I actually totally agreed with the sub of Nyambe for Travis, I called it myself as soon as Travis luckily evaded a second yellow. He had no direct replacements on the bench. The problem with that sub is that Nyambe should have started, therefore we would have been bringing on a midfielder. The Dack sub was not an insolated example of Mowbray trying to be clever and it backfiring, it made absolutely no sense to push Bennett into a 10 role, or to take an admittedly quiet Dack off as no matter how quiet he is, hes always our biggest goal threat. Bennett himself played almost in every position today, theres no need to constantly change so much.

Think thats an oversimplification, you dont have to be a particular type of manager to get promotion, you have to have a blend of everything, good players, good man management and be good tactically. One thing you do certainly need is a good solid defensive base. Only 3 teams have conceded more goals than us, that quite simply is nowhere near good enough, or if you are Mowbray, "not a major problem. We have an attacking trio suitable to give us a push for promotion, its just full of sticking plasters and flimsy foundations behind and around them. Spending 7m on a striker who never hardly plays and when he does, never scores, only rubs salt in the wounds when theres an underfunded defensive base supporting our season.

Rubbish, limp performance that essentially ends our season not far into February. We should never sub Dack off when we need a goal unless he is injured, to put Bennett into a 10 position (position 3 of the day) made no sense and added confusion. Found the response to the goal particularly frustrating and disappointing, wheres that spirit when you need it... Raya didnt have that much to do but managed to get in a fumbled cross, tipped a shot going wide back into danger and perhaps could have come for the goal, although I'd have to see it again. Controversial but I thought Williams was pretty good and a marked improvement on Bell, but needs to learn to control his headers at goal better. Bennett was at his best out wide, was totally ineffectual in his brief stint as a 10 (Mowbray takes sole blame for that) but overall had a good game and the most urgency out of anyone. Still insist he is never a right back. That being said, Rodwell was surely the man of the match, reads the game so well and so composed. Mulgrew had to shake off initial rustiness but grew into it and the 2 are for me better than Lenihan, but the only issue is a lack of pace perhaps. Reed was ok but Travis had his poorest game was lucky to stay on the pitch, Smallwood was better but I would like to see Travis continue in there, I think it is clear that it has to be Evans OR Smallwood, that being said Reed and Evans may be an option with Bennett moving wide. Our attacking trio were all subdued but starved of service, that being said the drop off in quality beyond them means that they have to stay on wherever possible. The signing of Brereton is highlighted as a poor one whether he comes on or not. The game is on a knife edge, we need a goal, our 7m striker gathers dust. If he is not rated higher than Nuttall then there is something wrong, as he is crap. Thought the best sub by far was Kasey Palmer, a talent mis-used here but one far better than Rothwell and co.

Platt has gone to Southport so seemingly nowhere near ready for our first team.

You continuously seem to miss the fact that not everyone is a diehard fan with Rovers as top priority, as @Mattyblue mentions. Those who the club matters most to have already got tickets so their attendance is irrelevant. You also seem to take this fact as an insult towards Mowbray and the team. The club can either do one of 2 things. Embrace the fact that there are different types of fans, some of whom dont consider Rovers to be a top priority, accept that it will be more difficult to get them through the turnstiles and do its best to go out of its way with clever deals and policies to get them in regardless. Or stick its nose up at those who arent "true fans" in their eyes, attach the blame onto them and settle for the diehards who will go regardless.

Such a mentality cannot come in before we are mathematically safe AND mathematically out of the play off hunt, if that happens. Many have mentioned planning for next season but that cannot come close to being the primary objective this season until the play offs is no longer possible, even though that would be considered over-achievement, there is no point capping your potential finish at where you expected to finish prior to the season starting. Take Platt for instance, possibly as a sub today purely due to lack of cover at centre back yes. But lets not forget that this is a player who could not get on Stanleys bench earlier in the season. Is he a player that is ready to come into our first team at this moment in time? I would suggest not. We have a team with plenty of younger players around it, Raya, Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis, Armstrong and Dack all regular starters, Nuttall, Rothwell and Brereton all regulars in the squad, and Chapman and Davenport will presumably be around the 18 when deemed fit enough. That being said, you can never have enough young, talented players and I would definitely be open to seeing one or two (5 seems a bit much all at once) but only if them individuals are deemed ready to be involved, regardless of their position. Take Travis, if we wanted to cherry pick a position for a player to come through, it wouldnt have been in central midfield. That being said, his individual quality and readiness forced his way into the team.

Obviously not. I was testing your "promotion was our aim" mentality which implies thats all that mattered was promotion. That had already been achieved but there was no reason to not give 100% and do our utmost to win the league, rather than play down its importance. You mention injuries which is very much clutching at straws, but if ever there was a time to get injuries that was less critical, it was surely 3 months before the new season starts. You also keep reiterating how close the game was at Charlton. For me that suggests that you think people were annoyed at not winning the league, when they were annoyed at Mowbray not being bothered about winning the league. Big difference.

Not the words of a man who has the opinion of the club that you suggest!

Neither would I. I am not unhappy that we didnt win League 1, it is that Mowbray didnt seem bothered about it. Promotion was the primary and most obvious goal yes, it had already been achieved therefore was irrelevant at that point. Taking it to the extreme, if we had reached the FA Cup final last season, promotion already secured, so Mowbray said to our best players, you go on holiday and played a weak team and said in the media that it wasnt that important. Would you still agree? Surely promotion was the goal, right?

I dont know what counts officially as a long pass, as @perthblue02 said they are from whoscored. I can see using my own eyes that we do tend to play plenty of long balls, we are a very direct side. And for such a defender of Mowbray, I find your obsession with style a bit strange when ours is hardly free flowing football. As well as your obsession of the opinions of other fans opinions, for example Ipswich fans biased views against McCarthy has shown that fans arent always right. Pulis isnt my favourite manager and he is overly defensive to the detriment of his own team at times IMO but his defensive record is excellent and chalk and cheese with ours under Mowbray. Not sure why you are using our Brentford stats. We lost 5-2!

You clearly are missing the point. Quotes pre game and the team selection are what riled me and many other fans. Not that we lost to Charlton. It doesnt in anyway take anything from the achievement or joy of getting promotion. You mention Souness. The reason people are annoyed is not because we didnt win the league. Its because our manager didnt see it as important once promotion was already secured, in a nothing to lose and everything to gain situation. I paid good money to go to Charlton as did many and whilst it was a promotion party it did take the shine off it that day, knowing Mowbray wasnt arsed about a potential league title. To surrender is defined as "to give up or hand over" which with Mowbray saying “The other one will also be in the same league next year and in a year’s time no-one will remember who finished first or second" accompanied with his team selection, I perceived him of doing. He also said "“Now this job has been done they probably won’t play which you will see tomorrow who’s not going to play" he said “I don’t want them to miss their whole summer of rest by having to come in for treatment." Not the words of someone who was desperate to win a league title.

The point is that the main objective is and has always been to win. If Pulis gets Boro up then no matter how he does it, hes done the job he set out to do.

Since when did we become a club who sticks its nose up at any title? Any league title is worth winning. Especially when the alternative is 2nd.

Agreed. We do have intermittent spells like v Hull first half were we play entertaining football and we do have a couple of entertaining individuals but weve played the second most long balls (Lambert has overtaken us for that at Ipswich) in the league and play the percentages.

Quite right. If hes fit he has to play. Rumours of his demise are very premature, contrary to chaddys insistence he has proven that he can play 3 times a week this season and that he is right with what he said earlier in the season: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16999726.rovers-striker-danny-graham-on-playing-three-games-a-week/ Have to play our strongest possible team on Saturday. The drop in quality beyond our first 11 is alarmingly noticeable. If Graham and Dack both do miss out, the potential selection of Brereton will be interesting. If he cannot get into a team missing both of our main attackers, plus Chapman, further questions will be asked.

What are you on about? @Ewood Ace was the one who was rubbishing your suggestion that a key player should only be a sub even if he has recovered from injury. Reducing our chance of winning. What has faith in Mowbray got to do with anything?

If his back injury means he cannot play then he cannot play. His actual fitness levels aside from this injury seem very high indeed. His fitness has not been an issue playing game in game out with consistently high performance levels. You keep peddling this myth that he cannot play 3 games in a week. He has proven this season that he can. And if hes fit enough hes first name on the team sheet.

I said if he is fit. He has played 3 games in 9 games before and describes himself as being as fit as hes been at Rovers. If he isnt fit id play Rothwell left and Armstrong with Dack.

Surely its illogical to leave out our (IMO) best player of the season, someone who scored again last week, in such an important game for a player yet to score for us?

He did score 2 crucial goals to get a win away at West Brom at the weekend.

Even if Graham is fit?

Raya Nyambe Rodwell Mulgrew Williams Travis Evans Reed Dack Armstrong Graham Plenty of ifs and buts with that team. If Evans is injured, Smallwood in. If Travis is injured, Bennett in wide with Reed inside. If either of the front 2 is injured, Rothwell wide, Armstrong moved inside. Hopefully at least one of them are fit, especially with Chapman out.

Isnt that normal though? Wouldnt you rather win the Premier League with Rovers than with Newcastle, to spin it?

Hurst got 9 points from 15 and Lambert has exactly the same. Plus throw in cup embarassment at Accrington Stanley. You can dress it up how you want but in black and white hes not remotely improved at all upon the results of Hurst who was sacked for the same set of results. Lambert is lucky not to be under serious risk himself. With the same group of players (plus now some of his own players) he hasnt improved at all. Harrison and Jackson are not Championship players but scored a fair few in Leagues 1 and 2, and Will Keane is just as bad if not worse, so what benefit is there to loan him in and play him instead? Nsiala and especially Nolan were 2 star performers in League 1 last year, and Edwards was excellent at Peterborough, surely they should be played with an eye on next season? He signed Callum Elder on loan who showed how bad he was at Ewood, but he has in the main blocked the progress of Kenlock in the team. Pointless signing. As @DE. correctly points out, hes saying one thing and doing another, and playing Judge wide is senseless. Part of your argument defending Lambert is that he is or needs to plan for next season. With a lorry load of short term deals he is clearly not doing that. Your own personal high opinion of Paul Lambert the person is clouding your judgement as to how bad he is as a manager.

He doesnt have a story.