Looks like Mowbray’s personal scouting extends to anywhere on a bus route from his house.

The mantra that it’s been Dack and a bunch of duffers is what may be worth reappraising soon. Rodwell, if he stays fit and stays, could well turn out to be the best quality signing since Tugay.

It might soon be time to reappraise Mowbray’s transfer dealings. Rodwell, Bell, Reed, Armstrong and Dack all looked the part today

Marvellous stuff. Bell’s best game for us; Evans’ best game for us; Rodwell and Travis have saved us £15 million; Lenihan looks a different player. Who knows where we could finish up

Interesting that Lenihan hasn’t aimlessly booted it forward but been playing it into Evans and Travis. Plus what a move for the first goal: 3 passes takes it from Raya’s hands into the back of their net

Best half of football under Mowbray that. Completely stopping them playing out from the back, we must’ve won the ball off them in their half ten times. Evans man of the half for me.

Emphasis on quietly. Give me an unchanged winning team every week.

Excellent non-obvious choice. Late winner from Napier who intercepted a head down backpass and ran quite a distance on his own before slotting it in, not unlike Brothetston getting our third at t’turd on Boxing Day ‘77. I think Lockhead got both of theirs - a player who could never miss against us.

Forest away in a snowstorm?

Actually Berg’s debut was pretty dire too, a 4-1 pasting at home by Wednesday in our first semi-Final in a generation

Best: Burnley 2 Rovers 3 - Boxing Day ‘77 Rovers 5 Plymouth 2 - 1975 Rovers 4 Derby 2 - ‘92 Playoffs VE Day Rovers 7 Norwich 1 Worst: Too many to mention

Speedie could also be in the frame for Newcastle at home and the first leg against Derby. Good players having shocking debuts would include Salgado away at Everton -poor bloke was essentially stationary the entire game thinking he was still at Real Madrid - and Kalinic away at Newcastle whee he did at least five misses as bad as Brereton’s against Newcastle.

Three wins in the trot with no goals conceded from open play is the best possible response by Mowbray and the lads. Only one team in it today, apart from the odd Bennett blunder, and Armstrong is finally looking like a good buy. I really like Rodwell in the back four and Rothwell looked a lot better out left than he ever has done in the middle, where it now seems to be Travis and one other. The Nut gets in the six-yard box come what may, I doubt very much if Brereton would’ve been on the end of that. 6 points off 6th and 17 off the drop is starting to make this look like a very good first season back.

I think we can safely forget about £20m for Bradley Dack; this is a game he should be taking by the scruff of the neck. Collins has got Graham in his pocket so I’m thinking we need a shakeup up front before the hour is up

I think Bennett is in as more will be expected of him pushing forward than Nyambe.

Dear God, there’s a bloke who needs to get out more. It’s bad enough reading through the tosh on here when you are a Rovers fan.

As we saw at Pride Park. Daylight robbery getting a point from that game.

So which modern-day Howard Kendall (ie a young manager who will steer a mid-table team to the Premiership title in his next job after Rovers) would you propose replacing him with?

Cartesian Dualism. Or give it to a blue and white shirt

Well there’s another glamour home tie disappointment to add to the collection that goes back to Man City in 1969. With so many players out, to go three at the back with one of them Bell was plain daft. I thought their first was due to no-one knowing what they were doing. Getting back to 2-2 was impressive but we barely landed a glove after that. I’m not sure Graham touched the ball in extra time, and in the last 15 they gave us a football lesson. Pluses: Travis must surely be undroppable now; The Nut is 5x the player Brereton is; Lenihan is greatly improved the last few weeks; I thought the much maligned Richie did well, we certainly got worse when he went off; Reed. Minuses: BB; let’s be honest, Dack did no better than him - missed a sitter and lost possession way too much; Rothwell did absolutely zilch. We are a long way off being ready to go up and stay up. To beat any team a division above you, you need a bit of luck - a huge deflection, keeper error and offside goal were too big a hindrance to overcome.

Big chance for Brereton today and he’s blown it. Send him off on loan or to the U23s and we’ll see if we have anything in a year. Back 3 with Bell in it is a back 2, if TM doesn’t fix that at HT we’ll lose.

He wouldn’t be the first to have been progressed too quickly. I’m convinced this transfer is a bet by our playboy owner and his chums.

I think he’s definitely learning something, closing down for one, which was absent last season when he played. Also, I’m not sure Danny Graham age 22 was as good as Danny Graham age 33 at using his body, which sounds like a skill you evolve into as you age and slow down, unless you are Maradona. Also worth bearing in mind Nuttall is more than two years older than BB.

Probably the 1960s when that last happened. Although someone with a better memory than me will no doubt point out it has happened multiple times since.

All I can recall of the home leg is a packed Darwen End and Altrincham hitting the bar quite late on.