S-Clarke

I think it's important to ignore what our previous records have been at this stage, they really mean nothing in these one off games. Without sounding too overconfident, I think we've got the better of the draws though. Don't get me wrong, they're a good side, but they don't have any of the attacking talent that Norwich have for example. They'll be tight, will close us down relentlessly and will probably try and foul the crap out of us - but I'm hopeful that moments of our quality will catch them out. We'll see what happens! One thing I didn't realise is that they'd signed Yan M'Villa on a free since we played them, so he'll be playing against us. If he's even a tiny bit near the level he was at Sunderland then that's added an extra challenge!

What an effort by Ipswich, it's nice to see someone different in the PL from time to time rather than the usual yo-yo's, they'll need to do a hell of a lot to be competitive for sure, but they'll enjoy the summer trying to do that and being linked with players they could only dream of 2 years ago! Birmingham were served the ultimate dose of karma - Eustace was fine for them, but they got all celebrity-focused and brought in someone who should never be a manager. That relegated them, nothing that happened after could save them. To see Eustace then saving Blackburn at their expense is the ultimate slap for them and their daft yank owners. They do have a lot of money behind them though and at L1 level that will make the ultimate difference, so I expect them to rip L1 to pieces next year and return with a bounce - could be a relegation that provides them the reset they need. I see a lot of people saying Rosenior has done so well to get Hull as close as he did, but he's flopped massively with the players he had imo. Carvalho, Philogene, Delap, Greaves, Seri - they shouldn't be scraping to get into the playoffs ont he last day, they should have been in there with WBA/Norwich. He had better players at his disposal than WBA.

That was an enjoyable game, can't say I expected that, but we did play well. I find it hard to read too much into it though given the dead-rubber nature of the game - we played without any pressure or nerves and it showed. The playoffs will be a different kettle of fish. This was, I reckon, the first game we've had this season with less of the ball - a back 5, sitting deep and breaking in transition (which is what we did well) were the keys to this match, somewhat of our kryptonite in recent games - we turned it on the head today. Leeds were, very, very, very flat though - they won't be that bad in the playoffs, I still think they'll have way too much for Norwich. Bring on the net 2 and let's see where we are. The games will be different, nothing like the league games, so in my eyes the 'unbeaten' stats mean zilch - WBA will be very tight and hard to breakdown, I would happily take a draw in the away leg and finish it at home. Overall it's games like today which just add to my frustration! Blackburn away, Boro home, Rotherham home - it could have been so different!

That would require Huddersfield beating Ipswich on their patch, which is pretty much not going to happen.

I always had a feel that this game would be a total dead rubber, but if I'm honest I thought it would have been because Leeds had wrapped it up - no idea what happened to them. They're obviously very strong for the playoffs - maybe the best of the 4. It's not good for us that we may have to get past them in a final., as they have so many weapons on the break that are our kryptonite.

Maybe in the third year it will be a bit like that, but I just feel we have a tiny bit of grace next year - not based on anything other than a hunch and looking at what went on in the summer. If you think about it, we pocketed a hell of a lot in the summer (more than anyone else ever has at this level), we're likely going to pocket another 50m+ this summer with the sales of Bednarek, KWP and some others (maybe ABK). We'll trim the wage bill even further with Adams, Stu and McCarthy off - so as long as we aren't financially absolutely screwed and all this will have to service extreme levels of unknown debt, then I don't see any reason why we cannot compete strongly again. A lot will be down to recruitment as like you say, we will lose lots - pretty much an entire 11, and will need to start all over again. Cock it up next year and I see no way back for us for a long, long time.

I don't class a little week or two flirt as being in the hunt to be honest, we've always been on the edge of it and playing catchup by some distance. As soon as we get close, we're back to 10 points adrift again. If we were switching places over months, back and forth, then yeah for sure - but it was no more than a brief flirtation, we never really competed strongly enough for it in my eyes.

I think if we stay down I would still expect us to be competitive next year, It won't be easy as we'll need to add a lot of players...but we will still have a massive financial advantage to do so over pretty much 80% of the league. I've always thought we have two shots at this, this season has been a bit underwhelming because we've never been involved in the auto hunt, but if we fail in the playoffs then I do genuinely expect us to have another promotion attempt next year (as long as our recruitment is right) - Martin will be out of the door if we don't start in that manner. It will be our last shot.

The Rasiak equaliser was magic, one of my best ever moments. Place was rocking. The ET, from memory (it's a bit hazy!) was pretty much a dump squib though as Derby just resorted to their generic tactic of kicking us into what was becoming a mud pit. Leacock and Moore, their CB's, were absolute thugs.

Massive credit to Ipswich, it's a wonderful story to go back to back like they have. They'll enjoy this summer and dream of what could be.

I think it just illustrates how most fans have felt about this season overall, pretty underwhelming all being said. We've never really be in contention for the auto's, just flirted for a week or two - not good enough imo. I always thought it would take mid 90's to get automatic promotion, I predicted we'd hit high 80's/low 90's and just miss out and that was being somewhat pessimistic - but we're on course to do even worse than that. Our run of form since Bristol City has just been the thing of nightmares (8 defeats out of 16, and only 6 wins out of that lot), our start was bad and our end has been even worse. I think the fan base is just bored with it all, it was a season which promised so much (it could still give us what we want, but it all feels a little low key now)

Good luck on recruitment, as SR have failed miserably here if we're honest. But...we could give you Mara? I'd happily take a packet of Haribo in exchange and call it quits.

Clubs will always sign dudds, it's impossible to get it right with every signing - But we've got it back to front since 2017 with more dudds than success. If we go back to the Koeman days - Long, VVD, Mane, Pelle, Tadic, Toby, Bertrand - decent output from all of those. But we also signed some dudds like Juanmi, Cedric, Gardos etc. Even back to our Championship/L1 days - Puncheon, Fonte, Hammond, Cork, Lambo, Jaidi, Chappers - huge players for us. But we also signed Ryan Dickson, Danny Seaborne, De Ridder etc. I'm still nervous about our scouting as we still threw £20m down the pan in the summer really, we should have had much better return for our investment - but once again we cocked up the big signings.

It's certainly slim pickings, as others have said Ings is the only real stand out @ £20m in recent years. I think it just goes to show how utterly woeful our scouting has been on our 'key, make a difference' signings. We could make an 11 out of big money signings who we've had to give away for free.

I think his general demeanour is laid back, he will always come across like that - but that means there's even more need for him to turn up and show up on the pitch, which he's incapable of doing. So if he's laid back and not even delivering then we might as well stick a mannequin out there. We've had some utter crap players over the years, some way worse than Mara, but he's certainly on the list of the bad ones.