This formation/system is a new one... I always moan that too much is expected of our full backs... well, today they seem expected to cover the centre back position, as well as full back and the wing... despite Bennett and Reed seemingly being deployed as wing backs? Don’t think this is gonna take off! if we switched to a proper flat back 4, I think we will be pretty comfortable. Despite scoring two Newcastle are pretty dire! Only looked dangerous due to this silly system.

Yep. And it’s time he showed something.

Not a strong Newcastle line up. Should have a real chance to progress here. Feels a bit like last chance saloon for Brereton here... a performance could kick start his Rovers career, a bad un could pretty much resign him to the outer fringes for the season.

Loyalty is all well and good, until it becomes sentimental and detrimental. Look at what happened when we made it to the Premier league first season. Speedie and Sellars went straight away... not to mention Garner. Price hardly got a kick, and Wright was soon upgraded. Kenny recognised the need to continuously improve, later Harford showed too much loyalty. A couple of decent loans coming in will help us stand still. If there is a genuine desire for us to kick on, we need some players who will come in and contribute regularly. I suspect there are some pretty stringent financial constraints imposed by Venky’s, and there isn’t much that would convince me Brereton was their man, but as well as this Mowbray seems to not want rock the boat. If I were Rodwell I’d not be best pleased with those comments.

Watched the first hour or so, listened to 20 odd minutes on Radio Lancs. still 0-0 at this point. By the time I got from the car and got my phone out I had a message to tell me it was 2-0! What I did see was pretty shocking stuff. I often think we as supporters have more faith in the players ability than Mowbray does. We Didn’t look like scoring, lacked any ingenuity in the final third, and at times seemed fearful of putting a ball into the box. It wasn’t patient build up stuff, it looked more bereft of ideas... or players being way too cautious. We are crying out for some effective wide players to help offer an attacking threat as well as protecting the full backs adequately, and just giving us a bit of balance. At the start of the game I’d have said a centre half too, but Lenihan and Rodwell were a pleasant surprise today. Wouldn’t say no to bringing in that big lad they had at the back (although for all I know he might have cost them two goals!) Thought Nuttall put a real shift in... something Brereton has failed to do in any of his appearances, even when we’ve been crying out for it. Yes, he might lack a bit of quality, but a bit of hard graft can go a long way. I can see the great Brereton debate becoming the great Brereton v Nuttall debate. Like our own localised version of Brexit!

Don’t forget he’s been mentioned to Venky’s before... except they thought sending one of their trusted chicken factory workers to tap Raul up instead. It’s a funny one this window. I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up significantly weaker at the end of it, ie. Dack-less. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if they spent like drunken sailors either... Still not overly convinced our set up and transfer policy is going to provide us with what we need on the pitch... and from what he’s said in interviews, I’m not sure Mowbray is either.

If they were saying what I think they were, it may have something to do with some snapchat messages he allegedly sent

Again, can we PLEASE not try to find an individual to blame/scapegoat for this debacle. Putting it down to individual errors trivialises some very serious problems. As a team, we piss away points with an alarming number of late goals. If you are desperate to lay the blame at the door of a single party, look no further than Venky’s. In their entire wretched tenure, how many defenders have the sanctioned the purchase of for anything above a nominal fee of a couple of hundred grand??? The answer is ONE. Scott Dann in the very silly early days. Since then we have recouped tens of millions from the likes of Jones, Samba, Hanley, Duffy... and kicked to the curb players like Salgado and Givet. They won’t sanction spending on defenders, but they will happily impose a £7 million striker/winger/teenager on a manager who clearly doesn’t want him. All this despite our frailties at the back being blindingly obvious for all to see. If only that fat idiot had bought a copy of football manager instead of our football club.

I’d bet a significant sum of money that the first sub we see will be Smallwood.

Agree. And boy do we ask a lot of our full backs! Armstrong cut inside well and had a decent shot in the first couple of minutes... might as well have subbed him off after that. Their right back had him in his pocket from then on, and just comfortably didn’t let him cut in again. I thought Reed had a good game, and once again all his good work is done when drifting in the middle of the pitch rather than wide areas. I think we are absolutely wasting him not playing him in the centre. He is always an outlet there, unlike Evans or Smallwood. He certainly more than matches the two of them with work rate and ball winning as well. So we are left with two full backs, expected to bomb up and down the wing all game. when we did actually attack with some width we looked dangerous. Nyambe in particular got in some good positions, but we often lack a target for them in the box with Graham busy doing a lot of his good work deeper. They are always doubled up on when either attacking or defending and proper wide players would help them no end at both ends of the pitch.

Can we stop trying to pinpoint one player as the reason we dropped points yesterday. Blaming ‘individual errors’ is a lazy excuse used by managers and fans and spectators lap it up. If you have a look on any Birmingham message board, I expect there is quite a bit of talk about how they gave themselves a mountain to climb thanks to their centre half losing Graham, and there full back letting Armstrong get away from him and then ball watching. Fact of the matter is we are struggling to see games out. It’s becoming a pattern. It’s not Brereton or Raya’s fault - we need to be better collectively over 90 minutes. The system we employ plays to the strengths of Graham and Dack to the extent where we rely on them very heavily. It seems to, in Mowbray’s mind at least, necessitate playing Evans and Smallwood, both of whom I believe we have better options than but we end up playing better players out of position. It exposes our full backs to be doubled up on, and restricts the amount of balls we put into the box from wide positions. We do tend to look lost without Graham on the pitch, and if/when Dack goes, Mowbray may well have to have a rethink.

Bit of a debacle today. While it’s seemingly the done thing to try and identify a scapegoat (Raya would easily take that crown today), doing so means we don’t address the bigger issues. Our defence isn’t good enough at the moment. We have no strength in depth or competition for places, aside from our interchangeable left backs. If we get an injury it usually means a midfielder will be played out of position. Our centre backs are more renowned for their ball playing ability then their defensive attributes. We need a proper old fashioned centre back, no frills, just defends. Thing is it was blindingly obvious we needed to strengthen in this area - but when have Venky’s ever sanctioned spending on defenders? Only Scott Dann during those silly early days springs to mind. Everyone else has cost nothing/next to nothing. I heard something when Anderson’s nose was still firmly in the trough, that they wouldn’t be heavily investing in defensive players because you could get a better return on exciting, attacking players. Obviously I’m paraphrasing, and no doubt many will shoot this down as conspiracy theory... but we have raked in huge fees from defenders and never adequately reinvested in that area. The Evans and Smallwood partnership isn’t good enough. We have far better options. Reed did more in central midfield today than the two of them, despite being played on the wing. Our full backs don’t get anywhere near enough protection, especially when Armstrong is on the pitch. Graham is quality. His movement for his goal was top drawer. Sadly we create so little for him... look what happens with a dangerous ball into the box. We have an unusually wide pitch, and it’s no coincidence that we’ve always done well when we have good wingers over the years. We are far too narrow now.

I think the key bit in the poll question is ‘If Venky’s were to apologise’... Never going to happen. They would rather piss away tens of millions of pounds than apologise and admit mistakes. Their ludicrous superiority complex, total lack of humility and complete stubborn arrogance makes it unlikely I’ll ever get close to forgiving them.

I hope for his mother’s sake Balaji’s son was the product of a virgin birth!

“They are bankrolling the club” ”We were a heavy loss making company before they came along” ”They were as much of a victim as the fans” ”They weren’t even responsible for appointing Coyle” ”If they are engaged with the club it will be better for everyone” ”They have already apologised on the pitch before a game” “The club aren’t in any debt” ”If you made one mistake should you not be allowed to move on from it?” ”If the Venky’s out brigade got what they wanted we’d be doing a Bolton” “Their one mistake was listening to people who didn’t have the clubs best interest at heart” ”They came with good intentions and were thoroughly used and abused” ”They paid for a church roof” ”They have got us to where we want to be” “They have earned a chance from all” “They should be made welcome” I’ve clearly somehow found myself in an alternate universe!

And I’d argue that the improvements are in spite of them, not because of them. Nobody will ever know if Pascha is a shadow director, a trusted advisor or a glorified tea boy. Hopefully the latter.

I’d say the events of the last 18 months - 2 years proves the exact opposite to be the case. The one constant in our upturn in fortunes is a complete absence of Venky’s.

Definitely testing the water. The majority of Rovers “Twitter family” appear to want Venky’s back at Ewood and would welcome them warmly... I just can’t get my head around it!

The whole team spirit thing is interesting... It was easy to buy into last season, and up until fairly recently with Smallwood sticking the gloves on and such like. But all of a sudden questions are being raised about the character of the players. A few weeks ago it would have been unthinkable that there would be criticisms of this nature after games against Preston and Wigan. Its worth remembering that the senior pros in the squad (Mulgrew, Bennett, Graham, Conway, Williams, Evans) were there when we pathetically slipped into the third tier. At the time I wouldn’t have been overly bothered had any of them been shipped out. Mowbray appeared to add what he refers to as players with the right mentality, and we had a great season. All the aforementioned got a free pass for the prior season. Clearly additions to the squad like Dack are big personalities, but I think there has been a tendency (fuelled in no small part by a well orchestrated Twitter love in) to mistake a bunch of players who get on well, have a laugh, and who thoroughly enjoyed the plaudits their relative success brought, with players who have a genuine affinity for the club, or even enough strength of character to do what’s required when the going gets tough. Who in that dressing room is going to bollock his team mates? Who’s going to reign in a player and ground him if his head is turned?

The worry for me is I don’t think Mowbray can change much, and I don’t think he really has any desire to. Defence lacks quality and depth. Everyone knows we needed a centre half in the summer. The cynic in me would suggest Venky’s won’t stump up anything more than a nominal fee for players in this position. Mowbray persists with Smallwood, and shows every sign of continuing to do so. He’d be 5th choice in that position for me at best. We don’t play with wingers, we play random players nearly on the wing, who drift inside, don’t help the fullbacks and create sod all. There is clearly more than meets the eye going on with Brereton. Conspiracy theory maybe, but there is no logical reason for him not coming on at half time. Can’t be attributed to a change of system, you’d make a double sub. Clearly Mowbray doesn’t fancy or trust him, questions need to be asked if he wanted him in the first place.

I’ve got no real understanding of the ins and outs of it, just going off what I was told by someone at the club a number of years ago. I’d guess that the gaps between the corners in the other parts of the ground are too small to allow emergency vehicles the requisite access.

There is, or certainly was, a model showing Jacks reimagined view of the Riverside in the Ewood boardroom. Plans were approved but shelved due to relegation. With regards to the walkway at the front of the Riverside, there is presently nothing we can do about it. This is the grounds access point for emergency vehicles. There has to be room for fire engines to do their stuff in case of an emergency. They’d have to do something to ensure this access still remained as part of any renovation. I don’t recall what this looks like on the plans from the late 90s. Personally I love the Riverside how it is, and I think I can safely say most of the other fans who sit in there feel the same. The obstructed view is not a factor, just a slight head movement required, and I’d take an obstructed side on view over a behind the goal view all day long. Nothing wrong with the toilets, and there is also the concourse and food/drink outlets in the rear of the stand.

Basically that Venky’s should stay away and leave the running of the club to the people sat there.

To summarise... Fans are viewed as customers by the board. The players do seem to appreciate them though. No interest in improving relations with fans unless there is money in it. Everyone hopes we can keep hold of Dack. I’m really glad Fish said what he did, and I hope it’s taken on board. Despite all on the top table towing the Venky line, it’s very clear our owners just don’t get it. They never will, and for that reason re-engaging a lot of the fan base will by nigh on impossible.

I decided I was boycotting in the middle of the 2014-15 season. Had a season ticket but stopped going. I’ve been on quite a few games since then, but usually when someone had a spare. I have only bought a ticket 2 or 3 times since. My hatred of Venky’s remains, and at the start of this season I felt quite torn as to whether or not I should get a season ticket this year. My stance against the owners meant, as futile as it may seem, that I didn’t want to buy one. All the while I felt I was cutting my nose off to spite my face, particularly as I’d go with my Dad and Brother, which I miss. I’m really happy with the players and management, and want to support them. But there is the Venky’s cloud. I still care a lot, but truthfully I’m out of the habit. I do miss going, but I don’t feel the way I used to about it. It was for a long time what my week was all about. I used to attend more regularly when I was living and working in Holland than I do now. What would entice me back? Well Venkys are going nowhere soon, but the following would help: Take down the Venky’s advertising hoardings. Seriously. That’s one of my major gripes. They piss me off to what many would deem an irrational level. Improve the pre game experience. I get that the club has to cater to the masses, but some rubbish karaoke singer in the “fanzone” isn’t my cup of tea. Just play some decent music over a properly functioning tannoy. Man Utd tweet out a playlist before games. Rovervision effectively killing off Radio Rovers spoilt the pre game experience for me. Hate when they show early kick off games on the big screen. Again this might sound petty, but I’d see it as a change and it would peak my interest in going. I used to like the pubs round Ewood, many of which are gone. Safe standing would bring me back immediately. I am firmly in the AMF camp, and I have a tendency to get misty eyed about how it used to be going on Ewood. Maybe I need to “reconnect”. As someone who, depending on how you view it, is either very sceptical or bashes the club at any opportunity, I have to say that the cost is not a factor. I’ve managed to have a ST during periods where I’ve been in pretty serious financial difficulty. And we offer a very fair deal, particularly on season tickets. The surcharge makes sense to me and would not factor at all in my decision making. If I’m able/organised/not too lazy I can save a couple of quid. If not, no big deal. In all honesty, if I bit the bullet and started going again, I wouldn’t stop (save for another Venky masterstroke).