The reaction to this poll from some on here and on the wider internet highlights to me a point I regularly make about people reading what they want to read and not what has actually been written. Surely, if people are 'outraged' at the existence of this poll, then surely, their point of view is completely vindicated by the responses and what looks to be overwhelming backing of our manager? (Based on the responses alone). That's certainly how I would see it..... When it comes to what happens on the pitch, the buck stops with the manager, even at our club. What Mowbray does isn't beyond reproach. Like any other manager, ours isn't perfect. Same as every manager at every other club on the planet. People are allowed to have concerns about points which have been raised many times already.

Well thats because you seemingly dont understand a poll. Had the poll showed plenty of fans demanding Mowbray to be sacked, you may have had a point, albeit even then it wouldnt be "insulting" as a managers job is forever vulnerable to questioning, any manager. Goes with the territory. I am not sure who decided to make the poll, I may be wrong but did @blueboy3333 suggest it? (I may be wrong.) And he is not one of the meagre total of 6 from 162 calling for Mowbrays head. It was not done as a witchhunt, the numbers prove that but still you want to make out like it is. @Bigdoggsteel is spot on, essentially stating that the majority of fans even off the back of 4 losses are happy to see the manager remain in charge doesnt carry the same controversy and the same license to ridicule the "impatient and entitled" Rovers fanbase. And on your last point. A managers job security changes based on results. Who'd have thought it! Essentially, the poll is almost unanimous in backing Mowbray at the moment. So you are not even criticising people for wanting Mowbray out. You are criticising people for daring to question Mowbray at all, and whether they do want him out. (Which they almost unanimously dont)

Must say that I find quite a lot of the reaction to the poll, both on here and on twitter to be quite frankly embarassing. I think some people have mistook a poll for a petition or a witchhunt. Ultimately, the results show that our fan base isnt the blood thirsty mob some would like us to believe. Ive seen people (even Alan Myers suggested on Twitter it was bordering on insulting to Mowbray) suggest it is unfair or disrespectful. The poll was done at a particularly emotive time, off the back of 4 losses with many of the causes being ongoing issues regularly pointed out yet neglected or unresolved by the management. If we were all as fickle and impatient as some would suggest then the poll results are doing a funny job of showing it.

This 'European network' that we are supposedly developing I feel is codswallop. I don't doubt that we are miles behind other clubs on international recruitment and development, as I've said before the limit of the club's gaze is the far side of Darwen. That's the result of a lack of investment and neglect of those areas over a prolonged period. But I don't think there is a serious push from within the club to address this, I don't accept that it should take 3 years to develop this 'European network' and I don't believe that Mowbray is the sort of manager eager to explore that market but has been prevented from doing so by factors beyond his control. I think the club is set up on a provincial, small scale basis, and that is evidenced by the recruitment, and that sort of thing suits the owners and those running the club on a daily basis. It is a result of that provincial approach which has seen Kean-Berg-Appleton-Bowyer-Lambert-Coyle-Mowbray in the dugout and never a foreign or 'outside the box' appointment which would require a far greater level of search and recruitment. As far as I can see Mowbray has never been a manager who has relied very much on the foreign market for his players, preferring instead to source British - that was the case at WBA, Boro and Coventry - so unless he's going to suddenly change his decade long approach to transfers I can't see him being keen to go down that road. Even if he was desperate to and those running the club were anxious for us to catch up in that area - there are many ways of doing so that are quicker and more effective than taking 2-3 years to build up a 'network'. The recruitment of a well connected and experienced Director of Football, technical director or whatever you want to call it with contacts and know-how of the European market would deal with that issue quickly. Watford were taken over by their Italian owners and within months had implemented their structure and were expertly navigating the European market and picking up bargains and quality players from all over the place - done by employing people who knew what to do - they didn't sit on their hands for 2-3 years waiting for a 'network' to be put in place and bemoaning having to play catch-up.

Joint most long balls with bottom of the league Ipswich (and joint least crosses).

Fair play to the chadster, the proof that we are long ball merchants is hitting him in the face, so he’s doubled down, the Donald style, and branded the stats as fake news! Just because Sky like to say ‘Mowbray likes his teams to play good football’ doesn’t mean this one does. Though I don’t need any websites telling me that we pump the ball up to Graham at every opportunity, I use my eyes...

To be honest his omnipresent laugh emoji on all of Mercer's posts is bordering on trolling. Still, stupid is as stupid does I suppose.

No difference between the poll and a 2 year review of the manager. I think even the most blue and white spectacled of our fan base will admit that TM doesn't seem to want (or is able) to address our most obvious weaknesses. He also makes some strange team/tactical decisions. Flip side is that even the fans that think he's had long enough, would admit he has done a great job at getting the club pulling in one direction. I think the poll highlights a general consensus currently i.e. there needs to be significant improvement on the pitch and squad in the next 18 months. The majority thinking that TM's weaknesses are beginning to outweigh his strengths - yet he should be given time to improve it. If I was Waggott or Venkys, that's exactly how I'd see his two year review.

Exactly what Huddersfield did - brought in Wagner, knocked tickets down to £150 and marketed it as the 'Wagner revolution'. Targets for sales, progress shared with fans, encouragement to try and reach milestones, exciting signings to go with it. All about timing. Sitting around doing nothing until May and then hiking prices up another 17% and shutting another stand won't get people queuing up. Nor will signing a couple of free agents from League One and other players who clearly aren't going to improve the team.

I would disagree with @roversfan99 on a lot of things, but I agree about the overreaction to the poll. It was just a question on a message board. I don't think it is disrespectful to anyone. Plus the answers weren't as binary as keep or sack. There was nuance there that I feel some on Twitter didn't get. Plus, ultimately, the vast majority think Mowbray should be manager. So is that not the important finding from the poll, as opposed to the poll itself? So should the tweets not say something like "96% of Rovers fans want Mowbray as manager even though they have lost 4 games in a row. The patient bunch"

5500 at £24. 3pm

Telling that Chaddy finds this potential truth funny. A man seemingly lacking a sense of humour yet finds the club wasting money, when we need it the most, hilarious.

Steve Waggott has said (last Consultation Meeting or November meeting with Rovers Trust?) "We have done all we can on attendances". 82 pages on here say they haven't scratched the surface.

Chaddy, I am not sure saying "I think our summer recruitment was fine" and then "I have said we need 7 to 8 new players this summer." are two comments that back eachother up. If our summer recruitment was fine we would not be needing that many surely? Only Reed and Armstrong are deemed better than what we already had. One is a loan and another is someone we already had the season before. This would suggest that our summer recruitment was not that great because the players we brought in on the whole have not really improved our first team - just padded out our squad.

You can't stand Pulis either but he showed up your hero in the Rovers dugout at the weekend.

I'm not sure if it's intentionally playing to our strengths or just a result of our weaknesses. Playing the long ball game is OK if it's part of a strategy but I don't really get that feeling when watching us, it seems more like hit and hope a lot of the time. In theory we have the players up front in Dack, Armstrong, Rothwell, Brereton (?) and Reed to hurt the opposition as and when we win knock downs, but I'm unsure as to whether that is our actual strategy or not. If so then I think our form from November-December and now through February suggests teams might have found us out!

Long ball or short ball game is irrelevant. There's only winning football or losing football, and at the moment we're losing - badly. I don't understand why fans obsess over us having a good passing game when it leads only to defeat. Pragmatists such as Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis understand it.

And letting a half decent back up defender go out on loan without and replacement being brought in who would have come in very handy in the last half of the season. I understand Downing wanting to play and TM wanting to be fair but as we've seen its bitten him on the arse straight away just as predicted if he said no son we need you the lad would probably have been getting some action now after the false dawn of Rodwell/Mulgrew pairing.

An initial spike but it would soon wear off. The Rovers match going support has always been season ticket holder based, no real tradition in recent decades of large number of on the day tickets being sold. Cheap season tickets would be the route to take if the club really wanted to increase crowds. £200 season tickets have been proved to substantially raise crowds for similar sized clubs to us in this league.

No, because that won't give everybody their daily dose of OUTRAGE and moral superiority. #GiveMowbrayAChance

... using similar rationale re chances missed would have seen Middlesbrough in double figures on Sunday.

Its a pointless exercise calling the National Radio stations. I once called Talk **** after we had beaten Sunderland at home and moved out of the bottom 3 briefly. They hardly let me get my point across about King Rat and his management. I stated that I would guarantee relegation and the presenters were gushing about him and blaming the fans for the abuse he was getting. They were insisting that he was doing a good job in the circumstances and would keep us up. I don't recall them calling me back to apologise, after we did go down as I predicted.

If you look at when he was incharge at West Brom he started with just signing UK based players in his first couple of seasons before moving the club on and signing players from Europe/rest of the world, not saying that this is what he will do at Rovers of course but he been known to look at "outside the box" signings: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-albion-tony-mowbray-12793111

Mowbray seems like he'll be a stats man so those figures are a bit damning and all we can assume is he's ignoring them or in denial. It doesn't reflect well and just a slight improvement would have seen us several points better off. Maybe all he needs to do is take them to a meeting with the owners and plonk them on the table saying this is why we need investment to improve. Then again they might turn around and say well Tony didn't you just let a defender go ? Why not play him and stick with him to see if it improved ? Oh and you did spend 7 million on a young substitute forward............

Stuart Caley has for too long and continues to play a part in the dwindling match day atmosphere, from over zealous stewarding, stand closures and ridiculous adjustments to kick off times. He is a yesterdays man, too long in the tooth and out of touch with the clubs needs to improve revenue by improving match day experience. He wants to remain in his comfort zone and smaller subdued crowds enable this. Maybe it's time the club looked at bringing in a younger more in touch and forward thinking Stadium / Safety manager, one who embraces larger crowds and improved atmosphere.

I don't accept that. We had 3 reasonable chances to score, but took none of them. We were playing the team 2nd bottom of the league who had won 1 since early November, so having a few chances is the bare minimum to be expected. Even if we had taken one of those chances, there is no way we'd have gone and got a 2nd or 3rd in the first half. We would have sat back on a lead and Reading would have been able to respond, we've seen it at most away games that we've gone 1-0 up in.

Least crosses in the league is no surprise when we rarely get in behind the full backs. Tactically we are a pub team.

The owners stumbled upon TM, as they did with Bowyer. It wasn't some intricate plan that has come together, he was free, cheap and whoever represents him obviously managed to impress Suhail or Senior. Bowyer and Mowbray have been our only managers since they appeared who can be classed as "successful" - and both were cheap, quite obscure options. Bowyer got the gig because he was already here, Mowbray was on the managerial scrapheap after Coventry and we were likely his last shot at revitalising his career. There's no doubt that both Bowyer and Mowbray have overperformed relative to their achievements and standing in the game prior to joining us, but this was pure luck. So, yes, if Mowbray does leave we should be very fearful of what comes next. These owners have never taken the managerial position seriously enough and that has been a core component of our gradual demise.

I rarely visit the Message Boards for which I signed up in my early years on t'Interweb because, while I respect other people's views, I don't like the way that many of them - including dome of the ones I agree with - are expressed. I haven't voted in this poll because none of the options represent my precise views on here. Those fans I know personally are probably fed up of me pointing out that when I watched the first match I remember my Dad bringing me to - 65 years ago - we were in mid-table in Division Two. And where are we now? Mid-table in the Championship. While it would be WONDERFUL to be back in the Premier League, I would rather see it happen slowly and steadily, and wouldn't worry too much if it didn't happen next season or even the season after that. We've had a real rollercoaster ride over those 65 years and after the misjudgement, imo, of our owners replacing Allardyce, with first Kean, then Bowyer, I welcomed the arrival of Tony Mowbray as our first "proper" football manager since BFS was sacked. I'm becoming less enamoured of TM because of some of the points that others have made; it's felt like we've signed players whom he knew when they were in their early years and who are -probably - just about capable of functioning at our present level. To me, we feel over-provided for in midfield - that group of the squad has almost got a 'Never mind the quality, feel the width' - with the defence and attack under-populated by comparison. I worry who the owners would choose to replace Mowbray if they decided to sack him; but, for the time being, I guess it's better the devil we know for the time being. But the summer window will be crucial; he has to show a ruthless streak towards lads who may have reached their peak professionally and cannot push us further up the table.

The aim this season was to avoid relegation, anything else was a bonus. Unless we get relegated, which isn't going to happen, then Tony Mowbray should be going nowhere. This club was at the lowest point in it's history before he came in, that cannot be rectified in 2 years. Give the man time to continue to sort the mess out. He's doing a sterling job for me, despite the current blip.

FLDC 0 Millwall 1 ?

Actually, the majority have doubts about him. The single most popular choice is "reassess in summer"

I'm not sure our approach is as much pragmatic as it is desperate and lacking ideas. I doubt Mowbray is drilling the percentage game and long ball positional play into the players. I could be wrong but I feel like our long balls are more a byproduct of a lack of ideas or passing options on the pitch, particularly at the back, which just ends up with a hopeful hoof up to Graham. The fact it's happening enough to make us joint top in the long ball table suggests that we really do have a problem with players making themselves available for passes and being aware of where they and the opponents are on the pitch.

Deceptively quick, aggressive and strong in the tackle. Has good anticipation, gets forward well and has an absolute hammer of a left foot. Capped at all levels apart from senior for France - on loan at Paris FC in ligue 2 from Nice this season. Would cost about 1 million and better than either of the imposters who currently 'play' there for us.

If a long ball game is effective then I don't necessarily have a problem with it. Obviously it has been successful to some degree results wise, but our glaring inability to defend continues to cost us points. Perhaps retaining possession rather than lumping it up the pitch and generally losing it would be a better option, particularly when we're defending slender leads - which is most of the time if we're winning a match. The opposition can't score if they don't have the ball. I appreciate our players for the most part are not especially gifted technically - which I assume plays a part in our long ball strategy - but if they aren't competent enough to pass a ball between themselves and get into a shape that allows space and opportunities then there is an issue at both playing and coaching level which will get a lot worse when our few technically gifted players, such as Dack, move on.

The statistics just confirm what we see with our own eyes! Backfired on Chaddy did that one.

On the back of the successful BRFCS poll where only just over 4% want TM to go , they could reduce the season ticket prices to your suggested value and use the advertising strapline "The only Mowtivation you need"

Gil Scott Heron - Home is Where the Hatred Is

No I’m just a thoroughly nice chap.

Of course there would have been more positivity... but 4 losses on the bounce, on the back of a disappointing transfer window that failed to see us address some glaring defensive issues, and comments in the press that give the impression that Mowbray is struggling to see any problems where many of us have has led to people asking questions. If we win the next 4, people will be a lot happier, but the majority recognise he can’t walk on water.

The more prominent Rovers tweeters are in the main unswervingly positive. I find my cynicism much more well received here. I’ll be the first to admit to having a pretty pessimistic view, and to being vehemently anti-Venky’s, and sometimes the positivity on there regarding all things Rovers borders on deluded for me. Twitter generally has two functions, to preach or to argue. The self righteous outnumber the stirrers.

Nice. In fairness he signed some good foreigners there in Bednar and Teixera and you won't get 3 better servants than Brunt, Ollsson and Morrison. Dorrans a cracking signing as well , also Malumbu. No wonder West brom fans love him. Some of those signings were key players for many, many seasons. Some of them types of signings here please Tony!

100% agree. We could circumvent the 2-3 windows stuff by actually hiring people who know the European market. A DOF and a couple of scouts would do it. One good find would make the outlay worthwhile. Kind of a side note, but I would be interested to know what scouting went into the Brereton signing.

Don't forget the "Club Evidence Gatherer" employed by the club who used to film the Rovers fans in the Darwen End. Letters taped to seats threatening withdrawal of season tickets for persisitent standing when standing by visitors was/is ignored week after week, season after season. More akin to secret police than a stadium/safety management department.

I’ve noticed that since they’ve been brought back downstairs, away fans have now been moved from the traditional away half of the Darwen End to the Riverside half. I imagine Caley wants a 3,000 seat buffer zone between the visitors and the couple of dozen folk in the corner of the Jack Walker.

@chaddyrovers

All I'm seeing is differing levels of burnt pasties.

Hard to argue with that imo. those, like myself, who are swayed or swaying over to the time for a change have very valid points for wanting to. Not like it’s a sudden knee jerk reaction, built up over time. Our performances in a whole since mowbray came haven’t been good enough. Promotion from league 1 doesn’t give you the keys to the city

Fixed for you.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the point of a poll is to gauge opinion. Now we know that less than 4% want him sacking and the majority want to review his position in the summer and 40% are happy with him. Job done apart from a small minority who want to take some kind of moral high ground and not accept other people's opinions.