How long Steve Cotterill can hang on must be debatable and surely he should do the honourable thing. The team should be in a better position given their pedigree and cost so the blame has to lie with the manager as a tactician and as an influential personality and mentor…and Cotterill seems to score zero on both counts.

One moment he says we have too many players and the next, the only genuine winger we have is Maghoma, who is hardly of the line-hugging variety. This lack of width makes us easy to play against, which is compounded when our best attacking fullback, Colin, is switched to his ‘wrong’ side.

Up front, it’s also no use playing Adams unless it’s drummed into him that every time Gallagher goes up for the ball, he should be within ten yards radius. Even more tragic is the midfield, with Ndoye now cutting a comical figure with the mobility of the Honey Monster while his partner in crime, Gardner, provides little authority and influence for the wages he’s picking up. The fact that he appears to be the only player trusted to kick a dead ball is compounded by an increasingly awful delivery of that ball.

At the back, one feels a bit for the talents of Stockdale and Deane as they try and defend alongside Roberts , who is agricultural in the extreme yet thinks he is a cross between Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer.

Who’s to blame for this state of affairs? Well, while the board can be blamed for their naiviety, they have undoubtedly been badly advised. My personal view is that Vetere and Dein are at the heart of the problem. Financial leeches who have wasted shedloads of money on deals bringing in ‘well-known’ players.

No doubt, these are far more lucrative for all concerned than bothering with the hard work involved with trawling the non-league or the second string of teams where players have been rescued for a song when falling out of favour. We have just been beaten soundly by two clubs (Millwall and Barnsley) who have done just that.