I've been, and may continue to be a Bell critic, but that was a very good 45 from him. 

I thought Buckley showed on maybe 3 occasions that he has the ability and vision to make him an exciting prospect. That said, this game may be dictated by how well we can perform out of possession. Would be surprised if he makes it through the 90.

Looking at Fulham at Ewood and now tonight, it's obvious that they have some very tidy players who can keep the ball, but if they lose Mitrovic then they're sitting ducks in the play offs for me.

16 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Derby v Fulham tonight.

Preferred result a draw?

We'll probably only know in a few weeks, but I'd say so.

Really interesting one, as if we assume that we put the sort of form together that could get us to around 6th, then Fulham are on the cusp of being catchable, but equally we're just about catchable for an improving Derby.

Given that we've got Derby away in a few weeks and potentially could face Fulham in the play offs, the best outcome is probably them kicking each other off the park!

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

Iv been pretty resolute throughout that Walton is an upgrade on Raya in terms of his all round game. But I don’t remember Raya being THAT bad with crosses. Sure he was prone to the odd rush of blood but he wasn’t terrible. Just play our game. Stifle Brentford and get Arma in between cb’s.

I think the issue was more that he didn't come for crosses, rather than making that many mistakes when he did. He made a few like you say, but I think the extra demands that are placed on our defenders was seen as the bigger issue.

2 minutes ago, Inglorious basturk said:

While I try to resist my curiosity of the protected   Species hypocritiotocus chadomus really my overall feelings with Mowbray are of hope but I just can’t help think that when we have our good spells it’s luck rather than judgement , often it seems his hand is forced . I would be utterly delighted to be proven wrong 

You may be right, but all I'd say to that is that lucky men don't tend to stay lucky forever. After a while the law of averages kicks in, and then it's only right to judge a manager on his record in those circumstances.

8 hours ago, SoldierMo said:

No way duff and jansen a million times better

Duff yes, but as much as I love Matty I'd rate Bellamy higher.

For the season he was with us I'd even put him slightly higher than Benni and Santa Cruz 

47 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

I'd like to refer to it as a must not lose but really nice to win game ?

Either way I can't see me getting much sleep tonight!

I'm not sure I'd even go as far as that. The carrot for winning is massive, no doubt about that. But we can probably lose 3 or 4 of our remaining games and still have a good chance of finishing 6th. If we're edged out in our hardest looking away game, we live to fight another day.

11 hours ago, Husky said:

Does it refer to building Rovers Financially or Team Progression on the Pitch. As those 2 things are contradictory - as 'making money' would imply selling your best players for a profit which would of course weaken the team.

I don't think these ideas are necessarily contradictory. Look at Brentford, they continually invest in good young project players and implement principles about how to play etc whilst occasionally selling the crown jewels for big money, then reinvest. You could argue this was the Hughes model when he was at Rovers.

More I think about it, the more this week coming looks quite a lot like the one a fortnight ago. A 3 game week, starting with a very tough fixture before a very winnable mid-week home game, before a tricky game to round it off.

Like last time, 6 points from 9 represents a successful week as I see it. Brentford away is as hard a game on paper as we have left, so not a must win by any stretch in my view. It does mean that the pressure is heaped on the Stoke & especially Swansea games though.

If we do win, then I'll believe for the first time that we're actually going to get in there this year and not fall just short.

10 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Keep the team how it was vs Charlton, we were better in every aspect. They have some good defenders but when we've got corners / attacking free kicks get Lenihan, Johnson and Adarabaiyo on Raya and let's put the little tit under some pressure. He has a drop in him.

It's on Sky which often means a Rovers loss but I'm going to go for a score draw here. 1-1.

Take that result in a heartbeat. I've a feeling that we'll put in a decent performance but be edged out 2-1. Obviously hope I'm wrong, but on paper this looks like it may be the hardest game we have left.

Apparently Jensen went off injured for them on Saturday. Meant to be an important cog in their machine, hopefully means they won't be at their most fluent. 

8 hours ago, Ossydave said:

We haven't missed Rothwell at all, if I'm a bit harsh so be it but in my opinion he's a brfcs enigma and actually average.....

Enigma certainly. Wouldn't call the boy average though. Clearly has the talent to hurt teams, the next level for him is finding consistency.

35 minutes ago, dingles staying down 4ever said:

Last season could you say the same with all the player you mentioned? Even though it was clear that Mulgrew legs had gone last season he started this season. Williams only lost his place through injury but has played this season. Smallwood was used as an example of how to play midfield last season for Travis and Harrison to follow.

There was always a Champonship player in Evans but it took Smallwood's silly sending off to give him a decent partner in Travis to play alongside him.

Mowbray's loyalty to players is no myth. Bobby Saxton also suffered the same.

Last season fair enough. I still think there's a meaningful difference between a manager too loyal to players and one giving a promoted side a crack of the whip to begin with though. 

I'd take issue with a few other things too, Mulgrew may have started our first game but his being sidelined was clearly on the cards. Travis started alongside Richie at Sheff U too, so he was close to breaking through.

In the main though, judging off this season alone, TM has been pretty ruthless with the players who were meant to be his pals. Even Benno, who gets far too much grief from some who have short memories imo, hasn't been starting recently.

Basically, there are fair criticisms of Mowbray, but I think there are a couple of red herrings which people often use and I think this is one of them.

10 minutes ago, dingles staying down 4ever said:

Even the most pro Mowbray supporter has to admit he has his favourites which can be detrimental to the team.

Not sure that's true actually. Who would we put in that category? Smallwood's not had a look in all season. Mulgrew the same. Williams has barely played all year. I have criticised Evans plenty, but this season he has thoroughly deserved his spot.

Like others, I would've preferred to see Nyambe replace Bennett earlier than he did, but I think the Mowbray plays his mates idea has always been a bit of a myth to be honest. 

44 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

I think "must win" is bandied about a lot when games aren't actually must win. This isn't "must win" as there is still plenty to play for. A loss would be very bad needless to say and we do really owe them one for beating us earlier in the season. 

Whatever about the overall picture, a 0-1 point return from 2 games V Charlton would be very poor. That being said, these things can happen. Didn't we beat Newcastle twice the year we went down and they went up? 

Agree with this. A win makes it a good week despite losing to Fulham. Anything less is disappointing, but we still live to fight another day, even if it looks very tricky. 

20 minutes ago, speeeeeeedie said:

Anyone thinking of the playoffs after the Hull win?

Over the last 10 years only once has a team made the playoffs with less than 70 points. It was Leicester during Rovers first season down in 2012/2013. They finished 6th with 68 points(interestingly Peterborough went down with 54). Rovers need 7 more wins to get to that number.

The Championship is still wide open, everybody is beating everybody, so it won't take 74 or more to get in. I can't see Rovers winning over half of their remaining games though.

Before the Fulham game I thought we would've needed 6 points from this week to keep us in touch. I was really deflated after the game for that reason, but after yesterday I still think it's possible.

The Brentford game aside, we've got plenty of winnable games before the end of the season. Charlton, Wigan, Barnsley & Luton away, and we know that we're strong at home. 

In my heart of hearts, I think we'll probably finish just outside, which I'd see as progress and sets us up for a pivotal summer in the transfer market. 

Swallows, summers etc. But if a 20 year old from the academy made his debut yesterday with that performance, we'd be going mad. 

Not defending the money spent at all, but it's fair to say that at his age, most players are only emerging to be first teamers. His touch still looked very heavy, but very much improved from anything we've seen from him. Just hope he manages to kick on until the end of the season.

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

A pic on Instagram from the official account and it looks like Chapman training in the background with the first team. 

Good. He was getting a sniff about a month ago, but not really enough to impress with. He might still be a flawed player, but with the injuries in his position this could be the making of him. 

12 minutes ago, JoeH said:

He's fit & healthy, not got any injuries right now. I know a lot of people struggle to deal with it, but ALL the evidence from the last year points to him having a massive attitude problem/Mowbray not liking him as a person these days. He clearly is down the pecking order, got a few minutes just after Christmas and didn't set the world alight. JRC got 20 minutes at Sheffield Wednesday and was mightily impressive. Massive contrast for me with two players like that.

Rich Sharpe has said multiple times there's no injury/fitness issues for Chapman. The fact he isn't even getting game time in the 23's and TM is making comments in the LT about having private words with Harry Champan about his effort after training finishes when compared to Ryan Nyambe - all says to me that he's the issue...

There's clearly something, but it might be as much his lack of defensive work/ability which is stopping him. Think how long it took for Rothwell to get in the side, could be a similar thing with Chapman. 

Hopefully, given our injury troubles, his not playing on Monday was because he'll be in the squad at the weekend. 

3 hours ago, rog of the rovers said:

First of the interesting home games to come before the end of the season, which should not only decide any playoff ambitions, but also go a way to showing how competitive we'd even be if we managed to sneak into the top 6.

Saturday - Fulham (3rd)

*Then after Hull (14th) and Stoke (21st)*

29th February - Swansea (8th)

14th March - Bristol City (6th)

4th April - Leeds United (2nd)

13th April - West Bromwich Albion (1st)

Pre-Rothwell injury I was lucking my lips at those. Strong home record for a long time now and playing some very beatable sides away.

With the squad as it is now, it looks tougher, but you're still 100% right to say that we need wins from them to get in the top 6. 

On the Bennett at 10 thing mentioned elsewhere, he played the same role against Brentford at home last season and he was MoM. Pressing everything and not letting their better footballers settle one bit. 

Not saying the same thing would happen this time, or that he should be anywhere near there when any one of Dack, Holtby or Rothwell are fit, but given that we're playing some decent sides and we have to deal with what we have, it might not be a bad solution. 

The Holtby injury seems to force our hand a little bit. Either stick with playing the same way but relying more on youngsters, or switch tactic to playing two up top.

Fulham's defence has had plenty of off days this season, so I'd be tempted to change things and bring Graham back in. We're not going to out-pass Fulham, so having his know-how and ability to give us a platform could be vital. 

20 minutes ago, Prelude said:

Looking at what we have to work with in our attempts to push on for play offs.

I like Walton he is solid without being particulary spectacular but has improved this season (We would concede more if Jason was there)

The way I see it we can cope with 1 injury at centre back or left back but would leave us with them playing every game with no suitable replacements. If Nyambe gets injured and with his record will probably happen at some point. Whilst I know it is not his best postion I would prefer to try Costello there if there is an Injury bur we all know Tony will put Bennett there who is no longer good enough for championship football. Why is he still captain? Darrah should be captain.

If Downing gets injured or needs to be rested we have no suitbale replacement on the left wing other than Armstrong and he has proved in recent weeks he is more valuable up front. Chapman is an option but is unproven and I am sure rather than give him a chance will play someone else out of postion!

Any injuries in centre midfield before Rothwell comes back and we are screwed!

We have costello who is invaluable at the moment as he can cover several postions but still unproven at this level Davenport but can he hit the ground running ? Other possible option is Mulgrew although his legs have gone his distribution and set pieces have always been great but would be worried about players bursting past him.

If we lose Armstrong for more than a game or two that is the end of any small chance of playoffs. Unless some Miracle happens and Sam starts scoring and or Breaton finds his confidence!

My biggest worry is I have no faith in Tony using youth and potential if they are injuries and instead calling on the likes of Bennett, Smallwood etc.

Walton (Leutwiller)
Nyambe (Costello)
Tosin, Lenihan (Williams)
Bell (WIlliams)

Gallagher (Chapman)
Downing
Travis (Davenport)
Johnson

Holtby (Buckley)
Armstrong (Graham, Breaton)

Not included Rothwell as looks like he is out to March and Corey as we dont know when he will be back.

Not including Bennett,Smallwood or Samuel as they are not good enough for this divison.

What are your thoughts?

Keeping Tosin and Lenihan fit and playing is massive for us. We're stretched all over the pitch at the moment, but they're the ones who we miss the most when either are missing.

I still think we can do it, although how we deal with February might be make or break. Even though we're stretched, we've got four games at home and the Charlton game looks winnable as far as away games go.

If we can get through those games without anymore major injuries, pick up 3-4 wins and go into March with Rothwell, maybe Evans coming back in, then we have as good a chance as anyone.

5 minutes ago, Vilesinner said:

Personally I wouldn'tt rate him better than any of those. 

Game of opinions, but I seem to remember Andrews going on loan to Ipswich when we were still in the Prem and scoring a silly number of goals.

Goals aren't everything of course, but I think, but I think if we were to sign him now instead of when he looked like Ince's lapdog, he would've been seen very differently. 

2 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

I'm not convinced by this - we've looked worse when we've gone 442.

To be honest I'm only going off the Bristol City game, which I didn't go to, so I could be talking nonsense.

Just seems to me that given the Rothwell injury, we can move Downing to the wing, Johnson in the middle and have Graham up front. 

Just now, JoeH said:

Sell on fee doesn't work like a quick bank transfer into Tony Mowb's Lloyds and there's a cheeky 5mil and Jozwiaks a Rover. It'll be the summer before we see the effect of that compensation, but will help massively with FFP more than anything. 

Yeah, wouldn't expect that any dealings today (or lack thereof) could possibly be affected. Even so, assuming it would be somewhere between 5-8 million, then it should significantly change the complexion of the summer. Come on Ole! 

Just now, JoeH said:

Armstrong didn't start against Bristol City did he? I thought it was Gally and Breo?

Quite right, my mistake. I'd still look to go 442 though. Perhaps Graham with Arma instead of Gally