Parsonblue

Fully agree with you about Buckley. He looks so wonderfully balanced when on the ball he almost seems to glide past opponents and, of course, can pick out a pass to set his front men going. He's one we really need to get to sign a long term contract.

The only people who have the right to ask questions of any manager are the people who employ him and play his wages. Manager's certainly don't have to justify decisions they make to supporters but our present one is very good at explaining what he does and why although he has no need to. Supporters may offer a view on a manager but suggesting that they are accountable to complete strangers for decisions they make seems rather odd.

According to the receiver - on the Blackpool Gazette site - Ian has had a long association with Blackpool and is a former season ticket holder there. The article confirms that he acted as a non-executive director at Bolton.

Personally, I'd love to see him playing just behind Graham for a game or two towards the end of the season. Danny has that yard of pace to get away from defenders and he would be great picking up Graham's knock-downs. He's young and still raw but there is a certain something about him - very much in the Speedie style in terms of aggression and involvement in games.

If you'd seen the game Stuart you wouldn't be saying that. I would, however, love to see Danny Butterworth being given a chance to play just behind Graham - that would be interesting.

A fairly comfortable win tonight against a very weak Doncaster side. Having gone three-up in no time the players started to ease up and drop the pace which allowed Doncaster to pull a goal back. The second half followed a similar pattern with the Rovers over-elaborating at times and therefore missing opportunities to finish off Doncaster. When we upped the pace again we got another two goals. Brereton grabbed a couple of goals and missed a real sitter. Personally, I thought he had a mixed night. Showed one or two neat touches but lost the ball on numerous occasions and was easily knocked off the ball. Nuttall looked the sharper of the two - and he wasn't at his best tonight. Danny Butterworth and Harry Chapman did well on the flanks and Davenport had a better game tonight. He looks very much in the Corry Evans style - sitting in front of the defence, winning the ball and then moving it forward without ever really crossing the half-way line himself. This was his best performance so far and showed a great deal of promise. Tyler and Charley Doyle were very comfortable at the back and young Carter and Thompson did well at full-back. Doncaster were very poor though - they looked to be a young side and certainly were well below the level shown by Everton over the past couple of weeks. At the end of the day you can only beat what's in front of you and tonight we did that - with more care it could easily have reached double figures.

I remember some idiot going on the pitch to attack Adam Blacklaw the Burnley 'keeper - who later joined Rovers - in a game in 65-66 and then having to be rescued by the police when he realised Blacklaw was not a man to mess with. As you say, this idiotic fringe has been with us for some time but not in the numbers we see today.

After the first 20 minutes, when Birmingham looked like they would take us apart, I thought we came back well. Same old faults in terms of individual errors for which we were punished. The manager knows the changes that need to be made and I'm sure they will happen in the summer. The total collapse of Mulgrew as a defender has been startling over the past three games and again underlines the need for a tough, experienced centre-back who can organise those around him. A draw was probably a fair result but having gone 2-1 up so late we really ought to be able to hold onto it. I thought Travis had a much better game and Smallwood put in a decent shift in midfield. Graham was a real workhorse up front and deserved his goal even if there was a deflection. It was good to end the run of defeats. I agree with arbitro about a certain element of our support who are doing the club no favours.

But clearly the owners had the good sense to keep him on - probably the best decision they have made thus far.

I would certainly give him until the end of next season unless we completely go off the rails next year, which I don't expect. I certainly don't think his position should be questioned this season even if results are indifferent between now and the end of the campaign. We are only a couple of wins away from ensuring our place for next season - I'm not even sure the likes of Ipswich and Bolton will reach 40 points and Rotherham are struggling for wins whilst grinding out draws. The target which we were told at the consultation meeting last summer was consolidation and great if it was better. I certainly think we will have achieved the former come May and personally, I've never regarded promotion this season as a realistic possibility despite promising early results.

But you can't keep sacking managers every five minutes because of a poor run of form. All clubs have poor runs. This season was about consolidating a position in the Championship. We are well on the way to having done that. If we were in the bottom three I could understand your point but we aren't. As for Kenny, in many ways that was a worse situation. We were running away with the League when we hit that poor run and then ended up snatching a play-off place on the last day when we really looked like winning the League. That's football - it's unpredictable.

Did you think Kenny's was untenable with six on the trot. I remember losing seven on the trot but we didn't change the manager - even though we ended up being relegated. If you appoint a manager and if, for the most part, he has delivered then surely you back him when things get tough. I believe he will still be here in twelve months time and, hopefully, we'll continue to be in a stronger position.

I too am dealing in tangibles and we are in a far stronger position today than when he took over at every level. In twelve months time we will have a better idea as to how he is progressing.

That's fair enough blueboy. That's your view. Others, like myself, view him differently and believe he has been very good for this club. Fortunately, at the moment it would appear he has the full support of the owners so the next couple of transfer windows will see if he can build on the work he has already done. I think the majority of supporters are behind him because they believe he is building the club on the right lines.

Personally, I'm delighted they've blocked the red button. When it was announced that games could be screened in midweek everyone said it would lower attendances and I believe it has been detrimental to attendances for those games. For me the main way to get attendances up is to get schools coming back and giving tickets to kids for free in large numbers - we have enough empty stands to use for this to be done. Capturing the next generation and building on the family orientation of the club is the way that I believe we will increase attendances in the long run. As Mattyblue said, and I agree with him, we have about 12,000 in terms of home support and it's going to be difficult to shift that without Premier League football. Let's not forget that thirty years ago - with the club in a similar position to today - the home average was under 9,000.

Couldn't agree more. I think we are very fortunate to have Mowbray as manager at this point in our history. He's not perfect - no manager is. He will make mistakes - every manager does. However, for a club in our position I believe he is a perfect fit. We need this type of manager who can oversee the whole operation and put the building blocks in place to restore the foundations which we need. As you say, it won't be easy, because of the size of the budgets of some of the clubs in the Championship - you only have to look at the income of the relegated clubs to see how much at a disadvantage we are. We can't live in the past. We are where we are and the only way we will get back to the top flight - and I remember the quarter of a century it took to get back after the 65-66 relegation - is by shrewd management, patience and a little bit of luck.

I think their semi-final against Rochdale was behind closed doors. Wouldn't be the first time that a Rovers/Burnley game has been played behind closed doors.

Disappointing night for the Under-23's. Everton looked like a top of the table side tonight although, in fairness, their goalkeeper was outstanding with a number of brilliant saves. We conceded two goals from mistakes by our players. Tyler was responsible for the first by trying to play his way out of defence and then losing the ball. Albinson should have done better with the second. Chapman had 60 minutes and was fairly anonymous - certainly looks a long way off being ready for the first team - and Davenport didn't really do much to impress. With ten players out on loan and Travis promoted to the seniors, the Under-23's haven't really many options at this point. Damien Johnson looked very frustrated on the touchline, rather like Mowbray yesterday.

In fairness, Lowe is highly qualified and I believe to be very highly regarded within coaching circles. From what I hear it was Mowbray's choice to keep Lowe with the first team. I suspect because his work ethic is very similar to Mowbray in terms of the amount of time he devotes to the club. The guy seems to spend a huge amount of time watching Under-23 games etc as well as his normal coaching duties.

Based on what has been done since he took over. At the end of the day everyone will have a different opinion about the manager but ultimately the only one that counts is that of the owners.

I suspect we will be looking at adding four, perhaps five additions to the squad who would be first team players. Building gradually seems to me to be the way for a club like Rovers to go in the long term. We are going to have to rely on our Academy to produce the players to fill the squad places and you know as well as I that we have a really promising group at the moment just under first team level. One or two of the present squad, who should be good enough, are going to have to 'up' their game - Dack included - after several very indifferent performances. At the end of the day players have to take some responsibility for what happens on the field. It's too easy to push all the blame at the manager's door. The owners will put in whatever money they feel is appropriate - which is entirely up to them at the end of the day - but they have supported Mowbray thus far with a decent budget for this level. I think that have a strong relationship with Mowbray - more so than with any other manager they have employed and thus the long term contract. I believe they will be happy to stick with him because I suspect they respect his honesty and approach to the job. That's were we differ. I believe Mowbray is the right man to spend the money to take the club forward in the right direction.

It's only a month or so ago that we gave what was probably our best display under Mowbray when he beat Hull. Since the collapse at Brentford we've looked pretty poor. The manager himself acknowledged that some players who were bought to win promotion from League One have started to struggle at Championship level and would be replaced. I suspect we will see a fairly hectic summer of transfer activity. What we need now are players who are good enough to hold down a regular starting position in the first team. A commanding centre-half needs to be top of the list followed by a centre-forward in the style of Graham. Mowbray is the first manager that the owners have given a long term contract to in recent years which would suggest that they see him as the long term option and rightly so. It's now up to the manager to spend whatever funds are available to spend wisely on rebuilding the team for a realistic challenge at the play-offs. It's going to be an important summer for the club in terms of transfers and one which will determine the future of the manager and the club.

He went over to the bench before half-time and seemed to say he would need replacing and Nyambe immediately started warming up.

King Kenny lost six in a row - that's football.

I'm happy to reserve judgement on Brereton but I have to say he looks anything but convincing in terms of being someone who can lead an attack. The way he allows himself to be bullied by defenders is not a good sign. Playing wide seems to be the best position for him at the moment and he did show one or two nice touches last night without ever really looking convincing. Hopefully the lad will come good but at the moment he doesn't have the attributes required to play in a central role, particularly in terms of the way we play as a team. Hopefully that may come in time but he has a lot to learn and I'm not sure how you make him stronger in terms of standing up to defenders who want to bully you. Heart for a fight is something you have or you haven't. Young Danny Butterworth is smaller in stature but has a much bigger heart in terms of being prepared to battle defenders who want to knock you about. Brereton is very much a work in progress but will hopefully pick up how to play the role by watching Danny Graham in training and in matches.