Mowbray has more or less gotten us back into the position we were in under Bowyer before Venky's pulled the rug out from underneath him. A squad somewhat unbalanced that doesn't play great football but can grind out enough results to finish comfortably mid-table if never really challenge for the playoffs. I think Bowyer had a better team overall (with less money) and that was reflected in slightly higher league positions than TM has achieved (assuming we finish lower than 8th/9th this time around). At the time the general concensus was that Bowyer had run his race and we needed to replace him to move forward. Obviously Venky's made the wrong choices and ended up relegating us with Owen Coyle instead. History could very easily repeat itself so personally I'm very wary of TM departing. With that said my ambition for the club remains the same as it was back then, so I'm at the point where I'm wondering if TM can realistically get us into genuine contention for promotion. I think probably not, but am I confident in our owners appointing the right person even if Mowbray left? No, I'm not. I imagine it would be chaos, confusion and disaster again. It's a tough situation to be in as on the one hand my ambitions for the club are beyond what I believe Mowbray can achieve, but at the same time I'm well aware that if he leaves we're more likely to spiral downward than push on - because if there's one thing Venky's have proven it's that they don't take the managerial position seriously and will always opt for the cheap route. Sometimes you get half-decent managers in the likes of Bowyer and Mowbray, other times you get a Kean or a Coyle (although one could argue Kean was not cheap at all retrospectively). What you never get is a manager that will get the club punching above its weight, which is realistically what we are going to require in order to get promoted. It's just a shit situation and I don't see it being resolved until Venky's are gone, and right now it seems like they are going nowhere.

@roversfan99 @chaddyrovers Any danger of you two leaving each other alone for a bit?

With JRC now injured, if Chapman doesn't make the 18 again I think it's safe to say he's as good as gone in the summer. Give him a chance from the start!

Mowbray's tenure is reminiscent of Bowyer's, except he has spent more money in the transfer market. I expect he will eventually leave under similar circumstances as, in my opinion, like Bowyer, he clearly isn't going to take us up another level. He's stabilised the ship, fair play, but at some point it is likely that we will stop treading water and start drowning. Many of the players we now need to ship out are his own signings. For all his talk of a long term plan, if he is here in ten years time we still won't be in the Premier League, or anywhere near it. His one promotion from this division pre - dates Owen Coyle's. Enough said. Add to this, some of the football at Ewood has been dire and is not going to fill empty seats anytime soon.

Exactly what I would do. IMO, Gallagher MUST NOT start whether it be out wide or as a central striker. I think Mowbray has dropped another huge expensive clanger with his signing. I think Johnson is washed up and finished. Thought he looked over weight on Saturday - unfit, slow and poor distribution. Fully agree. I'd like to see Chapman given a run of games. To me, the lad's got good natural ability, can make things happen and is capable of getting you on the edge of your seat. B0ll0cks to all this attitude business. IMO, Mowbray has totally mismanaged the lad and I would be p1ssed off if I'd been treated the same way. The lad needs an arm around the shoulder and to be told how good he is now and just how good he can be going forward - give him his wings and watch him fly. IMO, the lad has more natural ability than Brereton, Gallagher and Rankin Costello put together. As supporters, you want to be excited and sadly, IMO, under Mowbray we've seen too much turgid stuff and 'ale house' football - and some on here had the nerve to criticise Big Sam!

I think Bell’s been good in this latest run in the team, certainly not standing out as poor in my opinion I think he could be improved on but a handy option there

I for one am weirdly curious and excited for the rest of the season. Not because I think I’m going to be blinded by Tika taka style entertainment or because I think we’ll go roaring into the playoffs (those hopes were all but gone when Dack collapsed against Wigan and confirmed with the subsequent injuries to Evans, Holtby and Rothwell). No, I’m excited to see the development of our young players over the next 16 games or whatever. Our position in the league and injuries have inadvertently created an almost perfect climate for them. We aren’t going down and will potentially be out of the playoff race by March. Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis and Arma are flying. The improvement in those four grows week on week. I want to see JRC, Buckley and Davenport play 10 games before the end of the season. I wouldn’t even be adverse to Hilton playing a couple back end or Butterworth if he can get fit. They will be so much better for it in the long run. Let them get upto speed and let’s see what they’ve got to offer. To get one or two of these playing well and fully integrated into the first team would be brilliant for the club and reduce the volume of transfers needed in the summer. Also grows our assets and provides potential for sustainability. Get the young lads played I say. We’ll never have a better chance to have a look at them!

How anyone is still talking about the playoffs is beyond me. The only time this season I've given it serious thought was after Bristol City away when I thought that maybe, just maybe, we'd turned some sort of corner as that wasn't the kind of victory that we usually got. Then, when we had chance to actually enter the top 6, we of course stunk the place out in home games v Wigan and Birmingham and it became clear that we'd just end up plodding in mid-table.

Surly we can give the cocker the benefit of the doubt. I find it quite heart warming the effort and passion he puts in and the little things like cocker makes him even more endearing because of the misunderstanding of words. #COYB #comeonyoucockers # mexicanpals # blackburntilidie

You picked a different formation and different personnel prior to the game.

Bennett gets no grief at games, I’ve not known a manager as backed as TM since Mark Hughes. The internet is not real life and it annoys me when narratives are then spun in column pieces and by prominent Twitter fans that Rovers supporters are a mob of foaming at the mouth abusers. Absolutely not the case, in fact I’d go as far to say we are more patient than most.

Something often conveniently forgotten! TM has never had us in the top six during his entire time here. Not even for one match.

Even though we hadnt been in the top 6 at any point during the season? Baring in mind that Dack got injured on the 23rd December, on matchday 23, and Holtby, Rothwell and Evans were injured very recently.

I think we all know now, this match will be a bore as our esteemed manager will choose a team to negate Hull who are suddenly the best team in the UK with only Liverpool able to compete with them and only if they are lucky. We therefore need to concentrate on defence leaving no one in midfield to create anything going forward. Hull will score in the 70th or 75th minute. Mowbray will panic and substitutes will come into play, leaving 4 out and out strikers in the mix but no one to create anything for them. I am extremely fed up and don’t see a way out of it.

I've read up until page 17 of this thread then got frustrated at all the OTT criticism again. It was always going to be a tough game against a pre-season favourite in good form, even without our injuries, so why are people upset when that's what plays out? I don't buy the theory that we set out just to avoid defeat. Yes we worked on trying to nullify their potency, but that's not the same thing. We were actually the better team for the first 15 mins I thought. But overall it was a poor game, from both sides, shorn of any real quality. Neither team did enough to win it IMO; they passed it around more fluently after that initial spell, but mostly without menace. But for Travis unluckily playing Bryan in on the left when trying to intercept his pass, it would have finished 0-0. We could have drawn or won had Lenihan's goal been given (which looked fine to me but I've not seen a replay). If we'd have got the lucky deflection that Bryan got, or the offside decision goes our way, we win the game and are cockahoop like Fulham were as they knew they were given a tough game. It was those kind of fine margins that made the difference on the day. The criticism I do agree with from yesterday is Gallagher out wide (which generally doesn't work and for which TM understandably gets criticised; maybe Bennett would have been more effective there seeing how Chapman is clearly out of the running) & Johnson, who I thought was a liability & overall I've been so disappointed with him, as I think we all are. Tuesday's game is massive. Win and we're still well in the playoff hunt. Draw or lose and away at Charlton becomes must-win to keep hope's alive. I'd like to see Davenport in place of Johnson, and either Bennett, JRC or Chapman in place of Gallagher. Perhaps rotate Gallagher, JRC & Armstrong by playing Gallagher up top, JRC wide right with Armstrong in a free-ish no 10 role. Let's try to be optimistic eh? We're far from out of the playoff hunt but listening to many on here you'd think we were knocking about in 20th place.

Mowbray shouldn't be given the opportunity to form a squad for 2020/2021. He's failed and should be removed from his post.

Chaddy, please knock it off. Match threads a day before a match are very much about team selection. Thus, the comparisons are relevant. We can't open a new thread for every little tangent. If you don't like the direction the conversation is going, then feel free to remove yourself from it.

No one has said it's his fault we went down, the question was asked "Where were we headed when he took us over"? The answer was League 1 and the fact was stated that that is exactly where we ended up anyway! Obviously there is context to that but those supporting Mowbray don't like context when it doesn't suit ie citing our League position after a win which might temporarily push us up a couple of places up the League. The fact we might be say tenth iin any given week is cited as irrefutable evidence of huge strides being made despite the fact we may be only three points off 15th or the football is dire or we've just had another disastrous transfer window etc. The fact we might occupy a respectable position in the League in any given week apparently stands on it's own and can't be challenged. But mention the fact that Mowbray failed in his initially assigned task of keeping us up, that raises howls of derision and has to be put into context!!

I know you ignore me as I have different opinions to you sometimes ... but you really could be describing Bradley dack when he was at gills. What did you think of dack and his brushes with the law ?

Apathy spreads in Blackburn quicker than the plague when it's obvious there's little ambition other than just to tread water. Sadly it's one of those areas you have to keep spiking the interest alongside keeping it affordable and what's affordable round here is often viewed as cheap in other places. It's never been any different you need a manager with profile and ability to get a few players in that catch the imagination. Especially when you have a half decent source of finance. I know Archibald type signings are impossible these days but those who remember how Don Mackay breathed new life back into the club when he first came, with very little finance, will understand that's what the club is crying out for these days. Just something to jerk it back into life, TM 7 co threatened that with bouncing back from lge 1 but it quickly became job done. Back where we were so foot off the gas. Lambert threatened it when he came in but it quickly fizzled out with the Rhodes fiasco etc but as the Oxford game showed there's enough out there to get far better gates than we are doing. They need something to buy into though, buying crap players and wasting money then looking for every excuse in the book doesn't cut it.

Sam’s removal was part of a cataclysmic event that we still haven’t got close to recovering from a near decade later. He continued to manage at the top level for years after. TM is a solid enough Championship manager. There are many out there of his ilk, at this level if the team stagnates or declines, you roll the dice, that’s the Championship. The fact you think a Steve Evans type would get appointed (and you’re right, they might) so we need to keep TM just in case the fools do something ridiculous says more about the club then the fact we’ve got a gem of a manager ( to turn a phrase) we need to cherish.

Lol Brian Dick. I have a strong suspicion that MM has ripped jeans btw. Not a Rovers player even without the attitude. Swans around waiting for the highlight reel chances, doesn’t track back, he’s a luxury not many can afford in this league. Think what you want about their chairman - but no reason to doubt what he says. MM has reckoned he’s worth 15-20k p/w for a couple of years, not sure he is. (Obviously if we’d actually signed him I’d be sucking Waggott off, mind)

Re FFP- aren’t you forgetting that we spent £12 Million on two strikers- one that plays on the wing (despite us having actual wingers at the club) and another that barely gets 5 minutes at a time? Stoke have spent the most in the league and they’re only just outside the relegation zone. PNE have barely spent anything and they’re in the top 6. Perspective indeed.

Yes be upset, of course. But let's get some perspective & proper context into how it's expressed; we've just gone 4 games undefeated, 2 wins & 2 draws, despite tough injuries sustained in 3 of those games. We've gone 4 months undefeated at home. To then lose narrowly to Fulham is no disaster. Thing is, when we win games or go on winning runs there's too many who argue it's in spite of Mowbray: "OK so we've won, but it's only 'cos he listened to us fans. He won't win the next one 'cos he'll pick his favourites again or spin his tombola, so he's taken us as far as he can and he's only in it for his pension". But when we lose games it's because of him, even when (like yesterday) he's picked an 11 that most people thought was decent; "it was inevitable we'd lose today with him in charge, he can't set up a team to win games, that's why he's taken us as far as he can". Every defeat is followed by "he needs to go", how on earth can that be rational when we've had more wins than defeats? Why can't people accept that in football, not everything goes to plan and that there's stuff that goes on behind the scenes that we're not privy to but which will be absolutely at the heart of his decision making? Yes I'm sure City fans are concerned at the moment; they've put up a meek defence of their title having also endured a poor summer transfer window and injuries to key players, just like us. They're much further away from their target than we are from ours, yet even though they've lost a quarter of their league fixtures (not that dissimilar to Rovers' record of having lost a third of ours), their fans aren't calling for Pep's head.

I thought yesterday highlighted the unbalanced squad that TM has created. Obviously he will point to injuries but look at it: 5 strikers in the squad yet we only ever really start with one up front. Out of those 5 strikers Armstrong is the only one who is competent out on the wing but TM chooses to play Gallagher and Samuel Samuel was naff in league 1 why is he even considered for selection at this point? Gallagher on the right wing is and has been all season embarrassing. It doesn't work yet TM keeps trying it, he's probably tried it about 20 times so far this season. His only good game was preston away when he played through the middle. He's been rubbish has gallagher but TM isn't doing him any favours. Brereton - we don't even need to discuss. I haven't got the energy to detail how spectacularly bad his signing is. It says a hell of a lot that Samuel came on before him. Chapman is the only winger in the squad yet can't get near the team - waste of money Mulgrew and Smallwood taking up wages due to TM overvaluing them. Johnson - isn't suited to playing a passing game. waste of money With 3 of our ideal back five (Walton, Tosin, Cunningham) only on loan, we've got major surgery to do to the squad with little resources to do it. By my count in the summer we need a 2 keepers, a backup right back, a left back, at least 1 maybe 2 centre backs. a wide player and a striker. possibly even another centre mid if age catches up with Downing before August. Worrying stuff.

The team that should play and the team that will play are two different things. For example, anyone with two working eyes knows that Sam Gallagher our wide is wrong, but it won’t stop him being selected there. I think where that is concerned I’m at the ‘acceptance’ stage of grief.

The Bowyer/Mowbray parallel is quite an easy one for me. There are very striking similarities between the two, both the player's friends, GB from a background of bringing players along and possibly not focused enough on results. TM too concerned about protecting the players already at the Club and too fearful of bringing in outsiders to try and improve the team. Both their respective sides lacked mental toughness, flattered to deceive and blew up when it looked like we might achieve something. Both their respective sides failed to play for 90 minutes and can only put in a maximum of 45 mins at a time. Both managers far too cautious. The main difference between the two is that Bowyer's Dad Ian identified some cracking signings on a budget whereas Mowbray's team don't look as if they could unearth a hidden gem if he was playing in their back garden. Bottom line, huge similarities between the two but neither anywhere near good enough. At least not for a team with aspirations of promotion from the Championship.

Pretty much. The reasons for keeping Mowbray are for the most part completely logical and understandable. We know what the owners are like and nobody could surely trust them to replace Mowbray competently. On the other hand it was these owners who hired TM in the first place, and if he is considered an improvement on those who came before him then there's an argument the owners have the aptitude or luck to once again hire somebody who improves on their predecessors. It's unlikely based on their track record but still possible.

Very fair analysis. Most of our recent sackings, Coyle, Kean, Appleton and Berg were obviously sacked because of rank incompetence, they were clear cut decisions, the managers all had very few defendants and it was very black and white. With Mowbray, not only does he have credit in the bank from the promotion 2 seasons ago, but we arent doing disastrously bad, which has been the benchmark in the past. There are some very constructive reasons to suggest that Mowbray might well struggle to push us on and things might soon fall into stagnation rather than progression; imbalanced recruitment, an inability to spend any serious money, and not only are we not firmly in the targeted top 6, but we never once have been, so we arent a serious, credible contender for our season expectations. The recent injuries muddy the waters further as they eliminate any chance for the manager to realistically make that added push (something that hasnt as yet been seriously threatened) or alternatively prove without excuse that he is not capable of doing so, it creates a period of limbo where people can not be expected to withhold opinion but equally its harder to make definitive conclusions. With the promotion goodwill and because we arent in a disaster or a tailspin, quite a few people are not willing to entertain the thought of change and will perhaps be overly defensive about even the more illogical things that he does.

In fairness considering we're having to resort to playing JRC out of position in the Dack role he probably would be straight into the side at present purely due to injuries. Granted Mowbray normally has an incubation period for new signings but I get the feeling much like Cunningham earlier in the season he may have had to adopt a 'needs must' approach with Maddison with Dack, Holtby and Rothwell all on the sidelines.

Positivity is great, negativity is fine if that’s your bag too, everyone is entitled to a view What annoys me is the tweets and posts that are obviously passive aggressive, purely sarcastic and lacking any real point other than to score points

If Chapman has thrown his toys out of the pram then I wouldn't want him anywhere near the squad.

Can’t tell if you’re being satirical but that is pretty funny ?

He's been here for over two years now and I'm still trying to figure out what he is good at.

I see JRC has pulled a hamstring. Makes you wonder about our training methods.

Mowbray was brought in to keep us up. He failed. There’s nothing revisionist about that.

Virtually relegated? We were 3 points from safety with 15 games to go. There are plenty of clubs who have been in that situation that have stayed up, let's not rewrite history and make out that Mowbray took on mission impossible.

League One. Which is exactly where Mowbray took us. ?

With options limited this is how I would line up. Get some old fashioned crosses in the box.

And it shows ?.

Some of the criticism goes over the top but so does some of the refs to the injuries. Yes its turning into a nightmare and may well hamper where we finish. However we weren't in the top 5 and have fallen away because of that yet you'd think so reading some of the stuff around. This season a 15th to 10th place finish has always been on the cards given all the usual variables you get at every club every season. so it might now end up closer to 15th than 10th but above that wasn't happening. Not without a serious effort to push on, better recruitment and management, certain key players form and yes a reasonably clean bill of health.

No we are not.That's the narrative you are pushing. By all accounts we went after two wingers in January but the finances on the deal weren't right. Gallagher isn't a poor player either and coupled with your "joke footballer" comment on another thread it'd be nice if you weren't so disrespectful to the lad. We can all have opinions but he tries his hardest every time he walks on the pitch for Rovers and that's more than can be said for Brereton and, indeed, Chapman. He's had several scaving reports during his time in the U23s and quite often whenever there's whispers of a bad attitude they aren't wrong. Never once heard a whisper about Gallagher's professionalism. We are desperately light on the wing because Downing has had to move centrally, Rothwell out now and Armstrong proving more effective up top. January showed that Mowbray is trying to address the problem so we can assume in the summer we can see some wide attackers brought in, providing the finances are right.

Mind blowing your criticism and downbeat attitude of Rankin Costello but Chapman is being talk on here like the next Lionel Messi. Jeez. He got injured during the game on Saturday but carried on.

You make it sound like the injured players have missed all the season so far. I'll give you Dack but Evans got injured in January 9th and has missed four games, Rothwell got injured on January 28th and has missed two games so far, Holtby got injured on February 1st and now Rankin-Costello. And in the period since the Evans injury we have won two, drawn one and lost one. Evans, Holtby and Dack are out for the season and that will undoubtedly have an effect but up until a few weeks ago Mowbray had a full squad so to say without them we would probably be in the top six now is stretching it.

Thanks for a well reasoned reply - I'll try responding in the post to help link up the discussion. Walton - the loan element is a big problem as there aren't too many benefits for us to it. But again the best I hear about him is "not as bad" which is hardly a ringing endorsement! When the debate is over how bad a player is rather than how good - and I think it would be hard to argue he has been good for us - you know that you've got a duff one. Fwiw he's not as bad as I initially thought imo but is still pretty poor. Far too many errors costing us goals, plus very few games where he has had a positive contribution. I struggle to see how he is anything but a failure given his performances and circumstances of him being here. Samuel a little bit more grey. Did ok for us a year before, but not looking like he will kick on. £500 k for a league 1 team was no small amount and one of our big 3 signings that year, so perhaps the expectation would be he would have made more of a contribution. For a 1 season, decent player I'm not sure it's a success story. Probably on reflection I'd say that's a pretty neutral transfer. Hmm not sure I agree all his signings did contribute. Hart, Harper, Whittingham and Caddis all spring to mind as not really making much odds as to whether we were promoted or not. We didn't hugely use our loans from higher table teams to full advantage. (Armstrong and arguably Antonsson aside.) A lot of the key players who carries us to promotion were already here: Raya, Nayambe, Mulgrew, Bennett, Graham, Lenihen. Could he have started building for the championship in those years - perhaps not (although to his credit Dack and Armstrong were so can't see it as a total free hit and he did ok at it.) That said given he had nearly a year and a half preparatory time pre championship with his team, he really should have been in a position to know exactly what was needed and to hit the ground running. Given we've not really challenged playoffs with such a huge prep time doesn't suggest he's doing that well or used that time effectively - especially when you consider how threadbare the squad will be next year. Perhaps disappointingly is the number of players who aren't really decent championship standard. I agree the playoff type players to give you that push were hard to get in league 1 but the rest of the squad being a solid and decent platform for them could have been. That a number of them aren't but are on decent contracts taking up wages is a problem. Smallwood with new contract, Bell, Samuel, Williams aren't really the type of players needed for a promotion winning squad. Factor in how unbalanced the squad is too and you wonder what TM has spent the last 3 years doing to be in this situation. Last season we went on the worse run in living memory and blew the January transfer window. I can't think of any manager who would have survived such a run. Also whilst the outcome was ok, the manner involving a second half of the season collapse was utterly disappointing leaving us wondering what might have been. As for this season the excuses you offer - and I agree the injuries have been terrible and a huge blow - are also criticisms of TM. He blew the two transfer windows, no one else. He is the one who brought in misfiring strikers so that we are dependant on our creative mids for goals. He is the one who has an unbalanced squad - we lucked out with injuries in the first half of the season that our paper thin defence wasn't exposed more. Injuries have made a huge difference - it would be daft to say otherwise - but had TM done his job a bit better in getting in scoring strikers or used the windows better they wouldn't have hit us quite so badly. Again this defence is a criticism of TM. He can't win against the weaker teams (you could factor in the Wigan home and arguably Brum game too - I'm not at all sure it is behind us.) Its a huge weakness of his. Am a bit torn on the increased value too. Probably overall - although we won't see that £12 mill back for our strikers - but whilst the squad has improved it is still horribly thin and unbalanced going into next season. Also whilst credit has to be given for improving our situation somewhat, given that Coyle had to sell his best players and had no money to replace them, it's not the fairest of comparisons. Also given we've had 3 seasons of TM, I do worry how slow the progress has been. Defence and up front and keeper don't look much better, if at all. Midfield is I will agree. Finally and this is a tad unfair as off topic slightly but ties into the behind the scenes stuff - am not sure we are better off. It's clear dark forces are still at work at Ewood - 3 managers from the same agency being an example of this - so I do wonder how much better things actually can be. Not TMs fault at all this one, but I'm equally sure he can't improve that situation either. Anyhow that's a heck of a ramble. TM isn't terrible and often it comes across that way in my posts. Not the intention - I dont think he is very good at all but he is a bit better than some of the non managers we've had in my lifetime. I feel that if we were a normal club with standards and hadn't been so horrifically treated no one would be happy with TM or the job he is doing.

One less option but not sure how much of a loss it is considering how ineffective he was in his 2 starts. Chapman has to start.

Completely agree and imo would be the only way left not to make this a wasted season. Do you think tony will do this ? Give the players you mention ten games in what are ultimately dead rubbers ? Play Hilton over the other two to keepers ? See how good the youngsters are and no if they are capable, ready or not and then go in to the summer with a clear plan and idea of who is first team ready, who needs loaning and who needs releasing, see who he can offload and free up some much needed funds for wages or do you think he will give them a few minutes off the bench and the odd start towards the end of April like I do

Besides Johnson and Gallagher, I thought Downing was also poor and has largely been poor when deployed as the LW position. I do like him in CM, but played wide highlights his age and mucks up the formation. Once Rothwell is back I feel we will settle on Travis-Downing in CM.

They should rename it after him, and then sponsors can still be used. '... are proud Sponsors of the Tony Parkes Riverside Stand'. PNE do it. https://www.google.com/search?q=sir+tom+finney+stand+outside&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjppunBusTnAhWXwoUKHUvbAqcQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=sir+tom+finney+stand+outside&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-img.3...2264.5242..5523...1.0..0.173.891.6j3......0....1.........0i30j0i24j33i10j30i10.4F0qK5ndcps&ei=Mvk_XunFPJeFlwTLtou4Cg&bih=782&biw=412&client=ms-android-ee-uk-revc&prmd=imsvn&safe=strict#imgrc=YoQKKCqiaJcrmM&imgdii=AN-o5a6pVIZTFM

I ‘like’ Mowbray the man. Sort of bloke you’d want for a father in law. Doesn’t mean I don’t think we’d be fairing better under a different manager, or that somebody else could have spent that £12 million in thousands of better ways.