Leeds being demolished by WBA. Puts into context just what a good point that was at their place the other week. Also our 0-0 at Derby. Makes it more frustrating that we haven't followed it up with wins at home against the lesser lights of the division.

The curse of the first half strikes again. Every home game this season has followed the same pattern. First 5-10 minutes we usually start off well and look dangerous, then 10-45 it's turgid stuff and we're usually happy to be going in level, then second half we come out a different team and play sides off the park but struggle to score or finish them off. Only real exception was Leeds because we got that goal in our 5-10 minute spell at the start, everyone else has weathered the storm and then we struggle. Can't keep turning up for only 45 minutes and expect to win games at this level. Today was a major opportunity missed. We can celebrate not getting beat and point to numerous missed chances but I would expect more, particularly in the first half, from a side trying to move into the top 6. Thought Armstrong was excellent other than his finishing, but he seems to be benefiting from a run in the team. 2 tricky derbies coming up now but at least we seem to raise it away from home in the bigger games.

We got trains for 46 quid return from Manchester at 9:15am returning at 9pm.

Wigan charged £279 behind the goals and £289 along the sides for season tickets this year. Cheaper than ours. Our cheapest season ticket for an adult was £319 in the Riverside (only when bought during the early bird period) Going off the published data from the Championship last season, as i can't be bothered going through them all for this season, then Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham, Bolton, Burton, Cardiff, Derby, Fulham, Hull, Reading, Sheffield United and Wolves all offered season tickets for less than £319. Perhaps not by very much and possibly some of those will have gone up as ours have done (probably none by 17%) but it isn't accurate to say our season tickets are extremely cheap. They are competitively priced and reasonably priced.

In comparison to who?

I've long been a supporter of putting away fans upstairs. Not particularly because of any impact upon atmosphere or the away team, but because we should be charging away fans more than we do. I've no gripe with Rotherham who I'm sure will charge our fans a reasonable price of £20-25 when we go there, but I'd be revving up to Swansea and Bolton coming and smashing them with £30 tickets. See how many Swansea turn up with at those prices. I bet its less than we took on a Tuesday night to theirs. Perhaps one day clubs will get their heads together and come up with some reasonable reciprocal pricing but until that day comes and as long as our loyal fans are being taken advantage of by other clubs then it is Rovers' responsibility to return the favour and make it clear why. N.B. This DOESNT mean home fans suffer. It means we can charge them more to sit upstairs whilst charging reasonable prices downstairs. I'm not sure that idea has made it's way into Waggott's thinking yet. Hopefully it will by the time Norwich, Swansea,Bolton and co. turn up.

We're getting into Newcastle territory here. 'Always a massive club' 'Their fans always turn up in huge numbers' Actually they were getting 15,000 on during the 80s - a time when pretty much every club was getting their lowest gates. We were no exception. After the misery we've had in the last 5-6 years we're still getting more fans on than PNE and Wigan, very similar to Bolton and I'd bet we'd be comfortably more than Burnley if they were at this level and hadn't tied people in to 2 year season tickets.

New one on me that, thought once it reached open sale stage it was a free for all regardless.

It was the same last season with all of our local away games taking place in the space of a few months before Christmas - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Blackpool, Wigan. Think there was only Fleetwood which was after Christmas and that was a heavily restricted allocation. Obviously Bury and Oldham away were more popular than Wigan and Blackpool were going to be. Blackpool was a mid-weeker although we still filled the end, whereas Wigan we weren't even close as it was right in the middle of a popular run of games. Had it been in March or April we'd have no doubt filled it easily.

We have a great opportunity here to go into the international break in the top 6. We obviously need to win and for Forest and WBA to drop points but they are playing Stoke and Leeds in their fixtures so they haven't got it easy. Clearly the 3 points is all that really matters for us but it would be brilliant to enjoy a 2 week break in November with us in the top 6.

3000 sold as of this morning, must have been flying out yesterday.

They were selling Block M tickets online when i checked earlier today

There's more or less 1000 in each block behind the goals and there's 5 full blocks and then a smaller section at each side. So would expect if they're going block by block they'll be onto the 3rd one now. The rule seems unfair because quite often those who buy first or get them as soon as they come out with 1875 membership get the worst seats, usually nearest the front or back or in a peripheral block, and then as more are sold the better seats are allocated.

2000 sold as of this morning

Rotherham are a poor away side and have been at this level for some time. Not only this season but also in their last couple of Championship seasons. I don't have the stats but it is dreadful. Up until a couple of weeks ago I'd have been very confident of a win, however recently they've gone up to Middlesbrough and PNE and got draws so they're certainly no pushovers and seem to have made themselves harder to beat. Nonetheless we SHOULD win this one. IF we do then we can all go into the November break very pleased with our efforts looking forward to the run through to Christmas. Failure to collect 3 points will leave a taste of disappointment heading into the break, whereas 6 from 6 at home and we can rightly be very satisfied.

All being well we could be in a higher league than Southampton next season. If they survive they're going to need significant surgery to progress in the Premier League. Can't see Reed getting much of a look in. Seem to recall Mark Hughes saying that Gallagher would be in his plans for this season. Has he featured at all? Don't remember him being mentioned in any of the games I've seen them in. Still think Gallagher would be a good addition for us in January. The bonus is that he's mates with a lot of the players already here and would fit in quickly.

After we dropped points at Ipswich and then followed that up with draws against Millwall and Reading at home I was concerned that despite playing reasonably well and showing good fighting spirit in those games that we were in for a long hard season where we would struggle against the better sides and that we might rue not beating those poorer ones. In hindsight having now played all the top sides apart from Boro and Norwich it has become clear that actually reputations mean very little, and that the distance between top 6 and bottom 3 is very little. Positives and negatives in that. There's no reason why we can't push hard for a play-off spot this season, yet the flip side is that some bad luck or a bad run of form (see Sheffield Wednesday or Wigan) could easily see us drop quickly and end up looking over the shoulders. It's about maintaining this consistency of not losing games and provided we do that we won't go far wrong.

Interesting that Mowbray has only won 1 more game than Lambert did over that number of games but has lost half as many and so those extra 6 draws push him out ahead.

It's become quite clear that Waggott's purpose at the club is to increase revenues. To that end he has introduced various measures many of which are unpopular, but nonetheless I expect he can produce a balance sheet to the owners at their annual review to show that his efforts are bearing fruit. Presumably he's sold himself to the owners as an expert who can come in and reduce the dependency on their funding by heavily increasing club revenues. Of course the commercial and corporate side of the club was, along with most areas, horrifically neglected during the period of 2010-17 and that's why I had little sympathy when they moaned about limited income. When you follow, as I do, every other club on twitter, visit every other away ground and frequent other club's websites it is a fact that this club didn't make anywhere near enough effort previously to increase income streams. Thankfully they seem to be doing more these days, and long may that continue. I remain of the view that my season ticket price is competitively priced for this league and so whilst I'm able and willing to keep paying it at it's current level I think £50 price hikes across the board are extreme. People can only be pushed so far.

I was actually quite pleased Leeds won at Wigan. Wigan have been propped up by very strong home form. If that starts to deteriorate then they'll end up looking over their shoulders as their away form is rubbish. They've now lost 4 in 5. From our point of view with us going to their place later this month I would prefer to be going to a side who had recently lost at home rather than to one protecting an 8 month unbeaten home record.

We've just come through a spell of fixtures in October that would have most people concerned and we got a decent points return and performed well in most of those games. WBA away, Swansea away, Leeds home, Sheffield Utd home, Forest home, Stoke away, Derby away, Villa at home. 8 games there that rightly or wrongly most people would say are very tough games in this league. All 3 relegated clubs away from home, Derby away who are very strong at their place, Forest at home who aren't easy to beat and Leeds and Sheffield United who are 2 of the top 3 at present. Throw in Bolton away which was a bogey ground and a derby day and again, not easy. We got through those 9 fixtures losing 2 and collecting 13 points, which is quite impressive. The disappointment I suppose is that we didn't accumulate more before then when playing the likes of Ipswich, Millwall and Reading, but then again we didn't lose any either. Having got through that tough run we now have a block of games that are kinder, yet in particular the home games are likely to be completely different kettles of fish against sides happy to come for a point. The thing that really impresses me is the work ethic and never say die attitude. Rarely are we out of a game. There seems to be a real consistency in our effort and application and determination to not lose games. To have only lost 3 games so far, and 2 of those we actually did ok in, is very impressive. I have one or two concerns about how long we can maintain our efforts. We've seen injuries begin to appear through the team and whilst we've so far coped ok with losses, it might not continue. The table makes for pleasant reading at the moment and a big plus is to be on 25 points after only a third of the season. Maintain this return and we'll be looking at 70 points, but even a significant decline would still afford us breathing space in terms of relegation.

Not wanting to be controversial here or upset anyone on the Forum but my understanding was that the trip to Pune was paid for in its entirety by the owners. To me an all expenses paid trip to India to meet the owners and watch Rovers in a friendly game is a once in a lifetime opportunity and anyone able to go would have done. I don't doubt that people on the Forum give up a great deal of their free time for the club and that's great. But accepting an invitation from the owners to be whisked away in relative luxury to India, well i think 99.9% of people would have grasped that opportunity with both hands if offered to them, providing of course their personal circumstances enabled it.

Other point is that of those 11 fixtures we have Preston and Swansea kicking off at noon, and Derby and Wigan kicking off during midweek when they will be available on the red button. So that's 7 at most, assuming none of the others get moved for tv or 'safety' reasons, that will be taking place at the traditional kick off time.

I try to think back over the last few years in the Championship how many coaches have taken over as a Caretaker manager and then have been successful. in a permanent capacity. The obvious one with us was Bowyer, but i think that was as much the stability and calming influence he brought to a club in chaos off the pitch and the circumstances here were far from normal. In terms of others - Ramsey got a crack at QPR but didn't last very long before being replaced by Hasselbaink. Think Neil Adams had a spell at Norwich before swiftly being replaced by Alex Neil who turned them around and got them promoted via the play-offs. Darren Wassall and Neil Redfearn were put in permanent charge at Derby and Leeds having previously been reserve coaches but neither really did much and were replaced shortly after. I suppose it could be said that Warburton at Brentford was the ultimate success story for a bloke who came from nowhere, but again Brentford have a unique way of doing things. For whatever reason it just doesn't ever seem to end with success or last long term.

West Brom should have gone and appointed McCarthy and offered him a huge bonus to deliver promotion this season. I'm sure with their squad and a bit of cash he would have had them in the top 2 or thereabouts as Pulis will do with Middlesbrough. No doubt McCarthy arriving at WBA with his history at Wolves and his 'reputation' for 'negative' football one or two would have moaned but there's no doubt in my mind he was the ideal candidate for a club in WBA's position needing tried and tested to bounce straight back up. WBA are not a big club, nor do they seem to have an owner prepared to fund them heavily, so it is imperative for them that they get up either this season or next whilst armed with parachute cash and keeping their best players. Gambling on Moore was a massive risk, and whilst they're not far off the top it seems the honeymoon is coming to an end. So rare that a caretaker coach becomes permanent and makes a success of it.