You did see Gallagher on Saturday then? I thought BB was very poor tonight his goal apart but he was still nowhere near as bad as Gallagher imo.

Well done, must admit at half time I thought you had been donating money to the bookies with your customary largesse. I was going to volunteer to bring you a food parcel round on Christmas Day! 😉

Credit where it's due, the manager cost us two points with his substitutions on Saturday but his changes transformed the game tonight and breathed new enthusiasm into the rest of the side for long enough for us to secure the three points. Butterworth looks an absolute gem, how's he not been starting? Very good from Khedra too, you'd think they would both have to start Saturday or they would under a normal manager. Healthy start but papering over the cracks is also how I'd view it at the moment. These early points could be invaluable come the end of the season.

Butterworth has been a breath of fresh air. Mowbray can't see the riches right under his nose.

Agreed. Completely useless to me. What does he bring that one of our own youngsters couldn't?

Think he did fail a medical. Suggest you follow the player's progress on social media. If he's back next weekend you may have a point but I think his problem was a bit more serious than that.

Has to be part of his ongoing campaign to earn himself a pay off surely. Either way comments like that one and "I don't bother looking at League tables" etc show the Club and the supporters zero respect.

Agreed. Ludicrous situation but then of course we've seen it all before with the Ben Gladwin situation then handing out temporary contract extensions to Hart and Smallwood who hadn't featured all season.

This thread has wandered off topic quite considerably over the course of it's relatively short life but the question posed by the original poster remains a valid one. Imo The fans have to unite as far as possible whether as individuals or part of various fans groups to exert pressure on the management at Ewood. Why wasn't the manager sacked last season after the 3rd worse run in the Club's history? What's Mark Venus's role at the Club? If he is assistant manager, what's David Lowe's role at the Club? Subject to the answer to that, what's Damien Johnson's role at the Club? Why do we seemingly need three assistant managers? How could we possibly let a 29 goal striker go and not sign a replacement? What has our new Head of "Recruitment" (that's a good one) brought to the table? I get that we may have been unlucky with a particular player who failed a medical but a replacement should have been brought in at the same time as Armstrong was sold. We shouldn't have been scratching around on the last day. Why are we constantly loaning in Premier League youngsters? It doesn't benefit us in the long term and it doesn't benefit our own youngsters. All it does is benefit the Premier League Clubs concerned and those who benefit financially from the various moves taking place. How have most of our key players been allowed to get to the stage where they can walk away for nothing within the next 12 months? Why were plans floated to flog off part of the Academy, the only fixed asset of any real value the Club possesses and Why were said plans then scrapped at presumably considerable expense to the Club? Why can't the Club under the auspices of CEO Waggott get any of the mundane day to day running of Blackburn Rovers Football right? And why does everything that happens under his watch seem designed to turn supporters away from the Club? Be it raising prices during a pandemic, removing affordable seating, match day ticket pricing, the match day surcharge, not keeping the stadium stick and span, promising a new pitch then failing to deliver, not following up on a promise to return cardboard cutouts to donors, hiking up charges in the Blues Bar, not having enough staff to cope with demand in the ticket office, not being able to get the new kit out in time, not making sufficient numbers of the new kit available for purchase, not having season ticket cards ready in time, introducing a more expensive and inferior Club TV channel, unavailability of away travel, the list goes on and on. Im sure there's more. The owners put in £31 m in the last pandemic hit season to keep the Club afloat. Their level of financial support has been astonishing really and whilst the argument can quite rightly be made that much of that support has been necessary to cover for mistakes of their own making, my preference would still very much be to combine their financial clout with a top class manager in the dugout and a competent management team at local level running the Club in such a way as to invigorate the fan base and win back some of the support lost over the last ten years. Can sections of the support unite to that end I wonder?

Fair points Len........ but to be fair, for £300k p.a. I think it's not unreasonable to assume or at least hope in the first instance you've found yourself a bloody good babysitter!

He's come across for the last two or three months of last season and this one as though he's absolutely gagging for a pay off. I mean if replacing Nyambe with Gallagher at RB and then hooking off Gallagher as well 10 mins later doesn't give a clue .......... nothing does!

His lack of technical ability aside, there was an incident on Saturday which summed Gallagher up for me and showed why imo he'll never be prolific. In the second half when Luton were pressing we broke quickly out of defence and had a 2 on 2 situation, our player with the ball then Gallagher further forward last man with a Luton defender. Any striker worth his salt with an eye for goal would have burst forward in a straight line to try and beat the defender and create a one on one situation with the keeper. Instead Gallagher peeled off sideways to the right hand touchline forcing our player to play a tame diagonal pass to him. Result: All momentum lost and players got back.

Brereton does annoy me as well, he has started playing to the adage "I felt contact so I was entitled to go down." Look at the size of him now, he's huge, he would be far more effective if he did his best to stay on his feet.

I'm guessing not many as there are only 23 or 24 Category 1 Academies in the Country. Then again, how many Championship Clubs have had benefactors of the quality of Jack Walker to purchase and build such a fabulous facility for them for nowt? And if any of them had been as fortunate as us in that respect, do you not think they'd treat said facility now as their Crown Jewel?

I've seen worse. There was contact of sorts but it was manufactured by Dolan running into the Luton player.

Net £1.3m p.a. Less than Ayala's wages or slightly more than we paid Mulgrew not to play for us for each of the last 2 seasons.

Whoosh!

Nyambe would be the biggest miss imo. If Wharton comes back like he did pre injury then Lenihan might not be a critical miss in pure footballing terms but you don't really want any of these players who should potentially have been very valuable to the Club walking out for nothing due to the negligence of management and Mowbray's misguided notion that he didn't want to upset the rest of the squad.

The point is though there'll be a lot more of "those matches" as our inept recruitment department failed to bring in any sort of replacement for an outgoing 29 goal striker. Should have been done and dusted within 2-3 days of Armstrong leaving. And, to flip the argument on its head, irrespective of chances missed, the manager cost us the 3 points on Saturday with his negative substitutions. We'll always struggle as long as he remains in charge.

Agreed. I thought Nyambe had a good game yesterday and I wasn't left thinking that either goal was particularly down to him yesterday. Overall I'd say he is our best outfield player, unless you could get Dack back to what he was pre injury that is. Either way he's certainly bottom of our list of problems or top of it if we're talking about the contract situation.

Not read the comments but the cretin of a manager cost us the win today with his appalling substitutions. Individually thought Dolan was brilliant, (but probably wouldn't have been on the pitch had the loanees been available) Buckley was tremendous first half but struggles to last more than 45 mins and Gallagher was absolutely atrocious in the position some people seemingly want to see him. Never won a header all day and why take the ball into the corner when you've a clear chance to set up a goal? MOWBRAY OUT!

Yes but there are injuries and injuries. I.e. recurring but fairly minor ones which wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker and more serious conditions which would result in the player being unable to get medical insurance. If you want to question however why we are trying to do all our business in the last hour of the last day of the transfer window I think that's a valid argument. By doing business in a timely fashion you can overcome any unexpected last minute curve balls and move onto an alternative.

Probably to protect the player.

It has always been that way as far as I can remember. Truly desperate and embarrassing stuff from Waggott.

The article actually says either/or. Bloody ridiculous whichever it is. Used to be a free Country. No idea what skin it is off anyone's nose whether everyone has been vaccinated or not. If the vaccines aren't effective then that isn't the fault of anyone who has chosen not to have them and there isn't any point having them in the first place. If they are effective, then it doesn't matter if someone else hasn't had it as they can't give it you.