Mercer

Wow - four on the bounce and just 2 points off 6th place - my Christmas bonus pot is building very nicely! Confidence and momentum is everything in this league. 8 points from the next 4 fixtures - very doable - will do nicely. Now we'll see how serious Mowbray and Venky's are and just what they are made of. Will they bottle it or go for it!?!?

Said time and time again, confidence and momentum are hugely important in this league. Consistency of selection also helps! Barring injuries, Mowbray MUST start the same eleven. It's as simple as that, no excuses. Think Derby are a bang average team on a poor run of form. Rovers to breeze this one by three or four goals to one. Get your money on us and earn that Christmas bonus.

IMO, his track record with Rovers does not support your assertion. Can you please share with us what he has achieved with Rovers?

I refer you to my response to Chaddyrovers.

I expressed my doubts about Brereton at a very early stage and I think I've been proven to be spot on. The same goes for Gallagher who I did not want us to sign again - he did not impress me when here on loan initially. I think I am a reasonable judge of a player. IMO, Mowbray has dropped two expensive clangers signing those two - make it three if you throw Armstrong into the mix as well. We are all entitled to an opinion and those are my opinions about Rankin Costello and Chapman. I have sympathy for Chapman. I think Mowbray's treatment of him has been shocking - I would be p1ssed off with the club if treated the same way. When I have seen Chapman in the U23's the service he's received has been sh1te. I believe there is real talent there, a spark and a flair - it needs to be brought out of him by encouragement and opportunity. The obvious question is just why oh why did Mowbray sign him. I contrast Chapman, and his lack of opportunities, with Armstrong who has been given umpteen opportunities - IMO, Armstrong has one asset and that is pace, otherwise, IMO, he's an unskilled player with no football brain. Potentially, there is a real player there in Chapman who can excite the fans, as for Armstrong, IMO, reminds me of what can be seen on any cold winter's weekend at Pleasington.

Seen these lads on two or three occasions this season and, IMO, Chapman has far more natural ability and there is a spark and real flair there (and the service he gets at U23 level is in the main shyte and I can understand his frustrations). Think Chapman needs to be given a run of games at first team level. He has a natural ability that can't be coached. He can make things happen. What he does need is supportive and encouraging management and not, IMO, the likes of Mowbray telling him what he can't do. I would take Chapman playing out wide any day of the week over Gallagher and, IMO, the unskilled, footballing brainless Armstrong. As for Rankin Costello, think he flatters to deceive. He's 20 now and should be ripping it up. IMO, no more than a League One player.

Have said it before, IMO, Mowbray is not the man of integrity and loyalty that many think.

Really !?!? Try telling that to Big Sam. A couple of my friends who are Evertonians would take Sam back in a heartbeat - they are sick and tired of the 'purist' Silva.

Seems like we are going for it. Just a question of how many we win by. Fun bet for this one is 4-1 to Rovers with a tenner on 28/1.

and they should be!!!! For goodness sake, we are talking about the likes of newly promoted Charlton, Luton and Barnsley and struggling Championship teams that roll up at Ewood. Strikes me we can't be confident of winning ANY game under the Mowbray regime. IMO, it's time Mowbray and his motley team of staff got out of town. How far we have fallen since the halcyon days of Kenny, Souey, Hughes and Big Sam. There are simply no excuses. I think our club is a mess from top to bottom and I am just p1ssed off about it.

Wow. So it seems we are not confident of beating, at home, the managerless team rooted to the bottom of the Championship with just 9 points (just 1 win and that was on the opening day of the season) from 16 games. Forgive me but this HAS to be a home banker. To go into this match with any doubt about anything other than a victory is an indictment on Mowbray and all the coaching staff. Fail to win this then Blackburn Rovers might as well shut up shop.

We are playing managerless Barnsley at Ewood. Even if Barnsley do make an appointment before weekend, let's be honest, there is no time for a new manager to change much. Barnsley have drawn 4 and lost 2 of their last 6. At almost evens, this is one helluva chance for Rovers' fans to fill their Christmas stockings. This is a banker home, the nearest thing you can get to a betting certainty. Make the most of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Think we once had a half decent forward thinking set up led by Batty and Fevre (both recruited from Manchester United). IMO, like all aspects of the club, physio / sports science department has been dumbed down. After 20+ years with their own club doctor, Rovers no longer seem to employ their own doctor and now have a local Whalley GP as a 'consultant'. Cost saving or an unnecessary expense on a cost / value basis, who knows!? One thing is for sure, we have close to 10 folk employed as / in consultant / therapists / athletic performance / physio / masseuse and we are, IMO, one of the least unfit (both physically and mentally) teams around who seem to suffer more than their fair share of injuries. IMO, that set up needs looking at.

Think Caley will be bricking it. If we had 25+ police and dogs arrive by the end of the match for the 50 (IMO, nothing more than boisterous) Hertha fans as, seemingly, the stewards panicked and bottled it, how many 'storm troopers' is Caley going to request for this one!?!?

Chapman - got no service last night and looked p1ssed off by it all. However, I do think the lad has a spark and talent. In last ten minutes, twice beat a man in a crowded box and almost created something from nothing. With the right management, we might just have a player - needs a run in the first team and I don't just mean ten minutes here and ten minutes there. Give him 3 or 4 starts. IMO, the lad is far more talented than Armstrong - think it all boils down to who likes Mrs Mowbray's lemon drizzle cake. Davenport - other than one good forward run, IMO, offered virtually nothing. The lad is almost 21 and past the stage of a 'promising youngster'. IMO, if they aint showing at that age, it's very unlikely they will. Someone mentioned Jay McEveley in an ealier post who debuted in the PL for us at 17!!! IMO, JRC, Butterworth and Davenport, all turned 20, are not Championship material and never will be.

Think he was shocking last night - IMO, showed absolutely nothing.

Didn't see the incident with the female steward as left just before the end. Honestly think our stewards didn't help by standing in front of some of the Hertha fans for the entire match. Some of the Hertha fans were sat down - the rest standing at the front should have been encouraged to join those sat down. IMO, our stewards were clueless and directionless. Probably about fifty Hertha fans and half as many police outside! Asked one policeman if we were playing Burnley and I was too p1ssed to realise it - think he saw the point and knowingly smiled and shrugged his shoulders indicating the stewards had made the call for 'help'.

Poor stuff tonight. IMO, not one single Rovers' player threatening our poor first team. Rankin-Costello and Butterworth very disappointing. For two twenty year olds, you seriously question if they have what it takes. Service to Chapman was cr@p - no wonder he seems p1ssed off at times. Showed what he can do towards the end on two occasions when he beat men in the box. Mowbray needs to do one of two things - either give the lad a genuine chance or get rid. Hertha looked more lively, more creative, more mobile and passed and moved much better. As for their fans, saw nothing more than a tad boisterousness. Overkill and waste of police resource at the end of the match.

Further reasons for a long Saturday session in the pub. Might get back, sober up and he'll be gone. Well we can dream!

Indeed. We need a real spanking today - 5,6 or 7 nil. As @GavlarSomersetRover has pointed out, it's now looking like 5 points from 24 games. IMO, clear as day a taxi is needed for our dinosaur of a manager.

Leeds will be cr@pping it now.

Feckin unbelievable.

A winner for us is on the cards. About time we grabbed something late on.

Must be as feckin deluded as Mowbray where rovers concerned. Just opened a red - this is unbearable.