I’ve seen Venky’s described as “our guardian angels” today. I’m not even making that up.

If he’d have played for any other club he’d be vilified to this day.

The other issue is that he’s spent 12 million over the last 2 summers on players he thought were better quality than Samuel, and they aren’t.

Agree on Samuel, but I’d keep Downing too. However, I think Covid will provide an excuse for the start of a dismantling process. I predict we will lose at least one of Armstrong, Travis, Lenihan or Nyambe (pretty much the only players who’d command any sort of fee). There will be a couple of uninspiring free transfers, and a couple of head scratching loans late on. Decisions about the out of contract players will be made based on the following criteria: Cost Sentiment Personality Ability In that order.

Mark Robins has the same agent as Mowbray (and Lambert, Coyle and Bowyer)... he’d be my choice from the HSH list

What were the activities? I’ve seen this hinted at before but I’ve no idea what they were!

Highly recommend this one folks! A brilliant listen and very interesting to hear from the perspective of a referee, which is something we never really get the chance to do. Tony’s passion is evident throughout, and some great tales... one that’ll leave you googling a certain Rotherham game! Cheers @Herbie6590 and @arbitro

So not for the first time people post tweets critical of Bennett’s performance and he finds out. Tweets start flying. He gets defensive. Everything is reimagined as him receiving abuse. The ludicrous messages of support start (I’ve just seen someone tweet him telling him he is one of our best ever signings), anyone suggesting he doesn’t possess as much ability as prime Pele is piled on by the masses, who are in the main hypocrites who have no problem slating Rovers players who don’t have a social media presence.

I expect this is the case. The one thing they are good at is toeing the Venky line. They will be rehearsing their lines already. Waggott: “The owners set me targets and I’m grateful for all the support they give me to meet them” Cheston: “You should be grateful to them for all they have done for the club” Mowbray: “They are very humble people. Not unlike the people I grew up with in Middlesbrough where I’d kick a can around the streets with jumpers for goalposts”

We will win 1-0, with Brereton scoring his customary solitary goal for the season in a dead rubber game. I had initially tipped this to come against Luton, but they will likely have survival to play for, so he’ll need to do it on Saturday. This will of course be seen as progress, as Reading are actually training and paying their players unlike the now 4th division Bolton last year. I look forward to then reading about how he has silenced all the nasty boo boys and critics, how it goes to show how amazing he is with no crowd to put pressure on him and tweet that he is shit, how £7 million quid would actually have been a bargain, but we only paid about a hundred grand anyway, and how next season is his year, and he will fire us to promotion with 30 goals.

I liked Elliott Bennett, the busy midfielder with the occasional 30 yard screamer in his locker a lot better than Elliott Bennett, the incompetent full back with the frequent rousing fist pump in his locker. Maybe he could still do a job on occasion in a midfield role, not sure. I’ve seen him described on more than one occasion as a club legend, which is an unfunny joke. K-Hod has summed him up perfectly - a reasonable enough servant. Worth mentioning his tenure has coincided with one of the worst ever periods in the clubs history. Can’t fault his effort, but he’s just become the new Jason Lowe. The horrible reality is I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see us start with a back four of Bennett, Lenihan, Williams and Bell in the first game of next season.

If we were still playing I doubt we’d have forced a save from their keeper by now.

I’d go with that line up. Maybe Davenport or Bennett in for Downing... sacrifice Downing’s quality on the ball for a bit more bite. Our full backs will need a lot more help tonight. For me that has to be the front three from the start. It’s going to be a battle. Rothwell might do some damage off the bench but I feel he’d be ineffective if he starts.

That tweet got me looking at fixtures and working things out. Put simply, we need maximum points out of our next two games, and the teams above us not to. That would take it in to the final game.

Decent performance against strong opposition. Fair result, but a shame we couldn’t nick it. More of the same over the next three games please. Suppose all we can do now is win all three and keep our fingers crossed for a miracle. If we’d have performed anything like that against Barnsley and Wigan we’d be right in contention. That’s the frustration.

More hopeful than confident! If there are any changes to the starting 11 I’m sure he will be in! I’m hopeful it will be the same lot that started against Cardiff though.

We could’ve been going into this very tough fixture with a real incentive - a good chance of a playoff spot. Sadly the debacles against Wigan and Barnsley have left us needing a miracle. No real expectations, but I’ll be furious if there are any unenforced changes to the starting 11 from midweek. Thank God Brereton is still banned. Hopefully Mowbray doesn’t pick Gallagher’s number out of the tombola drum. I predict a Walton howler and Bennett to be the first substitute to come on.

If we’d have beaten Barnsley and Wigan, we’d be 6th in the league. If we played with Graham, Armstrong and Samuel as a front three in those games we’d have been far more likely to win them. If Gallagher and Brereton has come through the youth ranks instead of costing millions of pounds they would be nowhere near the first team squad based on their ability and influence on games. These big money flops are a massive hinderance.

League one fodder? I’ve also seen the job Mowbray has done described as “stabilising us when we were in a tailspin on our way to league 2” This revisionist history is appalling. And the ever more popular notion that we have “found our level” and are “about where we should be” is a disgrace to the legacy and memory of Jack Walker.

Not if they have any sense! But if they did I’d snap their hands off.

Yeah, very possible. I doubt it’s something we work on in training either way, considering how rarely we see an early cross.

Last night was an exception, but there is rarely a target in the box for a cross. When Gallagher plays he is stood out wide with Nyambe looking for a short pass, a false 9 would be lurking around the edge of the box. Maybe Armstrong might be coming in at the back post, but if it was Brereton he’d likely be falling over on the halfway line or contemplating his next haircut. I really do wish we would put more crosses in. If Graham plays, and to a lesser degree Samuel, we have decent targets in there.

So if we forget for a minute that Brereton has been utterly crap ever since he came here, and his pitiful scoring record, let’s have a look at the “one for the future” argument. If we have ambitions to get back to the premier league, surely any players “for the future” need to progress to be good enough to play at that level. That’s never ever going to be the case with Brereton. A criminally bad signing and a complete misuse of funds. Just completely baffling and there could well be more to this signing than meets the eye. For context, Spurs paid £5 million for Dele Alli as “one for the future”. Yeah, he might be a prick, but it just goes to further show how bad a signing Brereton has been. Get rid of him for whatever we can get. Even if it’s a free at least his wage is gone. He is a hinderance.

I was delighted with the result and most of the performances last night, but that quickly gave way to anger. Graham as an out and out centre forward, with Samuel grafting hard on one side and the pure quality of Armstrong on the other worked. We looked dangerous throughout and gave their defence a really tough time, and lo and behold, each of our front three scored a goal in keeping with their performance. Graham showed natural instinct, Samuel persevered and Armstrong’s was class. As soon as we abandon the ludicrous false 9 nonsense and the hopeless Gallagher and Brereton are out of the front three, look what happens. The stubborn insistence from Mowbray to persevere with that crap for our previous three games has effectively sabotaged our chances of the playoffs. I voted “Don’t care” in this poll. Normally my ire is focused towards Venky’s, but this is squarely on Mowbray. I’d fancy us to be 6 points better off were it not for his mind boggling selections and formations. I’m as pissed off with him as I’ve ever been.

If we want to balance the books we’d need to sell every player, Brockhall and Ewood Park and all its contents. And we’d probably get more back for Brereton and Gallagher by stripping them down and selling them for parts/harvesting their organs.