SuperBrfc

Yeah, that rings a bell. I'm sure there were a few posts on here at the time saying Smallwood's game had been affected as a result of it. He wasn't making the same challenges from what I remember.

Travis is walking a bit of a tightrope now. He's got three games to go to avoid picking up a yellow. After 37 league games the 2 game suspension no longer applies. I think he'll start at Fulham. I just can't see him avoiding a yellow between now and the Bristol City game.

A deserved win. We dominated that game and should have had a hatful. Loved the pressing and harrying. Dolan played a key part in that, he was excellent. Good performance from Johnson too, just a shame the pass to Nyambe wasn't played ahead of him. I thought Gallagher had a good game. We looked a bit lost for a few minutes when he was replaced, but soon picked up again. Khadra and Dolan can be a right handful, they just need to sort their finishing out. An enjoyable game, now let's get at Fulham next Saturday. That is going to be an intriguing encounter. COYB.

So many chances to finish the game! Dolan has been excellent. Dominant performance from Rovers. Enjoyed watching it. See it through now.

Yes!! That's the one.

Doesn't look good for Nyambe here. Hope this isn't the last we see of him in a Rovers shirt.

How many more chances do we need?

Woeful finishing! This game is there for the taking. QPR are abysmal. Our pace upfront will fashion another chance.

Lift it man. That was a sitter.

There aren't many goals in that QPR 11. Chair the obvious danger. I think we'll shut them out, but will huff and puff without really threatening. Going for a 0-0.

He said himself that we had the chance to sign a striker. We were offered number 9's from Premier League clubs according to him but turned them down because they didn't suit our system. He was almost crowing about it in the LT. As if our system could be relied upon until May and as if it is too good to take on a Premier League striker. We all knew that one injury to Diaz would leave us in trouble and now we have a situation where fans are calling for Vale to start. It could have been avoided. I get that we didn't have the budget to sign a top striker. However, we made a bid for Dembele who went for £1.5m. That would suggest we did have some funds to play with, even if that isn't seen as a significant amount these days. To see us struggling for goals now, and having read Mowbray effectively say "We could have got a Premier League number 9 if we wanted" really grates. I view that as arrogance from Mowbray, others might disagree.

Talking of Adkins, Southampton did precisely what we need to do if Mowbray gets us promoted. They recognised that Adkins wasn't the man for them in the Premier League and acted decisively by bringing in Pochettino, a major upgrade. That decision was a game changer for Southampton. No room for sentiment, but the fans still see Adkins in a fond light. It sounds harsh, but if Mowbray was to get us promoted it would be a massive achievement considering the backdrop at the club and he would be able to leave with his head held high. Rovers in the Premier League would be a whole new ball game. We would be able to attract better players and better managers. We shouldn't pass up on that out of sentiment for what Mowbray has done for us.

I've never seen Vale play, so can't comment on his ability. However, there was a similar clamour for McBride and Butterworth to be given a chance and that didn't work out. In fact, one poster was saying we didn't need to sign a striker back in August as we had Butterworth, McBride and Vale as options. It's wishful thinking hoping that one of those kids can come in and do the business. As we are in a desperate situation, of our own making at that, I'm not against giving Vale a chance but it would be asking a lot of him to get the goals needed to help us in a play off push. This all goes back to the manager and his arrogance in thinking we didn't need another striker. "I probably should have got them the striker that they needed in January". How likely is it that we will hear the above at some point in the future? Just as he said after leaving Coventry in relation to not getting them the big centre back that they needed.

As nice as it would be to see Burnley finish in the bottom 3, I think they will do enough to survive. They have some decent games coming up and could go on a little run now. Their defensive solidity looks to be returning at a key point in the season. The Leicester and Southampton games look like home bankers to me. Leicester are in disarray, their defence looks dodgy and there's a bit of unrest around Rodgers. Southampton are hot and cold. I don't think they or Leicester will fancy it at Burnley. They're all big games when in a relegation fight, but that Brentford game looks pretty big right now. I won't be getting any of your players in my FPL team though, Longsiders. It doesn't matter however many double game weeks you have coming up 😁.

That's what I worry will happen too. Many of us were saying the true state of 'the journey' will be revealed for all to see this summer. Fail to get promoted and we are looking at one heck of a mess, with loanees going back and key players leaving on a free. It won't be far away from the mess Coyle left us in. I don't think Mowbray will fancy the rebuilding job. His words in the cake clip the other day felt like a goodbye of sorts. "I've really enjoyed my time here" and "you've got to drive each other on from within the dressing room with your character, I'm seeing good signs, you don't need me to tell you to play diagonals and into the channels". The only thing that clouds that thought is their planned trip to India. Is it too far fetched to think that the owners want to thank Mowbray and Waggott in person for their services and want the pair of them to advise them on their potential replacements?

Good question. I think we have been a soft touch for years and have found it difficult, in the main, against physical opponents. For example, the big lad, Diedhou at Bristol City would often cause us bother. As would somebody like Nuhiu at Sheff Wednesday. It's a problem which hasn't gone away completely. I remember posts on here in the past expressing concern ahead of facing a physical team. It was only back in September, before the Cardiff game at Ewood, that I predicted a Cardiff win because I thought they would bully us. That was proven wrong on that occasion, but we are still susceptible to it as shown by the Wigan game, the Forest game, where Davis ran us ragged, and last night. The biggest problem, imo, is our powder puff midfield. Rothwell and Buckley go missing too often and are easy to bully out of a game. Travis, whilst decent at what he does, is a pretend hard man who can't cut it against the truly physical midfielders. If we went up somehow and kept that midfield trio they would get battered. What has changed since the Fulham game is our defence has toughened up and put in a number of 'no nonsense' displays. Our defence can mix it, so we aren't as much as a soft touch at the back, Travis can mix it to an extent, but the other 5 in the more attacking roles are as soft as anything. Teams like Sheff United can target that 5 and boot them out of the game, as we saw. It's a mixture of that softness and us not creating many chances lately that has seen us drop points. Lenihan, Wharton and Ayala fit the warrior tag. Johnson maybe does too, even though his legs are going. I noticed the Boro and Forest fans complaining about us being "dirty" and overly physical when we played them recently. I was quite pleased to read that as we haven't been labelled as that for a long time. Our attackers need to shape up though.

Wow. I had to read that twice to make sure. It's an odd move for him to go so far down the football pyramid. Excellent appointment for Bradford though. A few on here felt there was no chance he'd come here to replace Mowbray. I think this shows we could have easily got him back if there was any desire from the club to do so.

That one is tough to take. We grew into the game after weathering a 20 minute spell of pressure and had them looking rattled at times. I didn't think Sheff United were anything special and as the second half wore on I thought the win was there for the taking. We get a golden chance to win the game, against 10 men, yet lose to a late sucker punch. It's not happening, is it? We aren't going up. If this goes the way many are fearing and we end up 8th or 9th from here it would be the spiral of all spirals for me and it will sting like mad. There would be no coming back from that for us under Mowbray, he would have to go. Nobody expected us to be 2nd or 3rd, but once you find yourself in that position come January, you don't just freeze and admire it. Who knows when or if the opportunity will ever come again. "2nd? Flippin' heck, let's see what happens". That's exactly what the chumps at Ewood and in Pune have done and it has backfired already. Venky's wanted back to back promotions in the summer of 2018, did they? Did they balls.

Sheff United are bang average. They've ran out of puff after a bright start. You can see them getting rattled when we get on the ball in their half.

This has got 0-1 Rovers all over it. We're getting into it now.

This may well be a dress rehearsal ahead of a play off semi final tie. Sheff United have been on a good run, but they have had a couple of 0-0's in there prior to thrashing Swansea. I think we're making too much of them personally. They are a bang average side with a long throw and Billy Sharp as their main weapons. Gibbs-White is a threat too, fair enough. They won't have it as easy against our backline as they did on Saturday though. I think we're going to do a job on them. 0-1. COYB.

It feels like the only penalty that Cech ever saved during his time in England was from Paul Dickov, infront of the Blackburn End. Feb 2005. They got away with it that night, Chelsea. Slight exaggeration, he's probably saved a few, but for a top keeper and a big guy, he wasn't known for saving penalties. In fact, I'm sure he had an awful penalty saving record when at Arsenal, although you could argue he was finished by then.

He had the odd decent game here and there, usually when an international game was on the horizon or when he was playing for a new deal. That's nowhere near good enough though over a 6/7 year spell at the club. He was a poor signing overall, who was tolerated for too long simply because he was an international and was slightly better than Jason Lowe. Put the pair of them together in centre mid and it is little wonder we went nowhere despite Rhodes and Gestede bagging the goals. The amount of time we wasted with Lowe and Evans is unbelievable. Lowe was so bad that any slight upgrade on him was seen as a good deal at the time. Evans was one. Akpan? "Yeah, he's alright". Smallwood felt like Makelele compared to Lowe when he first arrived! Smallwood did a belting job for us in L1, to be fair, he just wasn't good enough to help us get towards the upper end of the Championship. The bar has been on the floor in relation to most things at Rovers since these owners have rocked up and the likes of Lowe, Evans, Akpan etc are a small example of that. Evans' departure was long overdue and I'm glad he's gone, as I'm convinced Mowbray would have kept him around had he had the wage budget to do so.

We can cut the gap on Fulham to 7 points with a win today (assuming Huddersfield win). It's getting bunched up behind us but we've got to keep looking at those ahead of us. Anything is possible, but nothing less than 3 points will do today.

It definitely was. It's gone too soft nowadays, especially in the Premier League. I would have loved to have seen the side we had with the likes of Neil, Todd, Nelsen, Mokoena etc get stuck into the current City and Liverpool sides. They are quality teams, but they do have it that bit easier today with whistle happy refs blowing up for anything and everything. On the subject of Lucas, I loved his robust style of play. No nonsense and he could play a bit too. Putting his departure to one side, he's probably my favourite Rovers right back.