Another bad performance against Wigan. Mowbray can't figure out how to deal with them. 2 goals conceded in the last 10 minutes too. How many does that now make for the season? I thought that fitness had improved.

Stories over his tenure have always painted Mowbray as a passionate and understanding manager. I think that players do like playing for him. There was a Guardian interview with Lewis Holtby where he sings Mowbray's praises; Holtby Guardian chat I hope that he gets Rovers up, even if it brings about countless hammerings.

I enjoyed the fact that there is something happening. Games will resume next weekend. Watching the highlights built some anticipation. I could care less about the result. The score is utterly meaningless. A Liverpool coach was the ref, Liverpool staff also ran the line. The game had no semblance of official competition. The work out the Liverpool players gave the Rovers lads will help. That's what Mowbray said too. He won't be losing sleep over the result. Neither should anyone else.

Yes. After months of nothing I'll take anything. It was a friendly. The result does not matter a bit. The players will be fitter for it and will know that come next weekend Sadio Mane won't be running at them.

Oddly, I enjoyed those. I said it at the time he signed but if published figures are true Minamino cost not much more that Brereton. I know who I'd rather have.

It was a game to beef up fitness. IT's nto worth getting worked up over. The Rovers players certainty got their exercise in being run all over the place by Liverpool. I reckon that Mowbray is pretty happy with it all. It was a friendly, he won't care that it was 6-0.

Hopefully there will be a decent track and trace done on O'Neill which will give a decent indicator of where he got it or who could have passed it on to him. Restarting football is a hot button item. I'm pretty sure that those within the game overwhelmingly want it to resume so they and those close to them should be adhering to the strictest precautions to lower their risk of catching the virus. If O'Neill had been essentially isolated and it's dumb luck then we are all screwed. If he spent his free time swanning around Waitrose then it's a whole different issue.

A study has come out which says that empty stadiums negate any home advantage; No crowd, no benefit Is this good news for Rovers? From this table they are 7th in home form and 13th away; Home and away tables Championship. West Brom have earned more points away than at the Hawthorns. If the study holds true away form should pick up. I commented a few weeks back that as Ewood is 2/3rd's empty they don't really get that advantage to begin with.

Me too. It's outdoors. Players are far apart. Make the umpire wear a mask if they are worried. Tennis hardly stopped over here. There are concerns with handling balls but I'm pretty sure that current research has coronavirus far less likely to be passed by touching something with it on. Bowls should be another sport that should be allowed to continue. However, the average bowls player is at risk due to age. I think that it will be hard for rugby to get going again soon. American football will be tricky too. The linemen spend all game at close quarters breathing all over each other.

I'm in agreement with Rev again. Playing in empty grounds is the best option available. Now, if some money is allotted to lower league clubs it will help all. I read today that Klopp told Liverpool players to wear masks and gloves when they went out. I would like to assume that it would be almost universal foot footballers to take as many precautions as possible as to not jeopardise their health.

Fans make games' atmosphere much much better but they don't make much difference at all to player performance levels. You did get me thinking about my view on this, and football in general. I like watching the game. Many others like the matchday experience. Plenty like both. These all usually exist in harmony, yet coronavirus has taken being at the match away for the time being. I lean heavily toward watching the game. I was never a singer, shouter, antagoniser, nor did I have a few drinks before, at halftime, or straight afterwards when I went to games regularly. I still don't these days when I go to a game when I am back in the UK. I did have a few drinks an MLS game last season but I was there on a freebie in an executive box and wasn't really bothered about the action. I love watching top level football in the stadium. It's much better than on TV. You get to see player movement, positioning, and subtleties that only exist in the ground. At different times over the past couple of years I have seen Aguero and van Dijk live. They were both fantastic to watch in person. My access is limited to TV football therefore that is what I look forward to.

Ha ha. Perfect levity.

I'm not denying that, nor have I ever been shy about posting my view. I've always accepted that on here that it's Rovers above all, and I've always wondered why people, here or anywhere, care so much about one team then shrug shoulders at the wider game. Rovers can't exist in a vacuum, to me the game as a whole is more important. As to restarting, I've said my piece regarding football having a top notch test, track, and trace process, and for no fans to succeed top level money needs to find its way down the pyramid, but I certainly think that it's feasible to begin. Britain has become paralysed with fear over the virus. It isn't going anywhere - or so everybody thinks - so life has to adjust to accommodate, not stop. It's regular moan on here that Ewood is like a library these days with the ground usually a third full for games, how much changes with zero fans? The players won't care. They'll find it weird but will still give it their all. At least with TV there is a chance to see Rovers play. I've never been like that. I can't explain why, but it's not me. I'm not faulting you for it either.

I am fully aware that this is a Rovers board. I've been on it for years. I am a Rovers fan, always will be. However, living overseas somewhat limits my ability to go to Ewood or get a feeling of how events are felt in East Lancs. I do get to see Rovers games on TV each season. The last two I watched were utter dross. Wigan at home, Derby away. If I had a season ticket I'd wonder about ever going again if those performances were an indicator of what usually occurs. I put some of the bitterness down to Rovers current situation. Being owned by Venkys and middling around the Championship is frustrating for supporters who enjoyed 20 years at the top table, and a few prior to that almost getting there more than once. Above all I like football. I want Rovers to do well but my life or mood doesn't change if they win or lose. It never has.

Of course it's all about money. Very few things aren't in the 21st century. I talk to a lot of people about football. This forum is the only place where the majority view is not to resume games. The reasons for are all over the place too. Taking away resources from elsewhere. Football isn't football without fans. I mentioned it last week but there is a bitterness toward the game from a few on here. I don't understand it. Football exists outside of Ewood. There's a whole world of it out there.

I meant British crisps. Although Frito-Lays owns Walkers they haven't figured out how to replicate the flavours. Their salt and vinegar is so-so, and no cheese and onion in sight. The common cheese added is the generic "cheddar" that tastes like rubber. Nasty stuff. I buy specialty cheese. Costs more but you know that it's real. I did a cheese board for Thanksgiving, one of the guests was fascinated as he'd never seen what different cheese could taste like. I can't believe I forgot tea. I guess I'm too far gone to even mention it. Americans really have no idea how to make it. In the southern states they drink iced tea - think cold stewed tea with loads of sugar and ice in it. "Hot tea" as you have to specify is made with lukewarm water and the weakest tea imaginable, served with sachet's of manufactured cream. It's like drinking dishwater. I don't leave home without my own tea. I also have a proper kettle. I will say that Americans who have been to East Lancs with me laugh at the diet; kebabs, fish and chips, pies, beans on toast, sandwiches. It's a carbohydrate carnival. I do miss proper chippy fish and chips. No place I've been to outside of A Salt and Battery in Greenwich Village/Chelsea can make them. However, that place is run by a Rovers fan from Darwen so it makes perfect sense.

As a Brit living in America I have enjoyed reading the food tangent. I'm not going to comment on how it's produced as I have no idea. The only place I've heard of a chlorinated chicken is on here. America's food production system is based on quick and cheap so I wouldn't doubt that corners are cut. Tourists tend to want the American experience so go full blast on massive portions and unlimited coke. Buffet style places should be avoided at all costs. As well as "Chinese" restaurants. It's not Chinese food. I've travelled the length and breath of America. There is some very good food if you look for it. American BBQ is probably the only food style that they can call their own. It's very very good if you go to a local place. Different regions have different types. In any largish city you'll be able to get a host of foods from different countries. There are plenty of crap American foods, although I don't know if these are because I grew up on British food. Generic mustard - It's just vinegar with yellow food colouring added. There are loads of different varieties available though, Colemans included, so you don't have to suffer it. Chocolate/sweets - just doesn't taste right. Hershey's is awful. Mars isn't too bad. Supermarket bread. It's made to last, not to taste. I don't buy it. Go to a baker. Crisps - improving but still aren't UK quality. Beer - when I first got to the US the choices were Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Lite, and maybe Guinness. That was pretty much it. To me it explains the explosion of American full hop IPA's that are brewed by every single craft brewery. Americans were used to ale with no flavour so went with too much as soon as it was available. They do like to put cheese on everything. It's hilarious.

I disagree with your first paragraph and agree with your last. Professional footballers want to win whether there is a crowd or not. Football also needs fans in the ground for multiple reasons. Based on your summary Rovers should be a cert for a playoff spot though. They've been playing at a mostly empty Ewood all season. They are well schooled in playing in front of a sterile atmosphere and should thrive.

Football clubs aren't taking tests away from the general public. Private testing has always been available and is mutually exclusive to what the government use. Oddly, there is an anti football bent with some on this football message board. This is just another angle that plays into it. I think that Rev's views on coronavirus are cuckoo but I agree with him on the restart of football. Players will be tested 2, 3 times a week, and will be around very few people when not playing. I presume that they'll all be tested either the day before or the day of a match therefore the chances of players on the pitch passing on the virus will be extremely low. I also agree that if the government wants schools to open they should apply the same process, but that means involves coordination and a massive increase in testing numbers. The way to defeat the virus is to test, track, and trace. Those in the firing line so to speak should be tested often.

Deeney can do whatever he feels is right. I'm not having a go at him. I'm only pointing out the cynicism, and hard nosed business decisions that clubs will - in my view - make.

Troy Deeney and the like can grumble all they want, and they have a fair gripe. Yet if the season doesn't end clubs will have to repay broadcasters for revenue they didn't earn. Club owners aren't going to let that happen so my guess is that they'll play on and any player who doesn't feel right will sit it out. If they claim injury then so be it. For every Deeney, who is at the tail end of his career, there will be another who plays in the same position chomping at the bit to get a game.

My understanding is that private labs have always had tests available if a person is willing to pay for them. What the government has and what the labs have can exist separately. There was feigned uproar over here a few months back. 2 basketball players from the Utah Jazz got the virus. Within 24 hours the whole team, plus trainers, coaches, and ancillary staff were tested. Their argument was that they paid for a private lab to do it.

In the what could have been category. I'm watching bits of Union Berlin v. Bayern Munich. If it wasn't for the Icelandic volcano eruption Rovers may have had a few years of Robert Lewandowski up front.

I want Prem football back. No fans will make watching a different experience but I think that there could be some advantages. One being that you will be able to hear what players are saying to each other. I have a feeling though that it will be fleeting due to all the swearing. Hearing Mowbray giving Derrick Williams a bollocking for a bad pass a few months back got a good few laughs on here. Imagine a full game of it?

Something must be up if I'm agreeing with you on a COVID-19 comment. Footballers will be some of the most tested people in Britain (all paid for by private money too). It seems daft to try and keep them apart as much as possible then let them play a full contact game.