DE.

I'm not sure I can take any more strikers being brought in to play "inside forward". What's ironic is that we actually will bring in an actual winger in January, but it'll be Harry Chapman and Mowbray will either loan him out or his hamstring will go in his first training session and we'll see him less than we saw everybody's favourite crock Vince Grella.

6 so far, which is more than I'd have thought in all honesty. However, we've conceded 2 or more goals in 10 matches so far this season - two goals or more conceded in nearly HALF of our games this season so far. Nowhere near good enough. Will our esteemed local journalists bring this up with Tony though? Doubtful.

Stats suggest Birmingham at the very least deserved their draw. We had more possession but did far less with it. That said, attacking wise by the 46th minute we had done what we needed to do. Two goals clear at home with over half the game gone should usually be enough. Not for Rovers though. We are throwing points away and leaking goals all over the shop. We've now conceded more than Bolton who are 23rd, we've also conceded more than both Hull and Wigan. The same as Rotherham. The main difference is we score more goals than all of these teams, hence our higher positioning in the table. However, of the teams above us only Villa and West Brom have conceded more than us, and both have scored A LOT more goals than we have. WBA nearly double and Villa 14 more than us. Realistically this means that unless we work out how to stop conceding or how to score a significantly higher amount of goals we are going to likely end up finishing roughly where we are now. Is that acceptable? I suppose, but I can't help but look at the form of the teams in and around us and wonder whether we're missing out on an opportunity which is disappearing with every point from a winning position we throw away.

No. I'm not saying I would have sacked or indeed would sack Mowbray either, but the fact remains for all the positives he's brought to the club - and there's plenty - he's never solved our defensive issues. I would rather he'd have brought in a coach or a better assistant in the summer to sort our defence out, as it's our achilles' heel. Some fans ignored it in League One because we were still winning matches as it was easy to outscore the opposition, not so much this season and a blind eye can't be turned anymore.

What's sad is that the playoffs are there to be taken this season. Better investment in the summer and either a coach or a different manager who could organise a defence and this could have been a very interesting season. As it stands it's going to be a season of wasted opportunities, with poor summer investment meaning we're still a long way from even being back to where we were three years ago, let alone when Venky's first darkened the doors of Ewood with their presence.

We must be top by now.

2-2, then. Mowbray needs to be careful. Letting the fans down like this repeatedly will become almost as insidious as losing matches. We're already at the point where unless we're 3 or 4 goals up we can't trust the team to see the game out. That's not a situation that can continue for long.

Fine. Let's ultimately focus in bringing in better though.

Meh.

Confident finish from Phil Jones there. Wrong net mind, but well taken nonetheless.

I can remember laughing out loud, it was like a comedy sketch. You just needed the "wahh wahh wahhhhh" sound effect and you'd be good to go. Wouldn't have been laughing for long if they'd gone on to score, mind, but I had at least a few minutes before that happened.

My "favourite" J-Lowe memory is one of the few times I got to watch him play at Portman Road. I believe it was December 2013. He received a pass in no real danger around the centre of the pitch. He miscontrolled the ball, which instantly caused an Ipswich player to dart towards him. Panicking, Lowe got his feet tangled up, fell backwards onto his arse and lost possession. Thanks for the memories.

Alex Ferguson once said Phil Jones could become Man Utd's "greatest ever player": http://en.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/203772.html Instead he became a more injury prone version of John O'Shea. Opinions are what they are.

Paging Jim to the thread...

Tbf most people do, it's literally only a few posters who don't.

Just ordered Final Fantasy Origins for the PS1 off eBay (because I have a compulsion to start wasting money I don't have during Christmas season) - I think it completes the mainline Final Fantasy PS1 games for me? FF Origins FF Anthology FF6/FF7/FF8/FF9 I know technically Tactics and Chocobo Racing exist on the PS1, but to my knowledge Tactics (criminally) didn't come out in the EU on the PS1 and Chocobo Racing is so stupidly expensive it's not even worth trying to get.

It's funny because the league is more wide open than it has been in a while - the teams at the bottom are just really, really shit, and there's quite a few of them.

I personally don't think Mowbray's transfer record is particularly good. What he's done well is keep our better players here whilst blooding young prospects like Raya, Nyambe and Lenihan. Dack was obviously a blinding piece of business, but I can't think of any other players he's brought in that have really impressed, other than Reed who has been very good so far despite being shunted out of position. Smallwood had a decent first half of the season in L1. Armstrong had a nice purple patch when he first arrived (again in L1). The rest have either been able to 'do a job' (often out of position) or loaned out/rarely played for us - Hart, Caddis, Whittingham, Gladwin, Brereton... I'm not that confident in giving Mowbray a lot of money, in all honesty. We're at a point where Downing is being glorified for bring competent at his role, mainly because we appear to have spent £7m on a 'long term prospect' as opposed to strengthening areas that need additions now. I'm not necessarily asking for another Dack, but a player on the level of Evans, Conway or Nyambe is surely achievable?

Lambert needed a win early on to get things going. They had a couple of games where they were 2-1 up, playing well, then conceded and ended up drawing both. Since then it's slowly been going downhill. In fairness they are playing better, but their defence is atrocious. Makes our backline look like a legendary Italian defence in comparison. The only plus is that they brought in so many League 1 standard players they should be well equipped for next season.

This season aside his wiki stats don't make great reading for a striker. 4 goals in 40 apps for Yeovil... That said we'll probably play him on the wing. If Eaves is the calibre of signing we're looking at (26 year old lower league journeyman) then I think we can forget pushing for promotion.

He didn't look at it differently though. He was as cautious and petrified of the opposition last season - whether we were against Wigan or Bury - as he is this season. We were promoted because our team was far too good for that division and Mowbray, for all his tactical faults, is able to command the respect of his players. I think we'll finish mid table this season, and I think that's where we'll finish pretty much every season as long as Mowbray is here. The only way we'll go up or down is if our team either significantly improves (I'm talking becoming the best in the division) or declines (similarly becomes one of the worst). Mowbray is a good bloke and a safe pair of hands with a decent squad, but he doesn't have the courage to propel an average team into promotion contention imo. I'd love to be proven wrong but I believe we would need massive investment from Venky's to get promoted with Mowbray at the helm.

That miss from Evans was criminal.

Obviously would have been happy if offered a 1-1 before the match started. Less so if I was also told they'd play 70 minutes with ten men and we'd be a goal up at half time, but not particularly surprised either. The last thing a Mowbray team wants is the opposition losing a man. It simply isn't compatible with how we play. Unfortunately every team is not Sheffield Wednesday so in a sense normal service resumed this week. Underwhelming but we have to accept it's mid-table for us this season (still completely acceptable) and see how much Venky's are willing to put into a serious promotion push over the next two years.

I can definitely remember Mulgrew having positive things to say about Coyle, but that might have been the Scottish connection at work. Realistically it makes no sense for players to say negative things about their manager, as much as the fans may want to hear it at times. How many of our players publically criticised Kean whilst they were here? Can't remember a single one. I remember plenty of them licking his arse though.

There isn't much difference between the Championship and the bottom 13 teams in the PL these days, so if Reed is doing well here he could definitely do a job for Southampton. Hope he stays until at least the end of the season though, he's been a breath of fresh air since arriving. Don't think we'd miss Palmer.