My first game was a home loss to Coventry. Sherwood scored after what seemed like 30 seconds, but they came back to win 2-1. Must have seen us play them at least 6 times since in league & cup. Haven't won a single one, easily the biggest club that I've never seen us beat.

On paper that's a ridiculous team at this level, but I suppose so was ours in our relegation season and look how that turned out. We've drawn too many this season, but as with Derby you'd have to say an away point would be a good one here. I'll think we'll get it too. 2-2

Seeing as Bennett was rested midweek, I think it looks likely that he'll be on one wing at that'll probably be at the expense of Rothwell, but let's see. Interesting to see Mowbray talk him up in a way that he hasn't really done with that many other attacking players, so clearly he's well in his thoughts for starting games, even if tomorrow isn't one of them.

Have to admit I was taken slightly aback by how much resentment there was towards Rovers from PNE when we found ourselves in the same division again. Suppose it'd be less of a shock for those Rovers fans who actually live over that way, but I always saw them as a benevolent little brother more than anything else, quite wanted them to succeed in truth. Anyway, I love the recurring arguments they give about how massive they would be if they were in the top flight, or how we'd have dwindled in to obscurity if Jack hadn't have stepped in. Both dubious in any case, but even if they were true it's a bizarre way of thinking. It's like saying If Man United sacked Ferguson and got some no mark to replace them, they could well have drifted into being another Aston Villa. Fine, but they didn't, and now they're one of the world's biggest clubs. PNE would get sell outs every week if they were in the top flight. Fine, but they haven't been in the top flight since Adam was a lad, so they don't.

Seem to remember (though I could easily be wrong) that paperwork needs to be submitted to governing bodies with evidence that it was completed prior to 5. Maybe medicals can wait, until after then if the club chooses to waive it. There was an issue about this last year with Leicester & Adrien Silva (once almost of this parish, unless I'm getting him confused with someone else). https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/adrien-silva-relieved-finally-complete-11779732

Hopefully, but you'd assume that we've already got something agreed in principle if so. Half an hour isn't a lot to get something like this signed off otherwise!

More than 15 million dollars

Sale of the effing century

To be fair, they don't have the luxury of time to play around with. Either we accept an offer in the next hour or so or he stays. No point in messing around with derisory offers like they did yesterday (which was the real strange one)

Usually I wouldn't go in for stuff like that. But if their first bid, 24 hours before the deadline was as little as £7million all in, then it genuinely sounds like they either haven't done their homework on what would realistically get accepted, or they're not expecting the bit to be accepted. Might be an improved offer, but unless it has AT LEAST doubled, then the conversation doesn't even begin.

As much as Chapman would be fantastic, I don't think we're necessarily crying out for another body in that area unless they're of a really high calibre. Bearing that in mind, I'd be happy for us to focus on Chapman right up until the deadline if possible. If it doesn't come off, c'est la vie.

Boro just signed McQueen who can play on the left wing. https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/sam-mcqueen-signs-for-boro-on-season-long-loan

Absolutely horrible for him. As with Chapman last year, I'd be happy just to see him have a proper career after this, at Rovers or elsewhere.

Could be reading too much into it, but I think it's a real skill of a leader to know the extent to which you should be praising or criticising your players/staff to get them performing to their maximum & still committed to improving. Best example in football is probably Brian Clough. If you watch Martin O'Neill interviewed about him even to this day, you can't fail to see how much conflict there is still going on in his head with a mix of admiration, resentment and plenty more besides. What comes across most though is a palpable need to impress the manager, either for his approval, to prove him wrong or a bit of both. And this is all 30+ years after they worked together! Not saying that Mowbray is especially like Clough, but it's great that he has the confidence to not mollycoddle players in the public eye when they're not even contracted to us, and clearly both Armstrong & Chapman were/are desperate to get back here all the same.

You're not wrong. My first reaction was to laugh, then I thought about it some more, now I'm worried. Currently looking at Hull's forum & social media just to make sure!

No worries. To be fair, plenty of posters have commented similarly on his performances this year, so certainly wasn't looking to dig you out or even say that he's not been poor for the games I've missed. Only saw the highlights for the Hull game and saw what he did in the build up to the goal, so assumed he played well but obviously that's no good if for the rest of the game he was dire! That said, I sometimes wonder if fans generally (myself included) just don't really appreciate the role that defensive midfielders do unless they're so good that they can do a bit of everything. I've seen comments elsewhere that Richie was poor in the second half of last season, and granted he wasn't quite as swashbuckling as he was in his first months, but for me he was doing the job of a ball-winner to aplomb: protect his defenders & build a platform for our attacking players. Richie's clearly still a popular figure, so I don't think that any criticism he gets comes from the same place as that of some of our other less technically gifted players over recent years. Even so, I think plenty of fans can under-rate the role of the Smallwoods of this world, even when they're effectively going about their business in my view. Personally, I think that we should worry about Smallwood (and Evans for that matter) when our defence looks overly exposed or when our attacking players aren't getting a platform. We've had a fairly kind run of fixtures, so maybe I'll eat my words in a few more games, but if he continues to play as he did last weekend he'll do fine.

Haven't seen every game this season, so I can't speak about those I've missed, but I came away from the Brentford game thinking what was all the fuss about when it came to Smallwood. Against a good team, he was absolutely fine in my view. Nothing spectacular in terms of his distribution, but didn't look out of place at all at this level. I accept it might be different when we're looking to break down teams that are sitting back against us, but as a ball winning midfielder I don't think there was anything to criticise in terms of last weekend at least. If Evans keeps up his form & Reed/Davenport look a cut above when they get a chance then maybe it changes, but until then I think it's still very much Smallwood's shirt to lose.

Think we sent Andy Todd there on loan too, as I recall, before he became a mainstay under Hughes.

Like Gally, and a few weeks ago Armstrong & him would've sounded ideal, but I don't see where he gets in the team now we've signed Brereton. Chapman on the other hand, would be brilliant & the cherry on top of a great window!

Honestly, I'd only be nervous if it was a top flight team at present. Not saying that he'd never go to another Championship team, but I think our momentum (along with his new contract on which the ink has barely dried) means that we should be able to fend any interest off without Dack being too bothered imo. 12 months time might be a different story.

Struggling to pick a side for this one. Even if Reed & Brereton will need to be patient to begin with, there'll still be some very unlucky players on the bench. Assuming Dack & Armstrong are fit, I'd go with: Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell Smallwood Evans Bennett Dack Palmer Armstrong Subs: Canadian, Graham, Brereton, Rothwell, Reed, Travis, Downing All of a sudden, that's some squad!

Wasn't he still calling himself G8 around that time?

I'll take that, and raise you with I thought that Jon Stead was going to be a mainstay England player for the bulk of his career, and easily our best forward since Shearer!

Agree. More than anything else, he's obviously in desperate need of a loan just to play regularly. He's not that young anymore, but for all that he hasn't played too many games either. Seems to me that the biggest thing for him is quite simply just to learn the game and get a bit cannier with his all-round game. He has some decent attributes already and there's no reason why he can't be a decent squad player at this level if he just starts playing a bit more intelligently.

It's hard isn't it! On the one hand it looks too early in the team's development to realitically challenge this season, and yet we have this momentum... All ambitions aside, I'm so excited to see what this team can do over the next 2, 3, 4 or more seasons. If we're being brutally honest, our current ability is probably somewhere around upper mid-table in a strong championship. What makes us different is that you can look at 5 or 6 players and think that the sky is the limit for them. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that we have future England internationals playing in blue & white halves at present. When could we last say that?