Nonsense. Would you be happy if we brought back Coyle? Or Kean?

Ok, so not your opinion but your prediction. I think you are right. The only credible reason would be age: that Joe has had three years longer than Ben. Personally I agree with Biz that Nuttall has improved and has come on. I would question if Mowbray’s team are the right ones to developing either of them though. Johnson is doing a far better job. Maybe this Summer’s big change needs to be replacing David Lowe with Damien Johnson.

Please, please take the hint. Last season Mowbray didn’t just strike lucky, he struck gold. We have to draw a line under what was in effect Manchester City playing in the Championship. He has grossly underachieved this season. Staying up might have been the aim if we hadn’t spent £10m in the Summer; if we hadn’t been within 3 points of the play-offs in January. Mowbray did a good job for the first half of the season in a tight division, he had an excellent four game spell, then sabotaged all of that progress by weakening the team in the last window instead of strengthening it. What do you think is more likely to be the ‘real Tony Mowbray’ at Championship level. Four games in January, two games in April when he started playing Rothwell (under duress), or the time in between?

Yet it seems we are prepared to invest in developing a poorer Ben Brereton? Is this an age-based decision?

Don’t be silly, it needs to be 5 or 6 or the straw man argument falls apart. Brereton needs to start two back to back games in place of Danny Graham during this run in. He then needs to be judged as to whether he has anything worth persevering with. If not, he has to go on loan next season. Somehow, under Mowbray this lad has managed to regress rather than progress. Maybe letting the senior players pick the side, formation or tactics has this effect when one of the senior player’s places could be at risk.

This is called a straw man argument. It’s where you insert your own ludicrous version of someone else’s argument so that you can burn it down easily. (I felt I had to post that because you keep doing it). He isn’t “lucky” when he wins one game but when he picks the ‘right’ team for two wins but stubbornly and deliberately picks the ‘wrong’ team and loses 9 games, what would you call it? It sure isn’t luck. Here’s a clue: P _ _ r M_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ t

And Mowbray.

? Friedel was one of the all-time best goalkeepers in the top flight. Holds the record for most consecutive matches, 310. Would have been more but he was randomly and politically dropped for Lloris for one match at Spurs by Villas-Boas. Numpty.

I though you might have apologised, one for misunderstanding the point and jumping on ARA and two for patronising him with “old chap”. Prior to yesterday, we had two wins in 12. In both matches it was Travis and Reed. Now that we have had back to back wins Mowbray is suddenly a genius. You’ll be telling us all next that he has responsible for Rothwell’s development! 9 defeats in the last 13 games. It will take a while to erase that record.

Which deadwood did he get rid of? Jason Lowe? Well thanks for not handing out a new contract - that must have been a challenge!! Most of those who left where end of contract or end of loans - there was no “getting rid” of deadwood. The only player he moved on was Calamity Jason Steele - and he was replaced with, oh, the only other keeper already on the books, Calamity David Raya. But, I’ll say it again, you can’t compare last season as we had the biggest budget in League One and we should have been promoted as Champions. Mowbray’s tenure so far has been punctuated by “should haves” yet he is busy planning for two years from now. I bet most managed in the league wish they had the time that Venkys give their managers.

You can’t compare last season and this. They have to be judged separately. He came into Rovers at just the right time. Nobody holds him responsible for the relegation he has on his record, they blame Coyle - even though a more adventurous manager may have got the necessary win to stay up. Similarly, getting promoted was, whilst an achievement on his cv, was not entirely down to him. His contribution was enabling the good team spirit between the most expensive team in the division. Even Mowbray admits that he leaves the players to it and the senior players have a lot of control. He finished second when he could have gone for first. Ok, I didn’t like it but fair enough. This season he has been shown to be more like he was in his first spell with us in the Championship. He has made poor selections week after week and made regularly poor substitutions. The team spirit has been absent for large spells. I’m not sure I’d call it luck but it is very hard to see which bits he has managed to improve. His recruitment has been abysmal. With Dack to only genuine success - and Rothwell looks like being the second now Mowbray has taken his foot off his head. The rest of the ‘senior players’ (Graham, Mulgrew, Bennett, Evans, Conway) were here before Mowbray. He is a good man, he is an average manager. The only thing which works in his favour is that Venkys’ record for managers - aside from one who didn’t trust the buggers - has been complete novices. So he gets an inordinate amount of leeway. What will be far more interesting - and more telling - will be to compare this season and next...

Watch again. Raya flapped at it but it wasn’t going in until the 90-degree deflection off Bennett’s chest. Nuttall isn’t far off being half the age of Graham and has about 5% of his experience. Graham isn’t a brilliant footballer but can finish - as can Nuttall. It’s his experience that puts him in the right place at the right time and he has learnt how to play with his back to goal.

Sod that. There will be no feelgood from finishing 12th. If anything it will add to the frustration if we go on a great run now. We have nothing to gain in chasing results. We are safe, start planning for next season.

I’ve no expectation that Mowbray knows what he needs or will let go of players he has recently given improved contracts to. However, with money to spend and an excellent young talent pool, he has no excuses for not making next season better than this one. In real terms that means play-off hopefuls.

A lot has to change still before anyone can say Mowbray has turned a corner. I still believe we need a better manager but he has seen us safe and now has to show that he is going to do something different next season. Now is all about planning for August. He should get the chance to build a new team over the Summer IF he uses these games to take a look at some options. There is no need to play Smallwood and Evans in the next five games so he needs to not do that. Buckley, Butterworth and Rankin-Costello should get a go, not all at the same time, and Lenihan and Williams the chance to form a partnership. Probably also needs to give Brereton a run of starts.

He hurt a lot of people when he said categorically he wasn’t leaving. Then a week later he left. He’s long got over it and is still regarded as a Rovers legend.

Williams is still only 26. Wonder if he can be converted... hmmm.

Brereton will be Mowbray’s Achille’s heel. He is too stubborn to admit it was a huge mistake. He will be taking up a squad place for a long time to come.

Time to blood some youngsters now. No point in trying to finish as high as we can.

Amazing result today! What might have been...

It was 3-3 at half time!

What’s he done now?

There were two for Sala (missing and found). I agree, these match tribute can lose they impact they are trying to have if they are too frequent.

Woah! What have we been saying all season about team selections??

This commentator wouldn’t be shocked if Elvis walked in to his “commentary position”.