The first half was a non event until the red card on the stroke of half time from a counter attack.

Pathetic performance again, a set of massively overrated players built by a manager who further handicaps it by not having a plan or a clue what he is doing anymore. Total lack of urgency at the end summed it up. Branthwaite is as far out of his depth as I can remember, dreadful signing. Kaminski seems suddenly indecisive, Lenihan a big upgrade on Harwood Bellis. Nyambe leaving will be a disaster, Douglas below par. Travis was ok, Evans steady, Rothwell mainly invisible as always, Elliott poor, Armstrong tidy with link up but no goal threat, Brereton scored a good goal in an average display. Subs totally bizarre, Trybull made no sense and was shit, and seeing Dack where he was again was an example of the manager not putting the players on with any structure. We wont go down, it will need maybe 2 more wins and a draw or 2, especially with Wednesday having points deducted, but its just desperately poor.

I disagree with the idea that Brereton needs to become a central striker, he seems to have found a role that suits him on the left. He is good at holding the ball up against slighter full backs but also with the space to drive forward and link play. He usually lacks that instinct to get into goalscoring positions though, he needs to improve that regardless of position. But I think his best position is the left hand side.

No, they are matter of fact. I am not sure if either option is in the clubs favour but even assuming they have, that makes 5 players with a year to go whereby we would either agree a new deal or probably be best advised to sell. 3 loanees unlikely to return plus hopefully the end of Evans. Do most managers pride themselves on the value of the team? I said even last season that I felt that this season was the precursor to a potential end of cycle rebuild necessary and I still think that So you keep saying but our best player wont get sharp on the bench or out of position.

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Clown was harsh I admit. Hes out of his depth at the moment as is Harwood Bellis with both very error prone at this tender age of their career. It rankles that we have opted for 2 kids on loan to try and rectify our issues hence my frustration.

One thing that Mowbray takes pride in is the value of the assets in the team. I look at todays team, 3 are loanees, 2 are players whose contract expires in the summer but with a year extension, another whose contract simply expires in the summer, Lenihan, Armstrong and Brereton are all I think out of contract next summer, leaving only Kaminski who has a year and a second year extension and Travis who has 2 more years. Hardly much long term value there.

The usage of Dack has been absolutely bizarre. He has played left wing, false 9 and CM, Mowbray has managed to find 3 places to use him out of position, he keeps putting him in and out, and he simply will never get fully match sharp doing that, which is what we need from our best player. Shame to see that clown at CB next to Lenihan.

There is no pointing hoping for a defeat, totally counter productive. There is absolutely no evidence that a loss would seal his fate and we need the points to avoid being dragged into a dogfight.

I do think too much importance is placed around what Mowbray says rather than what he does. In the last few weeks, we have tumbled down the league to the point where we are now as close to the bottom 3 as 6th, 10 places off our supposed minimum aim, with many of the same reoccuring problems on the field, inconsistent tactics, baffling subs, players out of position, strange team selections etc. Yet the majority of vitriol has been aimed at what he says post game or even how he behaves on the touchline and his general demeanour, the Nyambe comments were particularly curious (he was performing poorly, but the nonsense about fans picking the team less so) but in the main they have just been comments of a man who is clearly in self preservation mode. Its one of them, if we was winning, no one would listen to what the said afterwards. On the flip side, the comments following his Radio Lancashire interview on twitter underneath are sick inducing, its as if people have been won over by words and have forgotten how we are stagnating on the field.

Owen Coyle had a point to prove, not sure that is relevant.

No, he left. We do know, nonsense aside, that Mowbray (sadly) will be managing the team tomorrow.

What is depressing is that Venkys have made it so that it would be nigh on impossible to attract the manager of Barnsley. Barnsley are building a good young, balanced team and are right in play off contention. The thing is that Barnsley and numerous teams found these talented managers, we should be able to cut out the middle man. Hughes is purely a nostalgic suggestion based on 15 years ago, in a different league under different owners. Has many stains on his CV since too.

Still 80% that he isnt manager by 3pm tomorrow?

Even if we lose, do you think he will be gone? I dont.

With the attitude that the manager isnt going to be sacked, I may as well give up? Dont be so petulant. There is no indication that they care or are seriously considering dismissing the manager so there is no point getting your hopes up. They have not even attending a game in years and years. When can we expect Alex Neil's appointment?

He probably thinks he is capable of turning it around, if he has any self belief. And even if he doesnt, none of us would just give up a contract like that. The owners have the responsibility of sacking him and sadly they wont. I wouldnt get your hopes up, there is more chance of us winning the league this season than of Mowbray being sacked today. The owners wont know what score it was last night.

Presumably Alex Neil will be announced tomorrow.

What about the defeats to Preston, Barnsley and QPR?

Absolutely awful again. These 2 kids at centre back are equally dire and the Dack out wide scenario is the latest experiment that makes absolutely no sense. Mowbray out!

For them, even if they are well managed and especially at that age to be doing so well at that level yet so far away from the first team, would that not indicate that the very set up of under 23 football currently is not suitable to prime players for first team football? You mention Pike as one of the three stand outs, he wasnt even considered when all 3 of whom Mowbray considers to be first team right backs were unavailable, is that unnecessary reluctance on Mowbrays part or would he genuinely do worse than presumably Bennett tonight or Douglas at right back? Vale is another example but he cant get onto Rochdale's bench at the moment. This isnt in any way a criticism of Rovers, who obviously in recent years have churned many first team players out, I just cant get my head around why there is such a big gap between a mid table first team Championship squad, or even the first team of Rochdale in Vale's case and one or two other loanees at lower levels, and the under 23s, even when our group seems to be so dominant at that level? Again looking in from the outside, I have noticed quite a few times that senior players have played for us, Dack has, Ayala has, Evans has, Bennett has, Chapman has many times, probably one or two others, does that give a false league position or would that be unfair?

You would get any enjoyment out of random Man United fans taking an interest purely because we had Roy Keane as manager? Things like that shouldnt be of any consideration, just like with someone like Gareth Ainsworth shouldnt be appointed or prioritised solely for being a Rovers fan. Although he would have more merit in general solely on the job he has done at Wycombe, whereas after Keane's initial success at Sunderland, it went downhill both there and his job at Ipswich was underwhelming. I am unsure if he has the ability to man manage modern day players personally. And you dont need to offer an alternative, my point consistently is that it doesnt have to be someone from the same small pool of names, especially with the main experienced options being in employment at other clubs, and you dont need to necessarily have a suggestion of exactly who the potential new manager is, hence my examples of Ismael, Paunovic, Xisco, Farke and Frank as 5 names who nobody would have really heard of prior to their appointment, or indeed Cooper in the England youth setups.

Some of the conspiracy theories seem baseless at this point, but equally, like anyone, of course he is "bothered" about money, everyone is.

Why would getting support from Man U fans and Irish fans make a difference when choosing our next manager?! Or a couple of extra games on Sky? Or ore interesting press conferences? These arent determining factors in appointing a manager! We want Mowbray out because he cant take us forward, not purely out of boredom! We dont need a short term shock factor, we need someone who can push us on, maybe a more imaginative appointment of a lesser or unknown (to us) manager from Europe like many of the promotion favourites have gone down the route of, especially with the main experienced options (McCarthy Hughton, Warnock and Pearson) all taken elsewhere, then so be it.