Neal

I'm signing off for the season. As I said after Brentford, they've exceeded my expectations but I can't carry on rest of this season watching this dross and poor decision making from the manager. When the summer comes, he needs to stop being soft, be ruthless and get rid of the deadwood. He's given the league 1 players their chance as promised, they've done a job for us but if he actually wants to move forward as he says in the media, he isn't going to do it with many of these players. Conway out, Smallwood out, Raya bench, Bell out, Williams bench. Build a midfield around Joe Rothwell, he is that good, I hope he see's this. Stick with this lot and we'll really struggle next season. We've riden a wave earlier on in the season, if we don't try to improve in these key positions then we'll struggle just like we have done tonight. This should be a clear warning sign to Mowbray at whats to come, I hope he see's it else we're going to end up in big trouble.

So, who was that lad who just came on for Rovers and played that pass? Looks pretty decent, perhaps we should play him more?

Been saying for a while, not good enough for first choice.

Not according to what he says in the press.

In my opinion. Then Mowbray subbed him for Rothwell and left on Conway... As you do.

What on earth has Mowbray done tonight? He's had an absolute mare. Takes off our best player for Rothwell and leaves Conway. Has he gone mental? Why bring Graham on this late? Just make both subs at the same time if you're going to make them. I dispair.

Lazy or just spends less time flagging it around the pitch and actually wants to get on the ball and control possession? If we're playing like of Smallwood and Conway for their work ethic we might aswell sign f*cking Mo Farah.

GET F*CKING ROTHWELL ON!!!!! JESUS CHRIST MAN.

Sitter aside I think Brereton has been good tonight so far.

Brereton has to score there. Great first touch awful second.

Agreed.

Reality check Mowbray. Talked in the LET about giving Rothwell a run in the side and then picks Conway, made himself look a right d*ckhead. Then not only that, his favourites get a run out and we're losing to Reading. Learn some lessons man, it's about time. Are we developing Nyambe or not? He's not a teenager anymore, he needs to play. Dan Butterworth is 20, he's older than Brereton, are we loaning him out or are we going to develop him and give him a chance? I wouldn't mid losing to reading if chances on these younger lads were being taken but he's absolutely bottled it here... Regardless if we get something out of it.

I never want to see Amari Bell in Rivers short again. Absolutely awful.

I think that's harsh, Brereton has played well.

For f*ck sale Conway, square it! Brereton needs to stay forward. Tony needs to start learning some lessons and give over with the favouritism... It's starting to do my head in.

I actually think he looks more confident and self assured recently when I've seen him. To be fair, I don't want to see him TRYING to make things happen, I want to see people getting beyond him and giving him service rather than wandering around ineffective areas of the pitch.

Many things i don't understand. Why Bennent is still at right back at the expense of vital experience for Ryan Nyambe.... No idea.

Awful decision to play Conway instead of Rothwell... I really don't get his use of him. Highly frustrsting.

I'm sure Dack loses the ball fairly often too. You have to allow your more creative players to make mistakes. Very frustrating situation, one of the more exciting players I've seen at Ewood.

If the aim is promotion then we have some way to go I think. After last week it was obvious Bennett shouldn't be first choice right back, TM said so the day before. So of course the right decision was to leave him at right back and drop Bell instead (wtf?). Bennett didn't play badly yesterday to be fair but this favroutism of picking certain players ahead of better or developing players really irks me at times. Nyambe needs to play, learn and be allowed to make mistakes, especially now at this stage of the season, the season is over for us anyway so we might aswell play our young players. Same goes for Rothwell, fair does to TM for signing him up but come on mate, have some bloody faith in him. Looked good again when he came on yesterday, what does he have to do get a start? When I'm seeing likes of Conway and Smallwood playing ahead of him I'm left scratching my head. Rothwell has turned in far better performances in his few starts than either of those 2. He's simply a better player, so why not play him? I just don't get it. An unpopular opinion I have... I'm not convinced David Raya should be our out and out 1st choice keeper. Don't get me wrong, I like the lad, good shot stopper but he's pretty quiet on the pitch and I don't find him a particularly commanding presence. There's something about him that just seems to make a us a bit soft. I wasn't left to dissapointed yesterday. After last week I'd accepted that it's season over for us, we don't have anything to play for really and we're going achieve what we set out to do... Which has exceeded my expectations. What I want to see now is more faith in the likes of Nyambe, Rothwell, Brereton, Chapman and maybe even Dan Butterworth.

I'd be absolutely gutted to be honest. Hopefully TM can see that we need players of his quality on the pitch. He's the sort of player who could have easily been in Brentfords team today.

Did well today. It would be an interesting proposition to see him playing up top with Graham in some situations. There's talent there for sure.

Just in the car on the way back, time to kill so though I'd give my thoughts... Time for brutal honesty and a few concerns I have... I've never seen a player get roasted as badly as Bennett today. It was so obvious they targeted him from the off, for TM to not see this and adapt shows an alarming amount of naivety. Reed is far more competent defensively and TM should have switched him with Armstrong to provide better cover for Bennett, by the time he he actually did this it was far too late. This one problem area cost us the game, it allowed them to stretch us, pull us out of position and ultimately we got overrun in CM. It's pretty apt the LT did a piece on Bennett not being long term full back, this just underlined it. Nyambe I think has looked like one of our best players at times this season when I've watched him. He has a lot to learn but that's to be expected and I'd rather a young lad makes mistakes who needs to learn than a 30 year old who can no longer develop. Another display of naivety from TM was how we played after scoring the second. I can't recall a time where I've seen a rigid bank of 4-5-1 whilst winning, this is exactly what we needed to do, we don't always need to be chasing players down trying to win back possession when 2-0 up. What we should've done is been disciplined, kept our shape and done our jobs. Once players start running out doing a high press it leaves spaces in behind for them to play through us. We simply didn't need to play like that whilst 2-0 up. One final thing that concerned me from the manager today was the lack of communication from him from the touch line, I wanted to see more organising and instruction to our players at key moments in the game but it simply never came. I don't mean for this to sound like a which hunt on TM, I love the bloke but I'm just simply saying what I saw. Further concerns... Raya, not just because of the blunder but because I just don't think he's a commanding presence. Brentford, is a tight ground and I was stood right behind him. I didn't hear Raya once, no shouting hardly any talking, some of the best Rovers keepers I've seen have arguably the loudest players on the pitch, fair enough this might not be his style but it makes us less organised and the goal just drives home that point. The quality of our substitutions. I know Conway has had a couple of decent games but I'm sorry, he shouldn't be on at the expense of Joe Rothwell. Nutall I don't want to write off, but having played to a decent stadrard myself I look at him and I'm not seeing anything special, in games like this at this standard simply running around is not enough, you must affect games and get involved and I think time will show that he's not quite good enough, I hope I'm wrong. Today just showed that running will only take you so far, you need quality too and we just don't have enough to kick us on to be a top 6 challenging side. Perhaps the first 11 might be but the squad depth isn't there for us to challenge, it's a shame but I'm making my peace with it now. If I'm to be proven wrong then a lot is riding on Chapman and Brereton to step up and kick us on. The dissapointment from the fans in not landing a CF is right and justified because it showed how much we needed someone to make the ball stick up top and release the presssure, without this we simply invite too much pressure for us to cope with at times. Some positives (if there are any). Adam Armstrong was outstanding, they simply couldn't live with him. Rodwell. It seems crazy to say as we got smashed but the centre halves got no protection whatsoever, everything he had to deal with individually he did with class. Brereton. Looked really sharp when he came on and surprisingly confident and dangerous. Final thoughts. Brentford players were completely out of order in how they celebrated and were lucky not to start a violent incident. They should be fined for attempting to incite something that could have got nasty. Today definitely tempered expectations and is a stark reminder to not get too ahead of yourself in this league. You try to win your next game and have no right to even think about the game after. We're a decent side in this league but we're still a bit short in key positions and I think it will take some ruthlessness from the manager to put his loyalties to certain players aside and replace them with better quality. This league is mental, we could stuff Bristol or vice versa, let's focus on that one and hope the manager makes the appropriate changes. A day to learn from and not simply forget. P. S. The fans were brilliant and the Burnley in Europe song is top class banter.

Quite apt that today's LT is about Benno not being long term RB... This one of the worst roastings I've seen on a Rovers full back.

Benno getting absolutely murdered here. We're defo going to concede. Need to switch Reed to protect Bennett.