Our next three fixtures are Bristol City (lost last 4 of last 5 and 19th) at home, Derby County (lost 3 of last 5 and 22nd) at home and Reading (6 points from last 5 games and 21st) away - we should be salivating..............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

There can be no feckin excuses for not getting 9 points which could put us right back into contention for 2nd place.

IMO, only Mowbray can feck this up.

IF Mowbray gets his player selections right (and plays them where they should be) and his tactics right then it's a done deal - 9 points on the board.

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

When Rothwell goes, that will be on the owners who refused to consider allowing the manager to sell in January whilst he had value and bring in 2 players that he wanted.

Out of interest, does Mowbray get any credit for that excellent defensive record?

Also, does he get credit for getting us "on the cusp of something sensational" and indeed still being in the top 6 now?

I stood there in the freezing cold being bored to death like others did whilst you sat at home having to fork out for a takeaway after yet another misplaced bet so I could easily allow my frustration to lead to one sided comments but its important to have balance. Half of our game is excellent, half is in crisis at the moment. We are in a good position as things stand. 

We've certainly had one of our most interesting three month periods for years!

There is an argument that Mowbray 'stumbled' upon the present system following our thrashing at home by Fulham.  He'd previously tried 3 at the back on several occasions and to be honest, I think it was widely disliked by our fans as it didn't seem to work for us.  After Fulham, Mowbray had to stop the goals flying in and so we went with Lenihan, Hecke and, just back from injury, Wharton and they gave us a remarkably solid platform.

I think the big criticism in Mowbray is two fold.  Firstly, his inflexibility to change shape, personnel in the 'midfield 4', 'false 9' and front 2 and his continuing practice of playing players out of position (Gallagher and Giles last night to name but 2); IMO, Mowbray sadly thinks he's another 'Pep' whereas in reality he's more of a Coyle!  Secondly, he made an absolute hash of the transfer window.  I think he's quoted as saying he turned down opportunities on PL number 9's because we don't play that way; for crying out loud, all managers have to flex their teams and systems to meet circumstances - so he would have rejected Erling Haaland because 'we don't play that way' or, obviously more realistically, might even have rejected Davies from Villa (who went to Forest on loan and tore us to pieces) because again 'we don't play that way'.

As for Rothwell, we might never know what really happened.  After all, we are told the owners have so much trust in Mowbray they invariably follow his advice!

My "on the cusp of something sensational" comment was based on where we were when second and the great opportunity we had to secure that 2nd spot until the end of the season with 2 quality signings in the window.  A striker who would almost guarantee us 12 goals in the remainder of the season would, IMO, have seen us sailing into the PL with our new found defensive solidity.

To sum up, you are right in the sense we do need balance.  Fans generally didn't expect us to have got so close but having done so, I think Mowbray has badly mismanaged us in 2022. 

By the way, the takeaway was excellent as was the accompanying red wine.  Last night, I think I showed better judgement in my decision making than Mowbray did in his!!!!!!!!!!!!!

57 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Saville has absolutely done Travis.

How is that not a straight red?

and there will be more looking for Travis...............what goes around comes around.

21 minutes ago, West Yorks Rover said:

ANY manager can make a mistake when signing players but to give Gallagher a new contract after he

has proved to be a flop (and a very expensive one at that) deserves to be sacked.

However I fully expect that manager to get a new, improved contract soon.

Words fail me.  IMO, unbelievably bad management whilst Lenihan, Nyambe and Rothwell will all likely wave bye bye at the end of the season with zilch in the coffers.

Can't believe what I have just watched.

We've conceded about 8 goals in about 20 games now and all we need to win a game of football is one feckin goal.

Each game we have 10 outfield players and it says it all when not one of those is capable of scoring a goal.

I thinks Mowbray's tactics, game management, player selection, team / player set-up all stink.

Only one man is responsible for this appalling run after the Rovers being on the cusp of something sensational.  He's blown it big time. 

45 minutes ago, Tugay-is-God said:

Don't quite get the dislike of Giles, personally. 

For me, he's been one of the more like to make something happen. He's clearly got quality. 

Agreed, needs to play in his best position though...............................

Wow, how have Millwall won 5 on the spin

We should be 2 up.

Much, much better from Buckley.

Just don't see how we don't win this.

One goal will open the floodgates.

Just stuck a fiver on 3-0 at 37/1.

Takeaway's here!!!

3 hours ago, CambridgeRover said:

 

Literally from today's LT . 

Mowbray says that is down to the January signing from Aberdeen still learning what is asked of him in the Rovers set-up, but the manager believes opportunities aren’t far away for the 26-year-old attacker.

I would love to know what the hell is expected from our attackers given we haven't scored from open play in about 7 games. Utter clown Mowbray, buy players in January to help in March.

I cant think of any other manager who has this ridiculous stance about learning to play our way. If you have to train a player for two months for them even to get a chance then you sucked at evaluating the player in the first place. We needed players to help, whilst we are dropping like a stone through the table, but instead this ridiculous "learn our style of football". 

 

IMO, total garbage and FFS Mowbray I think you are insulting the intelligence of the fans and should stop spouting, IMO, such nonsense.

Take a leaf out of Jim Smith's book who I think forgot more about football management than you have ever known!  I'll never forget turning up up at Turf Moor on Boxing Day 1977 to find out we'd got someone playing up front by the name of Keith Fear.  I might be wrong here, but I think he met his team mates for the first time on the coach to Burnley!  In a thrilling 3-2 win for Rovers, Fear notched but also sadly missed a penalty as Burnley stormed back into the game but we just held out.

As far a 'wand of a left foot', didn't Souey say the same thing about Javier De Pedro and we all know how that signing turned out despite Pedro having a vastly superior pedigree to Hedges................................................. 

Our poor run and lack of goals has to come to an end at some point and why not tonight?

Millwall on a very good run despite their injuries but we are 4th in the league, at home and not playing City, Liverpool or Bayern, so some perspective called for.

Rovers' win is a tad better than evens and I think decent value and I've put enough on for the winnings to pay for our family takeaway as we watch on the red button.

Did a fantastic job for Rovers and gave us a thrilling promotion season - who could forget the 5-2 win over promotion rivals Plymouth when we were 2 goals down.

Fortunate enough to meet the man on a couple of occasions - had so much enthusiasm and was very straightforward.

Very sorry when he left Rovers for Newcastle but that's football.

RIP Gordon and thanks for the memories.   

15 minutes ago, Hullrover said:

Does anybody know if this game is on the Sky red button?

According to Sky it is:

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11688/12105601/championship-football-live-how-to-watch-midweek-matches-live-on-sky-sports

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That’s what I thought.      Aren’t - Mrs Shoelaces is a retired English teacher. She’s drummed it into me. The apostrophe replaces the missing o.

Then Mrs Shoelaces is doing a bloody good job!

I shudder at the standard of grammar today even from graduates!

Every time I saw Jack's statue at Ewood I almost wept - "Rovers greatest fan".  Where is the bloody apostrophe that should be after s in Rovers, to denote ownership!  Should read "Rovers' greatest fan"  

Hugely disappointing.

We conceded two gifted goals and Kaminsky lucky he didn't get done from the half way line (terrific effort from the Fulham lad).

IMO, Zeefuik looks like an injury always waiting to happen, as for Pickering, poor, poor, poor,

Midfield costing us badly - think Johnson needs to be put out to grass whilst Travis is just a very average player with a bit of attitude.

Laughable up front.

Think we are an average side in a bang average league though with our run-in, still expect a top six finish.

Not expecting Dack to come under serious consideration until April - understand he's quite some way off coming into first team contention.

14 hours ago, rigger said:

With his injury record, I don't think he will get a long contract, getting what he thinks he is worth. You say we keep losing players. Which players have we lost for nothing ?

I think Nyambe will be fine.

Despite his 'injury record', i think he's averaged some 30+ games per season with Rovers which could have been more without, IMO, Mowbray's selection idiosyncrasies. 

I have little doubt he will have a selection of clubs and with no transfer fee involved he will, IMO, secure, as a minimum, a 3 year contract worth £2.3m, very possibly over 3 times what Rovers pay him.

I think it's madness and crass management from Rovers when considering a potential replacement in Deyo who according to Sharpe would cost a transfer fee of £3million alone and in my book is not as good as Nyambe! 

Utter and complete madness IMO.

6 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

I fancy us to win at Craven Cottage (please Mercer don't agree with me!)

If we keep the same shape with Khadra and Dolan hunting down and defending from the front along with a finisher (Jack Vale?), I think we could surprise Fulham.

With 2 thousand plus Rovers following us, I predict a great day 'down the smoke'.

Yet another long day in prospect with a 6am start!

If anyone fancies Rovers to win at Fulham then odds of 13/2 represents terrific value - in fact for two top 4 teams meeting, it's ridiculous.

I'll wait until I see the team news an hour before kick off but I might just want a big slice of that!

40 minutes ago, Crimpshrine said:

I am a big fan of Nyambe but it's not as if Premiership teams are lining up to sign him and I doubt his demands are unrealistic so why can't we afford to keep him.

I wouldn't think Nyambe is demanding higher wages than Gallagher or Kaminski who just got new deals.

If we can't afford to pay the going rate for our own academy graduates then we are in trouble.

 

It would be no surprise to me to find if Gallagher (prior to his new deal) was not on three times (or even more) the money Nyambe is currently on.  Don't forget, Gallagher was signed as a £5million player from a PL club.  Gallagher's new deal will certainly not be for less money!

If you are going to 'benchmark' against other players within a structured  wages' set-up then, IMO, Nyambe has to be worth in wages at least what Gallagher earns based upon relative ability levels.

My understanding is that Nyambe has been offered significantly less than what Gallagher is on;  if this is correct then no wonder we've struck an impasse.  

20 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

If I was dropped for Elliot Bennett I wouldn't sign a new contract either. Can't blame the lab, obviously him and the manager have never seen eye to eye. Best of luck to him in the future. Will be hard to replace

Think you are dead right but suspect the relationship issue is down to, IMO, Mowbray's crass management of Nyambe (as we saw with Raya).

3 hours ago, Mellor Rover said:

Interested to see what he does with Travis. 9 yellow cards and the suspension ends in 3 games time. It’s unlikely he’ll make it through to that, but do we want to risk missing him for our winnable 3 home games? Wouldn’t be surprised to see Johnson and Rothwell in there.

Rothwell can't even get a boot on!  Think he'll sit this one out.

Mowbray should go with our strongest available eleven.  Like Chelsea with their goalie sub today, try to be too clever and it comes back to bite you on the bum.

Doesn't matter who we get.

With a reasonable run of the ball we can and will beat any of them.

Won just over £100 with Rovers winning yesterday and it's all gone on Rovers to be promoted at 9/2.

37 minutes ago, Gav said:

Maybe thats the reason why most of his free kicks went in the stands and he could never beat the 1st man when talking a corner...

I liked Pedersen, that header at Old Trafford aside, but his free kick taking abilities are legendary, for anyone who didn't attend Ewood on a regular basis 😄

Sadly, when Pedersen crops up in conversation I always remember 'that header' at the 'Scoreboard' End with just minutes to go.  Football wise, not sure I'll ever get over it!

2 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Not sure what you’re getting at.  What do you mean nice try?

It’s a seriously alarming stat that over the last 10 games every team in the league have scored more goals than us.

Pre-Christmas we were flying, dangerous and Brereton was free-scoring. However we now look badly  in need of a goal threat. Fortunately the rock solid defence still looks good and we can generally still control games in general play such as today.

But the difference between what got us to become the 3rd highest scorers in the league and where we have been since the turn of the year is alarming. We’ve still got a massive chance of the playoffs but Martonrover is right that it looks like we are now lacking the fire power to win games. Obviously a fully fit Diaz and getting an interested Rothwell back hopefully solves that problem, but at the moment we lack anyone who is showing a goal scorers instinct.

 

I would think every team in the league has also conceded more goals than us those 10 games!

It's a refreshing change going into games knowing you don't need to score 2 or 3 goals to win or even draw!

Just look how far we went under Kendall's reign where we seemed to win 1-0 for fun!

Keep the back door closed and you always have a chance.

Even without Brereton, I think we have enough players to score enough goals to give us the draws and wins needed.  Our run in is very favourable and I can see the goals starting to come on a much more regular basis.

19 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I thought in the periods when QPR got their passing game going they looked pretty slick in midfield.

They did but struggled with our intensity and aggression.

For 85% of the match, thought they looked bang average.

I would strongly fancy our chances against them in any play off match

This league is bang average.

There isn't one club I would be afraid of in the play-offs.

Get ready for Wembley and bang £100 on Rovers to get promoted at 9/2 and pay for a memorable London weekend.

With a reasonable roll of the injury dice and our remaining fixtures, does anyone really think we wont make the play-offs?

Our team is far from perfect but to me the big thing is, now at long last, we have a miserly goalkeeper and defence and since the Fulham thrashing I think we've only conceded on average something like half a goal a game.  With that foundation, you've a chance against anyone.

The return of Brereton and a 90% Dack will be more than enough to see us successfully through the play offs.

Tonight is a good night to open something a bit special, celebrate today and dream of Sunday 29 May at Wembley.

Well deserved win.

Rarely allowed QPR to get into their game - thought they looked very poor.

Defensively excellent, Van Hecke superb.

Mowbray continues to baffle - puts Giles on for delivery and takes off 6 feet 5 inch Gallagher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Injuries piling up.  Sad about Nyambe, Travis also looks nobbled.

IMO, Hedges looks another donkey for the sanctuary - painfully slow.  

Delivery appalling.

With all our possession, need Giles on.

This lot are crap.

Nowt to beat.

Pile in on the in play and fill yer boots.

18 minutes ago, Gav said:

The club isn't worth its salt, its run by morons.

Lets not forget, you wanted managerial heavyweights like Wee Doughie Freedman (who) and Wee Coyley at the club, well you got one of them and look at how that ended up, talk about robbing a living, he almost destroyed the club...

Give me Mowbray any day of the week over that idiot and if you're so upset about the wages Mowbray earns, you should have become a football manager, then you too could have topped up the pension on the Venky gravy train.

There you go again Gav.

When we had the managerial vacancy, I NEVER advocated the appointment of Coyley!

At least get your facts right.

11 minutes ago, Gav said:

Of course making the play offs is significant progress, we finished 15th last year, 11th the year before and 15th before that.

Above 11th is progress, 6th or above is significant progress.

 

Nonsense.

Any club worth its salt will not have a five and a half year plan to go from bottom or close to bottom (when Mowbray arrived) to 11th.

At this rate, a fair few of us will never see Rovers in PL again.

Think Mowbray was taken from the managerial scrap heap and has been able to considerably top his pension pot up in a pressure free environment for over five years.  Nice work if you can get it..........................................