arbitro

And in his fledgling managerial career he has already had four clubs. He looks ready made to be another manager who makes a lucrative career out of being a failure.

Armstrong has played on the left several times for us and a lot in his career. Perhaps not his favoured position but he could have freed Bennett up for the greater good.

Agreed and on form alone Bennett should be in there ahead of the other two. His mobility, willingness to get forward and tackling should have seen him starting there. I honestly can't recall the last time I remember Evans having a half decent game.

It could as easily have been Smallwood rather than Evans going off. Both were poor and second best to Wigans central midfield. We only looked to control that area when Bennett moved inside. Smallwood was out on his knees in the last ten minutes and lost possession several times and gave cheap free kicks away. In my opinion Mowbray got it wrong by playing those two from the start.

Thanks for posting that ODB. An enjoyable read and interesting to hear he was prepared to walk away in the Summer if he wasn't backed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43256551 It appears there is still some nervousness with the PL Chairmen and according to this article won't be happening next season. I wonder how much it has cost and how that money could have been better spent on improving facilities for youngsters who have to endure poor conditions sometimes.

But lots of decisions using VAR will still be based on opinion not fact which will still not give you a definitive right or wrong. In this respect it's absolutely pointless. There is a perception amongst the drivers of this that it will eradicate errors. Quite simply it won't as it will still be in the opinion of the referee. Based on the current criteria every penalty kick should be reviewed as encroachment is a clear and obvious error and contrary to law. It's full of holes and causing confusion and will continue to do so

It's still in the trial stage. Nothing has been decided yet.

You called Graham lazy and others have said Samuel is lazy. I don't see any difference. What was your expectation of Samuel by the way?

But you criticised him for the same things people are critical of Samuel for. Double standards?

He never questioned Danny Grahams attitude or performances but you were highly critical of him saying pretty much the same things people are saying about Samuel. Mowbray very rarely criticises players publicly and that's how it should be.

I found this comment interesting. “Coming back after that meeting I felt positive and as if we could have a chance, that they (the owners) weren’t just taking all of the money out of the business, and there was going to be support and we could build a team.

Only offsides where goals are scored are reviewed by VAR but I have spoken to a close friend in the refereeing world and asked him about the following scenario. A forward is marginally offside but the Assistant Referee doesn't flag and the forward is then denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity by the goalkeeper who fouls him outside the penalty area. My friend said it could not be reviewed by VAR and the goalkeeper would be sent off. I said surely that can't be fair as a team would be down to ten men erroneously and that should be viewed as an critical error and as such reviewed. He said at the moment that is how it is and there are, as yet no plans to look at anything else. At the moment there are lots of potential situations which haven't been covered and are full of ambiguity.

I thought Wagner made an excellent point about VAR taking the emotion out of the game. For two minutes yesterday the fans, players and management teams stood around not knowing what to do. Can you imagine that situation in a the last moments of a hugely important game? Even that decision yesterday was so close and the camera position from above cast enough doubt to give the benefit of the doubt to the striker which is what they would do without VAR.

The big difference from the fans perspective is that they are in an upwards trajectory whilst we have been in a downward spiral. It will be interesting if the are bottom of the PL this time next year and have a plethora of Portuguese players and officials on massive money how they react. Meanwhile the EFL will be happy to pass the problem to the PL and vice versa if the go down. And the FA will continue to monitor events at Wolves. It's an accident waiting to happen.

I spoke to Gareth immediately after the Brentford game and he told me he didn't even get an interview when Coil got the job.

I recall Adam Blacklaw playing for Harwood too but I don't remember if it was at the time of Douglas and Clayton. Harwood were in the old Northern Premier League at the time and there were lots of ex internationals playing non league then.

It looks like the players have been allowed to play with freedom and to express themselves. The sublime movement and touches are a sight to behold.

We had VAR at Ewood today. Very awful refereeing.

Another aspect might be that he isn't having to make as many challenges having another tackler alongside him who shares the load. Without trying to sound disrespectful pretty much all his partners aren't renowned for putting tackles in.

The key words to me are intensity and speed. Prior to Bennett moving inside our sedate central midfield pace meant the opposition could control that area of the pitch for long periods in a game. Now we are at them from minute one. Mowbray can take some credit for this but for me he kind of stumbled across it because of injuries.

We'd be better off signing Kelly Marie. She does have legs.

Top player who seems to grounded too. Before the season I said any success we might have would hinge on him staying here and then keeping him fit. I felt that Mowbray was gambling too much by playing him in FA Cup matches but he came through unscathed. In fact the only game he has missed through injury was at Rochdale which ironically he got playing for Scotland. Hopefully he can get 20 goals this season to help see us over the line.

For anything that requires a judgement there will always be a difference of opinion and I guess from a managers perspective that depends whether the decision is for or against you. In that respect VAR changes nothing. Last night the VAR was Mike Jones who is one of the worst referees on the list and the once the decision is going to be reviewed it is his responsibility. I foresee lots of VAR associated problems which by the way is costing a fortune.

There is a real danger the game is going to become too sterile. It's not uncommon now to see 25-35 free kicks in a game which really stifles the flow which denies the paying customer seeing what they pay for. When I was refereeing it didn't take me long to realise that a lot of minor infringements in insignificant areas can be overlooked for the benefit of the game and a lot of my colleagues at that time thought the same way. I used to explain this to the players and generally they were fine with it. I would be be disappointed if I gave more than 15 free kicks in a game. A colleague of mine once refereed a match in the Football League and only gave two free kicks.