Devon Rover

Or have Giles take them all rather than Khadra (or the ineffectual Rothwell) wasting everything.

No guile or creativity in this team. Our only real threat has been crosses from Giles on the left. He has been our one bright spark. I'm totally downbeat about our season right now

Not much of an impact on this one, for me. This is all on Mowbray and Rovers.

The change has to bloody happen now. Hit them while they are reorganising and for 30 mins or so. If BBD doesn't have that in him then be shouldn't be there

We are making one of the worst teams in the division look like they know what they are doing. It's so frustrating.

More likely than not, isn't it.

Well that was horrible. Pro's: Giles promising and set pieces suddenly a threat, Hedges movement decent, Nyambe defensively, no-one sent off yet, Swansea are awful. Con's: Buckley, Rothwell, defending for the goal, lack of actual striker = no goals, Nyambe offensively, will probably have someone sent off soon, we look awful.

With that change we may have just convinced Luton they can win this.

Now I've got Steve Kean in my head. This is getting worse by the minute!

I do agree with you on all of this. But I wouldn't take a play-off spot offered now because, right now, we have worked ourselves into a position where we should be aiming even higher and there is little reason why we shouldn't. Top 2 is possible and achievable - although I think we need 3 signings to provide more depth. If we end up just missing out, and finish in the play-offs, I agree that would still be a very good season, above all expectations pre-season. But it is the hope (rather than total belief) of something even greater that I'm clinging onto, for now... Exciting/terrifying!

Easy tiger! 😉 PS I hope you don't mind that I read that as being delivered in the voice of that Norwegian commentator in '81. "Jethro, The Wurzels, Marcus Trescothick: Your cider boys took a hell of a beating!"

Reads like if you asked my managers to give a reference for me. Glowing.

Great post, Davey, and I'm really pleased to hear about the swift help - and that your dad seems ok and raring to go! Thank you for sharing the update as there was clearly a lot of concern at the ground and watching on TV. Not nice for an onlooker, so it must have been really awful at the time for you and those close to you, in every sense. Very best wishes to your dad and I hope you are both back at Ewood very soon. From a fellow 'stay on as long after full time as you can' Rover.

Leaving aside for a moment some of my negative feelings about him over recent years; full credit to Mowbray for what he is doing this year. Having just seen his post match interview, and watched him during games, he is a completely different character to the one we've seen in the previous few years. Mojo in place and coming across as an ambassador for our club. Similarly, what a brilliant, honest speaker Wilder is.

Agree with other comments - Butterworth doesn't look up for, or to, this.

I obviously don't condone any form of violence. But... Neil Taylor's face just seems to shout "punch me". 😉

Midfield run out of steam here and Khadra is off form. We are struggling

A couple of hours ago I was looking forward to this as a tough test that we might just about come through and possibly get 3 points. Johnson in for Rothwell is just one blow too many and I'd be happy with a point now. Line up looks really poor, as does the squad depth.

Do we know what his favoured position is? I haven't seen much of him but I genuinely can't tell what position/role he might pin down in the team at this level (or, whisper it, higher). I recognise he has had a lot of injuries and disruption to his career, which is a big shame, but he doesn't look a player - at least not at the moment. Pre-injuries, what position did he look best in? I thought it was a more attacking midfielder type??

Well that's that, then.

I'm worried about chances of playoffs now, never mind automatic. Really concerning selection and 'performance'. The referee has beaten us but, for me, Hull have played the better game, anyway. Not great for confidence.

I didn't single him out. I named him along with others as very poor performers. And the list wasn't exclusive. So definitely no singling! Buckley made a couple of good passes. That doesn't stop his overall performance being, in my opinion, fairly rubbish. Because, as you say, he has been played out of position.

Jesus. That was awful. Blatant penalty aside, we've been abysmal. Rothwell, Buckley, Gallagher, Rankin-Costello all rubbish so far. JRC clearly not up to this and it is a bad call by Mowbray to have picked him there against Lewis-Potter, as is the attack line which looks all wrong. Does the club get to claim Gallagher's wage back for not remotely doing his job? We'd may as well be down to 10 men again. How does this get better second half? I just don't see it.

Agreed. And I suspect this is a "handover" from BBD to Gallagher for the next couple. Gallagher really needs a goal here, if that is the plan.

This is really difficult to predict. Our line-up could be anything, as key first team players rightly get a rest/protection from the standard Wigan shithousery. I suspect TM will be dusting off the old Tombola for a right good go, for old time's sake. From the above suggested line ups, I'd personally be surprised to see Kaminski or Rothwell out there. I'd guess that Pears, Nyambe, Ayala, Edun, Johnson, Butterworth, Davenport, Dolan, Gallagher are all very likely to start (tombola-allowing). JRC off the bench? With the likely scale of changes, I'm not confident at all, but who knows. And do we really care?! For me, I'm about 24 hours away from my usual 'tipping point' from "I don't give a monkeys about the FA Cup", to "It's the FA Cup, of course I care: Can't wait !"