Getting a bit sloppy with our passing. Need to tighten it up a bit...

Fuck me - that's what I'm talking about!!!

Which he didn't - at one point he lazily allowed Faes to run past him and it almost resulted in them scoring. He's only been on for minutes and should have been full of running but nah, he can't be arsed. I've seen enough of him - not good enough and needs to go in the summer.

Get in!!!!!!!!!!!

Terrific performance so far. It's got me thinking how well we might play next season when JDT gets more of his own players into the club.

Then he clearly does still need to grow up a little. Seems clear to me that JDT doesn't hold grudges given players who've found themselves back in the fold. Wharton needs to get back, build up his fitness, play some games and give JDT a decision to make.

Soundtrack to my development and lifelong love of football. RIP Motty.

Always seems to be about the booze and the betting with you. These aren't everyone's pastimes of choice. Looking forward to the day after a victory when you say you're off for a bit of Reiki and and an Oatmeal Latte to celebrate...

I think what Jim's saying is that dinosaurs didn't use 'stakeholder' in their vocabulary and everything worked out for them just fine...

I think that's rather presumptuous. He's had to begin a pretty much total rebuild given the crappy squad left by Mowbray. JDT deserves next season to hopefully show us what he's about with a squad more in his image. Yes, Mowbray is over-achieving but we all know how that will end - Sunderland out of the play-off places by the end of the season...

Yeah, apart from that of course...

Strong bench...

Rovers: Pears, Rankin-Costello, Carter, S Wharton, Pickering, Morton, Travis, Thomas, Dack, Brereton, Dolan Subs: Hilton, Brittain, Hyam, Buckley, Hedges, Szmodics, Gallagher

Maybe so, but I don't understand why people get so angry about Nixon on here. Yes, he's a bit of an old journalistic hack but no-one has to follow him on twitter and taking the piss out of others that do seems a bit childish to me.

No argument about it if we have no injuries Kaminski, Brittain, Hyam and probably Ayala start..

Could have done without Vale, shame there hasn't been a transfer window recently as we could have fixed that...

Knowing our luck I can see exactly that happening. I do think they need to go though for the long term health of the game.

Don't get me started on parachute payments. I believe the EFL are keen to see them scrapped to level the playing field. There's not many businesses where you effectively get a bonus payment for failure (bankers excepted of course..)

All well and good and you'd like to think so, but as I said earlier, getting there in itself guarantees absolutely nothing as several clubs who have sucked from the golden tit before have already found out..

These days, I struggle to really understand what the actual 'point' is of the professional football pyramid system.

I take your point - if we somehow went up then obviously you roll with it and accept that the following season will, in all probability, be like slowing down to rubberneck at a car crash..

No, that's not what I'm saying. Promotion this season, with this squad would be catastrophic. You make out that going up is nirvana - for every Burnley there's a Leeds/Sunderland/Bolton/Derby. Look at Huddersfield and Cardiff, in the Premier League as recently as 2019 and now 3rd & 4th bottom respectively in the Championship. Cast your eye over Norwich, for all their yo-yoing they look no more fit for promotion than we do and how much money have they received and spunked away over the last few years? The 'point of all this' ultimately is to support are club,no? The point, for me, isn't the Premier League in itself, at all costs..

It's just an opinion and you know how the saying goes about those. It might be shocking to you but I'm comfortable with it. I'll expand on it though a little. For me, the Championship is probably the most genuinely competitive league in the world. Most of the teams in the division will, over a season have genuine claims on either promotion/relegation/both of the above, sometimes at the same time. This makes nearly every game meaningful in a way you'd never really see in the Premiership (I'll accept this season is something of an outlier given how well Brentford, Brighton and Fulham are doing). Chasing the money guarantees nothing in terms of our situation given our peculiar set-up and there's something soulless and morally bankrupt about the premiership promised land. A fair chunk of the owners there leave a particularly nasty taste in the mouth. Have a read of the article below; for sure it'll make you laugh in places (it did me anyhow, Delia Smith at #15, for example). By the same token, after reading it I felt grubby as fuck, in need of a shower and reminded yet again that money doesn't buy class.... https://www.football365.com/news/ranking-premier-league-owners-morals-bin-salman-abramovich-mansour

Personally, I'd run with what we've got now. Genuinely blood the youngsters - see who's made of what and then hopefully we're clear on who we're going to retain in the summer and who is surplus to requirements. I see no benefit in promotion if I'm being honest as I think it would make next season a car crash of epic proportions, but I would prefer to see the likes of Leonard, Wharton, Garrett etc. all being given genuine chances to show if they're going to sink or swim. If you're good enough you're old enough.