Is that the fans' fault too?

Do people get the idea that TM even gives that much of a shit any longer? It's all tired excuses, repetitive blah-de-blah in interviews, no real new ideas...just Gally on the wing and others played out of position. The defence is the same shitshow it's always been under him. Sack him, pay off his contract, he will be given another job at some stage at this level as he can point to steadying the ship, blaming relegation on Coyle, winning promotion, establishing us as championship side again, add in some crap about box incursions and possession percentages and bingo. Seems like putting him (and us) out of his misery would be welcome all round. As for the match, Arma was again head and shoulders above the rest of the side. His movement, pace and attacking threat mean we're something of a one-man team. He's too good to play for a side managed by Mowbray. Expect him to be sold to a mid-ranking prem side in the summer and for us then to find out there's a massive 50% percentage clause or something ridiculous meaning we don't get that much in the end. With Elliot going back to Liverpool, that'd be what...60% of our goal scorers gone and our top two assist creators to boot. Ben and Gally better step up to the plate then! We need a change, the players need a change, even Tony needs a change.

Well ladies and gentleman, here at Venky's Rovers we hope you're all playing Tony Tombola Bingo at home. A reminder that so far we have had... Gally playing on the wing - Put a cross in that box No goals in the first half - Check Random little fella played up front (Elliot) against their big opposition centre halves - Check Underperforming loanees kept on in favour of our own young player, sacrificed despite having a good game (Ben) - Check Concede in the first half like usual - Check. Something needed to whine about and blame in post-match interviews, like a missed penalty - We have a line of Tony Specials! ---- For a full house and to shout out "BINGO!" all we're waiting for is... - All remaining subs thrown on with ten minutes to go, to hope like hell something works and -Nyambe hooked for a non-right back, probably a midfielder whose name begins with B...Bennett or Buckley. - Perhaps a scrappy undeserved goal to prolong the current Death Spiral. ---- It really is Groundhog Day following Rovers under Mowbray, isn't it?

He set Gally up to fail. Then hooked him. Ridiculous. Awful man management. If you play him in his actual position and he's crap then fair enough, but everyone except TM knows he's no winger and never will be. All he has to do is play players in their best positions. Elliot wide where he's made himself into the division's leading assist creator and Gally up front to at least make a nuisance of himself with their centre back. That's all. Don't have to worry about him scoring, making a nuisance of himself up front would be enough to occupy them. Playing players in their best positions. Is that classed as rocket science where he's from or something?!? Infuriating and incompetent. Every bloody time. Bennett will be on for Nyambe at flippin' right back before this game's over, just to top it off, no doubt!

On iFollow... Forest have a half-time round up of the scores around the grounds while the Rovers commentary has...silence. Hardly groundbreaking stuff, but at least Forest are making an effort! As always, Rovers as a club just give off the feeling that they can't really be all that bothered. It's been the same for a decade now.

Aka Groundhog Day. I'm sure we'll somewhere near 12th whatever happens today. Believe in the journey!

Because it's personal and not for the good of Blackburn Rovers FC.

The club statement would presumably have been from Waggott, so...

Kean was 10x worse than Coyle. Judging them same way is as "embarrassing" as what you call out. None of us wanted Coyle...but Kean was another level of dodgy in every single way.

Is this until our next lucky win gets you to go back on this and be a happy clapper once again? Either Mowbray is the right man or he isn't. Time for people to make up their minds. It's this flip-flopping that's had us wasting the last 18 months at least...

If they give us an early penalty and a man sent off to make it easier for us, no doubt we'll look like world beaters. Otherwise, hard to see how the shambles we saw against Preston can break down a well-organised Tykes side. Maybe a tedious goalless draw with about two shots on goal all match would be a good bet considering their fatigue and our recent inability to carve out more than a couple of good chances per game.

He's been here for four years and you still can't make up your mind? Says it all. Way past the time to pot him.

Well, Chappers has just gone and scored again.

Could have fooled me. Armstrong was out on the left for most of the time, at least in the first half. As for Gally, watch him from the kick off and he purposefully goes wide right then has a punt from the Rovers half aimed at home. That tended to be his position throughout for all goal kicks and so on.

If you play your superstar there, like Messi, he can impose more influence and burst forward along with the pacey wide forwards. Mowbray played an out-of-form 17 year-old there with Gally as one of the wide forwards. Delusional. Elliot needs some games coming off the bench to have a go at tiring opposition players to get his confidence back up. This game was here for the taking. It wasn't a disaster in that we did have chances and look dangerous, but ultimately we needed to win this one. If TM decides he HAS to play a false nine than Rothwell might be a better choice as he can move the ball quickly at speed and has the dribbling skills to give the opposition kittens. He was anonymous out wide instead, where he rarely seems to be able to impose himself. A wasted chance today as the three points went begging.

Agree with the first sentence. The second? Hmmmmm.....

15 minutes too late and Elliot should have gone off as he's been dog shit (watch him score now) rather than Gally (good moments along with bad but not a bad shift from him), but with Dolan on it's hard to complain too much about Mowbray's selections and tactics today. We need to get something from this today now.

Dack and Dolan should have started. They're the obvious substitutions, they should have been on for the second half, so... Buckley warming up?!?

Armstrong our best player so far, ripping them apart down the wing. Not sure why Elliot started in place of Dack.

To be fair, he's a had a good January and not just one game. Credit where its due.

Ten points from four games mean that Mowbray is going to be in place for the rest of the season (he probably would have been so anyway) and with the transfer window closing we're making do with what we had. Whatever we think about whether he's the right manager or not, it's clear that he's going nowhere soon. History tells us that another death spiral is imminent, but at least we have hope. The type that'll likely eventually kill us. Time him for to finally reach the playoffs. 20 games to do so.

No, it was their player who knocked it back across the goal who was flagged offside. You're spot on that Douglas had a good game today, some lovely little touches. He's had a good January. I'd start with the XI that ended the game today. Every one of our substitutes looked hungry and contributed well; time to reward that with a start for Dack, Gallagher (up front) and Holtby. I'm not sure Mowbray will start Dolan, but you can tell that defenders hate being up against him. They haven't a clue what he's going to do. I'm not sure that he does much of the time! It's so refreshing and spontaneous, much better than lifelessly knocking it sideways and backwards, or spurning an opportunity to cross then before you know it an attack has somehow ended up being passed back to Kaminski. Next game, if possible, I'd start something along the lines of - Kaminski Nyambe Lenihan Branthwhaite Douglas Travis Holtby Dolan Dack Gallagher Armstrong

I've never said I wanted Rovers to lose (nor will I) but I have tried to make sense of it as a what if? It's a hypothetical scenario so no, it doesn't equate to fans wanting their team to lose in the long run. Teams lose many games each season, but it's where we finish at the end of the season that counts. Those fans are just expressing that they would just be willing to accept short term pain for the long term good of the club. To flip the hypothetical, would you accept a one game victory if it meant ultimately missing out on the playoffs as it kept a poor manager in charge? Would you have wanted Owen Coyle to win his last game in charge if it meant that he was able to stagger on to the end of the season, perhaps just relegating us but being given a chance at taking us back up from League One? Perhaps we'd still be there now or down with the Bolton, Oldham and Salford. See, all hypotheticals really, isn't it? Whatever, it's a message board for Rovers fans. People aren't coming on here because they aren't "real fans" or aren't desperately wanting us to succeed. People say stuff, on a message board when they're frustrated. Big deal. It's an emotional game. End of the day, if TM doesn't take us into the playoffs then he needs to leave. Nothing about wanting us to win or lose any one particular game, all about where we want to be after 46 games. Also, Come on you Blues. Ten points from twelve; credit where it's due to the manager, Mowbray has turned around the season. We're still in touch with the top six.

There's no doubt he needs to stop taking pot shots with no chance of scoring although, to be fair, he's not been quite so bad as he was at Bristol City away. That was an extreme, however, and if he played like that again he would be the problem. However, yesterday he was not only the most likely scorer but also our best chance creator. His balls into the box were played into positions that attackers should be exploiting. They're only exploited by Armstrong. A prime example was a ball across the box when Brereton was hanging back instead of attacking the space in a position that would have required Armstrong to be a contortionist to pull it back by that angle and Elliot was in a similar place. Simply not good enough positionally. Armstrong needs to keep doing what he is doing and these players: Rothwell Brereton Gallagher Holtby Need to be contributing more to the scoring. Dack starting regularly might be the spark needed, more likely it'll take a few months to really get back into his stride, but those others need to be producing more consistently. Think we're attacking a symptom (AA taking on too much) at times rather than the cause which is others needing to step up to the plate and contribute.

Well said, excellent post. All on here are Rovers fans.