Too early to say the league is rubbish. It is clearly highly competitive judging by the top two both losing at home to unsung opposition this weekend. I suspect Huddersfield and Stoke are really going to struggle to escape from the horrible starts they have made simply because of the competitiveness. In the Championship. Equally very hard to see both Wigan and Barnsley avoiding relegation- one of them will go at least. Having watched three championship games over the weekend I would say the style of play has transformed beyond recognition from the Championship we came down to eight years ago. Now is much more a Premier League 2 in style and there is a gulf in quality to the third level. The quality of ball control and passing from all eleven Championship players in a team are much higher than it was. Premier teams are quicker, more effective closing down and make fewer mistakes but no longer are most Championship teams playing a different style of football from the PL to manage their limitations.

If Holtby arrives and lives up to his billing, Christmas will have come early.

I'd love to have the subs bench Man City have. Signing Holtby would mean about 12 current Rovers players would have to seriously up their game to stand a chance of making the starting eleven. Hope it happens.

Serious question. Has it been established as a matter of fact the reason for Coyle over Warnock was cost?

I am always in favour of class players which is why I gave Rodwell the benefit of the doubt for so long. If Holtby produces for Rovers, we have a player of Premier League class and there are not many at Ewood we can say that about.

Williams/Lenihan centre back pairing started last season and the graphic shown in the Hull game by Sky gave remarkably good stats for the partnership in the (at that time) 12 games they had played together.

Talks with Lewis Hotby confirmed in Germany and by Rich Sharpe. This season's Rodwell? Sooner or later one of these rescue bids will come off spectacularly well.

Just out of interest, the last time we scored from outside the area from open play before the Williams strike?

The Williams strike rightly earns the plaudits but the second goal deserves acclaim too. The way we retained possession plugging away for the vulnerability and Sack's finish was excellent. Dack struck from a tight angle and could easily have skied it at full stretch.

We need a minimum of 12 points from this run of 6 games between breaks so good to start with a win.

Surprised Aderabioyo doesn't have his own thread. Quietly did what he was brought in for today but the system didn't gell. With Laporte out long term and City Central defense repeatedly vulnerable today, might he be recalled early?

Every Harrison touch was commented as Bobby Reid.

For my sins watched Fulham v West Brom and Derby v Cardiff over the weekend; both 1-1. Fulham looked easily the classiest of the four but just like against us needed a world class strike to get the break through. Bilic's subs changed the game totally and WBA perhaps unlucky not to win. In the final analysis, Harrison Reed (not Bobby Reid the BBC thought was playing) is like a duck to water in the holding central midfield position but for all their fabulous possession and brilliant passing/ball control, Fulham struggle to penetrate even Championship defences and their own defence doesn't handle pressure well. To invite howls, of the games I have seen, Rovers handled Fulham by far the best over 90 minutes despite losing 2-0. West Brom are competent + but we really shouldn't have set up the 3 goal first half charity shop at the Hawthorns. Cardiff at times looked like the team Warnock wants them to be and it is far too early for my tip for them to gain automatic promotion to be written off. Playing tight like that for two thirds of a game rather than one third will be enough to see them up. Derby have a gem in Holmes and their speedy fluidity is the reason why Bradley Johnson was no longer needed. They should have had a penalty three minutes after taking the lead but the ref bottled it and then didn't bottle the equally clear Cardiff penalty five minutes later. In short, if Mowbray can bring out the talents we already have at Ewood, the performance of this 4 likely challengers shouldn't cause too many Rovers sleepless nights despite our record against them is P3 W0 D1 L2 F2 A5

Worked brilliantly- I jinxed us into scoring again.

Line-up now makes more sense but surely Gallagher up front with Dack just behind.

We have to keep them out because there is no way we are getting a second

This formation isn't working effectively. Rovers not shutting Millwall down properly.

Wow just wow- thought we had forgotten how to smash those in.

In the context of this season, this is close to a must win game for keeping top 6 aspirations feasible.

Out for 8 weeks following a knee op. Wishing him a total recovery.

Tin hat time with this line up.

Fulham had 85% possession when they thrashed Millwall 4-0. I hope/expect we will get back to good habits with a clean sheet and comprehensively bossing the ball. If we do then we can reasonably hope to win 1-0. No idea who Mowbray will pick assuming Brereton and Aderabaiyo are fit again. Hoping Chapman and Samuel are in contention for first team squad places. How far away is Davenport from fitness?

Confusing him with Platt?

As far as I am aware, any iItalian issues a certain person has now are not associated with our club. There appears to be no time overlap. Vinjay is probably trying to make links which don't exist. However, the creative interpretation of what constituted a Premier League full back or manager or permissable ownership are well documented history. Such opinions and creativity presumably continued elsewhere later in circumstances rather less forgiving than exist in North East Lancashire.

The story actually starts 2007/8