We've struggled against teams that "park the bus" going back to League 1 days. TM has no idea how to overcome it. Playing a couple of genuine wide players in their correct position would help.

TM is starting to sound like the rumbled villain in Scooby Doo at the end of every episode. "If it hadn't been for those pesky teams trying to defend against us and make life awkward, we might have won the game!" (Swag) "How dare they Tony. Very unsporting. Never mind here's a new 5 year deal to ease the frustration."

Yes. He was ordinary as opposed to being out and out garbage. Probably worth about one tenth of his £5m fee. At a push.

Does it matter? Mowbray definitely isn't working out at Championship level, or the man to take us forward. It's been obvious for 2 years now. A new man might or might not be an improvement. but why stick with someone who definitely isn't the answer?

Last season was last season. Nevertheless, with half the season gone this time round, we'very only scored once at home in the first 15 mins and that was an equaliser! That would very much tend to support JH's original assertion that we don't blow sides away at home.

Much as I like Bowyer, Mercer was correct about him and we we right to sack him weren't we? Or are you saying Bowyer should still be in charge?

Can't for the life of me understand the logic of "giving him until the summer". At seven points adrift already surely we are at the point of no return as regards any faint play off hopes, so why wait until say the end of Jan by which time any aspirations we might once have harboured have usually been extinguished? And even if we leave it to the point by which it is too late to salvage anything for this season, surely it would still be better to make a change with say ten games left to give a new man the chance to assess things properly in time for next season? Or am I missing something?

Yes, must have missed that one. They really do give Mowbray a free pass at the LT. "Ressurect any lingering hopes of making the play offs" is more accurate.

I used to write the LET Column as well and I'm broadly in agreement with Jason. There may be fans out there that are happy to tread water (anecdotally my experience is the opposite and that attitudes are starting to harden towards Mowbray from former supporters of his) but even if they are of that opinion and are entitled to it, that doesn't mean to say they're right. To my mind unless the Club is constantly looking to improve and is striving for success there is no point being here and we might as well turn the lights off. Might happen anyway if the debt gets much higher. Then we can leave it to the likes of Accrington Stanley to allegedly overperform and do better than originally expected.

It's a fair question though, and the reason he keeps having to ask it every season is surely a sign the manager habitually underperforms year in year out!

It really isn't. Of our five goals in the first 15 mins this season three of them came in the same game against Derby!. One of the others was a pen against Coventry after they'd had a man sent off and the other one was an equaliser in the third minute against Reading! When Mowbray first came I'm sure he said his aim was to stay in games until half time and then take it from there second half. He's probably twigged that isn't a very popular point of view so he hasn't mentioned it recently but home games were exactly the same under Gary Bowyer. It almost wasn't worth turning up until 4p.m. To me this is no good at all. Its hard enough to win games over 90 mins let alone 45.

You'd hope so, but if they ask Waggott for his advice, what do you think the response would be?

Yes. Piss off Steve. When he saluted the commitment of the 2500 heroes who renewed their season tickets he omitted to mention that they did it despite him raising prices by up to 25% for a season when they couldn't even attend. When he takes a small reduction in his salary to reflect our reduced income, when he gets round to not raising prices in the middle of a pandemic when most are struggling financially, when finally he gets round to renewing the contracts of our better players, when he finally starts offloading deadwood like Evans and Bennett and not hailing their potential return, when he sacks his useless mate and when we stop hearing comments like the Club were expecting a quiet transfer window in January........... then and only then might we start to believe that he shares the same hopes and expectations of the fans and that we are actually "in it together". The one thing I do agree about is the commitment of the owners, but sadly it's going to waste as they're having the wool pulled over their eyes by these two.

Armstrong isn't the world's best striker, if he was he wouldn't be here, but I find the criticism of him fairly bizarre. The problem isn't Armstrong, it's the manager. We have the players to unlock opposition defences, Nyambe, Holtby, Elliott, Rothwell, Dolan, Chapman, Brereton, Dack, Armstrong, the problem is Mowbray and his his preference for playing a redundant extra holding midfielder and his obsession with meaningless possession moving the ball about sideways and backwards at snail's pace whilst the opposition regroup behind the ball and taking four or five passes where one or two would do. We'll get nowhere with Mowbray in charge. I think we could sign Messi and Ronaldo and he'd manage to find a way to make them look ineffective. Suggestions we need a target man are incredibly wide of the mark. We simply need to ditch Gallagher, put players out wide who can actually play in the position and move the ball far far quicker. As LD Rover said about yesterday, we look like we're playing a testimonial match most of the time.

Rubbish. He's been consistently left out in his time here to accommodate Bennett and JRC and was even sacrificed for Buckley the other week. Mowbray obviously doesn't rate him highly enough and because he doesnt recognise his talent hasn't made renewing his contract a high enough priority.

Generally whenever we've played well we've only played with one defensive midfielder. When we've played two, or one plus Holtby in the same role, we've been rubbish. Various posters cottoned on to this a few weeks ago but Mowbray doesn't seem to have realised this.

Never a truer word spoken. Case in point Rhodes at his peak here. Apparently it was his fault the team weren't performing. Nothing whatsover to do with Jason Lowe and various other dollopers who were in the side.

You accuse us of being predictable but want us to funnel the ball forwards towards a target man to "bring others into play"? Was there a bit too much Christmas sherry left over from yesterday? 🙂

This. It isn't rocket science and football is quite a simple game when you get down to it. You have to play players in their right positions and work harder than the opposition at making yourselves space and denying them space. The only thing I slightly differ on is I don't think Gallagher would be particularly effective up front either. Shouldn't be starting anywhere on the pitch.

If anyone from India is reading this, please make a change of manager now to give us a chance of salvaging something from this season and of avoiding a third consecutive wasted season like the last two.

We definitely don't need a target man. Name a successful side that plays like that these days.

To be fair to the owners they've supported Mowbray admirably since we were relegated. I think the major urgency comes from the fact that due to the short-sightedness of the manager and Chief executive Nyambe will probably walk for nothing in summer, Elliott won't be here after this year, and there must be a major chance we'll lose the likes of Armstrong, Dack and Travis due to the absence of any progress under Mowbray. Meaning that this year could represent the best chance of success for a very long time indeed. Or at least it might under a half decent manager.

Was going to say the same. At least Murphy possessed some ability.

If Carlsberg did Boxing Days........

All correct apart from the fact on this occasion we didn't win. Bit better after the subs due to the individual talent of those coming on but pretty dreadful overall. Pretty disgraceful really that as against Rotherham we need to go a goal behind to get any sort of reaction. But I guess the cry from the apologists will be "only 5 points out of the play offs". And on we limp.