It's a weird one with Ipswich. Most of their fans desperately want Mick out, but have very few answers when it comes to who can realistically replace him and not get the club relegated. Make no mistake, Ipswich have a poor squad and have done for years. Mick has basically worked miracles there and had to employ some pretty horrific football to get the results required. Unless Evans stumps up a decent transfer budget for the next manager they could easily be on their way down next season. Haven't heard Mowbray's name mentioned as a potential replacement tbh. I imagine a lot of Ipswich fans don't even know he's our manager. I've spoken to quite a few who have been surprised when I mentioned it. If they think he'd be an improvement on Mick they might be in for a rude awakening. Mowbray won't be able to sign the equivalent of Dack, Graham or Mulgrew for the Championship. If he did go there he'd be working more with the Dominic Samuel, Corry Evans and Marcus Antonsson types. If we go up I think Mowbray would probably be better off staying here, in all honesty. If we stay in L1 I think he'll be gone anyway, so Ipswich could be an option for him. Not sure he'd be welcomed with open arms if he'd just failed to get the best financed team out of League 1 though.

I don't consider Nyambe a huge loss but I wouldn't want Caddis in there as a replacement. I don't think he has the same qualities and was a poor signing in general. Bennett or Travis would be better options, although I agree we would lose something in CM if Bennett was to be moved out of there. A shame Smallwood's form has nosedived in the past couple of months.

How his star has fallen. Been paid handsomely whilst doing so, though. Another player whose peak years appear to have been with Rovers.

Bolton 1-0 Villa, Bolton now six points clear of the relegation zone with five clean sheets in their last eight games. I was concerned that we wouldn't have enough quality if we got promoted, but if Bolton can stay up then there's nothing to fear in the Championship.

Sunderland fans all hate him tbf.

Our old friend Jason Steele getting himself sent off today by somehow misjudging the flight of the ball, coming out of his area and then handling it. Amazed we were actually given money for him.

Well done for bringing him in, TM. Really good signing.

I agree that Rotherham have probably left it too late. A very impressive run but unless that continues until the end of the season and one of us or Wigan collapses they'll almost certainly be looking at the playoffs.

A lot being said about our defence after the Wigan match, a quick stat attack on that... Rovers have conceded two or more goals in 8 matches this season and kept 12 clean sheets. In 36 games those stats don't seem so bad, however... Two or more goals conceded Rovers - 8 Wigan - 4 - this was actually just 1 match until February! Shrewsbury - 4 - similarly to the above this was just 1 match until Jan 13th when we beat them 3-1. Worth noting with the above that we've played 4 games more than Wigan and 2 more than Shrewsbury, so there's still room for the above to change, particularly as both Wigan and Shrewsbury's defences have started creaking in the past two months. Clean Sheets Rovers - 12 Wigan - 19 Shrewsbury -13 Again worth noting the 4 game and 2 game difference between us and Wigan/Shrewsbury respectively. It makes Wigan's CS stat in particular even more impressive. I don't think many would have assumed we would have almost the same number of clean sheets as Shrewsbury. We were actually very solid defensively in the first few months of the season, it's only since December we've started really shipping goals. Since Dec 26th we've only had two clean sheets. Before that we had 10, so, there's definitely been a marked downturn in defensive capability - but that coincides with scoring more goals, so there does seem to have been a shift in tactics/instructions from Mowbray to give us more attacking threat at the expense of our defence. Results suggest that Wigan and Shrewsbury's defences are both starting to leak, though, which particularly bodes well for us in Shrewsbury's case as they don't score many. If their defence starts to falter they will inevitably fall away and might leave it between us, Wigan and Rotherham to fight it out.

Monk's already become a card carrying member of the Championship managerial merry-go-round.

It's funny because Birmingham fans were clamouring for Cotterill before he was hired. Then literally a few weeks later they were almost all calling for his head. It was one of the fastest dips in footballing popularity I've seen.

You can tell Coyle is a bullshitter because his words have no substance. He talks about things vaguely but you can tell he has no idea how to implement those ideas. It's clear within a couple of minutes of listening to Mowbray that he knows exactly what he wants to do and how to do it, whether you agree with him or not.

Yeah, you very rarely hear decent managers criticising their own players in the media. Usually it's a sign of desperation when things have already gone south and have little hope of turning around.

I agree, he's been a great player for us over the years and his consistent record of assists speaks for itself. For whatever reason it just hasn't worked out for him this season, which is a shame as I still think he has the means to be effective even if we aren't playing with wide players. Entirely possible it is just a confidence thing, but it's a shame either way as along with Evans he's one of the bigger earners who I would have expected more out of this season. I imagine he'll end up back in Scotland if he continues playing as I can't imagine we'll be offering him an extension whether we go up or not.

Fairly sure Mulgrew and Graham would definitely be two of the players who felt like they should be playing in a higher division and weren't part of the bigger problem. In Charlie's case fair enough, Graham less so. Seems like it was only around December time that Graham finally stopped sulking and started getting on with it, maybe after realising nobody else was interested in him and his best chance of keeping his current wage would be for us to renew his contract if we got promoted and he played a big part in it. Mulgrew his been superb from day one so credit to him. We all know he's too good for this division but he's taken on the challenge and been a game changer for us on numerous occasions. Wouldn't surprise me if Conway was one of those wanting out. Has been poor this season. Could just be that his legs have gone, but he's never been a pacy player so I'm not convinced. Seems more like he's just not there mentally this season.

It's no coincidence that the degradation of the club's structure - from the boardroom to everything surrounding it - coincided with our plummet from the PL to our current position. Managers have come and gone but very few of them have been able to successfully work with the skeleton structure we have in place. Bowyer nearly made it work but once the funding stopped it was game over. Mowbray is doing an OK job at present, but when you're able to buy the best players in the division your team is going to be competitive. We won't be able to do the same if we get promoted unless Venky's pump in significantly more money. I remember how dismissive certain people on here were when the likes of Williams and Finn left. Losing those kinds of people was just as if not more damaging than sacking Sam Allardyce. Once we had Agnew, Babu, Shaw, etc running the show it was curtains for us as a club with any serious ambitions. We're not really any better off in that department now, so once funds dry up I imagine we will begin to struggle again.

It's working pretty well for Watford though. The big difference being they've set their club up with frequent managerial changes in mind, and considering the nature of football these days you could say they're well ahead of the curve.

Leeds started off really well but their form started getting patchy in October and it's never really recovered. Losing 4-1 at home to Cardiff comes on the back of a winless January and 2 points from a possible 15. They had a decent December but if their goal is the playoffs then they're well off the pace. Six months seems harsh but that's football these days, especially at clubs like Leeds. Speaking of Cardiff, what a job Warnock's done there. A shame he wasn't the "outstanding candidate" here...

If that's the type of player they think has the attitude to help them avoid the drop then they really do have problems.

Way too good to be in League 1, one of very few players good enough to be in the Championship in our squad last season. Probably Coyle's only positive contribution to the club. Credit to our physio department for keeping him on the pitch for most of the season, too. Whatever they're doing has been working so far.

Seems like a typical foreign owner coming in with a trigger happy mentality. Losing to Sunderland at home is pretty disgraceful but Sheffield Utd lost to Bolton at home on the same day which is equally embarrassing if not more so. It happens. Considering Forest only stayed up on GD last season this seems like a harsh sacking.

That's the type of match real promotion contenders win. A bit concerned we conceded two again, but a really good result overall. Well done Rovers.

Beautiful. Mowbray obviously had the right things to say at HT!

Well he was pretty poor last season so you can make a fair judgement on that. Leon Best had a good pre season before he got injured, if memory serves, and look how that turned out.

Just to note I wasn't criticising Samuel, just saying either Mowbray is to blame or Graham/Nuttall aren't doing enough to warrant a first team spot.