That's an incredibly choice way of looking at it. You could just as easily say that he's given at least 8 debuts to academy players in his just over three seasons and our oldest player finishing the game today was 26. Neither account gives a proper reflection.

I'm not worried about any of our lads being looked at by Prem clubs for next season (maybe Trav at a push). I am worried about wealthy Championship clubs with money burning holes in their pockets looking at a few of them though, If there's interest in Armstrong, I hope we're brave enough to recognise his value. Young English forward who scores bags of goals, sets a few up and scares teams to death with his pace. Needs to be 8 figures to start the conversation.

Wigan have put together some good form in recent months, but Cook is the same manager who had them at right at the bottom after the first half of the season. I'm not sure we'd be as forgiving about their utterly dismal away form that they've had for the vast majority of their time in this division. Perfectly decent manager, but there's no way that I'd either i) swap him for Mowbray or ii) want him if TM was to go for whatever reason.

Good shout, although he was available last summer and we didn't go for him, so I assume that won't be one we'll be looking at (although I hope I'm wrong)

Whilst I basically agree, I think before the lockdown (or at least before the Derby game!) we were close to cracking it. Mid-season we were racking up a very respectable number of clean sheets, and I think we definitely looked much more solid since last season, where soft goals and late goals dogged us. Since then we've obviously been far too easy to score against, and we can put a quite a lot of that on Walton's shoulders but blame needs to be shared around too. Not just with the back four either, as impressive as Travis is, we would have conceded two less had he not lost the ball cheaply against Leeds and this afternoon.

Obviously can't be reading too much into games like this, but Buckley showed that he has talent. Big progress from the little boy in his couple of showings.

What an absolutely ridiculous game

Assume it's a fitness thing, went off at the weekend and he's had a propensity to pick up injuries

The end to this season is reminding me me plenty of the Bowyer season where we almost got in the play offs. I remember watching us put 4 past Birmingham away in the first half and being more concerned about 4 or 5 other teams results than enjoying ours! In the end though it didn't matter as the horrible Yeovil and much much worse Sheffield Wednesday results took it beyond us. I expect this season will be the same with Wigan and Barnsley, but it looks like they're doing a good job of just about keeping our hopes alive by a slither until the final moment.

I'd have no qualms at all with either of those getting it, especially Armstrong the way that he has kicked on, but I've voted for Darragh. I remember seeing our win percentage with him and without him in the team a couple of weeks ago. These things can be misleading, but even so I really think Lenihan is the one player in the squad that we miss the most when he doesn't play.

Game of opinions, but I really don't see it that way at all. I do think that he has worked really hard on his technical play and he can do a pretty good job of keeping possession high up the pitch, and it might be easy to exaggerate how bad his final ball tends to be (happy to say it's no worse than Bell's, more often than not). Even so, I can't agree that we can call his crossing good, definitely a weaker part of his game as I see it.

Can't argue with that. I suppose the way that the game is going fullbacks are increasingly less likely to get away with just being good defenders and not need to offer a significant attacking threat. Having said that he has clearly developed in running with the ball and keeping possession - he probably only needs to become adequate at his final ball and other clubs might be looking in his direction. I wonder if a player like Andre Ooijer would have had any sort of career as a right back in the modern game. Good defender and technically v. decent, but his instincts are so much that of a defender that he might've not even have been given the chance there to begin with.

I like Ryan a lot but I think this is a fair assessment of where he is at present. Progressing nicely but not yet PL standard. He does seem to be playing slightly within himself post-lockdown - not in a way which is a concern but still a slight drop off. I wonder if this might have something to do with him managing his body with all the extra games. He's talked about his tendency to pick up muscle injuries in the past, maybe the extra games in a condensed period means that he wants to reduce the risk.

All debates about the merits of playing him wide aside, he clearly has the pace and power to make life difficult for full-backs. Good on him for making the difference today, next season we'll have to expect him to deliver a bit more frequently.

Players who have (correctly) come in for a bit of stick showed glimpses of their potential today. Even apart from the goal, Rothwell looked as productive as he has for some time. Gallagher showing that he has the attributes to cause full backs issues, even if his position isn't out wide. Disappointed, as even three wins will probably see us fall just short.

And they've just gone behind!

Just had a look at Derby's remaining fixtures and they've still got Leeds and Cardiff to come. Even a draw today would make it difficult for them.

Think we spent a couple of million on Scott Dann, but next to nothing since relegation. Suppose if you're being charitable we have actually proceeded more than our fair share of young defenders who were of a decent level in Nyambe, Hanley and Lenihan. Beyond that, you're probably looking at Duffy who was what, 400k?

I think the four wins will probably be enough now that Cardiff have lost. Mammoth task which at the minute seems beyond us, but if should be get the better of West Brom today then I'll probably start believing again!

That's Gally with a hat-trick tomorrow then!

Interesting. Out of curiosity what do you think he is good at? I've never seen him play beyond the odd highlights package. At a higher level you could easily describe MGP (or even David Beckham) in a similar sort of way, but they managed to make up for it in other ways. Something similar here or is it just a knack of getting into the box and scoring?

Absolutely, definitely not advocating him as Tosin's replacement for next season. I don't think I caught the original post on Wharton, so I could be missing the point, but I was just saying that I wouldn't be reading too much into his lack of game time at Ewood - not so often you get a Phil Jones who can take to such a demanding position so well at a young age.

Time will tell, I haven't followed him other than knowing his promotions so I can't call it either way. Having said that, seems to me as though there's a pretty big middle ground between Travis is & where Tomlinson seems to be - there's room for Scotty to be a relative success if he finds himself in that middle ground.

I can't say one way or the other if he'll be at the right level, but it's different for central defenders. There's no luxury to introduce them gradually and allow them to learn on the job in the same way that you can for other outfield positions. I would've thought his lack of appearances for the Rovers 1st team reflects both his position & that the management think he's going to develop more playing mens football rather than them thinking that he's never going to make it.

To be fair, miles out of town is exaggerating. You're right that it's not that bad to get to from the trains, but moving it to a retail park was a retrograde step for me. There's just something a bit more soulless about having a ground in between a gym and a cinema when the alternative was a stadium with a century's worth of history, right in the community and surrounded by heaving pubs on match day. Time plays tricks, but I believe there were plans drawn up to do up Central Park and turn it into something more befitting a modern stadium, before the land was eventually sold to Tesco. Not sure if that would have been viable if the football team would've shared the ground, but I find it really hard not to look at that decision without thinking what it could've been like.