Thanks Stuart - just to reiterate - hours of work behind the scenes here from Stuart & Andy to keep this train on the tracks. A round of virtual applause ??????

Hey everyone, I'm one of the boot room staff here at BRFCS, I look after the servers and make sure they don't fall over ... or rather, get them running again when they do, I'm BRFCS' Mike Pettigrew if you will. With that in mind that I've been doing some work with the admins and mods to try and make the site a bit more resilient, it's no Vince Grella for staying on it's feet as it is, but it's no Derek Fazackerley either, it could be better. Over this coming weekend there will have to be some downtime (not during the game, I'll be watching that) as I start the work, then again in a few weeks there will be a bit more while I do some more work. I'll try and do it during quiet times, but inevitably there will be some who cannot access the site when they would like ... sorry about that.

Also the radiators on full blast in the away changing room and salt in the tea. He also had luminous signs in the four corners at Cambridge so his defenders could aim for them. I was refereeing Preston Reserves when he was there and at every kick from the opposition keepers hands the Preston centre half would shout either jacks, queens, kings or aces. On one occasion Chris Sully didn't go with the command and played them onside which nearly resulted in a goal. Gary Peters (Becks number 2) went apoplectic at Sully who, in his defence said he was confused between kings and queens. It transpired that each shout was a code to do something in unison. On another occasion I was refereeing at Lincoln when he was there and at 2.55 the police entered the home dressing room and arrested him in front of the team. He was charged with some tax evasion thing, from memory based on the cigarette and booze run from France. Quite a character.

I think Lewis Holtby ought to be at the top of any list regarding new contracts as a matter of urgency. In my view, he's instrumental in everything when we're on song and badly missed when unavailable. I believe his current one expires next summer and he needs to be offered a new deal before the January window kicks in. Hopefully it's sufficiently attractive for him to want to stay. In fact imperative I'd say.

If we can't capitalise,if we can't rise to the occasion then we are going nowhere soon. We need a run of wins and we need it now.

Delighted he’s starting to come good and his improvement is obvious, long May it continue. Not going to rewrite history some of his previous performances were laughably bad, it seemed every game he’d shank one out for a throw or trip himself up, the glimpses of promise were few and far between. The lack of fans and thus pressure has been a huge boost for him even though the fans were very patient in the grounds, when we can return you feel he’ll benefit from getting up and going in the quieter times. Is it a bargain? Not yet, could it turn out to be? Yes! And I didn’t think I’d say that 6 months or so ago

Some fans have questioned Scott Wharton's distribution but I thought it was very good against Preston and on a few occasions, he was given the ball in tight spaces and dealt with it really well and made good decisions, like the one in the first half, where he was about a yard from the line with a Preston player coming to him and he just booted it into the stands and ran back into position rather than risk something silly.

Barnsley fans say their team looked "leggy" against Brentford so I would expect them to ask us to try and break them down. So for me, our pace won`t be the major factor in beating them. We need the likes of Elliot, Dolan, Holtby and Rothwell on the ball to do something out of the ordinary so we can get chances in the box. Hurling it into to a packed penalty area for Gally or Ben to try and get on the end and knock it in or down for Arma won`t do it for me. We need players who can do the unexpected in their box or on the edge of the box. This is why I think we have struggled in the past when teams park the bus. Now in those four players, I think we have the skill to open up teams with a cute pass or dribble. If I am wrong and they come and have a go, then that is their problem. Quotes from Barnsley fans; "It was tactical to sit back and make our half congested to stop Brentford playing...." " Blackburn are a better team than others think and are top scorers, I think. It will be difficult to get a win."

Been here many times under Mowbray. 02/02/19 - 2 points off the play offs after 4 wins in a row, we go 2-0 up at Brentford only to lose 5-2, then go on to lose 9 of our next 11 games 23/12/19 - 5 wins from our previous 6 and only 1 point off the play offs, up against second bottom Wigan at Ewood, we draw 0-0 and go 6 without a win. 27/06/20 - After beating one of our nearest rivals we again find ourselves in 7th place, and again 1 point off the play offs with a better goal difference than anyone around us. We then lose our next 3 in a row, two to relegation threatened sides in Wigan and Barnsley and don't threaten again. History tells us we'll get probably get one or two points from these next two home games, lets see if anything is actually different this time.

Holtby has the credentials and quality to leave another beloved and indelible mark on the history of our club...a few years back some people were unimpressed by the signing of an ageing Turkish midfielder whose name escapes me (not!). That turned into an enduring love affair that still runs deep in the hearts of many a misty-eyed Rovers fan, didn't it? Just saying like, let's be thankful for what we've got and hope it goes even half as well here for Holtby as it did for the legendary Mr Terimoglou..

But the crowd never got on his arse.

You weren't the only one.

Very true. However, I also think there is something seriously wrong that despite having the best GD in the league, and the leagues top goalscorer, we still sit in 12th!

Mowbray, who signed him and was instrumental in his making the decision in coming here, according to Holtby himself. Do any of the armchair pundits who are wondering why he didn't play centrally last season consider that he wasn't match sharp or fit enough to do so then? He had no pre-season and had ongoing injury issues. Isn't it great though that now our dilemmas are Trybull or Johnson, Gallagher or Elliott, as opposed to Guthrie or Lowe, or Liam Feeney or Simeon Jackson. Mowbray has built quite the squad.

It was Rothwell who played in Brereton for his goal

Sly And The Family Stone - Dance To The Music

I'm not really a big fan of this modern wing back shite. There aren't many full backs who can defend and attack equally well to a good standard, certainly not at our level. You don't seem to get the Graham LeSaux's and Alan Wright's these days. You end up with guys who are deeply average at both elements of the game and who have real problems when they're up against a pacey winger.

We're winning nowt in 2020 Len, 2021's the year! We live in hope!

To be fair they were part of several imaginary post-match quotes from the Preston manager that the nobbers were posting - it was gallows humour rather than an epic fail.

Yet time and time again he is mopping up at the back. A couple of tackles our defenders would be proud of AND then bring the ball out at his feet not just punt it long.

You confuse me Mercer you constantly tell us how the club is rotten from the top all the way down and how we are going nowhere and with this management we will never get promotion or come anywhere near it. Then every match preview we are going to roll clubs over and a win is a licence to print money

The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy (He's My Brother)

Wharton and Lenihan are great. Just 2 no nonsense , no frills DEFENDERS.

Brand New Heavies - Midnight At The Oasis

There's a Nigerian prince I sent my life savings to who has promised a 10 fold return on my investment. It's a license to print money. I haven't heard from him for a while but I think he's just been busy. Can I send him your details, you're exactly the the type of shrewd investor he is looking for? ?

Looks a difficult game on paper. Since getting a new manager in October Barnsley have W4 D1 L2 with 4 clean sheets. One of those wins was 1-0 v Watford. Not a 'gimme' by any stretch of the imagination.

Our goal difference is worth a point.

Confidence is high, and we are getting healthier ever so slightly. The Holtby and Rothwell at the 8’s is just quality. Barnsley battered us at Oakwell last year, so expect a decent, if not a bit stodgy side to show up. If we score early, we could run it up on them though as everyone is wanting a piece of the action. Bench with 5 subs really suits us. Leave Trybull in, he is much more comfortable with Holtby in there with him. Much better 6 than an 8.

Part of the problem is we haven't sold a player for a while so we don't realise how inflated the market is. We naturally compare 7m to the fee we paid Rhodes a 20 goal a season player. Now a top English championship striker can fetch 30m if a pl club comes sniffing. The key to Brereton is if he ever gets consistent enough one does. There's a large difference in expected fee if a fellow championship team take an interest in your player then PL teams wanting to take the gamble.

Personally, I think he takes too many shots that have next to no chance of going in - and none of his long-rangers have gone in this season. Shearer, Newell, Speedie etc all knew when to shoot and when to pass.

I would think quite a few of us view the forum at the same time as watching the game on ifollow. If things aren't going to plan the match day thread tends to make depressing reading so I'm glad that those 2 commentators try to keep positive. I don't understand why they get so much stick tbh.

Good lad Lewis ...?

Lol, think a couple of the players live around there too. After bad home defeats there will always a big backlash. But I would argue that social media and forums aren't always representative of the majority view. A lot of fans would still argue that Alex has done a very good job for 3.5 years now with one hand tied behind his back, allowing us to compete in the top half of the Championship whilst our best players are all sold and replaced on the cheap. He has also had players foisted onto him like Nugent, and we are now in a scenario where our 5 best players - Pearson, Browne, Johnson, Davies, Fisher - are all available on free transfers next summer because the club have failed to offer them the market rate for proven Championship players. He has also continually argued for an U23 squad which has not been allowed to happen due to finance, which leads to lads like Dolan leaving the club. Basically recruitment, contracts, the entire footballing side of the club has been mismanaged for a number of years now, so with that and the lack of any reasonable backing on transfers it's very hard for Alex to continue to place us in the play-off hunt every year. We are now dropping back to where we probably belong - lower mid-table. The problem is that the ownership is not going to change, so even if we did change managers, the next manager would face all of the same problems. Was impressed with Blackburn tonight despite our ineptitude. Unlike us you have been shrewd in the loan market and actively added pace along with Championship experience to the squad. The squad looks much improved and Armstrong looks like a Premier League player at the moment. Throw Dack back into the mix, if he can hit the ground running, and you could be in for a good season.

I don’t see how you can have one set of home fans at a ground and then no fans in the reverse fixture. It has to be all or nothing. It’s like only using VAR for one team. The other question I have is what is the magic number of fans when iFollow is turned off? If Rovers have 2500 ST holders and are allowed 2000 into Ewood can the other 500 use iFollow? And what about virtual walk-ons? That’s £8 they wouldn’t be getting and the club would financially be worse off.

Another thing which struck me as strange was the actual ruling which was given a bit more depth on the news last night - those figures of 4000 and 2000 are actually 4000/2000 or 50%, which ever is the lower number. So, for example, Bournemouth could have 4000 fans in a stadium with a 11,329 capacity - 35% full. However, tier permitting obviously, the same number inside Old Trafford with a 76000 capacity - 5% full! In what world does this make any sense!?

This argument is often raised against Pele in more recent times by those who haven't seen much of him or know much about his character and background. Weaker League yes, but he did score 1000 goals and back in the day he was such a National icon the Brazilian Government refused to allow him to leave the Country so I think its unfair to levy that against him. On the National stage he lifted the major prize 3 times out of 4 in 58, 62 and 70 and was kicked out of a 4th here in 66. I think to be the greatest you have to have something about you as a man as well. Maradona was a genius in pure footballing terms but showed himself to be a cheat on the pitch and drug addict and questionable character off it. I think everyone's greatest players will vary depending on when they grew up. My top 6 Pele Cruyff (Criminally underrated imo) Maradona Messi Ronaldo Best

Aye, a few 1-0s would be just fine.

The Drifters - Like Sister & Brother

We are playing feckin Barnsley at Ewood, not Barcelona! If we honestly think Rovers are going to be in the mix for promotion, result of this game should be a foregone conclusion. God help some on here should we get promotion - all next season's 38 matches would be written off before the hangover had lifted!

Tier 3- like an away game at Everton or Newcastle.

He got a few quid, but the main thing was no sales of major assets. He has improved the squad dramatically. Like night and day. Brought a lot of young players through as well.

We're capable of winning all four of those games after the Barnsley game but we're also capable of losing them all.

Players who can carry the ball like that and pull defenders out of position are a nightmare to play against. I just wish he would do it a bit more often.

I'd start Elliot ahead of Gallagher. He didn't look easy to contain last night and for a few games this season...and these had hik since he was a kid. I said earlier in the season he needed to be taken out, put back in and managed properly. Such a strain on his body and you can see he hasn't grown properly yet. Mowbray is right to keep him back a bit.

they were an absolute nightmare to play against,it was literally a fast ,ariel bombardment for the whole 90 minutes

Proud to be a Rovers fan after that. Fantastic. Deserved more goals for such an imperious performance. I was a bit worried someone might get a serious injury, as they were so frustrated and humiliated....and that was a good few minutes before the assault on Elliott. Once again, if only we can build on it ....

Could be tricky wicket this one as Barnsley are a different beast these days, however hopefully we will have the extra bounce in their step to kick onwards as the festive matches get closer. Match preview and more.

Just checking in to say I'm still boosting off our win, this will keep me going until the weekend at least.

Sam Gallagher got 17 goals for us up front in that relegation season. So if you can't imagine him getting 15 goals 'from what you have seen' - did you even watch our relegation season? We have two fine crossers of the ball in JRC and Douglas. Quite why Gallagher isn't central against them I don't know. I actually quite liked the substitution of Evans for Gallagher against Reading. 4-2-4 is attacking stuff. Then I noticed he put Elliot up top with Armstrong and Gallagher out right and felt myself sinking into the sofa. I think I switched that game off on the 87th minute.