Somewhat amazed to learn we have the best home record in the division, better than even Fulham. Time for our goal shy midfielders to step up; 4 goals from Buckley, Rothwell and Travis is pathetic (a thought brought on by Super-Atko being Rovers goal of the day on Instagram).

Given that ‘Boro let him go, Shrewsbury didn’t buy him and Burton seemed in two minds about another loan, I think Harry has bigger issues than Mowbray.

…while not risking getting a long-term injury

In TonyOz’s scoring system, based on actual contributions, he’s not even in the top 5.

While this transfer would be life-changing for Rothwell, getting promoted could well be life-changing for many/most of our other players. In their shoes I can’t imagine being well-disposed to Rothwell putting that at risk.

I’ll be amazed if he does anything in the Prem - schoolyard dribbler who loses possession more often than not. Half his assists are set pieces, so he may not be taking those anyway. But Brentford on Prem money can take five punts like this and, if one pays off and helps keep them up another year, they are still massively quids in. But we didn’t complain when he screwed Oxford out of a much-needed fee.

But did you ever ‘fess up your lifelong Rovers devotion to any other ref Tony…??

I’m not sure buyers would have a goal at the top of their decision factors given he’s averaged three goals a season for his entire career to date.

All this SG winger / down the middle BRFCS mantra is far too simplistic. It seems pretty clear to me that, when the opposition have it at the back, Buckley plays in the middle between Khadra and BD/SG, who are pretty wide near the touchline cutting off passing options to the fullbacks. Buckley is usually the most forward as he’s the best presser. As soon as the ball goes forward, Buckley drops back into a forward midfield position and the two forwards come in from the flanks to play as a two. It’s been this way ever since we went to a back 3, Hull excepted.

Fabulous three points. Buckley ran the first half, Tayo and Gallagher combine for the winner, Johnson was good value second half and the only chances created by tactical genius Wilder were from set pieces - for the majority of the game they had no idea what to do with their possession. Gallagher great effort in the last ten also. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was in no doubt whatsoever our fabulous defence weren’t going to concede two. And, ifI was Nyambe, I’d sign that contract before going home.

I’ve taken to closely watching the movement of our midfielders when we don’t have the ball and Travis is by far the best at seeing opponents movement and passing options and cutting them off through his movement. Buckley does it somewhat when he’s not leading the press and Rothwell is the most static when we are out of possession and it’s in the middle of the park. But then he’s the most mobile when we do have it.

But we didn’t rely on luck. We scored from the best quality attack from either side and our keeper made two saves.

Happy with a point on the day. Today showed just how much our creativity depends on Buckley, with him off colour there was very little else. Rothwell wasting a series of set pieces killed our momentum in the last 15 and Nyambe has no clue how to play wingback. Three centre backs all immense as usual.

I don’t know why people are surprised our Academy graduates get paid less than players bought from clubs higher up the pyramid than us. It’s just a fact of life that people get paid a premium for taking the risk of leaving a workplace they are very comfortable in plus most likely moving house etc. It also needs to be factored in that meeting the demands of the three may well not sit too well with the other first teamers who signed their presumably lower contracts in the last year or two. The only one I’d go over and above for is Lenihan, who I think has been a revelation on the right side of a three. It totally suits his game and turns some of his key weaknesses (getting drawn into midfield, getting too close to the right touch line) into strengths. It’d be crazy to sell any of them in January though, so I think they are here for the promotion push no matter what.

Learned what? Playing the back five has been the season-changer.

Interesting situation now. It’s clearly not in any of the holdouts’ interests to sign a pre-contract with any team not mid-table or better in the Prem or they may end up still in the Championship while we are in the Prem, and I don’t think any of them are good enough to attract that kind of suitor. It’s also not in our interests to sell any of them this window. So I think no-one is going anywhere. Once we get to summer, the shoe is on the other foot: we’ve either gone up or given it a good go. If they all want Premiership football and we haven’t gone up, the only temptation may well be one of the relegated teams, and that can go either way. If we have gone up, they’ll sign for what we offer them.

This team is better than any of the pre-Kenny play-off teams imo. Keep injury free and don’t sell Diaz and we have every chance.

Considering Brereton has touched the ball three times and Rothwell just taken corners, this has been a very dominant performance so far. It’s clear Brum think Bucko is the man to stop. Also interesting that Nyambe has been relieved of throw-in duties.

“Like i always say to jbizz though there is no proof either way in regards to Rovers wage bill as unless we see a breakdown of accounts in detail nobody knows.” I would say the single most reliable number we know about Rovers is the wage bill in the accounts. All the auditors (not based in India) have to do is tally it to salary payments made to staff. Plus tax/NI are directly derived from it.

Back to a fantastic team performance. The two biggest things that struck me were just how well-drilled this team is - everyone knew their job and did it well - and how much more onfield communication there is: a player breaks ranks to close someone down and simultaneously points to someone else to fill their gap. Also, the folly of opining on players’ capabilities after a handful of appearances was laid bare by our two best players being Pears and Pickering. I thought Pears had a better game than Kaminski has all season. And Van Heck’s header plus celebration were worth the £10 alone, that guy gets pumped!

Would it be trolling to mention that Bucko nutmegged Whiteman in the buildup to our goal..?

This is the most I’ve liked a Rovers team since the Hughes era, and that back 3 are amazing. Talk about grinding out a win plus a real class goal from nothing thanks to Bucko, Khadra and Diaz.

Definitely need to swap Johnson for one of Buckley or Rothwell. I’d also bring Dolan on instead of Khadra.

You might want to look up the definition of average.

Or for the 99.999% of managers who aren’t as good as Shankly, Paisley, Ferguson, Dalglish and Clough. Or are you suggesting being as good as them is merely a matter of effort?