I am pretty crushed by that to be honest. Despite what the table says the playoffs now look a very tall order. Our only really consistent spell of good performances this season was when Thomas first came in. Having a proper winger on his proper foot in there made such a big difference and gave our play a totally new dimension. He is also the only player in our squad apart from Brereton who possess real pace and power. Quite why he was dropped for Hedges I have no idea, and how it took so long for the sub to be made is unacceptable. Hedges is a proper Mowbray player… a steady Eddy Jack of all trades on a good day. He was shite today. I have maintained for a while that the persistence with Morton could cost us our playoff spot. While he hasn’t stuck one in his own net in the last few games he has been incredibly poor. Enough bullshit about attitude (Morton’s is cowardly and half arsed anyway), Wharton is the far superior player and had he been preferred all season to the loanee we’d be comfortably in the playoffs. Gallagher dire again today. The reluctant centre forward. He’s lived off his work rate for too long. He’s woefully inadequate. We were poor all over the park today. Hyam was diabolical to the point I thought he looked injured/ill, I hoped he had a stronger mentality that most of our squad and would help us stop bottling it. Hopefully today was just an off day. Speaking of off days, today was definitely one for JRC, but he’s another who has built a lot of good will. Of the 11 who started Pickering is really the only one who can be proud of his performance. JDT needs to start utilising his subs better, and more importantly sooner. It’s already been said on here he’s reactive and not proactive. There’s no reason in these days of 5 subs we shouldn’t have had Hedges and Morton off for Thomas and Wharton with half an hour.

Agree. Of course there will be people who can’t pay £30 who would probably love to be able to. Hopefully people who don’t normally bother with evening games can break their usual routine as a one off too.

I think the biggest factor will be how much we have to play for by the time the game comes round. If we’ve nothing to play for we won’t sell many, if we need the points for a play off spot we should sell loads.

It would be great if we could push it up to 20k for Norwich. Hopefully we will see a steady increase in the gate for every remaining game. Obviously that’s dependent on us continuing to be in with a shot of the playoffs. The usual night match drop off hopefully won’t be as big if the matches become unmissable. £40 for Burnley and Luton would be an attractive offer if we’ve still got plenty to play for.

I’d go with Dack and Szmodics as a fairly fluid central front two against Norwich, primarily because Gallagher has an absolute shocker on Saturday and hopefully dropping to the bench might get a reaction from him. He’d also be a lot handier to come off the bench than most of our other options if we are in need of a goal. With our lack of options it’s difficult to replace Gallagher even when it’s necessary. Dack is our most instinctive goalscorer, Vale is poor and injured anyway, big ask for Leonard to start games but I’d have him on the bench. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dolan centrally either… he’s caused the Norwich centre backs problems before.

For every person who is overly critical due to him being a loanee, there are two who overhype him and claim he is good purely because he is on Liverpool’s books. His lack of commitment is evident in every game he plays at this point. What other conclusion can you draw from this other than the fact he isn’t really bothered? I’d be more than happy to try something new in place of Morton. His contributions have done more harm than good for too long, and playing him continually only increases the chance of another moment of cowardice, naivety or laziness scuppering our playoff chances.

I don’t think it’s unfair at all. His performances are consistently half arsed. Nobody expects him to be an enforcer, but I do expect him not to pull out of challenges - he does this far more frequently than actually making strong challenges. That Sheff Utd tackle was good, but a complete one off that is approaching Myles Anderson levels of overhype. Feigning injury and deciding to lie on the floor rather than perform his defensive duties in the biggest game in years tells me a lot about his lack of commitment to the cause. We can’t be carrying passengers now, we need nothing less than 100% from every player on the pitch for the remainder of the season, and I think every player I mentioned previously has more stomach for the fight. The thought of Morton playing against Burnley is horrifying.

I’m annoyed and also worried by the performance Morton put in yesterday. After his costly antics against Sheff Utd I’d have expected him to have received an absolute bollocking from the senior players and coaching staff. Obviously that never happened because he was backing out of 70:30 challenges in his favour within 10 minutes. The fact he lasted the full game was as concerning as it was baffling. He will never be a useful Championship player, not only is he not robust enough, he doesn’t have the heart or desire for it. Maybe he could do well elsewhere or in a different league, but I couldn’t care less. His performances and his words suggest he isn’t bothered about what happens while he’s here as he knows he’s going back to Liverpool on a long contract. He’s been more of a hinderance than a help to us this season and is frequently a weak link. He’d be 8th choice to partner Travis for me and I’d rather play Wharton, Garrett, JRC, Edun, Harlock, Dack or Szmodics ahead of him.

Dack up front is better than nothing. And that’s what we had up top today.

That’s the one!

Criminal how Morton has played 90 odd minutes there. I maintain my wish to see him dropped from the squad after Sheff United was anything but knee jerk, he frequently underperforms and costs us. His backing out is very costly - it led to Travis getting booked today which completely nullified him. A handful of intelligent forward passes per game, which have about a 40% success rate is all he brings to the table. I sometimes thing Gallagher gets an undue amount of stick, but he was completely useless today. Literally zero positive contribution and he surely only finished the game due to a lack of options. Time for Leonard to get some minutes from the bench. If we’d made the first two changes before going a goal down it may have been a different story. They were more than happy to hold on to the 1-0 and did a very good job of nullifying the threat of our wide players. As it was Thomas had his worst showing in Rovers colours. Pears repaid the managers faith, Carter was excellent again. JRC with another strong performance, he was doing the job of several players and we lost an outlet when he went off. Results could’ve been a lot worse for us. A draw would’ve been very handy. Luton the big winners today and they look nailed on for a playoff spot.

Morton off for Dack… I’d seriously consider Wharton for Gallagher too.

JRC has put in a more effective centre forward performance than Gallagher today.

Ref being quite kind to us here

Thomas and Diaz for Hedges and Dolan in the next 5 minutes would be nice.

Morton annoyed me early on by visibly not fancying what was at least a 70:30 in his favour. I can forgive the passes that don’t come off, but not lack of commitment. Need to show a bit more composure at both ends. They’ve had the better of the chances for sure, but 3 points are very much there for the taking.

Dolan needs to keep his head here after that silly booking. Absolutely no more ludicrous dives.

Nothing Gallagher is doing is working so far. He usually scores soon after I say that.

Everyone who means about the aesthetics of the Riverside, watching this should make you appreciate what we have!

He wasn’t back in training til Thursday though, so understandable. Impact player off the bench if required.

Some options on that bench! Let’s get at them quickly today. Do that and I think it’s another 3 points.

On the bench today apparently

I agree he was good until the latter stages against Sheff Utd, but him rolling round on the floor pretending while we were backs to the wall completely blotted his copybook and for me was the final straw. He’s got away with his half hearted displays too many times and I think this last stretch of the season will only be a success with maximum labore. He’s been halfway back to Liverpool in his head since he signed that new deal with them. With Harlock, bit of both I suppose. I do really rate him based off what I’ve seen, good range of passing, loves a tackle, seems to have a great attitude, a leader. I was surprised when I read that article, a bit disappointed too, although it actually states we were going to trigger his year option but allow him to move on. His cause probably hasn’t been helped by younger players coming through ahead of him, but he’s still younger than Travis was before he broke through.

I’d drop Morton from the squad going forward. Play Wharton and promote Harlock to the bench. Can’t afford any shirkers and bottlers for the run in.

I can see this leading to a lot of work related injury claims if a player picks up a long term injury on the pitch/in training.