That's both games that we've seen Rovers keep a clean sheet and play out the last few minutes calmly,virtually without incident. Can't help thinking that losing Lenihan might well be a factor.

As Broughton and Tomasson eluded to when they first came in, they've inherited a young, hungry, talented squad which just needs a bit of fine tuning. JDT isn't daft, he wouldn't have taken over just anywhere, the foundations are in place.

Cracking start to the season, the whole squad looks young and hungry. Another 2 or 3 hand picked, quality signingsand keep Brereton and Tomasson will be licking his lips. Hedges with another man of the match performance for me, to go with last week's. The Edun substitution worked to perfection.

As far as I can see, Erik Pieters is still without a club. As a free agent, he'd be a strong, experienced addition.

Genuinely asking, do we know if Rovers are actually trying to sign him?

If we do get anywhere near £20 million for Brereton, I hope it finally puts paid to the ridiculous notion that Mowbray has left the club in a weaker position than when he came. We now have a young squad on supposedly manageable wages, many with a potential to be sold for good money. That definitely wasn't the case when he came in.

Prediction for this game, I'll stick my neck out say that if we win, we'll have 18k plus on against West Brom.

Thought the most discernable difference to last season, if there was one, was the way we played out the last 10 minutes. At 1 goal up over the last few seasons, the usual would be to pump it forward and see it coming back straight away. I can hardly remember a hopeless hoof out yesterday, each player stuck to keeping the ball down and passing the match out, and it made for a much calmer finish.

Best track to be played at Ewood for many a year. If I never hear The Final Countdown ever again, I'll be happy.

Far and away Hedges was our best player going forward, particularly first half. One ball round the corner to Brereton first half was superb. I do think people sometimes make their mind up before they go.

I was going off being offered £3 million for Rothwell with 6 months left on his contract and scoring 3 goals last season. Rothwell hadn't played a Championship game when Rovers bought him, Szmodics scored twice as many goals as Rothwell in the Championship last season and has plenty experience at Championship level.

If we're saying Szmodics is a replacement for Rothwell, as a direct comparison, I don't see how he's being seen as overpriced. I also don't see the point in screaming for a change in management, then questioning one of the first things that they do. It's the club's money and they'll spend it as they see fit. As always,at the end of the day, they will be judged by their results.

I'm not going to disagree with you on that, but the conversation was regarding contracts and players not signing them.

And how long would it take to raise the £3 million they lost because Venkys wouldn't sell Rothwell? It's a drop in the ocean compared to potential money raised from player sales. I'm far from a Waggott apologist, but the stick he gets over contracts is way over the top when he must be more frustrated than anyone.

If the club has set a salary cap/wage structure or whatever you want to call it and it's broken every time someone wants more, then the club doesn't have a salary cap. Whether it's set at the right level is a different argument,that's a matter for the owners, but some of the stick levelled at Waggott is just ridiculous. Put yourself in his position,counting the pennies, then losing players for nothing which are worth millions. It's been 10 years and it still hasn't sunk in with some that Blackburn Rovers isn't a normal football club.

I'm expecting Hedges to be involved.

If you gave me a million quid(please), and I had to put it on anyone to go up, it would 100% go on West Brom. Felt Bruce was getting them playing towards the end of the season and the signing of Wallace is massive.

I can't imagine anyone coming in with an acceptable bid for Brereton, I think he'll still be here in January. If he has a decent first half of the season, that's when Prem teams in the lower reaches will take the plunge. I'd say we would probably then hold more of the aces, even though he'd be closer to the end of his contract, as teams in fear of relegation have to gamble. On signings, I'd hope for another 2 quality buys in the Styles mould. The Morton loan looks like a good move, if we can secure a player who's played 9 times for Liverpool, it has to be done. Don't think we'd be far off there, with maybe another couple of clever loans if Broughton can pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat.

This conversation about pace reminds me of Tommy Doc. He said to Leighton James, you're very deceptive Leighton, you're slower than you look.

Wouldn't mind if we had a look at Erik Pieters, haven't heard he's gone anywhere,he never let the Dingles down. Bags of experience to utilise for a year or two.

I'm not convinced at all that Broughton even tried to keep Nyambe after their meeting. To me, the most likely scenario is that Broughton thought he could do better for the money. With our potential first transfer being a full back, this only backs up what I was thinking.

We don't know if Wigan have offered more or less though do we? We don't know if the Rovers offer was still on the table, Broughton may well have withdrawn it leaving Nyambe with only one option. He may feel that the offer to Nyambe was a good one and feels he can get better for the money.

There's a lot of assumption that Wigan have paid higher wages than Rovers without any evidence whatsoever. Even if they have, it doesn't mean Rovers couldn't beat their offer, it could well be that they chose not to.