Venky's have been and continue to be a virus that has made this club extremely ill. I've said this before, but it's like thanking somebody for giving you a bandage after repeatedly stabbing you in the chest. Thanks, but I'm still dying and it's your fault.

Our away form is the most obvious concern. Most goals shipped in the division which is obviously a massive warning sign even if we finish in a reasonable position this season. We've actually scored one more goal away from home (29 to 28) so we need to find a way to bring our reasonable tight home performances on the road. Conceding 26 more goals away from home with only 5 wins suggests however we are setting up outside of Ewood is not working. I think it's the biggest difference in terms of goals conceded home/away in the entire division. Even Wigan with only one away win this season have shipped 3 less goals than us on the road with a difference of 22 compared to only conceding 20 at home.

I don't think we'll see him again. Mowbray has treated him pretty badly imo, those comments about needing to learn to play CM from Evans and Smallwood were particularly embarrassing. Reminds me of when Rio Ferdinand mentioned that David Moyes wanted him and Vidic to watch Phil Jagielka to learn how to play CB. Some managers are just totally blinded when it comes to their favourites. Smallwood seems to be out of favour for now, but we've seen this before and he always ends up back in the team over more deserving players. Same with Evans.

Venky's have made Rovers more toxic than Liverpool ever were. Kean Out went global. Nothing happened. Manager ended up resigning rather than being sacked, Venky's are still here having turned down numerous alleged investment and takeover opportunities and being humiliated globally and even in their own country to some degree. Why? Because they don't want to sell and no amount of protesting or toxicity can make them sell if they don't want to. Hicks & Gilette sold cheap because RBS forced them to do so and they ran out of ways to raise capital. The Oystons were ousted because Belokon felt taken advantage of and won a huge high court settlement. Wimbledon fans had their club physically taken away from them and had to start a new one (fair play to them). Coventry, Charlton, Port Vale, Portsmouth, Bolton, Rovers... the list goes on of clubs which have been brutalised by ownership with the fans left with little choice but to watch it unfold unless another rich person comes in to temporarily "save the day". Football is in a bad, bad way and until people realise just how bad it is, it's going to keep getting worse. Something needs to be done.

Honestly I don't think the next four games will tell us anything at all. They're pretty meaningless. Our meaningful games were in february after we clawed ourselves back into a great position after a disastrous November/December, and once again we spectacularly blew it. I firmly believe Mowbray has run his race here and the summer will be as disappointing as every transfer window so far, minus the first one in summer 2017. I think next season will be more difficult and we could easily be in a relegation struggle. That said, I can't blame people for believing that Mowbray can succeed. We all want him to, after all, and it's not like our idiot owners are going to go out and get anybody better. Mowbray coming to his senses, realising his mistakes and strengthening the team smartly this summer is realistically the best possible option - albeit one I also think is highly unlikely. I've voted for him to go and remain with that vote because I think he will have us at the wrong end of the table next season, with infuriating team selections, players out of position and no real control over the dressing room. I would absolutely love for him to prove me wrong though, and I'm hoping beyond hope that he does, because otherwise we'll end up playing Venky Roulette again and I'm pretty sure Steve Kean will still be out of work by then.

I'm not sure on the finer details, but unfortunately in situations like this the brutal reality is that supporters' voices make very little difference either way. It's almost always rich men coming in to depose other rich men. It was the same at Liverpool. The "Spirit of Shankly" protest stuff was a nice story but the reality again is that Hicks & Gilette exhausted their options with the bank which subsequently pressured them into selling. This would have happened with or without protests. For fans to have real power clubs must have an allowance for fan ownership at some level. Otherwise the fans' voices mean very little, especially in the Premier League where TV money far, far outweighs any money brought in by ticket or merch sales.

Interesting that the Blackpool protest group are there saying "we're proof that supporters' voices make a difference". It's a nice rhetoric but the reality is somewhat different. The only reason the Oystons are gone is because another rich bloke took them to court and essentially forced them out. Had Belokon not done so then I imagine nothing would have changed.

Bauer seems to have developed a bit of a mythical status on here... but why is he playing in League 1 at 26 years old if he's that good? Not saying he can't make the step up but we should probably exercise some caution.

If the lad is so fragile he can't take being yelled at after making a stupid mistake he probably shouldn't be playing professional football.

We have to be realistic about who is going to leave in the summer. It's easy to suggest Mowbray is ruthless and he should get rid of Mulgrew, Smallwood, Evans, Williams, etc, but who's buying? We just gave them all sparkly new contracts so I don't think it's feasible to believe any of them will be moving on. It's unfortunate but that's the consequence of Mowbray's much discussed loyalty. The only players I can see leaving this summer are Leutwiler, Reed (loan ending), Rodwell (may decide he can get more game time elsewhere), Samuel (loan), Nuttall (loan), Downing and Conway (may stay on in some kind of coaching capacity). Other than Reed it's unlikely we are going to be moving on any regular first teamers. This will limit our wage bill and the amount of bodies we are likely to be able to bring in. The best we can realistically hope for in terms of transfers, imo, is a centre back, a centre-midfielder, a backup goalkeeper and a new striker. I'd be surprised if we get much more than that. Possibly a left back also if Mowbray decides Williams is a better option at centre back. I imagine we'll see a few more step up from the U23's next season to fill the voids left by the likes of Samuel. Nuttall and Conway. That's not necessarily a bad thing but could leave us over-reliant on youngsters should the injury-bug strike again. I don't think we'll be anywhere near strong enough to compete for a playoff spot and would instead expect another tough season where consolidation is the goal. In theory yes, bringing in a good CB, a CM on a similar level to Reed, a better striker than Brereton and somebody to push Raya for the no1 GK spot should make us stronger, but that relies on Tony not only getting every transfer spot on but also playing those players ahead of the established favourites, and in their actual positions as opposed to the usual square pegs in round holes. The manager's past history doesn't leave me feeling very optimistic in that regard.

Exactly the type of player you don't need in your team, to be honest. Unfortunately his new contract ensures we'll be enduring Evans for a while yet, with the occasional good game in amongst the nothing performances he's better known for.

Barton is a thug who masquerades as some kind of intellectual. A disgusting human being who, by the looks of what happened today, has once again shown his true colours. I still think Sunderland will get automatic promotion but they are making hard work of it. If they end up in the playoffs I'm not convinced that they have the mental fortitude to get through it. We'll see. A club that size will come back up at some point, but they could end up in the Sheff Utd bracket of taking some time to get back up off the floor.

It is indeed 61 years. Ipswich have been in the Championship for the last 17 seasons so it'll be strange for them not to be there next year, and personally disappointing for me as with Norwich likely going up and Ipswich going down that's two easy-travel away days I won't be able to attend next season. Difficult for me to have any sympathy with the Ipswich fans as they had no understanding of the position they were in whilst McCarthy was at the helm. He was doing a remarkable job there and played the only football he could to keep their heads above water. A lot of people outside of Ipswich foresaw a very difficult season for them this season, but I don't think many believed it would be this bad. Just shows how the wrong managerial appointment can very quickly torpedo a season beyond all repair. Even Coyle didn't do to us what Hurst did to Ipswich, although both awful appointments contributed hugely to relegation. Honestly I thought Lambert would do slightly better at Ipswich than he has. No real improvement on Hurst, in fact I think his record might be worse, so even though he came into an incredibly difficult job I don't think he's covered himself in any glory. Most of the fans are still with him primarily because he isn't Paul Hurst and he's a master of PR. He knows the right things to say to get the fans on his side, but the proof is in the pudding and he hasn't come close to doing enough to give them a fighting chance of staying up. I've seen Ipswich fans compare themselves to us, but for me those comparisons are wide of the mark. We went down on a very high number of points and also had a number of players who were far too good for League 1. We kept all of them and we saw that even when performances weren't there, the quality of our team was usually enough to get the results needed. I don't see that same quality at Ipswich, nor do I see Evans releasing the money to bring in a Bradley Dack to act as the talisman that is needed for promotion campaigns. Ipswich have gone down after a miserable season and unlike us there won't be the belief that they should still be in the Championship. They know they deserved to go down, changing manager didn't help, and that's a tough position to be in. The infrastructure is there for the club to come back up, but they'll need to start next season well. If they start similar to how we did then I'm not sure they'll have the belief to turn it around.

Sadly we're unlikely to be able to move Mulgrew on in the summer, so short of a contract termination he will be around next season on very big wages for a back up player. Williams might work as a backup CB, basically taking Downing's spot. Technically with the added advantage of being able to play LB, although that's debatable at this level. Delighted to see Rothwell taking his opportunity. Hopefully giving Mowbray no choice but to make him a major part of our plans next season. I just hope it isn't as a replacement for Dack. I'd rather see them playing alongside each other.

I don't think we'll learn much from these last games. Pressure is off, and both manager and players will have a different mindset. Every time we've come close to the top six we've bottled it and in the past few months in particular came close to putting ourselves into an unlikely relegation scrap with such dismal form. It's all a bit Bowyer-esque.

L1 standard at best. Not a young lad either, he isn't going to get much better than he is now. I'm not sure he's even good enough as backup, so I'd be looking to move him on. LB is a massive problem position for us.

Ipswich relegated as things stand, looks like Bolton won't be far behind them.

I might even raise you 96.

Let's try to avoid conceding in the first 20 at least.

It is possible to beat Emerald without KOTR, but it takes a loooooong time. If you get the Underwater Materia then it takes away the 20m time limit, at least. I think it took me about 35m to beat Emerald weapon. Ruby is far harder. The tactics you need to beat it don't really make any sense - for example starting the battle with two of your characters KO'd so that it can't knock them out of battle straight away. Feels like Ruby was made a little too strong, and requires manipulating the materia/battle system in order to win, which isn't really the point.

We're far worse defensively away from home, so there's really no point in switching back to a more 'defensive minded' formation with the likes of Evans and Smallwood ambling around in midfield. It's been proven 100% ineffective. We aren't going to go down at this point so why not keep the faith with the lads who put in such a good performance on Tuesday and see what happens? I'd rather lose by being brave than lose by reverting to the same cowardly tactics and team selection we've seen for months now.

Just the 44 goals conceded away compared to 19 a home. A minor inconsistency/the most away goals conceded of any club in the division. Just a minor issue.

Yeah, that's definitely too much effort for me I might just have to accept never being able to beat Ruby weapon. Fun fact, Ruby and Emerald weapon weren't in the original Japanese release. They were added in for the international releases and then that version was re-released back in Japan, fittingly as "FF7 International". I get the feeling there will be a lot of changes to the Wall Market section in the remake. Unfortunate but I'm not sure the cross-dressing and prostitution will be something modern Sony or Square-Enix are willing to promote! As a kid I didn't really understand wtf was going on during that whole section.

A quote I saw from the Ipswich forum...

In fairness for £1.75m Armstrong has been an OK signing. He still has a lot to improve on but there is some raw talent there, and he's contributed decently enough despite being played repeatedly out of position on the left wing. In fact I'd say during our January run of wins Armstrong was our most important player, with multiple goals/assists. Without that we might be looking at a relegation battle right now, so even though I've been critical of Armstrong in the past I wouldn't put him in the category of bad signing. For me our worst signings, Brereton aside, weren't who we brought in but who we offered new contracts. Those are going to become an albatross around our neck in the next couple of seasons.