Same for me Tony; I never thought I would check out, but I did. Maybe he was ticked off sufficiently with Venkys after the window to not see why he should bust a gut to make them £150 million richer.

I’m sure they are consoling themselves at Loftus Rd and The Hawthorns that they haven’t been quite as bad as Mowbray as they look at their lost playoff places.

My wife just said “Put her in charge!!”

Interesting thought, Tony. Given how thin-skinned he is, and how hard he thinks he works, not being offered another contract could easily have eaten away at him. Add in being overruled by the self-same owners on selling Rothwell to bring in a couple of players to further add his stamp to the promotion push (in his mind), and I could well believe he himself has downed tools. Would tie in with your comment about training being perfunctory and dull these days.

Almost equally as shocking is QPR and west Brom both only got 4 more points than us over the same period. Don’t often see three contenders all implode.

Back to the game, I knew we were goosed even before Stoke scored. Pickering sent a ball miles ahead of anyone, Travis passed straight to an opponent and Gallagher trundled one out of play - not a word of admonishment from any of their teammates. Mediocrity isn’t only tolerated in that team, it’s expected.

Van Hecke, Wharton and Johnson off at HT, Ayala Rothwell and Buckley on.

Looks like we’ll be relying on Van Hecke again for putting Diaz in as no-one else in that team can pass five yards.

Getting time for the annual prediction of insolvency by Christmas

Even if he has lost the dressing room, players with an excellent chance of getting to the must be even thicker than I thought if they downed tools when there’s a lifetime of riches beckoning. Or maybe, like the manager, they aren’t very good.

Dack has been a complete passenger since coming back apart for one header, Gallagher is useless and Brereton back to being more of a liability than a threat. Giles doesn’t care, Buckley and Dolan have regressed, the back three have fallen apart and Kaminski couldn’t find his arse in the dark. The miracle is this lot won as many as they did.

Good riddance, Rothwell.

6/10 Promotions are rare - 6 in my lifetime - so kudos to any manager who gave me a one in ten season. Stagnated last couple of years but all the “worst manager ever” comments shows to me how social media atrophies people’s brains: Quigley, Iley, Kidd, Ince and Kean were all far, far worse.

My reading also, no spirit, going through the motions - bad loan signing.

Get Gallagher and Rothwell on the coach back to Blackpool, they need to resume more suitable careers on the beach and in Tower circus

Get Buckley and Dack on for Gallagher and Rothwell, we need to play in Brereton and Dolan.

This is no better than the last few games IMO, got away with a couple of horrendous defensive errors while they didn’t get away with theirs. Wharton and Rothwell having ‘mares, leaving Pickering exposed. Brereton the only player who looks actually dangerous. We needed a change of luck, let’s hope it holds for another 45.

Biggest difference so far is a change of luck and our best player being Kaminski

Let me write TonyOz’s opening playerwatch report: 10 seconds -Gallagher jumps 3 feet under the ball then gets dumped on his arse. 1 min - Rothwell gives ball away 2 mins - Nyambe lets ball run under his foot for throw in.

So our season is relying on Gallagher dominating their centre halves and bringing others into play, Rothwell and Travis peppering their goal with shots from the edge of the box and Nyambe and Pickering banging the crosses in. Can’t wait.

I think his biggest strength is in his closing down people/space off the ball, which I don’t think gets marks in your system. He’s far more mobile out of possession than Rothwell or even Buckley.

Our entire recruitment Dept was two people?

You do realise that they don’t need to take on a business that loses £20+ million/year in order to put a few names on a payroll? They could put them on the VLL payroll and not have to bother paying Ayala, Gallagher, Mowbray, Waggott et al for doing even less.

I think there’s been a lot of rose-tinted looking back on that season given we all know what came after. We won 11 out of 15 then went on a run of one win in the next 12, then went into the last game not sure of a place in the top 6. Luckily for us, Charlton, who finished three points behind, won only one of their last five. At the time, I thought we’d blown it, it had all been an elaborate hoax on our hopes and dreams, and that Kenny would eff off back to the golf course. And I didn’t feel any better after 20 mins against Derby County in the first leg either.

The six loses in a row gets all the headlines but we finished the season’s last 16 games W3 D5 L8, while our last 16 to date has been W4 D5 L7, so, results-wise, entirely comparable.