Just my view, but a lot of people saying that we played terribly today. I don't think we did really, controlled the game largely, created a lot of opportunities. I thought it was a pretty watchable game for the first sixty minutes or so. A lot more direct than we have been playing. Quite a few players had good games - Travis, Thomas, JRC, Dack, Carter. It seemed a better all round performance than what we were managing in December anyway - albeit against the team rock bottom. But... looking across the next half of the season I just can't see where the goals are coming from. If BBD is going to coast in we are truly fooked. We have to find a decent out of contract striker from somewhere. If we don't we maybe have 20 goals in this team for the rest of the season. We'll be reduced to giving Leonard a go just to try something.

I have watched back the interview on the sky sports app and while JDT looks a bit cheesed off he seems a long way away from a man about to walk away from a three year contract and several million quid.

Yeah... wouldn't be surprised if this is part of what pissed JDT off - going after another striker who doesn't score goals.

I turned off Sky before the interviews came on... has anyone go a link to a recording of JDT? I struggle to see him walking away just yet. End of the season maybe if he gets a better offer. It is mental that we've struggled all season for quality up front yet we didn't manage to bring any strikers in. Can see why he would be angry about that, irrespective of the paperwork issues for the midfielders.

Thought we created enough, particularly through Thomas, to win the game easily... But no one to get on the end of anything. Lewis O'Brien would be great to have but what will kill us really is not having a serviceable striker.

If we had a decent striker we would have put this game to bed ages ago... Its pathetic how bad we are at number 9. Vale anonymous and Gallagher cant trap the ball...

Been impressed with Travis - he looks way sharper. Defence has all looked good. Carter and Wharton move the ball a lot quicker than Hyam and Ayala. Buckley having a game to forget and Vale is just a black hole for me. Heres Gallagher.... Thomas has been very good.

Well... whenever I've seen him play his linking up round the box etc back to goal has been minimal. And he's always looked most dangerous cutting in or running from 30 yards out on the break. But saying that we've just signed a lad who can play left wide forward (Thomas), got Hedges and Dolan who are decent wide right. So we may as well give him crack! Can't be any worse than Gallagher or Vale.

I sounded a bit harsh there on Szmodics. For me Szmodics and Dolan are effective and reasonably happy with them in their wider roles. But they are not proper strikers. Vake and Gallagher are supposed to be proper strikers but they seem, in my view have a bit of an identity crisis where they spend time running the channels or running around in front of the oppo defenders. From my perspective Vale doesnt seem too bad in terms of getting around the pitch. Its - like Gallagher - he just doesn't seem to get into goal scoring positions.

Wow - really? Who was that from? I guess with Vale the issue is he hasn't even taken any decent shots, let alone scored goals. He's played a good amount of minutes. If he was at least getting the chances there would be some hope, but it isn't happening. He goes through games and barely threatens the goal. We were also actively trying to sign an established striker in Undav and Kone so it's seems to me the manager doesn't fancy Vale or Gallagher either (which based on the evidence seems entirely reasonable!) at least for now. So now we find ourselves in the position where we have three options really 1 - Vale up front 2 - Gallagher up front 3 - Go back to false 9 with Dack or Dolan in there For me all of them are really really unsatisfactory. It's such a shame as if we had a really decent central striker I could see the team push on. Would create opportunities for all the other players if the opposition worried about who we had through the middle.

Crikey... "runs around a lot all over the pitch and doesn't score goals". I mean we've got Gallagher, Szmodics, Dolan and Vale all in that role... I would quite like a striker who "doesn't run around a lot, hangs in the box, scores goals" please.

Sorry, yes I knew that - should have put in my post

Will be really really surprised if Morton doesnt come back in as hes nailed to the team sheet and Travis has hardly been better. Would prefer Wharton to get a crack. Also cant understand why anyone would want Vale ahead of Gallagher, as limited as Gallagher is.

It does feel like JDT "pulling a Lambert" is possible. Nothing explicit yet, but all the pre-conditions are there. He's got a pretty good story if he walks "I got Rovers to third but the dysfunction of the club meant I could see there was no real long term ambition. I am looking for a club who has that ambition." Hopefully won't happen, but feels plausible.

Wow didn't realize that. I had assumed the crowds were declining through 2007 to 2010. Amazed that we had better crowds in 2010 than say 2001 or 2006, Here's an interesting page : https://ewoodpark.jimdofree.com/attendances-average-attendances-1888-2013/

Quite a few on here think much the same thing.... Ive gone from quite enthusiastic to a bit worried but still behind JDT.

Not to be too much of a downer, but Giles last season was very similar to Thomas. Proven Championship quality winger, but we couldn't use him as we didn't have the right forwards to get on his crosses. O'brien does look a very good signing. But would have much preferred a top quality striker compared to a top quality centre mid. We have decent if imperfect centre mids, but no acceptable central strikers at all.

He has 41 caps for Denmark - surely he would?

One thing against him according to that is he hasn't played any competitive football since May... so probably a long way away from fitness.

Absolute mental we haven't signed a striker. Hope there is someone decent out there out of contract.

Yeah really bemused that we would blow presumably a significant amount of money on a 31 year old defender when we've already got two strong (and presumably expensive) experienced CBs in Ayala and Hyam, and three decent young ones in Wharton, Carter and Phillips.

Apparently Markanday hasn't even travelled, but Leonard is in squad. What sort of striker is Leonard?

Even if we signed O'Brien and Cook I'd still be absolutely furious that we didn't get a striker. Genuinely don't understand Cook btw.... he's 31? Has Ayala got a long term injury?

That's a huge statement in bold? Where's that info come from?

I think the way out of our dire situation is clear. Get on the phone to Lucas Joao pronto!