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.

I am more annoyed with the weak mentality and poor application of the players at the minute, than I am of the manager. If everyone approached every minute of every match like Reed does, we'd be much higher up the league and not bickering over naff statistics of whether we're a long ball team. We've had similar arguments over the years and I'll always view it as the players are professionals and it is them who should be accountable for mistakes and lack of concentration/effort on the pitch. I think quite a few will play their way out of the side over the course of the run in. They did a great job last season (although shaky at times too) but quite a few don't have the mettle to take us to the next level.

I was thinking about this season. Sold out and got stuffed 4-1.

In an ideal world I'd like us to pick up Liam Lindsey for the left side centre half as a natural left footed player. I'd also look at bringing the Portsmouth winger Jamaal Lowe in who seems to get goals and assists. Another player is John Marques as a rotation with Graham and Brereton for the striker position. Plenty of other players as well who would improve us.

Lets be clear, the stats say that we are a long ball side, no matter what Chaddy says.

They miss a trick with late season ticket sales, £200 per adult season tkt on a 12 month DD would see far more sold in my opinion... Under 8s Free with a paying adult Under 18s £75 with a paying adult 18-21 £125 Not exact figures but the club need to be more imaginative... We are a Mid table division 2 team in a very poor small town with a large percentage who don't see football as their main sport.

Our attacking focus seems to be either go long into Danny Graham or hope that Dack produces some induvial brilliance.

Thanks for that, just taken a quick look. For the game on Sunday against Boro who have a manager renowned for playing long ball tactics we, played 22 long passes more than Middlesbrough despite them playing more passes in the game. Realising the Boro game may have been a one off, as we had 10 men for half of it, I then checked the Bristol CIty stats and we played 21 more long passes than Bristol. So yes off these stats and the ones Mattyblue kindly provided earlier, id say we are certainly a long ball team. Certainly not tactics Im against if used correctly, as ive earlier said the whole idea of it is to get men around DG quicker, at the moment it's something we are very poor at.

I don't think the spec was for an English youth international, it is just that we don't scout foreign based players, so the player had to be someone young playing in England that was within our wage structure. Hence why we overpaid.

It's things like this that continue to make me feel that the fans are the last to be considered in the Blackburn Rovers experience. We are treated with absolute disdain by the club. The Loons are still so far removed from the club, leaving people in every day charge who seem to cost cut with one hand, yet do nothing to increase revenue substantially with the other. I am a reluctant occasional attender nowadays, having been an avid supporter for forty years. The atmosphere is awful. The club do nothing to improve it, in fact go out of their way to make it worse with the stand cuts. The decision to kick off at noon against PNE is another snub to our fans, not theirs. It makes no economic sense in my view. I work one Saturday morning per month. If it falls on that day, I would have to try and swap with a colleague, but otherwise I wouldn't be able to attend at that time. Having been summarily evicted from the upper BE, seen prices rise, seen a vociferous section removed from the DE, I am not encouraged to attend more often under the continuing regime. I still hate what they have and continue to do. They have held tenure over a disaster. Whilst we yet again have a period of relative stability under the Loons, as we all know, with a whim, it could all change in an instant. I've backed TM till the summer in the poll as he deserves more time to perhaps try and secure transfer funds for a push at promotion next year. If he cannot secure those funds, then in my view we will have another relegation fight on our hands. I still have doubts as to whether he is the man with the connections to secure the players we will need, but he should be afforded an opportunity. As to our club. Caley/Waggott et al clearly don't have its best interests at heart with decisions about kick off times, stand closures, timings and costs of ST sales. As has been stated by many, the time to launch was before the Oxford game at the same price as last year. I suppose what I am saying is that the likes of me are not being wooed by the club to return. Whilst I continue to support the team, I find better things to do with my time on match days. If they read this forum, take note!

There is always one option and that's the long ball to Graham. It is definitely Lenihan and Mulgrews "go to" ball. I think some of you are a bit hard on the Chadster sometimes, but I think he is defending the indefensible by trying to say we aren't a long ball team. Not alone do the stats show we are, but if you watch us play it's pretty obvious that we are. A long ball to Graham with Dack feeding off the knock down/header on. How many of our goals come from that set up? Maybe not straight away, but a I would imagine if you go a few phases back from all of our goals, you will see that move. My God Wilder explained perfectly how they shut us down at Ewood by removing that channel! The issue stems from the 2 players playing in midfield who are generally Smallwood and Evans. Good at breaking it up, but lack the ability to pick a good forward ball all too often If we aren't getting joy with the long ball to Graham, it's a predictable working of the ball to the full back, who will then either play it to Armstrong or Reed if on the other side. Armstrong will try and kick chase past his man or Reed will cut back inside looking for a pass. It's all very, very predictable

Contrasts with how Pep reacted to losing to Wigan last season, but I will let him off on that seeing as Cook is such a little troll

Blind Faith - Sea Of Joy (sorry)

Chaddy Would it be possible for you to show the oppositions long pass stats for those games as well, that would give clearer view if we are playing more or less long passes than other teams. A long pass is not necessarily a bad thing, the fact we don't tend to get players around DG quick enough is the problem. Interesting that from the games listed, the game DG was on the bench is the one we played the lowest number of long passes, which would suggest it's our tactic when he's on (as anyone who watches can clearly see). I've had a quick Google but can't seem to find the stats.

What nonsense. Graham may not be the most mobile but it does not excuse all the hoof ball I think we've seen for two years under Mowbray. An organised and well coached side should be capable of effective transition, movement, moving the ball quickly, accurately and with purpose and capable of getting forward to support the front man in numbers. Good managers move to clubs and impose their identity, style and way of playing very quickly. In contrast, I do not think Rovers have an identity, style or way of playing. Other than our hoof ball, I think our transition is slow, our movement is poor, we are uncomfortable on the ball both in terms of possession and distribution and our front man is too often isolated. I think it begs the question as to what Mowbray, Venus and Lowe have been doing for two years.

Wilderness - Joy Division

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

Aye, I imagine there's plenty like you, plus plenty of others who have tickets who won't bother when they discover the game will be live on Sky Sports, plus plenty who would have gone at 3pm for the local derby but won't bother doing at lunchtime. Many, many reasons for that, ranging from other commitments, saving money by watching on tv or just not enjoying it as much at 12 noon, people making the decision either don't recognise or don't pay any attention to but then come out with stuff about 'commitment'. As I've said many a time - any other club in the league that willingly allows or even requests that its most popular fixtures to be moved to 12 noon?

Only on this forum, with this fanbase, could 96.24% of fans backing the manager as of right now, be misconstrued into some sort of negative. Theres a few posters who have appeared from nowhere questioning why this thread is even here who clearly haven't thoroughly read the title, question and answers. This is potentially the single biggest show of support ANY manager has ever had from this forum. Thankfully journalism is a dead industry, because some of the shite I've seen on Twitter with regards to what this poll shows is incredible. For what it's worth, as far as I'm concerned any managers job is always under review. Let's see what Mowbray does over summer. So far he's done exactly what he told us he would do, solidify and give the trusted players the opportunity to keep their places. Weakness have been exposed, it's now a case of strengthing over summer to improve the first team. If he doesn't do that and we go backwards...

Mowbray always talks up his man management credentials, ‘good human beings’ and all that. He needs to follow up on the talk with this lad. Because for me he’s not in a good place. His head has completely gone for what I can see, no confidence at all and just basic standards of proficiency you’d expect any pro footballer to have, even if it’s just instinct, have disintegrated. I look at it this way, if he was from the academy he wouldn’t be anywhere near the squad, nevermind staring back to back games, he’s obviously starting games because of the fee, not because he’s pushing for it. For the good of the lad and the team he needs removing from the squad immediately before this ‘investment’ is damaged beyond repair (if it isn’t already).

If "agree" and "disagree" buttons help to reduce the amount of quoting and verbal diarrhoea by some posters then I'm all for it. I was enjoying the message board again up until a couple of weeks ago. Wonder why.