Very sad news. A wonderful player and manager for this club. Two superb seasons with us that will always be etched in my memory. That run of 14 wins and 1 draw from 15 games which took is from the relegation zone of the Third Division to the promotion will surely never be equalled again. Tragic that Howard should be lost to us at such a young age. One of the great midfield players of his era.

I think come the end of the season you'll find there are far more than three managers in a lower position than the Rovers under Bowyer.

Nobody wants to drop into League One (or three as it was) but sometimes clubs fall for a variety of reasons. Man City, Southampton, Norwich and Leicester are just four examples of clubs who slipped that far not that long ago but who have bounced back. These clubs, and so many more, have proved that you can come back if the infrastructure at the club is put right and sensible investment is made. At the moment the owners are backing the management they have put in place but only time will tell if that is the correct decision or not. Clearly if results don't improve quickly then someone, somewhere is going to need to have a re-think.

Unless you have the cash to make the Indians an offer they can't refuse I don't see how you change it. The bottom line is that we need someone with wealth to prop the club up because of the infrastructure that Jack built up. If we didn't we simply couldn't maintain what Jack left us, let alone try to move forward. However, I totally agree that they have brought about our downfall through gross mismanagement. At the moment we are between a rock and a hard place and whatever we do from here one suspects that the outcome isn't going to be great.

Let's be honest Gavlar, when you've watched the club when it was bottom of Division Three, you know that it could always be worse! There are many ways it could always be worse.

When I referred to fickle I meant at the game yesterday.

Why should I panic and change my beliefs in the first week or so of September? I remember some wanting Gordon Lee out during his first few months in charge and the same with Kendall when we were floundering near the bottom of the Third. If we are in the bottom three by the end of October/early November and becoming adrift then is the time I would look to assess things but even then, you have to look at who is available, who might improve it and who would want to work under the restrictions of the embargo and, of course, who is going to be in charge of such a process. Personally, I believe that this is very much a mid-table Championship squad that, with a following wind might just mount a challenge for sixth but equally could easily be dragged into a relegation battle. The embargo means you are restricted to signing players that other teams don't want and there is clearly a reason why they don't want them. Clearly the results at the moment are not good enough and they need to improve over the next few weeks or a change is inevitable. When the players and manager came out at Craven Cottage yesterday the fans were singing "Gary Bowyer's Blue & White Army", it then became "Bowyer, Bowyer sort it out," and when he did in the second half the fans applauded manager and players as they left the pitch - fickle doesn't come close to describing it.

I don't see things in black and white Abbey. Am I happy with the way things of gone since Venky's took over - clearly not. However, I'm enough of a pragmatist to realise that at the moment we need their financial support. Without it I honestly believe the club goes under. Others don't believe that which is fair enough but I do. Am I happy with mediocrity - again no. However, I also realise that at the moment we have to play the cards we are dealt and that means looking for free transfers and loans and making the best of it. Am I happy with the manager I would say in general yes. He has made mistakes and got things wrong but I firmly believe he has the best interests of the club at heart and until I see evidence to the contrary then I will continue to support him. However, what I feel or think has no bearing on anything as all supporters have differing views on most things surrounding the club at the moment. I still enjoy my football, I still enjoy following the Rovers up and down the country, I still enjoy the comradeship of going to games with friends and discussing the pros and cons afterwards.

The last couple of seasons we were a top half side who, given a good run, might make the play-offs. This campaign we are a mid to lower table team who could, with a poor run, be involved in a relegation battle. Personally, I think there is still enough quality to finish in the lower half well above the relegation places.

I think you might find that we beat Aston Villa in the round of 16 to get to the quarters rather than a bye - but then any excuse to knock the club even if it's factually incorrect.

A good effort from the lads against older and more experienced players. This has often been the case this season because we have looked to push lads through earlier than in the past. A number of players have done really well over the course of the season and it was good to see Sam Joel come on after his excellent hat-trick on Saturday morning against Norwich. The future looks quite promising if we can get one or two of these lads into the senior team.

Under normal circumstances I would agree that a Souness, Hughes or Allardyce would be great. Sadly, these aren't normal circumstances. The transfer embargo makes it extremely difficult to operate as a normal club and, as such, it's appeal to other managers would be limited. If you can't bring players in and with several contracts up in the summer and the likes of Rhodes and Gestede likely to move on, the future is going to rest with trying to get the best out of the youngsters. One would hope that the likes of Henley and Olsson could occupy the full-back positions, that O'Sullivan and Lenihan could step up into contention for the midfield. Mahoney and Green may - and as yet they are unproven - challenge for the wide midfield berths. Carson is a grafter who, personally, I quite like but I'm not sure if he is staying as he is only a one year contract. Nyambe looks a prospect but is still very young and is only just getting a regular spot with the Under-21's. Tanner has blown hot and cold to be honest whilst Cham hasn't really kicked on as one might have hoped. Raya remains an outstanding prospect in goal but with Eastwood and Steele ahead of him, one would expect him to be loaned out next season.

Therein, Stuart, is where I believe the problem rests. No club can guarantee Premier League football and therefore no club can count of Premier League income. Jack wanted the club to become self sufficient which is why is developed the Academy so that it could turn out players who, even if they didn't make it at Ewood, could be sold for a profit. Sadly, that hasn't worked due to the changing times within the Football League. At the end of the day, in our present position, I would rather have a management team at Ewood and the Academy who have some feeling for the club rather than some hired mercenary who comes solely for the cash, has no affinity to club and moves on when a better offer comes along. Only time will tell if my faith is misplaced.

The point is Stuart, it wouldn't be a bad appointment. I know that appointing Filan would merely add more fuel to the lunatic fringe, not including your good self here, who see everything as part of a huge conspiracy - what did happen to the dodgy dossier? The Under-21's have shown a real improvement this season under Kinder and Filan, despite being a very young side in comparison with many of their opponents. It would seem to me that in terms of developing lads from the Academy and bringing them through it makes sense to have continuity in terms of Kinder-Filan-Bowyer. However, until we start bringing in the right raw material to begin with at Academy level we will always struggle to produce decent players. I believe Kinder will make changes at the Academy which will be of benefit to the club in the long run.

So, perhaps you could enlighten us as to what you perceive to be Filan's strengths and weaknesses as a coach and why he hasn't brought anything to the Under-21 squad this season?

Wouldn't be a bad appointment Stuart. He's done a decent job thus far this season.

Couldn't agree more Aggy. If they are representing Blackburn Rovers and they get to a final then it's an achievement to be welcomed. These lads have played some decent stuff at times this season and are to be congratulated on their achievement.

Sadly, that has been the case since the lifting of the maximum wage in 1960.

The problem with waiting for owners with money is that they don't come along all that often. Laurence Cotton in the years before the First World War and then Jack. In between those years we were the poor relations. Since the lifting of the maximum wage small town clubs have struggled to compete with the big city clubs - it's nothing new. Ipswich won the title in 1961-62 and then we did in 1994-95 and in between it was dominated by City clubs. Since 1995 it has continued to be dominated by the clubs from Manchester and London. The history of football is about those with money and those without. We have chosen to support a club that is not one of the fashionable clubs that will attract sponsorship, large crowds or wealthy foreign ownership. FFP is about preventing clubs going out of existence and surely that has to be a good thing for those small communities for whom the football club is important. FFP may well have prevented Portsmouth falling through the Leagues and Coventry might well be playing in their own city rather than in Northampton.

FFP has worked very well in the lower Leagues and the issues you raise also applied to them. Last season Yeovil were promoted with very small gates whilst the likes of Sheffield United, with huge gates by comparison missed out on promotion. Since the abolition of the maximum and until Jack came along, the Rovers struggled to compete with the big city clubs. It is a fact of life. The fact is that the Rovers, even when we won the League, couldn't fill the ground week in and week out. Suppose Venky's build up the debt over the next two years and we don't get promoted. They decide to pull out and leave the Rovers with a debt they can't repay. The future of the club is then, as it may well be already, under threat. FFP is working in the lower Leagues and will work in the Championship as club's will have to live within their means. You will never get an even playing field. Some clubs will always be disadvantaged but FFP should ensure that clubs are not driven to the wall by poor financial management.

Taking the brake off clubs spending beyond their means is not good news. FFP will force clubs to live within their means and not gamble their future on trying to get into the Premiership. Venky's are the perfect example of why FFP will be a good thing in the long run.

Where is the evidence that he is a very good coach? His coaching career seems third rate at best.

Morten still has twelve months on his contract Tyrone. Are Venkys going to pay him up in full? I don't think so. So if Morten decides to stay we are going to be paying him for another twelve months. On Saturday he made a difference. Contracts can't just be discarded because a player falls out of favour with a section of the crowd. If you are paying him you have to find a way of getting the best out of him. Murphy still has twelve months to go, so does Nuno Gomes. The likes of Rochina, Formica, Paulo Jorge, Nuno Henrique, Etuhu, Edinho, and Best all have contracts of varying lengths. We will have to pay these players unless they move. If they decide to stay you either use them or allow them to sit in the stands picking up their money. If they decide to stay we can't afford to replace them anyway. At the end of the day nobody forced the club to give these guys the contracts they did and you can't blame the players for taking what is offered to them.

Couldn't agree more jim. We looked far better balanced in the second-half with Pedersen on the pitch. He linked up well with King and Morris on the left and gets through an awful lot of work which goes unnoticed by many. Gary seems to value him as part of the senior squad and hopefully he will be with us next season. As you say, there are any number of players you would be happy to see leave before Pedersen.

Who is this philip? As someone who watches the Under-21s and Under-18s the only players I heard being released are those who have really failed to make the grade. Is there a surprise name that we don't know about?