We had a full back called Pickering once before. He was converted to centre forward, turned out to be as good as Shearer (according to Bryan Douglas who played with him) and left for a British record transfer fee. Can Harry play centre forward?

8th 3 points behind 6th.

It’s boring watching soccer Saturday when rovers are playing. Nothing happens. Are we at the stage yet when Luton have realised we can’t score, so they might as well have a go?

Is that Peter White at the end of the bar?

but 11 against 11, they weren’t good enough. Boro should have got on with it and won the game via their own ability. Virtually every game teams have penalty appeals brushed aside, ignore it and get on and win the game without the refs help. I have little sympathy Mercer. Win the game yourself, don’t rely on the ref to win it for you.

Apart from that penalty appeal, there were another 89 mins of football for Boro to score goals and they didn’t. They weren’t good enough. The talk of the penalty is just diverting away from that.

Well it turned out well. Much better second half and for once the subs made the difference. Boro should have had a pen, but there was still a lot of football to be played and they just weren’t good enough. Defensively we did really well, but again Boro contributed to that with their continual high balls into the box which suited us. Good day, move on.

Branthwaite very raw, midfield too slow, too small and losing their own personal battles. Has to get Dack in there. It’s always going to be difficult with no centre forward.

Just spent 90 mins watching the masked singer. Trying to guess the name of someone disguised behind a costume, who’s voice is disguised as well and can’t sing anyhow. Which soddin’ genius thought that one up?

Very classy gumboots. They were talking about Bairstow on commentary saying how he’s been dropped from every team he’s played at. They weren’t saying he should have been dropped, they were just pointing that out. Thing is, when he’s struggling he looks totally lost, he looks like he’s never held a bat before. Ive seen him a number of times and to me he is a top, top performer. I love his application. He might not have that classy style of others, but he’s so very effective at what he does.

This innings Tyrone. Sibley out for a duck, Crawley gone for 5.

Talking about openers, both gone for a total of 5 runs.

Park pitch @oldjamfan1

Rovers should be embarrassed. Venkys should be asking questions. The days of the river Darwen being attributable to the dreadful state of Ewood every winter are long gone. Not too long ago that pitch didn’t flood, the drainage was excellent. Theres only one reason, - neglect. Neglect of a wonderful stadium and neglect of a perfectly fine playing surface.

That’s nothing Tyrone. I once played on a pitch so muddy that both my boots came off - stuck in the mud. A high lob from our keeper saw the ball disappear underground. Despite all the team players and half the crowd digging with shovels, we never saw the ball, or my boots again. It finished 0-0. Match abandoned after the floodlights were no longer any use because of being covered by the mud from the shovels.

You know - and I know, none of those can do that job.

I would have preferred a centre forward. God knows that’s so obvious.

What Mowbray has assembled is a squad of players, quite a few of which have good creative qualities and good technique. What Mowbray hasn’t done at any time since he’s been here, is assemble a squad that has the foundations or base for a promotion push. He looks as far away from that at the moment as he’s ever done. I just don’t think Mowbray has that mental strength or ability, to make any squad into a tough, winning unit.

All Doncaster had to do was stay disciplined and win anything in the box. That’s ALL they had to do. They didn’t even need a decent shot on target. Talk about easy. We don’t have a centre forward to win flick ons or get onto the end of things in the box. That was obvious pre season and it’s costing us dearly now.

I think you’re all being a bit harsh on Pears. That pitch is hard you know, he could hurt himself diving. That will be the hard pitch that has undersold heating.

Pitch looking awful for a club of our standing.

Watched Benedict Cumberbatch in the imitation game. A film about Alan Turing. Not a new film, but very good. What I’d never realised was that even into the fifties, this country offered homosexual men a choice of a prison sentence or hormonal therapy if they had been found guilty of “indecent activities” - whatever that is exactly. Turing took the hormonal therapy along with its side effects. Can’t believe our country did that.

Is he fit nowadays?

PL? Are Middlesbrough completely out of players? Some twitterites suggesting Phil Jones.

1-0 going into final phase away from home? Dangerous times without that second goal.