That didnt lead to a goal, but he played an absolutely superb reverse pass near the end from the left hand side that we should have scored from.

Thought it was a poor performance and a stark reminder that amidst 12m worth of strikers, the most effective is the 34 year old written off by many. Dack changed the game when he came on, his link up with Graham is critical when Mowbray hasnt come close to finding another reliable source of goals regardless of the money hes thrown down the drain. Brereton on the other hand had an absolute shocker. Failing to score from 3 guilt edge chances, 2 of which he failed to even make close to proper contact with. Also when he was put through Downing offered a glimpse of quality and a great strike, but cannot play right wing. Chapman and Rothwell offered a new sense of pace and energy even if their end product was mixed, we looked more dangerous with them on. Cunningham was steady enough, Nyambe lacking confidence which is unsurprising. Evans and Smallwood not up to it, again. Didnt think it was a good night for our academy players either, none suggested that they are close to the first team. The 2 centre backs are nowhere near, obviously Platt couldnt get on Stanleys defence and Grayson was no better. On a night when Mowbray said that Tosin is also a doubt for Saturday, leaving us with only Williams, the grimly predictable eventually of not having enough CBs could come into play in the third league game which is embarassing for the manager. People rave about Buckleys talent but every time I see him he looks a million miles away. So soft and flimsy and ultimately totally ineffectual and lucky to last the game.

Its definitely not abysmal but somewhat uninspiring would be a fairer description. His good work was done in League 1. His first season, he came in with the (very difficult) remit of keeping us up. Survival was success and relegation was failure, even though when it comes to apportioning blame obviously Coyle takes far, far, far more. It was of no consolation that we displayed x form so ultimately it was a failed season albeit as mentioned a tremendously difficult task to begin with. He took over with us 23rd in the table, three points from safety with 15 games remaining this season so it wasnt mission impossible. The form certainly wasnt top 6 form either, that it "would have had us 10th over the course of a season" rings a bell but ultimately its impossible to make such statements as we were facing many teams with nothing to play for. You cant take 2 months of the season out and then say we were a top half team without those squad depth issues. They were as self inflicted as say the Dack signing, and you couldnt say we would have come close to or even have gone down had Mowbray not signed him either, as that wouldnt be fair, Mowbray chose to spend 7m on a sub and not improve our defence, likewise he was responsible for signing Dack. Last seasons finish was ok, not great but not disastrous, comfortable survival.

Please do explain?

One of my main points about whether the striking ranks needed to be improved or not is regarding the actual quality of strikers. I dont think either Gallagher or Brereton would get in many if any other Championship sides, nor am I convinced about their potential to make us a profit in the future. Whilst I maintain that we certainlt didnt need both ahead of a defender or 2, even with both we seem short of quality up top. 12m down, thats not good enough. There arent "simple fixes" thats why different qualities of managers tend to improve their respective teams to varying degrees but thats not an excuse, managers are judged on their abilities to develop their teams and the results that follow. And going back to League 1 windows, his best signing came in one of them. To have 3 centre backs and one right back in the squad is unexplainable. You mention signing wingers, hes signed 2, one whose age and loss of pace has made him more of a utility man, and the other is nowhere to be seen.

The way he inherited the club is not really an excuse that justifies the shape of his squad after spending over 15m over the space of 5 windows. You touch on the centre backs issue, it is criminal that firstly we had last summer, where he got Rodwell as our third centre back, obviously that backfired, but hes had 2 summers since to fix it and add quality and depth to that position, hes simply not done that. Lenihan is injury prone so we are left with 2 centre backs backed up by a kid who couldnt get on Stanleys bench, and another who has made 8 senior appearances, all in League 2. But its not just that, we are imbalanced throughout. Right back, blind loyalty to a poor midfielder playing there, with only one natural RB on the books. Out wide, plenty of strikers shoehorned there and unable to make an impact there. And £12m on 2 number 9's who have not suggested that they are a patch on our veteran.

Its not just clicked now 7 years in, he got his style implemented very quickly and has been very consistent with it, as has been the effectiveness with it. I posted my views above in a long post on how imbalanced we are, 3 centre backs continuously leaking goals, ineffective wide forwards and 12m on strikers for whom goalscoring is alien. Dyche has a role for everyone and everyone knows what they are doing, as has been the case throughout.

To be fair, Dyche has a squad that he has built that doesnt have the same imbalance to it that for example ours does. Every piece fits the puzzle.

I had a quick think back over Mowbrays overall time here. Firstly, he was brought in to perform an admittedly difficult task of survival. No matter how thats dressed up, he failed, often failing to turn draws into wins etc, and coming up short. Early the season after, he had the first of for me his 2 major rough patches that he has experienced. Even though he was lucky when we went down that much of the crap that he was lumbered with, Lowe, Akpan, Greer, Brown etc were out of contract, he has only had one window and there was still lingering shite (a couple of whom he added himself) in the squad, and he was struggling to develop any sort of identity. He quickly settled on being quite direct, Graham improved us no end, him and Dack fired us to promotion and Mowbray deserved the adulation. Last seasons dodgy patch was much more prolonged and, in terms of the manager, much more self-inflicted. He had failed to bring in any defenders, we were heavily reliant on a rash injury prone CB (and still are, his sole injury has left us with 2 options) and a liability in Mulgrew. All the money was tied up on a striker who looked out of his depth, often stuck wide with his only goal coming as a central striker. He publically admitted his faults and insisted to fans that "defenders were coming" so off the back of a season that had highlighted an incredibly troublesome achilles heel but ultimately was far from disastrous, he had the platform to right his previous wrongs and fix what he acknowledged was our major reason. I think one thing that is clear is that we have never had an exciting brand of football in terms of pretty passing under Mowbray. Not that its essential I must add. Even in our promotion season, we rarely blew teams away, we were quite attritional but it ultimately gave us a platform for our better players who were a class above the poor standard in League 1, and worked very well. Last season was as bad in terms of entertainment as I can remember in recent memory, but it was less effective at a higher level. @chaddyrovers I dont understand why you turn your nose up at "boring" football, if that was number 1 priority then Mowbray would have been potted long ago. However, its the effectiveness that counts because fans criticise "boring" football only if it doesnt yield results. If we bored ourselves into the top 6 and went up no one would complain at all. But you just look, 5 windows in at very much his squad and how imbalanced it is and that far down the line it really is inexcusable. The main 2 problems, a big money non-scoring striker and a dearth of quality and quantity in defence, have both been doubly compounded this summer. Gallagher never convinced me, we was told this is Breretons break through season, but in both games so far, he was left sat on the bench in game 1, and yesterday, again Mowbray hasnt learnt that he cannot play wide. I still think Graham should be first choice, but you cant really have 12m worth of strikers (the jury is massively out on both) sat on the bench so I think he likes to try and shoehorn them in to the detriment of the team. He has signed 2 wingers, one of whom is seemingly too old, the other has pace and spreads the play but for some unknown reason is nowhere near even the bench. Whereas Armstrong has a free pass despite regularly underperforming. Defensively, Tosin and Cunningham have the potential to really improve the defence, but theres simply not enough in the way of options. One injury in that position and we have a kid on the bench who couldnt get into Stanleys squad last season. Meanwhile, Bennett continues to monopolise the RB position, and again yesterday was responsible for a goal conceded. Will he start v Boro? You bet he will. Raya was a constant liability last season, have we improved on him? Seems not. The question you ask is, are we progressing or stagnating?

Saw only the second half but the same meaningless attacks conjuring up absolutely nothing meaningful and questions all over the pitch. Walton is a bag of nerves in net, rooted to his line at crosses. The defensive situation is unforgivably negligent. Lenihan with yet another injury and we are left with 2 centre backs (who looked ok but concentration is a constant issue regardless of personnel) backed up by a kid who couldnt get on the bench at Stanley. Full backs useless, Bell hasnt got a brain and Bennett at fault for yet another goal. Need Cunningham and Nyambe in right away. Thought Johnson was as bad today as he was impressive last week. The wide area is a dilemma in itself. Why is Chapman so far away from the squad? What is Mowbrays obsession with strikers who cannot play wide being stuck there? Armstrong is a constant but again he was really ineffective. The striking situation is a joke, 12m for 2 non scoring strikers. Gallagher incredibly ineffective yet again. Subs a major problem again, we was left with an imbalanced mess that offered nothing by way of a late goal.

Overall, has to be considered a failure. The primary objective was to fix the defence and we lack both quality and quantity there even after the window. In goal, underwhelming. Sold a prospect who always made me feel nervous, replaced him with what seems to be a very similar keeper with the same flaws on a temporary deal. Defence, left back was a big area that needed improving so I am delighted with the Cunningham deal and wish it was permanent. Centre back, we are horribly light, with the rash Lenihan, very average Williams and Adarabioyo who has very minimal first team CB experience as our only 3 options. He for me doesnt fit the remit of what we needed from a centre back. Right back has been neglected due to the managers total blind spot towards a player who is neither a right back nor Championship quality, but will now be captain. Johnson is a huge boost in midfield, very impressed by that signing although Reed will be a huge loss. Downing is a very underwhelming signing and I feel his arrival is going to halt a key player in Rothwell in his tracks. My main gripe with Gallagher is his price tag but hes not a player I particularly rate anyway and hes a lazy and average addition for a big fee. Allocation of money is a concern too, firstly Waggott was proved to be talking shite when saying we had a similar budget to last year. The defensive signings are short term sticky plasters and the only long term deal was for a player who I dont rate and one where we already have a supposed prospect thats going to break through this season. Either 3 or 4 out of 10 for me.

So you would be happy with them as the only choices we have? Nyambe cant play CB because if he does we dont have any other right backs. We lack quality and quantity.

I agree that he has gone, but out of interest, would you be happy with only Lenihan, Adarabioyo and Williams as CB options, and only one right back?

Dack scored I think more than any midfielder in the league despite playing for the 15th best side who played monotonous football. Safe to say that our best player is the least of our worries.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17676487.rovers-chief-executive-on-budget-talks-with-owners-venkys/ Still waiting on evidence that we have a similar budget. Spent about 1.5m net and theres no way (after signing 2 less players) the difference of 8.5m has been swallowed by wages. Why make these comments if theres no substance to them, just admit if the budget is less.

We must have been watching a different Bell, I certainly wouldnt say he is pretty good on the ball!

The priority for me has to be LB. Id much rather have someone like Cunningham at LB with Tosin or Williams partnering Lenihan than Bell playing. Cant see him asking for stupid wages considering hes been out of a job for over a month and the season has started.

We conceded 69 goals last year. QPR conceded 71. Is Lynch in for talks then?

If as Waggotts comments suggest we are not going to further improve the defence after signing a kid with minimal experience at CB at professional level, and a keeper who doesnt seem to be an upgrade, both on loan, then for me that is the final straw in terms of having faith in Mowbray for all the good he has undoubtedly done in pushing us forward, because we quite simply wont get near the targets he has set with this defence. And theres no excuse, whether individual targets have got away or whatever, when hes not spent a penny in fees on the defence seen we came up, but has spent 14m on attackers. Hes also gone back on a promise he made when he was far from ambigious in stating that our defenders were not good enough. Waggott himself also has a lot to answer for. He quite clearly said we have a similar budget and unless his comments in the LT today are a smokescreen that was a total lie. We signed 2 loan deals this season and last season, all from Prem clubs that you cant imagine there being a huge difference in between, and weve spent around 1.5m net this year and 10m last year. Without factoring in senior pros like Conway, Raya and Rodwell leaving, theres no way that surplus has all been eaten up by the difference between this years permanent signings wages (Gallagher, Johnson and Downing) and last years. (Brereton, Armstrong, Davenport, Rothwell and Rodwell) If we have very little budget pre sales then just say that rather than lieing.

Been plenty of players that have moved that would have improved us at CB. Pinnock, Lindsay, Jansson, Kalas, Bauer, Barbet, Elphick, Clarke, Flint and Morrison to name 10. Maybe some are unrealistic, not all 10. Bidwell at LB too. Still players out there if we have the money as Waggott and Mowbray would have us believe, Hector, McKenna, Cooper, Olsson, Clark, Max Lowe, Curtis Davies etc. No excuses.

Excuses may well be valid about one potential target to be fair, but certainly not over a continued inability to improve the defence over a length of time, when weve spent 14m on strikers in that time. I suspect that if Mowbray doesnt bring in a left back and centre back before the deadline then hes essentially writing his own death warrant as we wont get anywhere near the top 6 that he and the team have repeatedly publically stated is the aim.

Wheres that from? Hope not.

I think our fans seemingly grossly underestimate how much we will miss Dack. Hes a constant source of goals and assists. Our best player. A left back meanwhile has to be number 1 priority.

Bennett lost his head once he lost the ball and charged right across to the left hand side. Had he ran back into his position rather than chase the ball like a dog bounding after a tennis ball, their left wing back wouldnt have been totally unmarked.

As bad as Bennett at full back for me without the excuse of being out of position to compensate. They are both incompetent in totally different ways. Bell is cowardly and flimsy, and also slow of mind and dimwitted. Bennett is all action, but rash, positionally negligent and ultimately tries to disguise his tactical inability by sliding in everywhere to show himself as committed.