I don't think Del is a good left back at this level so I wouldn't want him and Bell as our only options if Downing got injured. He's fine as CB cover though.

In fairness there isn't much competition there save for Lenihan!

I like Mowbray as a person but I don't like the way he has historically approached football matches. Negative thinking, trying to make out that average opponents are something special, constantly starting matches like the team had just come out of the pub (the dreaded Ewood HT 0-0), strikers being pushed out wide ineffectively, constant tinkering and rotating, playing favourites even when said favourites are in extremely bad form, dropping others for what seem to be smaller indiscretions, wasting our transfer budget on non-performing strikers whilst failing to strengthen the defence ('defenders are (not) coming), criticising certain players in public whilst never mentioning others far more deserving of criticism... I mean, that all happened and four wins doesn't erase history. We won four on the spin last January so we aren't exactly in unprecedented territory here. If our form continues and we mount a genuine playoff push then I'll be delighted. I've never had a problem with Mowbray as a person. A month's worth of results isn't enough to sway me yet though. This is how it's always been under Mowbray - periods of awful form followed by unexpected good form and then back to bad form. Maintaining consistent form for longer than a month is what we require and we can only live in hope that the penny has dropped and we'll see a more consistent team and approach adopted for the rest of the season. I don't think we'll see many complaints directed at the manager in that situation even if we do fall short of the top six pre-season target.

I personally don't consider Mercer's posts offensive enough to censor. Obviously other mods may have a different opinion!

Mercer isn't breaking the rules with his posts, as annoying as they may be to some people. Trolling is largely deemed as insulting other posters, not predicting a Rovers win. As roversfan99 points out, if nobody responds to his posts then they gain no traction and are easily scrolled past.

Please don't bring politics into the football threads - there's a general election thread in ICBINF for that.

Unlike the other two they have a novice manager, which I think is going to cost them in terms of an automatic promotion place.

WBA beating Swansea 5-1 and are already 10 points clear at the top of the division, having only lost once the entire season. Even Leeds are 8 points clear of Fulham in 3rd. Great for those two clubs but doesn't say much for the rest of the division. Playoff spots and that third promotion spot are wide open imo. We're only 5 points off Fulham ffs.

Rothwell, Nyambe and Graham starting were all being asked for, as well as not playing Gallagher on the wing, not starting Armstrong up top by himself and not playing Bell under any circumstances. For what it's worth I don't think the fans opinions had much if any sway on Mowbray's decision making, it's just common sense that took him a lot longer to realise than the rest of us for whatever reason. Arma seems to go through purple patches of form where he scores goals so if we're in one of those periods now then great. Evans coming in and playing like he has is obviously something that has to be credited to Mowbray, as he could easily have tried to shoehorn Bennett in there instead. I'm kind of shocked he didn't. Johnson's sudden fall down the pecking order suggests he isn't an option, whilst Smallwood seems to have been bundled into the trunk of Oldham's bus. Has he been seen since that game? Unfortunately for TM we now have £12m worth of striking talent warming the bench, which is unfortunate to say the least. I think Gallagher will be useful for us in future, albeit overpriced, but I honestly don't know what can be done about Brereton at this point other than loaning him out and praying he improves dramatically.

New manager bounce didn't last long for Stoke. Beaten again today by Hull after being one up, three defeats on the spin now.

In fairness I remember quite a few people saying they'd rather have Downing at LB than Bell or Williams. Agreed that no one wanted Evans back in the side, and it's nice he's going through one of his purple patches at the moment. I wouldn't bank on it lasting but whilst it lasts it certainly helps us out. On the other hand it also begs the question of why he hasn't played like this more often during his 7 year spell at the club. I think Tony's comments about having to leave Evans out to motivate him were very telling and I don't consider Evans a long term solution to any of our problems. Armstrong's worst performances came when the manager repeatedly played him up top where he is completely unsuited to our style of play. No surprise that when he's put out on the wing and Graham put in the striker position then Arma starts performing better. A lot of people were asking for that at the very least if Armstrong had to be in the team. All people have really wanted is players playing in their best positions, rather than nonsense like Gallagher on the wing, Armstrong up top, Bennett at right back, etc. Now that this is finally happening the team is showing what it can do.

Problem is "The Elite" haven't been established as a proper stable on TV. They have helped each other out on occasion but there's never been an explanation as to who they are, what their goals are, etc. Commentary announced a couple of weeks ago that "Hangman" Adam Page had left the Elite, but why would anyone care? He's not been shown doing anything with them on TV, so unless you watch the BTE show on YouTube it isn't going to mean anything. It's just going to cause casuals to tune out because they have no idea what is happening, and would need to invest too much time into catching up and then keeping up. As I said before, anything of consequence needs to be on TV so people understand what is going on. A perfect example is the Daniels/Pentagon match this week. The crowd weren't really into it, and despite the commentators declaring it was a hot feud with history it didn't ring true because a lot of it hasn't been shown on TV. Daniels came out singing and dancing for what was supposed to be a grudge match. Also how about a video package to remind the viewers why these guys want to fight each other so much? AEW assumes the viewer knows far more than is reasonable. They act like they're a promotion which has been running for years rather than one that only started producing TV in October. I still enjoy watching Dynamite overall, but I think a lot of things have less impact on me than they should because I don't know the history behind the feuds and AEW don't bother to explain it to me either through commentary or hype packages. Jericho is holding the show together right now and is consistently the best thing about Dynamite, but others need to start stepping up if they want to build a serious fanbase.

Credit of course goes to Mowbray for making the changes a lot of us had been asking for. He could have continued being stubborn but I think he sensed he was approaching the precipace with the fans and did what was necessary. With that said I'm still cautious. Last January we went on a run of four wins on the spin after a string of poor results bringing us within touching distance of the playoffs, then went on a nosedive until April. We will obviously lose a match eventually but it's how we respond to that which will determine whether things have really changed.

Another great result, and another clean sheet. Amazing what a little consistency in team selection and playing people in their actual positions does. A shame we wasted the first few months of the season with nonsense selections but it is what it is. The penny seems to have dropped for the time being at least. Derby didn't have a single shot on target. We only had three but at least we made one of them count. Rovers 1-0 Derby Spurs 5-0 Dingles QPR 2-0 Nobbers Bolton 1-2 Wimbledon Luton 1-1 Wigan That's a Saturday I can raise a toast to. Assuming the other results stay like that. Ugh, late equaliser for Bolton. Garbage league.

Not going to put up with comments deliberately trying to wind up others - fair warning now to stop.

Bumley getting destroyed again which is always nice.

I don't really understand what AEW's identity is. I don't think it has one. It's trying to be everything to everyone and that's, imo at least, not the route they want to go down. WCW for all its flaws was great, pre-1999 at least, at being different to WWE - more sports-orientated and reality based. Granted they had stupid hokey stuff in the beginning like the Dungeon of Doom but by mid-1996 it was all about feeling 'real'. WWE came off as looking cartoonish and outdated in comparison. To me shit like the Librarians and the Jurassic Express and Statlander being an "alien" are throwbacks to 1995 WWF when everybody had a stupid gimmick and just happened to wrestle as well. If I were them I would be ditching the hokey stuff ASAP and focus on being sports-based and legitimate.

It's funny because a few years ago Sheamus bored me to tears, but that best of 7 he had with Cesaro followed by their tag team exploits really changed my opinion of him. Not sure how much longer he's got left though. I heard he has spinal stenosis which rarely bodes well. WWE would probably make Aldis a wrestling butler or something equally ridiculous and stereotypical. He'd be used better in AEW for sure. There's a lot of AEW stuff which is a little too choreographed. You can get away with it on indie shows but not so much when you're trying to step up to the big leagues. It doesn't feel like AEW has gotten out of that 'indie' mentality yet and they really need to do so if they want to grow beyond their current fanbase. Meltzer mentioned that right now AEW is like a smorgasbord of everything in wrestling, and it's coming off as confusing and unfocused. I pretty much completely agree with him. The storylines in AEW are all over the place at the moment. I mean, has anyone in AEW ever explained who 'The Elite' actually are? If you don't watch their YouTube channel you wouldn't know. Apparently MJF revealed on Twitter that he hired the Butcher/Blade/Bunny to attack Cody. Why wasn't that mentioned on Dynamite ffs? It feels like you have to search all over the place to properly piece together these storylines. Twitter, AEW Dark, Being the Elite, Instagram... it's too much. Everything you need to know should be presented on Dynamite. Anything outside of that should be purely supplemental and not necessary in understanding the basic storyline and motivation of the characters.

Unfortunately an IP address ban isn't really a good solution (if you want an explanation on why feel free to PM me). I agree that Jim's behaviour is out of order but short of shutting the site down to viewing for anyone but members and disabling new registrations I don't think there's much that can be done about it.

Yeah I'd agree, RB is a position that probably needs looking at more in the summer (proper competition for Nyambe, not Bennett) than in January. LB is definitely the #1 priority with Cunningham no longer available. Anything after that would be a bonus. Although in truth considering our lack of activity last January even getting in a LB would probably be a bonus.

Good news for AEW, their audience bounced back this week to 851k, whilst NXT drew 845k. Apparently the DVR numbers for AEW last week were huge (roughly 300k more than usual) so it seems like a lot of their fans were legitimately just out for Thanksgiving. AEW skewers a lot lower age wise than NXT (AEW tends to draw more 18-34, whilst NXT and WWE as a whole relies almost solely on the 50+ demo) so last week's ratings make sense in that context. WWE are probably a bit disappointed with the NXT rating off the back of Survivor Series, where NXT was spotlighted heavily. Nonetheless both shows seem to be settling in around the 700-900k range most weeks which is reasonable for the day and time slot. The big worry for WWE as a whole, not just NXT, is that their core audience is decidedly in the older demographic. That's obviously not great for their future, but it's also not the demo that advertisers target. AEW are far more successful in the demographic that advertisers desire, which bodes well for them at this point in time.

Pretty much agree with you. Honestly outside of TNA I haven't seen a great deal of Aldis. I've been impressed with him on Powerrr but it's a very limited production. Not sure how well he'd handle stepping back up to the big leagues, although I think he has the look and ability to carry himself there if he's handled correctly. British people almost always sound awkward in american wrestling tbh... something about the traditional English and Irish accents just doesn't sound quite right. Well, for me anyway. Even when Becky is talking I find a lot of it more cringey than compelling.

Yeah completely agree. There are a lot of characters on Dynamite that aren't clicking with me at the moment and I think that's translating to the broader audience, hence the drop in both live attendence and ratings. There's almost too much freedom there, without a clear vision running through the entire company. I thought this week's Dynamite show was alright, but there were still some problems. - significant audio issues on the TNT broadcast, which has been happening for multiple weeks now. This is amateur stuff that needs to be addressed ASAP. Makes them look really bush league. - first two matches and the Cody interview were good. Although Cody showing off how rich he is was a bit weird for a face character, particularly the son of Dusty Rhodes. - Don't understand Jericho fighting with the Jurassic Express. Why does he need another bunch of people to feud with? This is what I mean by a lack of clear vision. I don't buy the Jurassic Express as a legitimate threat to the world champion (they've lost all their matches and Jericho even pointed that out). If they were going to go with anyone fighting Jericho it should have been Luchasaurus, not Jungle Boy. Regardless the whole Jurassic Express concept is a bit too hokey for me and it doesn't jive with the more serious and realistic storylines going on in the main event. It's admirable that Jericho wants to help put over the younger members of the roster but doing it with no build up is just jarring and out of place. I don't think it does anybody any favours. - Kris Statlander is a good wrestler but her gimmick is ridiculous. Also disagree with putting her over Shida. - How many cult like factions does this promotion need? We now have the Dark Order and the Nightmare Collective, both of whom are doing initiations into their families and other nonsense. You've also got this Butcher/Blade/Bunny team who are in the same mould. It's too much of the same thing. - Main event was okay but is Joey Janela really main event level talent? Again they could be using Moxley a lot better. Lack of star power is starting to hurt the brand imo. It's not that the match between Moxley/Janela was bad, it was fine, but I don't know and haven't been given a reason to care about Janela. I'm a bit down on AEW at the moment to be honest. I thought they got off to a strong start but they're starting to stumble and I'm finding myself far more invested in NXT right now.

Agreed, it would be an excellent replacement on a normal wrestling company, but I'm not sure how it'll translate to a retro show like NWA. I guess we'll have to see.Corny's authenticity will be missed. I didn't think much of him when he was Magnus in TNA, but he's come on leaps and bounds since being NWA champion. His match with Cody at All In last year and the build up to it was great. He's definitely got the "look" of an old school champion, plays the role well and is solid in the ring too. I think he deserves a shot somewhere bigger - probably AEW at some point in the future.

My concern with Nyambe is that he seems to struggle to maintain fitness, and I don't rate Bennett much at RB at all. You're right that we can probably survive with those two as our primary options for now, but if we want to progress I think it's an area we need to address. If we're going to sign another striker we need to offload at least one of Gallagher, Brereton, Samuel or Armstrong. Ideally I'd say sell Samuel and loan out Brereton.