Bolton need to make up 8 points in 11 games with their massive adverse goal difference. As good as down already.

We are still closer in points to the play-offs tan relegation despite being bottom of current form by 2 points. I am a great believer that how you finish a season is a good pointer to the next. So if we can pull a meaningless strong run at the end of this season I will be optimistic for next. Carry on current form to season end and we will need wholesale surgery to face next next year with any hope. As for this season, we only need two opposition teams having horror games to get us to 50 points and the fixture list to the end of the season for sure includes two wins irrespective of how bad we are.

Now swung back towards City. Salah has lost his Mo and if he doesn't find it again immediately Liverpool will be out of everything before March is over. Liverpool lucky to have Dingles and Fulham next in the Prem.

Rubbish changes, every one.

Not signing a beast of a central defender. We need one now, yesterday and for the future.

Quel surprise!

I said the team chosen could have beaten Rotherham playing different tactics: 4-4-1-1 not dissimilar to how they took Hull apart with Smallwood closer to defence and Bennett and Armstrong swapping flanks and Dack playing in the hole where he is one of the best in the league. Equally the tactics could have beaten Rotherham if he had picked a different team with the mobility and trickery of Rothwell and Reed plus Dack and Armstrong reversed giving Rotherham more headaches than they would have been able to cope with. Putting yesterday's tactics with yesterday's team was suicide. Mowbray seems to have a very inflated view of where the limitations of his players lie- they are not as flexible as he thinks they are and at least four need sports psychiatry urgently.

Not me because I didn't Out of interest, who was available in lieu of the centre halves playing yesterday.

He has to turn it around against PNE and Wigan or else Rovers won't have the credibility in the summer window to attract the calibre of players we supposed to be after.

Referee was something else but.. Team was right to beat Rotherham Tactics were right to beat Rotherham However, getting that team to play those tactics against Rotherham invited losing the way we did. FFS play that formation and you will give Rotherham a roasting IF you play Dack and Arma in their correct positions and have the mobility and creativity of Reed and Rothwell in place of Smallwood and Bennett from the start. Alternatively, play that side and play the 4-4-1-1 tp grind out an away win. You don't need a limited ball winner in the team because Rotherham will keep giving you the ball and having Mr all energy run all day do nothing with it is no good because that plays into the hands of a Rotherham side which has little else. Chuck in a couple of Raya howlers and we got what we got.

Can easily win this one- or lose 3-0.. Over to the half time hair dryer.

Watching on my phone. Idiot ifollow won't run on my Mac because of an ad blocker.

I am looking forward to this one. Just looked at the Rotherham fixture list to the end of the season and they are as good as down if they don't win this afternoon. Apart from QPR away every game is against a team currently above us with all the top 8 except Leeds to be played...

Until you look at their fixture list. Write down the next six games you wouldn't want if you were in Rotherham's position and you won't be far wrong.

My gut feel is Mowbray is a much better Manager than he is given credit for. Ignore the accent and the 15 rounds with Henry Cooper features (which probably are an advantage talking with even modern day footballers), he is a pretty sophisticated operator. Sure he screws up from time to time but he is doing fine for us overall. We don't yet have a strong enough group of players for them to bail him out when he does err, but nobody can seriously argue that we have seen anything less than good progress over his two years with us.

1) Mowbray is the sort of guy you expect to be telling the truth. 2) Given what has been said to detract from Rodwell in the past, those comments are perfect demon killers so 3) Very smart psychology to phrase it that way.

Sheer physicality of Rotherham's team of man mountain's means this is no game for Brereton to build his confidence in. I normally back the lad but the kindest thing today is keep him in the u-23 squad.

Fully expect Rotherham to be completely fired up for this one. Big test for Mowbray to make sure our mindset is right. No reason otherwise for not winning this one.

All that matters is he is gone!

Really enjoyed hearing that- thank you.

Leeds v West Brom a crunchy one this evening.

Rotherham are big brutes so we need to be agile and quick for this one. Also probably owe us a beating for us losing at Reading.. As has been pointed out, they have drawn the last five. We should end that sequence for them by winning there but I suspect we will end it the wrong way. If Chapman is anywhere near fit, put him on the bench. I would not have Brereton in the 18- he will get bullied in this one.

A book published in 1912 written by a John Lingard (not the 18th century chronicler of the Catholic Faith in England prior to emancipation) describes journey by tram around all the municipal systems of Lancashire and the distinct dialects and accents of each town. I remember one of those excruciating evenings when main board directors had dinner with graduate recruits a Shell being sat with a particularly full of himself individual. I had worked out he wasn't Leeds and wasn't Bradford as sussing out his accent was more interesting than what he was saying when suddenly he threw down the challenge to the sycophants: "I bet you can't work out where I come from from my accent". Before I knew I'd done it I said Pudsey. Cue one very crestfallen Shell Member of the Committee of Managing Directors trying to explain to the rest of the table where Pudsey, the town of his birth, is... This was before Pudsey Bear so nobody had ever heard of it- nor of Bradford... Leeds still had a football team in the early '80s.

This austerity impact is bound to have had an affect: 5 areas that have seen the biggest falls in spending since 2010 - Barnsley (-40%) Liverpool (-32%) Doncaster (-31%) Wakefield (-30%) Blackburn (-27%) British average -14.3%.