Good. He was getting a sniff about a month ago, but not really enough to impress with. He might still be a flawed player, but with the injuries in his position this could be the making of him.

There's clearly something, but it might be as much his lack of defensive work/ability which is stopping him. Think how long it took for Rothwell to get in the side, could be a similar thing with Chapman. Hopefully, given our injury troubles, his not playing on Monday was because he'll be in the squad at the weekend.

Pre-Rothwell injury I was lucking my lips at those. Strong home record for a long time now and playing some very beatable sides away. With the squad as it is now, it looks tougher, but you're still 100% right to say that we need wins from them to get in the top 6. On the Bennett at 10 thing mentioned elsewhere, he played the same role against Brentford at home last season and he was MoM. Pressing everything and not letting their better footballers settle one bit. Not saying the same thing would happen this time, or that he should be anywhere near there when any one of Dack, Holtby or Rothwell are fit, but given that we're playing some decent sides and we have to deal with what we have, it might not be a bad solution.

The Holtby injury seems to force our hand a little bit. Either stick with playing the same way but relying more on youngsters, or switch tactic to playing two up top. Fulham's defence has had plenty of off days this season, so I'd be tempted to change things and bring Graham back in. We're not going to out-pass Fulham, so having his know-how and ability to give us a platform could be vital.

Keeping Tosin and Lenihan fit and playing is massive for us. We're stretched all over the pitch at the moment, but they're the ones who we miss the most when either are missing. I still think we can do it, although how we deal with February might be make or break. Even though we're stretched, we've got four games at home and the Charlton game looks winnable as far as away games go. If we can get through those games without anymore major injuries, pick up 3-4 wins and go into March with Rothwell, maybe Evans coming back in, then we have as good a chance as anyone.

Game of opinions, but I seem to remember Andrews going on loan to Ipswich when we were still in the Prem and scoring a silly number of goals. Goals aren't everything of course, but I think, but I think if we were to sign him now instead of when he looked like Ince's lapdog, he would've been seen very differently.

To be honest I'm only going off the Bristol City game, which I didn't go to, so I could be talking nonsense. Just seems to me that given the Rothwell injury, we can move Downing to the wing, Johnson in the middle and have Graham up front.

Yeah, wouldn't expect that any dealings today (or lack thereof) could possibly be affected. Even so, assuming it would be somewhere between 5-8 million, then it should significantly change the complexion of the summer. Come on Ole!

Quite right, my mistake. I'd still look to go 442 though. Perhaps Graham with Arma instead of Gally

Under normal circumstances, with their upturn in form and our injuries, a draw would be a decent result here. But we need 10 wins, so this is one we really should be going for. I'd be tempted to temporarily revert to our Bristol City approach with Gally and Armstrong up top, Johnson in the middle with Travis and Downing on the wing.

It's something he seems to try a lot, probably one of the main reasons that he's played so far on the left. No co-incidence that he hit the post so much last year, with him trying it as often as he does.

Ibe is one of those players who I only know by appearance and reputation, rather than having seen him play a lot. His goal record, apart from a brief loan at Derby a couple of years ago looks pretty dire, it has to be said. Having said that, he obviously must have something about him to get 100+ PL games when he's just turned 24. If it's him, I'd be cautiously excited, especially if it's linked to a permanent deal, although I've no clue how realistic that would be.

Some rumblings (maybe Nixon started, don't know) that Forest are after Freeman on loan. Suggests that he might be available, but then again they might be a slightly more attractive option than Rovers at present seeing as they're potentially going for the top 2.

Believe that he's been coming off the bench, but then again I suppose many of the names suggested have too. He'd be a top signing, but I suspect that it will be a PL youngster, despite the mention that it could be an experienced player. Hope to be wrong obviously, and even if it is a youngster it could feasibly be a Harvey Barnes type instead of a Martin Samuelsen.

That would be amazing, but I seriously doubt it. Surely would have Prem interest?

I'll choose to see the last 20 minutes as us learning how to see how out a game, rather than let it take away from what was a very good opening hour against a decent team. Quick point on Bell, tonight was a microcosm of where he's at with his Rovers career. Most of the game looked like there's a reasonable player in there, but too many times where he is far too loose. Genuinely conflicted about offering a new deal. Anyway, great three points. COYR.

Sharpe very impressed with Davenport by all accounts. Said he controlled the game and PNE had a number of senior players there

I don't see how? It's entirely consistent to believe that players bought in the first few transfer windows a) improved/contributed to the team so we could get promoted and consolidate in the championship and b) have now been shown to be not good enough to challenge for promotion to the top flight. This doesn't mean that it was the wrong decision to get them in them in the first place, just that our ambitions have quickly outgrown their usefulness. It wasn't a given that we'd get promoted (look at Sunderland) nor was it a given that we'd find staying up fairly comfortable (look at every other promoted team over the same period). Signing Dack was wonderful, but there aren't too many players who join a L1 side and find gliding up through the leagues so easy. Sometimes you have to shop at the level you're at, and Smallwood, Samuel, Nuttall, Bell, P. Downing and others made significant contributions in progressing where we are now. TM is now happy to raise our expectations, which I think we all are glad about, so we need significant (not 9 players though!) first team reinforcements. There's no contradiction at all in recognising that setting our sights higher will require improving the squad, and at the same time that our position now of having a young squad sat not far outside the playoffs is a significant improvement on what TM inherited, and for which his recruitment has clearly played a large and positive role. In terms of the wider transfer strategy, totally fair enough that we have more loans than we would like (even if they play a crucial role in being successful at this level) but elsewhere we needed to improve the depth of the squad (see Holtby), and signing players for the future is exactly the way that a club like ours can overcome FFP. Wouldn't disagree that this approach has been hit and miss so far, but our squad value must be miles higher than it was prior to Mowbray's appointment (even notwithstanding that he's spent a few quid). This has turned into a slightly longer and ranting post than it was meant to, and I don't want to make it sound like he hasn't made errors in some of his signings. He obviously has, potentially at least one big one. At the same time when he get's criticised for needing to bring players in so that a team that was in the third tier a season and a half ago can challenge for promotion, it just strikes me as enormously disproportionate and is even in danger of underplaying the progress we've made and continue to make, which is considerable.

Understood. (I was also unfair quoting your post when in reality I was speaking to many posts on the last page or so, don't want to seem like I was digging you out specifically!).

With respect, I think this is way off the mark. Appearances aplenty for the likes of Greer, Feeney, Akpan, Guthrie, Ward and Lowe. All of those would need an injury crisis to get near the squad now. Even the sprinkling of inconsistent talent we had up front weren't actually our players! Harsh to hold the fact that he's not had to sell anyone (yet) against him when we've only just got to the point that we've got anyone who would fetch any money! I can't argue that he's brought in a lot of players, some of them have not been goof signings and that we need significant recruitment to be where we need to be. All I'd say is that: i) some of the suggestions that we need up to 9 new players in addition to the current squad is, I think, completely over the top. We win tonight then we're 3 points off the team currently in 6th. We don't need a new squad. ii) Many of the players brought in were to get us of L1 at the first time of asking, which they did, and to get us up to speed in the Championship. A club like ours shouldn't be satisfied by treading water in the second division, but if we want to shop for players to get us promoted, we're looking for a different standard of player we were 18 months ago. To illustrate, TM got loads of stick on here last year for being to loyal to players who did the job in L1. Now that he wants to push on like we all do, he's being criticised for needing to bring in too many players. He's made mistakes in the transfer market but some of the criticism is just unreasonable in my opinion.

If he is, I'd hate to think what some of the others that we've had over the last 10, even 5 years have been doing!

I wouldn't ever want to sound overly harsh on him seeing how much he was responsible for giving us a much needed lift. I'd put him as one of only two post-Sam managers to be in credit overall (admittedly a shockingly low bar!) and he was very good at identifying good young players. Even so, you're 100% right that we underachieved badly and it looks even worse in retrospect. The goals in that side shows it, but also the careers had by King, Cairney, Duffy and Hanley too. One that doesn't get mentioned as much is O'Connell who is now being linked with some of the biggest clubs in the land. Judge and Dunny were both badly underused too, and a lot of the problems come down to GB not really wanting to leave a straightforward 442 as far as I see it. Grateful for his contribution, but hard not to look at that time as a missed opportunity.

I've missed a handful games since then, but this is absolutely right. Perfect blend at this level between skill, athleticism and grit. I've been surprised by how well they've gone this year, but you could tell then that they were an excellent team.

Me too, but I'd be surprised as well. Armstrong being productive at centre forward, and maybe Dack's injury in a strange sort of way, means that we can possibly see a way of not being as reliant on Graham, but I don't think Mowbray will think that we're there yet (or anything close, disappointingly). There might be a different decision to be made at the end of the year, but keeping Graham at least for one more window should be no-brainier. I hope we keep him next year too, which admittedly will probably be his last.

I think we're firmly in the 'hard to beat at home' category, but I'd want a few more draws converted into wins before we call it a fortress. The fixture list has been strange too in that we've tended to play almost all of the tough teams away first, so we still have most of the big hitters to come at Ewood. Having said that, I can't remember the last time I came away from Ewood thinking we were genuinely outplayed, even if we've picked up some disappointing results. Keep that up and it's definitely an opportunity to have a stronger second half of the season, with some of the lower-hanging fruit away games coming between now and May.