3 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I believe the u23s are playing tonight. Can someone confirm this and where they are playing

They are. Leyland at 7pm https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17372067.rovers-u23s-face-must-win-game-against-sheffield-united/ 

21 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Over the course of the season Mulgrews defending has been much better than Lenihans, without factoring in his goal return.

Mulgrew will rightfully be back in the team sooner rather than later although it would be folly to drop either Rodwell or Lenihan at the moment so the 2 options are to keep Rodwell and Lenihan together until theres a reason to bring our captain back in or bring him back as soon as he is fit and push Rodwell forward one alongside Travis. Changing formation would be a brainless move on the back of 3 wins to a formation that requires repetitive training and full committment to. And one that has never worked in the past.

Agree, but then again he's also looked better than Rodwell other than the last 2 games, and Lenihan has been top drawer since the new year. Genuinely have no idea how to best accommodate this without a change of system, could finally be the opportunity for Mowbray to go back to three at the back?

23 minutes ago, Don Said said:

I haven't seen it back on any of the highlights, but I've just remembered Rothwell's double-touch skill to get between two players and in to the box in the corner infront of the Blackburn End after a really good piece of work. A well crafted, clever little move that got everybody up off their seat ala Damien Duff, that's what we want to see at Ewood.

That really was a fabulous bit of skill. Unlucky that he didn't get a goal or assist to mark his contribution, but his introduction definitely gave the whole team a lift.

Not really a dig at Palmer at all, as they have totally different styles, but it's made me even more certain that it's no great loss if it means more opportunities for Rothwell. 

Reports from the North East that Boro aren't playing Downing as if gets one more appearance, it triggers an improvement in his contract and Boro are looking to reduce the wage bill.

Looking at the current top 6, I'd say Boro are looking the one with the most potential to drop out of the pack for us to target.

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Whilst you are right that the primary focus of under age football is development. Winning is still important and as Stuart says, there is a balance there, get relegated and we spend a season with our younger players not being tested in the same way that they are now.

I must say our future looks a lot rosier than even a month ago.

Travis has come in and even those championing his inclusion long before it arose could not expect a novice to come in and be so consistently excellent. His least effective performances were v Sheff United and on Tuesday for me and even then he was 7 out of 10.

Armstrong has really come to the fore in the last few weeks aswell. Big question marks around whether he could come close to replicating his incredible strike rate and performance level from last season in a league where he has previously struggled and bar the occasional performance (Leeds and Rotherham) he was again struggling and not contributing enough. This last week has seen 2 goals, 3 assists and 3 excellent performances.

Lenihan was one I had big hopes for but his rashness and incapability on the ball seemed to suggest that he perhaps wasnt good enough to justify the potential we thought he had. His performances recently have been the Lenihan we saw last season and lets hope it was just a (quite lengthy) drop in form.

Nuttall I had written off in terms of his capability to step up but he has impressed in the last week and with his recent numbers in the under 23s and he is a goalscorer, he can sniff out chances and is always on hand for tap ins. Needs a loan at some stage I would suspect but at the moment we cant afford to let him go.

Nyambe and Raya both still have a rawness to their game but both are more established prospects. Rothwell is very raw but theres potential there and he was excellent yesterday.

The elephant in the room is Brereton. Hes the one who cost the most who has shown the least sadly. 

Great post. Agree with pretty much al of it, only caveat would be BB's being the youngest, as well the most expensive but don't want to turn this into another BB thread when the other is over 100 pages!

On Nutall, I'm delighted that he's forced his way into the team, and has got hi goals. Having said that I'm still sceptical about his chances of becoming a long term fixture for a side who wants to get promoted, even as an impact sub, but even if that turns out to be true, I'd say we've already got our money's worth from a very low risk signing.

Rothwell's second half yesterday has shown that, when on form, he really does have absolutely everything to be a devestating player. Going to be some challenge to turn his cameo appearences into something a bit more consistent, but when it happens for him, I think it could happen all at once. Potential Dack replacement if he leaves over the next 18 months.

Great to see the progression in recent weeks.Hopefully banishing any suggestion that league one is his level.

Scoring goals, setting up goals, but increasingly making the right decisions in general play. He's been pretty unlucky with some finishes at Ewood this season too. Just over a million quid is looking like a great bit of business in today's market.

Just now, DE. said:

Is it a coincidence that Bennett was out during almost the entirety of our slump in form, and since he's returned we've suddenly improved? It's obviously not all down to him but his contributions are grossly underappreciated imo. Maybe the reason Bennett is in at right back ahead of Nyambe is because TM feels he needs experience on the pitch, rather than young heads who have proven themselves to be mentally weak when they have to defend a lead? Again not a knock on Nyambe specifically as he's obviously been a part of a lot of good moments in the past couple of years, but I can see where Mowbray is coming from as far as getting Bennett onto the pitch, even if it isn't in his preferred position.

Partial co-incidence, in my view. Quality of the teams we played in December probably had more to do with it.

That said, I rate Bennett a lot. The tricky part is getting him in a position where we can make the most of his strengths. The best performance I remember from him this season was I think Brentford at home, where he played at number 10 and his engergy and drive rubbed off on the whole team.

Clearly, he isn't going to replace Dack, so he's probably going to be somewhere on the right. Personally, I'd have him on the wing with Nyambe at the back when everyone's fit. Given that Nyambe's had hamstring issues and played big minutes midweek, think the lineup yesterday was right, but going forward I'd rather have Bennett on the wing.

Not enormously different from the better days under Bowyer. Main ones being that I think there's more evidence that Mowbray can be the man to take us further. More importantly, he's clearly taken the time to sort out the structures at the club, in terms of recruitment etc.

Would echo others, you can never be sure what's round the corner with Venkys, but we feel like a normal football club, and we have a team and manager to be proud of.

20 minutes ago, LA1Rovers said:

As long as Travis is in CM I'll be happy. 

Please not the two crabs together. (Love that phrase!)

 

2-1 t'rovers

Seeing him breaking out into sprints deep into extra time was an absolute joy. Some engine on him, that boy.

Don't forget this boy

Looked like Dack and Reed were struggling at times during extra time. Small mercy that it was on a Tuesday not a Wednesday.

Not as confident as I would've been a few weeks ago, but still expect three points. Mulgrew returning should make a big difference. 

11 minutes ago, rigger said:

But he was still on when the other two where scored

Fair. My point is just that if we're saying return of Smallwood = Rovers have lost again, we should at least be losing when he was on the pitch.

I thought he did well, but in any case, I think tonight has summed up where we are quite nicely. This team isn't ready yet, but there are signs that several of them could compete given time and a few of the right additions.

Just now, Stuart said:

On another note, although he didn’t have a bad game per se, Smallwood’s return coincided with defeat after the team did extremely well without him.

He sees to have a 50/50 player. Half the time he can be brilliant with blood and thunder tackles in him, the other half the ball just gets by him.

True enough, although in his defence the 2 winning goals went in after he was brought off!

Richie was a candidate for MoM today, and whilst Travis has easily done enough to keep his jersey, Smallwood has shown that reports of his uselessness have been exaggerated!

4 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Defending hasn't been good enough in the whole time Mowbray has been in charge. We are soft at the back. Newcastle are a poor side and conceding 4 to them is pathetic. Sorry 

Not disputing that we've had too much of a soft underbelly. Newcastle are a poor side at the top level, but we're not at that level. Matt Ritchie is an attacking player which would easily get into any Championship team. Murphy would walk into the vast majority of Championship first XIs. Joselu will be earning comfortably more than any of our team.

Also, talking about tonight, we conceded 2 goals in 90 minutes. One of those was enormously unlucky. Pathetic is a massive exaggeration.

4 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Conceding 4 at home to Newcastle reserves and a club in turmoil on and off the pitch that didn't really want to through anyway is pathetic no matter how you try to dress it up.

We conceded 2 in 90 minutes. One of those was an enormous deflection. There were a couple of times when the defending was not good enough, especially for their second, but there's no need to exaggerate. If we're talking about reserves, how about the fact that we only had one first team central defender available?

3 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

Yes but he won the league, that’s what the list is for.

Quite right. Just realised that after viewing the page for the fourth time!

But it's a disgrace that there's no Flowers option!

In a better team, certainly. Time plays tricks on you, but I genuinely remember thinking towards the end of his time at Rovers that you could make a case that Brad was the best in the prem era after Schmeichel.

I don't remember Lehmann having a too much of a stellar time at Arsenal, even though he was in a great team.

Just now, Paul Mellelieu said:

Why is Deck left out?

Rovers twitter say he's ill. No idea whether to believe that or not.

Partial update:

Dack, Rodwell & Downing all ill, apparently. As far as one believes that, explains Nyambe at centre back.

Got everything crossed for Brereton tonight. Happy to play the long game with him, but he could obviously do with showing some of what he's got in his locker tonight.

Just now, bluebruce said:

Nyambe at CH? Back three with wing backs? Guess we will just have to wait and see what's going on...

I can only see Nyambe at centre half, played there before a few times. Also, a back three would involve Bell playing there, which while I think he's had a bit of unfair press of late, doesn't bare thinking about.

1 minute ago, toogs said:

You can vote for the best title winning Keeper in the premier league era on the BBC website. 

Brad Friedel isn’t on it. 

Joe Hart is. 

Not having that Lehmann should be an option instead of Brad either.

14 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Shaun Edwards got a high tackle resulting in a fractured cheek bone after 5 minutes of a Rugby League Cup Final at Wembley. He played on with that for the next 75 minutes. Just saying.

Even sat in the dressing room with his cheek faced away from the coach so he didn't clock how bad the injury was and bring him off. Hard as nails.

Back to the football, this could come back to bite me, but I really think that we'll do them tonight. Without Shelvey, I'm not convinced they have that much more than us on paper, and everything coming out of St James' suggests that they're simply not that bothered. We score first and how much are they going to want to get back in it, with potential extra time?

3-0 Rovers

Just now, BlackburnEnd75 said:

Think Evans and Mulgrew won't be risked. I'd go

                                Raya

Nyambe      Lenihan       Rodwell         Bell

Bennett       Reed            Travis         Armstrong

                             Dack

                            Graham

Subs: Leutwiler, Grayson, Smallwood, Rothwell, Butterworth, Brereton, Nuttall.

Wouldn't be against having Smallwood in somewhere, given he's had the last few weeks off, but I'd be more than happy with that. 

Also, any excuse to post this