Michalski is highly rated and came through the Academy - I'd genuinely be fine blooding him in games like this. If he shows that he has the ability, it's an easy decision to replace both first choice calamity 'keepers that we currently have.

Hyam's goal was well onside, shocking decision. Surprised to see a few 'Forshaw is shite' comments - today he's been decent, so far. I'm a Cantwell fan, but he has to take responsibility for that first goal; loses the ball softly in a bad area. GK needs to do better, of course. Takes some doing to look a worse choice than Pears, but Toth is managing that quite well at the moment. Pleasantly surprised with Kargbo, seems to be what we wanted ACD to be.

I saw somebody mention Big Sam earlier; this would be a best case scenario for me. Showed an interest last time around and was even prepared to take the Bolton job when that came up, so he's itching to jump back in. I couldn't give the slightest shit about how attractive our play is, it's all about results. I'd be confident of the top 6 if Big Sam came back.

Derby County. Derby. County. Not a bigger team with a greater history or fuller trophy cabinet; not one higher in the league/divisions than us. You'd like to think it'll make people sit up and realise how bad things are here, but in reality, nobody outside of East Lancashire gives the slightest shit. And even within East Lancashire, seemingly half of the supporter base are essentially those lemmings from that 90's PC game, all blindly queuing up to fall off a cliff face without questioning what's around them. The world will keep turning, we'll appoint a whopper and we can look forward to League 1 in 18 months.

I've said this before, but JE's agent is putting some effort in - and has been for a number of months now. Linked with every single vacancy in the Championship, details such as quoted compensation fee being leaked. And they won't be doing this without being given the instruction by JE. Seemingly very clear that he's looking to jump at the first opportunity. The players aren't stupid either, they'll know this - and I'd suggest that it's no coincidence that results have taken a turn as a result (also see Dahl Tomasson, J).

I've heard the conspiracy theories on this, but I'm not too sure. Who had heard the brand 'Venky's' before they bought Rovers? Literally nobody outside of India. Now, they're a household name, certainly in the UK (albeit for all the wrong reasons, but 'any publicity is good publicity' and all that).

That's definitely preferable to Hedges and probably holds up against Dolan, Cantwell, Weimann, ACD. Keeping him fit is the main issue. But hopefully a move can be sorted out, so he's not sat around picking up a wage for doing the square root of bugger all.

100% agree with this and I'm trying not to focus on it too much recently, or it'll sound like I've got an agenda against Pears. I don't; he's just nowhere near good enough and actively costs us games. It blows my mind a little bit how it's not blatantly obvious to everyone.

Kargbo looked decent in his cameo. I thought Buckley was pretty decent tonight, too. Maybe I have low expectations for him and I'm pleasantly surprised by an average performance. Thought both goals were avoidable, which seems to be the recurring theme for us.

Ignore the Bamford thing - he was on about Dennis (being a good signing, if he stays fit), I presumed he was on about Bamford, being a Leeds fan. Sorry!

He sent me a message saying 'fantastic signing if you can keep him fit' (in reference to Bamford). Don't know if it's based on something from the Leeds end or not.

Leeds fan mate just told me that Bamford has been confirmed.

Well, Cantwell, to be fair. Both the player and the club confirmed that he had a lot of other options, but he liked how JE sold the club and ambitions to him.

On checking, yes, I was - but my points stand. He's been poor recently, I don't think anyone who has seen the goals we've conceded can deny that and keep a straight face.

I disagree - his positioning was poor and gave him a harder job to get across. Showed far too much of the goal to the Oxford lad. Then the shot itself was quite soft - and he got a hand to it, but pushed it into the goal. But his main failing here was his poor positioning.

Worryingly, he's showing signs of regressing in recent weeks - after quite a stable season. Last night's goal was extremely soft, as were both goals at Oxford and on top of errors like Portsmouth at home and a number of fumbled catches / ones he's gotten away with. JE is a smart chap; these performances won't be lost on him.

I couldn't post on here last night, site was playing up. However, pleased to get the 3 points as the priority, as always. Gueye is looking better with each passing week, thought he was very good last night. Defence looks as good as any in this division and Travis made all of the difference, as we thought he would. On the negative side, I thought Pears continued to look dodgy - the goal in particular was very soft and he was again beaten at his near post by a shot you'd expect any Championship GK to make. And we dropped deep the moment that Preston started going route one, instead of continuing to play our game. Against a side better than Preston, that could easily have cost us.

Happens every year. They see the discontent and start throwing a few scraps to the likes of Nixon. They honestly think we're stupid.

29th Jan, 2 days to the end of the transfer window. We've signed a player on loan from a team in the division below us and an OAP free transfer from Plymouth Fucking Argyle. And that's before you even consider our injury-ravaged first team squad. This is absolutely ludicrous. We are being run by amateurs at every level above the Head Coach.

I actually missed the Coventry game in it's entirety, as I was away for some conference thing. You would think that Toth has the benefit of still being an unknown entity right now. Pears, we've had to experience this level of general incompetence for a number of years now.

I find it stunning that some quarters are actually trying to shift the blame. Pears was the difference between us picking up points and losing yesterday - that screenshot on the previous page of his teammates' reactions speaks volumes. And, again, whilst he's had a better season than last (which would have taken some doing to be worse than last season, to be fair), the big red flags have been there all season; he's just not been punished as regularly for them. See Coventry in our last home game, for example.

So, still nothing happening then? Absolutely criminal. Heads should roll. But we know the story and we all know how this plays out...

First goal was entirely preventable - his positioning was poor for starters. He was slow to get across to the relatively soft shot, even getting a weak hand to it and pushed it into the goal. Second goal took a deflection, but once again, his positioning was poor and his reactions equally so. A professional GK should not be beaten from that angle, by that weak shot. On top of that, his poor decision making should have cost us another goal, but Brittain's goaline clearance bailed him out. He's benefitted massively from a much more organised defence this season, but the same old Pears has still been there throughout - and we've seen the warning signs quite regularly. He's just not good enough and costs us points.

A professional goalkeeper should not be beaten from that angle, with that soft shot. Positioning was wrong, anticipation was wrong, reactions were not present. He has been at fault for both goals today.

The outfield players must feel disheartened. They're not great, but they've mostly played quite well today - I even think Buckley and Forshaw did a decent job in the middle. Gueye seems to be getting better game by game. Then you have a GK that just throws the game away for you, undoing all that good work.