Butterworth is the next Rothwell. Too attack-minded so not in Tony’s first team thinking unless absolutely necessary. He should have been playing against Oldham instead of Rothwell but Mowbray seems to have a hierarchy of The Group, the first team, the second string first team, The Kids - and it was more important that the second string got a run out. Ironically his lack of second string defence and injuries forced him to play The Kids (much to his own disgust). The talent/potential we have in certainly areas is embarrassing. Hopefully we can develop him and Buckley for the future.

They’d certainly have to reduce prices. Or ban people bringing their own food/drink in. I certainly won’t be buying. Typical Waggott approach though. Assume you have a monopoly and fans will just have to pay. Here’s an idea, make prices cheap and sell more volume. Now where have I heard that before...? ? They’ve probably done a comparison with Vue cinema food prices. Another place that is over-priced and almost always empty.

The pitch, ball and nets are the same size and they have the same number of players. Do you think Farke would approach games like Mowbray does?

Nobody mans the VAR desk in the Championship. This is the other problem with these rules and the way they are enforced differently in the PL and the PL-elect.

Back down to earth with a bump... ...and with captain Jason Lowe at centre half!

You are barking up the wrong tree there. It’s on the back of his achievement - and brand of football - with the development side, not him being an ex player.

Heart stopping!

I think the shirt pull for our penalty was the cause of that. It was so blatant that he couldn’t not give it but after that every little thing was by the book. Some of our yellow cards were soft. Only thing poorer than the ref was Boro. They had a lot of the ball especially in the second half but couldn’t do anything with it. A little like us in truth. The shoots are there (without the shots) going forward. I counted one shot on target all game but Sky have two so they must count the penalty. Subs: I can’t understand why Mowbray didn’t shift Gallagher forward and play Armstrong our wide when he made the change. Maybe pace on the break but it’s a waste of Gallagher’s talent being out there. Mind you, if we win every game 1-0 I won’t care! Rothwell on for Downing was a good move. Boro were caused a lot of problems. Dack looked very unhappy to come off but again, Buckley looked good with a more attacking midfield brief with the comfort of Travis and Johnson behind him. I was convinced we were going to end up with 10 men with that referee!

Nobody tell me that this manager and team don’t get support from the fans on match day. We may question and criticise on here but we all want the best for this club. Massive three points! Onwards and upwards!!

In other news, Bennett continues to be turned into the new Jason Lowe. Chosen as captain for the wrong reasons Anderson selected out of position (ironically also at right back) despite being a liability there. It will continue to divide fans when we need to be as united as possible. Smacks of Mowbray simply defying fans to show who’s boss.

I just think that day is getting closer and closer. I’ve completely lost patience with him. I can’t think of a decision that he has made since he got us promoted that has been successful. Including the Charlton line up away in 2018.

Without our debt, ticking along might be an option (providing relegation wasn’t an immediate threat) but our finances require, nay demand, PL money. It’s bemusing though that people don’t trust Venkys to pick a better manager (even though they picked Mowbray) but they are trusted to keep on ploughing money into the club indefinitely while Mowbray coasts along.

It’s a good point. Only Venkys or Mowbray himself will make a change at manager level. If it is Venkys I wouldn’t be surprised to see Waggott go too. Football isn’t like any other business in terms of hiring and firing and Rovers doesn’t seem to be like any other club!

The tone of your short jabs was what provoked my comments. So if that was not your intent then I take it back. Let’s assume he is this unsung hero then who has made Johnson’s job so easy, him stepping up to U23 manager and following his charges up to the next level may be a good thing and provide continuity. It will be very interesting to see how this helps us kick on. However, forgive me for being cynical but Mowbray’s choice of staff at Rovers has been less than impressive, and less than successful. (Johnson was here two years before Mowbray).

Berg and Appleton fell foul of instability aka the infighting between Shebby, Aggers and Shelvey. Had either been appointed when Bowyer was - or after Coyle they’d have been given a lot more time - including by fans. I’m curious though. If you don’t sack a manager during the Summer, how many games/losses/points should they get before someone makes a change? For me, it comes down to targets for the season. Just doing some maths for fun... If our target is top 6 then history says we need about 76 points (1.8 points per game) and can only sustain 12 defeats (26%). In the Championship, Mowbray has been a slightly below a W1D1L1 manager, or 61 points over a season. So to be on track he needs to have over 16 points after 10 games (e.g. W4D3L3). That means two more defeats (L4) and he would be behind target and would need 5 wins and a draw (W5D1L4 = 16 points). That is quite a run especially for an out of form team. 10 games is a long time in football and can destroy a season. As someone who plays for draws and bemoans fine margins, Mowbray can only really afford one more defeat in the next 8 games. Obviously this is all theoretical and the mix of games will impact but I’m a great believer in form and momentum. A poor side can beat a better one depending on the form both teams are in. Do you know the last time Mowbray had a run of 6 Championship games undefeated - including 5 wins? Boro, September 2011. Rare as the proverbial. Looking through the stats, it’s interesting how similar to West Brom our journey under Mowbray has been. He starts well and then loses whatever magic he had. Getting 100% out of mediocre players is a short term gig and very difficult to continue to do without a churn of players.

So why would we change the successful U23s approach to match the failing first team formula rather than the other way around? What has happened this Summer with the development team and management situation stinks. It should have been sorted out ages ago. Promoting Johnson and having nobody lined up is as bad as loaning out your captain on the last day of the window with no replacement, despite already being short in defence.

Thanks. The flip side of that last para is that, if the second team is performing and producing players who the first team manager cannot utilise and yet still struggles then he is doing something wrong. It could be argued that the first team needs to change its ethos, not the 2nd string.

Again. You’ve read what you want to read and not what I’ve posted. It is my firm belief that Barr would be the cheap appointment. I have not said he would necessarily be a poor appointment just that it doesn’t inspire me. There are no guarantees with anyone but if Barr was an external applicant, with that CV, would you still be championing him? I doubt it.

0-0. “Where are all the haters now?”

No one ever seems to credit the author when they re-post that. Was it anonymous?

Very little is the answer. I guess I’m just going to have to keep repeating myself today, aren’t I? The word was ‘inspire’. Barr could be brilliant but to be honest I’m quite disappointed with the direction the U23s is going in if an old school coach is going to replace a new school one. It’s as though the development side has created too many headaches for Mowbray as Johnson brought through some exciting prospects, and he can’t or won’t integrate them into the first team. Playing two youngsters together in a first team game and savaging then afterwards, for example, will be seen as giving them their opportunity. He then removes Johnson from the position and invents a first team role while keeping Venus and Lowe continue in their current roles - changing very little (what does Johnson do?). Now, having advertised for the vacancy we are going to appoint an internal candidate - the cheap option. Let’s hope he is a fantastic recruit and he isn’t just there to keep a seat warm.

Already answered but you’ve answered your own question. Mowbray is currently failing as Rovers manager in the sense that he has been underachieving since at least February. He also failed to keep us up first time around. He gets a lot of slack because of L1 promotion but this club needs to keep moving forward. As soon as you reward players or managers for anything other than what happens on the pitch then you will hit problems. We can’t sell our poorer players because they can’t get these contracts elsewhere. We pay off or see out so many contracts for this reason.

Failing managers do get too long at Rovers. I don’t see how that is disputable given the experience with Kean and Bowyer. Where we are heading under Mowbray is questionable. He will also get too long and we will stagnate. Any momentum from 2018 is now long gone. Probably along with Mowbray’s turn at spending Venkys money - give his failures in the transfer market. He has also failed to spot the problems brewing in defence, let alone fix them. Now he bemoans we are short. Of course this is subjective, of course it’s an opinion. This is a messageboard.

I guess we’ll see Parson. Hopefully Barr will do a quiet job and produce great players (for Mowbray to ignore and buy his own versions) and stay in Division 1.