No I haven't, kids football is not a barometer as to how he would do at senior level. Neither to be honest would National LEague football even if he had scored plenty which obviously he didn't. There is no evidence that he is on the fringes at the moment either, he has to my recollection never made a matchday squad. He may well be talented and have a good career, I have never claimed to be armed with any evidence to suggest that he will or won't. But a bit of logic leans me to the assumption that it would be a hell of a surprise should be be deemed to be ready and able to actively influence a Championship team going for promotion (you believe automatic) based on the level to which he has played to date, including this season. Fair enough if you didn't feel that we needed another attacker. You seem to have the narrow minded opinion that it was Maja/Healey or nobody, and also seem to have assumed that others WILL fill the gap, not might, will, based on the logic that others scored a goal in random selected games during the season. Fair enough, agree to disagree.

I never said that he did. I am sure that the players wanted to play, what I said was that even if they didn't fancy it, the goalkeeping coach wouldn't start blabbing to the fans about that fact! Whether a set of professional footballers who have trained in preparation for a game of football wanted to play or not is irrelevant as to whether the pitch was fit enough to allow them to do that. It was mentioned that there was standing water on the pitch once the snow was cleared! It clearly couldn't drain the water as quickly as was required to make it playable for 3 o clock. There is only one conspiracy here, and it is the one that the referee chose to cancel todays game as a means of gathering attention upon himself. Surely if he wanted attention, he would have played the game even in adverse conditions and would have made the actual bloody game about him in front of thousands of people by making decisions to the contrary of logic. You was at the ground yes. I presume to be able to say without a hint of doubt that the pitch was fit to play, that you went onto the pitch, dropped a ball onto the pitch on the various areas, checked to see if the ball could bounce and move freely etc? Or no, you just got there nice and early and saw the snow being cleared and a couple of keepers doing some catching practice and thought, well I want the game to go ahead and I can see a green pitch and a sun in the sky, game on, surely?! Absolutely laughable now. Simply you are refusing to believe Waggott when he has specifically said (whilst trying to defend them too, tough time in India bla bla bla) that they wouldn't cover the cost. Inject money in to the club to cover losses, they have no choice if they want to keep their business other than offsetting expenses that are higher than income. If he had made such a specific lie, surely they would sack him. These people seemingly were insistent that our manager couldn't have the autonomy to buy and sell players as he sees fit such is their stubbornness/pride. Just accept for once that they are to blame here, they cut corners, they didn't provide funding, now the pitch can't handle adverse weather.

His loan spell does matter yes, it adds a bit of perspective to a player who otherwise only has a 20 minute cameo for us and 3 goalless games at Rochdale in a brief spell as senior experience, 1 goal in 10 at a level 3 divisions below us. Hardly suggests he is ready to boost a team missing its best 2 players and struggling in front of goal but going for promotion to the Premier League! I am unsure why you live in an alternative universe whereby the only signings we could possibly make are Maja and Healey. The latter of whom has only ever been linked in passing and none of us have seen. As I said, I get that we would prefer someone who could play one of the 2 forward roles, someone quick for example, but we needed for me someone more capable of scoring goals than the likes of Gallagher, Khadra, Dolan and Hedges. Was that an easy task finding someone who fits the bill on a minimal budget, obviously not. But for me we still needed one, especially as none of our midfielders have a track record of scoring goals anything other than occasionally, bar Johnson about 10 years ago when he was a totally different player. You are implying that we don't need one because we have Vale who you are pushing for a place in the squad. There is no logic in being content with a young lad with NO evidence that he can hack it at this level at this critical point in time.

Absolute nonsense. The underlying issue is obvious as to the state of our pitch, a continious lack of funding compounded by the failure to revamp it this summer at a fairly reasonable expense not eligible under FFP. Rather than just say, yeah its the owners fault, you desperately try and deflect and speculate however you possibly can. Even if he did say that publically without asking the owners first, which is a totally baseless theory, the fact still remains that the underlying factor is the unwillingness from the owners to spend £2m to upgrade something of critical importance that definitely needed doing. Even their old friend FFP cant be blamed.

Straight forward, yes or no question. Are we weaker without having Ben Brereton available? Is our starting 11 poorer?

Paul Ince? Jesus christ.

I think you are looking a little too much into it. Besides, Brereton doesn't look like he will be back anytime soon and Mowbray has always been keen to stress that Dack won't be fully fit until next year. Ayala wouldn't have played anyway. No, why would I be in my seat nearly an hour before kick off? Ben Benson is not going to come out and say "the players all wanted the game off" is he? And to be honest, I am sure that they would rather have played. Ultimately, thats irrelevant in judging whether the game was fit to play. The problem today was not necessarily the postponement, it was the way that it was done IMO. Should have been done sooner, maybe there was scope for a delayed kick off. Thing is, you may have seen a pitch with no snow on it and with the sun shining, but if there were drainage issues and standing water, then I can understand the decision, and even being sat in your seat watching the keepers do a bit of catching practice, is that enough for you to be in a position to judge either way? Is there going to be absolutely no acknowledgement of the cost cutting from the owners in spite of previous promises in regards to the state of the pitch, or is the sole focus going to be at looking at ways on how Waggott (and at a push if you can involve him, Mowbray) could have fucked it up?

Frank Lampard the "excellent" appointment perhaps with a bit of a hiccup today.

For some perspective, for a team chasing promotion from the Championship to the Premier League, you are entrusting a rookie with about 20 minutes of senior experience who has had a loan spell at Halifax Town in the National League this season where he only scored 1 in 10, yet are in denial that we needed a striker? Let's not pretend that we didn't need a striker. I factor in the fact that to find a striker who could score at a reasonable, competitive rate, to fit within our current formation on a limited budget was a difficult task and seemingly was not helped by rejections in the transfer market. It may have well been that no one was deemed good enough to improve us, and it was impossible to find someone to be as good as Brereton should he become injured, which unfortunately he has. But it was a disappointment that we didn't get anyone in. Let's also not be of the naive assumption that every time a goalscorer is lost, others will naturally fill that void. It isn't impossible, it will happen at times, the Brereton story is a fairly remarkable one though all told. It will not happen every time, and those particular circumstances were fairly unique. Goalscorers cost the most money for a reason. Any team losing their main striker is a huge blow, and one that will weaken them, it would be the same if Fulham lost Mitrovic. If any of the current squad start scoring to 100% compensate for the absence of Brereton, they would be scoring well in excess of what they have proven in their careers to date. To suggest that "we have always found a way" is blatantly untrue, and indeed in half of the games that we have failed to score in, Brereton has been unavailable from the start. No one has really found much of a way as of yet, we have looked toothless in recent weeks. I suspect that any response will be to this that I am being negative, that I need to give Vale a chance or indeed a look back to last summer when Brereton (in fairly unique circumstances) did indeed step up to the mark, something that I have acknowledged CAN happen from time to time, but more often than not, it won't, hence why I and most people do not forsee our remaining players filling that void fully by scoring miles more than they have to date in their careers.

You cannot possibly know that, even if you was sat in your seat ridiculously early. The issue was not snow, it was water. This is from a fans forum from May, this proves that although a total relay was planned, it was the unwillingness of the owners to follow through with that intention due to cost, which was £2m: "TS stated that at the last meeting the club were in the process of tendering for a complete reconstruction of the pitch at Ewood Park. SW added that a preferred supplier had been selected with a budget of close to £2m. Unfortunately, the economic situation in India and the amount of ongoing support the owners had been making through the pandemic meant that they were unwilling to approve the expenditure for a full refurbishment." I know that this doesn't fit your agenda that the owners are changing based on whatever whispers and that Waggott and Mowbray are to blame for everything, but there you go. Black and white.

How is that possibly his fault! The owners offered funding for a totally new pitch, and then ended up not doing that. It is the owners fault, no matter how much you try and deflect.

You do wonder if he will be seen in a Rovers shirt again with only 3 months of the season to go.

The pitch was always likely to deteriorate this season when the owners reneged on their intention to invest in a new pitch last summer, instead trying to do things on the cheap. It wasn't seemingly that the pitch wasn't clear, it was The whole thing should have been handled better, I think it should have been postponed earlier or alternatively perhaps delayed, an inspection 45 minutes prior is not acceptable. But putting it down to the referee wanting to be "centre of attention" is a load of bollocks.

An absolute disgrace between the club and the referee to even have a pitch inspection 45 minutes before kick off, if there is so much doubt the game can go ahead it should have been called off hours before. @only2garners please can you ensure that Waggott is grilled at the upcoming forum. Why was it acceptable to call it off within an hour of kick off, or even have an inspection then? Why wasn't it called off before? Why was the pitch not in a fit state? Hard not to look back to the penny pinching of the owners who had promised a new pitch and reneged on this. An expense not FFP attributable which blows that theory out of the water.

@only2garners can this be highlighted at the fans forum, the club could take it out of the referees hands surely and think about the fans. You cant have a decision 45 minutes before kick off.

That he was staying?

Absolute shambles. If there is such clear doubt it should have been called off before. 45 minutes before kick off would be embarassing and piss poor.

If Brereton is out until April minimum, I cant help but think that our play off chances are quite slim.

Where have these vague timeframes come from? Suspect an ankle injury will be a fair few weeks, but where exactly have these timescales come from? @Mellor Rover @callumrovers Not saying you are wrong.

If he plays, it will be as a wide striker (unless we change formation) as has been the case with our 2 forwards for months, and as was the case when Gallagher got man of the match v Boro.

There is certainly no justification for idiots throwing things, goading or no goading. Samba is a dickhead but throwing missles is not even slightly justifiable. If we was winning our fans would shout things at Samba so in regards to goading and horse play, its give and take, throwing is a different matter altogether.

The top 2 seems a very small possibility, all about securing that top 6 place now which itself is looking more like a possible than a probable. Fingers crossed that we can get back to winning ways tomorrow and have Brereton and Dack back sooner rather than later.

Will be all about money, lets be realistic. They are human beings trying to provide for their family. Like Gallagher, im guessing that Kaminski will be on similar wages to what he was on already, maybe a slight hike, the other 3 are in positions to demand much more than when they signed last time, which is why if we dont go up I imagine all 3 will be off, especially Rothwell and Nyambe.

"Excellent" is premature, nothing to write home about in his 2 managerial jobs so far although he is a media darling.

Definitely a Fulham win for me.