Watched a few Millwall highlights and they are not as dire as their results suggest. Wallace is very dangerous with set pieces. They also know how to ride their luck at the back. Going to be important for Rovers to press high up.

In the late '60s we perennially challenged for promotion then fell away at the season end. I think in the 26 seasons we were out of the top tier, we had serious promotion challenges to get back in about half of them plus the two successful third division campaigns. Makes this decade look extremely dull.

From outside the UK, the FA Cup doesn't exist.

Any idea when the draw is? To say the BBC have first dibs on the FA Cup, their coverage is abysmal.

I remember that one but it isn't the quote I had in mind.

Fingers crossed we can average only around 7 or 8 absences in the Millwall, Bristol City and Brentford games and we will see. 13 absences which is what we have had were a bit too much. JRC, Travis, Evans, Dack, Vale, Butterworth for sure will be unavailable. Question marks over Ayala, Wharton, Williams, Douglas. Hopefully no more casualties and Mowbray keeps his brainfarts limited to what happened at Luton.

Was looking for the Mowbray quote on the Brereton signing (and haven't found it) and saw these- https://readliverpoolfc.com/2018/01/11/liverpool-favourites-sign-ben-brereton-forest/ £15m https://metro.co.uk/2017/02/07/liverpool-failed-in-january-transfer-move-for-manchester-united-target-ben-brereton-6433908/ Forest supporters are following Ben very closely even now. This written less than a year ago shows what a stunning turnaround we have seen https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-transfers-brereton-gallagher-17517877 Looks like Chaddy will be proved right: On 29/08/2018 at 17:23, chaddyrovers said: I think 7 mil is steal. Still cant believe Forest sold him tbh.

These are the questions I continually ask myself. Rovers full squad or Norwich's? - Rovers Rovers first XI v Bournemouth 1st XI with everyone fit - draw ditto Watford Any other club in the division? Nobody immediately leaps out as better than Rovers other than perhaps Reading first XI on a good day.. In fact I wouldn't take any other of the 20 clubs' first team or complete squads over Rovers. Any suggestions otherwise? There are four keys to the second half of our season. 1) We reach New Year within 6 points of top (currently 7 behind Norwich with a better GD) so keep level pegging with the top two whoever they are on 1 January. 2) Mowbray doesn't get vertigo and over think things- I don't see Mowbray being capable of achieving promotion through the play-offs so it is top two or bust so far as I am concerned 3) Travis and Dack recover full pre-injury form and are hungry to make up for lost games 4) We have a decent half season with injuries, suspensions, illness and quarantines. Let's be greedy and say as good as the first half of the season has been bad. Grant me these four wishes and I would say we have an evens chance of automatic promotion.

This one will need an early goal and God help us if Millwall get it!

I hope these are still four day games?

You might be right which is unusual... However when we were struggling first half with their high press, there were often five across midfield harassing our 3. This was a reason for Arma dropping deep which then meant we had no out ball by-passing their midfield.

I think it is really good we now have 4 very decent central defenders to select from when they are fit. They each offer something different and you can see why over lapping central defenders Sheff U are reportedly interested in Lenihan. Hayden Carter currently is not of the standard we need- he is on the slow side and it was noticeable Barnsley pulled one back when they very effectively bypassed Carter in a way they hadn't been able to with Wharton. I hope Wharton can play v Millwall but that looked like concussion and a mandatory seven days. Scott Wharton in my eyes has in these few games unambiguously shown he is a very competent Championship central defender and this is another unexpected bonus from this most peculiar of seasons.

Interesting that injury-hit Norwich had the same number of players out (13) that we had for two matches. They could only assemble a bench of 6, 5 of whom are untried kids. When we were 13 out, Hayden Carter who had recent Championship experience and came on yesterday, couldn't even make the squad of 18.. I don't think he was the only one with first team experience to miss out at that time either. All credit to Delia Smith and hubby for getting Norwich to where they have been in recent seasons but even with the parachute they are cheese pairing. At £25m net worth, they are by some distance the least wealthy Championship owners.

You have made my point for me!

I will give Mowbray this. He has come up finally with the 4-3-3 which he has drilled into the squad so that subs don't disrupt the flow and increasingly fit into the system. 4-3-3 really suits rotating Brereton, Gallagher, Armstrong and Elliott and Travis will take to it like a duck to water. The big question is where Dack fits.. but what a nice problem to have when we eventually have it. This is essential with a huge squad with multiple players coming through the Academy complementing the 25 named players. Having such a monster squad is essential this season and Norwich are less well set up for handling absences than we are currently. He got away with 3 against 5 in midfield against Barnsley because man for man we had the better players all over the park. The expanded bench and ability to use 5 subs helped Rovers a lot today. It meant we had specialists for all positions and arguably we didn't get disrupted by either injury. I expect to see two pairs of subs to be used regularly throughout the season by Mowbray now with the changed rule except when we have injuries. So kudos to Mowbray for the system and foresight.

Wood26 recollection is the same as mine. Not judging either the wisdom or indeed veracity of this but Mowbray has twice said that Venky's set aside a pot to get a young, preferably English forward and it was burning a hole when he signed Ben. The £5m on Gallagher was always the more puzzling spend in the context you mention. He chose to spend on a relatively high waged forward when there were huge gaps still at gk and in defence. The development of Ben since lock down and Sam in recent games are the huge unexpected but prayed for bonuses of this season! As much a surprise as Ben being qualified to play for Chile. Actually there is another big bonus of this season which is the 4-3-3 system. Barnsley's 3-5-2 is another unusual but well drilled system which suits their players and took us 40 minutes to come to terms with.

It was a bad attempt - not even an attempt given how wide he put it - but when you are left of goal 8 yards out with a defender on your right shoulder and keeper perfectly positioned it is a damned good chance but hardly a sitter. He had made it himself winning the ball originally and running 30 yards if I remember correctly but still the end effort was a real "oh Ben!" moment. Ben's reputation for falling over is costing him and us. He was given a meaty shove in the back in the penalty area earlier and nothing was given or appealed for.

Agreed. Haven't seen anything of Millwall this season but I thought Brentford were at least as fortunate against QPR last night as we were against Barnsley today and 3-1 did not adequately reflect how much better Reading were than Bristol City this lunchtime.

Needs a scan so potentially not good

Ayala expected to be available on Wednesday. Douglas a glute strain which will need a scan Wharton- see how he is on Monday JRC is out for two months as are Platt and Vale of the under 23s. Williams- doesn't sound like he will be ready for Wednesday

Results elsewhere very much went our way today.

What a beautiful ugly win! Four pieces of class won it for us: Nyambe's run and pull back for goal 1 Gallagher's strike for goal 2 and two Kaminsky saves Huge credit to the Barnsley boss. He has those players playing far above their level of ability. Set pieces are outstanding. So much variety brilliantly delivered.

Totally useless. One primary schoolboy game at Sett End- we lost 14-0. Bryan Douglas' son played for the opposition and the highlight of my career was the great man calling good tackle when I fluked a block. Myles Andersonesque me.. One appearance for Shell 7th XI and a few trundles around for the Rovers London Branch. 0 goals Oh I forget, I did score past the QEGS first XI keeper and hit the post on a geography field trip match on the proper pitches at Beaumaris which the staff were taking far too seriously.

Dackless Rovers play Everton in PL2 at 8 tonight. Cannot see any TV stream for it.

First time I think next unread topic has taken me to three match threads... Millwall are currently above us. W 4 D 7 L 2 F 12 A 10 So we are going to have to be on our game for this not to be 0-0 or 1-1. First goal will be extremely important.