It's pretty accurate tbf, although normally it's the first half we struggle in rather than the second.

Disappointing but the two obvious problems are that we haven't taken our chances and we just can't seem to stop conceding goals. Very very poor goal to give away as well, defence just went to sleep as they are prone to do. A huge shame as we had a great half until then. It's just that lack of quality at both ends of the pitch that means we don't score when we should and concede when we shouldn't. You can't fault the effort of the players though. It was a great first half performance punctured by a Leeds goal right at the end. Keep playing as we did in the first half and we still have every chance of winning this one. We tend to be a team of two halves though so I'm pretty nervous about the second half now.

Another great effort from Armstrong, unlucky not to score. He's been superb this half.

He was the same in the last match, things just weren't coming off for him as he lacked any real support in front or behind him. Thought the criticism of him in the last match was very unfair. He may not always make the right choices but he's always trying to make something happen.

Our energy and closing down so far has been second to none. We're constantly harassing them, not letting them have a moment to think. It's the total opposite to what we saw in the last match, we look completely revitalised.

Reed has been very good so far. Dack has shown a few flashes of quality too. The full backs are trying to push forward, which is helping us when we attack and was one of the major reasons we struggled against Sheff Utd, so good to see that Mowbray seems to have recognised that issue.

We're looking dangerous on the break. Should be 2-0 up.

So apparently Fulham's owner is in talks to start a new wrestling promotion in the States... https://prowrestling.net/site/2018/10/19/nfl-family-reportedly-behind-a-new-startup-pro-wrestling-project-involving-cody-young-bucks-chris-jericho-jim-ross-and-others/ Possible reason why he suddenly pulled out of the Wembley deal? It would take a ton of money to try and compete with WWE at this point. If they had the likes of Jericho, JR, Goldberg, the Bucks, Cody, Omega, Adam Page then that could be pretty awesome though. If it does come to fruition (I doubt it will, but if) then I can see WWE throwing some hefty offers to anybody credible to ensure Khan's promotion had very little to choose from. It's basically what they did to World of Sport here in the UK, buying up all the decent UK talent and then essentially putting the lot of them on ice. With Vince starting up the XFL and his eye being off the proverbial ball, as far as the wrestling industry goes, this could be a good time to strike...

I'd be quite happy for them never to set foot in Ewood again. Who is it out there that is so desperate to be graced by Venky's presence?

If he's determined to play for a hopeless Scotland team to the detriment of his health and club then fine, but it's another reason we should be looking to replace him rather than keep offering him extensions.

Nice to get some in depth analysis on Brereton. It sounds like we're going to need to change the way we play to get the best out of him though. I've said before that I think Mowbray's vision for our style of play is very different to what we're currently seeing, and signing players like Brereton seems to lend itself to that train of thought. We'll need a few more signings to bring that to fruition, though, so it'll be interesting to see if we're active in January. There's still a lot of work to do to build the type of team that a player like Brereton can thrive in, imo.

Considering the happiness when he departed he should've been given a standing ovation.

I'm pretty sure BDS was being sarcastic I certainly hope so. Lowe's post-Rovers' career has gone exactly as I thought it would. The detour to Birmingham was a bit random but injuries and shit performances were par for the course. He looked his usual self last Saturday, even got the mandatory yellow card to bring back those nostalgic memories.

Terry has never been in a professional coaching capacity so I think it's more prudent to be sceptical of his abilities than not. Being a top defender doesn't automatically make you a good defensive coach, and that's not even what he's been brought in as - he's assistant manager, which entails far more than just sorting out the defence. What has "JT" ever shown anybody to suggest he can help out tactically, for example? It's obviously a risk and I can't understand calling it "genius" when there's as of yet no proof that he's any good in a non-playing role. As far as him being a bad influence, he was only at Villa for a season. Look at his influence in getting multiple Chelsea managers sacked for a better perspective on his character. Not going to go into cheating on his girlfriend with a team-mate's girlfriend (and getting her pregnant in the process) or racist taunts to other players. Good player yes - good person, no. One of the worst. That's going to have far more impact in a non-playing role than a playing role, imo, so it's completely valid taking it into account.

Their fans seem to think it'll be an internal appointment.

Smith is in theory a good choice as manager. Sir Lionheart of England as assistant I can only see causing problems. He's an insidious character and will be looking for a way to take the top spot before too long. No idea who the Sporting Director is.

Considering we already have the likes of Rothwell, Armstrong and Palmer more suitable to play in Dack's position I can't see Brereton being brought in to play there.

Yeah, but he only cost them about £7m. Dack would probably cost double if not triple that, which is why clubs tend to look abroad for prospects rather than paying over the odds for domestic players.

If the Walker Trust had waited a couple of years they could have sold us for much, much more. They really did sell at the wrong time. Hindsight is obviously 20/20, but at the same time it was clear even in 2010 that PL rights fees were only going to go up. I remember even at the time people were surprised at how little we'd been given away for.

Yeah it's been mooted since April. £22m seems fairly reasonable for a small Championship club. What a Hong Kong company would want with a team like Wigan is another story. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Evans is a decent squad player but I don't consider him a top priority. It's nice that he's had a few good games as of late and actually been fit for a few months but history tells us that, much like Ben Marshall, Evans is a player who has short purple patches and long periods of average to poor form, usually accompanied by injury. I wouldn't be averse to giving him a year's extension on reduced pay but I don't think we need to be fearful over Evans leaving. We'd cope fine without him.

I would be careful about what we're offering Evans.Considering the era he was bought in he's likely one of the biggest earners at the club, and simply isn't good enough to be in that bracket. Any contract extension should see his wage reduced to a more reasonable level, but unlikely he'd accept it. He's not worth spending a big wage p/w on imo. At Mulgrew's age I think an extra year is sensible. If he starts picking up injuries again we don't want to be left with a player on a longer deal we can't shift. As long as he's on a competitive wage it should be enough to ward off most interest.

Easy to forget the kind of squad we had back then. Some top players in Robinson, Hanley, Duffy, King, Dunn (albeit coming to the end of his career), Rhodes, Gestede, Olsson, Cairney and Conway in his prime. A few decent 'squad' players - Spurr, Kilgallon, Marshall, Kane and Evans. Possibly Taylor as well. A lot of absolute tosh though - Lowe, Jake Kean, Eastwood, Varney, Williamson, Etuhu, Feeney and Henley. We also had a lot of players out on loan who were on huge wages which we were probably paying most of - DJ Campbell, Best, Rochina, Orr, Goodwillie... Overall we should have been able to get into the playoffs with the team we had imo. A fair few of our better players went on to play in the PL, and others have become solid Championship players. Robinson only being able to play roughly half of our games meant we had a huge weakness in goal playing Jake Kean or Simon Eastwood. We'd be in a similar situation if Raya got injured now, though. Centre-midfield was obviously a graveyard too. Dat Lowe/Williamson pairing. Still gives me nightmares.

Yeah agreed, but I think he did the best he could within his capabilities. Considering where he came from and the trajectory of his career before he joined us, I have to say he performed significantly above my expectations even though we ultimately took the drop. I'm not sure any manager within our reach at that point in time would have kept us up. Regardless, it's all about the present. He's gotten us back to where he found us, and we're now in a similar position to where we were under Bowyer in the first couple of years of his reign. We can only wait and see as to whether he can push us further. Bowyer was considered a failure for not getting us into the playoffs, and I don't think we're in any weaker of a position than we were back then. Arguably we're in a stronger position as Bowyer never had £7m to spend on a single player.

In fairness to Mowbray, that first half season was a far from easy task. He had to take a group of completely demoralised, unfit and disorganised players and get them picking up points very quickly. For the most part he was able to do that, and if not for a freak season in terms of points needed to survive we would normally have stayed up fairly comfortably. I don't place any blame on him for our relegation - all blame goes to Venky's and Coyle for that. Our season in League 1 was questionable at times in terms of performances, but the quality of our squad alone meant we got promoted without too much to worry about in the end. Had it not been for Shrewsbury having a once in a lifetime season us and Wigan would have been promoted with months to spare. This season so far is similar in many ways - questionable performances at times, but we're still picking up a good amount of points. We have weaknesses but it seems like the entire division has the same inconsistencies. Mowbray's main positive attribute is his ability to foster an incredible spirit amongst the squad. The team obviously have a huge amount of respect for him and we always fight until the end. Thumbs in the middle for his transfer dealings and tactics. Hit and miss for both imo. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, usually somewhere in the middle. You could argue that this is the case for the vast majority of managers, though, so I'm not going to come down on him too hard for that. Negatives are an over-cautious approach when it isn't always necessary, and an inability to solve defensive issues which have plagued us for years. We struggle to see out games and set piece vulnerability has never really been addressed. I don't think it ever will be. All in all I think he's done a good job and would be happy with him being given an extra 2-3 years to build a squad capable of competing for promotion. Any more than that would be irresponsible imo. A lot can change in a year, let alone six.