Has Bowyer lost it?

2. Creative players who aren’t trusted so they never get a run of games, we’ll never see the best of them which is needed to develop that settled style of play. Williams and Maddison are both 27, they’re not going to drastically improve the defensive side of their game.

3. A manager more concerned with stopping the opposition. In the past Bowyer’s tweaks were effective. Now he looks like he’s trying to stumble upon something that works - we seem to be switching between a diamond, 3-5-2, 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 with each game. At least it looked like a much more normal line up last night, no Matthews at left back or Maatsen at right midfield.

4. Injuries to key players - Inniss, Famewo, Shinnie and Doughty. The original plan was to mainly use 4-3-3 - Pratley and Watson in front of Inniss and Famewo made us very hard to break down and strong defensively. Doughty gave us a pacey outlet which meant we could either get in behind teams if they pushed up or it would create space for us if they sat deeper. Fewer injuries or injuries to different players would have seen us stick with this plan and things could have been very different. Any club would find it harder with four important players out.

5. Players not wanted by the manager. It’s become clear JFC and Williams took up their optional contract extensions rather than Bowyer choosing to keep them. He’d also sell Oshilaja if he could and despite signing him I’m sure he’d happily get rid of Bogle too. There may be more on the list that aren’t so obvious, Purrington for example. Last night he talked about wanting to shake it up - the players must have known that and it can’t help them put in their maximum for the club and Bowyer.

6. All of the above means the chances and goals are drying up. We created some chances last night but how many were ones you’d expect to score, rather than those you’d expect a goalkeeper to save? With Inniss out we also don’t threaten enough from set pieces, he’s either our target or a player who the opposition focus on which creates space for others.

7. We’re now on a long poor run of form, the players know it. At 2-0 down I had given up and knew we weren’t coming back. The players aren’t looking confident and happy, and I don’t see Bowyer regularly criticising individuals in public helping that.

We have 26 games to scrape together 20 or so points to ensure we’re in this league as a minimum next season.

With the contract situation and five loans we’ll have another huge rebuild in the summer. Hopefully the last major one for many years. I’d even seriously consider letting good players like Aneke go because he doesn’t appear capable of playing 90 minutes, never mind making 40+ starts over a season.

I’m sure there will be a lot more improvements behind the scenes to resolve some of the issues - reducing injuries, expanding our scouting network to look at more players etc which will all help.

Thinking ahead to next season Sandgaard has a big decision to make that I feel is best made over the next few weeks, either:

1. Bowyer is the right man and simply doesn’t have a good enough squad, including too many players who know they’re only here until the summer. I wouldn’t completely write him off, on the other hand he may need to accept that with the salary cap it’s very difficult to find quality attacking and creative players who also work hard, are very fit and don’t mind a tackle.

2. Get a new manager in so he has time to evaluate the squad and make plans for next season. Leaving it until May is far too late and will see yet another squad scraped together right up until deadline day, much like we saw this season and under Slade.

Whatever happens in the summer the plan has got be to see a squad put together just like we did in 2011, with the majority on 2/3 year contracts.

That squad had a great balance - a core of solid reliable players for this league (Jackson, Taylor, Hollands, Hayes), younger players on the up (Wiggins, Stepehens, Green, Evina), good undervalued players needing a move to rebuild their careers (Kermorgant, Morrison, Cort), include any academy players ready to step up (Solly, Wagstaff) and the odd experienced player as cover and as a good character around the squad (Hughes, Euell).

We don’t have that anything like that at the moment and it’s not going to be put together in this window.

The question is do you trust Bowyer to do it?