And last season it was 'missing Dack, Evans, Cunningham etc' as the standard excuses. There is enough in this squad still to fashion a team to get results in games like today and previous ones. Whoever is in we still have all too often the same poor patterns of play, same mistakes by the same people who are often the 1st on the team sheet and worst of all the lack tempo and having a go. In short it's the same old same old, all clubs have to roll with the punches but we always seem to ready with the standard excuses. As others have said fine if you want to settle for midtable again but no good if you are set on going places. The vibe again is the former not the latter but there's always next week and the week after and all that. We have good absentees but the squad is there now, is it being used correctly even in times of difficulty ? I'm not so sure.

That is what really annoyed me about yesterday. Rothwell apart, there seemed to be no real desire or urgency until Luton scored. It's as if the players and Mowbray were happy to sit there at 0 0 for 90 minutes. We can list the excuses - injuries , covid, referee etc but there is simply no excuse for continued lacklustre performances.. We had 11 players on the pitch who were more than capable than beating the 11 from Luton but we didn't really look interested. Unacceptable. Some people saying it's a decent draw because Luton are above is in the league - well they really shouldn't be. When Mowbray took over they were in league 2 and have spent a fraction of the transfer fees and wages that we have since then. We should be out of sight compared to Luton by now. According to 'transfermarket, our squad is worth £42 M to their £14 M. Slow build my arse! The problem is endemic. Venky's have no interest, Mowbray and Waggott on easy street, and under no pressure the players are coasting. Not surprising though really - it's been like that for 10 years - no pride in the club or the shirt.. Depressing indeed.

I observed Venus' remonstrations with a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment. Pleasure because I was happy that someone in the Rovers ranks was standing up and taking issue with a diabolical refereeing performance. Looking at the dugout you'd be forgiven for thinking today was some sort of pre season friendly such was the lack of presence. I even began to question if Mowbray was even there. It was good to see someone taking issue with things. Embarrassment because that is the second time in recent months that we have gone to Luton with all the talk pre match and in the end not come away with a win and look rather silly whinging about things rather than just delivering the goods on the pitch. A draw was a fair result on the balance of play. If you're happy with a draw at Luton then you'll be happy with mid table rather than promotion. Enjoy it. If you want promotion then today is another 2 points dropped and further off the pack. Really no more to it than that.

10/10. This underachieving has been going on for the best part of ten years now. Don't anybody mention the promotion, we out skilled teams then but the number of games were we out enthused our opponents you could count on the fingers of one hand. I've lost count of how many times I've said this but until we have a group of players who win more tackles, second balls, interceptions, contested headers, run further etc that our opponents we'll lose as many games as we win. There's no such thing as a free lunch in football, the team that wants it most usually gets most out of the game.

They will ONLY sack him if he manages to land us in the bottom 3 .... He’s surrounded himself with Yes Men .. From the useless coaching team to the Director .. He sings Waggot songs and they all stringing along the Venkys .... Just doesn’t feel like a normal club... but as Mowbray says we will bag the point V the mighty Luton and move on .... and on .. and on ...

TM is quoted as saying "they are a difficult side to play against, they are very well organised." I'm left wondering what he expects? Being organised might be foreign to him but its a starting point for managers isn't it? You build on that.

Barca are 11th in La Liga this season so in a way we are playing like Barcelona ?

Yes the budget comparers tend to blank out that when the boot is on the other foot although i'm not a big believer in it for one off games anyway. Like you say 11 v 11 and it often comes down to who wants it most and who is prepared to go the extra mile as often as they can not just when the backs are against the wall. It's clearly evident at Ewood how comfortable everything is when there are viable excuses to hide behind before a ball is even kicked. After a two week break they should be champing at the bit lets get down there get 3 points in that bag if possible. No lets go and tip tap about instead a draw is a draw and if we lose well it's down to covid and injuries. Shrug the shoulders, that's life. Can't stand that attitude although i don't expect to win every game i expect those selected to have a real good go. They'll need to up the ante against the knobbers that's for sure.

He's way too cautious. As others have said, starting Trybull and Johnson in central midfield does not give us the opportunity to quickly release our forwards. Always over-thinks it, always over-rates the opposition. Let's play to our strengths rather than our opponents.

About two seasons ago after the PNE away game. It was clear then Mowbray wasn’t up to it.

A very good summary of Rovers in 2020, giving away a needless soft goal, flattering to deceive, fairly disjointed and ultimately found shifting the attention away from our own failings by blaming officials. The decisions at the end were undoubtedly questionable, the Brereton one to be honest he was looking for as he often does but the Armstrong one seemed a definite foul, but lets not fuel a narrative that it cost us the game. We should have had a free kick, I cant remember us scoring a free kick in the League since the Mulgrew days so the chances of getting a winner would have been a small, and a red card at that point would have been fairly immaterial. We drew because we didnt play very well, because we conceded a stupid goal, because we didnt play particularly well and we didnt create many clear cut chances. Many players again would struggle to get beyond maybe a 5 or 6 out of 10. That is now us 7 points away from the play offs, we cant accumulate points at a top 6 rate without having over 2 wins worth of points to make up just to catch up. We are loitering in the bottom half yet there is this illogical assumption that we are not far off going on a sudden and uncharacteristic run of wins. Performance wise, Kaminski again was very comfortable in goal. Douglas I thought looked a huge upgrade on Bell, Rankin Costello on the other hand was poor in both directions and although his injury is unwelcome, Nyambe is the better right back without doubt. Lenihan was fine I though, Wharton can defend although he is really poor on the ball and there were once or twice that it played us into danger. The midfield balance was all wrong, Trybull is so ponderous on the ball and didnt impress in a position he doesnt suit. Johnson wasnt particularly influential and his booking was totally needless and costly. Rothwell tried to take the game by the scruff of the neck but mainly it came to nothing, same with Brereton. Elliott was really poor I thought and Armstrong totally anonymous. Gallagher did well to sneak in to get a goal from a clever Douglas knock down. I just find it frustrating, we dont seem to be going anywhere, I cant shake this feeling of stagnation, I question both the manager and the players and for me blaming the referee is just a smokescreen and an easy place to shift blame to cover our own failings.

We've played 7 decent teams in the league and not beaten a single one. Time for TM ro jog on. I have no faith in the owners choosing a better manager given their attachments to an agency, but even so I think that TM has really run his course. He's run out of ideas, is getting a squad to underperform and still has a shed load of the same mistakes being made. This is a manager on a down and we need to get rid before he takes us with him.

So how long does he get? Should he be allowed to ruin yet another season or should someone else be given the chance to try and salvage something out of it? If the latter we need to be making the change in no more than four or five games time imo.

Think of it as Limbo psychology. All very sad lol..... Every one of their neighbours and local rivals have tasted top-flight glory in recent years. There are PNE fans in their late 60's, who have never seen their team play a single game in the top flight. The likes of Carlisle, Notts County, Oxford, Bournemouth, Wigan, Barnsley, Bradford, Swindon have all been there since PNE.

We used to hear all the same tripe from Dingles, then they actually made the promised land and now they struggle to sell 18,000 home seats.

Preston fans remind me of men with short man/dick syndrome, unhappy with their small height and it shows, bitter and jealous towards their rivals they have so much to try and prove. Believe me it would upset them much more if they lost then it would us. However it's always beautiful to silence cocky little jack Russells up.

Always going to be ‘what ifs’ with Mowbray in charge I’m afraid. Right now the focus is on Dack and Travis. In the new year it’ll be something else. I’d wager we’ll coninue plodding along exactly where we are right now under Mowbray. No huge danger of doing down but we won’t lay a glove on challenging for the top 6.

Pure conjecture Philip. If's, buts and maybes. The fact is we are just not kicking on as many thought we would. Mid table is where the level of Mowbrays managerial ability tells me where we should be. He is Mr Average, good runs, bad runs interspersed with really good play and poor play with very little consistency. After seven turgid years of that lot many thought he is just what we needed and that could well be true of his first couple of years but when we should be kicking on we are still stuck in the long grass. I just want better for my club.

Technically he does start every excuse with something like we’re not making excuses BUT... makes excuses.

Does anyone know when the next Zoom chat or whatever will occur for the Fans Forum? I'd love to know when the current commercial deal ends and if there are plans to change it. Are they aware how generic their offering is and how much more money they could take in if anything looked different to the stuff they sell in Matalan (unfair on Matalan; they do decent shirts)? The last time I had to spend my club cash it took me half an hour to find anything on their site even slightly appealing (in the end, I went for several bags of jelly babies, some cola bottles and a scarf which I got rid of without ever wearing). Every single t shirt was beige or navy dreariness with a crest attached. Why are blue and white halves such a rarity on our merchandise?! The pictures below illustrate the point. I'm partial so obviously picked out stuff to back my view but it is hard to find something genuinely attractive. I know that I could e-mail them myself but I also know that I would get a generic response: "We at Blackburn Rovers remain committed to providing our supporters with an attractive range of items" You can hear the person yawning as they type it...

You got lucky there Bazza, god bless your old man!

I'm 77. ? I'm a Preston boy and my mother and all her family, my grandad, uncles and cousins, were North Enders. I remember them being promoted from Div 2 and finishing runners-up in Div 1 the following season ( I think). They had a fabulous team which contained Tom Finney, Willie Cunningham and Tommy Docherty among others. They drew big crowds then, a lot coming down from Lancaster and Morecambe areas. Fortunately for me my dad was a Rover and was taking me to Ewood to watch a struggling second division side playing in blue and white quarters. This was just before we brought in Langton, Quigley, Kelly and Briggs. After that it got a lot better. I had a friend, Bob Plunkett. I would go to his house on a Saturday afternoon to see if he would come and play out. His mum always said, "He's gone on't North End". I never learned. No doubt he would have come to my house on other Saturday afternoons to be told I'd gone to the Rovers.

We could lose 10-0 and it would be business as usual down at Ewood on Wednesday morning.

Go back to 4-4-2. Make the back four and midfield four solid, with stopping the opposition a priority to all of them. Heck that should be any average teams plan. When you are continually exposing the defence it’s as much as you can do. Go back to basics. We are currently trying to be Barcelona and it’s not working.

Says more about your judgement that it does anything about Mowbray.

Yes sleeping giant syndrome that's a good one for them iv'e heard it a few times, like a mini Sunderland are Preston. If we did what Rovers did we'd be getting 30k plus every game. Massive catchment area, biggest team in Lancashire a real sleep giant not like Rovers or Bolton ! Comatose dwarf more like.

tbf to preston,they hav`nt had much to cheer about since the 1960`s,it`s not surprising they are bitter and angry,seen blackpool,rovers,burnley and bolton all reach the top flight,while they languish in their own sad world of " we are a sleeping giant syndrome",i have no dislike for pne,i don`t really consider them a rival

Verdict: The quest for hard evidence in Rovers' top six bid | Lancashire Telegraph There isn't any hard evidence...but it's nice to see Sharpe finally raising the issue. Mowbray's got away with baseless 'Top 6' talk for over 12 months now.

Who is our key midfield player? Holtby? Travis? Only the other day when he was out injured it was Rothwell now because he is back its someone else. Lenihan is a first choice centre half and he is not injured and it can't be a surprise to anyone that Ayala and Williams are injured their careers the last few years have been littered with injuries. As for Dack he has been missing for 11 months so it was hardly a surprise that he was missing and we have had two windows to find an alternative to him

Presuming you mean on Ben at the end. Definite foul but probably just outside the area. The unpunished foul on Arma just before was a rugby tackle. Still pinning this droped 2 points on Mowbray. So many things wrong with the team set up irrespective of unavailabilities.

By the river surely?!!

I think we have got to stop defending Mowbray at all costs and get real. Teams will miss players, theres 35 games left, Mowbray scraped the barrell on deadline day and we are left lightweight in central midfield and the defence is still shit. What's the point, might aswell guve someone else a go. Pearson in Mowbray out

Rovers Ladies will face Coventry United at the fantastically named Butts Park Arena tomorrow (Sunday, 22nd November) at 2pm, Last Sunday, Coventry lost 9-1 v the newly full-time Leicester City & lost 4-0 in the Conti Cup v Sheff Utd midweek. Last season we drew against them twice (one of them was the game Rovers Ladies played at Ewood Park). If Rovers win, they will go up to 5th (of 11) in the League. Coventry United will be providing a livestream of the game on their Youtube channel that can be found here:-

There comes a time when the players get tired of the same old voice. I think that time is now for Rovers.

If we were to do any damage to the top 6 then Mowbray should of done it by now. Had more than enough chances. The one season where we have a half decent squad he’s still struggling! We need a new face in. I guarantee we would see the best from most of the players.

Wasn't a spectacle, but it happens every single time after internationals and not sure why i ever expect any different. Many poor games. Glad to see Brereton giving it both barrels to the ref, he would never have done that last season and just accepted it with a wimper . The coverage was so crap I lost interest in parts. Must do better on Tuesday, hopefully we will without their cup final fans in attendance.

At the end of the transfer window i was thinking finally we have a side to challenge for promotion,i forgot for a minute we had a terrible manager,i should have realised we have no chance of promotion with this manger in charge.Another season over by the end of Feb stuck in midtable is what we have to look forward too.then we'll get the Mowbray apologists saying oh we got 1 more point than last year,we are making progress.

I don't understand why Mowbray has to speak to the owners about new contract extensions for current players who are real assets. Surely he and Waggott control the budget for the playing side and they should be able to sit down with the players representatives and start negotiations. I wonder if he spoke to them about the extensions that some of the dead wood were given over the summer?

Brought back memories, not of the 64 cup final I wasn't born, but of us playing Oldham in our first season in the Premier League. What players we had then.

Don't forget Oldham. I'm in my 70's now and I've never seen them at top level. I remember them playing in the 1964 Cup Final though.

I agree the current range of products is poor. I daresay one of the problems is that our badge really doesn't translate well onto clothing other than our shirts, certainly when you just stick it onto a polo shirt like the examples in the opening post. Liverpool and Rangers are two clubs that have different badges for different purposes: their recognised ones for media and publishing and whatever else, but different, simpler designs on their kits and some merchandise. I think Rovers may benefit from similar, say a Red Rose with Arte Et Labore curved above it, and 1875 curved below it (I wish I had the skills to knock together a mock up!). That would complement any clothing an awful lot better than what we use at present. I'd also go in for a more fashionable and diverse array of design for shirts, casual T-shirts that play on the blue and white halves, etc.

Worry not folks. Never mind where we end up this season, Mowbray is already busy telling the owners that we should be a force next season. On it goes.

We don't have the players to play 4-3-3. We have played it ever since we came back from lockdown and have 25 points from 21 games playing it. Hopefully once Dack is back that will be the last we see of the system.

A drab first half which is emblematic of post-international breaks. Two disjointed teams. The second half saw us much the better and the last 10 minutes we were rampant. The goal we conceded was unlucky as their lad slipped as he put the cross in, if he’d have stayed on his feet then it probably would have sailed over the striker as their delivery was poor for most of the match. Any team can concede goals like that. Our response was excellent and although I’d have preferred a win (perhaps merited on the last 10 minutes) I’m not too downhearted by a point at a team who were a) above us in the table and b) well organised and hard to beat. At Ewood it would be a different story and I would expect a win. I certainly understand much of the criticism levelled at Mowbray but this season he has been dealt a terrible hand. It is incredibly hard to build consistency when the team is ravaged by injury and isolation issues. Today we were without Ayala, Williams, Bell, Holtby, Dack and Travis amongst others...I’d say that’s 4/5 definite starters. On Tuesday is looks like we can add JRC and obviously Johnson to that list. Rather than being completely despondent we could look at the situation and be glad that we are putting out a team that is competitive each week. Could another manager get a better tune out of this squad? Possibly. Would a change be risky? Again...possibly. Sometimes (especially in these crazy times) it’s better the devil you know.

Well as expected the balance of the team was all wrong with Trybull and Johnson both out there. Trybull a very very conservative player, and Johnson was expected to run up and down the inside right channel which he clearly doesn't have the legs for. In the 433 we play it's crucial 1) the two wider central midfielders have exceptional workrate to link the forwards and midfield, but can recover to defend if we lose possession, 2) we play a high back line to get the midfield close to the forwards. Today we played about 10m too deep and were really static in midfield till Trybull came off, then we improved a lot. Honestly think we would have won if we'd started Buckley/Johnson/Rothwell across the middle. I'm stunned Buckley didn't come on at all. Have to agree this is shaping up to be another 8th-13th season. A real shame as the squad is a top six squad.

I think circumstances have forced it a bit recently but funny you should flag up Southgate. My mate said the other night how there were many similarities with Mowbray not least the underwhelming Boro stints. Southgates demeanor is that of a world weary going through the motions guy way before its time.

A lot of families go to Ewood. You only need one pass. You could easily treble any iFollow figures to get an idea of bums on seats. Sadly Waggott has never seemed to care about bums on seats as much as sums on spreadsheets.

It's getting near to crunch time for this season. Have to go on a run now as we are currently underperforming for the squad we have and need to get in the mix quickly or the season will peter out. One big worry for me is our playing identity, we've regressed back to the slow possession football that generally gets us nowhere. Our best results are when we press high and move the ball quickly and our players are best suited to this yet was kicked to the kerb today against a mediocre Luton side. We're plodding along and it isn't good enough. Mowbray needs to feel some heat but the current situation means he can muddle on without reproach.

Checked his Instagram and at mid afternoon yesterday he looked like he was happy enough as was bantering with Johnson. So hopefully it’s a false alarm.

I thought everyone would be putting Holtby in, he’s been a class above in his new central midfield role for the majority of this season. Real player.