They didn't beat us last season.

League 1, apparently. Will still be here next season.

Dean Smith 😂

Played with a casual nature as if he was on his Playstation. (at 2am)

Really mixed feelings, hard to escape the feeling that a draw isnt enough and with such a hard run in, I am not very confident. Thought performance wise we were as good as I can remember in quite a while. The change to a midfield 3 gave Wharton a bit more freedom and he was excellent as was Morton who was so much better deep in a 3. Rankin Costello was phenomenal, talk of moving him IMO is misguided as he offers us such a unique threat from right back. Brereton has got a lot of unfair stick but he was unlucky with a couple of decisions and was a constant threat, the front 3 lacked ruthlessness but you would hate to play against them. Leonard did more today than Vale either does in the league. The question is what do we do on Saturday. I would be tempted to stick with the same middle 3 and front 3 although there is a temptation to put in either Thomas or Hedges and move Szmodics central behind probably Brereton. I think I would stick with the 3. I think Kaminski deals with that first better and I hope he comes back in on Saturday, he is a better keeper. The centre backs were shaky again and I would be tempted to put Scott Wharton in v Hull.

The standard in general is piss poor really. You look through some of the players on show for both sides and it shows why a play off push is not quite the potentially incredible achievement that some make out, even allowing for question marks within our own team.

Does anyone know how ticket sales are going?

He hasn't scored for a while, not the player he was a couple of years ago.

He scored in all 3 games before the international break to be fair.

He was, including the likes of Aaronson, Adams, McKennie, Kristensen and Wober who he had managed in the past.

Is Kaminski only competent? He was excellent prior to his wobble pre injury when it later emerged via Tomasson that he had been carrying it prior.

Brereton scored 3 goals in the week before the international break, it is very difficult to justify dropping your top scorer. I think the key is having him closer to goal.

The Johnson and Gallagher examples are often quoted but not to justify them, one was a bizarre 45 minute experiment and the other was for about 10 minutes mid game between tactical changes. It is more that the aim should be to finish above last season. Obviously the squad isn't exactly the same but the key difference is the manager. And I would definitely prefer Tomasson in the dug out over Mowbray. I think a big disparity in our opinions comes not from me rating our squad miles more than you do as I don't, it has limitations 100%. I think I have a much lesser opinion of the quality of the league as a whole. You look at Luton in third and it is a team cobbled together of journeymen. You look at Millwall and they are similar, Preston have had no investment for years and they are 2 points away, Coventry are up there with us even though we nabbed their best defender due to their problems. I also think that as we stand in the play offs with us having 7 games to go and that is even allowing us to have lost our last 2, that it would be a huge frustration for us to fall away again. It would also heighten a potential mental block whereby even if we were up there again next season, we would expect to fall away.

I don't think we have any right to finish higher than 8th. I just don't think the situation was as much of a mess as you are making out. He had 2/3 of a side that finished 8th and we paid money to replace the out of contract players. I do recognise the limitations in general, the owners have never reinvested the Armstrong money partly to compensate for how poorly the club is run and Broughton (and the owners) failed to get him an experienced midfielder and striker that he needed. I also don't think that the way we set up last season was necessarily designed to get the best out of Brereton. But as a counter attacking side that played a front 2 with Brereton playing in between that left side that he likes but still central enough to regularly score goals, it suited him down to the ground. The 4231 this season has often had him as a second left back. I feel like you are unable to look past seemingly a hatred of Mowbray, as if Brereton's goals were a mixture of total luck and some sort of divine intervention spending a few weeks with the Chile squad. He was a decent manager who had taken us as far as we could go and was replaced by Tomasson who I see as an upgrade.

It didn't flatter us, you don't get flattered based on your league position across a whole season. This idea that a couple of weeks training with Chile and a manager he couldn't speak the same language as is absolutely crazy. Obviously he took confidence from that but he had become much better the season prior. He continued with that progression and last season Mowbray found a tactic that suited him. Even this season when the system perhaps hasn't suited him as much he has been our main goal threat.

Took over in 16th, finished 17th. Then was struggling in the following season hence the sacking.

I can't fathom how you can be so emotionless firstly as to not be gutted when we lose an FA Cup quarter final that we led in going into the last 10 minutes, or even slightly worried off the back of 2 league losses that history will repeat itself and we will fall away. If we do win on Monday, people will be lifted.

He does have experience of the Premier League, bad experience! Having experience is no good just on its own. Leicester should get Steve Kean as he has experience of the Premier League.

Its irrelevant how those points were picked up, we finished 8th and accumulated 69 points over the course of the season. We won 5 out of 6 prior to the international break as opposed to the 6 out of 6 we won prior to new year last season, no one would ever cut this years run of form out. Kaminski, Pickering, Brereton, Gallagher, Wharton, Travis and Buckley were all regulars last season, not even factoring in Ayala and Dolan. The 3 out of contractors were replaced to the cost of £4m ish in the summer. We also didn't have Carter here last season, he is a different player after a loan spell in League 1 where he excelled. Dack wasn't fit to start a single game last season. We also have signed a couple of extra loans. We also crucially replaced a manager we all agreed couldn't push us on with an upgrade.

Exactly. Unsubstantiated gossip that doesn't add up. Literally just parroting what Tomasson has said. It wasn't a mess. It finished 8th, and the 3 players that left with no return were then replaced with 3 signings for whom we paid fees for. Brereton having the season of a lifetime wasn't some freak occurance, he had massively improved the season before but we played a tactic last season that got the best out of him. Tomasson has struggled to play a way that is quite as suited to him but he is still easily our top scorer and he has still been good enough to earn a move to a top La Liga club. We all agreed that Mowbray needed to go, he couldn't take us any further and the point of Tomasson was to take us on to that next level. As the table stands, barring another collapse, we are in the top 6 which would be doing just that.

I was very downbeat after Sheffield United. We were 10 minutes from Wembley and we couldn't see it through. Point being, even if you are perpetualy "positive." Surely you can at least slightly understand why people are concerned and fearful. Most of the same players were here when we fell away last season. We nearly got to Wembley and we let that slip away at the end. Now, we have been in the top 6 for most of the season and now have lost 2 on the bounce (with poor performances to boot) since the 2 week break. It is understandable why many are fearful that we will again throw away a good position as we approach the final hurdles. If we win on Monday, the mood will change massively. But as it is, so close to the end of the season after 2 losses and with recent disappointment fresh in the mind, the fear and concern is understandable. I know the support was good. I don't get why you needed to mention that people need to get behind the team, that is already happening.

Hasn't been a lucky general in his first 3 jobs. Well, aside from being lucky to actually get the jobs.

They do need a manager, but ideally one who is competent, not one sacked for doing a shit job at a relegation rival. I don't know, can't proclaim to have a knowledge of managers especially across Europe. But there has to be a better option. If there isn't until the summer, get Big Sam in to keep them up.

Most of the squad is the same as last year, with some changes (Hyam for Lenihan, Brittain for Nyambe, Szmodics for Rothwell) admittedly. If we fall out of the play offs this season and have a similar season to last season, say we finished 8th again. Both of the last 2 seasons would represent solid seasons in terms of league position, but hitting that same ceiling of not being able to see through a very good position. But how could we expect anything different to happen even if we were again doing well come this time next season? Even with a couple of extra players and maybe a couple more graduates. I don't get why people expected us to be lower down this season with a similar squad and a manager who we brought in to push us on.

😂 some of the decision making at the top of even big Premier League clubs is truly remarkable.