I think the Millwall game was evidence that such a set up could work on occasion, but it is often remembered in isolation when the whole week to which that game started off showed that between the 3, with Dolan central, it is difficult to imagine that such a set up has the goal threat to sustain us for any serious length of time. Good work rate, attitude and energy are good attributes but are not enough to play in the forward line, especially centrally. When Armstrong departs, we need to bring in a central striker to replace him, and whilst it is not realistic to get someone who gets 28 goals, we need someone who can get a decent amount. Going back to that week, we scored 3 goals in 3 games with Brereton and Gallagher flanking Dolan, 2 of which came from having Dack behind those 3 who offers a goal threat not currently in our team without him as well as Armstrong. Initially, that Millwall game was like a breath of fresh air but as the week went on we looked overall rather impotent in front of goal.

I think today was a perfect assignment for Dolan down the middle in that Swansea not only lacked quality but under Russell Martin were always going to try and play it out from the back and they were simply not good enough to do it. I would say going forward this season that Dolan should play more from the sides (quite often as a sub perhaps v tired legs) as over the course of a run of games, he lacks the quality and end product especially with his shooting to score enough goals to justify that central role. He is still very raw but there is definitely something to work with there and he is a nuisance. Armstrong is a natural goalscorer so he would have invariably been in the right places against a poor defence and there was also plenty of space in behind especially on the counter attack in which we repeatedly lacked the quality in front of goal, either the decision making or the shot itself was a little off. I do think that our young team that perhaps isnt the best technically should be geared around its energy and pressing, we do need at least one wide man and a central goalscorer to add to the 3 today though.

It is a conundrum because we lack the depth to make many changes, there are certain players that need to be protected but if we go too weak we face a fairly common first round League Cup embarassment. I would like to go through still and I also think that it is more constructive with the young players to try and play some them with some first teamers to make us competitive in the game and to also allow them to be talked through the game and build an understanding with the first teamers. Kaminski Pike Lenihan Carter Pickering Garrett Davenport Dolan Butterworth Chapman Gallagher (if fit, seemed to overstretch before coming off) Subs: Eastham, Magloire, Brereton, McBride, Buckley, Travis, Cirino Give Ayala the night off to wrap him up in cotton wool. Rothwell had back and hamstring issues according to Mowbray in pre season so give him the night off too. 2 senior debuts with Butterworth making a first ever start and Carter and Chapman also getting a game.

Would you see Dolan primarily as a central player or a wide player? I think he lacks the goalscoring instinct to be playing down the middle in general, at least at this moment in time. Out wide, his pace and trickery (it needs refining as he does too many unnecessary stepovers but that is common with young, raw attacking players) coupled with his enthusiasm will hopefully be a pain in the arse of full backs especially off the bench.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/15805759/wayne-rooney-derby-raid-man-utd-man-city-transfer/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=sunfootballfacebook070821&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1628345097 Seems like Rooney is after some the better loanees from the Manchester clubs. With his connections to United and a guarantee of game time, maybe he will have the edge.

I thought that the service on the concourse's was again piss poor. So slow to the point that even though I went down for a beer a few minutes before half time, with the queue curving past the toilets and going down at a snails pace, I gave up. Custom is being lost. Could beers not be pre-prepared and also perhaps the bottle bars be used again? Could this be something that is raise at the next fans forum please? @only2garners

Presume so yeah, seemingly only kids with the parent club paying the wages. Marco Stiepermann if he is still a free agent would have been decent. Quite an unorthodox attacking midfielder at Norwich in that he is tall and gangly but he can score goals and has experience of promotion. One I wouldnt be surprised to see us look at is Dylan Levitt on loan from United. Welsh international who had an unsuccessful loan spell at Charlton last season before a brief spell abroad, only reason I say it is because he was being linked with us last January in the LT.

I think that it worked today but I think that we need an actual striker who can score goals in that central role, I suspect that if Dolan played as a central striker for 46 games, he would struggle to get 10 goals, hence why he is not playing the full Vardy role. He is still very raw and possibly more often than not suited to being an impact sub. I don't think that Gallagher is a target man either really. Swansea were particularly naive in the way that they play, but more often than not teams will not be quite as stupid. It is ok saying that all of these players should score more but there is no evidence that they will. Rothwell summed up his Rovers career today, fantastic running with the ball yet when it came to the crunch he didnt score. I do agree that we do need more internally, but I don't expect them to suddenly start all scoring more when they havent up until now, so the key is to make sure that not only the striker that we need comes in and can score some goals, but also some of the ones that we bring in also have that ability. I think we need a centre back to compete with the current 2 with Wharton presumably a good couple of months away from first team involvement, and I would keep Carter around until January to cover that too. I think we need a left back to compete and push for that left back position. I think we need at least 2 players in central midfield, one of whom can sit in front of the defence and one who does have an ability to get goals. I think we need at least one if not two wide men who can really give us some quality and again get us some goals. And we definitely need a striker on a permanent basis, Armstrong will be impossible to replace but we need someone up front too. So 6 or 7 I would say, ideally an experienced keeper to be number 2 aswell. I did look at us today and think that we really need some more experience, they can't all be kids as we will struggle to manage games if that is the case. One player that I would love would be Conor Hourihane, he can control games, he can dictate games, he can score goals, he can take set pieces and he is a really good age and would bring consistency and experience to the current group, his finesse next to Travis would be ideal. Sadly, it seems like we are looking at kids only.

Was very good today, although id go for Hanley personally, got the player of the season in his final season here and is now a Premier League defender. Lets hope the 2 today stay fit as its the needed partnership behind a team full of energy but minimal experience.

Brereton left, Dolan central, Gallagher right.

There was one when Butterworth ran down the right and he had a pass on to Davenport, that closed off so he went himself with a weak shot at the keeper then lost it. The ball to Rothwell was excellent as was when he received the ball from Pickering heading a cross away, touched it drove forward and got a Swansea player booked. Makes sense to start him on Tuesday with a thin squad, I would also start Chapman and Carter and wrap the impressive Ayala in cotton wool. It does, but I think with how Swansea played, Armstrong would have had 2 or 3 goals today, so depends what is meant by a better team. Although we do need it wrapping up as it doesnt benefit anyone for it to linger, we need to bring in some players ourselves.

Really enjoyable to be back at Ewood today, it felt like we had never been away, there was a buzz and a good atmosphere and we witnessed a good match and most importantly a win. I will say that Swansea at home is as easy a game as we are likely to face all season. Not only are they massively depleted without Woodman, Guehi, Hourihane, Ayew etc, but they seem to have downgraded in the dug out, Martin seems desperate to play what is nowadays deemed "the right way" to play football, and it played into our hands with their players especially their keepr unable to play from the back, a hungry and vibrant Rovers team had too much. I know it won't be popular but Mowbray deserves credit for his game management today, his choice of midfield wont suit all games but it showed so much energy and he also got his subs right from as weak a bench as I can ever remember, including bringing on Carter, Swansea barely threatened. The one major question is the Dolan central and Gallagher wide right experiment, I still dont agree with it personally but Dolan does press better than anyone else and with him winning the penalty and Gallagher scoring, I suppose you cant argue with it today. My main worry is that the team we put out does not have many goals in it, if we had Armstrong today I think that we could have chalked up a 4 or 5 goal tally as we did last year. Dolan's energy is infectious but he is still so raw and his shooting is particularly weak, he wont score many goals and simply cant be our striker going forward. Brereton and Gallagher both had limited involvements really and Butterworth was bright with a couple of excellent contributions although should have done better on the counter attack. The midfield was very good in the main, Travis was very good, Buckley was superb in the first half (what a ball for the first goal) especially with his pressing yet horrendous in the second, a few "I told you so" type posts on here but simply he has never put in performance levels like that before across a whole game really, lets hope this is his season. Rothwell summed himself up with that miss at the end when a simple square ball seals the win, decision making is often poor, although his ability to drive forward with the ball is really important, overall the three did really well, Davenport was fine when he came on too. Ayala was very good and a contender for man of the match, if only he wasnt injured so often as him and Lenihan are proper defenders, both full backs were fine too, Kaminski made a horrendous error for the goal but made 3 decent saves aside from that.

He repeatedly kept saying about having assets and about the club knowing the ramifications of not extended so why on earth would he not choose to. He shouldnt be here but he is not to blame for the fact that he wont get a penny to replace Armstrong and that the club wont extend contracts that protect themselves in the long run. Hes to blame for a lot of things but not that, Venkys seem to have totally turned off the taps to the point that they will lose assets for free.

I do find it absolutely staggering how little of the blame Venkys are getting for choosing not to fund the extension of a few contracts which in the long run will be massively financially beneficial, as well as not giving the manager even a million or two of any Armstrong proceeds. Warped logic.

I have seen this line a few times today but lets be honest, a lack of communication is hardly the principle criticism that Venkys get. When people do mention the lack of communication, 9 times out of 10 it relates to a lack of apology which still wasn't forthcoming today.

He is answering questions specifically about this transfer window in which he is selling his best player, has released a number of players and is only allowed to bring in kids on loan. He is doing a bit of arse kissing which would be common for someone not wanting to be sacked even if it is a little sick inducing. He is not even moaning about it reallly. Previous windows, he was given a budget by people who deal with the numbers above his head. Did he use that money as effectively and efficiently as he could or should have? No, definitely not. But that bares no relevance to questions specific to a lack of finance at his disposal in this window. He became particularly crabby in interviews with constant excuses which all managers do. Maybe he genuinely doesnt think that hes being a burden or that he can turn it around? I dont think he can or will but he might. Even if he knows that he is a burden, its easy to say it when things are going well, but its hard to just give up a well paid job, I still think "snide, arrogant prick" is a little over the top personally.

Kipre starting tonight for West Brom. Maybe his move will turn out well.

I am excited because I obviously miss going to games, and even 6 months ago this seemed a long, long way away. That being said, the club couldnt have done more to try and dampen my enthusiasm, which it obviously still has to a certain degree.

I'm not sure that rings true once you take Armstrong out of the equation, his goals were what pushed us ahead of the relegation scrap. Elliott is a huge loss too, Harwood Bellis is a big loss, and Holtby/Evans would also play tomorrow, the impact of 4 losses headed by Armstrong and our first 11 is significantly weaker than last years.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-manchester-city-midfielder-smith-agrees-to-join-hull-city/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1628258933 Unsure if this is one of the kids that we were likely to loan but hes gone to Hull. Seems to have some senior experience and I have seen him play for Wales before.

I found both Ince and Coyle to be more dislikeable based on their personality than Mowbray I would say, not that all 3 combined came close to Kean who was something else. And even then, I have always hated Venkys more than even Kean. I don't "hate" Mowbray on a personal level, although like any one who I feel is hindering our club in whatever capacity, I feel a level of resentment towards him simply because him being in his position is not favourable for a club that means so much to me. If Mowbray had gone a year ago, he would have been deemed to have done a fairly good job, the key is as touched on that he has lingered for far too long. It is getting to the point now where he is being blamed for things out of his control, simply because he is a natural target and often the messenger for information via his press conferences, and I totally get the build up of frustration. All managers not doing very well have their reasons and excuses, especially in a time where they are interviewed a million times a season, so I don't really hold his excuses against him, even if I disagree with many of them. Mowbray is a rather dour individual and I remember a few years ago when we had people eulogising over his tales about football in years gone by and even then I thought he was dour and boring to an extent but obviously didn't resent him. I do think that he genuinely is trying his best and he may well think that he can turn it around, and to be honest, would I walk away in his shoes?

@LScotty2706 I think the logic dictates that whilst the trivial issues of occasional communication/attendance may be bickered over, whilst there is an underpinning of negligence and contempt shown towards the club, people may indeed moan.

Mowbray deserves criticism for not spending the budget that he was given anywhere near as efficiently or effectively as he ought to. Those above him, so Waggott, Cheston and mainly the owners deserve the blame for the accounting side of it and any FFP ramifications that may arise.

Do you think that he will be in for surprise? Fans sung his name against Leeds and I could hear them on the stream v Bolton. And them articles (all of which stem from further ownership negligence) have made him more dislikeable than Coyle and Ince?

Season ticket sales yet to hit 6k according to the club.