Yeah, I didn't think Dolan had a bad half, to be fair. Gueye's goal gives us a chance of taking something in a game which Pears tried to throw away in the opening minutes. But, sadly, we know by now that he's got at least another couple of errors in him for the second half. We'll get to 2-2, but ol' shitbiscuit in goal will gift them a late one.

Honestly, you'd be a bit of a simpleton to be backing Pears at this stage. Consistently incompetent, gifts goals and costs us games. Play Michalski if Toth isn't much better.

Pears strikes again. He should not be playing for us. That mistake has likely cost us the game after 3 minutes.

Genuinely recognise 1 or 2 of that Derby team, whereas (barring Pears) we have a strong side out. Don't give them anything early and we should win this quite comfortably. Also, no Nyambe, thankfully.

I'm going to be completely honest, I stuck a fiver on Nyambe to be the scorer in a 0-1 defeat. It's 140/1 if anyone fancies backing the inevitable.

It's more a concern of the huge YoY increase in his salary & pension conts. This leads to questions around a conflict of interests and how he/the directors are incentivised.

So it's seemingly likely that Waggott has sacrificed our opportunity to get promoted for his own financial gain. I'd like to say I'm surprised or shocked. This must be addressed, at whichever fan forum comes next, no excuses.

Derby are shit and it's one that we should be winning. But the most Rovers thing imaginable will be a 1-0 Derby win, with Ryan Nyambe scoring his first ever goal, deep into injury time. We know from experience that Eustace will go into this home game with a negative 'just don't lose' mentality, so the best plan is to keep it tight and don't give away any soft opportunities for them. If we can do this, our (relative) quality will eventually show.

Agree with this, certainly on Garrett. I know a few don't rate him on here, but I started seeing more from him last year - he was more of a box-to-box player (as opposed to a disruptor) and chipped in with a few goals. This season should have been the one where he got more game time to see how he develops.

Agreed. It's no coincidence that we improved when Tronstadt came on. Also agree on a couple of posts on Dolan. Today he was effectively a disadvantage to us; did more to break up our attacks than any Norwich player.

Despite being skinny and shit, I'll die on the hill that Wahlsted has a much higher ceiling than Pears. Ismael seems a bright chap, I'm sure it won't take him long to figure out the glaring weakness in our first team.

I can feel how weak HP's handshake is from that image.

Might be onto something there. I was hooked as soon as JDT flashed a cheeky grin and said his first words. To be fair, are there less seductive tones than a Brummie accent? Possibly Scouse and Cockney a close joint-second.

I didn't mind his first brief interviews / comments, tbh. I always thought JE was droll and seemingly uninterested, just spouting buzz words in every interview. I could never put my finger on it, but I never felt like he was someone you could trust. Don't get that initial feeling from Big Val.

One of the biggest indicators of a toxic workplace is high turnover of staff. As far as football clubs go, I doubt we'd be beaten in that respect.

There's no way Pears plays first team football again, if I was picking the side. It's clear the defenders have zero trust in his abilities. Toth/Michalski Brittain Carter Hyam Ribeiro Travis Tronstad Dolan Cantwell Kargbo Gueye

Bookies odds have shifted heavily to favour Ismael - looks like something may have developed.

Yeah, but the point is, we'd not even spoken with Karanka. There's no basis to believe anything he writes.

Nixon had us appointing Karanka, following 2 non-existent interviews earlier in the week. If he genuinely knew what was going on, he wouldn't be writing gossip columns for the red tops.

I genuinely expect Waggott to walk away (ie retire) at the end of the season. It would make sense as to why no planning for beyond this season is taking place. The alternative is that he's completely incompetent in role and has literally no idea how to go about contract renewals. Gregg B was the last man to have any knowledge in this area, seemingly.

If that is real - as it seems it is - why are we treating senior professionals like high school students? And, more importantly why are 'Steve and Suhail' involved in something like this? Absolute amateur hour stuff. As for whoever described Pears as 'superb' this season is either on the wind up, or needs to pay their optician a visit. Yes, he's benefitted from a more organised defence for the most part of this season, but the mistakes have been present regular throughout (including poor positioning, reactions, as well as the literal mistakes). I get being positive and all that, but opposition single him out as our weak point for a reason.

I can't believe that we don't have better players in the Academy, or ones who wouldn't contribute more to the team.

He could have stood still and it would have stopped at his feet. So, literally, a cardboard cutout would have been more use.

We have an England Youth GK at the club, who is highly rated/regarded. Even if he makes mistakes in his early games, it can't be any worse than Pears.

You'd like to hope a new HC with any ability to judge a player would do the same. I take no joy in singling out any of our own players, but he is beyond incompetent and regularly costs us goals and matches. Enough is enough.