The people running the club at the moment think Clitheroe is a long way away. 10-20 years ago John Williams was making serious efforts to push the club on the Fylde Coast and Lancaster, now they think putting on a free kids bus to Clitheroe is impressive.

You may be partly referring to me here. I am delighted Kaminski has signed and hopefully (we need it) more will follow. I maintain my view that it is increasing wages that has been the issue here which is why those on lower end wages from their academy days - Lenihan, Nyambe - or those on League One figures - Rothwell - have been unable to secure the increase they seek whilst Gallagher and Kaminski - both likely to be on much bigger wages already - are probably happy to sign up for another couple of years on the same sort of cash. I think Venkys have directed no pay increases or something similar which is why the deadlock on those on low wages who want paying a figure reflective of Championship regulars. A percentage increase which is probably incompatible with the 'structure' Venkys are driving.

Fulham, Bournemouth, West Brom and Sheffield United, and arguably Forest, all have substantially greater budgets at this moment in time than we do. So for us to be above 3 of them and just behind another is a good effort. But by the same measure Mowbray has had things in his favour that those other clubs haven't had. He's had 5 years in sole control of this club and has been able to build it up in the way he wants. The way we play - he's had years to work on it with little pressure during that time. Settled in the division. No adjustment, rebuild, chaos to deal with. Compare to Silva, Parker, Ismael/Bruce, Cooper, Heckingbottom - all of whom have taken over their clubs recently, and whilst they've inherited decent squads and have had decent budgets, haven't had a fraction of the time and freedom Mowbray has enjoyed here. For me we see where we are come May. If he gets us up somehow he deserves all the credit in the world. If we get top six and fall just short then there needs to be a serious conversation as to what the plan is moving forward. If he misses out on the top 6, having been 2nd in February, I'm afraid that has to be the end for me, regardless of how well we have done to date. Because you don't get a trophy for finishing 4th, 5th or 6th. Only if you get to Wembley and win is it an achievement. It can be a sign of progress and improvement but then that's only any use if you use it to go again and go one better next season. Given the state of our squad there can be no talk of building for next year because it is going to be dismantled in the summer.

I'm not sure anyone can say that contract issues have been out of Mowbray's control. He was able to get approval to give expensive contract extensions to Bennett, Mulgrew, Smallwood, Evans and expensive deals to Downing and Holtby. I am pretty sure that in the summer of 2020 he could have focused his budget on new deals for Lenihan, Nyambe, Rothwell and there would have been more than enough scope in there to get those done. Instead they were overlooked and the money spent on other things.

I expect he will get one if he wants one simply because it will be the easy and obvious thing to do. I don't think this lot have a managerial search in them. I think and hope there will be more to it than offering him a new deal based on November-January and doing better than expected. I'm concerned by Mowbray's revelation in January that he wanted to sell Rothwell to Bournemouth to generate funds to rebuild but the owners refused to allow that and as a result he is going to leave for nothing leaving us with little/no money to spend. We are already facing a mass exodus of talent in the summer and Mowbray has to take some responsibility for that. If the owners won't back his judgment in January and won't sanction spending and won't allow wages for new contracts then what is the point?

A few on Twitter have pulled them up on their unimpressive 1900 following yesterday - which in my opinion is decent but not what I would expect for a 'big' club in blistering form. Apparently it would have been much bigger had they not had so many other away games recently. Lets see how many we take to Sheff United in a few weeks - even at pushing £28 per adult I still bet there will be over 1500 there. Does that make us a massive club?

Without me having to go back and check the rules can anyone tell me what the rules are with yellow card suspensions? Lenihan I believe was on 8 yellows before last night, with 10 triggering a suspension of 2 games. He should now be on 10 - so does he just get a 2 game ban for 10 yellows and nothing for the red, or does he get an extra game?

With crowds you reap what you sow. Lots of efforts being made to engage and develop support from minority groups but when you are losing traditional support hand over fist - which we have under Waggott's management - then it is achieving nothing. Had to laugh at the obnoxious Forest lot obsessing about attendances. I think last night was the most I can remember them ever bringing to Ewood and to be honest a little over 2,000 given their form of late is nothing to boast about. I also remember playing at their place not too long ago with an official gate of 18,000 in the Championship and clearly much less than that on watching on the night itself. Still, doesn't fit the narrative.

Indeed. If we don't finish at least 6th then it will almost certainly mean we get less than 75 points. To be on 53 in January after 29 games If we don't hit 75 from 46 then it will mean we have picked up 21 points or less from 17 games. Relegation form. The concern now is that many people will be more than happy with the top 6 - and I think up until December most would have jumped at scraping into 6th at the end of the season - but having done so well up to January if we don't make it now by any measure it would mean a disastrous last third of the season.

Yes, we've only got 5 months to wait for ours.

Two decisions that I object to in the last 2 games alone. Swansea away - leaving Brereton on the bench. Somehow what should have been 1 game missed due to international duty spills over into 2.5 games missed and him being thrown on when chasing a game away from home. For me if fit he should be starting and then if knackered then take him off in the second half hopefully by which stage he has got us ahead and in control of the game. Trying to be too clever IMO, rather than just focusing on the job in hand of beating a poor Swansea side and to do so needing your best players on the pitch from the get go. Then leaving Nyambe out v Forest. Maybe it wouldn't have made any difference to the result, maybe it would. But the fact is that he has been a central part of the side that has done so well and had such momentum and defensive strength over the last 2-3 months. So to drop him for no good reason risks unsettling the side.

Preston play Blackpool at Deepdale on 5th April. Still 7 weeks off but had announced tickets weeks ago and put them on sale in mid January. They've pushed and pushed them and that's partly because they are opening the away end to home fans. I don't understand why this has been left so late in the day.

These spirals tend to last around 8 games before we sneak a win against someone and recover for a while. So I suppose it depends where we are in the spiral now. You could argue it started back against Huddersfield where we got a reasonable 0-0 draw but didn't play well, or even before then when we edged out an abysmal Barnsley side. Since then we've had a couple of narrow wins settled by single goals against Cardiff and Boro. Good results but not particularly good performances. Hopefully the passing of games means we've only another one at most before a recovery comes. Doesn't feel like it though, feels like we are only in the early stages of it and it has a while left to run yet. The arrival of a few new players and return to fitness of others won't help as I think Mowbray will baffle himself with his selections and substitutions.

Our appearances in recent weeks have reverted to the 'bad old days' of early this season and perhaps more accurately seasons past. Teams getting ahead of us early on or scoring with their first opportunities and then just seeing the game out whilst Rovers struggle and fail to get back into the game. Plenty of possession and spells of nice football but in terms of actual proper chances and testing the opposition goalkeeper - very little. Possession stats creeping up but ineffective and results in very little. Nobody can question the effort of the players but little idea or quality in getting back into games. This has been a long term issue under Mowbray - all well and good if keeping clean sheets or getting ahead in games but when that goes we really struggle, always have, at recovering from losing positions. Sides will be working out that if they get the first goal they are going to get a result and probably the win. I have to say that the Nyambe situation appalls me. If it is true - and I firmly believe it is - that he has been dropped for non-footballing reasons - then it is clear that Mowbray is prepared to gamble a chance of promotion on making some sort of point. It interests me that Nyambe always seems to be the fall guy whereas other contract 'rebels' - i.e. want paying a wage reflective of their status - keep their place regardless. The insertion of Hedges to RB baffling but again suspect Mowbray will dress it up as needing a goal so putting an attack minded player there. No doubt he will justify it in his head as giving a place in the team to someone focused/committed to the cause but I'm not having that. Nyambe has been half way out of the exit door since last season and yet he has continued to play an integral part in the side that has got us into this position. I'm getting fed up with the number of comments online about how the top 2 has gone and we need to focus on staying in the top 6. I'm sorry but the top 2 are there for grabs - still - and fortunately for us tonight whilst we slipped there were also dropped points for QPR, Huddersfield, WBA and Middlesbrough. With 15 games to go I certainly hope none of these players or manager are content with the top 6 because they are in the wrong business if giving up on automatic in this position. Do I think we will get it? No because I think a combination of a lack of depth/options and Mowbray's meddling will ultimately cost us but it has to remain the aim. If we fail to get at least 6th from the position we were in heading into February then heads will have to roll. On to West Brom a side in horrendous form losing again tonight and will be nervous when we go there yet Bruce's first home game in charge - we know how this goes.

I don't like the idea of it being in the DE lower. Or if it is I would do it so only the lower tier is open with away fans in one half and home fans in the other. At least that would take us back to the days of 'banter' between home and away fans either side of segregation. That won't work with 500 Millwall lot up in the top corner and similar Rovers out of view downstairs. With all the bottom tier to go at we are going to have to shift at least 1500-2000 to make this worthwhile and even then the lower tier will be sparsely populated. I can see what they are trying to do and fair enough its better to try than do nothing. But I think it is asking a lot to shift a substantial volume in the space of 8-9 days and I worry it will just end up with a small cluster of home fans and not much difference to the atmosphere. If they really wanted to push this they should have announced it weeks ago and promoted it far and wide not slipped it out 9 days before.

Maybe we are just waiting for the 12,000 or so attendees tonight to pass by the club shop, make no announcement or advertisement on tickets and then announce they are on sale tomorrow morning. Then scratch heads in bewilderment in 9 days' time when very few have bought tickets.

Seen a lot of comments online about how great Forest have been and how tough it is going to be so to bring some balance to things: Last 7 away league games they have Won 2 against Swansea and Millwall, Drawn 3 against Reading, West Brom and QPR and lost 2 against Middlesbrough and Cardiff last time out. It won't be easy but with the best home record in the league we have to be going into every game at Ewood expecting to win as this will reduce the pressure on our faltering away form.

Sooner or later Burnley are going to have to put some wins together. All well and good being hard to beat but with 18 games remaining they will have to put some on the board. They can't survive with 1 win. At the start of February with Rovers in the top 2 and fine form and the Dingles bottom with 1 win all season you'd be looking at the very least us playing them next season, potentially overtaking them. But I can't dispel this horrible feeling that over the coming 12 weeks they will claw their way out of it simply through grinding out points and we will blow our opportunity. The signs are starting to appear. I'll feel a lot better with 4 points from these next 2 games.

If the club was serious about the position we find ourselves in and desperate to make full use of it they would have tickets on sale for every home game remaining this season. I never understand this obsession with leaving it until 3 weeks before the match to start selling them. Its not as though they need the time to plan and sort things out - they know there will be ample capacity come what may.

A win in this one is massively important. Not just to keep Forest at a good distance but also to immediately bounce back from defeat as we did with Middlesbrough the other week. Concerning signs creeping in particularly away from home where we seem to be losing our effectiveness and the goals have dried up. We need to get back on track A quick look at the fixtures this week suggests an opportunity. QPR play Middlesbrough and West Brom head to Sheff United. Two tough games for those sides and points being dropped along the way. We need to capitalise.

Bruce is an excellent Championship manager. 2X automatic promotions at Birmingham 2X promotions with Hull 1X play off final with Villa In a few months turned Sheff Wed around from struggling to top half Very sensible appointment for WBA and makes our job that bit harder. With an 8 point cushion it is in our hands though and if we maintain 2 points a game for the final third of the season there's nothing they can do about it.

I'm not sure Rothwell has caused anything here. He can't force Rovers to make a suitable offer, and he can't force Bouremouth to take an interest or approach him in January. He can only respond to events as they unfold. Bournemouth come sniffing - he has to decide whether to hang around here with a club run by clowns or take a 4 year deal and much bigger salary for his family = security for the rest of his career/life. He will be well off of course but having been at Oxford and Rovers he probably won't be set for life. He is out of contract at the end of the season. Uncertainty. Footballers particularly with families don't want that. Now you might blame him for not signing whatever joke numbers corner shop manager Waggott has scribbled down for him, but as seen with the Bournemouth interest Rothwell has been entirely vindicated in his position because it is clear he can get better elsewhere. That's if you believe there has been an offer on the table open for his acceptance, which I have my own doubts about given the lack of one for Mowbray. If the owners are so inert that they are happy to allow Mowbray's deal to run down with no discussions about his future then why would they take players' contracts seriously? It would suggest they are 'on the ball' with players who they have never met but aren't 'on the ball' with their manager who they have met, like, trust and have had running their club for the last 5 years. The Club had the ability to protect its assets by attending to their contracts in a professional and coherent manner and ensuring star players were here for the forseeable, putting the club in the driving seat should any interest come along. The Club has failed to do that using every excuse in the book along the way. Covid, revenues, uncertainty, wage structure, owners struggling in India, greedy players and agents. But in the end it doesn't matter what the cause is of it. All that matters is the result of it. Players haven't signed and the result is that it is inevitable that some will have their heads turned by other clubs and other options. It is also inevitable that unless something changes quickly this Rothwell incident will be replicated with several other players. I have just read Mowbray's comments in the Telegraph and have to say I am baffled. Mowbray appears to be suggesting that he would have sold Rothwell and used the cash to buy 3 players. He appears to suggest that the only way he can rebuild the squad is by doing this as there will be no money in the summer without sales (if we don't go up). He appears to suggest the owners vetoed this plan and insisted Rothwell would remain. I have numerous issues with this; 1) If the manager wants a sale why on earth are the owners acting against his wishes? 2) How does he know there is no money if we don't go up? 3) We've heard this about sell and reinvest several times and it just doesn't happen - they sold Armstrong for far more in the summer with plenty of time to spend some of the money on new players and failed to do so. I have no faith they would have allowed reinvestment of the Rothwell cash. 4) I don't understand how or why the owners would reject millions of pounds for Rothwell when this is probably their last chance to get a fee for him, yet they are unable to offer the wage he wants to keep him here longer term. If they have the capacity to risk millions on turning down a fee for him then why don't they have the capacity to increase the wage bill to pay him?

Watched his interview. I find it hard to harbour any ill feeling towards the lad - he certainly comes across to me as genuine and honest about the situation. As before he has a short career and has a young family. If another club are offering him far more money and a much longer contract then it is easy to see why he might be interested, especially when his deal here ends in a few short months and he won't know what comes next. The bit of his interview that really hurt me was when he admitted that it would have been a big life changing move for him and his family which is why he was interested in it. You might think this is Man City or Real Madrid offering him a deal with that sort of language, or at least a club far above us in the pyramid offering a one in a lifetime move to the PL. But no he is actually referring to Bournemouth. Makes you realise just how far down the pecking order these clowns have dragged us when our star players are seeing Bournemouth mid-season as a life changing move. Cheers Venkys and Maggott. I actually feel sorry for him. I think he and many others have been mucked around by Venkys, Mowbray included. Their approach is going to cost this club big time when all these decent players leave because they're refusing to sanction better terms.

Huddersfield are irritating. Aren't they something like 11 unbeaten now? They never seem to play anyone decent or in form either. I see Sheffield United now have 4 games in hand on them and 3 games in hand on us. They should have been forced to play one of those last night and then they are on Sky on Friday v Birmingham. Instead they only play Friday then again next week. Seems the League are happy to let them fit them in whenever is best for them rather than making them play them asap to catch up.

Bruce would be the perfect appointment for them with their squad and in their position. Promotion expert who will be comfortable with those players.