Bell's an odd one - he hasn't looked great (by any means) since he's been here, but he's looked in good form last couple of games and like he could do a job for us in some capacity for the next few seasons (a cheap option - not needing to bring someone new in with all that involves). On paper there shouldn't be a reason to offer him a new deal now, let him play the rest of the season, if he plays well then offer him a contract, if he continues to look poor don't. On paper. The problem is that I can see another (possibly similar mid to high championship) club looking at him and saying - 'he's young, he's free, he made the league one team of the season a couple of years ago, he hasn't been played consistently at Rovers, our management might get that extra 10% out of him, there could be a gem there'. And I'd get it too - he's the sort of low risk signing that many people on this message board want us to be sniffing around at other clubs. The worst case scenario is for another club to come in with an offer and for us to gt sucked into a panic fuelled bidding war on the contract of a player who's a 'maybe' at best. I can see it happening.

I thought he looked decent on the ball, tidy few touches, bit of pace, looked to get forwards. Also looked like he'd be brushed off the ball by passing butterflies. It could be that once he's had a bit of first team football and got used to having to stand up to first team professionals he'll be fine, it happens sometimes, the step up can be a bit of a shock. Alternatively we need to lock him in the gym for a month or two.

Honestly if thats true its as big a blow as losing Dack

You'd swap him for Bradley Orr?

I wonder if in Tony's mind Chapman is an out and out winger who can't play as a striker or in a more central position - in our normal formation with a front 3 (kinda) he clearly doesn't trust him but suddenly we go 4-4-2 and Chapman turns up on the bench? It's interesting to me more as an insight to how he see's the wide players usually - why he picks Gallagher etc. and sticks them out wide.

Did anyone make their debut in that game? This is past the Mandela effect, I may simply be losing my marbles!

In recent years I have confidently stated the following as facts on this message board. 1. Following Friedel scoring from a corner, Charlton broke up to our end direct from the kick off before Paolo DiCanio curled an absolute peach into the top corner before celebrating in front of our fans (I was in the stand behind the goal). It was a good goal, but Claus Jensen scored it - I'm not even sure DiCanio played for charlton at the time... 2. Chris Samba made his debut vs. Blythe Spartans in the cup. (It was Carlos Villanueva, though as many on the board took pains to point out it is understandable that I might confuse the two!) The keen eyed amongst you might notice that I have edited this post. That's because I also managed to convince myself momentarily that it was Mauro Formica, not C.V. To be fair he is also a dead ringer for big Chris.

Great as the last four games have been, I don't object to changing a player or two in the starting lineup to keep players fresh providing it's like for like. This formation works, don't start significantly altering it. IF Graham cant start week in week out then that's understandable, its a tough run of games over christmas and I'd rather have a fully fit Graham in 75% of them than a 75% fit Graham in 100% of them, but bring in Galagher, Brereton or sod it even Samuel if he's still about down the middle. Don't muck about trying to bring Armstrong inside or pushing Dack forwards, that causes a domino effect where we have to move one person to move one person to move one person. If we want to rest Armstrong or Rothwell then bring in Holtby or Chapman, don't shuffle the strikers around. Continue down the rest of the starting eleven. Like for like replacements, no shuffling. And a maximum of two changes/starting lineup a game. On paper we've got the players to do it.

Leeds have conceded the fewest goals in the league, so I'd have their keeper, left back and whichever of their two centre halfs is taller/younger. Brentford have conceded the third fewest goals so I guess their keeper's alright too.

I now live on the south coast, my biggest local club would be Bournemouth I guess. Honestly, whenever I get into a football conversation here and say I support Rovers, I'd say nine times out of ten I get the questions 'who is your manager?' 'Which league are you in?' and if I mention that we're where we are because of poor ownership the question is 'who are your owners?' The sad truth is that a lot of football fans have actually forgotten the whole Venky situation. We aren't on their radar any more. Once the chicken farmers stopped doing funny stuff for the papers other fans ceased to care. I don't get sympathy, but I don't get ridicule either. We had a good reputation, then we had a bad reputation, now we're just irrelevant. I die a bit every time.

Not really a contender for greatest Lancs player by a long shot, but this thread reminded me of something. During the war my Grandad was involved in the campaign in Italy and during this time his regimental PT instructor was Rovers centre half Bob Pryde. Grandad used to tell me stories about Pryde taking the squad out for a 'run' around mount Etna only to take them 10 mins away from the camp and tell them to knock off, have a smoke and have a rest for half an hour before jogging back and doing their best to look like they'd been on a proper run. Grandad was the only one who didn't smoke (including Pryde), but he appreciated the break! Pryde went on to make 320 appearances for Rovers between 1933 and 1949, in spite of serving in the war, scoring 11 goals (or so a quick google tells me). Not sure how many years he was away for, but you'd have to imagine he'd be near the top of our all time appearances list if there hadn't been a war on. Eventually went on to manage Wigan for a couple of seasons too. Odd bit of family history, but might be of interest to some.

Sounds about right. What a pair to mix up!

I thought his debut was vs Blythe Spartans in the cup? Am I remembering wrong? Either way somehow I forget just how big the bloke was until I see him celebrating with the rest of the team there... What I wouldn't give for a young samba in the current side!

Hang on, he's got Benno playing left and right back...

Probably not... as long as they do the business. In all honestly I have no idea what the given value of a footballer at any level is these days. Fees get waved around, I shrug, sure; why wouldn't a player in the championship I've never heard of be worth £25m...

I guess devils advocate it's probably more like £8m and if it ends up being 12 they'll have done ok for the club... Doesn't look good on paper does it?

No idea what he did in real life but Oscar Ustari was a beast on football manager back in the day...

People wrote off Robinson I guess, and he did OK for us for a few years. ? (Clutching at straws to the point of near sarcasm)

I mean, second line of that BBC article... 'Max Gradel's volley and Ryan Nyambe's own goal gave the Elephants a 2-0 lead before Joslin Kamatuka pulled a goal back for Namibia.' I guess one of those where they gave it to the attacker in the end

Scored an own goal against the Ivory Coast apparently... Good, get them out of his system before the season starts! ?

Re Raya, I'd prefer to keep him but if he is going to be sold then I want the replacement keeper in first please and thankyou. Rate him or not he's the best we've got and I don't want a situation where we sell him and then flail around desperately trying to get a new keeper in as the window drags on and targets A,B and C turn us down or head elsewhere before a panic buy on deadline day. If we're getting a new keeper he'll need a full pre-season with this defence. They aren't of the quality for someone to just slot right in seamlessly.

IF nothing changes whatsoever between now and the close of the transfer window... The GK situation is the same, with the slight caveat that with a full championship season under his belt we should expect (I stress the should) Raya to have improved a bit. Verdict: the same The defence is the same, again we should expect the likes of Nyambe to have improved a bit but conversely Mulgrew is in decline. Verdict: the same. Midfield - Downing replaces conway, perhaps slight improvement (maybe), we've lost Reed (worse off), but hopefully Rothwell actually being in the first team from the start is a positive over last season and Davenport looked good at the end of last season, Chapman should be coming in. Expect Travis to have improved too. Verdict: similar but could genuinely be an improvement. Strikers - Best striker in Graham is in decline, but had a decent season. Supporting strikers the same, we have no evidence to say whether they have improved or declined. Verdict: slightly worse. So currently I'd hedge a similar finish to last season, possibly slightly worse as I think other teams are strengthening, but I don't think we are significantly weaker than last season. Everything hinges on the transfer window. Sign even a couple of players that genuinely improve the starting 11 and it could be enough for a significantly better finish. Sell a couple of our better players (Dack, Lenihan, Raya who regardless of what you think of him is our best keeper) without good replacements and we could be going backwards FAST. This is a knife edge window.

To be fair slightly self defeating that, watch a game or two - just accept it as football, the standards are getting so much higher than they used to be. I wanted to give it a fair shake so watched the first few games... and then just kept watching. I must have seen 80% of the games by now. It's good football. Honestly the quality involved in this years tournament is higher than I've ever seen in the womens game across the park, particularly goalkeeping, and I've found some of the matches a lot more entertaining than some of the dross we've had to sit through following rovers for the last few seasons.

Chapman on for Evans - Rothwell / Davenport pairing in the middle now?

Its such a tight league, I recon there's a good chance that there might only be a handful of points between, say, 6th and 15th (where we've spent most of the season so far). Picking up a couple of wins rather than draws, or conceding a last minute equaliser in again literally two or three games might be the difference between the play-offs and a bottom half finish. I'll hedge with just outside the playoffs on the showing up until now, but I wouldn't want to put money on anything.