Agree to disagree. Travis, much as I like him, has never done anything like the two chances Bucko created for Gally and Dack.

Two moments today showed why, Imo, Gally will never be prolific. First, when Trybull had the long ranger that the goalie palmed out, Gally didn’t move a muscle until the ball had bounced off the keeper, a natural striker would have been on the move as the ball was hit, there was plenty of time to anticipate the shot. And second when Buckley put him clean through and he just whacked it straight at the keeper, no finesse. Interesting today that we didn’t miss Travis one bit and were much better without Armstrong. It’s becoming pretty clear you can’t have him and Dack in the same team and both be effective.

Really enjoyed that. A real battling performance with more than a few really good performances. I don’t get the default Buckley is crap comments, won his fair share of tackles, involved in the first goal and created two absolute sitter chances just before being hooked. Gave a few away but definitely promising. Give Dolan a 20-year contract immediately.

Wow, where did that come from? Although we are being helped by having three Dolan’s on the pitch. He’s been doing everything Armstrong doesn’t do: comes short, goes out wide, challenges for high balls, takes men on, absolutely brilliant. JR-C also adding another dimension, and setting up the goal.

Or care. £100 million a year will make zero difference to them, not that they’d get that much anyway. Burnley only managed to salt away £40 million in five years. They are without doubt much wealthier than they were ten years ago, despite Mercer announcing every year they are cash-strapped. £200 million yacht needs its ashtrays emptying? Sod it, let it rot in Tangiers harbour.

Grim stuff. Good keeper who had virtually nothing to do. Nyambe same as ever, a good outlet on the right but all comes to naught. Lenihan and the City kid both good. Bell is rubbish but I’d pick him over Douglas. Trybull makes errors but always shows for the ball. Evans is Evans. Elliot should be dropped for that. Rothwell does a couple of great things then absolutely nothing. Ben, who was poor, was still the only threat. Armstrong should’ve been brought on. Dack, pitiful to watch. Dolan should get a run of starts, I like him. Mowbray, shell shocked.

Nyambe will never score - simple ball to Dack for a tap in

How could the ref possibly give that handball? He was 30 yards away in the middle.

As I remember from my schooldays at SMC, we sneaked out for a dab teacake, with not a current in sight. But it had a domed top, otherwise it would’ve been a dab barmcake

Not really. It was a much better ball into the space and a much better shot than it was a cross: scuffed behind Armstrong and should’ve been cleared.

Enjoyable to watch after a dire first five minutes where Nyambe failed to stop two dangerous crosses coming in, missed two headers and passed straight to two opponents; Douglas then taking the dire armband for the rest of the half. Cracking goal made by a great Rothwell pass and a great first time finish.

Some players just seems to hit it off everywhere. Who can ever forget his perfect cross that MGP volleyed in.

Seems clear to me that Mowbray was told a while ago it’s playoffs or bust. So he gambled on two young centre backs hoping for two more of Elliott’s standard, and then he gambled on bringing Travis and Dack back as soon as the bandages were off. The gambled have failed, he has bombs going off all around him and he’s now shell shocked: no cards left to play, can’t think straight. A broken man.

Dack and Travis aren’t passengers, they are both liabilities. We can’t keep showing up with 6 men, 3 boys and 2 unfit.

From here on in I’d play Travis and Davenport centre mid, Elliott, Dack and Brereton (who can hold the ball up long enough for Dack to trundle upfield) with the greedy bugger up front, and whoever is fit at the back.

The team went downhill after Arbitro and CLB left. I, sadly, was only good enough for the Second XI. The trick will be getting a hearing with some or several underlings at the base of their pyramid of trust, and then getting them to push the idea upwards. Which, of course, they would each have to see it be in their interests to do so, which means it’ll have to be something very different to what’s gone before. All the Venkys Out!, Kean Out!, Mowbray Out!, Apologise!, Admit your mistakes! Give us the club for free! never stood the slightest chance of getting a hearing, let alone a response.

Key in my mind is recognizing from the start who you are trying to reach and figuring out not what to say but how to reach them. Owners and CEOs of a huge multinational company based in an extremely hierarchical society thousands of miles away are incredibly hard to get a hearing with. They don’t answer the phone or reply to email, they have countless minions to stop random people getting in front of them. Every consulting firm and banker in India would be banging their door down if they were actually accessible. So I think it needs a lot of homework: figuring out the management structure, how proposals get submitted and to who, who do they listen to, how do decisions get made etc etc. Imagine your group is McKinsey and you have a proposal on chicken vaccines you want to get in front of them - how would they do it? I wish you luck, even though you did go to the wrong school on the wrong side of Corporation Park!!

For ten years now it’s been impossible to evaluate initiatives objectively because there’s always been shady fuckers lurking around. Maybe there is an argument to go the Brentford model, especially as Travis, Dolan and JR-C joined us in their late teens and were all good enough to be on the fringes of the team. Maybe having what is essentially a reserve team playing friendlies against a range of different teams is better than u-23s being mollicoddled and having to be sent out for years on loan to toughen up. Maybe someone has added up the costs of taking lads on from the age of six, and, out of hundreds of them being coached, educated and sometimes housed, we only end up with Buckley who doesn’t look ready to be sent to Asda to do the shopping. Maybe. But maybe it’s some shady fuckers getting their snouts in the trough, and until we get proper owners it is actually best to oppose everything.

If he’s not, he ought to be. Every other CEO is.

Anyone suggesting sponsors are paid by the club seems fundamentally misunderstand how sponsorship works. Businesses listen a lot more to sponsors than to random customers because there is more money at stake.

Every single thing Gallagher did was rubbish, he’s a complete donkey. His first four involvements were passing to an opponent when under no pressure, swinging and missing a clear shot, cushioned header to no-one anywhere near, and passing straight out of play. Get him off. Also noteworthy Nyambe’s crap header led directly to the goal.

For a big ugly bruiser of a centre half, he’s remarkably thin-skinned. Maybe it’s the combination of another season in mid-table coupled with his “boss” taking early retirement that has him rattled. He desperately needs a new narrative for a new boss who he won’t get to pick, hence resetting the journey clock. Expect a new theme tune to tune out to: “We’ve only just begun” by the Carpenters.

Hard to judge anyone from that shambles but I remain convinced that Gallagher is a donkey: no hold up play, can’t beat his man, headers flicked onto no-one.

Douglas’s best game so far for me. Leaving aside the Bennett groupthink for a second, those two flighted balls he played down the centre were excellent, Gallagher ballsing up the best one by not reading the flight of the ball and making the wrong choice trying to get his foot to it; chest it past the keeper then tap in. Their pitch is even worse than ours.

Surely the bigger news is no Nyambe on the bench! One of them won’t be here come summer, that’s for sure