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.

There seems to be an increasing amount of weight attached to what Mowbray's aims and ambitions are and whether he has made life hard work for himself by setting the bar too high. It's all nonsense. Find me a manager in this division who doesn't want promotion and tries to get there. Sadly it needs more than desire and telling people that's what you want. It needs expertise, good transfer dealings and tactical skill which Mowbray doesn't have. It also shouldn't be Mowbray setting any targets. It should be the owners and board who set those targets and then get a manager who can deliver. Seems here the manager tells the owners what his targets are. And then they wonder why it doesn't work.

He's ex-Hibs so no. Don't think they're daft enough to appoint rivals ex-managers, unlike the genius who gave us Coyle.

So last week it was Mark Venus' fault, apparently contributing nothing but a reminder of Paul Lambert and being expected to justify himself and now after another woeful and embarrassing defeat now the manager needs a mid-season holiday. I've read some rubbish in the Telegraph but the excuses for this failing manager are getting out of hand now. What next? Chef at Brockhall been making the wrong meals? Climate change affecting preparations?

Is it 2011 again?

True, but there are many clubs with absentee owners who fill that vacuum with high quality administrators who are expected to perform. Here we don't have Chairmen, CEOs, sporting directors, technical directors or other expertise. We have dodgy agents, tv pundits, part timers, snake oil salesmen and managers mates.

Exactly. Boro struggling now but Gibson cares and understands the game. He will know when times up and a decision needs to be made. He's given Woodgate a chance, they're underachieving at present but he will do the right thing. Same story when they fired Mowbray despite him being a legend there. Same story at Stoke. Persisting with Jones but it won't carry on. They'll make a change and climb out of it. Owner who cares and takes an interest in what is happening.

I remember playing Cardiff at home 1st game of the season on a Friday night live on TV just after they had been relegated. Darwen End lower divided between home and away fans. BBE upper open. 15,600 on. Maybe 2000 or so Cardiff fans on so 13000-14000 home fans. All areas of ground open. Felt good that night. The ground felt good and it was a good atmosphere. Now we are down to 10,000 with two stands closed it feels awful.

Since he made that claim we've had 2 matches out of more than 30 where the away following has taken up all or most of the Darwen End. Leeds and Preston at home. I'd be surprised if either sold out this season with Waggott's pricing.

Another big away crowd falling by the wayside. Why again did Waggott say the Darwen End home area was being closed?

I'm afraid the club has dug its own grave in relation to attendances and atmosphere at Ewood and it is going to be very difficult to turn that around now from what amounts to a prolonged decline. Some will try and put their heads in the sand and say the decline is mostly natural and a result of life outside the Premier League but I don't entirely buy that cop out of an excuse which seems to be based on 30-40 year old attendance figures for the pre-Jack Walker era (lets be honest such figures have little to no relevance in 2019 given the changes in society, football and stadia) When the club was managed by competent people like John Williams there was a recognition that ongoing efforts needed to be made by the club to boost attendances and the atmosphere. The club came up with the idea of putting home fans behind both goals by opening part of the DE Lower up to home fans and making it 'different' to the rest of the ground by making it cheaper and offering unreserved seating and essentially an unofficial standing area. This lasted reasonably well for 7-8 years despite zero efforts from the club to promote it or encourage people to take flags etc. in there. I went in a couple of times. Not my cup of tea for a number of reasons but i got why some people liked it and that was the obvious place to try and grow and develop a singing/standing/banners and flags area - otherwise empty and right next to the away fans where the atmosphere is easiest to generate between opposing fans. Sadly the money focused people thought they could save a few quid by shutting that stand down. No effort at all made to relocate this area to an adjacent stand. The Lower JW corner unsuitable for such an idea anyway due to its location and size. This followed similar efforts to save a few quid by shutting down the BBE Upper and forcibly relocating season ticket holders in both the BBE upper and JW lower, in the process annoying plenty of people. The folk who are paid to 'manage' matchdays at Ewood quite happy with this new arrangement. Less areas to police. A wrecking ball swung at the most 'troublesome' area of home fans with those numbers plummeting and the diaspora of those remaining across the other 3 stands making them much less of a 'problem' for them to manage. Much better, much easier, much less hassle. Same salary at the end of the day. Why should they care? All this has happened irrespective of results and performances on the pitch (in the main these have been atrocious) and pricing of tickets (which have been escalated massively under the latest bloke claiming to be in charge). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out why gates and atmospheres have dropped through the floor. Sadly there still seems to be a complete ignorance or refusal to accept that decisions made in the offices at Ewood are arguably the single biggest factor in all this. In 2016 they went for the triple whammy of allowing Lambert to walk out, antagonizing fans by appointing a failed dingle manager and then shutting down stands for good measure. What are they doing to address all that? Any fresh ideas? Nope. Just questioning fans commitment whilst continuing to serve up rubbish and then introducing punitive extra charges for good measure, moving away fans as far away as possible. Anyone who looks at what Huddersfield have done with what was their away end or even Reading whose gates are barely and better than ours in truth would be able to learn a thing or two. Sadly cheap and easy with minimal effort is the way of things these days.

One of the most frustrating things about the membership scheme is there is no benefit to be had when buying cup matches. All my league home games are covered by my season ticket. I never buy additional home tickets. When we get home cup matches there should be a benefit to members.

If every club were to adopt self sufficiency we would not realistically be in League One. Our revenues would be or should be greater than numerous other Championship clubs. Clearly if we adopted self sufficiency whilst everyone else carried on investing that is a different story.

If Mowbray wants to use Villa as a comparison then on his head be it. The expectation at Villa was promotion and Bruce was fired when it was clear they weren't going the right way and the fans turned.

The difference is this. When Wednesday and Leeds charge us £40 then only 500 or so bother going. Our followings at Hillsborough in the last few years have been very poor. Realistically if they were £20 a person we might get up to 1500 but not much more than that. When they come to us they will bring a lot more than that. Leeds will still bring 6000+ and Wednesday 2000-3000. I personally don't have a problem with returning high prices to Leeds and Wednesday. Perhaps eventually their fans will put pressure on their clubs to stop it. In an era of FFP why should our fans have to pay to help other clubs comply with rules but their fans get a cheap day out at Ewood? The answer isnt to charge our fans the same. Two ways around it. Do what Leeds do and make the Darwen End Upper top tier pricing and the bottom tier and side stands much cheaper. Alternatively run these two games at local promotions where you can charge home fans less than away fans. Birmingham and Huddersfield both did this to us recently where home fans could get in on the cheap and away fans were charged more. We've never done it.

Preston at home - make it £20 anywhere in the ground up to kick off. No more strings attached. You'd get 23,000+ on. Do what Waggott does and we'll have 19,000 if lucky. Sadly I think those employed at Rovers would prefer the lower figure. Easier day at the office and all.

Really? You think the pressure would be less if he had gone public and aimed for midtable? Who on earth aims for mid table in this garbage division? Look at what Neil is doing at Preston or what Warburton is doing at QPR. Ambitious managers who set out to win every week. Even if the aim was top 10 we aren't even going to get near that. Mowbray is getting stick for a number of reasons none of them to do with his aims for the season. We are regressing. We are awful to watch. We collapse every time we go ahead. We are entering a relegation battle. His transfer dealings are awful. He's had a bigger net spend than most managers at this level. No more excuses. It's not good enough and Mowbray is responsible.

Ken Lawrence clearly hasn't watched very much of Rovers if he thinks a Walton save and Preston wouldn't have come back. I think 90% of fans there knew what was coming and the only issue was when and how. This time round a keeping error. Next time it will be a soft penalty or defensive error. The minute the half time team talk was over that game was going Preston's way.