Partial co-incidence, in my view. Quality of the teams we played in December probably had more to do with it. That said, I rate Bennett a lot. The tricky part is getting him in a position where we can make the most of his strengths. The best performance I remember from him this season was I think Brentford at home, where he played at number 10 and his engergy and drive rubbed off on the whole team. Clearly, he isn't going to replace Dack, so he's probably going to be somewhere on the right. Personally, I'd have him on the wing with Nyambe at the back when everyone's fit. Given that Nyambe's had hamstring issues and played big minutes midweek, think the lineup yesterday was right, but going forward I'd rather have Bennett on the wing.

Not enormously different from the better days under Bowyer. Main ones being that I think there's more evidence that Mowbray can be the man to take us further. More importantly, he's clearly taken the time to sort out the structures at the club, in terms of recruitment etc. Would echo others, you can never be sure what's round the corner with Venkys, but we feel like a normal football club, and we have a team and manager to be proud of.

Seeing him breaking out into sprints deep into extra time was an absolute joy. Some engine on him, that boy.

Don't forget this boy

Looked like Dack and Reed were struggling at times during extra time. Small mercy that it was on a Tuesday not a Wednesday. Not as confident as I would've been a few weeks ago, but still expect three points. Mulgrew returning should make a big difference.

Fair. My point is just that if we're saying return of Smallwood = Rovers have lost again, we should at least be losing when he was on the pitch. I thought he did well, but in any case, I think tonight has summed up where we are quite nicely. This team isn't ready yet, but there are signs that several of them could compete given time and a few of the right additions.

True enough, although in his defence the 2 winning goals went in after he was brought off! Richie was a candidate for MoM today, and whilst Travis has easily done enough to keep his jersey, Smallwood has shown that reports of his uselessness have been exaggerated!

Not disputing that we've had too much of a soft underbelly. Newcastle are a poor side at the top level, but we're not at that level. Matt Ritchie is an attacking player which would easily get into any Championship team. Murphy would walk into the vast majority of Championship first XIs. Joselu will be earning comfortably more than any of our team. Also, talking about tonight, we conceded 2 goals in 90 minutes. One of those was enormously unlucky. Pathetic is a massive exaggeration.

We conceded 2 in 90 minutes. One of those was an enormous deflection. There were a couple of times when the defending was not good enough, especially for their second, but there's no need to exaggerate. If we're talking about reserves, how about the fact that we only had one first team central defender available?

Quite right. Just realised that after viewing the page for the fourth time! But it's a disgrace that there's no Flowers option!

In a better team, certainly. Time plays tricks on you, but I genuinely remember thinking towards the end of his time at Rovers that you could make a case that Brad was the best in the prem era after Schmeichel. I don't remember Lehmann having a too much of a stellar time at Arsenal, even though he was in a great team.

Rovers twitter say he's ill. No idea whether to believe that or not.

Partial update: Dack, Rodwell & Downing all ill, apparently. As far as one believes that, explains Nyambe at centre back. Got everything crossed for Brereton tonight. Happy to play the long game with him, but he could obviously do with showing some of what he's got in his locker tonight.

I can only see Nyambe at centre half, played there before a few times. Also, a back three would involve Bell playing there, which while I think he's had a bit of unfair press of late, doesn't bare thinking about.

Not having that Lehmann should be an option instead of Brad either.

Even sat in the dressing room with his cheek faced away from the coach so he didn't clock how bad the injury was and bring him off. Hard as nails. Back to the football, this could come back to bite me, but I really think that we'll do them tonight. Without Shelvey, I'm not convinced they have that much more than us on paper, and everything coming out of St James' suggests that they're simply not that bothered. We score first and how much are they going to want to get back in it, with potential extra time? 3-0 Rovers

Wouldn't be against having Smallwood in somewhere, given he's had the last few weeks off, but I'd be more than happy with that.

Also, any excuse to post this

Loved that team so much. Difficult to convey to non-Rovers fans just how dirty we were for a spell. Potentially a starting XI that included Todd, Neill, Flitcroft, Savage, Bellamy, Dickov, Mokoena, Reidy and probably several more that I can't even recall off the top of my head. Madness.

6th from bottom. Not good enough

Rafa giving his press conference for tomorrow. No Shelvey or Diame, could well be short in the middle of the park. With a 6 pointer with Cardiff on their minds too, I think these are there for the taking.

Up and down, I thought. Started well, but tailed off towards the end. Remember him scoring a belter against Milton Keynes, and played well in the away game at Boro when we managed to draw after playing them off the park. Wouldn't want to be next to him in the trenches, I'll grant you.

Lambert brought in a handful of players in next to no time when at Rovers, and they made a fairly instant impact. Some, like Bennett & Graham are still mainstays, others, like Jordi Gomez & Tony Watt, played a big part in an uplift of form for a while, before we realised that he was on his way and our season petered out. If he can do the same in January, then you have a chance, although I agree with others that 50/50 is looking a bit on the optimistic side. I'm expecting a much tougher game on Saturday than it would've been just a few weeks ago, but given our home form over the last year or more, I'd be expecting three points for Rovers.

The big question mark on whether we do or not is still fitness, for me. He hasn't fallen to bits yet, like some may have predicted, but he has missed a few squads and has only managed one full game. He has time to prove more beyond the end of the season, which is good. His quality is undoubtedly there though, and I agree that playing in a back three is made for him. If we could get away with another 12 months with an option of another year in our favour, then brilliant, but I'm not sure if he'd accept on those terms.