Looks like he majorly outran the ref as well!

176 pages of writing a young player off magically becomes “having doubts”

Also, Armstrong must easily lead the league in missed/blocked shots, but then Babe Ruth always led the majors in strikeouts.

Good to watch so far. Brereton seems to be involved in everything good we do. Great move and pace for the penalty. Rothwell I’ve noticed three times: running into a group of four Nobbers and setting up an early PNE counter-attack; running into two Nobbers and Trybull had to take a yellow; then a shot I swear went backwards that Brereton rescued and almost set up a Lenihan goal. Best CM I think not. Get one or both of Elliott and Dolan on after an hour and they’ll soon be down to 8 players.

Alan Wright - better than Douglas + Bell Scott Sellars - Rothwell + shooting and crossing Mark Atkins - Bradley Johnson with a 3-litre engine

Pretty rubbish performance. Lenihan done as usual for the goal, Rothwell brilliant until final ball time, Elliott never hides and a sublime chip that led to the goal, Johnson/Trybull made Evans look good, Ben our main threat in the second half. Need a winning run before Crimbo.

Poor half. Is it my imagination, or is Douglas completely awful?

Excellent listen for fans of my era. He has an amazing memory so clearly heading all those balls hasn’t done him any harm. The fact that our record appearance holder refers to us as Blackburn throughout perhaps means we make too big a deal of it on here.

No question, Tony. Having said that, when the sale process was underway, I felt the old model was fraying at the edges. Allardyce’s forte was more getting more tunes out of old violins than signing players for buttons who could be later sold to fund the running costs - I think Nzonzi was his only signing we sold for a significant profit. Kalinic had been a bust during his time with us and the likes of Benjani and Goulon would neither play a good tune nor have any resale value. Other than Jones, there was not the youth conveyor belt we have now. The more I think of it, the more I believe that Allardyce prolonged our stay but we had no money or youth prospects to replace the likes of Salgado, Dunn, Givet, Emerton, MGP etc, all of who had seen better days. But another Hughes could have been a very different story.

Out of interest, I just took a look at the 09-10 Premier League table - our last season pre-Venkys. All the teams who finished below us in 10th place, and two teams that finished above us (including Brum, amazingly), were subsequently relegated. Of those teams, four currently reside in League One (one of them propping it up) and one in League Two, so it’s hard to say we have endured a unique trajectory since then. Long-term Premier League status is only guaranteed to the usual suspects of Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, City, Utd, Liverpool and Everton - the only ever-presents over the last ten years. A great manager (at the time), Hughes, got us in the lower reaches of that group; bad ones (Ince, Kean) had us bottom in no time. If we hadn’t been sold at that point, with a disinterested Trust and a ticked off Allardyce denied a decent transfer budget, the next managerial appointment would have had to have been a cracker to ward off the seemingly inevitable bad season that happened to everyone else sooner or later.

This ageing supporter remembers them being a division above us for well over half of the 70s and 80s.

Surprised no-one has mentioned he provided the crosses for Wharton’s near miss and for the first goal. No-one else who ends up with the ball outside the front right corner of the penalty area - e.g. Nyambe, Travis, Evans - can cross like that.

Good stuff. None of us saw the turnaround coming.

Very enjoyable game. Kaminski looks our best keeper since Brad for me, the penalty was harsh just for punching a guy in the chops. Wharton looks a solid bench player, and Brereton is definitely in the team in merit - that was a very hard chance to put away.

But we may put an end to a consistent run of not winning by doing so.

I’m not sure why everyone who was convinced we would lose are so upset we got a draw; it can’t be the performance because, as we established earlier this season, performances are completely irrelevant. Highlights for me were JRC giving Gallagher an earful, Wharton playing dirty, Nyambe staying in position, 36 last ditch blocks and Rothwell managing a full half without once appearing to be on the pitch. Gallagher has no best position.

Rothwell is taking his time to come on...

As a defender, I used to love playing in these Alamo-type games, there’s been some really committed last-ditch blocks. Midfield helping neither defence nor forwards, and if that’s Gallagher playing in his best position I’d hate to see him in his worst - he’s just awful in all of them, Ben looks 10x better than him.

You didn’t kick him in the knee did you..?

Seems we spent the 1930s with the blue on the wrong side

Which would be more than the number of posters on here who demand him out every time we let a goal in. If fan unrest didn’t get Kean out, it certainly won’t have any effect on Mowbray’s tenure.

The biggest benefit of a new manager would be an end to the Gallagher persistence. Mowbray bet the farm on him and Brereton and lost the farm. A new manager might be better betting on Elliott and Dolan, who I thought looked terrific again when he came on. Not sure I join the groupthink that the goalie was to blame today: Lenihan twice and JRC were to blame today. The corner was out swinging and the second was a pulled back cross; I wouldn’t have expected a keeper to come for either ordinarily. The last two games have starkly illustrated what having good, big, strong strikers can do, and we don’t have a single one.

Wasn’t Jimmy Kerr billed as the next Colin Bell? Not that we got much time to judge in his 8 or 9 games after consuming our entire transfer budget.

Or indeed anything at all. I’ve seen nothing since his return other than a crap footballer who scores the occasional unimportant goal. I’d much rather we had Kuqi.

Everyone keeps saying his man-management is terrible and yet our biggest personnel issue is getting players to leave! Must all be gluttons for punishment.