Because if things go in our favour you are not interested and if they don't work out for us you use it as an excuse. You said if but Armstrong scores or passes one of his many chances last night and we are in the play off places but that is a one sided view and it's full off buts and maybe's. I was saying that you if you want to go down the if but's and maybe route you could equally turn it around and say if the ref against Millwall gives them just one of the three penalties they should have had then we may have lost or at best drawn that game. Also if Bristol City take one of the good chances that they had in the first half then maybe they win the game comfortably. But you 'don't care' about that presumably because it doesn't fit the Rovers hard by narrative.

So when things go for us you don't care about them but if they go against us it's something to blame for not winning.

Of course its ifs and buts there is no guarantee that if Armstrong had passed in certain circumstances that we would have scored. I don't recall him shooting at the expense of playing someone in for a really good chance. The trouble is by your own admittance you only look at a game from one side you talk about chances that we didn't score but aren't interested in easier chances that they should have scored. If the ref had denied us three penalties and we had lost the game, I suspect that you would have used that as an excuse for us losing but because it doesn't support your defence of Mowbray you don't care about it.

If's, buts and maybe's. You could equally turn it around and say if the ref against Millwall gives them just one of the three penalties they should have had then we may have lost or at best drawn that game. Also if Bristol City take one of the good chances that they had in the first half then maybe they win the game comfortably.

Took over Middlesbrough 21st in the league kept them up and within a few months and spending little money only has them only a point behind the might of Tony Mowbray, who has taken nearly 4 years and a lot more money to get where he is.

Stoke will be in and around the top 6.

The lack of space wasn't Armstrong's problem last night. He made a number of good runs and he got himself into plenty of space and good positions, the problem was what he did with when he got himself into them.

Kaminski Nyambe Lenihan Ayala Bell Rothwell Davenport Johnson Elliott Armstrong Dolan

People keep talking about the top 6 but even if we get into the top 6 we are going to have to defeat 2 other top 6 teams back to back for it to mean anything and at the moment we haven't been able to beat any just once. I also keep reading the injuries excuse which totally ignores the fact that Bristol City had just as many as us out injured and Norwich on Saturday will probably have more out. The fact is that in this condensed season you are going to get more players out injured than normal but that is going to be the same for every club not just us.

What about Douglas' pitiful attempt at stopping the cross? All of their dangerous attacks came down his side, I thought any left back would be an upgrade on Bell but amazingly Douglas isn't. He's a carbon cop of Bell, he doesn't like tackling so players go past him like he isn't there, he's constantly out of position, he make's feeble attempts at stopping crosses coming in and despite arriving with a reputation of being good going forward he doesn't offer anything in that regard either. You view a game totally from one side. What about the chances that they missed in the first half if one of them goes in it could also have been a different game. If you are going to use if's and buts then at least do it from both sides instead of just using it as excuses for another defeat to a top half team.

He just over complicates it. Elliott played in 4 different position tonight he played all 3 position in the front 3 and then in the midfield 3. Why keep moving him about when he play of the right of the front 3 he is absolute class, his passing is exceptional a number of times tonight he came in from the right and played some lovely through balls to Armstrong and he can also do what he did against Millwall. Yet when he is playing in any of the other roles he is no way near as effective. I had no problem with taking Holtby off but moving Elliott in there and bringing Dolan on was again over thinking things just bring Trybull or Davenport on for Holtby. The use of Gallagher is bizarre he is not a winger and I can only think that it is stubbornness from Mowbray that means he continues to play there. He was hopeless tonight and should have been taken off earlier but once we take him off we then proceed to go more direct which is exactly what would suit his game. The two subs he made after they scored were also extremely strange ones considering we needed a goal, I've no idea what exactly was the plan when we made those subs. He tries to be too clever.

A very disappointing result in a game that neither side really did enough to win and where both sides looked to have settled for a point. The stand out performers tonight for me were Elliott, Rothwell and Nyambe. Nyambe was dominant down the right hand side in attack and defence, he really is turning into the complete full back. Rothwell produced some quality runs and passes. It was very strange decision to take him of when we needed a goal, Mowbray never seems to go for broke when we are losing and take a defender off. Elliott looked most likely to create a goal but Mowbray doesn't get the best out of him when he moves him to the centre and left of the front 3 or into the midfield 3. Just leave him on the right of the front 3 where he can curl one in the top corner like against Millwall and he can also pick out a through ball which he did on numerous occasions to create chances for Armstrong tonight. How Gallagher lasted 85 minutes tonight I don't know he was abysmal and you see better first touches in schoolboy football. Douglas is no better than Bell he's terrible defensively, can't tackle, feeble attempts to stop crosses and he doesn't offer much going forward. If they were going to score it was always going to come from down his side, its where all their dangerous attacks came from. We must have the worst two left backs in the division. Holtby was disappointing again just mainly just backwards passing from him. The only times he has impressed this season is against sides around bottom of the table and some of the time they were playing with 10 men. The set piece delivery was abysmal again tonight it really does beggars belief that professional footballers can constantly produce such poor deliveries.

Bowyer only inherited Rhodes of those 3. To be fair the season we went down the attack wasn't our problem we had 4 decent strikers at this level in Graham, Gallagher, Joao and Emnes, the side Bowyer inherited had Rhodes and little else in the way of goals. If the midfield was ageing when Mowbray took over, what Bowyer inherited was creaking with the likes of Murphy, Etuhu, Pedersen and Bentley. Then we also had endless dross in the squad such as Ribero, Vukcevic, Orr, Best, Nunes, Kean, Goodwillie, Campbell, Kazim-Richards, Stewart and probably some more Portuguese who have been erased from my mind along with a well over the hill Nuno Gomes. For me the two squads were equally as bad, the one benefit of the squad that Mowbray inherited was that it cost a lot less to get rid off than the squad that Bowyer inherited did and it also had some good young players in it.

And that's why we were relegated but was it any worse than what Bowyer inherited after Appleton went? I remember going to the first game after that at Cardiff we had Kean in goal, Morris at full back, we had Murphy, Bentley and Best all starting and all completely uninterested. Whilst we had the likes of Goodwillie and Stewart on the bench.

A few months ago I'd have backed Durrant but having seen him at the Grand Slam last month, it's hard to see him winning this. Aspinall's a decent bet especially each way, semi finalist the last 2 years. Wade I think is destined to be the best player never to win a World title but he has been playing well lately and looking at his section of the draw you have to fancy him for a quarter final place at the very least. I'd love to see Lewis back on form on his day he's such a good player to watch.

I'm not sure I'd say that Bowyer inherited a good squad in any shape or form it was a very poor squad that had been put together by Kean and his cronies. I'm not sure I'd say it was any better than the squad that got relegated and it certainly had a much worse attitude. Also I'm not sure that it was Lambert that took us backwards but more that the owners decided to turn the tap's off.

So is Gary Bowyer a great manager for you? Mowbray has basically got us in the same position that Gary Bowyer did only via a different route way as Bowyer succeeded where Mowbray failed and kept us in the Championship. Also Mowbray has spent a lot more money than Bowyer did to do so, in fact Mowbray spent more on just Gallagher than Bowyer during his entire tenure and Gallagher isn't even Mowbray's most expensive buy.

A very open looking tournament this year none of the top players playing at their best of late although MVG's win at the Players Championship could perhaps be an ominous sign that he is peaking at just the right time after a poor year by his standards. I've backed Price to win it at 11/2 and also had a little each way flutter on Gary Anderson at 33/1 he's in no form but he does have a habit of peaking for the Worlds and at those odds I'd have been kicked myself if I didn't back him.

Come on Tony Mowbray is in no shape or form a great manager nor is Chris Hughton for that matter. Mowbray has essentially done the same job for us as Gary Bowyer did only in a slightly different way as Bowyer succeeded where Mowbray failed and kept us in the Championship. Mowbray is a decent steady mid table Championship manager, how anyone could call him a great manager I don't know the one time he's managed in the top flight once and he finished bottom. The biggest job he's had at Celtic was a disaster, where he was one of their worst managers ever. Just on Hughton Brighton were 21st in the Championship when he took over there and unlike Mowbray he was able to keep the side that he got promoted in the Premier League. Warnock's most recent promotion from this league the 17/18 season whereas Mowbray's sole promotion from it was 10 years previous in 07/08. Yet Mowbray is a great manager and Warnock is well past his best. 🤔

Paolo Maldini and Dennis Irwin and their teams did alright doing it.

I'm sure Davenport could play in both he's hardly been overused the last 2 and a half years. Perhaps he's not as good as they thought he would be. I must admit I have been very disappointed with his performances, he's barely an upgrade on Evans.

I wouldn't rush Williams back, he's an injury prone player and it's would be silly to bring him back early and risk him ending up out for another month, especially with Wharton set for a long absence. I'd go with. Kaminski Pike Nyambe Ayala Bell Johnson Davenport Elliott Rothwell Dolan Armstrong

Warnock will probably go on managing until they drag him out in a box. You clearly don't understand how winning promotion works you don't just go in and do it straight away you have to build, develop and go on a journey over a number of seasons in mid table.

I doubt it he isn't an ever present for us and we aren't the league leaders. Personally I haven't seen much in him at all, he barely looks an upgrade on Evans.

The last club Warnock visited he achieved promotion in his first full season and at his current club he was brought into keep them up and did it with ease, something Mowbray failed to do with us. If Warnock doesn't make top 6 in his first season surely that doesn't make him a failure as surely you need 4-5 years to build and go on a journey to break into the top 6. I'd also say that Middlesbrough are the best side that we have played this season they played us off the park at Ewood and really deserved all 3 points.