He's just coming up with systems to accommodate players that's all. Hoping something just drops or clicks rather than any real drilled in plan. In his mind he'll probably blame todays poor display on Rothwell !

Look what Fettis was up against though, one of the best footballing sides of modern times. Chances are he might have been ok a league below. This lad Walton was 3 TD or 4 th choice at Brighton. Exactly what Steel was at Boro. Clear the Rovers way now is to root around for a keeper of that ilk who they can get for less Than a million and hope to grow him to punt on. As usual the team suffers in favour of the 'investment vehicle' .

Ladies and gents welcome to another head in the sand no 1 contender. 8000 home fans then, 8500 paying season ticket holders now. They are the facts. Hardly the ringing endorsement of more fans flocking to football now than then really is it.

How many in the ground besides the free tickets and over 1300 visitors ? Paying home punters in other words, not much different I'd wager. You have a wonderful but obvious art of swerving people's point. What do our ST Sales stand at by the way ? Do you report back to India by any chance ?

As a spectacle no it really isn't because flair players then we're allowed to do their stuff. So many systems employed now are used to nullify first. Mainly because of the money in the game, it's vital for a club like us to stay in the championship with its extra 5/6 million per year over the league 1. Less and less teams in both the top 2 leagues set out to go for it. Everything is so tactical. There was probably about 9k Rovers fans on that day. How many today without the free tickets handed out and complimentaries counted ?

Just like top flight football i think we'll have to wait a long long time before we see a good regular keeper at Ewood again. Something that as long as iv'e known has been a staple at Rovers until, well you know who rocked up. This regime from the top downwards just isn't capable of delivering either. You want quality and consistency you have to pay for it.

Woeful stuff again amazing to say that after a 3-2 win but there it is. No doubt he's busy dressing it up as a 5 star performance against a good team in a false position to his paymasters in INdia via the presser. Anyone in watching would have seen another insipid disjointed side getting out played by possibly the weakest side in the league. The extra quality we are able to afford over the likes of them saw that through just like it was enough for us in league 1. Speaking of league 1 that's exactly what that defence is but then we've known that since we went down last time. However a win is a win and it's all about the points so we'll take them, we've played better and lost but maybe not this season. That had the look of a relegation scrap for sure.

No, the admission price was probably similar to an hour or so's pay then.

It's not him picking them that's only half the job it's where he deploys them and what he asks them to do ! Anyway 3 - 0 to Rovers the first of a two game winning rub before the foot comes off the gas again.

WE can't live off project fear forever there is a better structure in place than at anytime under Venkys since before Kean. A lot of that is down to Mowbray of course and some is just down to time and the complete dumbing down of everything. A handshake at the end of the season would be my preference but if things get worse it'll have to be a pay off i'm afraid.

I can't think of a Don Mackay side that wouldn't spank any we've had in the championship since 2012. Even the struggling one that prompted Jack to get involved would draw at least with this one.

New manager bounce boosted the Barnsley numbers they'll sniff a win here make no mistake no matter how bad they might have been. We are a floundering team with a dithering manager so in their eyes this is winnable.

A bit like the Raya situation i think a lot assumed either bring in better and relegate them to back up or bring in direct competition to bring the best out of them. Both appear to have been bombed straight out one way or another but the team was always going to miss Mulgrews goals if nothing else. Maybe he'd have scored a few from the bench this season and earned a few points instead of costing them.

I don't think there is anything wrong with have a certain playing style or philosophy running right through a club. It makes sense and something we've lacked in the past iv'e thought from the bits iv'e watched down the years. However it has to be the right style, the first team and U23's should be playing the Johnson way not this new crap TM seems to be foisting on all areas of the club. Going nowhere football gets you precisely that, it seems him, Venus and whoever else have been over there and sold them a dose of bollocks about this.

If you go out and sign better than what you have then you don't 'stack them up on the bench' do you. The whole idea is to improve by bringing better in which isn't that difficult given how distinctly average ours are. He's had the money he's chucked it elsewhere, he had a decent prospect lined up but let it go. He didn't have the minerals to upgrade on Lenihen who he's admitted isn't strong enough to be a full season centre half. Then in typical fashion he's shoved one of his favs, Williams to the top of the pecking order after he's declared he's now a centre half not a left back. In short he's quite simply tried to make do and mend yet again and he's been exposed yet again as flawed in that area. But this is what happens when you see every signing you make as a back up player to what is nothing more than average in most cases in the first place. Even more bizarre when you allegedly spend a million in loaning in the least experienced one.

Class !!! And oh look a winger with a left foot playing on the wing !

If he thought those two signings alongside ditching another and swapping the keeper would solve our defensive issues i don't think we need say anymore. He's done it for us.

A great omen he often took Barnsley to the cleaners back in the day. Boyhood hero. There'll only ever be one Simon Garner !

Rovers are shite, the team consistently changes and it consistently misfires. Not one player can he get any consistency out of, he consistently selects his senior favs despite poor showing - on the pitch not training ground or dressing room - and consistently digs out others. He consistently tries to get his signings to play not to their strengths which makes you question why he bothered signing them in the first place. And the worst of the lot he consistently baulks at attacking players terrified of anyone running forwards with the ball in case they lose it. Meanwhile others lose it all over the park trying to play a possession game they aren't comfortable with. A great bloke but a real oddball manager on the pitch yet fans run around after each nice guy interview saying oh it's ok Tony is happy here, jesus !!!! I actually thought we were supposed to pay them to try and make US happy for a couple of hours !!!

He does talk players up though, well Elliot Bennett because he's good in the dressing room. And apparently drives the team forwards.....?

He's 6' 4" and a monster banging them in on the training ground though.

If he's UK based and has been for a while and more familiar with the people here, the English fans mentality and the game in general then it might be a useful link. What the club needs i feel is someone with clout actually attending games and filling the void between here and India to keep a grip of the comfort zone that develops. The CEO , manager etc needs someone above them to apply a bit of pressure now and again instead of them having a free reign to invent excuses. A dual agent hiding in the shadows Indian middleman doesn't cut it i'm afraid.

If you want a ball retention side then sadly you can't play Travis and Holtby. Johnson gives the ball away just as much and Bennett has cost several goals but it doesn't matter because the dressing room likes him. It wasn't positive really it was another dig out to justify why he throws him in and out in my book but more importantly the whole context of the piece was nonsense. If you want to play a certain way you recruit players who can play that way. Whether we like it or not Evans and probably Johnson or even Smallwood are more suited to sitting back and passing it sideways. The main point for me to take from that is he simply has no desire to set up to get the best out of the good forward running players he has. When we play as a ball retention side we create nothing and still concede usually from cock ups by the same players, certain ones more than Travis. We we go at teams we need to score 4 or 5 because we are so weak at the back. It needs a balance in between.

Elliot Bennett drives this team forwards, Travis gets dug out yet again, Holtby gets question and another round of excuses for Gallagher but he's a brilliant 'investment'. The man needs to step away from this now he's lost the plot it's clear to see. Why sign these players for millions and thousands per week, one 24 one 29 and then feel they don't actually know what they are doing. So uncle Tony will have to teach you how to play the game, coming on the back of what he claims he sees in Gladwin ! This resembles the later years of Tony Blair, he sees things that aren't there. I don't care if we spank them 5-0 tomorrow there is enough come out of his gob in recent weeks to show exactly why this club will go nowhere with him in charge. Worrying thing is a lot will say ok but without him it'll go downwards again. Not sure i agree with that project fear assumption anymore.

Eligible - Interesting choice of word when talking about getting a player fit again after a two year lay off. Some he looks after some he doesn't it seems but he's certainly a sucker for a hard luck story when it's not his money he's chucking around. Meanwhile his team flounders and the dead wood get paid.