The top teams are on low points totals. Usually after 12 games and 36 points available you would expect at least one team to be pushing 30 points or more yet Sheffield United sit top on 25 which is just over 2 points a game. Decent but not exactly trailblazing. They've also lost more games than we have so far and have conceded more than a goal a game. Looking at the bottom clubs nobody is really adrift. With 1 win in 12 you would expect Ipswich to be marooned yet they are well in the mix in that bottom group.

Different for players and managers though. Players are assets that will be picked up by rivals if we don't keep them. Plenty of clubs collect players and generally speaking with your better players the longer the contract the better in terms of keeping them and getting a big fee if we sell them. Managers very different. Nowhere near as much demand elsewhere for managers, nowhere near as much pressure to have a manager tied down long term, much lower financial incentive to do so as compensation wise it won't be anywhere near what we get for a player.

For the first time we have a manager with all the necessary attributes to make this work under Venkys. We've had the incompetence and dodginess of Kean, the madhouse of Berg and Appleton under Singh, the inexperience of Bowyer, the high maintenance of Lambert, the incompetence of Coyle. Mowbray has a bit of everything required. He has the experience of this division which has always been essential in the power vacuum at Ewood. He has the bad experiences of Coventry to fall back on - knowing how bad it can get under poor ownership - he has the fact that he was damaged goods before coming here and so knows that he could easily have been on the managerial scrapheap had we not offered him a way back in. He's also a big more of a diplomat than Lambert was. I'll maintain my belief that Lambert is/was a good manager for this club from an experience and know-how point of view but he was too high maintenance for these owners and this club. Lambert's demands, whether unrealistic or based upon what he was promised before taking the job, were too great in terms of wanting to do it overnight and wanting a big budget to work with. Mowbray doesn't appear to have such demands and is more than happy to work within their unusual structure and be a bit more patient with them, probably more willing to travel to India and try to talk them round to his vision whereas Lambert wasn't prepared to. Different personalities altogether. Mowbray will never be the sort of bloke to throw a wobbler and walk out if he doesn't get what he wants.

I said in the summer that we should hold back on offering him a new deal as it still had 12-24 months to run and I wanted to wait until Xmas to see how we adjusted to the Championship before handing out new deals. I think we've performed well enough so far to be confident that he is the right man for now and has done well to build on last season with a good solid start to this. For me I'd give him a decent wage rise whilst extending it to 2020 with an option of another year. Like Bowyer and Kean he's worked out that the best or only way of getting anywhere with these owners is to establish a relationship with Mrs D and to frequently travel out to India to speak to her. As long as that link remains in place, combined with Mowbray's experience over Bowyer and his integrity and honesty over Kean, and we should be able to make it work. Lets just hope she doesn't lift the drawbridge again!

We've heard it all before from the club. Season tickets have always been late on sale for as long as I can remember, it was never going to suddenly change for the Oxford game because we had a bumper audience. Who knows why we like to be last minute but it goes right back to the John Williams era. The excuse for the early kick offs is that the police insist on it. That won't change now. Even if it is true the club should have nipped it in the bud at the start. Having allowed it to happen for the last 3-4 years they'll struggle to reverse it. Likewise if it isn't true the people or person responsible for making the decision to noon won't raise their head above the parapet as they know they'll get grief. The price hike has already been put down to trying to bring us more into line with other clubs, which I suppose is fair enough, but it is still a significant increase all at once which might well have persuaded some people not to bother. We've had the excuse for shutting the Darwen End which doesn't really make any sense. We all know that it is to try and save some money. The cash turnstile idea could be introduced but presumably they'll have some reason or another why they can't do it as they want everyone issuing with tickets.

Sky Sports and their friends have been in overdrive today linking various people with the Villa job. I suspect they're trying to stir up the betting market again after Henry looked to be nailed on yesterday, especially as they enter a 2 week break for the internationals. Can't begin to imagine why either of those would leave very cushy numbers with Celtic and Belgium to drop into the bottom half of the Championship. I don't rate either of those managers. Neither knows how to organise a defence which is Villa's biggest issue. I'll repeat yesterday's statement. Give me Mick McCarthy or Steve Bruce for a Championship promotion push over Henry, Rodgers or Martinez.

Fair enough, I happen to think it is a deterrent to people who make a late decision. As far as I'm concerned if the surcharge deters 1 fan from attending then it shouldn't exist. We need everyone we can get and aren't in a position to be putting people off or giving people reasons not to come. Yes there were queues at the Forest game and every other game because there will always be some people willing to pay extra on the day. I don't think I've ever suggested that the surcharge puts everyone off buying on the day, but I've said that those numbers could and probably would be greater if there was no surcharge. There are ways of allowing admission on matchday without needing to allocate seats. That was effectively the whole point of the Darwen End area - unreserved seating at a lower price than reserved seating - no reason an area of the ground couldn't be the same e.g. Bbe Upper tier. Season ticket prices are competitive but we're also in a very competitive region for football.

Is there any other club in this country that invites/encourages almost 8000 away fans to turn up? I suppose MK Dons are the only other one but I'd rather not compare our club to theirs. I mean come on, I understand the financial rewards of large away followings and agree that a large vocal away support improves the atmosphere and can make for a better occasion, but surely we could draw the line at 5000 or 5500? That would still be a bumper gate, decent atmosphere and would put us on a similar footing to the likes of PNE, Bolton, Wigan for away allocations. It would also avoid the need for 12 noon kick offs (if the police really are insisting that happens and it isn't just being done to make life easier for certain people). As far as I'm aware we're the only club that allows its kick off times to be brought forward purely on the basis of the large away allocation. It's clear to see what Rovers' priorities are here. More interested in maximising the number of away fans in the ground than they are about making the experience a better one for Rovers fans. One or two other fixtures usually kick off early like Millwall v Leeds but they are more to do with security concerns arising from years of crowd trouble. I challenge anyone to provide any evidence of widespread crowd trouble or violence when the away club gets the whole Darwen End. We welcomed Leeds for several years with a full Darwen End. Seems things changed after a few drunken away fans made a mess in Wetherspoons. What that has to do with anything I'm not sure.

Reckon Sunderland could fill the Crown Ground twice over when they play Stanley.

Stand closures, price rises, surcharges, database only admission, ticket only admission. Mowbray is right, it would be lovely if we could get to 20,000 home fans every week. Going to do very well to almost double our home crowds whilst doing all of the above though. A more sensible target would be 14000-15000 home fans, which I believe is an achievable target but will still require a radical rethink from the club which shows no signs whatsoever of changing its pricing or policies any time soon. The arrival of Steve Waggott has actually seen the opposite occur with more deterrents appearing.

I would fully support Rovers returning the favour when they come to Ewood and giving them tickets at £20 a piece. Suspect that won't happen as Cheston/Waggott will have that one earmarked for 'Category A' pricing due to their league position and likely large away following if they are still up near the top, so it will be £27 and a surcharge on the day.

No it isn't. Bristol City v Sheffield Wednesday was on the red button yesterday afternoon, though not advertised very well. You have to go onto the Sky Football channel where they were showing highlights and then press the red button. You wouldn't know it was on without trying it. Same when we played at Bristol City earlier this season on Sunday lunchtime. The curfew on live games only applies for 3pm kick offs, I think. When we played at Bristol is was early days in the season and there was no confirmation of the red button service until the Thursday or Friday before when it suddenly appeared on Sky's website. I suspect that was deliberate to avoid significantly reducing the crowd.

Exactly, they won't advertise it as there seems to be some sort of agreement or rule in place that they don't but I'm sure it will appear on the day when most people have bought their tickets.

If the game was at 3pm like it would have been up until 3-4 years ago then I reckon 24,000+, but at noon less will want to do it. Oh well, Rovers' choice.

At 12 noon I think we'll do well to get more than 20,000 on including the 7,600 from Leeds.

Rumour is that Thierry Henry is likely to be the next Villa manager, with John Terry as his assistant. Huge gamble. Give me McCarthy or Bruce any day over that.

Delighted with the win, important that we got the 3 points before the break after dropping points at home. Always satisfying to beat them. I still long for the day we can relax in the last ten minutes and comfortably see a win out, I know it's easier said than done but for whatever reason we seem to find a way to do it the hard way and it is really difficult to watch at times. Fine margins. That offside flag not raised and penalty scored and the performance and result very disappointing but in hanging on for all 3 points it's happy days. Comprehensively outplayed by Sheffield United and not good at Bolton yet 3 points from 6. Snatch a draw from Sheffield and concede that penalty yesterday and it's 2 points from 6 but we might have felt better about the performances. I'd have given Raya or Reed MOTM personally, seems Sky default setting is to award it to the goalscorer.

Anyone know where he is? Pretty sure he hasn't been in the dugout for our last 2 or 3 games.

I accept that it is included in the terms and conditions and that if I wish to enter the ground I have to go through a search should one be requested. It's not really a question of 'being soft' but something which as a longstanding home season ticket holder who has never been in any sort of trouble I wonder why I am suddenly now being subjected to it. I know the answer - because they've chosen to move the Darwen Enders into the JW Lower and they're worried about flares etc - but why should my match day experience be affected? The people around me are pensioners who have been going for decades - are these people suddenly being searched on arrival before being allowed in? The system for doing it is also flawed - they aren't searching every person every time but are picking odd ones out as they see fit - the difficulty is that queues then quickly build up ahead of kick off as stewards are blocking the turnstiles whilst searching people. I don't notice stewards searching people on the Riverside or Family Stand so again I wonder why I am suddenly being subjected to searches when there is no recent history of any trouble from people in the JW Lower tier.

Can see the Leeds game being absolute chaos for a number of reasons. Them bringing 7,600 is always going to see the people at Rovers struggle to cope. Factor in that there are no trains and the kick off is at noon and the area around Ewood will grind to a halt as they try to accommodate the travelling coaches and cars. Of course with a 30,000+ capacity Ewood and the surrounding area is perfectly capable of hosting such games but the prospect of 20,000+ v Leeds will send them into panic mode. I also predict that to increase the away allocation to 7,600 this will mean that segregation between home and away fans will be moved from the Darwen End and into the Riverside/Jack Walker stands. The 400 or whatever empty seats I think will be the front rows which are usually kept empty. I hope any season ticket holders are not going to be affected by segregation being imposed in the home ends.

Kind of with you on this. If the 'plan' at this club is to build something over a few years ahead of an eventual promotion assault on a limited budget then we need to be trying to emulate Sheffield United who have become promotion contenders without massive spending, using a predominantly British squad of players. Trouble is from what I gather Sheffield United and Wilder don't have Mowbray's caution. He approaches every game to win and won't change his approach to counter the opposition. Sometimes that will backfire and they'll lose games and they'll concede plenty. I don't see that with us. We are a cautious side that worries about the opposition, yet aren't well drilled or organised enough to absorb pressure and keep clean sheets regularly, nor are we a side that does what Sheffield do. As you say it's lovely saying we're building something over a few years but that hinges on certain conditions and we don't know if they exist or not - will our best players stick around for that? Will Venkys sell them? If so it's a never ending rebuild. What about the fact that almost every summer we've had to sign near double figures to replace people who are out of contract and will have to do again this summer when the assortment of loans and contracts expire?

Villa fans not happy? There's a surprise. They could have Guardiola lined up and some of that lot would complain. Championship club appoint man who has spent 15 years in the Premier League and they complain. If he was Portuguese they'd be all over it. Still think I'd rather have Bruce for a promotion push than Moyes.

If you take Rovers' figures as being accurate then we're at around 12,000 home fans. I couldn't help but bite on twitter to that cheeky tweet from Leeds. Anyone would think they've a record of filling their own ground. Whenever I've been to Elland Road recently there have been 10,000+ empty seats. Bet there won't be that many at Ewood when we play them.

Yannick Wildschut, Harry Wilson, Mason Mount, Chris Martin, Andreas Weimann, Oliver Norwood (dingle), Tomer Hemed, Nakhi Wells (dingle), Marley Watkins, Barry McKay. All moved for £2 million or thereabouts or loans. I'm sure Sam Gallagher and Harrison Reed would have been available for those sort of figures too and in my opinion would have been very decent permanent signings who would increase in value. Plenty of others floating around too. Just find the whole thing odd. Completely out of club character to invest big money in one player in one position whilst dealing in loans and frees elsewhere. Conspiracy theory alert again but something not right with the Jacob Davenport signing either. I've already said that I was satisfied with our summer business, and welcomed the Brereton signing, and I'm not daft enough to be labelling him a waste of money or a failure after 4 substitute appearances in the league. Likewise the celebrations we witnessed on here when we signed Kasey Palmer have so far shown to be misplaced.

Yes but then we stuck at it for a couple of weeks and got the deal done in the loan window, so we invested quite a bit of time and money into that deal and there were no rumours of other targets. The whole thing is bizarre really. I'm not writing him on or off at this point but I am perplexed by our transfer dealings and spending. If we truly had £7-8 million to spend on players we'd have been far better splitting that into 4 and signing a CM and CB along with a winger and CF, but I get the impression that there's no way £2 million on 4 different players would have been authorised. I think Mowbray knew he had an opportunity to spend some decent cash and knowing Venkys that cash might never appear again so he had to take the opportunity even if it meant disproportionate spending.