I think people have short memories if they think todays performance was any different to a lot of home games from last season. W started slowly like we mostly always do at home under Mowbray and then we grew into the game. Millwall were hanging on for most of the 2nd half, even if our final ball did let us down on nearly every occasion. Impressed with Palmer, he just always had time and if they got too close to him he left them for dead. His final ball was poor at times but I think a lot of that was to do with lack of movement ahead of him. A class act. Him and Dack had a good understanding but i'm not sure of the merit of 5 yard training passes and showboating when your 0-0 at home. Rothwell looks a player too. That run and shot deserved a goal. Dack looks overweight. He'll be clinically obese within a month of retiring. Olivia beware! He tried but it didn't really happen for him. He'll get better as the season goes on. We lack a central midfielder who can pass it better than Smallwood and so Dack kept having to come deep to get involved. Mowbray was bollocking Raya most of the 1st half. I think he gave up after Raya hoiked it out of play for the 12th time. Lenny was immense. Mulgrew looked a bit dodgy at times. Nyambe was quiet but never troubled. Same with Bell, I thought he was fairly average. Evans I thought played well. Always harrying the oppo and playing some intelligent balls. Smallwood didn't do a lot. His lack of mobility really hampers him. Graham was poor. Two gilt-edged chances he should have done a lot better with. On the plus side I thought he looked a bit quicker than last year. Millwall were physical and quick and worked hard but I thought we had the better players, which is a good sign considering Millwall finished 9th last season and should have beat Boro last week by all accounts. Their keeper was brilliant. Any other game and we would have scored three. Hopefully the person who was carried out of their end on a stretcher at HT is ok. All in all very encouraging after we woke up. We controlled the game 2nd half and were always pushing forward. The lack of guile was evident again like it was last season but hopefully Palmer will help with that. There's not a lot to fear in this league if mid-table is our ambition.

After a sluggish start where we looked scared of their bigger players, I was really pleased with Rovers today. For the majority of the match we were in control, the better side and the new lads look exciting. Graham was unlucky, after winning his wrestling matches he found himself shut down by the keeper both times. Lots of positives, not many negatives.

Anyone who watched the match today. A match where we played against last seasons 8th placed team. A game where the opposition keeper was undoubtedly their mom. Will feel quietly confident that we are going to be fine this year.

Tony won't do this, but I am old fashioned and would start our best eleven footballers. Raya Nyambe. Lenihan. Mulgrew. Bell Bennett. Evans Palmer. Dack. Armstrong Graham. Millwall are defensively outstanding away from home and we need as much creativity and pace as we can muster. The loyalty to Williams and Smallwood has to stop.

1st half slow, bereft of ideas, 2nd best, lucky not to be at least 2 down. We must start better. Millwall reminded me of Wolves last time around –nothing special but strong, organised, quick and competitive. Good enough for us first half. Having said that, we manage to get probably our first decent cross in just before half-time and hit the woodwork. Palmer quality – instant control, 2 feet, turn of pace. Really started to get things moving second half when he came inside and started playing with Dack. Agree that Palmer needs to be careful where he does his stuff and how often –got away with a few in positions that could have been costly. Rothwell, Armstrong look sharp and made effective, energetic (something lacking before) subs. Essentially, we began to knock it around well and dominated for the first half hour of the second half; sadly we didn’t score when we were hot in that period. Game then petered out somewhat. The 2 chances for Graham. First one should definitely have been squared for a simple pass to intelligent run from Dack who would have tapped into empty net. Second one, keeper smothered him really well. And while we are on their keeper, he collected several of our corners well and made a great save from excellent long range Rothwell shot. Game could easily have been 2-2. As it ended, one felt we dropped 2 points. Presumably, clichés will be rolled out, not necessarily unfairly, that 2 draws in a new higher league is ok as we find our feet. Long hard season ahead looking at the line-up in the first half but somewhat encouraged by the second half.

Well, we've drawn our first two games, but last season we lost our first two, so in a way it's progress! Especially in a tougher league. First half we were abysmal though, Millwall were dominant and could have been two up by half time and it wouldn't have been unfair on us. Second half was a vast improvement. On balance, a draw was fair. Rothwell looked bright in his cameo, may have more to offer than I previously thought. Palmer has had nothing but praise on here so far...but I don't agree all the way. I'm excited about him, he does look promising and like he can make things happen, certainly, and has a good turn of pace and quick feet. However, so far, I feel he is a little like a Championship Raheem Sterling - the one at the World Cup, not the one on fire for City last year. Flattering to deceive, making the wrong decisions at times. Sometimes he looked a little too casual and like he has to turn on the flair every time he gets the ball. I'm sure Tony will drill that out of him though, and I'm very excited to see what he can deliver when that happens. He can definitely provide that X factor when he settles in. I think it's time to drop Smallwood, and Bell should retain his spot. Arma didn't do much today, but I'd rather have him where Benno was, and Bennett in place of Smallwood.

And the asking price would've been circulated? That being the case why was our bid rejected? This Nixon tosh has more holes in it than Rab C Nesbitt's vest.

What is Clough? Baby don't hurt me.

Everybody is allowed to forge an opinion and I’m swaying towards the idea that we didn’t get a few of those who went to Preston/Bolton and a few loans elsewhere because Tony didn’t want them. I think we had around 5/6m to spend in total upfront and I think we had a few targets move out of our range after we spent some time on them- he even mentioned one (at time it was guessed Bamford to leeds being 7/10m) I even think Armstrong started off at 3m upfront, hence why it didn’t happen until Newcastle started moving a few around and sold Mitrovic. The window as a whole was different. Even Mourinho (most successful manager of all time) at Manchester United (one of the biggest clubs in the world) seemingly stumbled from target to target because of ever increasing costs and shifting goalposts. Im not comparing us to them, but I’m thinking the market is harder than people think - when average/risky players are costing tens of millions, it takes timing and luck - especially at our end of the scale; I’m under no illusion who is to blame for why we are in this position. Thats not to say I’m not under whelmed either, but it’ll take a decade to get over spending more than a million signing players like Bradley Orr, Petrovic, Formica, vuckevic, Goodwillie, Slew, Best etc! Or the frees that cost us 10s of millions. If you go back further, there are plenty of other examples of us wasting money. Ashley Ward anyone? A pragmatic approach is welcome from me. Just to add - I think the squad is stronger than the previously relegated one overall so I’d expect us to be mid table or at least safe without any more additions.

Emmanuel-Thomas, Turnbull, Rodwell and Kirchoff are beyond the bottom of the barrel.

Crikey it’s worrying when Chaddy expects us to be in a relegation battle....

Bennett in the centre and Armstrong on the wing is the logical and glaring change that needs to be made. Over to you Tony

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16413310.they-werent-the-only-bids-rovers-boss-on-the-transfer-window/?ref=mac Lets debunk a couple of myths. “It was always the same,” Mowbray said of his budget. “The budget was agreed when I went over to India in the summer and the budget has always been the budget." Seems that Nixons theory that Venkys "killed a few chickens recently" to give us a sudden boost in the budget was actually a lie. "Mowbray was disappointed he wasn’t able to add to the three permanent signings made before the window closed on Thursday." People have been ridiculed for showing frustration, showing disappointment at how the window went. I even said to @chaddyrovers that I bet even Mowbray is disappointed to not sign players, and so it has proved. So rather than pretend that everything went to plan, and that everything is hunky dory, it didnt and theres proof. He also said the following: “It’s just frustrating that we had the opportunity to spend some money to try and improve this club long-term for the next four or five years, we missed the opportunity, it didn’t quite happen. “But this short-termism of loans we will try and add some players who will excite the fans and help the team as we go on as when injuries and suspensions come, as the team will have to push harder than last year, some bodies will break down as we go on, we need to have some experience and quality waiting in the wings to make sure we don’t fall off the pace.” That doesnt suggest that signing everyone on loan with an obligation to buy is necessarily what he has planned. Hence the phrase "short-termism." "I’m sure if we’re doing okay then that funding will still be there for the next window." - just hope the money doesnt vanish.

We deserve at least a goal with these stats.

Really really poor first half, then a really good 30 mins followed by seeing the game out. People say not to worry about not bringing a striker in because we have time well todays game was today - before we have signed one and Graham was dead on his feet with 25 left and no replacement in sight. This will be an unpopular opinion but Travis needs a season on loan he needs to learn the game in his short spell today his decision making was bothersome although he has the attributes. Also Raya’s kicking was appalling Not catastrophic but disappointing result.

I watched the game on front of me you absolute melt. They had a few chances and we should’ve scored 2/3. Palmer scared them to death, Rothwell looked decent when he came on too.

bossed? jesus christ get a grip, we were poor so poor, we aint ruthless enough, we lack creativity , we should of been two behind in the first half, we didnt boss anything other then have more of the ball to do nothing with, what game were you watching mate? cos we had more of the ball we bossed it? we created what one or two chances for graham thats it? i watched from start to finish and we were really poor, positive is palmer looks good and so does rothwell and travis is a handy player to have on the bench to come on in games

A few of us have wanted to see Bell get a start ahead of Williams for time now.Up to Bell to have a decent game and give Mowbray a decision to make

Never has a truer word been spoken. My wife and kids probably fall in the same category.

Medium to long term plan rather than having to go through this again next summer would be nice but unlikely

Sam Gallagher is one that we are trying to sign it would be a loan with a buy clause in January. There is a difference in our and Southampton's valuation so if we can overcome that then he will be one that we will get.

I didn't write it properly. my point being was we wont be involved in a relegation battle. I expect a mid table finish at worst. would be happy with a 14th place finish

The small clubs seem to be surviving in the PL - Watford, Burnley, Bournemouth etc, so city clubs with decent sized fanbases are getting relegated into this league most years. The Championship of 2001 contained a lot of traditionally small clubs - Grimsby, Stockport, Port Vale, Tranmere, Gillingham, Walsall, Crewe, Wimbledon etc so our standard crowd of 17,000 or so was very competitive as even the city clubs pulled in similar numbers to us. Fast forward to now and the league is full of lots of those city clubs, but for many of them their crowds are much higher- 20,000+ all the way up to 35,000, whilst ours have declined from that era. Doesnt mean we can’t compete, but it is a vastly different league than it once was.

Was talking to someone at the game today,can’t say who, but it’s 70/30 that Chapnan is signing for us.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

Think big.

I wasn't crediting Venkys was just making a point that we have now heard it from the horses mouth that we did in fact have the figures mentioned on deadline day and it wasn't a ploy to make the fans think we were trying in the market. The only time i'l thank Venkys is when they accept an offer from someone to buy the club

LOL, Nixon has some brass neck. He just makes it up as he goes along. As you say, the frustration was real and is evident from the manager too. A couple of clowns coming on here and telling everyone to stop being 'negative' is shown up be the idiocy it always was.

The way it is these days. We just aren’t going to get the crowds we’d all like to see for mid table Championship football with £300-£400 season tickets.

Hard to say but I think a draw was probably a fair result. The Morrison shot that hit the inside of the post looked bound to go in from where we were stood. A poor first half but second was very different. I’d be disappointed to see Williams come back in for Bell as he did pretty well. Dack’s first half free kick was met by a great save, Rothwell had a great shot. I think people are being a touch harsh on Graham as he did well to get to the ball and hold off the defenders for his two chances, first one he realized just too late that he should have passed to Dack, Millwall keeper did well too, though obviously would have expected DG to put at least one of them away. It’s easy to overreact but Millwall did also play in the game and did so well in the first half. Palmer looked good but not much end product yet, he also started to get more and more out of position and stopped defending so that’s why TM took him off. Midfield needs someone who can pass, the manager knows this I think so hopefully the loanee we get is a good one, a real shame we didn’t go for McGinn earlier, sounds perfect. I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage, we were pretty good first game and showed in patches we can play today. We will get at least another couple of players, hopefully ones that will go straight into the team. Ind My think anyone was particularly bad today though.

To be honest I thought we might lose this one, Millwall had some excellent results away from home last season, they played very well against Boro and should have won last week, so I'm not too gloomy. Just need some decent loanees in, asap.

We barely did that last season though Stuart - so can’t see it happening against Championship opposition. Really need some decent reinforcements.

now they know how it feels like us last week

Rothwell taking to the game well

It's not easy to be a " bruiser " when the physical side of the game is being refereed out of modern day football.

Venkys won't care whether you are happy or not.

I can’t say I’m desperate to get Brereton only because I’d never heard of him till Thursday so would be a little hypocritical to act desperate to get him now. Gallagher was decent last time round not great, problem is he got shorter when he jumped

I'm not Evans' biggest fan but he did well enough against Everton (preseason I know) and Ipswich, plus he played well towards the back of last season. Going off TM's comments from the end of last season and beginning of this one he will play, though given his injury record and the fact that I recall in the past he mentioned that his body needs to be managed I wouldn't offer him a new contract unless it was tied to appearances. I'd be more worried if I were Smallwood, as much as TM likes him I think his technical deficiencies are more noticeable at a higher level, Davenport's acquisition and the attempts to sign McGinn and Trapp, having said that I think he will start today.

Brereton for me

Jesus...I’m reeled back in to the transfer window pt2!! Deadline day stank the house out for me. I’m happy to believe that we have specific targets and that we have a cash budget for transfer fees BUT now I need to be convinced that we’re not being spun a yarn from Waggot and (unbelievably) Tony Mowbray. As much as I love the guy for what he’s done for my beloved club I KNOW footballers and the industry. Managers work tirelessly to make sure they never hand their bosses any change back after a window. Why wouldn’t you spend your budget? For what it’s worth I’m not blaming Venkys for Thursdays utter clusterfuck. That has to be on SW and TM. Fully believe there will be loans. Need them to be ‘with a view’ to prevent my bullshit-o meter going haywire. The only contextual soother is that it’s obvious how hard it’s been for everyone in this window. And, even the clubs around us who’ve done business (Bolton, Wigan, Ipswich) haven’t done anything great imo. I’d prob only take Garner and Edwards from the whole lot.

1-0. Garner cross, Crawford header into the Blackburn End goal. McKenzie running the show in midfield.

Am I reading this correctly? People still believe a word Nixon says or writes?

As Mogga will no doubt be disappointed then so am I, disappointed for him but not in him. Two points temper my disappointment: 1) We are not an attractive proposition for players with substantial championship experience, not in a division awash with big city clubs who haven’t just been promoted from League One, along with plenty of clubs large and small receiving vast tv payments. 2) It’s a transfer market, not a bazaar where you simply select what you want and buy it. For every buyer there has to be a seller - few and far between this summer throughout the division - plus the player and his agent have to want to move, to us. While Mogga may have been a little too open in his wishes, making them come about is largely out of his hands. Not spunking the money on duds is a better outcome than more than a few windows we’ve had in the past

Its so hard to believe because they haven't backed any manager with serious cash since Kean left. There is nothing they have done since 2012 that suggests they are remotely interested in spending the sort of money reported yesterday. My mantra is I'll believe it when i see it. Actions speak louder than words. That's my default setting with everything at Rovers and will be as long as we are owned by people with Venky's track record. Call it negative but I and we have been burned many times before by talk of this and that which hasn't materialized and ended in misery. As I said earlier, the easy way of proving people like me wrong and making me eat my words is to go out and make some impressive signings and match the talk with action. Do that and I'll hold my hands up, admit I was wrong and applaud business done. I'm still waiting to do that.

Come on boys we have only played 2 games !!!

Yeah. He was another who had an okay game. Actually looking at the players, several had decent enough performances, Bell, Nyambe, the CBs. Palmer stand out. Even at a push, you would add Bennett in there. those are the positives I supposed

This is the issue when we don’t have any natural width - likes of Armstrong need to go wide. I don’t think he’d be the second coming like some do, but hopefully we can get a Chapman in, or similar, to help us.

Let’s see if we can beat ‘the gems’ record from 2 years ago; what was it - 8 games until our first win?

Take Smallwood or Evans off FFS, not Palmer.

Respect you for that comment - sometimes it feels like us versus them in this thread but there has to come a point when the 'positives' - there i said it, have to admit have to climb down from their horse and agree that things have not gone as 'positively' as they would have liked instead of then changing the rhetoric. I dont think anyone can dress deadline day up as anything other than disappointing. We dont know the reasons of course but for whetever reason, we left it late to bid (allegedly) multiples of millions for players that were valued far more than what we bid. Were these gesture bids to try and convince the fans we were trying or just smoke and mirrors to deflect for the fact that we ballsed everything up and have to make it look like we actually did something? The QPR lad, did we do any work to establish before hand whether he might be available? How about the Forest kid? We were knocked back sharpish on both it seems which to me sounds like desperation or as I said earlier, smoke and mirrors. We left these bids to the eleventh hour - seemingly after we had realised we were not getting anything but had to create some kind of stir in the media. The media has been dumbing us down bit by bit to expect loans to be our main bit of business while the club has been telling everyone we have 5/6 planned to come in and millions to spend. People keep harping on about the loan window but I think most will be bitterly disappointed if they think we will be tieing up loans with a fixed future fee. it serves no function to the selling club unless they have players they want shut that they dont deem able to grow in value during that loan period. TM himself said himself last season that the loans he made last season were with a view to more permanent business - only AA has come from that so far. Chapman possibly too to come but I dont think TM sees him as a top target. Anyhow - lets hope something good happens in this loan window as we go into August with a decent first team but nothing else behind it. By August 31st if we have not picked up a decent amount of points we might come to regret it - especially as any new loans that do come in will have to bed in and learn our way of playing.