JHRover

Apart from him admitting in the press that he made the late move for Brereton because money came available and he wanted to make sure it was spent rather than run the risk of it not being there in future. There's absolutely nothing wrong with signing people in January. I don't understand where this mentality has come from that the January window is some horrific thing that should be avoided and the only time we should do permanent business is the summer. Yes the summer we have the advantage of more time to recruit and bed players in but if someone comes available in January who can be a piece of the jigsaw then we should strike. Mowbray himself has referred to a multi-window building process. I presume that includes January windows so I will be surprised/perplexed if he then decides to sign no-one or a couple of loans to flesh the squad out a bit until the end of the season at which point they will either have to be replaced by others or we'll have to pay to bring them in permanently.

We haven't lost at Millwall since 1991 when they were at the Old Den. Thoroughly enjoyed the day yesterday, the game looked to be petering out to a drab 0-0 which on the balance of play would have been right but I was ecstatic to see us grab the 3 points and do to someone else what we've suffered from numerous times over this season and get a couple of late goals. Another big step nearer to the magical safety point and then we can relax. I've not really got anything to say about the performance, possibly the worst football match I have ever watched but none of that matters one jot if we can get a couple of goals late on and the 3 points. Could head home happy after recent away day disappointments and have a celebratory few cans on the train home. I found some of Neil Harris' comments after the game to be interesting: 'I thought Blackburn were good. They looked very competitive, which was exactly what we expected. When they're bringing on players with the quality of Danny Graham and Adam Armstrong, with £7 million Ben Brereton left on the bench, there's a realisation that Blackburn are a big club at this level.' You'd expect comments like that from an opposing manager who has just lost but it contradicts the narrative that some are keen to push that we're skint minnows destined to struggle in this league.

How different? Their average gates are similar to ours and have been in a similar or slightly higher ball park for the last few years. Admittedly ours boosted more than theirs by bigger away followings. I accept that the take-up among home fans probably wouldn't be as high as that, particularly for a struggling side, but two struggling clubs in Ipswich and Notts County took the decision to significantly reduce admission (not a couple of quid off if bought in advance like we had v Norwich) and the evidence suggests the people respond to that. We don't go down that route instead carrying on with £25 admission and our crowds are static.

Ipswich reduced prices yesterday v Rotherham to £12 adults and £3 kids. They had nearly 21,000 on.

Notts County looking doomed at the bottom of League Two. First founder member since Accrington FC in the 1800s to go out of the Football League?

Anyone got a brush? Get it swept under that carpet. Biggest problem the League and FA have is that Derby put it on their website and then Bielsa admitted it. Causes a problem for the suits unless they want to be seen to be accepting of such behaviour. Maybe it will be slap on the wrist time and a quick fine to put an end to it. Had to laugh that there was a suggestion that Bielsa's behaviour was a 'cultural' issue. How? I don't care where you come from you shouldn't do it. The media are so wrapped up in their pro-Bielsa obsession there's been little condemnation of his actions.

By the same token nor should we be choosing him

I noticed that Simon Ireland who has been appointed Forest caretaker manager and was assistant to Karanka made 1 appearance for Rovers in 1993. Anyone remember him?

Surely the Bolton owner would have known that there was going to be little to no chance of them affording £1 million+ on a single player given their troubles. Makes me wonder if the whole thing was a deliberate stunt.

I expect Millwall will have even greater matchday costs. Paying staff in London is likely to be much higher than in Blackburn, and given Millwall's reputation I suspect they've to contribute quite heavily to police and stewarding. Goes to show there isn't really any need for the surcharge.

Looks dodgy to me with all the various people there behind the scenes. Marinakis from Olimpiakos owning the club, an assortment of foreign directors, some hot-shot QC there as Chairman. Hope they crash and burn as they've done exactly what FFP rules are supposed to prevent and clearly think it is as simple as chucking huge money at it and going up like Wolves did. Never liked Karanka from when he was at Middlesbrough. Very much in the Mourinho mold of being hard to beat, defensively based and could fall out in an empty phone box but without Mourinho's track record to fall back on.

Downing is one of the first on the list of people we need to upgrade if we want to progress. No doubt a top bloke and a good pro but we really need to be aiming higher as a club. File into the same category as Smallwood and Williams. Not in a rush to get rid of him as he likely won't kick up a stink but at the same time if he wants to go and there is an opportunity to strengthen the squad then make it happen. The trouble is I don't get the impression that a new, quality, proven, natural CB is on Mowbray's radar, and I suspect we're more likely to let him go and then cart on for the remainder of the season with what we have, which is trying to convert Rodwell and Williams into CBs and putting Grayson on the bench. Square pegs into round holes and experimenting with positions. Downing wants to go somewhere he can play regularly then fair enough, make it happen, but bring in a replacement who is a CB who is going to IMPROVE the team.

More than I expected with almost 6 days of sales to go to be honest. The season ticket holder window may have spurred some into buying earlier than usual to keep hold of their usual seats.

Karanka who has a track record of falling out with people, working for an owner who goes through managers for fun, at a club that should be under immense pressure to get promoted this season given their outlay. Not exactly surprising but given their position just outside the play-offs I'd expect them to wait a bit before making a change. Absolutely no time or sympathy for them if it all goes pear-shaped.

I'd be a bit 'meh' about Marshall returning. He's clearly a very capable and versatile player for this level and at Rovers we love our players who can play 2 or 3 positions so he'd fit in well. He's still a decent age and was earning rave reviews not long ago at Millwall which prompted Norwich to come calling. He also seems to be a bit of a head case which has always held him back. I heard he was 'homesick' when at Leicester so god knows how he is managing at Norwich, but suspect he'd love the chance to return to the North West. If we got his head right, which I'd like to think Mowbray would be good at doing, then we could have a good player on our hands, but if we didn't he could easily sit around doing very little wasting a wage. I'm afraid I don't buy the narrative that he was a disruptive influence who got too big for his boots and wanted out at Rovers. He was the last in the succession of assets the owners and their friends were cashing in on. He could see what was happening after Rhodes, Gestede, Cairney, Hanley and Duffy had all been flogged and knew he was going to be next. Don't believe for one minute he was offered a reasonable contract extension given the way this club was behaving back then.

Reed had already done the business over a full season with Norwich in this league, playing most games.

Loaning a kid from Liverpool who isn't getting game time at Sheffield for the remainder of the season doesn't exactly look like a long term grand plan, more just picking up a promising youngster, probably on the cheap, and hoping he has an impact. Kane, Barrow, Grimes, Samuelsen, Byrne, Hendrie, Palmer - all highly rated kids coming in from Premier League academies (most actually no better or inferior to ours) yet had little to no impact upon the first team. We need to be much smarter in our recruitment than going down the old route of dipping into the kids on loan from academies at Premier League clubs. There are some good uns like Mason and Wilson at Derby but we seem to operate at a level below that.

Seems Chelsea have done similar with Baker also from their academy. He was at Leeds until yesterday but barely featured for them so they recalled him before he was swiftly sent out to Reading, presumably where they expect him to get more game time. To be honest the whole loan thing from Chelsea and to a lesser extent City and Liverpool disturbs me and in future I think I'd prefer it if we just steered clear of that area in our recruitment. On very few occasions has it actually worked out well for us and as Tomphil says it seems to me to just be a way to fill up squad places on the cheap without much risk. Chelsea happy to absorb most of the cost because they can afford to in exchange for one of their 'assets' getting regular Championship football and we don't have to committ to a contract or salary. Not for me thankyou. If we're looking at loans I'd prefer them to be with a view to a permanent or with a deal arranged in advance to exercise should we wish.

To be honest Palmer is one of those who I've forgotten was actually a Rovers player and an option on more than one occasion over the last few months. Underwhelming but then again we all know deep down he's likely to go to Bristol City and become a hero there in the next few months, probably score a few vital goals and be very popular. I'd sooner have him on the bench than someone else like Ben Gladwin so lets hope someone else of reasonable quality is being brought in to replace him.

If Waggott has been told they only expect 1,500 to turn up then lets see if we allocate them upstairs in the Darwen End rather than downstairs. Bet we don't. Good job Newcastle aren't expecting 6,000+ or kick off would have to take place at noon on Tuesday. Bad news for those working and BT Sports but safety comes first!

I think he wants to win every game, but at times that is impeded by him worrying about losing and being overly cautious. Our first half performances this season at home have in the main been awful affairs, with a few exceptions such as Leeds when we managed to get that first goal early doors. But more often than not they have been dull and uneventful with us creating next to nothing. I don't think that is because Mowbray is playing for a draw, but because his mentality is to keep it tight and try not to make any errors or let the opposition get ahead, and that comes at the price of creating much ourselves. All our games bar the odd few like PNE have been closely fought tight affairs where we've either just got over the line or just fallen short.

Palmer confirmed at Bristol City.

Just had a look at his stats. Impressive goalscoring record wherever he's been. 1 in 5 at Cardiff, 1 in 5 at Norwich, better than 1 in 5 at Huddersfield and Stockport. 70 goals in 300 games or so.

I was long a supporter of putting away fans upstairs away from the pitch. That was less to do with the atmosphere or perceived advantage to the opposition and more to do with being able to charge away fans higher prices than home fans. As a regular away traveller I feel aggrieved that other clubs hit us with high ticket prices and home fans get admission for less and yet we do nothing to those coming to Ewood. There isn't really much point if we only move the small supports upstairs whilst allowing those with more than 2,000 to remain downstairs. The way it should be done is, for example, when we play Bolton at home, they should be upstairs purely so we can charge them £30 each to get in, whilst allowing admission to Rovers fans for £20 or less in the lower tiers. It starts getting silly when for example we played Norwich and there must have been 100 Norwich fans downstairs. Some will have been disabled supporters but there seemed to be quite a few who clearly weren't disabled as they were sat further back and were jumping up and down when they scored.

Wigan signing Anthony Pilkington from Cardiff, not a bad shout.