What an awful game. Once again, just when we get into touching distance we have an afternoon like this. Same old.

Eff off Walton

.

We really lack a striker.

Lack of crowd there saving Evans from a definite yellow card.

This is pretty awful now. Another opportunity we throw away?

We look far the better side at the minute, some crisp passing and moving. I’d feel a lot happier if we had an actual striker up front though.

No, it’s a behind closed doors game. No Pie Eaters allowed.

Not on Tony’s watch. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17401247.rovers-owners-prepared-spend-january-says-boss/ A big budget brings pressure to use it well.

Haven’t you worked it out yet Matty? You must comply with the thought police!

What worries me, Phil, is that after two full championship seasons, our squad still needs about 10 new players. Loans are papering over the cracks and we aren’t building towards anything, yet we have had money to spend. Yes, Venkys are the problem but so is the manager (and assistant manager, apparently) who doesn’t use the money we have wisely. Extending contracts for Smallwood and Hart when we are skint, because they are good characters is ridiculous. Couple that with the board “asking” fans not to ask for a refund (while almost every other club made it an option) because it could financially cripple the club, and we are being taken for fools. What’s next year’s big catering deal, price freeze on pie-and-a-pint for £7.50 if you buy your match ticket before the day of the game?

Just a shame we don’t recruit quite so well such that we have to rely on a crap loan keeper because of how bad the other 10 are. If only Mowbray had £15m or so to spend...!

I don’t hate him, but I do resent the fact that we are stuck with him until he decides he’s had enough - no matter how badly we do. It would be nice to be in the top 6 for five minutes, just once, but is suppose its better for that to happen after the last game of the season. Good to have you back @S8 & Blue

Odd that Brentford signed Raya then when Walton was available. But still, I guess Brentford having a better first team than us isn’t Mowbray’s fault either...

Plus another clean sheet for the man Mowbray couldn’t get a tune out of (because of loyalty to his other favourite Ben) and 5 points off the top.

I thought you said we couldn’t target players - even a keeper (!) - until we knew what division we would be in?

I stand corrected. It was a PL2 game! Wow this guy needs a massive upturn in his development.

If Brereton performs like he did last week, every week, then he still wouldn’t be worth £7m. He did the basics well in the first half. I’d certainly expect for the money that when he rounded the keeper he would have sorted out his feet to roll the ball into an empty net. If he had come through the ranks and performed like he has he would get nothing like the patience. I agree with Tyrone and K-Hod. Anything he does reasonably well at it suddenly ‘proof’ that he was a good buy, largely because people are desperate for the £7m to be money well spent. Right now it isn’t. We certainly wouldn’t be getting our money back after 2 full seasons, let alone making a decent profit, nor has he delivered on the pitch. So far he has cost £3.5m per goal and one of those was in the EFL cup. Even Corrado Grabbi was better value than that.

He doesn’t really have any tricks when it comes to goalkeepers. Or full backs... wingers... centre backs... strikers. He could probably do you a good attacking centre mid or number 10 though.

He sounds like a very amiable grassroots coach. Personally I find the idea that we will keep paying players to not play rather than “save a few quid” quite crass. Yet fans will have to grovel for their £60 back. So out of touch with the fans base. In fact, I’d go as far as to say there will be people at the club who are glad that fans aren’t at games.

Can’t believe we don’t have enough midfielders in the U23s to not have to pay Smallwood (with money we don’t have and/or could have refunded fans). Sounds like more of the loyalty for past service. It’s actually laudable that Mowbray looks after players and may be good for future recruitment. HOWEVER... not when we are being told that ST holders asking for £60 to make ends meet, firstly, have to beg for it (where is their loyalty clause), and secondly, are told they are harming the club’s future viability by asking. Not letting Smallwood go at the end of June is worse from a financial perspective.

That doesn’t change anything in my post. Walton is a poor keeper and we are lucky that Lenihan and Tosin have formed a good partnership.

We need a goalkeeper and even if we are promoted we won’t be buying a PL standard one. I just hope we learned from last season and have more than one target.

Well that was fun while it lasted. And by ‘fun’ I mean depressing and by ‘while it lasted’ I mean even more depressing. I dread to think who will be our keeper next season.

For me, it’s a lack of consistency that undermines any real ‘progress’. These kind of supportive stats come along whenever we win a couple of games but we have had several very poor winless streaks, each of which would have seen him sacked at other clubs. I really hope he sticks it to us by making the play-offs but having never got into the top 6 - largely because just when we get close he makes a host of unnecessary changes and we miss out - he still has a way to go. And for all of this “largely the same squad and 6 academy graduates” (only one of which he can take personal credit for - the jury is still out on JRC but he may get to two), Mowbray has wasted an awful lot of money more than most other clubs in this division. Had he spent that 12m on buying a balanced squad that didn’t need to rely on so many youth players too soon he would get a lot more credit. When his tombola machine drops the right numbers for the right game we can be brilliant but I can’t remember calling us that too often. This is also the guy who stubbornly relegated us by keeping Jason Lowe as captain and playing him at all costs that sealed our relegation. He is doing the exact same again with Bennett, it’s just that he has turned around the awful squad that Coyle ruined so we are fitter than we were. The fact that he has followed Coyle makes many people stick to the “it could be worse” support.