JHRover

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.

A 5-10 game boost might be the difference between Championship and League One next season. Yes it is that serious because we are sinking. I'd rather roll the dice in those circumstances and have a chance of survival rather than persist with something that isn't working and meekly go down. It might not be immediate gratification we need but it might soon be immediate points.

Steve Gibson isnt daft. He's given Woodgate an opportunity after serving time on the coaching staff. It isnt really working for them at the moment although at least they've kept a few clean sheets in tough games recently v Huddersfield and Fulham. Woodgate will be given some time but Gibson will sack him before risking relegation and will appoint a good manager in his place. Mowbray was and is a legend up there but that didn't stop the axe coming down when it was clear he'd lost his way. Nothing wrong with being patient and giving.managers a chance but you have to be able to recognise when it has gone too far to salvage. We are reaching that stage with our manager. It happens everywhere but the people who run Rovers will not face up to reality. They will bury their heads in the sand and hope everything works out ok.

Now now the club can 'do no more' and have 'the cheapest tickets in the league' according to some.

All true except there is a 3rd option rather than Venkys or bust. A new owner prepared to invest. Wigan found one after Whelan. PNE seem to manage to compete without losing £17 million a year. In fact with the exception of Bolton basically every other club has changed hands recently and not gone bust.

Collapsing under pressure and an inability to defend leads away from home is an issue that has plagued this team under this manager throughout. Very easy to try and pin the responsibility onto a single player for an error but that ignores the wider issue and bigger picture. If the manager believes the collapse was caused purely by Walton's error and that we would have won otherwise that is a big worry because anyone who watches away games will be able to see a pattern in performances. On odd occasions we get away with it but frequently we crumble and let winning positions slip. Think back to Stoke last year. Nearly let a 3 goal lead slip and would have done had they not missed their penalty. Weak. See it at home all the time- take the lead and concede immediately after. I've seen enough. It isnt individuals it is the collective mindset of Mowbray's team and it isnt going to change. Him and his team just don't have it in their lockers.

We've already missed out on 4-5 candidates who have now gone elsewhere - Monk, Rowett, Warburton, Cowley- who are all doing well at their new clubs or in Rowett's case got off to a good start. We will sit idly by twiddling our thumbs for another couple of months despite the writing being on the wall and wait for the remaining decent options to be snapped up and until January is out of the way to ensure no decent manager will demand funds to improve us. It's a dereliction of duty by those owning the club and supposedly running it. As ever the irony is that everyone that watches us can see what is happening yet those.paid fortunes to do something about it won't act and won't face reality.

Not intested in those numbers as they were before Waggott arrived and his policies implemented. Numbers of home fans are declining. Season ticket sales are down and numbers at Ewood are falling despite what official figures are put out.

Since this date last year we've played 46 league games (a full season). We've won 15 and collected 54 points during that period. That includes 3 wins at the back end of last season against Bolton, QPR and Forest which were complete dead rubbers between teams with nothing to play for. We've also had a negative goal difference in that time. So effectively we're at best scraping the survival mark or ignore the dead rubbers and its relegation form. That's over a year/season so the fools who keep saying it's a blip or bad patch haven't done their homework. How much longer is needed?

He's overseen a reduction in home attendances despite promotion and an improved atmosphere around the club. That takes some doing but he's managed it. That must make us one of very few clubs to have declining crowds and he must take responsibility for it.

Yes but it is cheaper and easier to do nothing, hope it all works out ok and if it doesn't then pretend/convince ourselves we can't do any better

Bowyer had some idea as to how to organise a defence and make us hard to beat. It wasn't always easy on the eye and we drew a lot of games but didn't concede all over the shop 2-3 goals a game and didn't have regular collapses like we do now.

Lot of people moaning about the referee or Preston's players going down easily to win free kicks. I call it good game management. Use the referees to your advantage. Huddersfield did the same. Everyone who watches football at this level knows the referees are tragically bad. Some managers exploit that ineptitude. We don't. We're in the image of our manager - too nice, not ruthless or nasty enough. We always end up on the wrong end of the decisions and feel hard done to but it's time we start playing the system ourselves. Get players booked and win soft free kicks.

Big difference between who we could get and who we will get. This club at this level with hands off owners who have provided decent funds could attract a good manager provided he was given the opportunity to do the job. People telling themselves that this club can do no better than Mowbray and the drivel we are getting at the moment are deluded. Sadly who we will end up getting when Mowbray goes will probably be useless and fail. The people running the club aren't up to the task and will prioritise convenience and cost over ambition.

After the game I said that we'd have been better off if the scoreline was 0-0 at half time than 2-0 to us. It seems sometimes being ahead in a game takes us by surprise and we don't really know how to approach the game from there on. 0-0 and Preston would probably have persevered rather than changed their system. They certainly wouldn't have applied as much pressure from the start of the 2nd half as they did. Being 2-0 down both meant that they had to 'go for it' and also meant we had to try and protect a lead, which we all know we are incapable of doing, and as usual we crumbled under pressure.

That's never been announced by the club. But then again they seem to like doing things without announcing it so it might be true.

Odd behaviour from Mowbray really. Either he knows his time is up and that is now affecting his body language or he's playing a different game with the players. Up to half time at Birmingham he continued to do his usual prowling around the technical area, arms folded, head in hands routine shouting at the players. 2nd half at Birmingham he didn't get out of his seat and Venus took on the role of communicating with players. Yesterday he made a point of hardly ever standing up - not when we were winning, not when they were getting back in the game nor late on when we were trailing. Even Venus rarely appeared to speak to the players. Meanwhile from the word go Alex Neil was on to his players offering encouragement and direction. At the half time whistle Neil sprinted down to the tunnel. Can only guess the difference between half time team talks. Normally I wouldn't really care what a manager does or whether he prefers to stand or sit during a game but this has been an obvious change in Mowbray's demeanor. I think we're now beyond the pale. Mowbray knows it - he's been here before - and his language and behavior shows it. A competent ownership and board would recognise that too and act accordingly but that's where things break down.

On net spending we should be pushing for the top 6. Mowbray has squandered those funds. If we were winning games regardless then nobody would really bother about that but when you're getting walloped by QPR and PNE who have spent a fraction of what he has then questions need to be asked. You can be dead sure that Neil is aiming for promotion this season at Preston (this being his 3rd season). He might not sing about it from the rooftops but in private he will be gunning for it. So should Mowbray. If he doesn't aim for promotion he's in the wrong business. Sooner rather than later we aren't going to have the luxury of worrying about who comes next and using that to argue against a change. A change will have to be made to keep us up and the club will have to get it right. If not then the club will be back in League One again.

Can anyone think of 3 clubs that we are going to finish above the way things are going? Wigan - atrocious relegation level away form but very strong home form where they rarely concede or lose - will survive on that alone Luton - score goals - have pulled a few impressive results out recently - have an identity. Millwall - new manager who has a good record and importantly knows how to build from the back and organise a team - will survive Stoke - struggling but underachieving massively with that squad and the sort of club that will pay big bucks to appoint a quality new manager e.g. Hughton when they fire Jones - should be ok Huddersfield - on the rise under Cowley Barnsley - perhaps the only one I'd put a bet on us finishing above but then again they are yet to appoint a new manager so things could change there. Reading - again underachieving and seem to have a new manager bounce. Another 2-3 weeks and things will change from the laid back relaxed approach of 'careful what you wish for' or 'steady away under Mowbray' to needing a change urgently to try and get out of relegation trouble. As ever with Rovers all the alarm bells and warning signs will be ignored for months until we are up to our necks in it and there is much less time to turn it around and we're a much less attractive proposition for a new manager and the decent ones have all gone elsewhere. Sickening but we've seen all this before. It's how Mowbray got the job in the first place.

Today was the clearest evidence possible that Mowbray is finished. Another 25 minute performance. Complete inability to sustain a performance, another 3 goals against. Completely out done by the opposition manager. No answer whatsoever to Preston's changes and improvement in the second half. Not.good enough by any measure. Time up. Thanks Mowbray but time for a fresh approach. Dont know what he was playing at today with his deliberate refusal to stand up in the technical area. Either the players told him to sit down or he told them to make a point and refused to address them.

Anyone with a brain can see time is up. Sadly those who run the club can't.

I wouldn't appoint a foreigner just for the sake of it but there are a lot of good options out there. I havent enough knowledge myself to suggest some of the lesser known ones but some with good Championship records like Garcia and Carvalhal. As with players the club has downscaled so much that it seems anything beyond the local area is too much so expect an internal appointment or someone operating nearby.

There's more chance of me being the next Rovers manager than there is Venkys sacking Mowbray before Xmas. I don't even think that's an exaggeration. Just think for a moment of the implications on the ground at Ewood if Venkys rang up on Monday morning and gave him his marching orders. First off they'd lose the glue that has held it all together - the man they trust - the man who has recruited all the coaching staff, scouts, CEO, signed most of the players - gone in an instant. Nobody else around to pick up that slack. This is why I've been vocal about needing a Director of Football to do all this so the manager can be potted quickly with minimal fallout. Here the entire footballing operation comes crashing down if Mowbray goes. Nobody at Ewood is going to rock that particular boat. Far to comfy as it is. Coyle was secure until late February despite atrocious results, permanent occupation of the bottom 3 and rebelling supporters. Even then it took the arrival of Paul Senior to force it through. I don't even believe Pasha has the ability to do anything other than perhaps make the Indians aware there is a bit of a problem. He's going nowhere unless he decides he doesn't want to do it anymore but not many managers do that. On the subject of contract extensions @chaddyrovers do you still think Mowbray should be given a new long term deal as you were pushing for throughout last season?