It is true. A lot of us were nervous about Brad when he signed. Clearly a significant upgrade but Brad had had a few horror shows in his Anfield days.

I just want Dack back at least as good as he was before the injury. In this benighted season, odds are there won't be a selection problem fitting him in because of covid/injuries/suspension unavailabilities.

Hopefully Bradley Dack taking one of the 11 starting slots squeezes Evans further away from getting picked. If Evans manages to push all except two of Travis, Johnson, Rothwell, Holtby, Trybull, Buckley, and potentially JRC, Elliott and even Brereton (as an alternative to Rothwell) out of the first eleven, good luck to him!

Matter of opinions- I am projecting the rate of improvement forwards, not a plateauing of where he is now.

Elliott has both the ability and nous to be cute. Watch him, he doesn't have that much body to body contact with the opposition because of his speed of thought, anticipation and breathtaking ability on the ball plus range of passing and intelligent running off the ball. An unbelievable talent who will go on to be among the top half dozen player in this country and perhaps become a globally important player.

I am sticking my neck out. But I think the league is going to be very competitive all season. Norwich, Bournemouth and Watford for sure have players who were very comfortable in the Premier League but then other clubs have outstanding individuals too. We have played two of those plus Reading, Swansea and Boro with at least 8 players Mowbray should be able to call on in the reverse fixtures unavailable and we have certainly not been embarrassed. Video footage of the other clubs above us doesn't frighten me either. And if we are unhappy with our position, what about the much fancied, PNE, Cardiff, Forrest and Derby below us. OK here comes the rub- It is going to be as big a challenge making 2nd as 6th. If we are genuine contenders for the play-offs, I think that will by default also mean we are challenging for automatic promotion as well because I can see there being a bunching up at the top this season rather than a top two parade. The gap between 2nd and 7th is currently 3 points with a quarter of the season gone.

If he doesn't follow up with the ball gettable, Kaminski would get rightly criticised. The QPR player was cute in how he positioned his body and most times the officials won't see it as a foul in the resulting melee.

On the current rate of progress 1) Ben is finally playing with confidence and self-belief 2) In a fully fit Rovers squad with everybody available, he certainly gets on the pitch in the 14 players used and I would start him in every game against a bottom half team likely to park the bus against us. 3) Come next summer, it is now easy to foresee Ben having a market value at least the equal of what we paid for him. All we need to do is call them the BEA or BAD and based on Brentford's experience the £20m+ offers will come rolling in... If that's your thing.

We have just got Brereton to the level he is in the Skybet Team of the Week and then contracted to sell him...

Crazy crazy at Plainmoor. Torquay 5 Crawley 6 Final score after extra time. Crawley scored their first goal on 83 minutes. Torquay's equaliser in "normal time" came in the 21st minute of added time...

Worth remembering that the Venky's have been really difficult for the bidding clubs to deal with when bids have been received for players they didn't want to part with.

The key is having a forward threat that overwhelms the opposition defence with problems. Ben no undoubtedly adds to their headaches and having two players who can run through you with the ball in Brererton and Rothwell allied to the creative passing of Holtby and Elliott is going to continue tearing oppositions apart. Having those four on the pitch together with Dack and Arma is a salivating proposition. Quite how you do get all six on at the same time I don't know but Ben has added defensive maturity this season so it might not be kamikazi football to try it. We could be seeing Ben taking on an Elliott style rotation including midfield duties but then where does Travis fit? If we get Rothwell Holtby and Ben to up their accuracy in strikes on goal then some unfortunate club could get hit for double figures this season.

Jury out on this season and that is all that really matters. 1) I am not looking at any game thinking Mowbray cost us so far this season. Equally I am not looking at any points gained because of managerial wizardry. 2) if he keeps it that way, then it is a function of the squad being good enough to get us up. I certainly think it is at least good enough to be in contention and that is down to a superb summer window so thumbs up Tony for that 3) we have had at least eight players unavailable every game so far this season. We are still in contention so that is creditable. You can't judge Mowbray adversely on our current table position BUT 4) Starting at Luton Mowbray will have the majority of his massive squad available. How he sets them up in a winning system, selects his 18, his 11 and uses his 3 subs is all about Mowbray. There is no hiding place. Every game hereon in has Mowbray totally exposed as the Manager.

We almost at the point of taking him for granted but Elliott was very very good again.

What a relief getting three points! We were always the better side but delighted/relieved we weathered the storm they generated middle of the second half and scored two lovely goals to secure the win. Rothwell and Brereton were the players with the eye catching performances. Great to see Armstrong fully mobile. Nyambe was very good apart from one horrible loss of possession which lead to the corner which lead to the penalty which lead to the goal. Nobody had a bad game and Kaminski clearly commands the back in a way Pears can only dream of. Lost count but even with Rothwell, Kaminski, Johnson, Trybull and Grayson back I think we still had eleven players unavailable with Evans the latest casualty addition after two minutes. Hugely happy with the international break for once. I think could be down to only Dack, Travis, Bennett and Butterworth being out by the time we go to Luton which will feel like our season starting all over again. 8 points off top 7 points off 2nd 5 points off 6th The damage of the recent weeks could have been far greater than it has turned out to be.

We have the beating of QPR but when we are in advanced positions the movement by players off the ball stops instead of speeding up the way you see Prem League teams play. We don't hurt teams by pushing on when in possession well inside the final third which means we are playing in front of defenders instead of behind them. At the very least there is a sending off to be had if we gamble a bit more. Has the feeling of Dieng having a man of the match performance. We are not being clinical again.

Evans hamstring?

OK with Evans trying to regain his international place on our dime but the ball is not going to flow through the middle of the park in our favour today is it?:

Is Louis Annesley injured or is our friend from Gibraltar about to see him on the bench v QPR this afternoon?

I expect this will be much more entertaining than recent games. I think we will need some good fortune to get the win. My ITK of team selection tactics and subs can be exclusively revealed now:

Vale is back! Presumable Sam Burn is on the bench. @richsharpe89 Stewart Downing on the bench as #Rovers U23s look to extend their unbeaten start to the season against Arsenal. Jack Vale also back after injury. Team: Stergiakis, Pike, Barnes, Saadi, Thompson, Lyons, Whitehall, Paton, Brennan, McBride, Vale #Rovers lining up in a 4-3-3, with Vale as the centre forward, Brennan on the right and McBride the left.

Subs: Bell, Grayson, Vale, Butterworth

145

I have never looked forward to an international break so much. Is it 8 or 9 players who won't be available Saturday should come back into contention for the Luton game? That should just leave Travis and Dack amongst the players who would get into our strongest eleven out but with the prospect of both back by the New Year. Even without those players, most of our performances so far this season should be good enough to scrap our way to three points against QPR. If we don't, anyone starting a relegation thread would be justified.

Ref looked like he was terrified of Warnock. Awful from him. We got the point to stop the run of defeats against top sides. Pears did well.