Surely Middlesbrough must sack Mowbray now!

How much longer can this go on? Up until Christmas, Boro were genuine promotion contenders, tucked nicely into the play off pack waiting for the inevitable Leicester slip up. The Foxes inevitably obliged but, oh dear, Mowbray's misfits nosedived faster than a drone on an Afghan wedding party.

Middlesbrough's form in 2013 hasn't just been bad, it has been catastrophic. I have money on them to go down on the basis that without an immediate change of manager, they are doomed; but Gibson seems as committed to the ugly Mowbray as Richard is to the even uglier Judy.

The money I pocketed from Leicester's win on Saturday was a gift from the bookmakers, who, like Gibson apparently hadn't woken up to the fact that the Smoggy patient wasn't just critical but terminal. And last night's home defeat against Accrington Stanley simply confirmed what anybody with any footballing sense understood at least four months ago. Under Mowbray, Middlesbrough are going nowhere other than down.

But incredibly, Mowbray retains the support of a fair section of the Boro fans, as does Chairman Gibson; presumably because, as The Platters sang, smoke gets in your eyes. Just up the road, Blunderland showed what a change of manager can do when the form of the team collapses, and O'Neill's record was nowhere near as bad as Tony Nobody's.

When even Kieron Dyer calls time after a spell in the Mowbray treatment room, you know the end is nigh!