Cant imagine Potter staying long at Chelsea at this rate.

I don't see why we would not keep Dack, he is still so important. He is our most dangerous attacking option contracted into next season (if we activate his option) and he has been back to his old self. He is better than Szmodics, he offers goals and he also offers leadership. For an attack that already will require major work, why would we create more for ourselves?

The getting up to speed argument is a seperate one and is perhaps somewhat justified although Wharton is far from up to speed and has barely played many minutes all season, so there is inconsistency there. But Burnley have Josh Brownhill who is good enough, I doubt they would turn down De Bruyne though!

QPR are a really poor team but so are Rotherham, Wigan and Cardiff and we lost to all of them and we have only won 6 away games out of 18. Todays win and the manner of it was important as it looked like a play off chaser swatting aside a much lower team. 7 of our remaining 12 games are at home where our record is excellent but they include some tough games including Burnley, Sheff Utd, Norwich and Luton. Away from home we have Birmingham, Huddersfield and Stoke and we have to look to replicate what we did today and try to give us at least a bit of margin for error.

O'Brien would be comfortably our best midfielder so I can't see the downside of the potential scenario of a player coming in, helping us to a lucrative promotion and signing a long term deal as our best midfielder.

Has he ever played for Wigans under 23s? He has played the full game most of the time he has been available.

How can him being potentially the difference between the play offs and not be "not worth all this faffing about?"

It isnt by design. Ross Stewart got a bad injury and Ellis Simms was temporarily recalled with the expectation that he was to go back upon Everton signing a striker. Do Coventry?

I dont think he would ever become a player who would suddenly start regularly getting into those positions.

But if you can get a player who is better than all 3, surely you dont say no to an upgrade?

He quite clearly is not a "rank bad full back" hence why he was a regular part of us finishing 8th last season. Brittain has been good and Rankin Costello has been outstanding since he came back, an unexpected turn because he never played anything like this before. Seems like an attempt at saying "I told you so" by massively exaggerating, including adding a supposed insider view.

Really good win and a performance that was far more dominant than recent weeks which made it doubly enjoyable to watch. QPR are woeful hence a record of is it 1 in 19 but there were bits of play from us on another level. Rankin Costello the star of the show, that bit of skill and then composure for the cross for the third was brilliant. All of the defence were good and protected Pears aside from a poor clearance from Carter for their goal. Travis again very good and his pass to set up Szmodics was outstanding, and a good finish by Szmodics who was bright. Buckley played pretty well too aside from dawdling again once or twice, plenty of good work. Gallagher wasnt outstanding in terms of general striking play but he did the most important part of a strikers game by getting into positions for 2 tap ins. Dolan is better wide, Thomas the least effective player on show for us.

Or most likely new owners and a total change of thinking at the top.

You are assuming that there must a hidden reason why Adam Wharton doesnt play. It hasnt crossed your mind that Tomasson may not always judge selections correctly as it is obviously subjective. Whereas when people say that we may get financial penalties for not including Morton in squads, that is a "conspiracy." Morton or Adam Wharton for the squad? Buckley's performances have dropped this season and IMO he isnt suited to playing so deep. Adam Wharton has not played that often but more often than not has stood out.

How was it the best he could do?! It might be for Morton specifically but he was through on goal and missed the target, how is that the best anyone could do? Our overall goals conceded per game this season is actually higher than last season, and we lost one game 7 nil last season. But we are keeping more clean sheets in general so its more jekyll and hyde.

Yeah must have done, it cant possibly be that Tomasson doesnt have perfect judgement! Would you have Wharton over either Morton over Buckley? (I expect a cryptic retort about form and fitness but how would you rank them in terms of how much you rate them at this present moment?)

I wouldn't get any pleasure from showing up the EFL or causing a change in any processes. It won't cause any consolation to me if it means that we only get the player for not far off half of the games we wanted him for and we have even acknowledged some internal issues so we have still been partly responsible for this fiasco following a move so late in the window. It also from our point of view overshadows a transfer window that was a failure for reasons beyond the O'Brien mess.

I do get that and I do think that even if he signs, we carry an element of responsibility regarding the failure to sign him from Feb onwards. That being said, he would be a massive improvement on our current midfielders and we are 4th in the mix for the play offs so still worth pursuing.

I can't see Adam Wharton playing much this season, he has put in a number of good performances (not just Blackpool, think Boro away, Birmingham home, Hull away, Stoke home off the top of my head) and more than Buckley or Morton but Tomasson doesn't seem to like him. That being said, @roverandout O'Brien was arguably the best midfielder in the league last season. Think you implied before that you hadn't seen much of him but they are incomparable.

I looked the other day and we have actually conceded more per game this season than last season, so we haven't actually improved defensively. That being said, we have conceded 17 amidst 5 games which is obviously worrying in itself but that also means that only Coventry (surprisingly) have more clean sheets than us. Our main strength up until late December was our organisation when holding on to leads which was exemplary. Then suddenly within a month or two, I can think of 10 points (Sunderland away, Boro home, Bristol City away and Watford away) where we have thrown away points. Hopefully we are back on track defensively which has been our strength under Tomasson in general, and hopefully he can fix the other end where we have struggled to create chances all season. No problem with the type of finish? An unconvincing prod spinning slowly away from goal. Either way, Morton as an attacking midfielder was a strange choice I felt.

His first touch took the ball too far left and the technique he went with was poor in that it was always spinning away from goal. The sub and utilisation of Morton was strange. I get that we have limited options but surely Hedges was a better option, or even if Morton comes on, you push Buckley on where he has played most of his Rovers career.

It was more than he isnt really much if any better this season specifically under Tomasson who like Mowbray has had him in and out of the side. I quoted the poster who mentioned Elliott because I feel that the 3 that regularly played that season merited a place in the side more than him. I don't think that Mowbray mis managed him as has been suggested. He finished his second of 2 seasons under Mowbray as a better player albeit not one who warrants a place week in week out. I also thought his general game last night was poor aside from his fantastic finish. Some of the tendencies that have improved since his debut (too many stepovers, poor decision making etc) were back on show yesterday but if you get the winner then it understandably overshadows it. It wasnt a massive criticism of him, I just think that the reason throughout his Rovers career that he hasnt been a total regular is because he hasnt made himself undroppable due to inconsistent performance levels. But he definitely has something to offer and I have been calling for him to be played wide for weeks rather than up top which doesnt suit him. Hopefully he will become more consistent over time and start to justify a place every game.

I don't think that Dolan has merited a regular spot throughout his time here, in that first season we had Armstrong, Brereton and Elliott as our front 3. I do think that he did develop somewhat under Mowbray and he was handled well, and he hasn't personally kicked on really under Tomasson. Last night saw most of his poor tendencies as I mentioned but in general he doesn't do as many needless skills as previously.

I think it was because it fell on his right foot, shocking decision though.

And if you read my posts over the last 24 hours, I have said numerous times that it is about results and I have praised Tomasson for that. His football can be effective over the course of a season AND not often entertaining, and I have made it clear which is more important.