Do we genuinely think that Venkys listen to a 20 minute segment on the EFL podcast?

You cant judge managers based on win percentages, otherwise youd think that Arteta having Arsenal in mid table is better than a manager keeping a terrible team in a league.

I feel like the main problem is that you are essentially dismissing the potential of any potential success and indeed the manager meeting his self inflicted targets of a play off push because you have lost all hope. There are so many factors that ensure that we are not merely a club and Mowbray is not a manager fighting a losing battle as a minnow against the giants. One of the main ones is that many if those with higher budgets are not ones whereby the money is freely available to the manager. 2 of the 3 relegated sides and indeed some of those with parachute payments have higher wage bills, but a large chunk is taken up by high earning players who are unwanted. A big example is Stoke, they have Wimmer, Ince, Bauer and a few others on massive wages who are of no use, the side they put out the other week v us had numerous loans, frees and academy graduates with only Allen of any use from the Premier League days. So is their higher wage bill putting them at a massive advantage? No. Was Bowyer at an advantage when he came in and we had a bigger budget that included Murphy, Etuhu and Best on the books? There are teams like Reading and Swansea who are well above us with managers who have had far less time and no more in the way of resources which undermines the point. Swansea have had to sell key assets including Rodon and build with loans, frees and a 600k signing from Wigan. This is before we consider the primary advantages that Mowbray has had, time and no need to sell anyone.

The signing of Kaminski is undoubtedly a good one and has been judged as such. I dont get why you need to qualify your comment about Ayala on the flip side by making out that it is easy to judge in hindsight. You could then say with Kaminski, its easy to say hes good with hindsight but it was a risk signing him! All contracts and indeed all transfers do carry a risk as you touch on but the manager is in a position whereby he is judged without getting to put any poor signings down to a lack of hindsight at the time. Indeed his recruitment in the summer was typically mixed, one very impressive keeper, one outstanding loanee and then a lot of question marks and doubts. Very true, but the forum and peoples opinions dont have to be on hold to them. And many would suggest that based on us continiously being well off the pace of the top 6 throughout the last 18 months that it goes against what we have seen to date which is all we can go on that we will make it.

What is the point if promotion is an impossibility anyway? But he didnt say that anyway, football isnt based solely on budgets and Mowbray has plenty of advantages over many rivals. More time than anyone else to build, no major sales forced through his time here, no big earners and/or bad influences rotting on the wage bill sapping up resources which makes direct comparison unfair that he has still under contract that he has inherited, a very healthy and competitive budget.

Thats nonsense. The target at the start of LAST season was a top 6 finish, publically declared by manager and players alike. We finished 11th, miles off in the end, a mere 3 points better than the season prior in which we went on a truly awful run with a side the manager admitted were "given a chance" following promotion, and never really were ever in the running for the top 6. Players including the captain acknowledged a failure to meet target, but I think there was a level of understanding in that no one ever expected us to get into the top 6. Whether the improvement was enough was a different matter. This season, the top 6 aim was really pushed home again in the summer, more signings made, many with promotion experience, no sales, and a lot more belief and expectation. Unfortunately it has been a season not only that has got progressively worse, but another in which we havent really ever been in the running for the top 6, which was our aim. 2 wins away is not particularly close, and it is not based on the expectations of a good start, which itself was brief, but the expectations set out 18 months ago and re-iterated 6 months ago, on the back of further recruitment and no sales. The fact that we are the top scorers is irrelevant, it is where we are in the league that matters.

Obviously the result is the most important thing and why people are happy, but if the attitude is merely to take the result, dismiss any further analysis and "forget it" then why have a forum and match threads?

Why sign a young goalkeeper as a number 2 when he will spend his time on the bench?

The rumour was that Mowbray had lost communication with the owners after choosing his own signings over the ones recommended. I never assumed that the rumour was true, I was just saying that if it is, I do not feel comfortable with people potentially putting players on Mowbray against his will, and have always been insistent that the manager should get the final pick of players. I am very skeptical of this rumour at this point. I have always worked on the assumption that Mowbray has had final say on signings, nothing he has said has suggested otherwise and indeed the supposedly revamped scouting network only allows him further scope to sign different players. I also havent necessarily criticised the players specifically from being signed from old clubs, it is not uncommon as you say. I try and judge the signings on their individual merits. Kaminski for example is a very shrewd addition thus far, Pears has not impressed and seems miles away, and Ayala was a signing that excited me but various factors, ie his injury proneness which seemingly went undetected in medical checks, the duration of his contract, the way we play which I feel exposes him physically and him being a sole addition at CB has made the signing a rather poor one so far.

If the rumour is true that there is trouble based on Mowbray choosing players ahead of those recommended to him based on data then it further strengthens my belief that such a system can prove to be more trouble than its worth. If players are signed despite Mowbray not wanting them then I would like to think that he is enough of a man to resign and he would probably win any claims against the club as we have seen elsewhere before. Not sure on Pickering (all I have seen is "data" and videos that can make anyone good) but Goode has barely played for Brentford.

No idea where such an impression comes from. One thing is for sure, he wont get sacked after a win.

I definitely agree that he meant no malice but the rule book says this and I dont think we can argue that it was anything but: A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play. Also, I am also sure that it went out yeah, it looked like it. You would need a sideline view to be 100%, as you would with the offside, as maybe a slight part (a toe, a shoulder, whatever) of Armstrong was offside. But both seemed wrong to me. Difficult that, how do you really enforce that? You cant do any more than encourage it and I doubt there would be a sudden influx, and even so, it would take a bit of time. And there would still be a large element of error even if they were former players as things get missed, thats human error.

The constant stream of poor decisions does create a conundrum that I cant really see an answer for. The only answer that could make an obvious major difference would be VAR and even if it is financially viable, I suspect that it would not be overly well received. So the question becomes, the sanitisation of VAR or many wrong decisions? I personally dont like VAR but it may become inevitable.

I have been a huge critic, he was invisible again today and seems well off the standard for a Championship side. But NO ability and out of making a living from football within the next 3 years? I know you are famed for your hyperbole but that seems a stretch even for you.

Did you think that Douglas was awful? I dont think he is brilliant but I thought he was the better of our 2 full backs today, was far less exposed definitely compared to Nyambe and good on the ball. He has been poor overall although has put in a couple of half decent performances lately and is definitely better than Bell. There has been a lot of mention for Pickering, Mowbray denied any knowledge of a bid although if it is true that we have turned our nose up at a couple of hundred thousand then it is really poor. But has anyone seen much of him play over the course of 90 minutes? I've seen a lot of analysis on miscellaneous stats, things like interceptions, crosses, runs all of which mean nothing in isolation, and little highlight videos, but has anyone seen much of him over the course of 90 minutes? Not that it would take much to improve us at left back and indeed a permanent, young and seemingly promising left back would be good longer term.

If that is the reason then it is is misguided because he was not at all to blame for Dack's injury. It endangered the safety of an opponent so I believe it should have been a red card, intention aside, although someone may correct me on the interpretation of the rules. Dack is at his best in the final third, Armstrong was again isolated today and the balance of the midfield was poor. Next week we should play Dack off Armstrong, and then the question is Travis and either Davenport or Holtby for me. In that last game, we also scored a goal whereby it seemed that the ball went out of play. There were 2 decisions in that game, one going for and against us that seemed almost certainly (no camera angle from a perfect view seemed available for either) to be have been incorrect. People are going over it because it was critical to the game, a major moment and of course something that has caused massive waves in the post match reaction. We would rightly moan if that had gone against us so we shouldnt ignore it if it goes for us, as much as we are glad it did.

Would you agree that we should have conceded a penalty and a red card and were very lucky today? Also, does Dack's cameo change your opinion on building around him as a number 10?

Totally invisible, it isnt just his lack of stature that prevents him from making a mark on tough Championship matches. We dont need him in regards to midfield numbers with Travis, Davenport, Holtby, Johnson, Trybull, Downing, Rothwell and Evans. Loan him out and re-evaluate in the summer.

Really pleased to get a win and a clean sheet against tough opposition. Lucky and not a good performance but at least we got that win. Lets not beat around the bush, we were very lucky with the decision and the game would likely be totally different had we gone down to 10 men and they been given a penalty as should have happened, embarrassing on behalf of the official and to be understand I understand why Warnock was so angry. Mowbray got the midfield balance wrong, not for the first time. The initially selected 3 obviously didnt get much time before Johnson's injury, I thought that Travis was a bit more like himself but still not great, at times he played poor passes/made wrong decisions and I was wondering whether they were down to rustiness or just the limitations in his game. Davenport was fairly underwhelming and we failed to gain any control of the game until after the goal. On to Buckley and he was literally totally invisible. Unfortunately he shouldnt be anywhere near the squad, he doesnt impact on games and its an area where we have Travis, Davenport, Trybull, Downing, Evans, Johnson, Holtby etc so we dont even need him to add to the numbers. Get him out on loan and re-evaluate upon his return as to whether he thrives and develops, whether he needs further time out on loan next season or indeed whether it is best for him to make a name at a lower level permanently. He just looks totally lost. Too much unfair criticism towards Armstrong again about his greed. I think that one extreme example v Bristol City has tarnished his reputation, he does shoot a lot in general but he also scores a lot of goals, hes the top scorer in the league. He is going through a dry patch (is it 2 in 10 and 2 games without so its not horrendous) and looks lacking in confidence but he took 3 shots today, none of which he made the wrong decision by shooting. The first was a difficult one early on, the second was clearly a man lacking in confidence and the third lacked composure, but im sure he will return to form. He was chasing the keeper down every time and his work for the goal was excellent, hold up play he isnt famed for but a lovely touch and perfect ball to Elliott who also was again very quiet aside from yet another assist. The pair offer a threat even when they are out of form. Rothwell was also invisible but pleased to see him get a third goal which I think is his best ever League return which shows you where the frustration comes from, hopefully the contributions will become more consistent. Dack's cameo was really, really pleasing and exactly why I keep saying that we should start him and get him fully fit ASAP and playing as a number 10. He makes such an impact in that final third and makes us so much more dangerous, some great hold up play himself and one or two superb passes. Defensively, we were much more solid led by Lenihan who deserved his man of the match, he was colossal at the back. Branthwaite doesnt convince me based on todays showing, lucky both with the penalty incident and taking too long on the ball not long after. Nyambe was below his usual standards and let them in a couple of times, I thought Douglas was the better of the 2 full backs even if he isnt totally convincing, defended much better and also better on the ball than Bell could ever dream to be. Am I convinced about him for the rest of the season? Definitely not but in recent weeks he has been a bit better. Kaminski has an aura of reliability behind and gives us the security we need.

That will have to change because I can only imagine what Warnock will say at the end!

He also led to us conceding a free kick on the edge of the box by messing about. I think he looks very shaky.

If that is true, as "they" is rather cryptic. Their judgement is hardly much to base things on looking at how things are progressing!

Should have been a red card. Endangering the safety of an opponent.

Absolutely dreadful watch again, offering nothing. So, so lucky not to have conceded the most obvious penalty ever. One to remember next time we play the woe is me act. Branthwaite in general has been poor, he looks like a kid who has barely played any senior football strangely. Lenihan has been for me the only player to come out of that half with any credit. The sub of Buckley was totally bizarre. Never does he bring any semblance of control, he is usually invisible.