Linesman put his flag up - so it was offside 🙂 I did wonder at first whether he had flagged for a foul on Ayala in the build up.

Damien Duff looked knackered in the warm up - never mind 25 minutes into the match 🙂

Agree with what you previously said - but Mowbray got lucky ? or identified our shortfalls and addressed them ? Most managers can get formations etc wrong at the start of a match - it is how they address them during the match that is key. It isn't often TM gets things right - as you say the initial formation was awful - but I am prepared to give him some credit for at least changing it. If Hull could score they would have won that game - you could equally say they could be top of the league if they could score 🙂

Maybe scarred by last seasons collapse - but I still see last nights 3 points as being important as it was against a potential relegation rival - rather than getting us into the play offs. Other than WBA we have played either average teams, or ones out of form. Having said that confidence is a great thing - and this season we seem to be playing a lot more pragmatically than last season (when trying and failing to play a possession game).

Lets be fair to him - he was a loan ranger feeding off scraps in the first half. He was often surrounded by 3 or 4 Hull defenders with no help in sight. Flip forward to the second half subs - when he got a bit more assistance - and he looked a lot better. IMO most forwards would have struggled in our first half formation - as he was often left isolated.

Not the finished article - but seems to be improving game by game as adjusts. He has been targeted by a number of teams - and our formation doesn't really help the full backs (leaving lots of space behind them) - though not spectacular at the moment - he is definitely an improvement on last season

No - not for his centre forward play - but his height at defending set pieces (not that it helped much when they equalised).

The one issue that remains - Armstrong gave us a "get out" ball with his pace, where a lump up field could be turned into a good ball because of his pace. We also miss the effect that his pace has on the opposition defence - it was noticeable that Luton were able to play a fairly high line most of the time because we don't have a electric pace up front any more. We suffered when we had Rhodes - because lack of pace up front meant they could squeeze us in our half. There is a similar risk at the moment - though our front three are quicker than Rhodes - none really have outstanding pace. Be interesting to see if any of the wingers we brought on loan can change that dynamic.

Irrespective of tactics - we had enough chances to kill the game. There was a number of opportunities on the break we just wasted, as well as other chances. Just prior to their goal - Gallagher had the ball - and rather than pass to the player clear through and unmarked - he decided to go to the corner flag - and promptly gave the ball away. It was just one of those matches - TBH we were lucky to not be down to 10 men after 10 minutes.

I thought Buckley was one of our better performers. I think it is interesting that we blame going 5 at the back for our demise. I would equally point at our forwards who wasted numerous chances and good breaks. It is a match we should have put to bed long before they scored. I also look at the penalty we should have got when Dolan was mysteriously yellow carded. Whether Lenihans rash challenge (being polite) wound them up - Luton are the dirtiest team I have seen for some time. Over the match the game should have ended up 10 v 8 based on the red cards that should have been.

I stand to be corrected - but I thought it was an EFL and Premier League decision ?

Wow - the debate around who is to blame for the mess we are, or whether we are actually in a mess - is worse than Brexit. I predict the winner will be who can come up with the best catchy slogan 😀 I think we can all agree it started with the new owners - but after that it is open to debate. In my mind the one thing that is certain that there is no way they want us to be a failure - after all why would you want to waste £200m, and damage your reputation ?

I think there might be another side to this - players are only one injury away from ending their careers - so security will be a consideration for some players.

I am a little confused as to your definition of generous. Do you mean 8/1 to stay up or get relegated?

I think the problem Rovers have - is we don't have the finances to buy a sure thing - so even if we had purchased a striker, it would have been one that didn't come with a guarantee of goals, or guarantee to stay fit. So these youngsters we have brought in on loan - will either fly (aka Elliot) or bomb (Branthwaite) - but to be fair recent loans have been fairly good.

Butterworth is the one that excites me the most - his cameos from the bench have been quite promising - somewhat backing up the high opinion of backroom staff.

A decent forward might have seen us do well enough to get TM a contract extension - see every cloud has a silver lining 🙂

Mmm pie and peas

Why are these players in their final contract year ? Is that down to the owners ? The budgets will be down to the owners - but how we spend it "appears" to be closer to home. According to many posters we have repeatedly paid large loan fees to achieve nothing - even when our own manager claims we should bring in our own players. Prior to Armstrong the only player that brought in money was Raya and that was wasted on Gallagher. IMO TM was deflecting when he said the owners wouldn't pay the contract extensions. Only to then say we would have paid to keep Armstrong, none of that adds up. I am not defending the owners, but they have given TM money while we lived beyond our means. The owners should expect that their CEO would keep a reign on finances to keep within FFP - it is obvious that somebody has miscalculated - be that Covid, Dacks injury etc. The other aspect - in the previous FFP cycle they did the same thing with the finances to keep within FFP. The CEO and TM must have known this - they gambled last year and failed massively.

Personally I don't blame Venkys on this one. IMO this is down to local mis-management of finances and contracts. There is some impact from Covid - but there has been a lack of forward planning. But ultimately it is all guess work - the only thing we know for definite is that we wasted £12m on two strikers, and wasted our best squad for some time last season.

But the unpredictability is the predictable thing - it has been the same during TM's tenure.

Is it really unpredictable ? Our transfer business this year is much like previous years - very last minute (though this is in someways driven by finances). We will flirt with top 6, prior to flirting with relegation - before (hopefully) ending lower mid-table. We will play the odd good match - though rarely for 90 minutes. We won't get thrashed by many - but will mainly be on the wrong side of single goal defeats. Which will allow TM to persist with the narrative that we are almost there. We will make a star for at least one Premiership club - as we polish their rough diamonds for them. TM will blame the referee, pitch, injuries, finances, bad luck - but rarely himself. Fans will blame TM for poor tactics, picking the wrong team - actually the list goes on a while - he should have walked at the end of last season. Crowds will continue to dwindle. The only difference this year - many fans had high expectations of top 6 last year - TBH we had the players. This year is different - but some high quality loans could make all the difference.

The one thing Johnson does add is height and heading ability to the midfield, may have been useful against WBA at the weekend or against a team playing long ball as they get increasingly desperate towards the end of a match. I do agree his ball retention isn't the best at times.

Or a Tiny Taylor

Especially when he heads over his own keeper - one of my favourite Ewood games 😁