I've felt like giving up at almost every point from that moment onwards, and have at times, but somehow, despite dreadful form, it has continued being mathematically possible. Just not conceding one of those late equalisers recently would have given us a strong chance going into the final day, because so many teams around us have also had stuttering form. I look at how this league is looking to finish...Burnley are a strong side for this level but we saw the other day they're nothing that special and yet they've utterly ran away with it. Luton in third, Coventry in 5th, Millwall in 6th...this has been a fucking SHIT league this year. I can't help but feel we have missed a truly golden opportunity. It's true it's the hope that kills you.

This season has been an absolute prick tease.

So now we also need Preston to do us a favour and beat Sunderland in a game where Preston have nothing to play for. Yeh I'm sure they'll be well up for doing us a favour. Think we are probably going to need to win both remaining games to do it now. Not happening IMO.

Ahh yes, I missed that if West Brom win their last two games they'd have the same points as we would from drawing with Luton and beating Millwall. Fuck, Sunderland just equalised!

With Sunderland 2 down (oops, 2-1 now) and Coventry 2 up, looking like we will need to get at least a draw from Luton to still have a mathematical chance (unless there's a ridiculous turnaround in GD from us unexpectedly thrashing Millwall). We would then need to also beat Millwall, and we would be guaranteed to be in the playoffs (assuming Sunderland don't snatch something against Watford). If we manage to beat Luton, and Coventry lose away to Boro, we would be capable of finishing as high as 5th, but (realistically) regardless what happens we need to beat Millwall away and get at least a point at Luton. That's the only route to landing in the playoffs I believe, and it will also be guaranteed if we do that. Meaning it's still in our hands. Our butterfingery hands. Looks like a draw really is pretty much as good as a win against Luton, it won't make any difference to our chances of reaching the playoffs, a win would only mean there's an outside chance of finishing 5th rather than 6th. (Someone correct me if I've missed something here...obviously I'm assuming Sunderland don't scrape a point here)

Letting him go was absolutely no mistake whatsoever in any shape, form or fashion. Not replacing and improving on him however, was a huge mistake.

For every JRC there's a Jason Lowe and an Adam Henley. Sometimes management are right, sometimes they're horribly wrong. JRC looked short of fitness, BB looked short of confidence. Vale looks short of giving a shit.

Let's just keep every player around then regardless of how they play, in case they go all JRC or BBD.

I really think it's mostly down to his being consistently and fully fit. Mowbray just used to wedge him in there as soon as he was available and he'd inevitably break down soon after. Can't have helped his confidence doing badly due to being unfit either. He'd been talked about for years before his breakthrough as a talent, think we're just seeing the real player now. Need him to stay fit though to keep seeing it, and if he ever looks to be flagging he should be rested.

The Google lineup suggests it was 5 at the back all along

Fair play on admitting you regret it, that's not always easy to say. For my part, I've in no way been using it as a stick to beat JDT with. I actually like JDT, his warmth is wonderful and as he's our manager I want him to do well for us. Which on the whole, he has. The inevitable slide has been extremely disappointing and I feel he has made numerous tactical errors that contributed to it, but nobody can deny that this season has gone far, far better than most of us expected. And all managers make mistakes. I have my reservations about him, but overall he's a man I have a lot of time for and I'm happy to take him into next season. However I regard the continued overlooking of Wharton until recently to be a serious mistake, one I do think has cost us a few points (partly because the alternative has often been Morton), and I'm calling it out in it's own right. I try to separate all managerial decisions from each other and from the man making them (although admittedly it became hard to do that at times with Mowbray, who wasn't just inept and stubborn but also began to act with arrogance in the press and almost animosity to the fans). For an example of how I'm happy to praise him, I think the use of JRC in an almost free role has been a master stroke, albeit teams might figure it out in time.

It's absolutely no such fucking thing, but I said a while back that when he did start playing and proved how good he is, this sort of post-event hindsight bullshit would be posted by people who were defending the manager. We saw way back in October against Blackpool that Adam Wharton could run a game. We've been calling for him to play ever since. Nothing revisionist about it. He was dropped unfairly, kept out unfairly by someone who was worse than him and who was making costly mistakes, and now he's back he's showing how ridiculous it was. He isn't just playing well, he's out playing everyone else. He looks levels above other teams not just ours. He didn't go from not good enough to start to being far superior suddenly because of JDT's magical training sessions. Playing Morton over Wharton HAS cost us points. It's as clear as these intangible sorts of things can be.

Wow, I sure don't give a shit about that! Better over the professional minutes than Morton, has been all season, that's all I care about. Honestly I don't give a monkey's if when he trains he just runs around helicoptering his nob proclaiming himself to be the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Probably be introduced soon, too late to help us. That's how things usually go. Champions League qualification not just being the champions came in too late to help us (we'd have had two further qualifications under current rules), FFP came in nearly as soon as it could screw us, reduced protection for lower league clubs against their youngsters being poached came in at the worst time for us, Sky money always seems to improve hugely after we go down, etc etc etc etc.

I don't know why you do. The way things are going, we could win both games and still not go up. There are four teams that, if two of them do the same and win their remaining games, would go up ahead of us. Knowing our luck, that would happen even if we won our last two. I have this horrible feeling looking at the form guide that Tony Smug Cunt Mowbray's Sunderland side, who are barely back up from League One, will make the playoffs in his first season there after he fannied around for years here barely threatening them. FUCK FOOTBALL, I'm SICK of it!

Well, robbed again. Outplayed them, world class goal from their lad out of nowhere with the only shot they hit on target all game, robbed of a stonewall penalty at the death (handball just doesn't seem to apply when we play), scum win the title on our turf as a result of robbery, nothing else to say but that I'm off and on the voddies. Fuck this.

Not sure why Dolan is being blamed, don't think Hyam gave a shout there. Lad's eyes aren't in the back of his head.

His third start in 6 days, against the best side in the league, will be a real test of his stamina that some posters have claimed isn't up to standard yet. He hasn't played a lot of games at this level to build his match fitness up either. I'll not be surprised if he starts looking leggy around 60 minutes, especially with the effort he's likely to put in against this lot. Hopefully that's enough!

No, but he could have just brushed over the topic and moved on quickly. He was for sure the best player, you can't expect more, he's been excellent for Rovers...these kind of comments make me question the man's judgement. And nevermind just before the World Cup, or eventually dropping him for Buckley, he should have been dropped well before the WC for Wharton.

Nope, we're in real trouble now. Spurs and West Ham playing each other, plus one more game each. I'd say we need Spurs to lose that one, and lose to Manure (only a place above us) who in their last 5 have drawn 1 and lost 4. West Ham's extra game is bottom placed Leicester. Even if Spurs draw both games, they'll finish above us on GD if we lose to Palace. Our only saving grace might be Palace's form seems to have wobbled a bit and they're our last game. They've drawn one and lost one 5-0 in their last two, and we would probably have beaten them recently but Eastham got sent off. However they're also third in the league so are clearly one of the better sides. It's away. Think we're going down, personally.

Take it and put it in the bin maybe. In fairness, I wouldn't entirely disagree with the rest of your post I left out, but I'd be terrified of us signing him under JDT who seems to want to play him as much as possible. Maybe that was just a clause but I don't want to find out by bringing him here again. Also, with Wharton and Buckley already here I don't see any need for him.

He was a Roman soldier of Greek heritage born in Cappadocia (which is modern day Turkey). That's a whole lot of things that aren't English. I'm also not religious so I don't give a monkeys about celebrating saint's days. Before anyone asks tryna be clever, for me Easter is about chocolate eggs, and Christmas is about spending time with family and sharing gifts, booze, food and company. If St George's Day became a big thing and there were fun things for me to do during it, I could go along with that, but I'm also not arsed if it's not celebrated at all. Never actually been out on St Patrick's Day, just coincidence, but I'd take the excuse for a good time if I was out, whilst caring barely a jot that it's very much an Irish national celebration. They're all just days about dead people. Symbolism is overrated. Side note, as history isn't overrated, I believe England did have English patron saints before George: Edmund the Martyr and Edward the Confessor, who had also both been Kings. Edward being a particularly famous one you may recall from school (died 1066 if that helps). Anyway! Shouldn't this be in the non-football forum?

Morton out for the season. I know I've been crying out for Wharton to play more games, and this will now force the issue, but I can't say this is how I wanted it to happen. My concern is it's now basically just Wharton, because Buckley is out, that can play this playmaking role in CM. If he gets injured tomorrow for example, we're buggered. It also means he can't really be brought off when tiring, meaning he could build fatigue quickly and not play at the standard he can earlier in games too. Fortunately there are only three games left, potentially six if we scrape the playoffs. Probably can't play the sort of midfield 3 we've played lately that's looked alright either. It'll probably have to be two spoilers and Adam, if we do. You could maybe bring Szmodics back there, but he looked dangerous against Preston playing further up.

It was a perfectly fair market rate at the time.

I'm not sure any player who says they're a Rovers fan is a true Rover. Seems to mean something different to most players. But Jones certainly claimed to be, Wharton claims to be - how can you spot the difference at this stage?