Must admit I'd forgotten how bad the scheduling for this was last year. I've just looked back and about 40% of the games were played on the Sunday. Assuming that's because of demand from broadcasters, that's an absolute disgrace. 

37 minutes ago, JoeH said:

A feeling they'll move this for TV. But Wigan more than beatable, I've seen them on several occasions this season. They have a system that works for them in League 1 but Richardson isn't upto much for me. 

Really hope they don't. Beyond the obvious reasons, they've had some absolutely woeful FA cup gates over the years (they're not alone I suppose) so it won't do much for the 'magic of the cup' if a 20% full stadium is plastered on the TV screens. Not a classic draw by any means, so maybe a supposed derby has a chance of getting picked, but fingers crossed they'll be sensible and look elsewhere.

Interesting view about Richardson. I don't really follow their results closely enough to really know one way or another, but having spoken to a couple of their fans there's a perception that he might've been the brains behind Cook's success. Obviously easy to make 5 from 2+2 when Cook was doing badly at Ipswich, but that perception is definitely there. Their squad looks like your standard 'good for league 1, not good enough for the Championship' outfit with the likes of Max Power, Will Keane et al. Will have to wait to see what sort of team we put out, but I expect us to win.

I'm from Wigan so I'm very happy with this. Hopefully the pricing is sensible and we'll take a bumper following. 

18 minutes ago, Spartakfenni said:

 Can’t agree Dunk, Duffy and Burn are 29/30, Duffy couldn’t get into a shit Celtic side last season. He’s just average this season (Dunk is by far the best), and will be found out. Obviously Ostigard and Van Hecke are being groomed to replace them. They plan ahead, not like maggot and Mowbray. Khadra would have been a first team player for them now if it wasn’t for a serious injury last season. This again is a no chance deal, enjoy him for this season as he won’t be here next season.

There's Webster there too, who they paid decent money for and is only mid 20s. I think they're well stocked for the next couple of seasons anyway. You could well be right, but it's not obvious to me that Van Hecke is being earmarked as a likely starter for them in the near(ish) future.

They'll probably still want to keep him to see how he develops all the same, but at least it seems feasible that they'd let him go in a way that was never on the cards with a Tosin or Harwood-Bellis.

24 minutes ago, Spartakfenni said:

Simple word no. Brighton signed him over 12 months ago and sent him out for a seasons experience in the Dutch premier league. He played most matches and has come here for the more physical aspects of the English game. He destined to replace that donkey Duffy. I’d assume you’d want him back!

Not so sure. I'm not confident that he'll be available but they already have four senior centre backs at a good age. Apparently Ostigard at Stoke is actually their player too, so he's got a fight on his hands if he wants to play there in the next couple of years. 

This doesn't mean that we'll be able to get him on the cheap, obviously, but I think both him & Khadra might end up being realistic signings in a way that other loans we've had in the last couple of years haven't been. 

33 minutes ago, rigger said:

With reference to Carters future. I think that of the center backs on our books, he is 4th choice behind Lenihan, Wharton and Ayala. His problem is that he maywell, be soon overtaken in the pecking order by Ash Phillips.   

I hadn't thought about Phillips to be honest with you. The boy's only 16 though, so even if he is exceptional (fingers crossed!) it doesn't seem likely that he'll be considered to be regular for the first XI for a couple of years at least. By which time Carter will be 23 & I'd guess too that Ayala will probably have been phased out by then. I think he'll get a window to show that he's ready, even if we sign Van Hecke permanently. I think he just needs to play as much as he can before then and not stagnate. 

17 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

I'm noticing that also. We seemed fairly comfortable closing out the PNE game.....in comparison to other games at least 🙂

3 minutes ago, only2garners said:

We were very comfortable closing out the Stoke game too.

What seems important to me is that we have twice now won 1-0 in very difficult weather conditions when we have not played at our best but have still been fairly comfortable. Saturday's win was hard fought in conditions that didn't suit our game at all but we found a way to win. No doubt there will be games where we play better and fail to win but the more often we don't concede the fewer those times will be.

Both of those made all the more impressive given we did it without Ayala, who (probably fairly) was getting most of the plaudits for our 'proper defending' earlier in the season.

38 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Burnley might be going through a rough patch at the moment but I’d still rather stay away from them, especially at the Turf. They’re still a goal better than we are. I always look at it like this - how many of our players would get in their team ? Having said that the gap between the respective teams is narrower that it has been for a long while.

They're certainly still the better side on paper, no question. I think there's an element of us getting slightly giddy at our recent form, but at the same time it would be a great time to play them when they're absolutely in the relegation mire and their already pretty small squad has just gone through the Christmas period. Dyche has never really treated the cups seriously at the best of times, so the prospect of losing to the big rivals when they're in the division below puts them in a sticky position in terms of how seriously they should take the game. 

I'm still not sure if I actually want to play them, but this is the first season where I'd not necessarily expect a hiding. 

25 minutes ago, Dreyski said:

I'm as surprised (but pleased) as anyone that Wharton has become an integral part of our defence, given his seemingly endless loan status and last season's injury. The player I'm most worried about now is Carter, especially if Van Hecke continues to perform and is available on a perm. If Van Hecke is an upgrade, then that's how football should work, but barring injuries, Carter might become our new 'eternal loan'. I like Magloire, but don't think he has a future at Rovers, unfortunately.

I'm not overly concerned about Carter in the long term, but there's no doubt that he needs to play. I can understand why we kept him involved in the first team given where we were at the start of the season, but he's well and truly 5th choice now (arguably 6th if Johnson is considered there when we play 3 at the back).

He has all the raw materials of being a good player for us in the future, and we have the perfect example in Wharton of what a couple of good loan moves can do for development. He should have several L1 teams who will be happy to take him for 6 months after how well he did at Burton last year, so that's a no brainer for us in January.

Sadly I think you're right about Magloire. I think he'll have a perfectly decent professional career if he wants it enough, but he's 23 in a few weeks and he's not really ever looked like taking his chance when he got near the first team. 

9 minutes ago, 47er said:

I just cannot see him as a manager in the Premier League. It would be hard to stay up anyway but TM as manager is a handicap too far for me. I'm way ahead of myself of course!

Coincidence or not, the last year of his contract does seem to have got him moving.

Not a good omen for a new contract, rolling one may well be the answer.

 

Remember thinking that Southampton were unbelievably harsh when they sacked Adkins to bring in Pochettino. What a decision it turned out to be though, arguably still paying dividends to this day and you can make the case for it making the club hundreds of millions in revenue. 

Promoted teams usually suffer through making too many changes rather than not enough in my view, so in the still highly unlikely event that we go up I'd still be ultra cautious about doing anything beyond adding a fairly small number of players to the squad. Not exactly going full Norwich City, but using an unexpected promotion to get the club as a whole in a healthier state. For me that would need to include giving the manager (who, in this still very hypothetical scenario, would have worked wonders) a fair crack of the whip, but I accept this could be seen as being too squeamish to pull the trigger if we have someone lined up who could take us to the next level. 

11 hours ago, JoeH said:

100 of his friends, family & people from his town are travelling via ferry from Holland 🇳🇱 to Hull on Boxing Day to watch him play!

Genuinely love this. Just hope they're in the away end!

Not sure if either him or Khadra are going to get their chance in the Prem with Brighton, but both look like very decent prospects. If either are made available, I hope they'll be in the sort of price range where we could realistically be in for them. 

13 minutes ago, Ulrich said:

Weren't we 2nd with Kean? Just saying before I get attacked lol.

We were - not sure how many games in that was though. I always bear that run in mind when it comes to playing teams who have just come down early in the season. You can give them far too much respect, but at the same time they'll sometimes have the quality to take their chances tight games. Rhodes, N. Gomes and Pedersen in particular repeatedly came to our rescue in those opening weeks in games we didn't really deserve much from. Hull, Leicester and Leeds away spring to mind as games where we got out of jail, but there are probably others.

Suffice to say the rest of the league quickly cottoned on that there was nothing to fear from us under Kean and we quickly dropped towards the relegation spots.

23 minutes ago, Rochdale_rover said:

Just tying to think of the games scott has played in the championship for us.

 

I have it down as 14 games. 8 wins 5 draws and 1 defeat.

Some record. Keep it up fella . 

I was thinking to myself yesterday that I couldn't remember him ever being on the losing side. I assumed that he probably would've lost a game or two under Coyle when he first got the odd game, but our results when he's played in the last couple of years have been excellent. 

I just hope his bad injury was just a freak one-off & his fitness generally won't be an issue in the future, because he's already looks top class at this level. 

4 minutes ago, tomphil said:

A nice day big out at somewhere we haven't been for a while will do me.

I know people have differing opinions on cup runs and so on but i'm more excited and interested in the league for the first time in years.  This squad is to small and thin to be competing in the cup as well.  A nice day out at Arsenal, Chelsea or Spuds would be good for them though and the fans.

Man Yoo or Liverpool at home ?  Nah thanks call me the grinch but all that does is give the legions of red plastic in East Lancs an opportunity to turn up and gloat.

I wouldn't mind seeing how our young crop of players handled a dingle derby though !

I'm one of those that still gets excited about cup runs - some of the best moments following Rovers in the last 10 years have been in the FA cup (although that probably says more about our league performance). But I agree that this year when a small squad is really outperforming expectations, it's probably one year where we need to be more conscious about not stretching our resources too thinly.

A game like Spurs away would tick a lot of boxes. New ground, decent scalp if we win but no shame if we get knocked out. Just as importantly, 50% of the >£1,000,000 gate receipts, half a chance of getting picked for TV too. Instead we'll probably get QPR or Millwall!

19 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

As much as I'm enjoying our time at the top, I can only believe that others will catch us up, Boro and Sheff United being the likeliest.

Probably, but I think that's why the fixtures between now & the New Year are so important. If we really cash in on these winnable games, all of a sudden it will give us a decent cushion over most teams in the pack. I worry about Sheffield United if they get on a run, but aside from them there are plenty of average teams in that bunch. 

My first thought was Harrogate would be nice for a new, local-ish away, but just seen that their ground only holds 5,000. Would be a mad scramble for tickets even for ST holders.

Would ideally like one of the bigger prem teams either home or away, or any NW team away. This year is first in a while where I'm not dreading drawing Burnley either. 

32 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

My team 

            Pears or Kaminski 

     Lenihan Van Hecke Wharton 

Nyambe                               Pickering 

           Buckley Travis Rothwell 

               Dolan Brereton 

Subs

Pears or Eastman(depends if Pears starts), Ayala, Edun, Davenport, Clarkson, Khadra, Butterworth 

Rovers to win 4-1.  Brereton with 2, Dolan and Buckley 

Interesting that you've gone for Van Hecke over Ayala, Chaddy. I think there's a decent player in Van Hecke, but I look at the physicality of Riis and Evans & I'd much rather have Ayala in there to deal with them.

Other than that I'd go with the same team.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19758092.blackburn-rovers-team-news-thomas-kaminski-injury-latest/ 

Kaminski update - personally think this sounds like he'll play but Mowbray's keeping his cards close to his chest. 

40 minutes ago, DE. said:

I don't necessarily have major concern over replacing Nyambe. Whilst I don't think it would be as easy or as cheap as some make out, Mowbray generally knows how to bring in a player that is suitable for the league we're in (keeping in mind the likes of Bell and Smallwood arrived when we were in League 1). His ability to deploy said players correctly is another story, and the obvious concern is that the owners never seem very keen on spending much money on defence. Certainly in terms of transfer fees. Overall though when you look at the replacements for Walton (Kaminski), Mulgrew/Williams (Ayala) and Bell (Pickering) there hasn't been any downgrade in those positions. Granted in the cases of Walton and Bell it would have been difficult to downgrade, but still.  

What's disappointing for me is that the weaknesses we're talking about in Nyambe's game are basically the exact same ones we were talking about when he first broke into the team. There doesn't seem to have been any signficant improvement in those areas over the years, and whether you blame coaching or the player himself for that it's still a shame as Nyambe has all the physical attributes to be an excellent RB/RWB. 

Agree completely with this - he turns 24 on the day of the PNE game, so you can't really put him in the young player category anymore. The most frustrating part is that he actually travels with the ball very well at times, and get into loads of decent attacking positions. If his final ball was was even semi-decent, it would make a big difference to us. 

All that said, I'd still be very happy if he signed a new deal. 

Preston don't impress me, but if your team has a soft underbelly they have players to hurt you. Kaminski & Ayala being fit will be massive for us. 

Got a feeling this will end in a draw, but I'm going for Rovers to edge a tight game 2-1

9 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Nyambe could be replaced with a couple of hundred grand spent in League One. The end.

There probably is a way of replacing Nyambe for roughly that sort of money, but only in the same way we could get a player like Samba for a similar fee. I.e. by spotting a bargain that others don't. I'd be very surprised if there's some right-footed Pickering in L1 waiting for us to pick him up for a knock-down fee. 

7 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

He's 6 foot 1, he's a short arse for a CH

Fabio Cannavaro was 5ft 8!

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

‘Hovering between L1 and L2 without Jack’… we’ve not spent a single season in the fourth division in our history! Unlike the rest of the Lancashire town clubs.

Come on lads, must try harder! 🥱

Most of my life as a Rovers fan has been spent without really giving them a seconds thought, so I find it hard to get too wound up about them now. But I find it completely amazing how often you get one of their fans piping up with the 'if we were in the Prem we would have had massive crowds' line. Completely oblivious to how not managing a single season in the top flight (and hardly ever getting that close to having one) for more than 60 years is a pretty good indicator of where you sit in football's pecking order!

38 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Aye, no wonder Hearts aren't keeping him.  They've paid him for the last 3 years and he's hardly played......Chaddy thinks he would be a good fit for the one of the most physically demanding  league in world football.......🤷‍♂️🙈

If he could stay fit I think that Souttar could do a very good job in the Championship, but I agree his injury record is a massive red flag. 

45 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

See, this is the nub of the issue. 

Mowbray isn't in the same stratosphere as certain managers we have had pre Jack like Furphy, Lee and Kendall.

The most accurate comparisons are probably Saxton v Mowbray and Mackay v Mowbray.

Mackay's funding was pretty limited apart from the period after Jack took over. And whilst I wasn't a particular fan of Saxton there's no doubt he had to oversee a period when we genuinely didn't have a pot to piss in, I recall a story doing the rounds in the mid 80's that consideration was being given to flogging the table in the Boardroom to raise a few quid.

Without looking at their respective performances in detail I'd say off the top of my head Mowbray has delivered worse results than the penniless Saxton on a champagne budget and way way worse performance than Mackay who with relatively less backing delivered several back to back play off finishes.

At the end of the day Mowbray is an extremely poor manager who has carved a lucrative career in coaching out of the back of a decent playing career. He's had barely any success anywhere he's been apart from West Brom and a heavily funded promotion campaign  here and it has been more common for his managerial stints to end in disaster and the sack within a relatively short space of time.

Has also been exceptionally fortunate here to survive three very disappointing seasons,  a near record 17 game losing run and a Club record home defeat despite substantial backing.

In summary a poor man's Saxton and a very poor man's Mackay. All that said we obviously all hope that a miracle occurs and we somehow scrape up via the playoffs this season with a hungry, talented but threadbare young squad.

Game of opinions, and I'm not under any illusions about Mowbray as a manager, but to be honest I find statements like he's an 'extremely poor manager' hard to take seriously. Somewhere near 50% of managers will never get another post after they lose their first job. Mowbray has managed a career over 15 years, mostly at a good level, and over 700 games. You don't get that sort of longevity without having something to offer, or without at least a half-decent body of work to fall back on.

That's also a very one sided view of the rest of his career. Just like at Rovers, his career elsewhere has been mixed, with very decent achievements alongside some very disappointing spells.  He won manager of the year with Hibs, where he never finished lower than fourth. The promotion season at West Brom (a season after reaching the play off final) was well funded to a point, but only because they were forced into a fire sale of most of their top earners from the previous year. He rebuilt a squad in 12 months and finished top, which was a long way from being a foregone conclusion. He failed badly at Celtic, and only had a bright start before the wheels fell off at Cov, but had two impressive years at Boro before hitting a bad run, and finished with a strong win %.