I have no way of proving this, but Mowbray has to do something to make Dack realise the seriousness of the situation he is in, and the potential repercussions on his career. He was rumoured to being close to fitness as long ago as the Reading game yet hasn't made the bench. I suspect he's been left out over the last two games whilst this hearing was done and dusted. Even with what's happened at the magistrates though, I agree with you that the picture still isn't worth getting bothered about.

Agree with most of that, and Raya is certainly a step up on Steele. However we spent around £10million in this window, brought in a decent number of new playersand yet didn't bring in one central defender - despite Bauer seemingly being one of our first targets. We still have two centre halves who got caught out aerially several times last year and could really be show up in their weakness in that area this season My post was in response to Mick saying that "once TM has integrated the new players it could be a complete change from what we have seen so far". In midfield and attack we have many options and, like last season, it may take a couple of months to blend. However defensively I don't see how that can be the case. I think we know what we have.

I think defensively we are what we are - practically the same defence that got relegated 2 years ago.

I'm not sure that's true. We got battered for the first 10 minutes and could have been two down. After that we won the ball back and created good situations but so did they. We missed the better chances but to say we were comfortably the better side ignores how they started. What didnt help us was falling behind fairly early in the second half. It allowed Bristol City to sit back a bit more so we had less space to pinch the ball and run into. We pushed up more to try and impose ourselves and they kept hitting us on the break.

You may change your mind when you see the replay. Palmers chance was an open goal sitter. Other than that, I thought he did ok. Armstrong either stumbled or was clipped for hIs first chance. The second incident you mention was very poor. There were a few similar incidents to that once we'd gone 3 down, where players chose personal glory over playing someone else in.

The only reason I'd prefer Williams is because he's better in the air, even though he's probably smaller than Bell. There's not much in it though tbh.

If we haven't bought him because of potential, why the hell have we bought him? It's not his goal scoring record is it? Thats what worried me at the time. It's a lot of money for someone so very unproven.

Embarrassing here. Another high ball in we cant clear.

Need better centre halves. I've been saying it for 12 months now. We need an out and out defender in there instead of two converted midfielders.

They've been awful so far.

POINT SCORING TIME. You can't resist can you.

Maybe Chapman can leave Middlesborough by mutual consent :-)

With Caddis, do we not think both parties have been trying to get a move for him that suits the player and club. It hasn't happened so, if we didnt release him today, he is tied at Ewood until January at the latest. He wants to be playing football at his age. Therefore we've agreed to release him so that he can join a club in the next week or two and doesn't have to move within the transfer windows.

Them having hatred for the club is one thing. Saying you believe they hope large numbers of innocent supporters die in a tragic event related to the club is something else. S8 & Blue's summary is pretty spot on.

Brereton could go either way but on his goal scoring record it's a bit of a risk. As people have sad, Villanueva and Nonda looked awesome on YouTube! His goal scoring record is not outstanding. Armstrong's record looks far better on paper. The only reason we're hopeful is because of reputation of the player coming through the ranks backed up by the reaction of Forest fans in him leaving. However the forest fans reaction is split fifty fifty. He may progress and prove to be a bargain. Even being a ten to fifteen goal a season man may see his value increase. However it's the fact we've spent this amount of money on him that excites me more than the player himself. It's been a while since we bought a player who we had high expectations for but we've certainly got one now, judged on his price tag more that his record.

John Williams in the leaked letter.

Lincoln make 7 changes from Saturday.

Everybody is very opinionated on here. People are quick to give opinions and not so quick to admit they were wrong. Its now time to own up to opinions you had which have been proven to be incorrect. I'n recent times, my two biggies are:- * Raya will not be good enough to be a number one. We'd have been better keeping Simon Eastwood. * Downing's signing is a knee jerk reaction and will be of no benefit to this club whatsoever. Anyone else want to confess?

Bolton fans starting to wake up now. J-Lowe getting called "hopeless" and a "downgrade" amongst other things after getting beat 3-0 at home.

But he did say we had no money, and then we suddenly had money once we got linked (via other sources) to Freeman and Brereton. Now he's hedging his bets again. The wobbling wordsmith hasn't broke a Rovers transfer since Coyle was shipped out.

I don't think anyone is saying he will be the next Shearer. The argument was whether the Shearer deal was anything like the Brereton deal. In my opinion Shearer had already proved himself top class in the Premier league. If the lad does well then £8million will be fair enough. However it's such a big amount in recent times that if he fails then it really could be the last time we see the V's chequebook seriously opened. It's a big call by TM if it goes through.

Hence why the poster asked: "For someone who has just claimed to watch a lot of football and read about stats on transfer market, surely you would know who the 3 players mentioned are? 2 of them both played first team football on a regular basis in the championship" Although I'm sure that if Nixon links us with them they will suddenly all turn into the second coming.

Eh? Next to nothing? Shearer had scored 44 goals for Southampton, (23 in the top flight), had scored on his England debut and had just been taken to the Euro 92 finals.

Hope we loan some more of the fringe players out so they can come back and benefit the club one way or another in the future. About 20 years ago, Roy Hodgson loaned a young Damien Johnson out to Nottingham Forest and he returned a more experienced player, starting over 40 times for Rovers and returning as Professinal Development Lead Coach with much success. That was much better loan deal for Rovers than a year later when, during the 10 month long loan window, Hodgson brought in experienced Italian midfielder Dario Marcolin. Even Roy's loans in were poor. I hope whoever we bring in on loan has more of an impact than Super Dario!!!

Think big.