Our Achilles heel of only being able to play for a half is still with us going off today's score line. As other people have said , last season we could do it and get away with it. Not this season.

I try not to let my personal likes/dislikes get in the way of trying to be objective regarding football.

No point putting him in any game until he is fully match fit. Given his history of injury we need him to be fully ready. Having said that if he recently played in several friendly games for Watford he shouldn't be that far away.

I like Bennett but when he's playing out wide he's in his least effective role.

I've long since ceased guessing how the club's finances are run. Does anybody know ? My thinking is that Mowbray landed on a big ladder regarding Dack and his standing with the Chokers. Turning £750k to £15 million probably looks like spinning straw into gold to them. They're probably thinking he can turn £7 million into a lot more now. If the lad flops they'll possibly be reconsidering having another punt. Maybe they'll look into cashing in Dack's chips. All this is speculation of course but when the owners are so mercurial anything can happen.

I'd love to be able to listen to stuff like that but I'm an Internet dinosaur. Depending which way you look at it you're lucky/unlucky that I can type this.

Not really, if this lad doesn't look the part I can't see us getting another £ 7 million to spend any time soon. It could also have repercussions regarding our ability to hold on to Bradley Dack.

A pal of mine used to be a scout for Man City, I used to go with him occasionally. He only liked to scout players at away games. Will that Do ?

No, we're not back on anything like equal terms yet, having said than anything can happen in a Cup game. We seem to be moving in an upward trajectory at the moment after plumbing the depths at the start of last season. As long as the Chicken Chokers are running the show nobody can be confident for longer than 24 hours. I think a few of our recent deals were slipped past them whilst they were jumping up and down watching the cricket.

I'm afraid you're right. Let's just hope he doesn't get distracted by all the attention.

Rugby League is still popular in the Greater Leeds area.

They could probably double what we are paying him comfortably. Especially if they've got rid of that Chadli, he'd have been on big bucks.

We were on holiday in the Cotswolds. I'd just popped into a local supermarket leaving our friends in the car with the radio on. When I came back my pal who was a Darlington fan said - " What do you want first, the good news or the bad news ? " I said " The bad news " . He said " It's just been on the radio, Shearer's gone, but the good news is he hasn't gone to United ".

I never did my cruciate but I've had plenty of sport induced knee trouble over the recent years. I've a " Bakers Cyst " at the back of my right knee as big as half a tennis ball. Having said that I can still get around ok so I'm avoiding the knife for as long as I can.

Close but no cigar.

I'm not in the " Mowbray walks on water team " because everybody is fallible. Having said that he deserves 99% of whatever credit is going for dragging our club out of the gutter. I don't know how many other managers could have done what he's done. If he walked out tomorrow he'd still be on my list of genuine Rovers heroes.

I pleased with the window. We're a stronger team than this time last season and stronger than we were the last time we played in this division. If Brereton lives up to his billing it could go from a good window to an excellent one.

I only saw him play in that egg cup game at Rochdale but I could see the skill was there. I'd say he was possibly our best player that night but to be honest nobody played well, especially after we went down ton 10. He'd good control for a big guy and he could beat a man going either side. He has a languid appearance but plenty of top forwards are like that. That was his last game, I can't recall him being injured that night during the game. What's gone wrong there I don't know.

I'm not the sort of saddo that bothers about stuff like that. I've been around football long enough to know that runs like that come to an end eventually. So I don't set myself up for a fall. We'll win the Derby again one day, that's how football works. When we were bumping around the lower levels of the leagues many years ago I never dreamt we'd ever win at Old Trafford ever again - but we did. Twice.

Surely Big Ben will play some part in the game especially if Dack and Armstrong are out.

We've improved and they've stood still. There is still a gap though. I'd want a one goal start now, last season I wanted two. Having said that they could only beat the worst Rovers Team I've seen in my life time 2-0 last season with the best team they've had in almost 50 years.

Well if they don't win on Sunday they'll never have a better chance.

I feel really sorry for him after all the work he'd put in on his condition. Could he have done too much ?

Small sided games are the way to go.

We can live in hope though. Nothing is forever in football, as it is in life. There are several other teams currently below us in this league that thought they could follow that course of action.