I'm with Chaddy here on this one. No dingles at this club please. In addition I have an intense dislike of Cook due to a number of reasons, the main one being his disgraceful behaviour and language in the dugout. Some will say it's petty or narrow minded, but there's thousands of managers and players in the world, no reason at all to appoint one that is ex Burnley.

Why would Mowbray use the vast majority of his transfer pot on a player he doesn't trust or doesn't think is capable of playing in his team for more than 20 minutes? Why would Mowbray prefer to use no striker than his expensive striker? Why would Mowbray sit on that cash all summer then throw a bid in for Brereton at the last minute completely out of the blue? Surely you can see why people are baffled by that piece of business.

The Brereton deal has looked dodgy from the word go. Mowbray's stubborn refusal to play him and the lengths he will go to try and find an alternative 'solution' only add to the bewilderment. Still don't believe for one minute that we've committed to £7 million on this lad. Perhaps one reason we ain't starting him is to avoid financial commitments that kick in if he starts X number of games for us? I appreciate what Mowbray has done but if a manager ever needed a crash course in how to annoy your own supporters it would be similar to what he did yesterday. Turn up at your local rivals without a CF, start the game way off the pace, end up getting embarrassed by local rivals and then turn around afterwards with a series of excuses and attempts to absolve himself of responsibility. I'm afraid the excuse re. Danny Graham won't cut it. Not when he's spent millions on Brereton and Armstrong and refuses to play either in the positions we're short in. He needs to respond accordingly on Wednesday.

This game is against a side bang out of form unlike yesterday which was a side bang in form. Normally that would be a positive but it won't really make any difference if we turn out like we did yesterday. These next two are an opportunity for serious points against two struggling sides out of form. Sadly we seem to struggle against the poorer teams when there is expectation on our shoulders. Can't remember the last time Wigan won a game but they are tough to beat at their place and don't lose many. 3 points will make up for yesterday with interest. A point stops the rot but a defeat and this good start sees us looking over our shoulders. Sitting in the top half at this stage doesn't rule out a dogfight developing quickly. Would be nice to turn up with a CF and to keep a clean sheet.

The game plan was out the window after 2 minutes. I'm sure had we weathered their fast start and got to 15 minutes at 0-0 then we'd have seen a different final score, if not result. The trouble with us is that when Mowbray's initial plan fails and he has to change things it can unravel even more. Happened at Bristol when we were actually playing well and were deservedly ahead, they came back and got their noses in front and so Mowbray went gung ho and we were pasted. Yesterday it was very disappointing that we didn't threaten more after getting the goal back so soon in the second half. As someone else has said it was almost as though we sat back having scored rather than gone at them for a 2nd. They engineered a lull in the game with their two 'injuries' that took all the tempo away and ran a good 5 minutes off the clock. Then when the game eventually restarted they were fresh and quick to it whilst we were stood around looking half asleep.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to accept that we've supposedly spent £7 million on a centre forward from Forest, but are going into matches with no CF on the pitch because inevitably Danny Graham can't play every week. A blind man would have seen a problem with Graham coming sooner or later. Why with this apparent huge pot of cash available did be invest it all into a player who he point blank refuses to start in a game, preferring instead to meddle with the team and come up with some bizarre line up in Graham's absence? Any other Championship club who has allegedly spent £7 million on a player only to refuse to start him even when short on numbers and depth? Just what is going on? Look around and other clubs with less cash and resources than us have assembled squads with depth who can cope with injuries e.g. Preston. We're turning up and starting with no striker and have a 7 million lad sat on the bench only allowed to play for 20 minutes in a wide position. Utterly bizarre and really when you sit and think about it something just doesn't feel right about that signing. The way it came about, the money involved and what has happened since.

I presume they're basing it on how many were bought during restricted sale and how many were bought on open sale and weren't registered against a customer number. Again though referring to the take up for PNE away at 3pm on a Saturday is always going to be misleading. Probably the most popular away trip of the season and for many Rovers fans it will be easier to get to Deepdale than it will Ewood. Better off looking at the proportion of season ticket holders at places like Hull, Derby and Middlesbrough in a few weeks. Likely to be much higher.

The manager shouldn't be there. The idea behind these meetings was for owners, owners representatives or board members to be available to answer questions from supporters on the governance of the club. The rule was introduced due to concerns about a number of owners buying clubs then running them from behind a veil of secrecy and supporters facing a wall of silence. We all like listening to Mowbray but there's plenty of opportunities for that. These meetings are special occasions twice per annum when supporters were to be able to go higher than the manager. I notice the owners eyes and ears and club employee Pasha still hasn't found time in his busy schedule to attend the meeting, even though his presence would be more useful than anyone else bar the owners themselves. How many is that he's missed? Lets not let Mowbray's excellent work on the grass detract from what the point of these meetings is and ignore that Mowbray's good work is providing them with an effective shield to hide behind.

Like most other areas of football - players, coaches, scouts, managers, media - once you've got a name for yourself you're set. No matter if you fail miserably, wreck clubs or get caught up to no good, just let the dust settle and someone else will take you on.

It's all the BIG CITY clubs!

Yeah that's right. But those plans could be revisited and amended. We admittedly don't need to increase capacity to that level, but a new Riverside could be built with a capacity of say 5000 which would keep capacity similar or slightly higher than it is at present. The aim of the project isn't really to create additional capacity which is unlikely to be needed, but to improve the stadium, the facilities on offer, increase our internal space for something like a hotel or offices which can generate extra revenue for the club on non-matchdays. The facilities on the Riverside are among the worst in the Championship these days even though it is 'only' 30 years since it was done. Can't think of many other stands with uncovered seats, uncovered concourse, only 2 sets of toilets and food kiosks, and obstructed views. Just not really fit for 21st century standard although I suspect a lot of those who sit in there are quite comfortable with it. I reckon it could be done to keep it in harmony with the rest of the ground. Single tier, floodlights in the roof, no obstructed views, internal concourse with modern toilets and food kiosks and then internal space behind for boxes/hotel rooms/office space etc. Build it nearer to the pitch without a walkway at the front and close the gaps to the BBE and DE and I think it would massively upgrade the look, facilities and enclose the atmosphere. Interesting that Waggott referenced talking to the council about it, so it seems it has passed first base of merely thinking about it and some conversations have been had. It's ok saying we should wait until we get to the Premier League before doing it but then we'd end up with a building site down that side whilst in the Prem. Makes sense to get it done and dusted now whilst we've the surplus capacity to enable it. Ultimately we're quite lucky with Ewood in the Riverside should be the easiest stand to build. No houses or businesses behind it, plenty of space behind.

Interesting reading Waggott's comments on the Riverside stand. Talking about making Ewood into a better venue I'm sure if that was ever redeveloped it could include facilities to be used on non-matchdays. I've already said I think Rovers have missed the bus on building a hotel at Ewood. In the last few years there must have been 5 or 6 hotels opened in the area with the Travelodge, Premier Inn X 2, Marstons at Guide, and now the plans for Whitebirk. There's clearly demand for hotels in the area and Rovers could have got a head-start on this years ago. Bolton seem to do quite well out of their hotel.

Thought they sold out quickly to season ticket holders or gold/platinum members (whatever they are). Not sure but I certainly recall the extra allocation was available to members.

One thing we can all be confident of is a tight game. From our point of view we never put teams to bed and our wins are usually by an odd goal, that's the way we play under Mowbray. We're also hard to beat and rarely except the latter stages at Bristol City have we been put out of sight by the opposition. PNE seem to be getting back to their ways of last season where they were defensively solid but didn't score many. We've a relatively clean bill of health whereas they've had a bad couple of weeks for injuries.

That's the 'magic wand' and solves virtually all the issues in one swoop. But until that happens more effort needs to be made in making Ewood an exciting place to be. There's more to it than just relying on the football. Bristol City have done very well since renovating their ground in providing various bars/entertainment for their supporters to hang around before and after the games.

When Preston come to Ewood and take 6000+ in the Darwen End you can bet your bottom dollar that a large chunk of that lot don't go on Deepdale very often and are just on the bandwagon for a derby day out on the lash with mates. Happens at a lot of clubs. Doubt a lot of the Leeds mob that came to Ewood are regulars at Elland Road. West Cumbria Whites and Carlisle Whites probably turning out in numbers because Rovers is easier to get to for them than most and it's one of the few where they can get away tickets. Some people would prefer to spend £500 quid a season cherry picking 7-8 attractive looking away games and going out for the day with mates when it suits them than they would on a season ticket and being 'tied' into going to all the home games to get their money's worth. The challenge is shifting that preference by making home games more attractive and enjoyable. The club can ill afford to do things that upset or antagonise existing supporters yet they seem to have established a knack at doing that over the last 4-5 years.

So he's definitely not going anywhere in January. But IF he goes for £25 million then Mowbray HOPES a SIGNIFICANT wedge of that will go on new players. Likewise Mowbray HOPES Dack doesn't come to him and tell him he wants to leave. Doesn't really get us much further does it? If an offer of £18 million comes in and Dack wants to go there's little chance of Rovers holding out for £25 million, and even less chance that most of that money would be reinvested straight back into the team. Anyhow, the frenzy is now in full swing as January approaches. Why do I get the impression it suits Mowbray and Waggott for this circus to be in town for the next 6-10 weeks?

Did Rob Coar have ANYTHING to say tonight?

It really is strange the way they're looking at it. Waggott seems to be tasked or at least has taken it upon himself to try and move the club in the direction of self-sustainability and reduced reliance on Venkys, which sounds great but is very difficult. The basis of this obsession is on the number of fans coming through the turnstiles, yet even the biggest supported clubs at this level - Villa, Forest, Derby, Wednesday - have only spent what they have due to massive investment from their owners. Prior to their takeovers they were hard up despite big gates. Norwich have sold numerous players for big money to fund their crop such as Murphy and Maddison. Yet we were told over the summer that Mowbray had to put the brakes on with Venkys as they were getting ahead of themselves after promotion, we saw them apparently spend £7 million on a teenager and we're told tonight that if we're in the pack come January they expect Venkys to pump more in. So none of that stacks up with sustainability or reduced reliance on Venkys. Infact, the Brereton deal, whilst welcome investment, probably outstripped all of Waggott's 'efforts' to increase receipts in one swoop.

The only way of ending the benefactor model is by getting to the Prem or by a massive player sale every couple of years. Isn't going to happen by a few thousand more fans 20x a year. That applies to ALL clubs in the Championship. Even those getting 20000 a week need owners to pump cash in.

Wigan won League One, until recently were neck and neck with us in the Championship, yet their crowds have stood still, and I don't think they hiked prices or booted home fans out of their seats. Point being we aren't alone in these challenges. The towns and the smaller catchment areas all face similar issues.

Hmmm. One or two bits I picked up on. I noticed Mowbray mentioned that the owners probably don't feel they've done much wrong as they chuck their £25 million a year into the club. Firstly, the reason they were chucking such amounts in was to cover their own mistakes and errors. Secondly, I sincerely hope that they aren't putting that amount in any more. If they are after all the cutbacks and wage reductions we've had there's something wrong somewhere in the financial management of the club and we're going to get screwed with FFP. I suspect Mowbray is, once again, exaggerating quite a lot, like he has on numerous occasions including when mentioning other club's support and what he thinks we can get. References to the 'old days' of Division 2 are about as relevant as references to the 1950's. Both ancient history in football terms. Crowds in the 80s were the nadir in English football and even the likes of United not getting that many on. Comparing what we got in 1985 to what we get now doesn't mean much. Football has a different audience and is a different 'product' to what it was then. It appears we're currently 'only' 1000 or so away from Waggott's 'break even' attendance. I don't see that distance as insurmountable but the progress and professionalism of the last 12 months needs to be sustained and worked on over a prolonged period. We've a lot of damage to repair and a lot of ground to make up when compared to rivals who haven't gone about insulting their own fanbase for 7 years. I believe with some hard work that figure should be achieveable. It is a slow, multi-year process. Waggott hasn't been here long, nor has Mowbray. It is ok isolating the success of the last 12 months and saying the fans should be doing more but you can't look at it that way. The fanbase have been burned numerous times before so it is baby steps. I'm not believing a corner has been turned as it will take more than 12 months of positivity, especially after what happened under Bowyer. So no use wailing at this stage. Knuckle down and work your socks off to grow it gradually year on year and keep people coming back. Closing stands and bumping prices up won't do that. Not sure precisely what he means by 'break even'. I'm assuming that means the cost of opening Ewood and hosting the fixture rather than covering all the salaries etc. for the club. No reference that I've seen to the nonsensical 12noon kick offs but then again we've heard it all before.

Yeah, I'm not suggesting that they are going to get that every week. Next game they'll probably be down to 14000 again with less than that actually turning up to watch. Point was that even when the football is dross and the club is struggling a bit of creativity with prices and publicity and the people will come, even to evening games live on TV, whereas maintain the same old £25+ pricing structure and they won't.

I agree that central midfield is an area we need to strengthen in coming seasons. At the moment we are well stocked, but that's with Reed who is only here until the summer, Evans who is out of contract in the summer, and Rodwell who is out of contract in the summer. Both Evans and Rodwell have long histories of injuries which thankfully haven't been an issue really this season. But it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that come June we'll have no Rodwell or Reed, and perhaps even Evans if his deal isn't sorted. For me question marks remain on Smallwood. Don't think there's any intention of playing Bennett there regularly. Rothwell still an unknown quantity certainly starting games at this level. Davenport, well who knows what's going on there and what that one's all about. Really you need at least 4 natural CMs who are up to it. At the moment we have that, just about, but that hinges upon Evans and Rodwell keeping themselves fit. Agree it isn't a priority at this moment in time, but it could be come the summer.

I'd be delighted if our home game v Preston was moved to Saturday tea time for TV. First because I'd prefer a kick off at that time to 12 noon. Second because it would crush all these excuses about safety and the like trotted out by Rovers and the police. The minute Sky come calling with their £100k or whatever it is safety suddenly isn't an insurmountable issue. Amazing isn't it.