Agree it is harsh coming off the Wigan game, fair enough. However, surely we are all used to Mowbray by now, it's a valid concern and criticism because we all know what he is like, it was so novel to have an unchanged side for 5 games or whatever it was, Dack being out is the perfect excuse for meddling Mowbray to start overthinking things again. I hope he proves me wrong, buy I honestly think we could be looking at 8 games without a win now.

I said in another thread, but IMO this the start of another terrible run, and Mowbray will probably make 4 or 5 changes every game for the next 7 or 8 weeks or so until he stumbles on his best 11 again.

He would have to play for us until he is 48 for that to happen though.

Exactly what I was coming in to say. I can't see anything but a defeat here, those two home games have set us up for another Mowbray horror run unfortunately.

Two bad results, but always expected when everyone expects to win them. We have gone from a settled side to not having a clue who Mowbray is going to pick again. I have a bad feeling that this is going to be the start of another Mowbray horror run, fully expect 2 defeats in our next two now. We're just not going to score goals now Dack is out.

Buckley in the "Dack" role. I've got a feeling now that Dack is injured, it's going to take another 6 weeks of rotating everyone around until we find our "best team" again.

Dack to WBA has all the makings of Rhodes to Boro, just a signing to help them over the line, then probably sign someone better in the summer. One to watch on the summer for me is Watford, could see them making a move for Dack if they come down.

Every club has there own set of classless fans. I remember being at Anfield in 05 when a large portion of our fans in the away end were singing "Cisse hows your leg" after he broke it at Ewood the year before, he promptly slammed in a free kick in front of us and celebrated, only for our fans to go mental. I really wouldn't worry about it. Agree on Cook and his tactics though, did a number on us and I thought they were the better side.

Only negative for Sam with me was that you could probably write off over half of the away games before a ball was kicked. He still won the important ones though, wins over Fulham and Hull spring to mind in his first season, Bolton & Burnley the year after. Our home record was superb though, near enough averaging 20k home fans every week, and more importantly being a horrible place for the "big 4" as it was then to come. Give me that era over what we have had over the last 9 years any day.

The commentator also said that we signed him from Aston Villa, and also said that since winning the league in 95 we have spent the "majority" of our time since in the second tier.

Or if the chance that the Wigan lad tamely put in Waltons arms went in we probably would have lost the game. I thought they played much the better football than us in the first half, could have been two up before we even got one on target. Even the second half it took two good saves from Walton to keep us in it before we did anything, and in injury time there was only going to be one side that was going to win, and it wasn't us.

Hmmm. Was gutted yesterday, a last minute pre Christmas deadline kept me at work past 6pm yesterday so didn't end up making the game, think I'll email the customer today with a huge thank you looks like they did me a favour! It was all so predictable as others have said. We showed last night that we just can't handle the expectation levels, it's also twice in 31 days that we have been out played by the bottom side at Ewood, concerning. I have a feeling that this could be the start of another Mowbray horror run unfortunately, whilst we did well at Bristol, I'm not sure we're good enough to play without Dack for any length of time. I just don't know who is going to score the goals, I've seen nothing to suggest that Rothwell can step up in that position, and I just don't see Holtby as that sort of player.

Pure speculation. See what comes out of the club in the next few days. We have proved we can play without him like at Bristol, but whether we can do that on a consistent basis I'm not sure.

So looks a decent crowd tonight, but I'm guessing we'll still be playing to a completely empty Darwen End Lower?

Nah the December 2000 game definitely wasnt compulsory for the coaches, although it was advised that you did so. I remember clearly getting the train into Blackburn for around lunchtime that day and there being quite a few there getting the train over to Burnley, quite a police presence too. You are correct that the tickets weren't allowed to go on general sale though. The cup game in 05 was compulsory for coaches for the original tie, but wasn't for the replay as I travelled over to the game with a dingle pal of mine, we walked down Cravens Brow before and after the game with many other Rovers/Burnley fans and there wasn't a hint of bother.

The beauty of the one in December 2000 was that it was a 4pm KO, and the coaches weren't compulsory. What on earth happened that day for the over the top rediculous restrictions to be put in place afterwards apart from them lot going into Burnley uptown centre and smashing up woolies etc?

Most already covered in here, Tugay against Liverpool in 06, beating Utd in 02, Leeds on boxing day in 92. Couple more I'd like to throw in are - Man City and Palace away in 94, two huge wins on the way to the title. Alan Shearer scoring his 100th goal for Rovers against Spurs in 95. 2000 against this years opponents Birmingham, superb solo Matt Jansen goal before slamming in an injury time winner in front of the Blackburn end.

That Fabio Nunes actually looked like he could have turned out ok, remember him playing against Birmingham at home under Berg and thought he might be decent. Left winger. Wonder what happened to him. That Edinho though, remember he played the first half against Leicester under k*an. Awful.

I think for someone to qualify for a worst 11, they have to have played enough games to make that opinion, anyone who has only played a handful of games shouldn't really be considered IMO. So i'll go with... Steel, Orr, Ward, (W) Brown, Henley, Feeney, Lowe, Akpan, Murphy, Varney, (C) Brown

Yeah I think that could kill any potential followings at Hudds or Forest to be honest. I've got my tickets for both aswell could have saved a fortune!

Sorry this ended up being longer than I thought! My Grandad was a huge Rovers fan, and my mum was/is a huge Rovers fan too, she was a bit of a tomboy growing up, she went on Ewood all through the 70's and early 80's up to giving birth to me, she tells me all her friends used to joke that she would actually give birth to me on the Nuttal Street stand, what a sight that would have been! Due to a marriage breakup when I was a baby, and relocating us Cheshire where my grandparents had moved to she had a few years off going to Ewood when I was born, and started up again around 1988 taking me on infrequent visits as a very uninterested 5/6 year old. She tells me my first game was a home game against Oldham at the start of the 88-89 season, followed by an away game against Stoke shortly afterwards as that was only a 15 minute train journey for us. I literally have no memory of either game, or the other games we attended during that and the following season, I was more interested In running around and playing at the front of the stand apparently with some other children. My first real interest in Football was during Italia 90, something seemed to click there as a 7 year old, I was hooked and watched every bit of the tournament I could, started using all my spare time kicking a ball around in our back garden. I started taking an interest in club football the following season, wasn't particularly bothered about Rovers as they were 60 miles away and you got very little coverage of clubs like that back then, my mum took me to a few more games early on in 90-91 season, I vaguely recall actually watching a bit more of the matches but still wasn't too fussed, I was actually a bit more interested in Liverpool as I think literally everyone supported them in my school back then, with the odd Man Utd/Stoke fan knocking about too. Everything changed in January 1991 just after Christmas, my mum got us tickets to the Rovers/Liverpool FA Cup tie, with the carrot of watching Liverpool and being the envy of all my school pals I was itching to go, and this is where my first real memory of Rovers comes in, I had my old Rovers Perspex shirt on despite only really being excited to see Liverpool, I would say that changed within 5 minutes of getting into Ewood, I couldn't believe how full it was and the atmosphere was rocking. Simon Garner scored and the place erupted and sounded much louder than my other visits to Ewood, I was genuinely hooked and actually cried when Mark Atkins scored that last minute own goal, despite my tears my mum and grandad were absolutely beaming, they knew that they achieved the goal of making me a fully fledged Rovers fan. From then on I have been an absolute Rovers fanatic, constantly asking them when the next match we could go was, and my mum from then on took me every home game she could, which for a single parent, who didn't drive was some dedication, because the trains were not very frequent to our town back then we used to leave at 9am and get back at around 8pm most games. We got season tickets after promotion in 1992, and with the exception of the Coyle season I have had them ever since. Other great memories growing up are going down to Plymouth with my mum and grandad for the weekend on bostocks coaches for the game in 1992, getting the train to Wembley for the play off final in the same year, and going to Oldham in 1993/94 with my grandad which turned out to be his last ever away game, and moaning at him the whole way on the mammoth walk from the old Oldham Mumps station to the ground and back again. The best one though is obviously Anfield in 95, we didn't get tickets for it to which we were genuinely gutted about, but a couple of my mums friends were Liverpool season ticket holders, and obviously knowing my mum was a lifelong Rovers fan, single parent etc, they very kindly gave us there season tickets for the day so we could attend the game, my mum surprised me with them on the morning of the game, and never mind favourite Rovers memory I think this is my favourite memory of my entire childhood, they even drove us to the game and went to watch it in a local boozer, an incredible gesture that I have never forgotten, and one I would like to think I would repay to someone if there was ever a similar situation.

Didn't it take a wicked deflection?

Maybe we should try and sign a load of Portugese players?

Yeah I thought the same, especially if the Brum game is on the dreaded red button.

You never know, win the next two home games and we might sell out for Hudds or get very close, knowing Rovers though we'll get 1 point out of the next two games and we'll have just over a thousand there.