Home V Fulham 08/02/2020

[Hasta]

I don't mind losing to teams which are clearly better than us like yesterday. What I didn't like was starting with a plan that clearly wasn't working unless the plan was to cling for a 0-0. 

We could easily have switched Armstrong and Gallagher, either for a spell in the first half or at half time. Armstrong was getting very little involvement and Gallagher was ineffective as ever shoved out wide. At least it. might have got us up the pitch a little. However we stayed as we were until the inevitable goal happened and then switched to desperation mode.

This season will probably be remember as a season when Graham was past it and on the decline, which is rubbish. He has been isolated on the bench to allow Gallagher to play to justify his purchase. Not sure if Chapman is injured or not, but why he has been stuck in the under23's, and yet Brereton is given chance after chance after chance, despite showing nothing at any level for us, is baffling. When we really needed something different yesterday, we got 4 strikers on the pitch with a hit and hope policy.

It may not have made a difference as Fulham were just simply better. However they have lost to Preston, Reading, Hull, Stoke and drawn at Charlton, Luton and Boro so, despite their mega-budget, they obviously have flaws which can be exploited.

Edited February 9, 2020 by Hasta

[Paul Mani]

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

 

I dont know why the fact that Mowbrays trying his best to improve us and that hes working hard is constantly brought up as a defence of him. No one doubts that, and the same probably goes for the other 23 managers in the League.

You mention FFP and the need players to exceed their value which I feel like your defensive and flippant attitude towards the Gallagher and Brereton is somewhat inconsistent with that. You mention wages but Gallagher was reportedly on 40k at Southampton so even with a wage cut you would suspect that he is probably our highest earner, and I bet Brereton isnt on the peanuts some make out considering that he is a 7m signing. There will always be teams like Fulham who undoubtedly we arent on the same level financially but it is much more difficult to plead comparative poverty when you have a 5m and high earning ineffective striker as our first choice winger, who has never had a good game from that position and we dont really have any other wingers bar Chapman who has fallen off the face of the earth. I appreciate that you have criticised Gallaghers performance but you have also defended Mowbray and even called the outlay on him and Brereton as a "fairly moderate/good amount!"

I am starting to get a case of de ja vu with Rankin Costello compared to what I have seen from Buckley. Both look out of place in the Championship and slightly overawed and it is obviously difficult to justify giving them a run of games unless they are capable of having an impact on games, even with our lack of alternatives. Of course they will and should get more chances but I can't say that either has made me particularly excited at all from the limited we have seen from them in terms of having any attacking impact on games.

I’ve said all the way through that SG and BB have not impacted our team enough for the outlay. I actually made that point to Mowbray at the meeting. He agreed that they had not (pretty obvious) and claimed that they wouldn’t be doing that again and would be looking at making “a couple of £2-3m signings” in the future. Primarily in the European market.

The BB, SG thing is made even worse because in spite of £11m being a moderate/good expenditure on fees (in the champ) we can not afford to have them fail when in truth, we have to over achieve in order to get to the PL.

SG was reportedly on £24k at Southampton and took a wage drop to come to us. Neither him or BB will be on anywhere near as much as many in the Champ imo.

I back Mowbray because he has been a good manager for us. But I do worry if he has what it takes to make us overachieve enough to get out of that league.

[ben_the_beast]

Someone who watches the youth team. Is Rankin-Costello an attacking midfielder at all. I'm sure I've heard people say he has played wing back. To me he looks like a player who doesn't know his best position but where he is better than average at youth team level can get away with being put in a multitude of positions. He showed a couple of nice touches yesterday but on the whole looked like a fish out of water. 

He doesn't look like it's in his locker to really run at players which begs the question why is he being played so far forwards. Can't help but think he's been a bit hung out to dry position wise in his first foray into the first team.

[LDRover]

3 hours ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Worth bearing in mind that Brentford are in their sixth season since promotion to the Championship. How many people on here would be that patient so as to wait until 2024 ?

With respect to Brentford and their fans I'm pretty sure they feel they are 'punching' in the Championship so are riding the wave at the minute. Us on the other hand are former PL winners, in a PL set up with (apparently) billionaire owners.

[tomphil]

If Gallagher has taken a pay cut of 6k pwk it still makes him a high earner and signing him for the for the role he's playing makes it an expensive flop.

Fact is the main budget of the last 2 summers has been almost completely wasted on BB and SG.  They said they wanted young investment types to grow and be worth more yet that is what they've delivered.  Then they decided to flex it on old experienced types for no fee but decent wages.

They've delivered Downing, Holtby and Johnson, jury is out on that lot still. Downing is good as is Holby but one is old and the other is clearly injury prone.  Mulgrew, Smallwood and Samuel continue to suck up a big set of wages combined. Non of this is evidence of building the team up yet it's costing a lot of money that is ALL down the pan.

Yet now it's ok because he saying we'll be buying Euro talent for 2 to 3 million next !  There's a recruitment tombola running alongside the team one here.  Yet it gets swallowed up without question, maybe there'll be some with the next set of excuses you never know.

Aside from growing our own there is NO plan here they are absolutely winging it the evidence is overwhelming.

Edited February 9, 2020 by tomphil

[RevidgeBlue]

28 minutes ago, Hasta said:

I don't mind losing to teams which are clearly better than us like yesterday. What I didn't like was starting with a plan that clearly wasn't working unless the plan was to cling for a 0-0. 

We could easily have switched Armstrong and Gallagher, either for a spell in the first half or at half time. Armstrong was getting very little involvement and Gallagher was ineffective as ever shoved out wide. At least it. might have got us up the pitch a little. However we stayed as we were until the inevitable goal happened and then switched to desperation mode.

This season will probably be remember as a season when Graham was past it and on the decline, which is rubbish. He has been isolated on the bench to allow Gallagher to play to justify his purchase. Not sure if Chapman is injured or not, but why he has been stuck in the under23's, and yet Brereton is given chance after chance after chance, despite showing nothing at any level for us, is baffling. When we really needed something different yesterday, we got 4 strikers on the pitch with a hit and hope policy.

It may not have made a difference as Fulham were just simply better. However they have lost to Preston, Reading, Hull, Stoke and drawn at Charlton, Luton and Boro so despite their mega-budget they obviously,have flaws which can Ben exploited.

Agree with most of what you say, but I'm afraid Graham is completely past it. He was embarrassing when he came off the bench at Boro, like a veteran wandering Into a normal game. More short sightedness from Mowbray, Graham should have been being replaced with someone of decent quality the summer before last

I also disagree Brereton has had chance after chance, he came on with less than five minutes of normal time to go. That's not really a chance but I accept he hasn't shown much to date. Didn't he play away in our benchmark performance of the season away at Bristol City though?

[chaddyrovers]

49 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

Someone who watches the youth team. Is Rankin-Costello an attacking midfielder at all. I'm sure I've heard people say he has played wing back. To me he looks like a player who doesn't know his best position but where he is better than average at youth team level can get away with being put in a multitude of positions. He showed a couple of nice touches yesterday but on the whole looked like a fish out of water. 

He doesn't look like it's in his locker to really run at players which begs the question why is he being played so far forwards. Can't help but think he's been a bit hung out to dry position wise in his first foray into the first team.

He came as a wide player I believe. Under Johnson he played right wing back mainly but he played wide left for our 1st team. He played the 10 role and Mowbray was hoping he do a similar job to the role Bennett played against Brentford last season 

51 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

I’ve said all the way through that SG and BB have not impacted our team enough for the outlay. I actually made that point to Mowbray at the meeting. He agreed that they had not (pretty obvious) and claimed that they wouldn’t be doing that again and would be looking at making “a couple of £2-3m signings” in the future. Primarily in the European market.

The BB, SG thing is made even worse because in spite of £11m being a moderate/good expenditure on fees (in the champ) we can not afford to have them fail when in truth, we have to over achieve in order to get to the PL.

SG was reportedly on £24k at Southampton and took a wage drop to come to us. Neither him or BB will be on anywhere near as much as many in the Champ imo.

I back Mowbray because he has been a good manager for us. But I do worry if he has what it takes to make us overachieve enough to get out of that league.

Sam Gallagher took a massive pay cut as he described it to sign here. Post I the link the other week on it. Sadly people just keep talking about weekly. 

[Hasta]

14 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Agree with most of what you say, but I'm afraid Graham is completely past it. He was embarrassing when he came off the bench at Boro, like a veteran wandering Into a normal game. More short sightedness from Mowbray, Graham should have been being replaced with someone of decent quality the summer before last

I also disagree Brereton has had chance after chance, he came on with less than five minutes of normal time to go. That's not really a chance but I accept he hasn't shown much to date. Didn't he play away in our benchmark performance of the season away at Bristol City though?

I didnt see the  Boro game. I did see yesterday, Preston, Huddersfield and those games in our winning run in which he suddenly started games. If plan A wasnt working yesterday, the best option to change it is to put him up top and play off him. He is still far better than SG at holding the ball up and bringing others in to play. Of course Graham needed upgrading, but as we obviously have failed to do so he should be being utilised more.

Brereton did play at Bristol City. If i recall most posts said we played well but he was still poor, which was my view too. Chapman has been exiled and told he has tp perform for the under23s, yet Brereton keeps getting put on the bench despite doing nothing for the under23s, even when we have 2 other strikers as subs.

[K-Hod]

16 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

He came as a wide player I believe. Under Johnson he played right wing back mainly but he played wide left for our 1st team. He played the 10 role and Mowbray was hoping he do a similar job to the role Bennett played against Brentford last season 

Sam Gallagher took a massive pay cut as he described it to sign here. Post I the link the other week on it. Sadly people just keep talking about weekly. 

People will talk about it as even if he has taken a pay cut, he’s likely to be one of our highest earners and he’s not earning his money.

Whilst it isn’t his fault he’s largely being played out of position, he has failed miserably overall and is a big contributor to why we have such FFP concerns. 
 

Edited February 9, 2020 by K-Hod

[RevidgeBlue]

3 hours ago, JHRover said:

This is exactly the issue. If I could see a really good squad being progressively assembled with a couple of steps forward each window then I'd be more comfortable with the 'work in progress' theory.

But I look at the current state of our squad and our transfer dealings and have little faith in us doing the necessary.

I look at this summer with trepidation. I see a major overhaul required with a number of key positions needing attention just to replace those we know are unlikely to be here next year.

We've already got the excuses lined up with Ffp concerns, and a manager/structure that struggles to get business done.

All well and good talking about developing youngsters but that carries immense risk of backfiring. I'd rather not gamble with our League status to do it.

Unless we radically change our approach I foresee difficulties in the summer and beyond.

Will the manager have any idea as to his budget or otherwise at this stage? Unlikely. Which makes me wonder how much of a plan there can be.

Good post, far from there being good progress with the squad it's clear we're going backwards in that respect.

The Raya money was wasted on Gallagher then we brought in an infinitely worse keeper than Raya on loan so we don't even have our own first choice keeper. After Tosin goes back as well we have one first choice centre half and no adequate left back.

In midfield we have a glut of  11/12 options but arguably only Travis who you'd have complete confidence in.

The less said about our striking options the better. Graham is completely past it and should have been replaced with an experienced striker long ago. Brereton has flopped thus far but bizarrely given the fact we spent £7m on him he has never really been given a chance. Gallagher wasnt that good last time he was here and it was fairly bizarre we went back in for him at all let alone at £5m and he has regressed still further. Unlike Brereton he's had rather too much game time given his performances. As another poster said somewhere above god only knows why Samuel is still here.

Mowbray and his recruitment team have reduced the squad to a shambles in key areas and wasted the majority of the money we're allowed to spend within the regulations so to think he's suddenly going to turn that round and start recruiting well because noises are being made about finally venturing into the European market some eighteen months after it was first mooted is optimistic in the extreme.

Our only hope imo is to bring in a manager and team with an eye for a player and who are capable of unearthing hidden or up and coming talent and will play players in their best positions and get the best out of them as opposed to the opposite which we have at the moment.

 

[RevidgeBlue]

22 minutes ago, Hasta said:

I didnt see the  Boro game. I did see yesterday, Preston, Huddersfield and those games in our winning run in which he suddenly started games. If plan A wasnt working yesterday, the best option to change it is to put him up top and play off him. He is still far better than SG at holding the ball up and bringing others in to play. Of course Graham needed upgrading, but as we obviously have failed to do so he should be being utilised more.

Brereton did play at Bristol City. If i recall most posts said we played well but he was still poor, which was my view too. Chapman has been exiled and told he has tp perform for the under23s, yet Brereton keeps getting put on the bench despite doing nothing for the under23s, even when we have 2 other strikers as subs.

Totally agree with the last point. Me and my mate were saying at kick off yesterday "What's the point of three strikers on the bench? They can't all play!"

Little did we know..........

[Mashed Potatoes]

2 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Good post, far from there being good progress with the squad it's clear we're going backwards in that respect.

The Raya money was wasted on Gallagher then we brought in an infinitely worse keeper than Raya on loan so we don't even have our own first choice keeper. After Tosin goes back as well we have one first choice centre half and no adequate left back.

In midfield we have a glut of  11/12 options but arguably only Travis who you'd have complete confidence in.

The less said about our striking options the better. Graham is completely past it and should have been replaced with an experienced striker long ago. Brereton has flopped thus far but bizarrely given the fact we spent £7m on him he has never really been given a chance. Gallagher wasnt that good last time he was here and it was fairly bizarre we went back in for him at all let alone at £5m and he has regressed still further. Unlike Brereton he's had rather too much game time given his performances. As another poster said somewhere above god only knows why Samuel is still here.

Mowbray and his recruitment team have reduced the squad to a shambles in key areas and wasted the majority of the money we're allowed to spend within the regulations so to think he's suddenly going to turn that round and start recruiting well because noises are being made about finally venturing into the European market some eighteen months after it was first mooted is optimistic in the extreme.

Our only hope imo is to bring in a manager and team with an eye for a player and who are capable of unearthing hidden or up and coming talent and will play players in their best positions and get the best out of them as opposed to the opposite which we have at the moment.

 

And yet despite it all we are heading for our highest finish for 5 years.

[RevidgeBlue]

3 hours ago, Dolly blue said:

Comments regarding who to select , who to drop , which formation to play ......pointless. 
Nothing will change whilst Mowbray and his band of overpaid, under skilled back room  staff continue to be employed at Ewood.

Its not about budgets...it’s about vision ( Wilder at Sheffield Utd ) 

Its about scouting ( Brentford )

Its about getting far more than he should out of a squad of very ordinary, low cost players ( Neil at Deepdale )

Our season is over ....and our future seasons are over if we continue with Mowbray and his dour, outdated, ineffective management style. 
Let’s say thanks to Tony ..but let’s move on ....gates will continue to fall, atmosphere will remain at rock bottom.

A new man can assess who is worth keeping, who is worth promoting from the academy ...and we can , maybe hit the ground running in August .There are “ new men “ out there ...

If we continue to “Tick along with Tony “......disaster....Im getting to the stage where wins and defeats leave me feeling the same emotion....little hope, little vision 

 

Spot on.

To reduce things down to the bare bones, imo no - one has really picked up on the fact that we set up trying to nick a point at home yesterday.

What's the point in that? We're not going down this season barring the collapse of all collapses and if we were to maintain any faint chance of getting into the play offs we need wins and lots of them. It's almost llike playing for a draw in the last game of the season when you need a win to stay up.

He did the same in the season we went down, got far too negative trying to nick a point here and there until we got to the stage where we needed to win the last two games to have a chance of staying up. He had to change his approach and we did win the last two, but by then it was too late.

Nothing has changed since then. As you say, no vision no hope.

[RevidgeBlue]

11 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

And yet despite it all we are heading for our highest finish for 5 years.

Remains to be seen.

[Amo]

Can't really blame Chapman for refusing to play in the U23s. Earlier in the season he did well for them, won player of the month, if I recall. Did he get a whiff of first team action? Did he balls.

He’s made two cameos this season and looked half-decent in one of them. Never to be seen again, by the looks of it.

Still not sure why we signed him in the first place. Mowbray clearly doesn't fancy playing with wingers because they're too “flighty” and don't learn the “seriousness of football”. Keep shoving Gallagher wide-right. That's bound to work eventually...

 

[Mashed Potatoes]

Just now, Amo said:

Can't really blame Chapman for refusing to play in the U23s. Earlier in the season he did well for them, won player of the month, if I recall. Did he get a whiff of first team action? Did he balls.

He’s made two cameos this season and looked half-decent in one of them. Never to be seen again, by the looks of it.

Still not sure why we signed him in the first place. Mowbray clearly doesn't fancy playing with wingers because they're too “flighty” and don't learn the “seriousness of football”. Keep shoving Gallagher wide-right. That's bound to work eventually...

 

If it is true,whatever view one might have regarding an individual player I can't see any defence for a player refusing to play. I suspect he isn't refusing to be paid his wages. What would Alex Ferguson have said to a player who refused to play ?

[Stuart]

1 hour ago, Hasta said:

I don't mind losing to teams which are clearly better than us like yesterday. What I didn't like was starting with a plan that clearly wasn't working unless the plan was to cling for a 0-0. 

We could easily have switched Armstrong and Gallagher, either for a spell in the first half or at half time. Armstrong was getting very little involvement and Gallagher was ineffective as ever shoved out wide. At least it. might have got us up the pitch a little. However we stayed as we were until the inevitable goal happened and then switched to desperation mode.

This season will probably be remember as a season when Graham was past it and on the decline, which is rubbish. He has been isolated on the bench to allow Gallagher to play to justify his purchase. Not sure if Chapman is injured or not, but why he has been stuck in the under23's, and yet Brereton is given chance after chance after chance, despite showing nothing at any level for us, is baffling. When we really needed something different yesterday, we got 4 strikers on the pitch with a hit and hope policy.

It may not have made a difference as Fulham were just simply better. However they have lost to Preston, Reading, Hull, Stoke and drawn at Charlton, Luton and Boro so, despite their mega-budget, they obviously have flaws which can be exploited.

Some good points, well put. For all the sympathy Mowbray is now getting (from those you’d expect tbf) it is baffling why he continues with the ineffective approach of having strikers out wide. This is his decision, and it isn’t getting the best out of our two most expensive players. Is he afraid to upset Armstrong?

But your last paragraph is the most important. Williams once made a correlation about the PL table mirroring the wage bill which was about right but it doesn’t mean the whole football league works like that, or that there aren’t exception, e.g. Burnley, Blackpool. It isn’t the teams with this biggest budgets who get promoted from the Championship - plenty of parachute sides have struggled - it is the teams with the best managers.

[Amo]

13 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

If it is true,whatever view one might have regarding an individual player I can't see any defence for a player refusing to play. I suspect he isn't refusing to be paid his wages. What would Alex Ferguson have said to a player who refused to play ?

The club can take whatever disciplinary action they want but I can see why Chapman's grown disillusioned to the point of protest. 

Edited February 9, 2020 by Amo

[Angry_Pirate]

Besides Johnson and Gallagher, I thought Downing was also poor and has largely been poor when deployed as the LW position.

I do like him in CM, but played wide highlights his age and mucks up the formation. 

Once Rothwell is back I feel we will settle on Travis-Downing in CM.

[Exiled_Rover]

2 hours ago, Hasta said:

I don't mind losing to teams which are clearly better than us like yesterday. What I didn't like was starting with a plan that clearly wasn't working unless the plan was to cling for a 0-0. 

We could easily have switched Armstrong and Gallagher, either for a spell in the first half or at half time. Armstrong was getting very little involvement and Gallagher was ineffective as ever shoved out wide. At least it. might have got us up the pitch a little. However we stayed as we were until the inevitable goal happened and then switched to desperation mode.

This season will probably be remember as a season when Graham was past it and on the decline, which is rubbish. He has been isolated on the bench to allow Gallagher to play to justify his purchase. Not sure if Chapman is injured or not, but why he has been stuck in the under23's, and yet Brereton is given chance after chance after chance, despite showing nothing at any level for us, is baffling. When we really needed something different yesterday, we got 4 strikers on the pitch with a hit and hope policy.

It may not have made a difference as Fulham were just simply better. However they have lost to Preston, Reading, Hull, Stoke and drawn at Charlton, Luton and Boro so, despite their mega-budget, they obviously have flaws which can be exploited.

Being given 7 minutes when chasing the game isn't 'chance after chance'. As much as I think Brereton is now a bust, he's been set up for failure by Mowbray. He gets 10 minutes, at most, when he deigns to bring him on.

Graham is still by far our best striker - no idea why he's been frozen out.

[Hasta]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Being given 7 minutes when chasing the game isn't 'chance after chance'. As much as I think Brereton is now a bust, he's been set up for failure by Mowbray. He gets 10 minutes, at most, when he deigns to bring him on.

Graham is still by far our best striker - no idea why he's been frozen out.

Ignoring his cameos like yesterday where he comes on for the last few minutes, Brereton has featured (either as sub or starting) in over 20 games for Rovers which he has got 20 minutes or more on the pitch.  Thats why i said chance after chance.

Had a kid come in and performed as he has done he would have been back in the under 23s a long time ago. Peopld say ignore his price tag, but it is clearly the only reason he still gets on the bench and gets any game time.

Edited February 9, 2020 by Hasta

[BlackburnEnd75]

I thought yesterday highlighted the unbalanced squad that TM has created. Obviously he will point to injuries but look at it:

5 strikers in the squad yet we only ever really start with one up front.

Out of those 5 strikers Armstrong is the only one who is competent out on the wing but TM chooses to play Gallagher and Samuel

Samuel was naff in league 1 why is he even considered for selection at this point?

Gallagher on the right wing is and has been all season embarrassing. It doesn't work yet TM keeps trying it, he's probably tried it about 20 times so far this season. His only good game was preston away when he played through the middle. He's been rubbish has gallagher but TM isn't doing him any favours.

Brereton - we don't even need to discuss. I haven't got the energy to detail how spectacularly bad his signing is. It says a hell of a lot that Samuel came on before him.

Chapman is the only winger in the squad yet can't get near the team - waste of money

Mulgrew and Smallwood taking up wages due to TM overvaluing them.

Johnson - isn't suited to playing a passing game. waste of money

With 3 of our ideal back five (Walton, Tosin, Cunningham) only on loan, we've got major surgery to do to the squad with little resources to do it.

By my count in the summer we need a 2 keepers, a backup right back, a left back, at least 1 maybe 2 centre backs. a wide player and a striker. possibly even another centre mid if age catches up with Downing before August.

Worrying stuff.

 

[bazza]

4 hours ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

And yet despite it all we are heading for our highest finish for 5 years.

Pity it wasn't our highest finish for 25 years.

Looks like it's going to be Brentford's.

Edited February 9, 2020 by bazza

[unsall]

9 hours ago, JHRover said:

This is exactly the issue. If I could see a really good squad being progressively assembled with a couple of steps forward each window then I'd be more comfortable with the 'work in progress' theory.

But I look at the current state of our squad and our transfer dealings and have little faith in us doing the necessary.

I look at this summer with trepidation. I see a major overhaul required with a number of key positions needing attention just to replace those we know are unlikely to be here next year.

We've already got the excuses lined up with Ffp concerns, and a manager/structure that struggles to get business done.

All well and good talking about developing youngsters but that carries immense risk of backfiring. I'd rather not gamble with our League status to do it.

Unless we radically change our approach I foresee difficulties in the summer and beyond.

Will the manager have any idea as to his budget or otherwise at this stage? Unlikely. Which makes me wonder how much of a plan there can be.

With no mention of our horrendous injuries. Yes we all know other clubs have injuries but to have Cunningham,Dack, Holtby, Evans out for the rest of the season and Rothwell out for a few weeks would test any club, all near enough starters not just squad members, too many on here critical every time we get beat. First defeat at home since September against a good team who have spent millions. You obviously don’t think FFP is something we should worry about and just carry on spending, but think you and others would not be happy if we did get in playoffs and then had a points deduction, which could happen to Derby/ Sheffield Weds.

[Atko's Engine]

I've read up until page 17 of this thread then got frustrated at all the OTT criticism again.  It was always going to be a tough game against a pre-season favourite in good form, even without our injuries, so why are people upset when that's what plays out?

I don't buy the theory that we set out just to avoid defeat. Yes we worked on trying to nullify their potency, but that's not the same thing. We were actually the better team for the first 15 mins I thought.

But overall it was a poor game, from both sides, shorn of any real quality. Neither team did enough to win it IMO; they passed it around more fluently after that initial spell, but mostly without menace. But for Travis unluckily playing Bryan in on the left when trying to intercept his pass, it would have finished 0-0. We could have drawn or won had Lenihan's goal been given (which looked fine to me but I've not seen a replay). If we'd have got the lucky deflection that Bryan got, or the offside decision goes our way, we win the game and are cockahoop like Fulham were as they knew they were given a tough game. It was those kind of fine margins that made the difference on the day.

The criticism I do agree with from yesterday is Gallagher out wide (which generally doesn't work and for which TM understandably gets criticised; maybe Bennett would have been more effective there seeing how Chapman is clearly out of the running) & Johnson, who I thought was a liability & overall I've been so disappointed with him, as I think we all are.

Tuesday's game is massive. Win and we're still well in the playoff hunt. Draw or lose and away at Charlton becomes must-win to keep hope's alive. I'd like to see Davenport in place of Johnson, and either Bennett, JRC or Chapman in place of Gallagher. Perhaps rotate Gallagher, JRC & Armstrong by playing Gallagher up top, JRC wide right with Armstrong in a free-ish no 10 role.

Let's try to be optimistic eh? We're far from out of the playoff hunt but listening to many on here you'd think we were knocking about in 20th place.