those two sides' game in hand on everybody else is played on Tuesday night so we face Boro a week on Saturday after they have played two tough away games without having a midweek fixture ourselves.

I know Jon Dahl is youthful looking for a man in his late 40s but sitting on the under 16s bench!!!

There were a bunch of fees paid including 5m to the tantric agent (official no doubt plus plus) so cost of 43m is about the number I had in mind.

Sure the fixture list looks intimidating but the position Rovers are in makes us the sort of fixture clubs pushing for promotion really don't like. Plus the chances are we will raise our game with Carter, JRC and Hedges back from injury.... If you gave me a draw now or 50/50 win/defeat, I take the draw because Plymouth are one of the more likely clubs to do worse than us in the run in. So must not lose rather than a must win. Must win would be if we were starting on Saturday 2 points below 21st, not 2 points above 22nd. But of course a win would be very very welcome and apt compensation for playing them off Home Park and losing 3-0 under JDT. That Hedges miss!!!

With ten out injured, how can the argument be made the squad is not good enough?

Another must not lose. I understand the frustrations but this is the reality of our situation. We must not lose against fellow travellers in distress. I would like to see us taking more shots on the basis of if you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the lottery.

We are still deep in icky stick. But I think some of the negatives are over done. I will reiterate we are in the lap of the injury Gods. We shouldn't be but we are.. When I saw Leo starting my immediate reaction was Millwall shit houses were the last team I wanted to be facing but the reality they were neutralised for 90 minutes from putting Leo through the wringer. My guess is that protection contributed a lot to the perceived lack of urgency. There was a clear "don't lose the ball" instruction in operation after the Swansea debacle and we were good enough to reprise JDT ball and near 70% possession. Leo was rolling it out far more than Pears has been doing. People arguing there aren't at least two squads weaker than Rovers in the 11 clubs immediately above Rotherham haven't been taking much notice.

The game completely validated the point I made in the relegation thread. Our fate depends on Szmodics keeping fit and getting the injured players back and keeping fit. JRC and Carter in particular will bring qualities we were sadly lacking last night. Thankfully Pears being out didn't cost us last night although Pears would probably have stood up when facing that Millwall goal shot. That Millwall side were certainly no better than us and in the dog eat dog world of 2 going down out of 11 in danger (I am calling being within 6 points of a relegation place as in danger given the way both the previous 22nd and 23rd teams have put back to back wins together as had Millwall) there are definitely at least 2 of those 11 with clearly worse squads than Rovers.

2 from 11 to go down.

Szmodics Rovers

I wrote on a different thread that no senior heads rolling after a month (apart from JDT who was NOT responsible for the fax machine) meant that all three transfer deadline misses in the last two seasons were down to Venky's. This article in many words without actually saying so in reality pins the blame on Pune. For whatever reason- family bickering, inertia, idiocy, face saving making it worse, back door illegal betting, there must be other possibilities - Venky's have achieved: - wrecking the project which they could have adequately funded out of loose change by their standard of wealth before the Indian tax man came knocking - lost Rovers a chief coach who would have got us promoted - cost us Adam Wharton -got us a chief coach who might not save us from relegation - made Rovers 92nd out of 92 clubs any football club anywhere would want to have any transfer dealings with this summer and for the foreseeable future. I had hoped the first five years were a low point in Venky's tenure but we are back as a laughing stock shambles.

A fully fit Rovers squad should win this with a bit to spare. Injuries make this very even on paper so this becomes a Eustace v Harris head to head. Which coach has the better tactical nous and motivation skills. Eustace starts with a disadvantage with that accent which would deflate a helium balloon.

no

No prospect of injured players returning this side of the break so we are going to have to wee with the willy we've got. If only we had the fight and character of Souness' time at Rovers. Huge test of character tomorrow night.

If we have a fair run in with recoveries and no/few new injuries we will be fine unless Eustace is totally useless. If Szmodics and Pears get injured or suffer catastrophic loss of form and confidence, Eustace will have to be a miracle worker to keep us up.

When Garrett has a poor game, he is simply ineffective. When Moran has a poor game he is a 90 minutes liability or 45 minutes as we saw at Swansea. Millwall under Harris are physically intimidating and will target Moran. At least Garrett will send them home with bruised shins and egos.

Huge test for John Eustace's powers of management. Ordinarily we would expect a routine win but these are not ordinary times. Eustace has to earn his pay tomorrow night big time. And good luck!

If the dingles win every game from now in, they will get to 40 points. The only question left is whether we will make it double M65 misery...

It is an absolute must not lose. Thankfully not quite yet at must win although getting one win and two draws at least from the next three games is utterly essential. No our squad is not "shit". We would be fine with JRC, Hedges, Tronstad, Garrett, Barnes, Fleck and Leonard back in contention on Tuesday. But they aren't and we have a bit of a headache not least after the non-performances of Moran and Gallagher amongst others yesterday plus the return of the Pears flap... I would be looking at O'Riordan affording McFadzean a rest and either Ayari or Markanday in place of Dolan. We don't have an alternative to Gallagher who must be due the random bit of a good performance sometime soon. But above all, we need either Tronstad or Garrett back alongside Buckley. If they are not, Chrisene pushed into central midfield?

We have already played Rotherham twice- two 2-2 draws. The 3 point Rotherham bonus went to each of Bristol City, Swansea, Plymouth, Millwall and Huddersfield.

For the hell of it, I have taken the last 5 games form, extrapolated and added a bonus 3 points for each team with a Rotherham game yet to play. Here is 10th downwards (and it is down) Swansea 63pts Cardiff 61 Birmingham 60 Bristol City 59 Sheffield Wednesday 59 QPR 58 Huddersfield 55 Millwall 54 Sunderland 53 Plymouth 51 Watford 50 Middlesbrough 50 Stoke 50 Down on goal difference Rovers 45 Rotherham 19

Much as Dolan has improved, Markanday makes better decisions and I would start him in preference to Dolan.

Worth pointing out the injury situation which is suddenly as bad again as it was before Christmas. So very difficult to judge Eustace especially when there were spectacularly abysmal individual performances today no coach cancelled prepare for

Moran cost us that game. Little else to say.