This pic says it all. It's on the iFollow news feed. On the right, we have Gagging-for-his-Payoff-Tony coming out guns blazing before tonight's match by bigging up our opponents. Wednesday will be, "Hyped for Hillsbrough clash". That's right, this shambles on their way down to the third tier should be feared like a mixture of Brazil '70 and Pep's Barcelona. Why encourage your own team when you can talk up the opposition? This is followed by, LOL!, after the game's Payoff-Eager-Mowbray interview with the headline, "A Familiar Story". Now, there's no additional comment needed here really, but one does have to point out the vacant thousand-yard stare of a man who really cannot believe he hasn't been sacked and paid off yet. We're so pathetic that we're not even a laughing stock anymore. "Venky's, I'm begging you...this is torture. Give me my money, FFS!" One day, a wordsmith will pen a Greek tragedy about the club that was Blackburn Rovers. How on earth they'll keep it down to just the FIVE Acts though, lord only knows...

The Man of the Match race last night proved to be a close-run thing in the end... In Third, I have Harwood-Bellis who is making a bid for best double-barrelled player we've ever had. Not that he's ours, of course. The runner-up is the Belgian Kaminski, who served up a performance as sweet as the chocolate his country is famed for, including a fingertip save. However, the winner of Man of the Match was Blackburn Rovers' game winner Stephen Martin, Strangely dressed all in black rather than the famous blue and white halves, his refusal to give one of the most stonewall penalties we're likely to see at Ewood all season was the game-turning moment that secured the game for t'Rovers. We won but we were crap. I'm glad we've got to 50 points but today made it clearer than ever that if Mowbray is in charge next season then we won't just be flirting with a relegation battle, we'll be mired in one....

Seems like the best we can hope for is for him to move on in the summer. I don't buy it. There'll be "talks" taking place, we'll get our hopes up and in the end we'll be told that next season it's the playoffs or bust. Once the season starts, it'll be as if this death spiral (nor his previous, for that matter) never happened. So yes, this Mowbray reign has the potential to turn very Keanesque in that regard. I'm expecting summer 2021 to be a replay of summer 2011. That led to relegation, will we be talking along those lines for next season too?

I disagree with your premise in your first sentence so can't really follow you and agree with the rest of the post. Just because the players have no belief in their manager, are demotivated and lost does not mean they would "be getting hammered most weeks" as we still have a talented (albeit unbalanced) squad by championship standards. For that to happen, TM would not only have to have lost the players but they would have to be purposely not playing well, purposely getting hidings. Nobody's accusing them of throwing games or doing a Duffy and giving away three own goals in a couple of matches. The reality is that losing the players mean they don't have the fight to turn those close defeats into draws or even into close wins. It means they stagger on from one winless game to the next. It means that our losses are not just some bad days at the office, but an unremitting grind of a death spiral that now looks like this - That's what losing the players looks like, not a draw against a team who are on the beach themselves. A swallow doesn't make a summer and a draw at Cardiff doesn't make a team who are fighting for their manager when they're barely earning half a point a game over a whole THIRD of a season. It's all about opinions though, so you can believe that Tony hasn't lost the dressing room. I think the above table means I believe that not only has he lost the players, but he lost them yonks ago...

Yep, nothing conclusively proves that the players are playing for the manager like 8 points from a possible 45.

Here we go....we've got the FULL TONY TOMBOLA HITS NOW... Not one... Not two... Not three... Not four... But FIVE substitutions from our Tony! Nothing shows a manager in complete control of what he's doing like seeing him brining on five players at once!!!!

Rovers have hit the woodwork three times now this half. Fair play, they've been far better this half and should be leading. EDIT: LOL!!!! Cardiff 2-1. Pathetic defending, they had to do little to score that. Basic pass.

Gallagher looked like a quality centre forward for about 10 seconds there. Mowbray (allegedly, perhaps) then shouts: Get back on the touchline, Sam!

One of those Armstrong attempts had to eventually go in. Error from the keeper, awful mistake. Goes right through him. 1-1.

So obvious to see that the players have no faith whatsoever in their manager, their formation, their team. They're going through the motions, but there's no belief whatsoever, no coherence, no game plan. - Gally on the wing again - 4-3-3 again - Armstrong playing only for himself again, only by now he's just wasting all the best opportunities - Full backs completely exposed every time the opposition attack - Lenihan turning about as quick as a milk cart again - Nothing creative at all coming from central midfield It's all so very shit and highlights how, according to Einstein, Mowbray's reign has descended into madness. After all, isn't madness doing the same bloody things AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN and expecting a different result?

The problem of playing Gally on the wing is that it not only means we are toothless on the left when attacking, but Douglas is also constantly outnumbered whenever the opposition attacking play is down our left. Terrible decision making from Kaminski. Never a need for the keeper to be that far out, we've all seen those given as a red before. No need to run that risk.

Why am I checking this thread to see if anything has happened yet? Of course it hasn't. Delusional thinking with these clowns as owners! I doubt he'll go soon but even if he does, the joy will be short-lived before the next crappy appointment. Ainsworth? Hughes? Marco Silva? Lol...it'll at best be Alan Pardew or some chancer like that, yet another has-been in the need of a last payday as a favour to some agent or another. I don't believe even Mowbray believes his bullshit anymore, he's just carrying on spouting and inviting the sack, week after week, loss after loss. How can he after these last three months? This isn't Mowbray being stubborn, this isn't him being deluded, this isn't him thinking he can turn things around. He knows what one win in 14 would mean at any other club, what seven points out of 42 leads to. I don't think Tony wants this job anymore, there must be no enjoyment in this grinding horror run averaging just the half a point a game, he doesn't want to have to go and work for the next 18 months for all that money...he wants it all in his bank account for being sacked and then he can put his feet up, live the life of Reilly. Sounds a pretty cushy existence! This is Mowbray wanting the Venky's to sack him and pay him off, just like the players want him sacked as can be seen from their "efforts" for ages and the fans wanting him gone (even most of the innate sycophants now want him gone). We seem to forget that in the end Kean had to walk out on the club. Some swallowed the line about Shebby getting him out, but he walked. Got the payout in the end without waiting for it. Yet again this club has been brought to its knees by the actions (and inaction) of the owners. Take a bow Venkys, you've done it again. Not a happy year, sorry happy decade and counting, to be a Rover.

I think the more apt hypothetical equation would be... Championship with Venky's as owners OR League 1 with new owners who have the best interest of the club at heart. League 1 every single day of the week! Probably League 2, in fact, as for all the crap that Bolton have been through they now have a club to follow with all their heart again. I don't care which division we're in, I'd follow Rovers in any league. I just want owners who are Rovers through and through, too. Form and league position is temporary, having a team to be proud of is priceless. That was stolen from us in 2010 and has not been seen since.

Mowbray's way worse than Coyle. Owen was given a bad hand, which to be fair he played badly, but sometimes managers don't work out and they leave after half a season, happens to all clubs at some stage. However, with what has come to light about the Brockhall plans, the question is whether him or Kean will end up as the most hated former manager. All depends what state the club is in when he (finally) leaves us.

With this death spiral to top all Mowbray death spirals after splurging millions on crap players (plus taking us down and scabbily getting us back up) plus the plans in place to sell Coventry's, sorry our, CAT 1 academy and training ground while the Coventrio are at the club... Is anyone still feeling that we in a so much better position under Right Honourable Tony than when Coyle and Kean were here? As bad as those days were, if we go down under Mowbray then could you really see us bouncing straight back up again next time. Perhaps our next promotion would as likely be from League 2 as from League 1. - If Mowbray is in charge for our next game than it's not incompetence staying Venky's hand, it's because they're happy with how the club is being run and the sale of Brockhall STC is the most important consideration. When Jack Walker came along, supporting Rovers meant we'd hit the Jack-pot. When Venky's came along...we lucked out. No real light at the end of the tunnel at the moment. Mowbray must go...and now.

Have we ever had a worse manager in our entire history than 2021 Tony? Have we ever only won one league game in 14 before? Ever had a run that bad in our entire 146 year history???

Bennett is on for Nyambe at right back. BINGO! All of Tony's terrible, terrible tactical choices have been hit in one game.

...and there's the opener for Bournemouth.

Rothwell about to hobble off, Holtby to come on. Even our iFollow commentary is second best, the away commentary is much better, as is their fake crowd noise. Much more lively and upbeat.

Just the four changes this time. Is that the fewest for a while? Just the four loanees starting. Good to see us getting some of our players for next season integrated into the team! That said, I'm not sure any lineup would lead to optimism after one win in 13 league games. It doesn't matter who you play on the pitch if it's the same ineffectual manager in the dugout ruining them.

The worst result for would be a narrow defeat. If we're going to get nothing from the game, we might as well get properly spanked to at least crank up the pressure. Our goal difference is far ahead of every other team below us that even a good hiding at home would not do us any harm. In fact, it's probably what we've needed all along. It'd also mean Tony would have to change the record, no more BS about 1-0 defeats being almost 1-0 wins.

No arguments necessary. These are just personal opinions and all are entitled to them. End of the day, they mean nothing anyway. The club shall be run in the fashion that the owners decide and debates on this message board will have no effect on that.

Two teams which are being dragged down by crap managers. Two squads with far more potential than they've shown this season. Rovers players' downed tools months ago as can be seen by their awful form. They'll turn up and do the basics but that's it. They really don't seem to give too much of a shit, they've been Mowbrayed and are totally unmotivated. Woodgate was a ridiculous appointment, but they retain some talented players. Prediction: Perhaps a 1-1 (Bournemouth goal from a set piece), with the joyful reappearance of some of the Mowbray sycophants on Facebook and the LET, telling all and sundry that he's still got the dressing room behind him, which somehow one league win in 14 illustrates. If you had the chance, who'd end the season right now so we could all have a break from this shambles of a club/manager/team that we've become under Venky's?

Someone should tell Tony about the site, he might finally see some action in front of him. Knowing Tony though, he'd just bring his car to a stop over three parking spaces then sit there and watch. In fact, that'd make it all possession and no penetration for about the 708th time this season...

For a decade Rovers fans have looked for excuse after excuse about the Venky's misrule that did not point at anything other than the best intent for our club. They were advised badly we've said, they're just incompetent, they don't know the game, they're being hoodwinked, even coming up with random stories about Balaji's son one day to become interested... We've been trying way too hard. Our owners don't give a flying whatever about the club, the town and certainly not the fans. Will we still have a Rovers as we know it by the time we finished? Or are we going to be another Bury?