Admiral Nelsen

All the more incredible considering they've made the call in a panic about potentially lost future revenue. Is that pretty much equal to their record transfer fee?

To be fair, another way of phrasing that exact same point is that his change of system brought about a positive change in form which led to promotion. We finished up getting close to 100 points after that terrible start, and we've seen countless examples of big clubs struggling in that league recently, so I don't think there's any harm in giving him the credit for that one. Doesn't stop him from needing to go after this season's capitulation though.

I know many will agree with you, so I'm not saying you're wrong to bring it up, but personally I don't get why his body language/interviews etc. riles people so much. He's had a pretty miserable demeanour since day one here as far as I see it, and plenty of that coincided with the team doing well. I don't agree that his signings were mostly bad either. I think there are enough success stories to say that he can spot a player. I agree though that it's hard to concisely summarise all the different aspects of his time in charge. If I was to try, the thing that it really boils down to is your point about the major drops in form. I think if these were just a little less predictable/less severe, you could even now make a perfectly good case for him being worth a new contract (not least because we'd still be in the play off mix). But sadly they're not, and it almost makes all other aspects of his performance irrelevant because it means that we'll always have that ceiling of what we can achieve under him.

Can't argue with that. Speaking for myself, I would have been happy with us parting ways last season, but knowing how straightforward finishing in the top 6 should've been from our position in January, I was happy to eat my share of humble pie at the time. I expected there to be a sticky patch, possibly even a very bad one, but I never in a month of sundays thought it would cost us a play off spot from where we were. The really perplexing thing is how to explain where these death spirals come from. It doesn't seem at all as though Mowbray flogs his players into the ground, or that the injury situation at his various clubs tends to be that bad after Christmas. I use various types of data in my work, and one thing you always need to be careful of is wrongfully claiming that that one thing actually causes a certain outcome, when in reality it might just be a chance association, coincidence or a number of other things. Having said all that, the way that Mowbray has these spells so frequently, over multiple seasons across multiple clubs and playing squads, strongly suggests that he is at the root of it all, even if it's not obvious from the outside what it is about his management which results in these spells. It's such a shame, because even now I would like to remember his spell in charge fondly because I genuinely think there are plenty of aspects to him as a manager which are/were positive. The L1 season is obvious, but generally his recruitment record is better than most, with a couple of diamonds in there, admittedly along with one or two howlers too. Unlike almost all of our post-Sam managers, he has had the imagination to actually implement a coherent style of play which wasn't just throwing out XI players on the pitch, as was the case under Coyle, Bowyer and others. We might easily end up with somebody worse than Mowbray if we replace him in the summer, but we simply can't carry on with a manager who almost every year oversees a dramatic and sustained loss of form in the second half of the season.

Like you I can't see this happening at all, for a number of reasons. That said, the wedge that he was on at Turf Moor is neither here nor there now, as none of the clubs that he's likely to get in the near future will be paying him anywhere near that. Because most top-flight teams will have their lazy preconceptions of him, he'll probably have to make do with a Championship club in England. Ridiculous really, but I can't see any Prem club going for him until (ironically) somebody gets desperate in a relegation scrap next year, and even then he's unlikely to get his chance that way. His next move will probably be to a club which isn't a million miles away from where we are in the pyramid as things stand, but one who can offer him a better chance of growing something than what is currently on offer at Ewood.

Struck me during the first half yesterday that there are lots of different ways that players can show character. Being brave on the ball when things are tough is obviously one, fronting up to physically imposing teams being another. One that doesn't get talked about as much is not trying to show how much you care by picking up stupid cards when the team is getting outplayed, which we have definitely been guilty of this season, including the first half yesterday. That stat there for the Burnley is another little bit of evidence which shows that their success has been built on a lot more than just a throw-back manager trying to bully teams. Like Sam was here, he's a manager who takes care of the minute details and demands total discipline from his players. Whoever gets him next year will have an excellent manager on their hands, especially if it's in the Championship.

I still think there's huge uncertainty to be honest. If Bournemouth get their act together and actually beat a decent number of the sides they have left to play, then I agree it would take one of the pack to win almost all of their remaining games. With Bournemouth's form and run in though, they could easily end up limping their way to 10-12 points, which would make them realistically catchable for me.

I wouldn't go quite that far, if you were to put together a compilation of Gally's best bits in a Rovers shirt we'd be surprised about the moments of genuine quality there. You're right though that it's not just a case of us not playing to his strengths. He would score more goals if he played 30 games as a number 9, but his first touch is poor too often and like others have said, he doesn't have the knack to anticipate chances. All that said, he has his moments when he makes the difference like he did midweek - a few more between now and June and he might yet be worth that £5 million we paid for him!

It'll be interesting to see how many points end up being enough to get second this season. Usually you're talking low 80s as a minimum, but I honestly can't see Bournemouth getting the 2 points a game or so they need from those games. Someone can still catch them. Very likely not Rovers, but a team from the pack putting a run together could.

Back in training apparently, could mean anything in terms of being available for selection though.

We could I suppose - I don't expect that we will though. Three at the back continues to make us very hard to score against, and Brereton was scoring plenty in this system before his injury.

Assuming we finish in the top 6 (irrespective of whether we go up via the play offs), I think that would be a really sensible option. Clearly he wouldn't deserve to get potted on this season's showing, whatever we would've thought last year. A rolling deal means that everyone has some stability and if sacking is an option further down the line, we won't be paying off a 2-3 year deal.

Hugely important game. Seven points from the Millwall game onwards is less than we would've liked, but wouldn't be disastrous. Four points on the other hand... I'd carry on with 3 at the back from the start. We'll be playing that way when Brereton returns anyway, although I would bring in Giles. Kaminski Lenihan VH Wharton JRC Travis Rothwell Giles Dolan Gally Khadra Hopefully Gallagher can bring the same energy from the start that he managed from the bench against Derby. 2-0 Rovers.

Agree completely with the highlighted bit. A really noticeable development in the last few years that interviews have almost become an extra way of judging a manager's performance. Almost as though they were politicians. Completely barmy in my view. Mowbray could come out and say that the sky is green & I wouldn't care if we were winning games.

Thinking all the way back to the Sheffield United game at Ewood, I remember thinking at the time that Poveda was much more deserving of the praise that came his way than Khadra. I know he scored, but he gave the ball away so often and just seemed to really lack any respect for possession with some of his runs. I think he's got a bit better at that, and his flashes of quality along with his pace make him a useful player, but needing to be our main attacking threat has really exposed him in our recent spell. As a defender, having to deal with Brereton but also having to think about someone with Khadra's pace must be a nightmare. But when you're relying on Khadra to make the difference, you can't trust his decision making.

Honestly, I'm just happy that JRC has got through several back-to-back starts without injury (admittedly whilst not always playing the 90). His performances look miles off - but I'd persevere with him against Reading, and with any luck Nyambe will be back after the international break.

Wouldn't shock me if we see the same system against Reading, but with Giles on instead of Pickering.

100% Nobody expects your centre backs to be expert finishers at this level, but the amount of first contacts that Lenihan and Wharton get, both of them should be on at least 3/4 by now in my view. Maybe a bit churlish of me seeing as they've done their job in spades at the back, but when you think of the fine lines in games since Christmas - it could've made all the difference in keeping us in the race for the top 2.

Literally nobody is calling him that though, and I agree that the Johnson positioning was bizarre. I'm just saying that if we're in the position of not giving the manager any credit for a positive result which came off the back of his changes, then that is strange to me. Especially seeing as we're all happy to stick the boot in for the bad results which come off the back of some pretty decent performances, as has happened over our recent run.

Yes. I think it comes with a couple of caveats that his tactics also came alongside missed pens & plenty of other chances we should've taken. But yes, he takes the blame for when we underperform.

To be fair, doesn't he say that he got selection wrong & should've changed 5 or 6 from Bristol City? I know it's not the same as saying that he shouldn't have played Johnson where he did, but he did admit to getting the selection wrong.

I don't think it'll go down as a managerial masterclass, but changing tack during the game and making match winning substitutions is exactly where managers earn their corn. Obviously the first half was a disaster & that's on Mowbray, but his changes were instrumental in us getting the three points. God knows he's got his flaws, but there's nothing to be gained by giving him pelters when things go wrong but not giving him any credit when things go our way.

Good. If you end up winning after a row then it all gets forgotten about anyway. If it played a part in picking up three points then that's all that matters. We've had that many teams full of choirboys since we were first relegated, it makes a change to know we've got a few players capable of knocking a few heads together. I bet something like this happened every other week under Sparky.

Or them all playing one another, which fortunately is pretty much the case! Agree that we can't really be counting our chickens on 73 points being enough though. It probably will, but there are so many teams in the chasing pack that it will take until at least a week or two after international break to get a proper sense of what we'll need, maybe even after Easter. Hopefully by that time we'll have picked up most of what we'll need already.

Personally, I hope not. No doubt this system has been partly responsible for our shocking run in front of goal, but typically we've been creating more chances than we've been giving away. The issue is that the personnel haven't been able to take the chances that we should have, but Brereton coming back could make all the difference and take some of the pressure off Khadra, who isn't up to being the main man for me. Very nice to know we have a genuine plan B if we go behind though.