Dreams of 1995

I don’t even see PNE as a rival in truth. More of an irrelevance. I have some respect for them as their history goes back as far as us but that’s where it ends. Us playing them so often now is just another symptom of having the owners that we do. I get excited for Burnley and Utd, other than that it’s just another fixture against another club.

Neil Warnock would get a club promoted even now. He knows what it takes to get out of this league. He's retiring because he is 71 not because his time in football has come.

He literally got Cardiff to the PL two seasons ago....

The English language is amazing. By your use of “play off chasing Preston” one would assume they’re light years ahead of us. Yet the truth is they are 3 points ahead. It is a matter of a single win out of a remaining 20 This is a winnable game

Undoubtedly my favourite season in a long time as a Rovers fan. Not just because we were winning, which of course helps, but because we saw some proper footballing grounds and places I'll probably (hopefully) see again unless they come up. Our travelling support was excellent that season. The Championship feels rather numb in comparison - too many stadiums on retail parks, not enough character.

Putting Downing at LB has been a revelation though. His cross field balls are actually spot on every single time. I think we've found our temp fix to that problem for this season.

No, that's the whole point about the Championship. This is a very tough league and anyone can beat anyone on any given day.

Yep. Birmingham city centre is alive and kicking and has 4 / 5 “districts” if you will all catering to different markets. Chinatown, Brindley Place, Digbeth, Broad St, Digbeth and for the artsy amongst us Moseley although that’s a tad out of the way still well worth a visit. The market has been taking money out of my pocket at an alarming rate this year. Living in it means it’s almost impossible to get home without a stein, coupled with the fact most pubs are serving German pints at £3, means it’s been a week of ever-so-slight hangovers. Obviously this fixture is after Christmas and unfortunately the festivities will have ended but no doubt still a city well worth visiting

Even if the latter is true tomphil from a business p.o.v it doesn't make any sense in shutting the bar permanently. If it isn't making enough revenue simply redevelop it. I am sorry but we have been told that we now have money at the club, take approx. 200k from that and gut the place, turn it into somewhere that people want to go, and as JHRover said serve some real beer at local prices. A lot of the pubs in that area are charging extortionate amounts (The Station at Cherry Tree, Beehive) but they are remaining open and in some cases thriving. The work done at Cherry Tree cricket club shows that with some imagination and investment people will come- there's a waiting list for members there now, or at least was as of 6 months ago. There is a lot of room at Ewood and we could easily accommodate a good pub / evening restaurant. At Aston Villa you can eat in the directors lounge midweek for anything between £20 - £50 per head, depending on the option selected, as it allows the trainee / junior chefs to prepare your meal. On more than one occasion I've took the mrs there and every single night it's been like eating in a fine dining establishment for an affordable price - never a bad word to say about it.

Brentford are purring right now. This will be a very tough game where we concede a lot of possession, which are also the games we win. God knows.

I suspect a bad reaction after a loss vs Brentford may be enough to see him walk. The fear then is who is brought in to replace him. We currently have Dack and Holtby which surely is an attractive proposition to some managers. More likely DJ takes over until the end of the season with a view to either continue or replace. Decisions aren't taken quickly at Rovers for better or worse.

I don't particularly relish the thought of losing Mowbray but I think it would be best for all parties if he walked now. Clearly the link is broken with the fans and once that has gone managers don't usually stand a chance.

Gareth Ainsworth currently has Wycombe top of league 1. He would still leave that position to come here? With the basket case that is Rovers?

Indeed. Many of which will be "payable upon departure", so in effect the purchase cost of the club will be £175m + the actual value of club. Unless of course they write off their debts.

I'd call repeatedly claiming he "he wanted a draw" despite you having 0 knowledge of what was said on the sideline, whilst refusing to give a jot of credit to a manager who you're the first to discredit, is more "foaming at the mouth" than Chaddy telling you otherwise. Then again when both sides of the "Mowbray Out" debate are telling you that you are wrong, you are very often wrong.

Brentford also have a defence in front of their goalkeeper. I don't think Walton is particularly a terrible goalkeeper. At the start of the season when our defence looked steadied people were praising his communication and his commanding nature in the air. It's over time that our defence has weakened that his vulnerabilities are more on show but that's always the case for keepers. Raya was a good keeper but has mistakes in him. In the QPR game he had a great 85 mins then dropped 2 from crosses, fortunately for Brentford their defence got the ball away each time, but a goal would have brought it back level and the game could have gone differently. We need 5 new players. A right back, 2 centre halves, left back and a keeper. Anything short of that and we will struggle defensively, even if we put a prime Buffon in net. We haven't had a defence for nearly 10 years now and I suspect we won't have one for another 10 unless Venkys start realising the importance of defenders

I’m actually appalled at the comments in that interview before a derby game. I don’t want to be told that “sure we may lose”. It’s PNE ffs we’re better than them, always have been, always will be. Dampening down expectations does nothing for the fans but does provide a reason to try that little bit less for the players. I suspect that comment has backfired and if we roll over similar to the Brum game there will be a few chants in the stands for him to go. What a shame. I like Mowbray but he’s losing the fans - his work at this club should be remembered because if he does leave we are in a much better situation than when he came, regardless of how the handful of posters on here do their upmost best to make out like he’s the ultimate blame for our predicament. I’ve once again come to the conclusion we will never get anywhere whilst we are owned by these fuckers. Shame our season is over in October.

Except getting Lewis Holtby............ ...........for free.

You don't. None of us do because we don't work in the sport. It's all well and good acting like you know the answers, and detailing a fantasy to which we can all throw weight behind, but unfortunately the game doesn't work like that. For every signing that Mowbray makes it has to go through India. He could have Virgil Van Dijk lined up but if Madame doesn't say go it's a no go. I repeat: there has been zero appetite for defensive reinforcements since they have taken over so what makes you think things have changed Our lack of defence is an issue which has spanned almost a full decade. It won't change unless the ambition of our owners change.

Is Lewis Holtby injured? I knew we wouldn't win, which is pretty bad to say. Never do at St Andrews. Shit performance to tell you the truth, I can't remember ever feeling like I was enjoying the game. Tosin and Nyambe decent, if we could have 11 of them we may win a game or two soon. A lot of improvements needed for PNE.

I think we've won at St Andrews like once in the last 10 years. It was the only one I didn't go (4-2?) I've been to every other one and I'm going tonight.............. this has score draw written all over it.

As said Mattyblue the criticism wasn't solely for DE but more a general response to the current trend of calling managers / players on here cowards, although in the main the trend for calling TM a coward. By bias I am on about the fact you are calling my reaction OTT to this but the fact that people can go about throwing the cowardly insult around on several topics daily is not in the slightest bit over the top. As said, the right to an opinion is held in higher regard than the moral obligation to form a sensible, balanced opinion. Risk averse, overly cautious manager is a far cry away from saying he has a "cowardly approach to football". As said, the use of the word coward should be reserved for managers like Kean not for Mowbray or you simply lose sight of the meaning behind it, as has seemingly happened here. If posters don't think that it is a word which requires such an "OTT response" from the likes of me then I'd welcome them to say it to his face in a Q&A session with him should he survive til the next one. Until then whenever it is brought up I'll continue to put forward my opinion that is wrong to do so, as is my right.

Neither do I. If you ask fans outside of Lancashire (and their obvious bias) about Rovers they will all remark about how "good we once were". That attitude extends to players / coaches. However, our only down side is that people within the game also know what a basket case of a club this is and no nonsense managers like McCarthy for example (although he's taken) probably wouldn't consider twice a year trips to India appealing. There is no doubt that managers out there would take us on. If the rumours Warnock was on his way here were true then it shows we can still attract the best out there. I don't think there is anything wrong with a Bruce or a McCarthy, although both in current employment so unrealistic. Those type of managers know exactly how you build a team in this league - from the back.

No. Go and tell any man in the street that the way in which he applies himself in his job is cowardly and see the reaction you will get. Go and tell TM that he has a cowardly approach to football and see the reaction you get. It is all very easy to throw words around like that on a forum but it is especially disheartening to have Tony Mowbray put in the same bracket as a genuine coward Steve Kean. One is a manager who has found his level, the other is an actual coward. However you try and dress it up this board has become a hotbed for criticism of Mowbray, rightly or wrongly, and certain posters have thrown the "coward" accusation around with little or no thought as to the meaning behind it. We are constantly told on here to respect the rights of posters to express their opinions. That's ok. Now I have to read the posts in which a man like Mowbray is labelled a coward and my opinion of why that is shockingly inaccurate is considered OTT? Talk about a sign of bias.

No I am not. TM has been called a coward on here dozens of times now and each time it is wrong to do so. How is his approach to the sport cowardly? He's achieved far more than any of us can ever dream of having. It's language used to stoke up emotions and further their point when it has no merit. It is no different to when the board had a mini-bitch about Jim Wilkinson doing the same re: criticism of Amari'i Bell. When the shoe fits though....