I also think there will be a really small crowd. Wigan will only bring a few and I think there will be lots of our season ticket holders not bothering. I think Wigan will be a much tougher proposition that Preston in many respects. I saw them play at Derby last week and they are a big, physical team who play on the edge. It's simple for me. The players and Mowbray need to get it right in terms of tactics and application. A tough one to call but for me it has draw written all over it and maybe a 0-0 at that.

I didn't say he was a Phil Jones. My point was that nobody really knew how Phil Jones would fare against Drogba having never played in anything but under 21 football. It's a square peg in a square hole. As I said in my post he could be needed in the first minute if somebody is injured or sent off. What then? We can't put him on because he's too young so we'll re jig the team and play somebody else out of position.

Yes it is. I was taking the perspective of a Birmingham fan ?.

His team lost, Grealish scored the winner, he gets 14 weeks in jail, he gets a life ban from all football grounds, a 10 year ban from St Andrews and he has to pay Grealish £100 in compensation and £150 victim surcharge. The mug has had a bad couple of days.

There was an unfounded story that Mowbray wouldn't let Mulgrew join up with Scotland before the November internationals as he was injured in the time leading up to the games but fit when the games came around. The story was that Mulgrew was upset with Mowbray as he wants to get fifty caps to enter the Hall of Fame in Scotland. For what it's worth I agree with Mowbray and if Mulgrew has spat his dummy out then get shut.

It's interesting that Magliore is going to be on the bench but not considered good/experienced enough to start. It's a bit like a 90% fit player on the bench. In reality an injury in the warm up or early in the game to another player and they have to play. We need centre halves whose stock in trade is to play that position. Nyambe and Williams are full backs (and generally average ones at that) so if we have a natural centre half good enough for the bench then start him. This is a problem of Mowbrays own making. Allardyce threw Phil Jones in against the likes of Drogba, why the hell can't Mowbray do it against Wigan.

Undoubtedly there are players who are brittle and Mulgrew could be one but Mowbrays comments taken literally read differently.

That's not how I read Mowbrays comments. It's some kind of biomechanical nonsense from Mowbray that being tense strained his hamstring. If he is inferring that Mulgrew is mentally weak then he should say that and not come out with shite that insults our intelligence. By the way this is a player who has captained his national team and played in the Champions League. "Unfortunately, maybe because of the anxiety of his manager moaning at him, he's been up tight and his hamstring has strained. That's how it looks to me," he added.

You could just use viagra now ?.

Of all the crap spoken by Mowbray this takes the biscuit for me. He says that Mulgrew may have injured his hamstring due to being tense from his manager shouting at him. I'm really hoping he reads this back and realise what a prick he sounds. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/march/concern-over-mulgrews-injury/

I would honestly settle for some of the darker arts which most teams adopt. As I said yesterday Williams should have pulled the Nobber back when he was going past him for their goal. You can bet your bottom dollar Wigan will be up to all sorts of gamesmanship on Tuesday but it seems Mowbray likes to be liked and his teams don't do that.

I saw Wigan unluckily lose to Derby last week but what struck me was how big the majority of their players looked. They are known to be physical so we need to fight fire with fire. No more Mr Nice Guys please.

And Grealish scores.......................

Publicly flogging? That's a tad harsh. ?

Seeing it again it looks like the coward is wearing a birthday badge, the ones that kids wear. And in his defence he'll blame drink. How would Caley cope with a game as hostile as this ?.

I'm not particularly fond of either club but I hope Villa hammer them and Grealish gets a hat trick.

Disgraceful scene at Birmingham where a home supporter has run onto the pitch and swung a punch at Jack Grealish. And almost as bad lots of Birmingham fans were cheering.

Never in a million years for me. Liverpool getting three points on their way to winning the league or Burnley getting none and get embroiled in a relegation scrap? It's a no brainer for me.

In truth I'm not overly disappointed with our points tally. With the future in mind I'm exceptionally fearful as we have a squad which currently has League One running through it like a stick of rock. We have crashed and burned and major surgery is needed. We have bang average players on good, long contracts and very little chance of moving them on to bring in more quality. We have one saleable asset and it appears the majority of our playing budget has been spent on a player who has been 'dropped' into the under 23's and hasn't kicked a ball in the first team for weeks. The reality for me is that we need up to eight new players in the summer and to shift some of the current first team out. Given Mowbrays record so far with signings I have very little faith in this happening. He talked about a number of transfer windows to get where he wants to be but we have regressed since the January one. For me it boils down to trusting him with the future of our club. Given the above I have grave reservations that he can move us forward. His recent interviews indicate to me that he doesn't have the answers. The old football saying of 'taken us as far as he can' has never been more apt in my opinion.

UAnd Wigan have just lost in what the commentator described as 'controversial circumstances'. Apparently a Wigan player was down injured and Cook and his merry men wanted Reading to put the ball out of play. They didn't and scored the winner. Good on 'em I say. Another tough match for us and looking like we won't have any centre halves against a robust and physical team who, like Preston will play on the edge of the laws. It's got draw written all over it but once the Tinkerman gets going who knows. Mowbray confirmed that Mulgrew has a hamstring injury so we are once again desperate for centre halves.

It happened at Rotherham last week too. It's professional sport in one of Europe's top leagues and some of our players want to play with a Corinthian spirit. Bollocks to the stupid unwritten convention, I want winners in my club not good sportsmen.

Wasn't the silly o'clock kick off time meant to prevent trouble and make the Ewood residents day free from disruption? Just another reason to be annoyed at most things Rovers today.

I actually thought we played as well as we have for weeks in parts today but ultimately it doesn't mean a thing, in fact it made the whole afternoon even more annoying. I honestly don't believe we are professional enough at times. Why Williams hasn't taken a yellow card by fouling the Nobber for their goal was amateur. Kicking the ball out for opposition players to have treatment (when we a fucking losing) is amateurish. Our players not doing what Nobbers were doing and going down easily and buying free kicks. Not being on the match officials case when any decision goes against like Nobbers did is poor from us. I said at Ipswich on day one of this season that we have too many League One players and today was all the evidence you need to see that. Poor touches, too many touches, basic passing, lack of movement and many more. And this is down to Mowbray, nobody else. He has failed abjectly in the recruitment area and wrongly believed that the players who got us up could consistently perform in the Championship. Today we had several players who had Joe Cockers. Williams, Dack, Evans, Smallwood, Armstrong but pride of place goes to Bennett whose crossing was as poor as I have seen. Our final ball was poor today and all of the above were culpable. Preston got their goal and were happy to sit in and play on the break. The referee allowed Preston to consume ridiculous amounts of time on every restart.

Some of our current lot are playing like they are in their late 90's. ?

A police escort? They'll be bragging about that to their mates at school on Monday.