When was the last time we cruised to an easy win by 2 goals at Championship level? Sheffield Wednesday made us worry with their 2 goals.

We shouldn't have needed a 3rd to win the game yet with our defensive record getting a 3rd was the most likely route to victory. Like v Sheffield Wednesday we shouldn't have needed 3 goals to win that game against a woeful side yet we did as we managed to concede twice out of no pressure.

There's clearly a fragility to this team. Far too many points have been dropped from good positions either through silly mistakes, panicking when under pressure or sitting back and trying to defend narrow leads. On this particular occasion the comeback can be put down to a clanger by Raya, following which we lost our heads and conceded a second. But it's happened so many times there's more to discuss than individuals and I hope Mowbray is aware and alarmed by the amount of points we have squandered from winning positions.

Don't think Middlesbrough losing was that much of a shock. They're on a bad run and we should have beat them. Also not surprised at Ipswich beating Wigan. Wigan are awful away from home. Sounds like Reading are after a Portuguese manager at Rio Ave who's been around the block. Could be great or could be a disaster given their position. We need a few points from these next 4 games. Otherwise we could be down in 14-16th very quickly given how tight it is in the middle of the table.

Yep, and Stoke weren't causing us any problems when 3-0 up at their place yet we let them back in, Middlesbrough, Ipswich, Forest, the list goes on. We don't do comfortable wins. We've only won 1 by more than a single goal this season. I'm afraid I don't believe that we'd have cruised to victory had Raya not made a mistake, someone somewhere would have made a mistake or we'd have ended up sat really deep and they'd have had a chance. It happens regularly. We might have been 'looking' to score at third but I don't recall many decent chances to make that happen, except the (Reed?) shot from the edge of the area which was well saved.

I think blaming the comeback purely on Raya's mistake is focusing too much on one issue and not the whole problem. Yes in this game it was clearly his error that gave them the penalty and the foothold to come back into it but they scored 2 goals, and sadly we've thrown away winning positions far too many times this season for them all to be ascribed to individual error or bad fortune. It's a common theme, we're becoming experts at letting winning positions slip and ultimately when happens so frequently you have to look holistically at the team and its approach to winning positions. Do we have what it takes to protect winning positions effectively? If not why not when we've 2 defensive CMs playing all the match every match? Simply to say it is all Raya's fault and we'd all be happily ever after if he hadn't done what he did I don't think is entirely right. There's a bigger picture in play of a team that for 18 months has been uncomfortable in winning positions and never far away from handing the opposition a leg up.

If it wasn't him it would have been someone else. Solid sides don't make mistakes like that when 2-0 and cruising.

Yeah fair enough I don't mean to class today as one of our usual hanging on to a slender lead games, as you say they hadn't threatened at all up until that point. Nonetheless we seem to have a habit of finding ways to let teams in when they've done little to deserve it and this makes life hard work for ourselves. No doubt that we'd have embarked upon our usual 10-15 minutes of hanging on and running the clock down had they not immediately made it 2-2 and knocked us for six, then we went and applied some more pressure at the other end.

I'm not. Raya's idiocy was no surprise but had he not done that I'm sure we would have found a way to let them back in elsewhere. Winning a game comfortably isn't something we do sadly, at best it is hanging on to a one goal lead.

Just had an hour in the bath to thaw out. Absolutely no surprise to see us drop 2 points there. Once Armstrong's goal went in i was counting down the minutes as I fully expected at least 1 goal to come for them and knew if they got it before 85 minutes the chances were they would get another. Like so many other opposing teams they'll probably be sat on their bus home wondering how they managed to get what they did out of a game that should have been dead and buried. I'm personally sick and fed up with it. Time after time after time we throw points away from winning positions by conceding goals from often ridiculous scenarios. If it isn't one of our players dropping a clanger its some wide open kamikaze defending. The ease with which opposition teams score against us is shocking. We were never, ever, ever going to see that game out at 2-0 or extend our lead. I would have put my life savings on Birmingham scoring at some point. At 2-0 up at home against a poor side and looking comfortable I should be sat in the stands relaxed and enjoying us seeing the game out, yet sadly having experienced it so many times before I cannot feel anything but anxiety and nerves as I know a goal will come and at best we will end up hanging on for dear life camped in our penalty area. We did it more often than not last season in League One, but got away with it against poor sides. This season when you're up against far better players we are getting punished. I'm not convinced it is a personnel issue and I'm not convinced heaping blame on individuals is right. I am convinced that the team is set up or instructed to sit back on what they have when leading in games and we haven't got what it takes either quality wise or tactically to do that effectively. We'll now have a week of feeling sorry for ourselves that we've got 4 tough games coming up but we need to get some points out of those having chucked them away against the likes of Birmingham, Rotherham and Wigan recently.

Spot on. I'm not interested in what Raya did. Focusing on individuals is missing the bigger picture. This backs to the wall hanging on rubbish has been going on for more than a year, only now we aren't getting away with it. It's a mentality and coaching issue and it occurs regardless of personnel.

Do we? Surely if we were that desperate for cash we'd have snapped off WBA's hand when they came calling in the summer, yet all the reports suggest we rebuffed their approach. Since then we've spent millions on a bench player. Also since then Mowbray has gone on record at the Fans Meeting saying he won't be sold in January and that if/when he does go it will be for a hefty fee. Waggott was suggesting astronomical amounts in recent meetings in terms of what would be needed to sell. We all know he could be signed by a Premier League club at some stage or other but I do believe there is an element of mischief making going on which Rovers fans play right into. Certain individuals in the media and elsewhere can't resist it whenever a Rovers player begins to play well.

Who do you think Mowbray would have dropped to accommodate Davenport? Smallwood is one of his favourites and to be fair to him the shirt is/was his to lose after last season. Evans is an experienced Championship player and international regular who has been one of our standout performers since early 2018. I'm not sure how else Davenport could be accommodated and don't think for one minute Mowbray is the sort of manager to throw younger players in at the deep end.

They were talking about extending it around behind the other goal before Mike Ashley took over to increase capacity to 60,000 but don't think they can extend along the other side as there are a number of listed buildings directly behind that stand. I think it is one of the more impressive grounds in the country, certainly more than other big grounds like Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool, but when I've been put upstairs I struggle to properly see what is going on it is so high.

It needs to be easier and more attractive to go to Ewood. When Rovers aren't playing I will often make a late decision to go to Stanley. I can decide at 2:15pm whether I'm going or not, drive up (similar distance as Ewood from home) yet park right across the road, wander across Whalley Road and within 15 minutes of leaving the house be at the turnstile with a ticket in my hand for £15 or 20 and still have time to grab a pint and have a choice of the Crown, the gazebo or sometimes the club house. Whichever one there is a reasonable choice of beer, decent enough price and decent atmosphere. Now if i were applying the same to going to Rovers home games and making a decision on the day I would look at it differently. I couldn't make a decision that late as I would probably miss kick off due to having to park some distance from the ground and having to walk down. When there there is usually a queue at the ticket office which means having to stand waiting for 10 minutes+ which is the last thing I would want to do especially when the weather is like it is A ticket would likely cost the best part of £30 if lucky with the surcharge included. If there is time for a pint the choice is either Blues Bar and having to pay to get in or the Fan Zone where they only sell Fosters, both at a high price and I begrudge paying daft prices for poor quality beer. The Stanley 'experience' in terms of convenience, cost, quality of ale etc. all superior to what is on offer at Rovers. Now that is partly because Stanley is a small scale operation and as such things like parking are much easier and I get that bit, and the football on offer in the Championship is way better than the League below in my opinion, but other elements - like the price of tickets, means of buying tickets on the day, selection and price of beer, bar offerings at the ground - could all be adjusted at Rovers to make the experience a better one. I've said many a time that if Rovers offered a bar which sold decent beer at a reasonable price I'd be in there pre-match every week but I won't spend money at Rovers given the choice and price there is in place there is at present. It all comes down to how much you want it. The little things - like Stanley doing a deal with Bowland Brewery to supply them with 'Accy Ale'. Any reason Rovers couldn't give 3 Bs up Tockholes a ring and get an order on for a few barrels per home game? There's more to it than that but you have to start at the basics and making things better. Get the fans down to Ewood as early as possible and try to keep them there after full time.

Not the best picture but Luton had 7500 there upstairs

Yeah if needed it can go round the bend and into the main stand. Luton had nearly 8000 up there last season or season before.

If they've kicked off with 3000 allocation then they'll definitely be allocated in the gods upstairs. They won't have 3000 away fans pitchside. Infact I think that police/safety bods don't allow it there as that's why away fans are still upstairs when a Premier League rule says away fans should always be pitchside. They're the only club that got special dispensation as everyone else has had to introduce it. If however we don't sell very many e.g. only 1000 and Newcastle only shift 30,000ish then it wouldn't surprise me nearer the time for them to move away fans down to the bottom corner where they can be easily accommodated without needing to open the upper tier. I would however expect us to sell at least 1500 at that price, probably 2000, and Newcastle could well turn up in their droves at that price even though they didn't last time in the cup.

Doesn't need to be an either/or for me. If the owners are deciding to throw £7 million at teenagers that tells me there's plenty of money around for reinforcements whilst keeping the senior players at the club, if they want to do it.

I think that new deal is fair enough. His performances at the end of last season and so far this show that he can be an important player for us and he still has years on his side moving forward. Think they're pushing it a bit with the 'Commitment' line in an attempt to encourage more season ticket sales mind.

When I looked last you could get the train from Manchester to Newcastle direct going at 10am and returning at 10pm for £66 each. Not ideal and you'd have to get a taxi to Piccadilly (£25?).

In both of those cases, and Bradford too, the massive reductions were made following or during periods of success. Bradford did it shortly after promotion from League Two and their run to the League Cup final. Huddersfield did it ahead of Wagner's first full season and did all the promotional stuff with creating a singing section next to the away end. Forest did it following their takeover ahead of Karanka's first full season whilst throwing silly money at transfers so everyone expected them to be pushing for promotion. Not sure how cheap Forest have made their tickets but I know there's good deals there for young adults and students (better than can be found at most clubs). I suppose some could argue that Bradford and Forest have vastly greater catchment areas than we have to tap into but that doesn't explain the Huddersfield one where as you point out their gates were below ours the season before and then almost doubled. That's what good marketing does. I very much doubt Huddersfield limited their promotional material to posters round their town centre, they were pushing it all over the place in all sorts of ways to get as many as possible buying into it. No doubt a full house every week assisted them on the way to promotion and has probably, in conjunction with their time in the Premier League, resulted in a new generation of fans who will be getting into the habit of going every week. Financially they probably did ok out of it with 20,000 paying less for tickets but spending on food, drink and merchandise whilst there. Maybe it is asking a lot for us to go to those prices but the proof it there that it works. Sadly I think that the boat has been missed. The positivity of last season and promotion was the time to do it, yet we had no imaginative pricing, no serious promotion, delayed our sales window and put prices up by 17% whilst closing another stand. All things you wouldn't do if you were serious about significantly increasing crowds. You would have got them on sale as soon as practically possible, at the very least during the promotion run-in, at the latest of the Oxford game, you would have kept prices frozen or at most increased them ever so slightly, embark upon a significant promotional campaign over several months, and don't annoy people by shutting stands. I wasn't a fan of the DE as it was as there weren't enough people in but the result we've got with a cluster in the JW lower and it seems some no longer going to games is a poor outcome. People will respond to periods of success as Oxford showed. If this season pans out as expected and we finish mid-table that will be a success (in my opinion) but it isn't the sort of success that will entice people to flock to the ground. Promotion, play-off campaigns, significant investment and impressive recruitment are what makes people take an interest and bumping up prices rather than trying to fill the place up more appears to be opportunity missed.

Apparently Anderson pays himself £500,000+ a year in 'consultancy fees' from the club. Suppose it takes the biscuit then when the club can't pay staff wages.

https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/early-bird-season-card-deadline-is-today Adults in the North West, North, South and Family stands at Middlesbrough cost £397 for a full season. If I remember correctly our cheapest was £319 but that only applied in the Riverside stand. For the majority who sit in the BBE or JW stands it was £349. So almost £50 cheaper over the season. Not really anything to moan about I agree, but all it does is show we're in a similar ball park to others.

Blackpool have allocated Sunderland 7,800 tickets for their New Years Day fixture after their initial allocation sold out in hours. Rumours also that if they sell those they will make more available. Presumably Lancashire Constabulary will be insisting that the game is moved to 12 noon as that number of away fans at a ground is a safety issue? Or does that only happen at Ewood Park?