You also stated on Rovers Chat in August that if Mowbray lasted the season then we would be definitely relegated! You were proved wrong of course.

I totally agree. I think we might get walloped against Bournemouth but we might get a draw or even a win. I’d love to be proved wrong. But I’m just a cynic like you.

I seem to recall the same comments made about Brereton. Some players develop at different rates. I like to think that Mowbray sees something in him otherwise he wouldn’t be anywhere near the first team squad. Let’s see how his career develops before we dismiss him.

Don’t you think this young man deserves support from both management and fans alike? What do you think the S stands for in BRFCS? Are you so sure that he has no future here?

Excellent preview Andrew! I very much appreciated your historical input.

Really enjoyable game. The players’ work rate was amazing and we more than matched the probable Champions today. Some great interplay at times and I don’t think anyone had a poor game although Buckley might be frustrated with his performance. Lenihan and H-B were outstanding again with Kaminski making 3 crucial saves. For once I agree with Talksport in that Tony Mowbray’s subs were well timed and helped see the game out although we might have snatched it at the end with Rothwell.

That’s a great story. I too trade in Bitcoin and the returns at the moment are amazing although I agree it is high risk. It eclipses by far from what you get betting on footy or horses. The current price for 1 Bitcoin is £36,000 as of a few minutes ago! So I’m wondering what crypto coins your friend has got?! He’ll be able to buy out Venky’s; own the club, relay the pitch and dish out free season tickets if he’s got Bitcoin!

We even got our own game report in the Times this morning. I quote: “Reports from India say that Venky’s, the Rovers owners are displeased with the situation but a change of manager is not thought to be imminent.” First time I’ve read about Venky’s “concern” but no explanation as to these “reports”. What will not help the fans’ mood is what Mowbray said next “ We move on to the next game and hope our luck changes”. I can’t believe we’ve gone from play off contention to a relegation scrap in a few short weeks. The parallel with Hull is very worrying.

Really interesting thread Rover99 and one I’ve been thinking about for some time. I recall Gary Bowyer getting criticised as he supposedly had a top 6 squad but failed to get them there. I think there are 3 elements to this question. Firstly, if you believe in the top 6 statement then it seems to me that Tony Mowbray deserves credit for assembling the squad. Secondly, the fact that we have not been a top 6 club this season is a big negative against the manager and he faces criticism for his tactics, team selections etc. as supporters claim we are underperforming. Like someone commented previously we as fans think our squad is better than most and should be doing better but often it’s based on a hunch or gut feeling. Is there any way that we could use objective, empirical baseline data to answer the question? Which leads me to the third element. If you compared all 24 squads in the Championship, looking at the goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards and applied skill based data to each area and quantified it you could arrive at a crude score for each team and thus be aware of which teams were over or underperforming. I’m not sure if such data exists but it would be an interesting exercise. I do know that in the world of education over the last 30 years such base line data has been applied to our pupils so managers and teachers have an idea what an individual pupil should be capable of and whether schools are under or over performing when it comes to public exams. I well remember being appraised every year over my exam results as other teachers on here will empathise with. I know it’s not exactly scientific but last months Four Four Two magazine studied the remaining Championship fixtures in 2021 and they had Rovers finishing in 9th place. The top 6 were Norwich, Watford, Bournemouth, Brentford, Swansea and Middlesborough so it will be interesting to see how accurate their magazine writers are.

I agree with what you are saying about Jack Walker and the town and how much pride we all felt in the Golden 90’s but two thoughts spring to mind. Firstly, the Walker family were not slow themselves in undermining his legacy by selling the club to Venky’s and secondly, if we are £196 million in debt then perhaps a chance for our owners to make £50/60 million by selling some part of the Brockhall facility to maintain our very existence as a football club should at least be considered as long as it doesn’t impact massively on the playing side.

You are rather prone to exaggeration. I don’t really take any notice of what you say. It doesn’t make any sense.

I thank you for your response. I was not aware that titles of threads could be changed. I did not find it funny especially after a defeat and I didn’t expect the reaction my post has caused. I’m clearly out of tune with the majority on here so I had better exit stage left!

Of course I’m serious.

What gives you the right to change the title of the thread? You are setting a precedent surely? I’m pretty sure this was not how Lee Grooby and his friends envisaged how this message board would develop when it was started in 1996. You have overstepped your role and I feel that what you’ve done is out of order.

I’m not sure which is worse watching us lose today, reading some very childish posts on here or watching the Rugby. It’s been a horrible day!