That's on the basis they expect to go down and be challenging for promotion and bounce back immediately. Give it a few years of stagnation in League One and they'll soon change their tune.

Doubt Venkys would want or have the sense to sell even if they were after buying us.

Coventry have said that they won't be staying at the Ricoh next season and are in discussions with two clubs about groundsharing next season. The League are due to have an EGM in 2 weeks where expulsion from the league could be an outcome if they don't have something sorted. Interesting that when the news about the EGM came out a few weeks ago it was rumoured that the League were insisting that they stay in the Coventry boundaries and played no more than 6 miles from the city centre, yet it now seems they are prepared to compromise on that and allow them to groundshare further away. Presumably another 'arrangement' like at Bolton where the league are terrified of cracking down and making an example of these clubs due to uproar from fans and the media so they'll bend over backwards to accommodate them even if it means their fans can't or won't go watching them. Meanwhile down the pyramid in non-league the small fish get landed under a tonne of bricks when they do something wrong.

With ticket sales as they are they'll only need about 6 coaches for the whole lot of them. Portsmouth properly suffered through their financial chaos - relegation down to League Two, administrations, points deductions. It seems Bolton have so far got away lightly. Relegation to League One is the least they deserve after what has gone on this season. It would be a travesty for the league if they had found a way to survive ahead of those who pay their bills. The interesting bit will be the summer - income dropping, players will be looking to get out, potential embargo (if the league get round to it). If they haven't got the takeover done by then I can see them dropping a lot further.

Interesting to see that many Wigan fans are at the end of their tether with Paul Cook and want him gone either now or at the end of the season. A quick scroll through some of their forum pages and the majority seem to be completely fed up with him, his excuses, their performances and results and are unhappy with his team selections and overall approach. Then a few saying they should hold on or he hasn't done too badly if he keeps them up. Now granted they are in more danger than we are and their poor run has probably been going on slightly longer, but by the same token many would argue he at least matched if not bettered Mowbray's performance last season in winning the league on a smaller budget and has had to contend with a lengthy takeover. They're now on something like 1 win in 11 and 2 wins in 25 or something ridiculous like that. Point being that pressure building on the manager and criticism of him and question marks over his future is not some irrational behaviour demonstrated only by Rovers fans, that fans everywhere will criticise and the pressure will build regardless of past achievements and popularity. If it is clear things aren't working questions will be asked. Nothing also to do with Rovers fans being 'spoiled' 20 odd years ago either. Here and now if it isn't good enough complaints will be raised.

On which occasions this season with Reed and Travis in midfield (either as a central partnership or with Reed on the right) have we been 'annihilated' on the counter? I can't remember us receiving many comprehensive beatings in games they have both played in the side, nor in those heavy defeats do I believe they would have been averted had Smallwood/Evans been there instead. Brentford maybe but that also included Evans in CM so can't really lay the blame at Reed's door for that one. Same at Sheffield Wednesday. On recollection our 3 most recent and arguably convincing wins of the season were Hull, Wigan and Derby at home. In all 3 Reed and Travis started in midfield, in the latter two they were the CM partnership and against Hull I think Evans started with Travis with Reed on the right. 3 x clean sheets, 8 goals scored and comprehensive victories, 2 of them - against Derby and Hull - were against good or in form sides. I could completely buy into the argument that Evans and Smallwood are better defensively and protect the defence better than Reed and Travis but I can't see the data or evidence backing that up. Not only have we played better football but we've also managed clean sheets with them in midfield. For Bolton and Swansea home games and QPR away I think there will be a lot of unhappy supporters if we start either of those games with Smallwood/Evans if not enforced. He might get more sympathy at Forest and Norwich due to the standard of the opposition and us being away from home but at this stage in the season it would be nice to show some attacking intent in all our remaining fixtures with little to lose and also show some evidence of moving things on rather than going back to the tried and tested. Swansea ended up murdering us at their place with Evans and Smallwood in CM.

A funny old night in the Championship. At one stage Wigan, Reading and Rotherham all winning and Millwall/QPR picking up a point. Eventually it didn't end up so bad for us. Wigan are on thin ice and apparently have Norwich and Leeds coming up in their next couple of games so a win from somewhere for Rotherham and things could get very interesting. Reading managed to salvage a point at Norwich, it seems they're going to scramble out of it. I'd guess it will be one of Rotherham, Millwall or Wigan to join Bolton and Ipswich. QPR probably will be ok. Rotherham have it all to do with their remaining fixtures being tough and their away form poor.

I think Reed will only be convinced if he is told by Southampton that he's got no chance there and then is told by Mowbray that he's going to be played in his position with us every week. I doubt he'll be keen on coming here to play wide every week. Southampton will have a rebuild this summer under Hasenhuttl so whilst he might want to have a look at him I'd suspect he'll struggle to get much game time with them. The galling part will be if we fail to bring him back but then he turns up elsewhere in the Championship. He should be priority number one and the frustrating thing is that Venkys found millions under the mattress for Brereton yet Reed represents a far safer investment.

I agree with this. I think considering Travis began the season in the u23 setup, broke into the team the hard way, seized his opportunity and has ranged between excellent and competent at worst in the Championship means he gets my vote. A significant step up made successfully. Just a shame it took so long and only happened one Smallwood was banned.

Very pleasing and impressive performance. One of our most consistent over 90 minutes and among the finest of the season. I was afraid that we were never going to score as time wore on or even a slip up would allow them to snatch one. Thankfully we got there and I was very pleased to see Rothwell score. Before then he'd had a few excellent opportunities and missed them and I was worried about the impact it would have on him if he didn't get some reward for his efforts. I was concerned at seeing 5 changes as I worried about more tinkering and large scale changes but tonight it was what we needed. Williams and Lenihan looked solid and reliable, dealing with what came their way. Not just good in spells but good for almost the entire match and certainly full value for the win. Good to see us attacking with intent for a second goal rather than trying merely to protect the 1-0. Reed and Travis excellent in CM and its a real shame we haven't seen more of them together there. If O'Neill and Keane are watching videos of our last two games during their preparations for Saturday they won't have a clue what to expect. Chalk and cheese stuff. The contrast between the approach on Saturday and that tonight unbelievable. A massive win to take us to 50 and almost certain survival now. Mowbray's had some stick since Saturday so he should enjoy praise tonight. I hope he can maintain that sort of approach and level rather than reverting to the other side of our Jekyll and Hyde character.

Isn't that against the law as well as being in breach of contract?

What happened last season isn't really relevant in terms of whether we were any good or how we went about it. End result was promotion. Job done. Pats on the back all round. Corrected the calamity of 2016-17. Mowbray has been praised for that, well paid for that and presumably had some sort of bonus for achieving that. Now we're in April 2019 and in freefall. I don't see why what happened more than a year ago has anything to do with where we are today. Since then we've dished out new contracts, spent £10 million on players and not had to sell anyone, so circumstances have been as good as anyone could really have expected. At the time of writing we are in a right old mess however people want to try and dress it up. Some have faith Mowbray can and will turn it around, others don't have that faith. I'm somewhere in the middle- I'm not particularly confident he can or will do but I'm not clambering for his sacking, though admittedly if I had any confidence in the club to conduct a thorough and coherent search for a better manager then I probably would be, and if this continues much longer then I probably will be. I like Mowbray and appreciate the job he has done overall but no manager anywhere should be immune for criticism or the sack especially as the club is plummeting and performances are dismal. The club comes first and individuals come second. Or at least it should do.

If they had started off this way with away fans upstairs and kept home fans downstairs in the other half then they shouldn't have needed any segregation anyway. I can see merit in it if it enables home fans on 4 sides of the ground or enables us to charge away fans more than home fans but neither of those are happening and they still have to open the downstairs area for disabled. There must have been 40+ in there on Saturday.

Whatever happened to Josh Vela? Was highly rated at one time and still quite young.

Can someone better versed than me in these sort of things help with a few questions: 1) Am I correct in thinking that when Venkys inject cash into the club and this is done via issuing shares of £1 value that the shares issued are in Venkys London Ltd and not Blackburn Rovers Ltd? As such the number of shares in BRFC remains the same and the number of shares in VLL increases massively by millions a year? 2) When they pump cash in do they always do it by issuing shares in VLL? 3) In terms of the £138,941,619 'investment' in BRFC Ltd - this is the number of shares in BRFC owned by VLL or was close to it last time I checked - has this gone up under Venkys or was this the number of shares bought from the Walker estate? 4) Am I correct in thinking that should Venkys want to sell BRFC then they could do so at whatever price they wanted, including effectively giving the club away, by signing over VLL's shares in BRFC to another company and absorbing the shares in VLL (worthless without ownership of Rovers) as a cost to them?

For some reason their fans seem to think the league should ignore the rules to make them more attractive to potential buyers. Conveniently their next court hearing won't be until after the season has finished, so no liquidation until then. Is it really too much to ask for the League to enforce their own rules rather than attempt to wriggle out of their responsibilities? It seems they are determined to do whatever they can to ensure that Bolton fulfil their fixtures this season, including lending them money. If/when they go down it will be interesting. Last time round they were in a similar boat to us with a squad too good for League One and not much by way of competition other than Sheffield United. This time round might not be as smooth a ride, especially with 3-4 of Ipswich, Barnsley, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Charlton probably in there too.

I expect to see a bumper crowd tonight. Frank Lampard is their manager (if you didn't know) so that is bound to see folk queuing down the road for tickets.

Can someone explain to me how the club can 'review' early kick off times and move towards only TV games being moved from 3pm? The club has said, more than once, and is on record as saying, that they are powerless in these circumstances and they have to do as the police instruct them. So they can review things all they like. Unless they can persuade the police to change their policy then things will continue as they have been. Unless Rovers lied previously and they do have a say over what time games are?

'Mowbray had hoped to have been experimenting with formations and personnel as their season drifts towards its conclusion' Forgive me, I was under the impression that was what Mowbray had been doing all season long. The amount of unforced changes to tactics and personnel has been astonishing and in my humble opinion just one of the many reasons we appear to have no defined style or identity and often the players look baffled in games. I find this comment to be something of an insult to my intelligence. Mowbray's obsession with trying his 5 at the back even though it has rarely worked has seen it regularly deployed and then changed during games. He has introduced an alternating LB system with Bell and Williams, he has signed players (Rodwell) with a view to using the season to convert them into different positions. He has spent the last 2 seasons playing players in wide positions who aren't used to playing there or don't really like playing there - Reed, Payne, Armstrong, Antonsson, Brereton. I dread to think what 'experiments' he had planned had we been 5-10 points better off and safe already. He's shown no serious desire to use the younger players - Travis only got an opportunity in the team due to Smallwood's suspension, Magloire only because there was nobody else left and Buckley a brief cameo.

Forgot to add the excellent Black Bull which isn't too much of a walk down the hill or a short cab ride.

Yeah, if you think the range of pubs within walking distance of Ewood is the problem I'll have to disagree. Off the top of my head we have Golden Cup, Uncle Jacks (closed last time I went past), Fernhurst, Fox & Hounds, Brown Cow, White Bull, Moorgate, Wellington, Lord Raglan, Ivy and Navi all within 15 minutes walk of the turnstiles. Quite a healthy selection of proper pubs. Far better than the out of town retail setups at places like Derby, Bolton and Reading. The town centre is pretty poor but I suspect the vast majority of Rovers fans don't pass through the town centre anyway. The atmosphere at Ewood is poor though. OK a large part of that comes down to having a half empty stadium and it is probably similar to PNE, Bolton and Wigan in that regard, but the club could certainly do more to deviate from the tried and tested matchday routine.

Sadly if we aren't there already then we're getting there. 1 win in 11 is dreadful. By Saturday night I'd be pleasantly surprised if it isn't 1 win in 13. Was looking last night at his pre-sacking/resignation runs at Middlesbrough and Coventry. At Middlesbrough in season 2013-14 they started off with 2 wins from their opening 12 league games and he was sacked despite being a club legend. Before then he'd had them pushing for the play-offs and was worshipped by their fans but they accepted time was up. At Coventry in season 2016-17 they started off with 0 wins from their opening 10 league games and he walked. Before then they'd been in promotion contention and was liked. We're now in very similar territory. A shame but this is clearly not the first time he's done this and it has ended in his departure. Turning this around is not going to be easy. I might have more confidence had I something to cling on to - if we were playing enjoyable football, were defensively strong or scoring plenty of goals but there's none of that. Ideally it is see how the next 6 go and then make a decision after that on the basis of what happens but the way things are going we might not be in a position to wait that long.

Our record against local rivals over the last 6-7 years has been dreadful. Beating us may well be the only thing they have left to play for by then.

Rotherham's next 3 games are Villa at home, Stoke and Swansea away. I think they'll struggle to get many points from those, but would anyone be surprised if they did Villa and won? Just the sort of crazy thing that happens at this stage of the season that blows the relegation battle wide open.

We've got one slot to avoid as Bolton and Ipswich are doomed and will not catch us from here. There are 6 clubs from 3rd bottom upwards below us, including Birmingham who have been docked 9 points, QPR who are in as bad a run as we are, and Rotherham who have found wins very hard to come by. If we get sucked any closer to the bottom 3 than we are currently then I am going to start to panic. Reading/Rotherham turned us over recently, Millwall have just beat West Brom. Some people had the deckchairs out enjoying 'consolidation' in February seemingly unaware that safety hadn't been secured and that when you get into this stage of the season teams will fight for their lives and pull wins out of the bag. I suppose now is the time to wonder what might have been had Mowbray gone to Reading and played his best team, or if the team had shown some backbone after equalising v Reading and Rotherham rather than collapsing straight after.