They'll be down to 11-12,000 if they stay at this level long term.

The only credit I can give Rovers is that it isnt just us. Swansea away in December I expect will be £30 adults for a midweek game on TV. At least a day and a half off work. 5 hours each way travel and the best part of £100 for ticket, travel, programme and food/drink. Or sit at home for free on the red button. Takes some justifying a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Birmingham charged us £15 the other week so if Waggott really does base his prices on what the other club charges our fans e.g. Leeds then what will his excuse be against Birmingham? He just makes it up as he goes along. Some Rovers fans are still falling for it.

Looking at Stoke's recent managerial appointments they've either gone for British and experienced (Pulis, Hughes, Lambert) or up and coming (Rowett and Jones). In their predicament now I'd expect them to pay big to get someone with experience. I'd be surprised if McCarthy would do it given his Ireland commitments. He'd be better off focusing on that job and then weighing up his options in the summer once the Euros are over. I think their fans would go beserk if they appointed Pardew although I actually think he'd be a decent appointment for a struggling Championship side. Very experienced and a decent record at most of his clubs. O'Neill I think is finished as a manager. I think Stoke might roll the dice with him if they run out of options but I'm not even sure he'd bother taking it now. Why waste time in a Championship relegation scrap at his age with his achievements in the game? I still think Stoke will come up with the cash to persuade Hughton to take it. Hughton won't get a Premier League job and if Stoke offer enough money I think he'd be tempted. Failing that perhaps Michael O'Neill would be tempted. Looking down the divisions nobody really stands out as an obvious option. Ainsworth doing well but completely different game taking over a club like Stoke mid-season. Hopefully they get it wrong and tie up one of the relegation slots and make our task easier.

I think it was a legal obligation that they had to subsidise the club through profits from other areas as per instructions from Jack Walker. It wasn't an 'opt in' if you fancy doing arrangement. I think blaming the economic crash of 2008 is off point slightly. Whilst it may have contributed to their urgency in trying to get rid they were after selling the club before the economic downturn began. They never really wanted the club and didn't have any interest in it. I get that. Unfortunately there was the inconvenient matter of their obligations and duties under the trust fund which made their personal preferences irrelevant. Jack Walker didn't 'mess up'. He was far too astute and clever to make such a simple error. This is a guy who years before he died paid the best lawyers and advisers around to get his affairs in order and ensure there was continuity after his death. The arrangements he put in place were done properly. It was the execution of them that came up short I believe because the people responsible for doing it had other ideas.

And you think handing over Jack Walker's club at a knock down price to Indian poultry tycoons with no interest in football or past experience of sports ventures nor any successful business in Europe who were being heavily led by a well known agent was the behaviour of people who cared about the club? How do you explain the Ali Syed fiasco? It took Goldberg at the BBC a matter of days to discover he was a con man. Any due diligence by the Trust would have found the same skeletons. Truth is they hoped it could all go through quickly and smoothly before trouble began. Remember Sky Sports cameras outside the BBE when they were getting out of the minibus and going inside to 'view the books'. Wonder who arranged for the cameras to be there rolling at the right time. I guess the same bloke as has been well in with Sky and Talksport from the word go.

Only have to look at the state of the areas around Ewood to see what little pride the council have in the area. 'No money' they cry yet found plenty under the mattress for the caravan site, white elephant bus lanes and squads of wardens out on matchday trying to catch people for parking.

It is almost inconceivable that within the last decade the only two serious bidders for an established Premier League club available at a relatively low price were Venkys and Ali Syed. That alone tells me that something was amiss with the whole thing. We can forget any notions of the Walker Trust wanting right by the club or giving a stuff. They wanted the money asap and were prepared to offload the club to the first chancers that offered the cash. Remember when Radio 5 outed Ali Syed as a fraudster? Some reporter at the BBC quickly worked out what Syed was whilst the Trust were allowing him and his cronies access to Ewood Park. Can only imagine what would have happened if that BBC report hadn't been done. I'm sure they have handed the lot over to him and we'd have been central to an epic swindle. I don't believe that the sale of the club was transparent or done for the clubs best interests. When you look at the efforts the likes of Whelan at Wigan went to sell them on to foreign owners whilst in the Championship and Wolves under Steve Morgan to Fosun we can see there is a chance of new ownership if homework is done and efforts made to protect the club

Owners who were worried or bothered by these sort of losses would be doing more than this lot are. They would be hands on or at least pay big bucks to get top level expertise into the boardroom and let them get on with running it on their behalf. They persist with a structure built on personal relationships and trust over performance and target attainment. The top dogs make no effort to get a grip on things over here. Baby steps by agreeing to appoint a CEO but he's the managers mate so not exactly as it seems on the outside. They have their way of doing things and arent going to change. In all probability the way they do things will not work in our game as they are too slow and reactive. So they need to realise that until they change their ways and operate differently as most other professional clubs operate then they are going to carry on this way losing money. Notice how other foreign owners havent persisted with ways of operating that they want, they've learned sometimes the hard way to do what is best for the club, not themselves.

Preston putting half season tickets on sale tomorrow. Clearly someone there wants to build on the feel good factor. Think they might sell a few.

How do we increase season ticket sales? We are one of if not the last to put them on sale. Usually well beyond the end of the season. Other clubs have them on sale in February and March. Our prices have been rising for a number of years. Generally speaking the product has been poor. Either outright antagonism of fans e.g. Coyle and shutting stands down or just poor quality football and results as we tend to get now. Not sure what ideas the club has deployed to overcome all this. A few tweets and posters mainly in Blackburn. In this era you need to have a better strategy than that and daft lottery ticket ideas like Waggott has had. The club hasn't done all it can. If they believe they have they are in the wrong business.

We did nothing last January when a few astute additions might have maintained momentum. In the end we had a predictable defensive crisis and plummeted down the table. Apparently it isnt a good time to do business. Expectations of using this January to sign players we need? None

It already is when the club itself doesn't look any further than Darwen

They remind me of Burnley when they got promoted. Nothing brilliant just consistent and put together relatively cheaply with astute transfers. Name of the game is consistency in selection and approach. Mowbray tries keeping everyone happy to our detriment. You get a winning formula and stick to it. Don't try to be clever keep trying different things.

Preston 1-0 up at Charlton. Effective at defending a lead and running the clock down. Players down for soft fouls and injuries left right and centre. Stockley went down easily for the penalty. No nonsense and fancy ideals. Just sensible and effective.

I'm not really sure the owners are backing anything. I just think they quite like Mowbray as a human being (as everyone seems to do who has had dealings with him) and as a result they are comfortable with him being in place. Twas the same with Kean and Bowyer for a good while. The managers that haven't lasted are the ones who haven't had that personal link to Mrs Desai - Berg, Appleton, Lambert and Coyle - but even then it seems they all departed for other reasons than the owners getting fed up - Berg and Appleton were caught up in the Singh/Shaw chaos, Lambert walked of his own accord and Coyle was removed only when Senior was brought in to troubleshoot. Personally I don't think the owners (Mrs Desai and husband) have any interest whatsoever in results or performances or what the fans want or whether we are delivering on a particular target. They review things bi-annually when Mowbray makes the effort to jump on a plane to talk to them and keep an eye on losses and the amount they need to inject. Far from having faith in Mowbray and persevering through a bad patch because they believe in what he is doing I just don't think they know or care about what is happening on a match by match basis.

Seat in the JW for £48 today if you don't have the luxury of deciding days or hours in advance whether to go. Most expensive away ticket in the Premier League at any time £30.

It was dismantled because the owners and their henchmen have cut back on all but essential expenditure. Hence the zombie state, skeletal staff, lack of expertise, lack of investment in infrastructure and facilities. In reality the manager shouldn't really have control over scouting these days. It should exist alongside the manager but continue to operate irrespective of who sits in the dugout. The approach we have now whereby Mowbray has put it all in place as per his preferences is nothing short of ludicrous. Particularly when the time comes for a change.

Why have we allocated Wednesday the upper tier of the Darwen End? Thought we were only doing that for the smaller away followings and the bigger ones were going downstairs?

The theory was that Jones knew his time was up but they wanted Hughton and he knocked them back. Have to assume they've spent some time looking at alternatives and have now settled on a preferred option or even have the green light to go and get him quickly. Hope it is Neil because the way things are going I'm going to need therapy if Burnley survive and PNE get promoted.

Great post. Clear evidence that this isn't misfortune or a rare event. Its poor management and coaching. Only one way to addess that.

Money talks. I suspect Neil will have had a considerable pay rise at PNE when he signed his new deal towards the end of last season and WBA went elsewhere. Even so Stoke and the Coates family will pay if they want to and Neil ticks a lot of boxes for them. Whilst Stoke have problems I expect they are probably quite a good club to work for with investment from upstairs, local fans running the club and decent facilities and ground. Certainly a step up from Preston. Would still be surprised if Neil took it given where he has got Preston in the table. If anything it could galvanise him and Preston further if he sticks with them in the face of interest from elsewhere. As for Preston replacing him if he leaves I'm sure a few were saying they'd struggle when Grayson went to Sunderland after doing a good job with them. That's what happens when you have an owner and advisers who are interested in what is happening and have contingency plans in place for such things. No guarantees but they will have a shortlist in their minds just in case. Compare to Rovers who would sit around waiting for applicants to come forward and messages to arrive from India and then hand it to someone already on the payroll because it's cheap and easy.

I don't think anyone at Rovers nor many of the fanbase yet realise the severity of the situation. This isn't a comfortable position where we can just sit back and wait for January or next summer to reassess. As others have correctly pointed out, results since this time last year have been just about survival mark, and that includes 9 points from dead rubbers against Bolton (struggling to even fulfil fixtures), QPR and Forest. Take those bonus points out and it is bad reading. Not mid table. Not play offs. Not comfortable. Barely survival. No room for error. That's reality. From what I've seen so far this season we look at best the same as last season and on occasions worse (our home results have deteriorated). The football remains dreadful to watch the majority of the time so we can't really cling to progress being made on that front. Nor has the defence really improved despite a few clean sheets in September. The penny will drop soon. It might take another couple of defeats or places down the table but soon the urgency and seriousness of the situation will become clear.

Was only a matter of time before Stoke took action. They'll be above us before Xmas if they appoint Pulis, Moyes or Hughton.

Hull are doing half price tickets around the ground for an upcoming match. Not the first time they've done that this season. Their owner is reacting to their plummeting gates.