Our tendency to self destruct towards the end of games needs to stop if we want to make the playoffs. Lenihan's panicked shove on Berahino at the end of the Stoke match was a prime example of the type of behaviour we need to remove. I don't know if it's a mental thing or just tiredness but we could have easily lost a 3-0 lead in 13 minutes and that's concerning. Mowbray will hopefully be working on it as a priority.

Yeah, agreed. The sad fact is that top level football is now all about catering to players' egos. The days of the fire-breathing manager are gone - at the top two levels anyway. I think it'll still work to some degree in League One and below, but it's a totally different game once you get any higher.

There was an interesting post match quote from Hurst in the paper: "I spoke to the players and said if I, in any way shape or form, am making it more difficult for you to play then please come and see me and I’ll try and take that away. Because it’s not a difficult place to play of in terms of fans getting on at the players. There are a helluva lot worse places." Once again subtly blaming the players and absolving himself of any wrongdoing. He's essentially telling them (via public medium) "if you've got a problem with me, say so, or you're the ones at fault, not me". IMV that's bad management. Good managers rarely shift the blame onto the players, they take it all themselves. There's a number of reasons the players were so loyal to McCarthy and that was one of them. Hurst has a lot to learn.

The fans turned really nasty and Mick responded in kind. Once it gets to that point you're basically done (unless you're Steve Kean). Ipswich fans were aiming their anger in the wrong direction though. Yes the football was shit, and yes they were paying a premium to watch it, but it all comes down to Marcus Evans and the tight budget restraints the club is working under. Mick was never the problem there, he was just the guy who took the bullets because Evans likes to hide in the shadows. I don't wish ill on Hurst or Ipswich as a club, I obviously have a soft spot for them (except when they're playing us), but a lot of the fans are reaping what they've sown and are still struggling to come to terms with the reality of the situation. They had a very good Championship manager at the helm who was focused purely on getting results from a team that could generously be described as average but in truth was pretty poor. His departure alienated the few better players there who knew Mick was getting the best out of them and their less talented team mates. Hurst's biggest hurdle would have been winning the respect of those players. He's come in as a much less experienced manager and almost immediately started shooting his mouth off about how the team wasn't good enough and players weren't at the level he felt was necessary. He came in and undoubtedly got some player's backs up instantly with such blunt public comments. The start they've had will only solidified in the players' minds that they're working with a much less talented manager and the motivation to play for the fans probably isn't there either as most of them fully backed Mick whenever asked about how he was being treated. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't advocate removing a manager so early in his tenure - but there are a lot of things working against Hurst, some of which he has brought on himself. How many games without a win do they go before they make a decision? 12 games? 15 games? 20 games? Right now they're fortunate enough to still be within a single win of escaping the drop zone. In a few games time they may be looking at a much bleaker picture. Their next two games are Birmingham (A) and Boro (H). Fail to win either of those and there would have to be some serious consideration towards making a change before it really is too late. We saw with Coyle that waiting too long means that even if you get the right guy in, it may not be enough. I genuinely believe Mowbray would have kept us up in 16/17 if he'd been brought in a month or two earlier. None of us wanted to give Coyle until the end of the season because it was obvious we were dead in the water with him in charge. That time may come for Ipswich, too, if they don't start picking up results very quickly.

Totally forgot I made this post. Hah. At the time I never would have thought he'd be signing for us. Obviously hoping he proves everybody wrong and shows the talent he obviously had at one point.

Hurst seems to have basically transplanted his plans from Shrewsbury to Ipswich. Buy a bunch of league 1 players relatively cheap or on loan, and see if it's good enough. Obviously much bigger expectation at Ipswich though, especially as McCarthy had them finishing comfortably away from danger on the same budget Ipswich fans shot themselves in the foot with their disgusting treatment of McCarthy (including peadeophile chants) because they turned most of the players against them too. Much like Rovers fans 8 years ago, Ipswich fans want champagne football on a budget that would barely buy a big mac. Totally clueless.

I found this comment on an Ipswich forum quite amusing: An improvement except for the most important part - winning?! Just shows how it really is "anything but Mick" for a lot of the fans. A total failure to see the forest for the trees. Some of them still don't understand WHY they were playing that way.

I agree that Mulgrew is still an important part of our team, no doubt, but I think we could find a player to replace him and still be fairly comfortable defensively. We seemed to struggle in the transfer window to identify a backup to Graham, and finding a player like Dack is one in a hundred. So much seems to hinge on those two as far as our attacking threat is concerned. Still, I'm not going to worry about it tonight. Three points and it's fair to say we've had a very good start to the season. I haven't agreed with some of Mowbray's dealings in the transfer market this summer, but he's brought our momentum and team spirit from last season into this one and it's serving us well. A million miles away from that hugely depressing start in 16/17 under Coyle.

Personally I don't think Mulgrew is as important to us now as he was last season. A fantastic free kick and penalty taker, but as a defender he's pretty slow and has some real lapses of concentration positionally. If we're sensible we can replace him without too much bother imo. Graham and Dack would be much harder to replace. Bennett a bit of an unsung hero as well, he'd be missed if he wasn't around.

Another terrible result for Ipswich, 0-0 with Bolton despite having an extra man's advantage for an hour. Apparently a dire performance as well. Ipswich fans now calling for Hurst's head. https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/442150/hurst-is-surely-gone-after-that/#26 Mick's still available lads

I did the same thing, except at 3-0 rather than 2-0. Imagine my horror when my phone takes it upon itself to let me know it's 3-2 with ten minutes left. Thanks for that. Great result though, especially after the performance at Derby. Well done Rovers!

W t feck?

What is going on here?

I should have added "in theory" there, as yeah, plenty could change between now and the end of the season to make next season very difficult indeed. Dack potentially departing along with Mulgrew and Graham would be a major rebuilding job - arguably our three most important players all gone. It's possible Mulgrew and Graham will sign on for another season but even so, they're both old enough that we can't keep going into seasons relying on them. Mowbray will know this better than anyone so hopefully at the very least he'll be thinking ahead. Difficult to do with the current owners at the helm though.

Armstrong's purple patch of goalscoring when he first joined on loan skewered how his overall contribution was seen imo. He does have some ability but I'm not sure he's much more than a squad player/impact option off the bench. I think a lot of us were just relieved to have another body in attack, albeit one that had question marks over playing at this level. I have no idea about Brereton but if our game is largely centered around using Graham to hold the ball up was he the best option as a potential replacement? And if he wasn't seen as a Graham replacement why did we not get anybody in who can do that role competently, at least as back up? We're in trouble if Graham gets injured as things stand. We'd need to switch to a completely new way of attacking - which may not be a bad thing considering current efforts largely centre around Dack pulling something out of the bag - but it'd be a questionable gamble to take midway through a season.

Doubtful I'd think. We could realistically be going into next season needing to replace Dack, Graham and Mulgrew so we'd better hope the purse strings are still open.

We aren't going to make the playoffs imo. Not enough quality in the team at the moment. I think we'll finish around 9th-14th, which wouldn't be a bad thing as it'd give us a solid platform to go into next season.

Palmer had a lot of hype coming in, but that's not been justified at all yet. Not sure if it's because the system isn't suiting him or whether his attitude isn't right, but I'd certainly be looking to Rothwell (who's our player anyway, Palmer is not) to step in going forward.

Reed and Brereton really need to start, possibly Rothwell too. We're starting to look stagnant and a couple of changes are overdue.

Stunned that we escaped with a point, and a clean sheet. A good result despite a very poor first half performance. A lot better in the second half which was crucial.

Our poorest game so far by some margin. Some of these players need to wake up. Huge improvement needed in the second half, we're very lucky that it's still 0-0. Rockets up arses needed.

Tbf you haven't seen the contracts, so there's no way you can say if there's loopholes or not Last time we splashed out £8m it was at the behest of Shebby, was it not? Granted he's not here this time but who's to say they haven't had intel from one of their "advisers" telling them Brereton is the next big thing? The bid for him seemed to come out of nowhere on deadline day. As I said, my assumption is that he was Mowbray's target but it's hardly beyond the realms of possibility that he was identified by other sources.

As far as Venky's are concerned I'm ready for anything. I'm not going to say it's a done deal until the money is sent over. I expect it to be, but until it actually is it's still an if. I said I assumed it was Mowbray's call.

To be fair to Brereton he's got 14 years less experience than DG, so I wouldn't expect him to have that same ability as a hold up player. If he did I doubt he would have come here, he'd have been looking at a PL move. As I've said before, my issue is that if we do spend £6-7m on him on January that's the type of fee that you'd expect an instant impact from. Obviously Brereton is not at that point yet and I'm not sure we're in a position at this point in time to be spending such large amounts on potential. Still, I have to assume it's Mowbray's call so hopefully we will see the benefits in the near future.