Lancaster Rover

Bells pass for the first penalty on Wednesday was better than any attacking play I've seen from Williams in the time he has been here, the only thing Bell is missing at the moment is the confidence to drive forward at defenders. I think he's under orders to keep a tight ship and be ready to cover Mulgrew though to be honest whilst we settle in the league.

I'm guessing you didn't watch the game on Wednesday? No way should Williams who hasn't played this season should be in ahead of Bell, Smallwood isn't at the races, Armstrong is wearing a protective boot and Dack is struggling to be fit.

I still don't think they will risk Dack.

Absolutely, it just seems everything is polar opposites these days, there seems very little room for balance. Everything is either euphorically amazing or dreadful.

Football is mad isn't it. Signing an Premier League winning ex-England international for nowt - bad Signing a kid nobody had heard of until 2 weeks ago who can't get a kick at Forest for 8 million quid - good

I'd rather Travis started than Conway, and the formation was moved around a little, much more mobile against a team who move the ball very quickly from back to front.

We wont get the chance to sign many ex-England international 27 year olds for free, I'm quietly confident about this one. Doing some reading around his time at Sunderland it does seem like he has been victim of some of the same tactics Venky's used on Robinson, Salgado and Roberts, freezing him out purely due to what he was getting paid. Sunderland fans will rightly complain about his getting 77k and having no relegation clause, however that's not Rodwell's fault, nobody forces clubs to offer daft contracts. Also I've read that Rodwell should have ripped up his contract and walked, why? Why on earth would anybody make themselves unemployed? I've not read specifics on what his attitude problems are but a lot of it seem to stem from him getting paid a lot of money and being in a team that to a man were crap the final season in the prem, in fairness Sunderlands plight is as much down to mismanagement at boardroom level as it is to the team. We've seen how chaos at the top spreads like widlfire and Sunderland are definitely victims to that. I've got a really open mind on this one and looking at the facts of it he's 27, cheap, played 160 odd premier league games, won a premier league title and played for England 3 times. How many other championship players can boast that? On that basis alone I'm willing to give him a good go.

Imagine them playing together though, the Titanic turned faster

He's said something along the lines of he will run tomorrow and we will see but if there is any doubt is it worth risking him and the potential to further injure himself. That's how I read it anyway. It was in the 2nd match report Sharpe put out on Twitter.

I don't disagree, I'm merely giving an opinion on what I think Mowbray will do based on his comments.

Davenport will need a few games with the 23's I reckon to get him up to speed to feature in the first team, don't think we will be seeing him until the back end of September to be honest.

It's hard to say what he will do on Saturday with the injuries sustained last night having an effect. Brentford are flying at the moment and I can see us setting up more defensively with a midfield of Evans, Smallwood, Rothwell and Bennett in there. Reading Tony's comments from last night's game it sounds like we won't be risking Dack and I can see Palmer starting on the bench.

It was a joy to watch Rothwell last night, it's a long time since we've had a midfielder who looks to drive at the opposition, he put in some absolutely crunching tackles too, not a part of his game I was aware of. He looked like an old fashioned all action number 8 last night, really looking forward to seeing more of him. Smallwood looked cooked, barring a couple of tackles and a neat flick in the first 10 minutes he was miles off the pace, the performance of Evans and Rothwell as an engine room should mean that Smallwood's 50 consecutive starts comes to an abrupt end. Can never fault the lads effort but unfortunately for him I think he looks out of his depth at this level.

It's not a conspiracy theory, that's a truth, they do save local games, etc for weekends. I agree with what you're saying but a drop of 3-400 fans paying 20 quid a head plus in ground spend could have a massive impact on league 1 and 2 clubs, probably looking at creating a £35k hole for some clubs. I don't have all the figures so the EFL may have increased clubs solidarity payments to reflect this, the worrying thought is that as the weather gets worse and nights draw in it may not only be travelling fans who decide to save themselves the bother of going on.

I have a horrible feeling we will be bringing in a couple of premier league youngsters in on loan toward the end of the window. The other 'irons in the fire' must have either melted, burnt to a crisp or the fire gone out by now.

I think it will be really noticeable in League 2, how many Exeter fans are going to travel to Macclesfield on a Tuesday night when they can watch at home , save half a days leave and not spend hours on a coach in traffic. It could cost teams 10's of thousands of pounds in lost revenue, teams like Morecambe and Accrington rely heavily on big away followings swelling their coffers. I know Morecambe really felt the loss of having Bradford and Carlisle in their league. Is there anything to stop travelling teams offering the game live at their own ground/bar?

Living 30 mile away and it being on tv makes it hard to be addicted, I'd say the average Rovers game costs me getting on for 50 quid a game after ticket, diesel, brew/beer.

We will have known the in's and out's of what Brereton's wages are before we approached them, that's how it works.

Yep, it defintely impacted my decision if I'm honest. The price hike and the fact I can watch all the midweek games with my Sky package definitely had an impact, whilst I will still come to the majority of home midweek games as they work easiest for me not missing a Saturday with my wife and kids. Come December when it's driving rain and freezing, 25 quid and Diesel from Lancaster plus a walk to Ewood from Mill Hill will almost definitely be getting sacrificed for watching it on telly.

I'm sure I read Chapman's current injury is a shoulder injury from impact after landing awkwardly rather than a re-occurrence of his hamstring issues he suffered last season

Having Bennett as an attacking mid works for our shape when we don't have the ball though IMO, he acts as an extra man in there. Whilst I think he is better in a more defensive position by moving him there you're sacrificing protection for the full back/wing back. Defence is a massive development area for Chapman, again, IMO. Dack, Palmer, Armstrong and Chapman would leave us very light in terms of tackles and ability to win the ball back high up the pitch, putting a hell of a lot of pressure on the remaining midfielders.

There are several cons, his price, his age, his inexperience, lack of goals, lack of being wanted by his current manager the flip side is that a number of those also be seen as pro's but then that is the point of critiquing a potential signing, especially one which could equal our transfer record and match about 6 years worth of total team investment.

I still don't see people questioning why nobody else is looking at him as being negative, it's a perfectly valid question. I don't think anybody is saying that because nobody else is interested we shouldn't sign him but it's unusual for a player who is touted at between 6-8 million pounds, English and young to only be courted by one club and a newly promoted club at that. That in itself doesn't mean we shouldn't sign him but it could inform the bigger picture of the pro's and con's.

Agreed, I'm in no way comparing him to Coyle mind, just that in this league you can employ an absolute duffer and pick up very few points through winter and still come within a whisker of staying in the league, which is a pretty sad indictment of the quality in many ways, or at least the quality that season!

The only saving grace for QPR is that it's difficult to be cut a drift in the Championship, even with our disastrous start to the Coyle era we still managed to take it to the last day. If they make a change now a couple of results could swing things round for them quite quickly. Les Ferdinand and the CEO Hoos need to take responsibility for the appointment of McClaren, I want to say he's a busted flush although I'm not sure he was ever a flush to be honest.