Not there today - early Christmas celebration. Friend phoned me on way home from match, thoroughly pi$$ed off. Thought at first I was already pi$$ed then realised thread full of repeat, repeat, repeat messages! That's 12 goals shipped in last 5 games - horrendous. Understand Raya had a mental aberration, Smallwood again looked way out of his depth and Brereton continues to mystify. Never mind, Christmas is coming. Will be there at Leeds on Boxing Day - why, I'm not quite sure.

Monk has done a decent job with Brum but, like ourselves, they do blow hot and cold. Same number of points as Rovers though with a better GD. Think home advantage will be key. Rovers win at 16/11 offers fair value - also, gone for correct score of 3-1 to Rovers at 21/1. Come on Mowbray, be brave. Get at 'em from the start and let Rothwell and Brereton off the leash.

Disagree. With the club's infrastructure, we should be PL. To me, I would expect a top 8 finish this year and promotion next year.

and Coyle got Burnley up............................... Mowbray has committed the club to almost £10million on Brereton and Armstrong. Brereton can't even get a start and Armstrong, IMV, looks like a League 1 player at best and has made little impact this season. If that's using resources well....................... and Mowbray says he needs another striker!

In the Championship, positivity, confidence and momentum will take you a long way. I think most fans want the club to go as far as it can as fast as it can. At times, Mowbray's tactics, team selections and substitutions baffle me. I also think his game management is poor - @JHRover made this point today on the Middlesbrough thread 'Bristol, Middlesbrough, Swansea, Ipswich - away games we've been in glorious positions and then let valuable points slip'. I also think Mowbray's transfer dealings are mixed. Dack has been an excellent signing and I think Mowbray has to take a lot of credit for his development. However, I think there are very poor signings like Hart and Gladwin, too many Joe Averages (Armstrong for one) and IMV, the biggest mystery and possible clanger of all (Brereton). I think we will know a lot more about our manager and players after December's fixtures. I hope you are right and Mowbray is the man to take us higher but, IMV, based on what I have seen so far, I don't think he will.

Would not be excited by the prospect of either Gallagher or Chapman returning. Gallagher seems to be standing still in his development whilst I think Chapman could be one of those injury prone players who spends more time in the treatment room - each time his 'hammy' goes, so will some of his pace.

Mowbray does the coaching, tactics and selects the team. If he continues to pick players who either can't or don't deliver then the buck stops with him. Yes, we did have chances and we had a striker sat on the bench, who we have supposedly committed to in a £7million deal, who might just bang a few in given chance. To bring him on with only minutes to go is, IMV, a joke.

And he may well think he made the right decision when he sees Brereton has yet to start a league game despite Mowbray signing him in a reputed £7million deal.

I think most fans would agree Mowbray inherited a mess from Coyle. He almost saved us - to go down on goal difference was shattering. Despite all his efforts and good work that season, in my opinion, ultimately, we lost too many points under Mowbray through his caution and game management. I think too many winning positions ended up as draws and too many matches where we were drawing ended up as losses. @JHRover made this point today on the Middlesbrough thread 'Bristol, Middlesbrough, Swansea, Ipswich - away games we've been in glorious positions and then let valuable points slip'. We failed to stay up by a single point and that hurt like hell. Mowbray's first objective was to save us from relegation and he failed. Mowbray brought us back at the first time of asking so job done. However, it should be borne in mind that League One, IMV, is pi$$ poor (nowhere near as competitive as the league that Lee and Kendall brought us out many years ago) and we were the best resourced club. Mowbray has steadied the ship and deserves credit for that. However, IMV, he is a steady Eddie at best and has not got the managerial nous to get us back to the PL.

I think it was one of Graham's 'offish days' and he looked a spent force on the hour mark. Before Middlesbrough scored, I think Mowbray should have made two substitutions (Brereton and Rothwell on) and really gone for the killer second. Mowbray's game management and caution put us down the season he joined us. I think we surrender too many winning positions and end up only with a point, similarly too many positions when we are drawing are lost. There can be no excuses about yesterday. We were leading 1-0 with Mulgrew's superb free kick and we were playing 10 men for 70 minutes - the restlessness amongst the Middlesbrough fans was there to see and hear. We needed a killer second goal yet our £7million striker sat rooted on the bench until just minutes before the end. Absolutely staggering.

Point I'm making is we seem to have committed to a £7million deal for a player who the manager seemingly doesn't think is ready to start a league game and therefore no better than what we already have !!! I think it's madness when as you say, those funds could have been committed on say 3 players who would have made an impact and would have been better than what we already have. I know £7million wont get us 6 quality players but merely pointing out that there are so many holes to fill!

We need to strengthen in several areas! This is what makes the Brereton signing even more mystifying. Those funds we've committed on that deal would have helped with your centre back, a left back, a central midfielder, two wide men with pace and another striker.

As I posted earlier, it was a bit of a Christmas jolly!

In my view, a totally bizarre and mystifying signing. He should have been on instead of Graham after 55 / 60 minutes. If there was anything about him, he would have torn Middlesbrough's defence to pieces.

Said it many a time. Confidence and momentum go a long way in the Championship. Think the two automatic spots will come from the current top 4. My 'dark horse' to go up from play-offs is Villa. Think the managers of those teams pressing at the moment have far more positivity and creativity than Mowbray. Think Mowbray's lack of game management nous cost us two points today and sadly, IMV, it's been a recurring theme with Mowbray since he joined us.

Hugely disappointing after going one up after 20 minutes and playing 10 men for the remainder of the game. Sending off changed the game. Until Middlesbrough deservedly went down to 10 men, could only only see one winner and it wasn't us. Game should have been over at half time. Evans' miss was criminal and thought there and then, we're going to blow this - therefore went for draw at 10/3 at half time. Think it was poor game management from Mowbray. We should have had fresh legs on (thought Graham was shot at) before the A'balonga strike, and really gone for it. A wonder strike but no pressure at all on the lad or ball. Thought Armstrong was dreadful when he came on. Continue to like the look of Rothwell, the lad has a spark and deserves his chance to start a match or two. As for Brereton, what more can you say, brought on with the game almost over - think there's something very, very strange about that signing. Starter was great (brunch in Thirsk), main course (at The Riverside) flattered to deceive and pudding was great (dinner in Ribble Valley). Suppose two out of three aint too bad!

Jim had a pretty good pedigree as a player - I remember him from his Newcastle days. Served his managerial apprenticeship in the lower leagues and I thought Rovers had appointed a decent replacement for Jim Smith. Sadly, turned sour pretty quickly. David Allin at the LT was a young and acidic journalist and he could see things weren't right at Rovers under Iley and he didn't mince his words. Relations between Rovers and LT were at an all time low. When Rovers, under Iley, signed Joe Craig from Celtic for £40k, it was the LEP that broke the news! A decent and honest bloke - sad it didn't work out for him at Rovers.

Palmer wont be a miss. Hassenhuttl has a reputation for developing players. Will be very surprised if he doesn't take Reed back as he'll want to take a good look at him. Will be a shame if he does - this lad should be our number one central midfielder. Would steer clear of Chapman - think he's one of those players who are injury prone. Anyhow, hasn't Mowbray already said he wouldn't start him? We don't want any more 'potential' players. We want signings who can go straight into the first team and improve both our results and performances. Could we ask Forest for our money back on Brereton or failing that, if he's so good, can we flog him for what we paid for him. Pointless keeping him to warm the bench.

I simply don't think we will have the physical strength to cope with a big physical team. We have conceded 9 goals in the last 3 games against 'modest' and 'unfancied' opposition so keeping a clean sheet tomorrow will be very, very difficult - I think we will be particularly vulnerable on set pieces. Tomorrow, I strongly fancy Middlesbrough to win comfortably and hence my bets. If if gets to the last few minutes and we are 3-1 down then I'll be rooting for Middlesbrough to make it 4-1 and give me a £400 win on top of the straight win bet I've placed on them. If my bets go down because Rovers win (or draw) then I will be delighted (as I've said before, my Rovers' match betting is a bit of fun). How can you look forward to a match if you think we will get pummeled? It's a bit of a Christmas day out, however, and I am looking forward to brunch in Thirsk and dinner closer to home. Hope you enjoy your day Chaddy.

Including selling match tickets for the Liverpool FA Cup tie downstairs in the corner house opposite the main entrance to the ground (think the manager's office was upstairs then) - recall the money going into a big plastic box!

You're right. Found this - killer Keeley and brutal Branagan!

An honest and likeable guy who lived in Mellor. Brought Jim Furnell and Tony Long (physio) with him from Plymouth. One of his first signings was Colin Randall (midfielder) for £40,000 from Plymouth. A 'nice' footballer but but think the move came a bit too late for him in his career (think he'd turned 30+) and he really didn't hit the heights for us - remember him being caught 'rabbit punching' an opponent (totally out of character for the lad) on MOD and think it was Jimmy Hill who tore into him.

From memory, we were 4 up at half time - we left a few in the pub who didn't get on the ground until half time !!! Middlesbrough were cr@p that day. Both teams were in the bottom half of the league. Former Claret Cochrane (actually rated that lad) got their consolation - him and Hankin (another ex Burnley) got some real stick that day from Rovers' fans.

Think we will get smashed tomorrow. Middlesbrough are a big side and defensively I just don't think we will be able to handle them - we are conceding far too many goals. Bookies don't fancy us and you can almost get 5/1 on Rovers win. Lumped on Middlesbrough just short of evens and this week's fun bet is a tenner on 4-1 at 40/1. Not really looking forward to the match itself but it's a bit of a 'Christmas' day out.

I HAVE NOT accused Dack of lying. Tell me where I have said Dack is lying? You need to be extremely careful what you say. Neither is it purely set up to get a reaction from Chaddy. What organisation would not put a 'spin' on its PR items?