Admiral Nelsen

Good team, but fortunate to get a point at the weekend, and don't look as good (as far as I've seen) as Sheffield United. Also, a horrible, horrible club by anyone's standards. Rovers 2-1

Four weeks for Nyambe is a blow. Luckily there's an international break there, but even so.

Right back should be an interesting one, seeing as we have a few midfielders who can do a job there. Apparently Reed played there a lot for Norwich last term, but do we want to lose what he gives us in midfield? Same with Bennett? Think Evans picked up a minor injury at the weekend, so for this one I think you're right, but hard to say how it'll turn out if Nyambe is out for any length of time.

Not saying he was MoTM given the Bennett/Graham/Dack contributions, but pleased to see Smallwood get recognition. Time will tell if Reed takes his spot, but his performances against the on paper better sides (Brentford, Derby, Stoke - didn't see the Villa game) show that he clearly has the game to contribute to a winning side at this level.

Close to my team. I'd be inclined to play Armstrong in front of Davenport (Armstrong on the wing with Travis in the middle) and possibly carry on with Williams in the middle with Lenihan getting a rest.

One of those rare occasions when resting a few of our top players might even be the best plan of winning the game. Hopefuly start with a front 4 of: Rothwell Palmer Armstrong Brereton. Assume that we'll be looking to hit them on the break, and there are bags and bags of pace in that team.

I do, almost expect us to to be honest. Saying that, flirt is the right word. 7th-10h would be my guess going of what we've seen.

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.