With my personal loathing of the way International football takes over the domestic game and being starved of my live football fix I decided to go to Cantilever Park, Warrington for their game against FC United. It was only £8 for me and my granddaughter with street parking five minutes from the ground. I refereed there years ago and the ground is pretty much the same but the pitch was probably the best I have seen at that level. Playing for Warrington was Stefan Mols, once of this parish. He had some decent touches but nothing came from them and was hooked after 75 minutes. FC won 1-0 in an entertaining game in front of 1400 spectators. When we have our enforced Winter hiatus I would recommend to anyone at a loose end to check the fixtures for the Northern Premier League and pick a game. It really is enjoyable watching a live match and not really caring who wins.

Great news. Thankfully his advisors have put him and his career first rather than chasing a quick buck.

Our form against this type of robust and defensive teams has been awful so unless Tomasson comes up with an alternative plan my expectation is low. I remember reading how Millwall were ultra defensive and negative at Burnley recently and although they lost they held out for an hour. I expect us to have a lot more of the ball but in non threatening areas but they will have a four or five man midfield smothering play if we advance.

We were crying out for some link up play yesterday and we were surprised that Dack didn't get on. We were pretty much second best in midfield yesterday as the had an extra man and again we were surprised Tomasson didn't address this by matching them up.

Which Tomasson referred to as the Dutch Disease.

The frustration is that we haven't shown any ways of playing against teams who are happy to let us have the ball in non threatening areas. I'm not a big believer in stats as they can be misleading but in this instance I think there is something in them borne out by bluebruce's research. It's up to Tomasson to come up with a way of playing to overcome this deficiency.

I haven't read all the posts but the ones I have read nobody is writing him off. The criticism he has had is valid don't you think. In fact in some of his interviews he has alluded to the same things himself. He's a big boy doing a job in the public eye and criticism is part of it.

In a nutshell. If today was a one-off I'd accept it but the manner of defeat in every loss so far has had striking similarities against teams who all play a similar style. In my view Tomasson hasn't come up with a plan to play and get a result against these type of teams. That's not to say I'm writing him off but he certainly isn't above criticism.

I've not long been home after another frustrating Rovers performance particularly after the high of Tuesday night. Our football was tedious, mundane and one dimensional as Luton's game plan in the second half completely scuppered us and Tomasson. His substitutions today were completely ineffective and had no effect on the way we were playing or the result. A really worrying trend is developing for me when I look at five wins and five draw situation we have. Our wins have come against teams who like to play out from the back and dominate the ball. Our forte in these games we have won has been a high press and playing on the break. When we have the ball we have moved it quickly through the lines at every opportunity. Conversely the games we have lost have been against teams who are content to let us have the ball in certain areas and don't really play out from the back making rendering our pressing players null and void. They are also more physical and robust. Our passing has been slow and safe and generally in the defending third where opponents are happy to see us and the ball. Tomasson has to come up with a plan B for these games. We have to be much more quicker moving the ball and playing more positively. Tomasson made reference recently to what he calls the 'Dutch Disease'. It was about passing the ball for passing sake with no end product, essentially just safe passes back and forth. I have seen us doing this in several games this season already. Our next few games are against teams who play like Luton, Bristol City and Stoke. My real worry is that we won't have a plan, a way of combating it and could endure days like today.

Luton yesterday made 200 tickets available in the Oak End which is split roughly 50/50 between home and away fans. That indicates to me that we haven't sold out from an allocation of just over 1000.

I'm sure he will Andy although he tries not to get too carried away.

Absolutely. I hope they do themselves, their families and the club proud.

I would hazard a guess and say that due to the irrational decision (my view) in which the seniors and under 21's are invariably playing at the same time there are none of the media team at the under 21's as they are with the first team.

I saw him play for FCUM a couple of weeks ago. He looked a little portly and got the hook at half time.

After Tuesday I'm not too worried about their physicality which has undone us in the past. I would go with the same team and tactics and frustrate them. One of their main threats is a long throw but as we have some stature in our team it shouldn't be a problem. I refer to Nathan Jones as a SAM. Small Angry Man. Hopefully he gets his comeuppance on Saturday and he is squealing like a stuck pig.

That was Doneil Henry. He is now playing for Toronto.

I think one of Tomasson's real strengths is that he can use several different formations and he isn't as rigid in his tactics. Last night it worked to perfection and as he gets used to the Championship I think we will see variety in his set up and tactics sometimes, as we did last night depending on who we play. He seems to have every players strengths and weaknesses sussed out now. Keeping clean sheets and key players free from injury is vital.

A few weeks ago we were a small team with no real physical threat on set pieces but last night we scored from a corner (our first this season) and could possibly have had more. Physicality is important in the Championship and suddenly we are with half a dozen six foot plus players last night.

So pleased with the result first and foremost but delighted with the performance. Tomasson got his tactics spot on tonight with the back five along with Travis and Morton denying them any space to pick us off and the front players putting a real shift in to press and force Watford to go long on many occasions. Hedges was terrific and he has been a revelation this season and I for one am pleasantly surprised how good he actually is. Solid is what I want Rovers to be every game and tonight we were and we limited a good team with individual flair to next to no chances. We need to show some consistency now to eradicate those poor performances when we are too easily beaten. Well done Rovers.

Really good news for Adam and protecting our asset too. Hopefully he kicks on and becomes a regular first teamer for years to come.

Sunderlands next two games area at Reading and Watford so conceivably Mowbray could have played three, lost three by Saturday albeit they were three away matches.

It's Man Utd v Leeds, Chelsea v Liverpool and Brighton v Palace that are off.

He's on a journey in a juggernaut now. It won't take long for the Mackems to see through his bluster.

My friends son is a bobby and he rang me last night to say he has been seconded to the Metropolitan Police for nine days from Monday when he and some colleagues (he didn't know the number) will be bussed down to London. He thinks every county will be doing similar. The reason is to prepare for the Queens funeral which he described as the biggest ever security detail this country has ever seen. It's only his opinion but he thinks all next weekend's fixtures in London will be cancelled through a lack of police resource. This will mean games at Spurs, Millwall, QPR, Brentford and Chelsea being called off. I asked him about our match at Luton and he thinks it should go ahead but clearly depends on the resources left at Hertfordshire Constabulary and how many are seconded. He said they is a possibility they will call on more local police forces for reinforcements to keep costs down.

And that would have been done country wide at every game. It makes no sense.