Pleased and relieved to secure a desperately needed win. All things considered with changes and the personnel available it was a good and deserved win. An early setback with Evans, a weak looking bench and then the setback with their penalty yet we recovered well. I remain extremely concerned about the injuries we are picking up and struggle to accept that these are just down to bad luck or misfortune. The way it is going they are going to derail the season and I think there needs to be a review. It is frustrating that despite the obvious quality in the squad and goalscoring ability that we are sat here in such a lowly position. Many rivals would love the abilities of Armstrong and co. in their ranks. Time after the break to get some payback on Luton and PNE but we need to show a nasty side in these games. The opposition will.

It goes without saying that there will be harm to attendances across the board and clubs are really going to have their work cut out to try and address it. What I am interested in is how our decline compares to those elsewhere at rival clubs. I am expecting us to be one of the worst affected, and I don't believe that this will be down to 'demographics' or the local population, but will be down to a shoddy poorly thought out strategy from those running the club. Lets assume that fans will be allowed back without restrictions for the 2021-22 season. Lets assume we are still on the road to nowhere with Mowbray in the summer. Then Waggott is going to have to work his socks off over the summer to get people back. It isn't going to be easy, or quick, but serious, sustained and innovative ideas need to be rolled out to do it and re-engage supporters and get people back in the habit. Groundhog day just won't sell. I'm afraid sticking an extra £50 on the price and attempting to emotionally blackmail supporters into signing up will just alienate even more. 'As you were folks' and 'we're committed, are you?' attitude to it will not bring people back. This is going to be the stage when a £300,000 a year CEO needs to earn his salary. Sadly I don't think Waggott has the capability, innovation or interest never mind the freedom to spearhead such a thing. All he will do is propose a pricing structure and await approval from the money men in India. Scary really whilst Accy Stanley are this week distributing free kits to Hyndburn primary school children. Keep them interested, keep them hooked.

As far as I'm concerned every home game should be viewed as must win if there is any ambition of achieving promotion. To get promotion you will need to win the majority of your home fixtures, and you will only do that by going into them desperate to win them, not taking pressure off and seeing a draw as decent. We've dropped far too many points at Ewood already this season. If we want to get back on track we need to win. On what planet 2 points or even 1 from 6 this week in home games against Middlesbrough and QPR is acceptable im not sure. All the excuses at the ready but once again its more delaying and stalling. Promising milk and honey later on in the season when we arrive at having no players missing which won't ever be the case.

Well, prior to the Swansea game I came on here and said he needed 2 wins from these 3 games to justify remaining in place through the international break. We've picked up 1 from 6 and haven't scored. Arguably fortunate to get that point. The Armstrong injury may justify a slight reduction in target but not much given other options available. But anything less than a win v QPR and it is time to go. Rather than this being a bad or difficult time to make a change I'd argue that it is ideal. International break, time left to salvage the season and new man to re-jig things in January.

I'd be surprised if Derby were so foolish to take such a gamble at this point. I think Cocu will be gone soon but I'd be amazed if their owner gambled on Rooney who has never struck me as manager material. I think it is more likely they'll end up bringing McClaren back for another spell to save them, or look abroad. They seem to be a bit of a mess and with a big money takeover lined up can't afford to be hanging around the bottom 3.

I'm one of those people that wasn't sucked in by an admittedly very impressive couple of wins against dreadful sides early doors. The 'brilliant start' lasted about 4-5 games and saw us peak at about 5th place for a week, since when our trajectory has been a downward one over the last 5-6 games with the exception of the Coventry win. We could easily end up in trouble this season. I thought Sheff Wed would be a nailed on bottom 3 bet but their survival chances have rocketed after a good win and deduction reduction today. Wycombe have turned a corner with impressive results vs Watford, Wednesday and Birmingham, hitting some momentum and consistency that we are still waiting to achieve. Sides who many look down their noses at including our manager are outperforming us. This includes Luton, Millwall and Preston. Sides who many on here said we had no right to expect results against e.g. Bournemouth and Watford, now dropping points against sides below us in the table. Of course Mowbray is now armed with his raft of excuses for anyone who dares question performances and results and is able to point to the Covid issues and injuries. Ok. He has some sympathy on that front because a lot are missing. But lets not make out that we were running rampant before those players went missing or that we have ever or will ever have a situation where all these players are fit and available together or that this manager would know what to do with them all if they ever were all available. We were inconsistent to say the least when most of them were here. Douglas, Johnson, Armstrong, Kaminski could be argued to be unfortunate absences, however Mowbray has a £12 million strike force waiting in the wings along with 2 goalkeepers just signed this summer so I'm not sure he can plead poverty on that front. The rest are injury prone or long term injuries that he has had chance to recruit replacements for. Folk predicting promotion or even play offs need to revise their expectations because it ain't happening under this setup. 12th to 18th was my pre-season estimate but I'm not as confident of that right now with the state of things. Shame because we've ended up with a squad of players capable of much more and it likely won't be here beyond this season.

Its just not going to happen is it. In the event Mowbray goes it will all be about preserving the status quo with Johnson, Lowe and Benson part of the furniture. Any new manager would be expected to work with them. I don't necessarily think that is a cost based decision just that there's a reluctance to bin off nice guys who have been here for years Unfortunately the best managers take their own coaching staff with them so those willing to work with whoever they inherit tend to be those just grateful to be getting a job. Remember Coyle was supposedly meant to be working with Irvine and Kelly, which was presumably one of the reasons he got the job rather than Warnock who insisted on bringing Blackwell and Jepson along. Once he was in Coyle then managed to bring his cronies in later.

I'm not sure on Hughes. First off I don't see him as the type desperate to return to management to the extent he'd embrace a Championship job with aggravation and restrictions to it. I think he'd prefer to enjoy life and only take a job if it ticks every box e.g. in the Championship but with a big budget and a proper ownership and management structure. I don't think his time at Rovers stirs up sentimentality that it would lure him back here unless we had a proper setup and offered him big bucks to come and do it exactly how he wanted. Even then I don't think he'd fancy a Championship job after 15 years in the Premier League. If he was willing to manage at this level i'd want him to reunite with his old team Bowen and Neidszwicki. Bowen still working at Reading I think. I'm really not sure any more. Missed a trick with McCarthy off to Cyprus and Hughton in at struggling Forest. I'm sure both would have sniffed a good opportunity here with a promising and talented squad that needs shoring up and organising.

I've no strong view either way on this. I'm certainly not opposed to bringing Downing back as I think he did well for us last year and the stats show that. Vast experience and versatility could be useful. In terms of him not being fit I very much doubt he's spent the last 4 months out on the sunbed drinking cocktails. I would hope he's looked after himself and maintained a good degree of fitness. The timing is strange. If this was a deal Mowbray really wanted to do it should have been done way back at the beginning. Even 3 weeks ago the media were saying it was happening so I cannot fathom what has taken so long. Unless it is another case of waiting for the Indians to approve it.

Yeah, i just think the names I suggested were the obvious sensible options that would have given us a real chance this season. The others I'm not so sure. Pulis would be acceptable as a means to escape relegation and then maybe see what he can do but I worry that his ethos is so far away from Mowbray's that it would take a long time and a lot of work to whip this lot into the fit and organised structure Pulis would demand. I also think that he and Pearson would be unwilling to put up with the rubbish from India. McCarthy is apparently joining APOEL Nicosia - surprise move but a big opportunity missed for clubs at our level. The hidden gems like Reading and Barnsley have unearthed really require a lot of homework and planning. We simply don't have that here. Waggott is too busy deciding what hours to open the club shop for and how to milk another £10 or £20 out of supporters The search for our last 3 managers appears to have been done by someone going on an internet search engine and typing in "unemployed and won promotion to the Premier League within the last decade" then picking one. I suppose it is better than just handing it to the bibs and cones man or someone's mate.

Personally I'd have sacked Mowbray some time ago. I can understand a reluctance elsewhere to replace him but my only interest is us getting promoted as soon as possible, and if that means being 'unattractive' or unpopular then so be it. Nice guys get nowhere. I'd have pulled the trigger quite a while ago once i had identified and lined up his replacement, but again can understand the argument for keeping him through last season. I'd have replaced him at the end of last season when there were a raft of unemployed yet quality managers ready to be getting back to work. Hughton, Warnock, Karanka, McCarthy - just a few obvious obtainable names that roll off the tongue and require very little research or reading up on, You know who they are and what they do and as time has shown with Forest, Middlesbrough and Birmingham all were willing to manage under constraints in the 2nd division, despite baseless suggestions from some that they were all unaffordable or unwilling to work at this level any more. To be totally honest I am less eager to make a change right now than I was a couple of months ago. Back in the summer we could have got shut of Mowbray and appointed one of the above, giving them time to bed in and implement their methods and a summer window (and admittedly decent scope in the budget) to address things. Since then we've allowed another window of opportunity to pass by. Another pre-season gone, another sloppy poor start to a season meaning we are aleady playing catch up, another summer transfer window and precious cash entrusted to Mowbray, and meanwhile the decent managers above are now in work at rivals and are out of our reach. Now even if we did get shut of Mowbray we would have less obvious decent options available to us. Not because nobody decent would come but because they've all been snapped up by rivals. We'd have to take a bigger gamble or really do our homework and unearth less well known quality, neither of which I think the morons running the club are capable of. 3-4 months ago I'd have been on the phone to McCarthy, Hughton or Warnock and giving them what they needed to get here and down to work. Now I'm short on suggestions that would genuinely make me believe. It would probably have to be a foreign option in the hope they could quickly transition. None of this is going to happen any time soon of course, but I genuinely believe that unless Mowbray quickly changes his approach we are going to become embroiled in a prolonged spell of looking over our shoulders at the bottom 3 and relegation. We should have enough to avoid that fate but sooner or later the question needs to be asked whether a bottom half or bottom third finish is remotely acceptable and what the solution is to that. For 150 years across the world the solution has been to change coaching staff. Here it will be to once again overhaul the squad at great expense and then rinse and repeat.

So predictable isn't it? They went away and did a job on Bristol City last week. Kept it tight at 0-0 until 70 odd minutes then seized their chance when it inevitably came. Will Mowbray have an answer to it? I doubt it. Forest or Cardiff repeat on our hands.

And drew last week with Watford - that unstoppable expensive juggernaut that we had absolutely no right to expect anything against and who got beat by Barnsley yesterday.

So what was the excuse all last season and the first 5 games of this season? I don't dispute the suggestion that the number of absences is a problem. But conceding soft goals is a recurring problem irrespective of personnel.

Players missing cannot be used as an excuse for their first goal. Players missing but not in attack where we still have Armstrong, Brereton, Gallagher all fit signed by this manager. Internationals in midfield and defence. The biggest frustration for me is witnessing clubs no better, more attractive or developed than us outperform us. I'm talking sides like Middlesbrough, Millwall, Stoke and Reading. Sides who we were above last season but who have made progress and kicked on under new decent managers whilst we go around in an endless circle picking up plaudits for being attractive. It isnt difficult. Birmingham will be another example making steady progress under Karanka just by focusing on being pragmatic and hard to beat. We could so easily have been one of those pushing this season yet Mowbray thinks he is too good for pragmatics and defensive organisation and wants to try to be Klopp or Guardiola. His disproportionate level of power at this club, vacuum above him and lack of pressure from above have partly enabled this situation. No real pressure or expectation from anywhere. Press, fans and colleagues happy to roll with whatever our Great leader decides. Heaven forbid making a change just stick with it in perpetuity. A real setup would be on to him on Monday morning demanding answers. Anyone reckon Waggott will be?

He's incapable of adapting to the situation. Teams missing key players should grind out results and keep it tight. Plus all the issues on display today are the same as we've had for months before Covid took players away.

Promotion was 2.5 years ago. Absolutely irrelevant to the situation now. Just how long does he get a free Pass on events that happened an eternity ago in football? 10 years from now some will still be going on about 2018. He did a good job. He was congratulated, got a bonus.and a new contract and has had 2.5 years of Championship management going around in circles.

We had another chance earlier this year when he was unemployed and ready to work. But we are on a 'journey'. Warnock doing a proper job making Middlesbrough hard to beat and play off contenders. Mowbray going round in circles. He should manage the u23s so he can spend all day worrying about possession and passes and not results.

The plan today should be to go and keep it tight. Start from a clean sheet. If we do that and come away with a 0-0 then that will be something and represent progress. If we do that and then score on the counter or off someone's backside in the 95th minute then brilliant. Going there and trying to outfootball and outscore them is naive and will likely see a tanning.

1 defeat in 11 for them and only once have they failed to score (against well organised Birmingham).

Isn't that a contradiction? If he's following government advice and working from home then why was he at the training ground a lot during the transfer window? How do you know he was there a lot?

Swansea don't tend to hammer anyone. They're a decent side and hard to beat but usually win by a goal or two rather than dish out heavy beatings. Mind you I said similar about Reading and they stuck 4 past us with ease so it wouldn't surprise me.

Mowbray will be going at some point. If he isn't sacked he will resign or retire. Even if we offer him a lifetime contract he won't work forever. What are we supposed to do? Never even think about appointing anyone else because they might get someone worse? What happens if another club comes in and approaches Mowbray to go and join them?

Exactly. How often does Burnley's defence suffer from these 'individual errors'? It just doesn't happen because their manager won't allow it.

We should never have lost to Forest. A drab 0-0 is understandable but to lose that game late on in the manner we did encapsulates the weak, soft, easy to beat side to Rovers.