The first few rows of that stand behind the left goal as the camera looks are very sparse too nowadays. Must all be sat on Pendle Hill. Edit - same thinking as renrag!

Grayson was the go-to League 1 manager for a while to get a promotion, and did alright at Leeds and Preston after getting them into the Championship. His last few jobs have been poor though so maybe he's had his day (though he's still relatively young at 51). Everything Dunn gets involved with manager/coach-wise though seems to go downhill......

So this is the first Championship game against Peterborough since one of many low points we've had since our PL relegation, the home defeat against them in 12/13. 0-3 down at HT and a good few chancers wearing the shirt - thankfully the odious Orr and Murphy were hauled off at half time and, if I remember correctly, neither were seen again thank god. 2-0 Rovers after being 0-0 at HT.

There’ll be a big break next winter for the World Cup won’t there? I’d imagine that’d be the case for at least PL and Championship just like the current international breaks. So he wouldn’t miss any hopefully.

Absolutely piss poor that is. The former players can get in the bin as well (Cairney and Tosin obviously excused).

Can't believe it looks like Conte will be going there. Thought he'd hold out for an elite job, he's miles better than Spurs. Great coup for them though.

I wanted Bowyer out long before he did leave, it was obvious halfway through 14/15 that we were never going to be near promotion (or even the top 6) despite having two 20+ goal strikers as well as other very good players for the division like Cairney, Hanley and Duffy. A better manager would have had that squad in the top 6 (and wouldn’t have persisted with Lowe and Williamson in CM). But in the horrific 12/13 season he inherited just as big of a mess as Mowbray did yet we stayed up without too much trouble, despite looking like we were on for a second relegation at one point. The FA Cup run in 14/15 is streets ahead of anything Mowbray has done in the cups as well, and he’s had more seasons. Based solely on their records here I’d have to go for Bowyer over Mowbray but ultimately it speaks volumes about the last ten years that the choice of best manager of that time period is between them two.

He’s gone to FC United on loan.

There's no way they'll go straight from Bruce to someone like Conte. They'll probably have a stage like City did where they had Hughes as manager, and signed players like Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott, Shay Given etc - good, reliable PL players that'll get you up the table a few places, but no established top players yet. I know he probably wouldn't be an option any time soon but somebody of the ilk of Brendan Rodgers I'm picturing. Maybe establish them in the top 6 or so over a couple/few seasons. At that point they may be able to attract a Conte or similar.

Looking at the standings there’s barely any chance of them qualifying. They seem in a bad way compared to the team of a few years ago. The South American qualifiers are extremely well balanced compared to Europe, with no Andorras or San Marinos for an easy 3 points, so hard to see them going on a good run. Still got Brazil and Argentina to play too.

The last two games have had a very strong ‘team managed by Tony Mowbray had a whiff of the top 6’ feel to them.

Let's be honest Chaddy, whenever you've commented on TMBWA being sung at games this season, it's been you leading the chant. Decent runs of form under Mowbray are nothing new - last season is correctly thought of as being a shocker, but we were in 7th as late as February, and around late November/early December we registered another thumping (PNE away) and we were grinding out results that people said we would have lost the season before (which is what people are saying right now about recent games....) such as Millwall and Barnsley at home, and Brentford away. Shows how things can change quickly when you see the stinking run we went on second half of the season. Unfortunately the past few years suggest that a) this league position is probably as good as it'll get this season and we'll never enter the top 6 again once we drop out, and b) a bad run of form probably isn't too far away.

I don't get it when people say that! We're not going to carry on doing that for the rest of the season are we? That literally only covers our last two games. We'd go up automatically if we go unbeaten for the rest of the season......so that won't be the bigger picture at all. Either way, there's no chance of a playoff place with Mowbray here.

I like Buckley and, as well as being good on the ball, think he gets through a good amount of work too, getting stuck in more than I ever noticed previously. If he is to reach his potential however he needs to be played in his position every game and not messed about like last night. He should always be ahead of Clarkson for a midfield spot, one because he's our own player but also Clarkson has been almost invisible in the two games I've seen him.

Why would anybody prefer Mowbray (absolutely zero chance of doing anything of note under him - we can all agree on that) to Hughton (who's track record over a number of years at different clubs suggests there's a pretty decent chance he'd be a success)?

Next season! We’ve only just started this one. But it doesn’t matter what season it is, or who’s on the pitch - we’ll never do anything under Mid-table Mowbray. That was obvious well before last season but let’s not forget we came 15th with 29 goal Armstrong and a player now starting for Liverpool as part of our front three. Just on Harwood-Bellis, I agree he’s decent, but he played pretty much all the games of our 2 wins in 17 run second half of last season. Cunningham is just a Championship standard LB. The squad has some gaping holes but the main place we’re short is in the dugout.

Me neither probably, but Patrick Bamford made his debut yesterday aged 28. Four years ago (the age Armstrong is now) not many would have seen that coming. Ollie Watkins has 3 caps too, though I'd be surprised if Armstrong does as well as Watkins did last season in terms of this overall game. Behind Kane it's hardly the 90s in terms of the amount of quality strikers that England have so, while I'd be surprised, it's not out of the question if he can bag 15 or so goals this season (easier said than done!).

He's only just signed for Salernitana on loan with, according to transfermarkt, obligation to buy. Had been at Crotone for years before that. Either way, I don't see how a bottom half Championship team would have been offered somebody who banged in 20 goals for a relegated Serie A side for less than £700k. And if so, to then turn it down.

Still can’t believe Preston appointed that McAvoy. Never managed before but got a few wins in end of season dead rubbers. It was obvious it was going to end up like this. Hope they give him the season.

Beyond clueless he is, every time I've seen him in the comments on Twitter he's coming out with some absolute garbage. Calling us 'Blackburn' always says a lot too. Like you say, it could be a grand per game and you'd still get people like him and others who think that if you support a football club it means you have to back every decision they make.

He's 25 in a few months! Don't think 45 senior appearances is anything to shout about.

Best and I'm assuming Rhodes. No idea why but I watched the 'highlights' of that game not too long ago and was amazed to see Best had one cleared off the line after some decent play from him, didn't remember it at all. To be fair I like to try and forget that game, it's always what springs to mind when I think of the worst game I've ever seen.

Our record in the cups under Mowbray is absolutely honking. Another reason to bin him ASAP.

Considering how bright Butterworth looked on Saturday I’d have liked to see him given a start, hopefully he’ll come on for a solid half hour or so.

Well done Rovers! No idea what Swansea were trying to do with their playing out from the back - know your limits - and that definitely helped us. Despite that still needed a couple of decent saves from Kaminski, but I never felt we were hanging on or in any real danger of conceding a second. Ignoring Mowbray still being here, how much easier is it to ‘get behind the lads’ when it’s Buckley, Butterworth etc rather than the likes of Evans and Bennett? Enjoyed that today and good to be back. And nice to have an opening day win after 11 years.