RevidgeBlue

We'll have to disagree on this, I'd say that being in or being very close indeed to finishing in the play offs should be the minimum expectation. I've been watching us a long time and in my experience you don't usually improve gradually bit by bit over a number of seasons. In any given season a certain manager with the requisite talent can bring in and get rid of the right players and everything just suddenly clicks irrespective of what's gone on before.

JFHC. Maybe I'm being old fashioned but the idea of Dack or indeed any professional footballer appearing in that sort of sheeeite is beyond ridiculous. The Club need to nip that firmly in the bud straightaway if there isn't some sort of clause in his contract precluding him from certain types of other activity.

Surely top 6 isn't an unrealistic expectation? What's the point in turning out at 3p.m. if that isn't your minimum goal? Mowbray has had 3 transfer windows to make us competitive in that respect and try and have us knocking on the door of top six. You're probably right when you say the squad isn't a top six squad but should that turn out to be the case there's only one person to blame for that, the manager. Recruitment has been generally poor, players haven't been cut loose that should have been cut loose because they were rewarded with unnecessary contract extensions and imo when he has had decent players at his disposal he has either ignored them completely or not got the best out of them, Nyambe, Brereton, Palmer, Rothwell, Chapman etc. Imo there's absolutely no point whatsoever in aiming for for a marginal improvement in last year's 15th position. You might as well have a target of finishing 21st as if you neither go up nor down, positions 7th to 21st are largely irrelevant. Obviously unless we completely imploded it would be unlikely to be held against the manager if we narrowly failed to make the playoffs on goal difference by a point or so. But nevertheless the play offs should be the minimum target before a ball is kicked. There's no point in us being here and you're just fulfilling fixtures otherwise.

Two efforts on target at home isn't acceptable either. The defence has been uncharacteristically stingy the last three games but I wouldn't bank on that continuing and the problem will come when we start letting a few in again. I would say it's fairly obvious we'll get nowhere with Graham up top and Gallagher out wide. Imo the manager will have to try and get a tune out of Dack and one of the strikers other than Graham through the middle and bring in Chapman and/or Rothwell to create some fluency out wide.

Disappointing, typical of us over the last 5-6 seasons really, every time we look like we're getting somewhere we flatter to deceive.

Nice quip by Mowbray but in all seriousness I hope he recognises that he Travis is a proper player who gives the ball away on occasion because he is always available and tries to make things happen as opposed to a fraud like Evans who does the minimum possible and only passes the ball two yards sideways to the nearest player.

Never said Bell is the greatest left back in the world but he's more than decent enough to fill in for a game or two imo. Graham is now completely immobile and somewhat past it. People don't like facing up to the truth because he's been a popular player since he's been here and has done ok here on the whole apart from the season we got relegated. Hopefully though he can provide reasonable back up or a different option for the last 25 mins or half an hour of games although he was very poor when he came on in that role on Tuesday night.

Probably the best business we did over summer was tying Travis down to a new deal. Doesn't mean that much if a really big Club were to come in but at least it prevented him leaving immediately.

He's right though. A draw isn't good enough. We have to win our home games.

We don't have a one in two striker.

Yep we won on Tuesday and played quite well so no need to make wholesale changes to personnel and formations. Bell in for Cunningham, no problem. I really don't think he's as bad as many make out. If it were up to me I'd bring in Nyambe and Chapman in place of Bennett and Gallagher but I'm fairly sure Mowbray won't do that so barring that I'm hoping to see just the one change.

Long way to go before Gallagher comes close to justifying his fee. He hasn't come close to having a sniff on goal yet and if we can win with him running about like a headless chicken on the wing, fair enough, but I can't help thinking we'd be better with an actual winger I.e. Chapman there.

Hoillett did absolutely nothing wrong imo. He wasn't an Allardyce type player and therefore wasn't given a contract or opportunities commensurate with his ability and by the time he came to the fore under Kean (strangely) his contract was running down and he could pick and choose the best offer to go elsewhere. In fact he's the last player Rovers fans should be calling out imo as it was largely down to him we didn't get relegated at the end of Kean's first season in charge. But there's football fans for you I suppose.

Good performance, all the decisions went our way for once, on another night the goal gets chalked off for a foul by Armstrong and Cunningham concedes a pen at the end. However we deserved the win and thought Cunningham Travis and Downing were excellent. What a difference a week makes, seven days ago we were trailing to League 2 Oldham at the end of normal time. What a difference it makes when you can keep clean sheets as well. If Mowbray would just drop Bennett..........

The walking liability Bennett almost costs us another goal. Good save by Walton. Might kick start his career here.

Fine margins at this stage of the season which psychologically could make a huge difference. Win and unbelievably it will have gone from a disaster to a decent start to the season in just three days. Draw and it's a bit of a"'meh" start but we should be clear of the bottom of the table. Lose and we're still down amongst the dead men. Expecting a loss tonight but like I say, one win and the prospects look completely different.

Ridiculous point which demonstrates a willful desire to miss my point and a collective head burying in the sand over Graham's attributes or lack of them. Obviously anyone's penalties count towards their overall tally. But converting a penalty doesn't mean that he's scoring freely or contributing much in terms of overall play. If Lenihan had been allowed to take that penalty would you have made the same assertion that he was in the side and "scoring"? Neither, obviously, does digging up his career stats mean that he is is going to continue scoring at a comparable rate this season given he is visibly becoming more and more static every year. Let's get it right, Mowbray is 100% correct to seek to move away from the long ball up to Graham style of play. DG was only brought in as a bit of an emergency measure after just two games because Gallagher was so dire in the opening games. If Graham can be used sparingly as back up when required then he can still probably be an asset although I still maintain we'll be in serious trouble if he's our main striker over the course of the season. Imo we need one of Brereton, Armstrong or Gallagher to step up this season and as yet there's still precious little sign of that.

He isn't "scoring" as such. He converted a penalty.

I wasn't there Saturday but that's exactly how I view both players. Other than Dack if he hits form, I'm not sure where the goals are going to come from this season.

Vital 3 points which just about keeps our head above water. No goals from open play of our own in 270 mins would be a concern for me but maybe we can kick on from here.

rDon't understand the support for Bennett at all. Nyambe might have had a poor game against Oldham but has been out of the side for quite a while and on previous form is clearly the vastly superior player. However no doubt he'll be dropped today. Bennett had an absolute mare against Charlton and there's no way he should have been picked for the Fulham game but apparently his place wasn't even in question so that just shows the different standards Mowbray applies to certain players. Unfortunately with Bennett at RB we're always likely to ship goals and I don't see it being any different today, especially when the loanee keeper looks like a bit of a doughnut as well. Is this the right time to have the age old debate on whether this is a "must win game" or not? Obviously not must win in that we need the points to stay up but Boro's confidence must be at crisis point with a rookie manager, a terrible start and being dumped out of the Cup by lower league opposition so if we lose today it's hard to see where the first win is going to come from. Or conversely, will the fortunate injury time turnaround against Oldham be Mowbray's "Mark Robbins" moment? As a side note I can't make it today as I'm laid up at home for the next 12 days recovering from emergency eye surgery (cue the obvious jokes) so I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's views who's attending the game.

Give it a rest. The fact you for some reason sit behind Waggott and are on nodding terms with those in authority at the Club doesn't make your opinion any more valid than anyone else's because what Waggott and Mowbray are doing might not be right and, imo, it isn't. If you'd known Iley, Ince, Kean, Berg, Appleton, Bowyer, Lambert, or Coyle, that wouldn't have validated what they were actually doing either. It's only less than a week or so ago you were passing an opinion that if the manager didn't bring in another centre back before the end of the transfer window then the window would be a failure. Instead we lost 2 on the last day. For the second summer running the big money signing again seems to be an absolute flop. But now, because you sit behind these clowns, all seems to be well in your world again. You know as well as I do that unless there is a dire emergency none of those youngsters you list will see the light of day. And in the unlikely event Mowbray does get the sack, it won't be because he's set an "unrealistic" target of top 6. (Which should be every Club's minimum goal really). It will be because we are in danger or returning to League 1. Of which I think there's every chance if Mowbray remains in charge for the majority of the season and isn't replaced.

Depressing to hear. They bloody well should be.

Yet we are.

But is rarely effective in the Championship against better defences.