frosty

Derby are horrific, we have to be winning this. Had zero confidence Armstrong would score there but my god what a feeble effort.

COYB!

I wouldn’t say Rothwell is a ‘fancy pants type’ at all, unless that’s the new name we’re giving players that have noticeably more technical ability than most in the squad. He’s quick, direct, plays firm, crisp passes like he really means it and he wasn’t half getting stuck in against Brentford too. He’s shown in his one run of being a regular starter, at the end of last season, that he chip in with goals too. If Mowbray keeps him in the team, I’m sure it won’t be long until he bags.

Looking forward to this one, but then again I was looking forward to Luton at home earlier in the season after winning consecutive games. Bearing that in mind, and also what we did at Brentford last season after winning four in a row, it’s hard to be too optimistic but let’s hope for different this time around. They’re clearly not great and they’ve got one of the worst away records in the league. Let’s get at them from the start with ideally the same eleven as the last two games.

Miles better that was. Absolutely miles better. We looked a completely different team to the dour, uninspiring outfit we’ve become accustomed to seeing at Ewood. Rothwell superb. Cannot believe we’ve had a player as good as he is on our bench most weeks for the past season and half. Haven't seen him mentioned much but well done to Tosin whose composure and use of the ball is excellent for a centre back. Will Mowbray learn from this? Will Rothwell become a permanent fixture in the starting eleven now? Will Nyambe get more of a look in? (I’d have Nyambe starting every game but I can’t see him having Bennett on the bench much). Let’s hope so but proof will be in the next few line ups.

It was only ‘Mowbray sort it out!’. Blimey, but he really must have taken offence..... Far better managers have had similar - can remember a couple of ‘Big Sam, sort it out’ chants in his full season here. Ended up 10th in the Premier League of course.....

Delighted Dack keeps popping up with goals, we’d be screwed without him, but I can barely remember him touching the ball apart from that. We know what he can do with the ball, we know he can get on it and use it well, but we’re getting barely anything out of him in general play. Same with Holtby. He sprayed a couple of nice balls out to the left in the first half but barely anything apart from that. With his pedigree against a poor side sitting at the bottom of the league, we should be getting more than that. Of course it doesn’t help when we give said poor side all the ball in the second half and allow them to play in our half.

Complete shambles.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we win tomorrow, they can’t be up to much if they’re rock bottom and without a win since the opening day. And yet....I was much more confident against Charlton and Luton and they both stuck two past us each and walked away with three points without too much trouble. Barnsley must have noted that we’ve already lost at home to the two teams they came up with. Pretty grim though that it’s only November, any hope of doing anything of note this season is long gone (if there was any hope at all) and we’re hoping for three points against Barnsley to keep a decent gap between ourselves and the bottom three. Bleak stuff.

Furious reading that about Rothwell. In his one spell of being a starter at the club (one proper run in the starting eleven in 18 months....), he did everything Mowbray said he doesn’t - he was scoring, assisting and we had a four match winning streak in that time too, no doubt having another player on the pitch apart from Dack and Graham (remember him?) who could score helped get those results. But of course for Armstrong it clearly isn’t about goals or assists. He’ll be relieved given he scores about 4 a season but it’s odd that that’s Mowbray’s way of thinking, considering Armstrong plays in the same sort of position as Rothwell.

There were some very dire games under Lambert - December and January in particular after the honeymoon period. We barely scored at all and lost quite a few games 1-0 from memory. However come February/March time you could see things taking shape, we looked fit and we put in some 90 min performances which we’ve barely done since. Fulham and Boro at home spring to mind. We fell away a tad at the end (although we ended with two wins) but I think by that point Lambert had decided he was leaving. I’d have been more than happy to see him stay and sign more of his own players that summer. I’d have said that at the time, even easier to say now of course given Coyle followed him.

I haven't, and I appreciate others have, but I just think Armstrong is a waste of a shirt almost every week and I don't think there's anything to lose by giving Chapman a few chances.

I don't see how Chapman could be any less effective than Armstrong if I'm honest. And if he had the amount of (first time) game time that Armstrong has somehow had, it could do him the world of good.

England really struggled with Montenegro a few years ago, think there were at least a couple of draws both home and away. Around the time our boy Vukcevic gave Ashley Cole the runaround. They've obviously got a lot worse since then.

Stealing a living nine games out of ten that lad.

Now that's a proper list of defenders. Can we set the clocks back ten years please?

Nail, head. And what a shame that so many of us are in the same boat.

Apparently that Mbappé is decent, he’d be backup for Armstrong here mind. In all seriousness, France is a great place for bargains. The lower end of Ligue 1, and Ligue 2, will be full of them if recent history is anything to go by.

I wouldn’t say that no ‘Mowbray out’ chants means most are behind him. It took until Boxing Day at Barnsley (and amazingly until February at Ewood) for Coyle to receive any kind of chants against him - and that was Coyle, who any Rovers fan with their head screwed on would have been against from the start. No matter how bad things get, I don’t think Mowbray will ever be on the end of ‘Mowbray out’ chants. Maybe a ‘Tony, sort it out’ at most.

Absolutely shocking game, up there with the Millwall FA Cup QF replay at this rate. There’s just nothing. There was barely anyone left in the Blackburn End by HT. There are about 40 fans in the Darwen End Lower. You could hear a pin drop. Regardless of what happens in the second half, whether we manage to bundle one in and somehow win 1-0, it’s another sorry day at Ewood. And some people have paid £48 for it.

Jones sacked now. I also don't think it was a good idea for the above pic to be posted at lunchtime ?

I think he did it at Leeds away when Mulgrew scored to make it 2-1 in the last minute. Bit awkward for him that we still ended up losing of course, but that was down to the defence in front of him allowing free headers in the box rather than any of his own doing (in fact he almost miraculously kept out the equaliser). As can be seen, we still don’t know how to hold on to a lead away from home almost a year on...

I knew when Cunningham and Lenihan got injured that you’d start to hear ‘we’ve got a lot of injuries’ as a reason for our poor form. Let’s not forget that in the two games before they got injured we got one point from two home games v Luton and Forest, a very poor return despite the likes of Bennett trying to big up a point v Forest because they were ‘right up there’ (why are we never up there ourselves, Elliott?). Cunningham came off early at QPR but by the time Lenihan came off, the game had gone, and what’s now looking like a rot had clearly already set in.

Even if Walton had caught that cross, we’d have still thrown it away; the whole approach to the second half was wrong and it felt like we didn’t get properly in their half in the second half (bar the header from the corner) until it was 2-2 again. And even with the error, we’re still 2-1 up against Preston (not Barcelona) and we’ve been the better side for most of the game at that point. Why does that mean we have to then go on to lose? Why can’t we pick ourselves up again rather than collapse? If Waggott did say ‘we needed a third’ to that fan then that really winds me up. Is a 2-0 lead at HT in the Championship not enough to go on and win?

He does seem to have the Jason Steele disease of making the simplest of saves look dramatic. And also not saving much in general, by the looks of it.