I agree - it ain’t happening, therefore I don’t think you need to be worrying about how this squad of players and managers would do in the PL. We’re slap bang in the middle of the table and before the last game we had a goal difference of 0. Whenever we’re presented with a winnable game that could lift us into the top 6 off the back of a good run (Wigan at home, quite sure Luton at home too) then we play like frightened rabbits and that starts a bad run of form. Everything points to us finishing about where we are now. Which is frustrating as the standard is pretty poor and the league’s wide open.

Indeed. He always had a slight problem with low shots (low long shots in particular) but after his injury - which was a very nasty injury to be fair - he was pretty poor and took an age to get down to anything. That said, I think in general he was a good keeper for us under Big Sam and played his part in our top ten finish and being very tough to beat at Ewood.

I occasionally have a gander yep. Always reminds me how well organised our site is - there are always so many threads on other boards a lot of which are about the same thing. Would be impossible to keep up.

To be fair he couldn’t have had any arguments if he’d have been sacked after the Liverpool fiasco last season - especially as exactly the same thing happened at Roma a year earlier. That’d have made much more sense than delaying the inevitable until now.

13th out of 24 with a goal difference of 0, Midtable Mogga’s dream.

Off the top of my head, think he scored a good header v Sheff Utd at home. Same game he scored a last minute free kick winner. Struggling apart from that - will have a look on YouTube later. You're right about getting his head on long balls from the back. He went through a spell where it felt like he was flicking on loads of goal kicks, free kicks etc. Then all of a sudden he didn’t seem to be winning anywhere near as many! Good memories of MGP though - anyone who scores a last minute winner v Burnley, two to win at Old Trafford and was a part of Rovers teams finishing 6th, 7th etc in the Premier League has to be remembered fondly.

I love FM, but.....no way are we finishing a) one point off the play offs, b ) 3 points off 3rd and c) only 15 points off the top! They've been kind to us there.

You know you’re dealing with a small club that’s had no on-pitch success for most fans’ lifetimes (probably longer) when they’re obsessed with attendances and try and ‘get one over you’ that way. Very odd. Burnley fans used to be the same until they got promoted (or I just see fewer of them these days). Always remember them talking about attendances and their away followings etc more than the football itself.

Just seen their winner. Has to be one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. Reckon I could have thrown my cap on that one.

Right, they’re useless, have 10 men and have conceded a shed load of goals at home lately. No excuses not to win now (and save us all from a depressing replay!)

Brilliant that. Shame the opportunity to accumulate more points over the last decade was thrown away so needlessly, but looking forward to the day we’re back (it’ll happen one day, right....?).

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jumplist/weisseweste/wettbewerb/GB2 This also has Raya now on 9 clean sheets and Walton, with a few others, on 8.

Rodwell has signed for Sheffield Utd. Very surprised, but Wilder knows what he's doing.

We may as well be 13 points off - either way, we won't be threatening any promotion spots. If ever any confirmation was needed, just look at the results in the last three games after being on a good run, and the Luton/Forest/QPR week back in September/October after back to back wins in the two games prior. Back down to cushy mid-table both times.

In 11 home games they’ve only scored 11 and conceded 11 (4 of which were in one half to Sheff Weds the other week). So I’ll go for a drab affair ending 1-0 to them.

These have been exactly my thoughts lately too.

Agreed. A chalk on your boots type winger might help our non-scoring strikers too. Against Wigan it felt like Nyambe and Downing were doing the flanks all by themselves while we had Holtby and Buckley out wide against Birmingham. So it felt like everything kept coming inside, making us pretty easy to defend against and strikers like Gallagher basically redundant. He’s not really gonna get involved in any link-up play on the floor on the edge of the box. Wingers coming inside can work well if you’ve got full backs flying past them and offering a threat going forward when they do come inside. I like Nyambe but I think it’s clear he’s not much of an attacking threat, while Bell just isn’t very good...

Noticed this too. The ‘the unbeaten run continues’ and ‘still unbeaten’ tweets from some players yesterday evening were really annoying. How are we ever going to kick on if that’s the attitude? Players with any ambition would be tearing their hair out after our two results this week against dreadful teams.

Pish. What a complete waste of these two home games against two abysmal sides. Not that I expected much different - after all, we were near the top six going into them. Buckley’s got plenty to learn (which he’ll only learn by playing) and he had a couple of hairy moments but he at least looks like a footballer which is more than can be said for others in our team. Bennett in the middle - laughable.

I’d have been very disappointed had we, supposedly being serious about getting promoted ourselves, sold our best player to another Championship team halfway through the season.

That's excellent, to be fair. Let's hope that continues as we might be scoring less now that our main source of goals is injured.

Complete non performance so far, thought we’d moved on from first half non events at Ewood.

2006! Tugay leaving Gerrard on his backside. Splendid. The Liverpool FA Cup Quarter Final replay in 2015 was a sell out, but I think the attendance was 28,000 ish - I may be wrong but from memory we decided to cordon off the last block of the Riverside and/or the JW Lower corner next to the Darwen End, as you do....

Whenever you get managers hiding behind a 'long-term project' (or just as bad, if they talk about needing time to implement their 'philosophy') when doing poorly then you may as well get rid right now. Derby were dreadful at Ewood a few weeks ago and by the sounds of it have got even worse since, so given they've been one of the better Championship teams over the last few years you'd have to think he'd be on thin ice....

Does the end of March still count as the festive season?