I don't remember that. I sat in the Blackburn End at the time and they were on tables/stalls opposite the main bars next to the entrance.

I get where you are coming from but again it seems too simplistic to me to simply point towards two local clubs in dire straits and then say we should be happy with our situation because at least Venkys are paying the bills. There has to be some recognition that the problems facing Bury and Bolton are each born from unusual circumstances. Not simply the case of losing money and owners not putting it in. Bolton have gone into admin because they owe money left, right and centre to all sorts of creditors and havent been able to plug the gap with player sales. To my knowledge our only creditor(s) are Venkys and the Bank of India (who lend money to Venkys because of their business dealings and not to Rovers as a football club/also secured on assets in India?) What that all means is the only people who could put us into admin at the moment are Venkys themselves or the Bank (again they appear more interested in Venkys and their Indian assets than us). At Bolton they've had multiple owners, HMRC, loans, and the combination of those over several years has tipped them over the edge. At Bury I think there has been some serious financial wrongdoing there behind the scenes and it seems the events of the last 8-9 months are a cover up operation to prevent it becoming full public knowledge. Very dodgy stuff. In any event their stature, income and assets as a club are very different to ours. Even then there is interest in buying them which is being rejected by their owner demanding too much for his shares.

I think the Wainwrights stunt was more of a Thwaites idea in an attempt to grow that brand just as it was starting to take off and they realised they were on to a winner, before selling it off to Marstons to brew in the Midlands. Probably nothing to do with Rovers as it was served from pop up temporary bars on the concourse rather than from Rovers own catering stands. Have to say I was disgusted to see that Thwaites are now marketing themselves as a 'Ribble Valley brewery' on their new beer pump clips and posters with no mention of Blackburn. Can't remember the last time I had a pint of Thwaites beer. Shame but they obviously see themselves as being above the town these days.

Exactly, so people saying Bell is League One standard and not good enough for us need to compare his CV with that of Sam Hart. Can't say Bell isnt good enough and then suggest replacing him with someone who has done less than Bell in League One.

Bell was excellent for Fleetwood in League One who were a better outfit than Rochdale or Southend. I'm also not sure what impressing against Barrow, Mansfield or Bury has to do with starting on Saturday v Cardiff

Hart is nowhere near good enough to be starting in the Championship and even if he were he's never done before and has played one u23 game since his significant injury in pre season. Not a chance he will be starting.

Despite the massive deterioration in pubs in Blackburn I still think that Ewood is relatively blessed with good numbers of proper pubs within a 10-20 minute walk. Can't think of many Championship grounds that have more. Hull is quite a good one but most of those pubs are quite grim. Preston has a load in the centre but not that many around the ground. Certainly a lot more options than the new grounds.

A good performance and result and a lot to be pleased about last night. A number of good performances across the pitch from another clean sheet through to creating numerous good opportunities and some decent football. Probably more clear cut chances last night than in our previous 3 matches combined. The last two games have shown progress but with plenty of room to go on. Far from the finished article but signs we can be more than strugglers this season. I still worry about scoring goals which I shouldn't with the ammunition we have in our ranks but we still appear to be too indirect and wasteful from good positions for my liking. First game of the season I've properly enjoyed last night with Charlton and Fulham quite depressing and Middlesbrough more relief than enjoyment. Hull will probably be midtable but are a decent side at their place so it's a tough place to go and win. Attendance of just over 10,000 but I reckon more like 6000-7000 there in reality. Can't beat a 1-0 away win, midweek away wins are rare here. On to Cardiff and I'm feeling more confident about things. They've struggled and we have an extra day's rest, we should be confident.

I think anything above £3.50 unless its premium beer is expensive in this part of the world. My local in Ossy charges £2.50 for cask beer and up to £3 for lager. I'd be prepared to pay £3.50 for cask at Ewood if it was good quality as I accept buying it at a major venue carries a premium. When I last went in the Red Rose suite it was a choice between Fosters, bottled beers or Maltsmiths IPA. All were £4+. In the end i went on bottled Theakstons Lightfoot and it was the best part of £4.50 a bottle. Really poor choice and ridiculous prices. As said above, cask beer can be bought for between £60 and £90 a 9 gallon barrel. Approx. £1 per pint to buy. I'm sure if we stuck a deal with Bowland or 3 Bs we could get it even cheaper in bulk. No excuse therefore to charge £4+ a pint. £3 a pint would still see them triple their money on each barrel sold. Stanley do it, dingles do it, even Wigan have set one up with Bowland beer on. They can't argue we don't get enough people on as that is nonsense. It's just laziness and a lack of vision. Sad times when we can go down to Brighton and they make the effort to put cask Thwaites on in the concourse for away fans to encourage them to drink in the ground yet there's nothing of the sort at Ewood.

I think people tend to forget that prior to Ken Anderson taking over at Bolton with Dean Holdsworth they were on the cusp of administration and possible liquidation in the High Court due to unpaid tax. They needed a takeover and quickly otherwise there was a real prospect that they would be wound up there and then. As expected when dealing with a skint 2nd tier football club on the brink of being shut down prospective buyers were in short supply. Without wanting to appear as though I am defending the Football League (I detest them as much as anyone) it seems likely if they had rejected Anderson then Bolton would have been shut down a few years ago. There's an argument that their present predicament, whilst painful for their fans and embarrassing for the League, is preferable to what might easily have been the alternative. The issue goes beyond the inept League and their weak ownership rules. There is a flaw in the League structure that needs addressing and rebalancing and the only ones with the power to do it are the FA and Premier League. Not sure what the FA actually do. They are the ultimate power of the game in this country yet it seems everything is batted off to competition organizers like the Premier League and Football League. Time the Fa did something and used its powers.

The appointment of academy staff should be independent of the manager, in my opinion. We are too dependent on Mowbray, in my opinion. He is first team manager (or is it head coach?) so his remit should be limited to that area. It's a tough and demanding enough job without the need to add extra responsibilities such as overseeing a Category A academy. The club seem determined to follow what is, in my opinion, an outdated management structure where the old school manager is responsible for every facet of the operation from media duties, fans, first team right through to overseeing scouting and recruitment and the academy. I don't think Mowbray can do all that. Infact I don't think many managers in the world could do it all. People may say Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger did it but they didn't. Their influence was through the club but they had extremely well qualified people running the individual departments. Only time will tell if it can work here but for me it is putting all our eggs into one basket. Either because our nutty owners only want to work this way or because we're doing everything on the cheap and have scaled back so much on the operation that we need the manager to run it all on his own because there isn't the structure or staff otherwise to do it. As I've said many times before - we need a head coach who is solely responsible for managing the first team. Then, when that head coach resigns or is sacked (which happens every couple of years in the vast majority of cases) then the disruption to the club is minimal and there can be a smooth transition with a new head coach. When Mowbray eventually walks away or is sacked (likely to happen in the relatively near future given his bosses' background, the nature of the Championship and his age) then the impact around the club is going to be similar to that of an earthquake with all the coaching staff and scouting staff and executive staff singing from his hymn sheet and in place because of him and his ideas. We will then need a new manager to come in and take on the mammoth job of handling Venkys whilst also dealing with all these other things and the not insignificant task of getting good results.

I don't believe that Bolton will be going out of the league. Bury yes but still expect this Dale bloke to hand them over to someone else before it comes to expulsion. I can see the League becoming more imaginative in terms of the 'support' they offer before allowing the humiliation of 2 clubs going out by September. The torrent of criticism towards them and their precious image will be overwhelming.

Oh dear, last thing the League will want is another headache with a cancelled game. The Brentford one had almost been consigned to history. Failing to play Brentford when due Failing to rearrange the Brentford game when directed to do so by the League Failing to play Doncaster when due 3 separate offences and not a single point deducted for it. Can imagine one or two League One clubs will be kicking off before long about this.

Thin dividing lines here. A win or spirited draw and on the back of the Middlesbrough win we could argue it's been a steady yet slow start and start to look upwards. A defeat and its 3 from 4 and concerns reverberate around again. Hull are nothing special yet seem to have had a steady but have had an ok start to the season with a win, draw and defeat. Many tipped them to struggle this season. Surprised they managed to keep hold of Bowen who continues to bang them in. Maybe like us with Dack there hasn't been as much interest as expected. Can we build on Saturday or will old habits return? Hull and Cardiff suddenly represent a good opportunity to progress.

Can anyone tell me the last time appointing and promoting an inexperienced coach from within actually worked out well for a Championship club? I'd argue it was here with Bowyer but then many people weren't happy with him and felt he underachieved. Heckingbottom at Barnsley - left them in the relegation zone. A quick look at the others. Paul Trollope at Cardiff, Kit Symons at Fulham, Woodgate at Middlesbrough, Redfern at Leeds, Moore at WBA, Wassall at Derby, Adam's at Norwich. All very much 'meh' at best. All of that lot were highly rated and respected as coaches and for doing well on the training pitch or with the kids. Far more to it than that.

How hard would it be to put a real ale stall up in this new 'Jack's Fan Zone'? A temporary bar, do a deal with 3 Bs or one of the many other local breweries who produce cask ale. Provide us with 3 or 4 ales, a few barrels of each, every home game, charge no more than £3 a pint. I know for a fact that ale from there costs about £1 a pint to buy from the brewery so £2.50 or £3 a pint is more than enough to make money on. I'd drink a few pints every game and go there rather than the pub. I'd sooner my money go to Rovers. But I'm not being made a fool of with the prices and choice available at present. Other clubs are realising that tastes are a changing, but seems we are in the comfort zone and that's all there is to it. On a bigger scale I'd like to see the redundant Darwen End lounge converted into a 'pub' for pre and post match food and drink, again reasonably priced and good quality. Can anyone tell me what the new fan zone is? Other than 2 or 3 banners I cant see any difference to last season?

Walking past the ticket office at 2:20pm yesterday there must have been 3 people buying tickets for the game. Something very wrong there but sadly nothing will be done about it.

Stanley can make those prices work with 2000 turning up for games. We can't with 12,000-15,000. Doesn't make sense.

Brighton have set up a real ale bar in their ground in conjunction with Harvey's brewery. Presumably there's 'no demand' for such a thing here. Or it's too much effort.

Good important win to get that 3 points under our belts and hopefully the clean sheet will do us some good. Thought the game was desperately short on quality with two teams struggling so far this season. In the end I don't care but feel we have a lot of work to do. Thought Mowbray's changes with 15 minutes to go and us on the rails were bold/foolish. The Armstrong introduction was fair enough but taking off Graham and Downing's experience and bringing on Buckley and Rothwell was very brave but in the end it worked.

So we get a point today. Next up is Hull away, and all the talk before that will be about a point being good away from home. Then its Cardiff at home and West Brom away. Very few will be pinning their hopes on us winning those. All the people saying today isnt must win will also be saying the next 3 arent must win because they are away from home or against fancied sides. Suddenly you are 6 games in, only a couple of points on the board and adrift looking for a first win. Got to get it sooner or later and today is a better opportunity than the next 3.

As far as I'm concerned it is a must win game. But expect attempts to portray a draw as a good result. No doubt if we get a point it will be 'we're up and running' or if we are behind and salvage a draw it will be all about showing good fighting spirit to recover a point with a few references to Middlesbrough being a really good side, massive club etc. Need a win. No excuses.

Why were Oldham fans downstairs when they only brought 500ish? Surely Waggott didn't expect them to bring thousands?

Only 2 fit outfield senior players for their game at Tranmere tomorrow. Concerns also being raised by some about the welfare of the kids playing 3 or 4 games a week. Something has to give soon so expect the League to pay players to join them or invent a new transfer window to assist.

Probably about right. I also suspect that is more or less what we are sending Cardiff's way for Cunningham. When we go though and deduct off wages for Raya, Nuttall, Reed, Conway, Rodwell and balance out with Gallagher, Johnson, Walton and Downing I suspect we've stood still on wages.