He wasn’t at his best, but he was thrown on with half an hour to go in a disjointed formation as part of a very patched up back 4 when it was backs against the wall. He was also up against their busiest player who caused Pickering problems all first half. His form in pre-season and against Swansea and Hartlepool (I know, I know) should give him a bit of grace.

A lot going on today. 12 months ago it’d have been a major cause for dispondency, but what a change in a few short months. I hope our new regime can persuade Phillips to stay for now, and I think it might do him the world of good to choose to. Brereton’s a bit of a different case, but I hope he stays too. As a decade long pessimist I’m actually reasonably confident it won’t end in the worst case scenario for once. I know it’s early days, and I don’t want to be too premature, but the Tomasson/Broughton team look to be the absolute real deal. The annoyances come from the fact that it took Venky’s over a decade to move along from shysters, plodders and idiots and actually appoint someone decent. The development of some players (Travis being the glaring example) in a couple of months has been astonishing, and if we’d have been competent enough before they arrived to secure Lenihan and Nyambe - who would likely both have benefitted from JDT’s methods, our squad would be looking pretty immense right now. We’ve got people in the club who want to “think big” again, and I absolutely love it. Hopefully they can drag a few of the other employees up to having the required levels of pride in the club. And some fans too. Keeping Phillips and Brereton would be testament to that and a real statement… it would also do our chances of promotion the world of good. We’re on the verge of something really good.

Nothing at all wrong with an obsessive interest, but repeatedly asking a journalist of limited worth a question where the answer is blatantly obvious is a bit different to fans debating the merits of signings on a forum.

Agreed, but even worse are the dozens of tweets a day replying to anything by Bayes, Nixon and Sharpe asking if there is any news on signings. As if they are going to say “Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me, it totally slipped my mind that Van Hecke is currently at Brockhall… I got a bit sidetracked asking Travis if he’s happy to be made captain”.

More useful than Phil Jones

The Phil Jones links must surely be absolute nonsense. I’m baffled at anyone advocating signing him in any way, shape or form. I can’t think of a worse possible signing. Lets not pretend he is in the slightest bit bothered about playing football. If he was he’d have sought a move at some point in the last 5 years. He is absolutely finished. I can see him signing a deal in America, playing a couple of times, getting injured and getting the contract ripped up to be back home within 6 months. Not until after his United deal expires mind.

There’s an element of that for sure, we are defending very well from the front. But QPR lacked ideas in the final third and Swansea’s attacking shortcomings have been discussed and ridiculed plenty. Wallace was a danger for them today, lot of good crosses with nothing at the end of them. Either way, defensive reinforcements are urgent now. Seems plenty of teams/managers now believe being toothless is fine. Let them crack on! Delighted Kompany doesn’t seem to think the Dingles need a goalscorer, cos we will punish teams that harbour that silly notion.

Brilliant again! Fitness levels are up, desire levels are through the roof, several players look reborn. It would be very easy to get carried away. I’m optimistic, but the one thing nagging a little is that every team we have been up against so far have been pretty toothless. We absolutely need a defender or two in this week, Sheff Utd will pose a goal threat. Love the fact we look so dangerous going forward though. Some cracking performances at either end, Brereton and Ayala were superb today.

Remains to be seen, but I don’t see it as a strength of Pickering’s.

I thought Pickering was poor against QPR, his strength is definitely going forward rather than defending and off the back of Edun’s performances both last night and in pre-season I like the look of him more.

Kaminski Brittain Ayala Wharton Edun Travis Buckley Dolan Szmodics Brereton Hedges Pears, Pickering, Phillips, Morton, Dack, Gallagher, Markanday Might jig the positions of the front 4 about a bit, but I’d go with that 11.

I thought Phillips was excellent, he just had very little to do. He has great awareness and rather than just sticking his head on headed clearances he was finding a team mate. I enjoyed his little burst forward towards the end. Looked like he had got a bit bored and decided to get a bit more involved.

What an enjoyable evening! The difference between Tomasson and Mowbray is stark but simple. We now get forward, commit men into the box, and try to score goals. Every player was good tonight. Tough to highlight individuals really, but Edun was the pick of the bunch for me, thought he was superb. Special mention for Adam Wharton too. What a player he looks.

This. In one of those games where he was acceptable I remember he pulled off one save which got a lot of plaudits, but he really only had to make it because his positioning was absolutely woeful in the first place. Unbelievably there were a good few people claiming he’d done enough to keep his place when Kaminski got back fit. Thankfully Mowbray didn’t agree.

Very true. And I still maintain the wheels fell off last season as soon as Mowbray started tinkering with a winning formula having given himself a few more options in the January window.

I think he was one that really stood out in the friendlies. Thought he might have edged ahead of Pickering, must certainly be providing some competition.

He did make some poor decisions and display bad judgement a few years back, but he certainly seems to have matured since then. He’s struggled for fitness this preseason, but we are only two games in. I’m sure he will be involved sooner rather than later.

You should be extremely thankful that football clubs aren’t just a business like any other. If they were Rovers would have ceased trading long before now having lost nearly a quarter of a billion quid in little over a decade.

Russell Martin can’t have head a very good view of the game with his head so firmly planted up his own arse. Claiming his teams approach is so pure and honourable it pisses other teams off, hinting at jealousy. Someone ought to let him know they got beat 3-0!! While his arrogant delusions are funny to a point, his attitude is problematic in other ways. This might sound dramatic, but it’s attitudes like his that are ruining football. He literally says he doesn’t care about winning, he’s more bothered about development and some half baked philosophy. He will be a coach educators dream! UEFA want a nice uniform approach. Lots of pointless passing, no tackling, ball on the floor, wait for the opposition to make an error. Of course this means that 99% of the time, the best, most expensively assembled teams win the most games and go into European competitions to all play each other. I’m so glad we got rid of a manager who bought into this nonsense and appear to have appointed one who still remembers what the entire point of it all is!

I’ve completely changed my mind on Brereton, I don’t want us to sell him at all and I don’t care if we lose him on a free next summer, I’d rather take the gamble. I don’t think Venky’s would care that much either, and for once their stubbornness might work to our advantage.

Looking forward to watching the highlights. It was radio for me today. Like the idea of playing with purpose and actually trying to score when we get forward rather than the confused ideas of the last couple of seasons. Travis appears to be getting rapidly unMowbrayed. He always looked like he could play box to box but learning from Smallwood looked to have turned him into a budget Robbie Savage. JDT seems to think more of him and it’s paying dividends. Few quid on Szmodics first scorer at 8/1 was a nice bonus too! A proper managerial appointment working early wonders!!

Don’t know about scapegoating Pickering (who was lucky not to be subbed at half time against QPR), but this sounds like some serious revisionism regarding Nyambe!

Been away from this thread for a while… some crazy stuff about Buckley! Last season he went from “boy to man” and is now an absolutely integral part of the team. He will run plenty of games this season and will improve exponentially with age and experience. The two outstanding ball playing midfielders I’ve seen at Rovers are Tugay and Cowans, but by the time we had both of them they were towards the back end of their careers. They relied on their brains a lot more than their legs and as such their superb passing ranges were more pronounced. I’m not making premature comparisons here, but it’s been a really common complaint for fans for YEARS that we’ve lacked a decent ball player in the midfield. “Not since Tugay” still gets trotted out. I’m cynical about a lot of things Rovers, but bringing through a midfielder like Buckley certainly isn’t one of them. And we’ve got Adam Wharton coming through too, who by all accounts is a similar type of player. I’ve actually seen more personally of Harlock than Wharton, and he excites me too.

Kaminski Brittain Ayala Wharton Edun Travis Buckley Hedges Dolan Brereton Gallagher

Solid if unspectacular (apart from the goal) start. I was worried early doors because the ref looked like he was ready to give Buckley a second yellow, but seemed to recognise he’d already been booked and let him off. I thought QPR played some nice stuff, we did at times too in fairness, but both teams lacked a cutting edge. Pickering is a worry. He was bad today in possession, which is probably his biggest strength. Need things to click a bit more up top, plenty of graft but not a lot of quality. Dolan made a real positive difference.