The season was over before it began with us weakening an already poor defence in the summer window. No experienced CB, no goal scorer, no experienced GK. Like you say, a total waste because playoffs were there for the taking, standard is shocking this season.

Mowbray said this week that Armstrong would be put out on the wing too if we sign a striker in January. Bonkers.

The ' no database history' is purely to tempt PNE fans to buy tickets in the home ends. It's cynical by waggot How many Rovers fans who have NEVER been to Ewood before are going to see that announcement and suddenly think 'ive nothing planned this afternoon, let's go see Mowbray's silky football'.

The bigger question is why did we sign Gladwin in the first place if he’s not good enough? He’s been injured pretty much the whole time he was here, yet when he’s fit again he’s deemed not good enough. I was expecting him to be given a chance to show if he could play, especially with Dack injured and no one else really stepped up in the #10 role.

We scout and target players we can’t afford, waste time putting lowball offers in for them. Then panic and blow money on crap that doesn’t fit the brief eg ‘experienced centre half’ see Brereton, Walton, Tosin. Mowbray moans about clubs wanting overinflated prices, yet when we sold Raya we capitulated early rather than holding out to the last minute to get the best deal. Incompetence all round.

Didn’t take Cunningham any time to work out how to play left back. I mean has Gallagher really got up to speed with our system, yet he plays every week?

I think the Championship is as weak now as it has been for a while. Any team with an ounce of organisation and a solid game plan could challenge top 6. Including Warnock's style.

Downing

The last 2 transfer windows have been as bad as I can remember following Rovers for a long time. The scouting system and signing process (Venus) is completely letting us down. I'd rather us have gambled the £5m Gallagher money on 5/6 foreign players with potential.

Another U23 signing Any first teamers linked?

The club have spent a bit of money in the last 18 months on a European scout setup. So far this has produced very little except the Holtby signing. I fully expect another token “Euro” signing if nothing else but to justify the existence of the scouting team who have probably been on many a jolly round Europe at the club’s expense.

The best thing that could happen is for him to go out on loan in January to a League One/League Two club to play some games and try to build a bit of confidence back. Unfortunately, for political reasons I don’t think that will happen.

Strange that he doesn’t run the same as in the video and looks like he’s lost some pace.

It's a shambles. What is Bell doing? Why does Williams just commit! He's never getting the ball!

What's the latest with Sam Hart? Is he still around? We're so bad that might as well give anyone in the building a try.

I would try something totally crazy and play two natural wingers. Chapman on the right, Downing on the left. 4-4-2 with Gallagher and Graham upfront, get some proper crosses in!

The squad is ridiculously imbalanced. With no money, I would give some of the U23s a go. They can’t be much worse than playing the first team squad out of position. JRC (when fit), Davenport, Butterworth. Throw them in, you never know they might surprise.

Mowbray complaining after today's match that he's not had the time between matches over Christmas to work with the team in setting us up for the opposition. This is the root cause of the problems IMO, we're spending mon-fri at Brockhall watching what the opposition are doing. Over the Christmas period more than ever it is important we have our own system of play that we know inside out and doesn't take 5 days to prepare for. This is lacking and we're constantly changing to fit who we're playing each week. It's like a merry go round of formations and players.

With Dack out, I'm afraid we're going to spend the rest of the season tinkering around with the formation. I think we went through 433, 4231,442 today at least. Mowbray can't help himself but tinker around. Rothwell at right back! Won't be long before we see Graham at centre half.

Injuries have not helped; add Nyambe and Cunningham to the defence we'd be much better off. Bennett/Bell are subpar for league one.

My theory about Buckley playing these last couple of games is so that he can ship him out on loan in January. Same was due to happen with Travis last year. Mowbray played him to put him in the window. Wouldn't surprise me to see Samual get a token appearance next game to showcase him in front of scouts.

I'd be tempted to get a RB ahead of a LB. How many games have we lost with Bennett playing there? It doesn't work. We look a much better team with a proper RB. Whereas we've got Downing, Bell and Williams at a push for LB.

I'm assuming that 2 x wingers are going to be top of Mowbray's shopping list in January if we're now suddenly going 4-4-2?

Mowbray is so frustrating. It's the constant tinkering with the formation, system of play and starting XI. Must be a nightmare for opposition scouts, but also for our players who won't know what they are meant to be doing. Liverpool (and other top teams) have a system of play and they stick to it, whoever comes in. It's not rocket science. The lack of wingers also severely limits our options. We've got Graham and Gallagher in the middle, yet ZERO wingers on the pitch. We've got no options other than to put strikers there or central midfielders out of position.

The team selection will no doubt leave everyone (including the players) confused. I'm expecting something random like Bennett playing no.10 again like last season.