Are we going to sub off the whole midfield again in one go this time?

Just to cheer myself up I'm fondly reminiscing about those autumn days when we were "flat track bullies"... Can't even say that any longer! This is an awful Wednesday side so surely we must turn it around, but the uncomfortable reality is that we're getting worse the longer the season goes on, not better...

Did we have one decent chance in 45 minutes? We're crying out for something different yet Chapman, Davenport and Dolan are on the bench.

WTF is going on with our set pieces? Corners, free kicks have been abysmal. Even our throw-ins go to the opposition and lead to their goal. So we're not only playing our corners short but also our free kicks too? Is it a good idea to have three players around the ball for a free kick rather than having two more players in the box? Why do we get our centre backs forward for set pieces but then decide not to whip the ball in?

Wow...1-0 Wednesday.

It's looking pretty obvious that those are Armstrong's instructions from Mowbray this season. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Nearly all the game so far has been in the Wednesday half, so expect more opportunities for him to add to his shots total.

Can see Pulis setting them up to frustrate. 0-0 has to be a good bet. Really hope we get an early goal to make this an open game.

Selective memory there. It's not more grim than we played under Allardyce or Hughes in their first seasons with the club. Then, it was all about survival. Heck, under Hughes we got the nickname of "Blackeye Rovers" and under Allardyce many fans complained that we were awful to watch. I'm not sure how bad Stoke were to watch. It's become exaggerated through our frustrations about being so easily kept at arms' length. We were far worse to watch in our win over Rotherham and won unfairly. They have an injury crisis even worse than ours, scored early and were in the lead pretty much all game. There was nothing fortunate about Stoke's victory over us, unless we say our rank defending for the goal was fortunate.

Absolutely no guarantee with an injury like Dack's that he'll be the same player once again. We all hope of course, but pinning our promotion chances on his return would be quite the risky gamble.

I think most would agree that, overall, Mowbray has done well in the transfer market. Especially compared to his predecessors. It's definitely been one of his stronger traits, despite a few mishaps. Can he get the most out of them, however? It's been underwhelming so far, with his record against teams in the top half seeming to suggest limitations tactically. He was and remains a legend on Teeside, but Steve Gibson soon realised that if he wanted his team to go up, then a better manager than Mowbray is needed. Like then, mid-table plodders has been his ceiling two seasons ago, last season and, so it seems to appear, might be his limit this season as well.

Not sure if most of our fans would complain at all. When Hughes and Allardyce came in we were staring down the barrel at relegation. Both focused on making us hard to beat and hard to score against. It was only when we were safe and able to bring in some signings that we started to play more. O'Neill's doing the same. In a year he's taking them from the relegation zone to the play offs and the quarter final of the cup. They have just as many injuries than us but aren't 'waiting for Dack and Trav to rescue our season'. While that has been happening, Mowbray has had us standing still despite half a dozen players being brought in. We had some who wanted Allardyce out even when he took us from the brink of relegation to tenth in the Premiership the next season, but most fans were happy enough by then. We were also showing some signs of improving as a team to watch. Needs must.

Savage was only 3 million, Bellamy can't have been 7 as he release fee that Liverpool triggered was lower than that. To be fair, if he'd been any good at Southampton or Stoke we wouldn't have any chance at all in going for Hughes. As it is, it'd be a slim chance at best if not quite none...

Hughes always did best when he didn't have much to spend. He spent little on keeping us up (he made us hard to beat, a la O'Neill and Warnock) before getting in the players who had a bit of flair. We made a heck of a lot more selling the likes of Bellamy, Bentley, Roque, Samba, Warnock and so on then we paid for them. However, it is likely a pipe dream. We'll all get behind him and the team during the games. It does feel like we've been here though under TM time and time again, though...

I remember some players like Dunn saying that as far as man management went, Allardyce was in a league of his own.

To be fair...didn't he purposely smash into Dwight Yorke in training after threatening to break his leg? Pretty sure that was backed up by other players. With Souness it seemed to be a great place to be when it was going well, but bloody awful once the results started turning. He got us promotion, into Europe twice and won us our only League Cup. If he'd left in the summer of 2003, we'd argue whether him or Dalglish was the best. King Kenny had timing though, left at the pinnacle. Knew how to make an exit, did Kenny.

Crap, I've been busted! You win, you sage you. That's EXACTLY what I meant. When I mentioned Kean as a riposte to the assertion by a poster that Mowbray's having 40 years in the game meant that fans on here shouldn't question his decisions as it's not like playing "FIFA 20 on your Playstation" I thought I'd get away with it. But no, you understood perfectly...I was secretly suggesting that playing Gallagher "on the wing is akin to ostracising a whole fanbase through being over promoted and a “wee crook”. You're good. I was comparing their personalities, their hairstyles, their dodgy sides, their nationalities. Everything. Then again, as I'm someone who "doesn’t remember history or is simply a dingle on the wind up" - in fact, I'm both! - so, I suppose it could be worse as I'll forget it the next time I'm walking to the Dingledome with my sister. I'd type more but I'm a bit too depressed now. Can't think of much worse than being on the end of a JBiz low opinion. Talk about hitting rock bottom in life.

Which Rovers manager are you talking about? Hodgson? Souness? Ince? Coyle? We always have the exact same arguments each and every time we have an underperforming manager and always have had. It's true that we messed up (twice) by not getting Warnock in, but there are plenty of promising managers around. For a start, the Cowley brothers have impressed. Why not them? Nigel Pearson got Leicester out of this division before. Heck, even Mark Hughes could do with a way to rebuild his reputation. Mowbay staying or going should be based on his performance, not on there being a perfect replacement available. If he can't get us in the playoffs this season, and it's looking unlikely as we crap ourselves every time we get near them, then it's time to give someone else a try. We can't keep treading water forever with the state of our finances. We'll eventually either sink or swim.

Lol, heck of a straw man argument there...I'm impressed! The point was that a manager cannot be questioned because he has been in the game for a long time. Steve Kean has had three decades in the game, including working at Fulham in the premiership and Rovers under Allardyce. The exact words were "I don't pretend to know more about football than a guy who has been in the game over 40 years like some on here." If Mowbray is so infallible, then why wasn't he good enough for League One Coventry City? Why do Celtic fans consider him one of their worst ever managers? Mowbray's been a decent manager for us (promotion season, stablising us after years of haplessness, recruited many good 'uns) but to suggest we can't even question his playing Gallagher on the wing because he has some kind of papal infallibility due to those "40 years" in the game is just a logical fallacy. In fact, the name of that particular fallacy is called Appeal to Authority and was also a favourite of a certain Graeme Souness with his put your medals on the table jibe whenever football journalists had the temerity to do their job and ask him questions about the football. As for the last ten or so words...if you say so. Sorry if you don't like other Rovers fans having different opinions than you, but it doesn't make them any lesser Rovers fans nor dingles nor history amnesiacs whatever you say or think. Peace Out, fellow Roverite!

Sam's confidence has been destroyed with this ridiculous experiment. It's amazing what players can suddenly seem to do when they feel that their gaffer believes in them. What kind of belief is TM showing be sticking him out on the left wing?

We've been sold a lie. "Nice guy" Tony throws his players under the bus time and time again. Somehow I stupidly started believing that this season was to be THE season. We have the squad. Warnock would have us in the automatic promotion positions. They're only crap as they have a past-it manager. How many clubs have sacked him? I no longer care who we replace him with, even Steve Kean wouldn't take us down with this squad and from this position (although I'm sure he'd have a damn good try) but we might just hit jackpot. Our long-term financial viability rests on getting into the premier league, even one season would be transformative. Tony either ain't good enough to do it, or is happy with his comfy mid-table championship job. Either way, time's up now. He's had 20 games, more than a fair crack at the whip.

No, they really weren't. They scored early and shut up shop, happy to take the three points. Good performance from them, a simple home victory. Wish we had some of those to look forward to...

So you were a big Steve Kean fan as well, then?

Yep. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to ever play any team in the playoffs who haven't finished in the top half, so...

Acting like a lower league cup opponent by winning comfortably all game and not even needing to get out of first gear? It'd be nice to have a bit of strangeness at Ewood for once.

He's going to get better at that out on the left, isn't he? So, either Mowbray paid 5 million for Gallagher as a winger or he's completely dropped the ball, hasn't he? Besides, he doesn't even need to win the headers. He just needs to be enough of a handful so that the likes of Arma and Elliot can pounce on loose balls