Coaching staff is the first thing I’d look at. We barely look fit and seem to get constant injuries. Get the U23s a new manager and look to promote Johnson as first team coach.

So as it stands we are de facto 16th, with Sheffield Weds and Brentford having games in hand to overtake us. We have just lost four on the bounce after manager and player of the month for January. Our next 6 games: - Birmingham (away) - (only 3 points ahead but played one game less) - could be a tough game - especially with no defenders. 0 points - Rotherham (away) - bottom three as it stands but so we’re Reading. 3 points on paper but could go either way. Tony going for a draw but the players showing a bit. 3 points - Preston (home) - the nobbers will be well up for this. Don’t fancy us to have the bottle. 0 points - Wigan (home) - well behind us but have hammered us once and Tony doesn’t care about local derbies. Must not lose. 1 point. - Sheff Weds (away) - having a similar season to Rovers - midtable nothing fixture. 1 point - Aston Villa (away) - nowhere near the play-offs and looking like missing out again - but still too good for us. 0 points Stoke (h), Derby (h), Forest (a), QPR (a), Bolton (h), Norwich (a), Swansea (h) take us up to the Summer. Hopefully a season we can look back on (purely at the table) and call it a consolidation season (even though it could have been a nearly season) as opposed to hanging-on and frantically updating BBC Sport table predictor. From last four and next 6, we are staring at one win in 10, maybe even 12, so we need to pull a couple of surprise results out of the bag. Four of our next six are away. Currently in 2019 we are P8 W4 D0 L4 and have completely undone our good start. Its a tough run with 4 of the 6 away. Optimistically I’ve gone 1-2-3, making our start to the year P12 W5 D2 L7, with 6 points from 18, taking us to 49 and safety.

Because Mowbray plays people out of position when something goes wrong (like a sending off) he needs to make at least two changes. His latest concern seems to be substituting players on a yellow. But it’s a gamble either way. In the first three minutes of the second half, my heart was in my mouth when Graham looked like he was struggling with his back or hip.

That second half brought back quite a lot of the pride that the first half lost. At times we didn’t look like we had a man less. Brereton is still not a Championship footballer. If he had come through the ranks or had cost less than a million he would have gone the way of Lyons by now.

If you think anyone questioning Venkys is somehow racist then yes, I’d say you are out of step.

Ra tatatata tata tat a...

And we are doing nothing to arrest that trend. Playing devil’s advocate though, is it just a sign of the times? Unfashionable clubs from the “deprived north west” with too much local tribalism unable or unwilling to unite to survive? Big city clubs, cheered on by the writers of FFP rules, rising above us? Do we need some kind of initiative with a “Lancashire United” season ticket? A flat fee and you can attend any game in the region with as much effort to avoid home clashes as possible. Would such an idea work? “Back in the day” fans used to happily go to other grounds in the region. Some still do I expect. I guess logistically there would need to be a cap - similar to my 1875 club 10 games for £100 suggestion. Convert vouchers into match tickets, subject to availability. The L.U. Season Ticket could be 30 games at the following clubs for £300. Would a floating fan (currently watching Bumley) come to a Rovers game with such a ticket/voucher? I can even do the marketing for you... Yes, I am being a little tongue in cheek but these are the kind of ideas than need to be considered. Think outside the box or our East Lancashire (and West Yorkshire) club will go to the wall. Or we trust Venkys (ha!) to play the long game and we “out-breed” our local rivals and hoover up their great-grandchildren as fans.

There was nothing wrong with your original post. Your comments were clear and in context. I can understand why you are riled by simpletons who go “there” almost by default.

Jog on

Going to the game today but can’t get enthused by it. Mowbray seems to be using the fact we are virtually safe as a reason to throw the towel in rather that let the team off the leash. Rovers 0-2 Boro Everyone shrugs.

You weren’t until very recently. It’s a new term devised by psychologists and turned into an insult by misandrists.

Caption time...

Ouch! But probably true. Still a huge waste of Rovers money though.

Disagree but I was actually referring to Reed. Let’s just keep putting off judging anyone or anything indefinitely - worked with Bowyer.

In all seriousness, I’m thinking English Corrado Grabbi.

£10m is a lot of money to give up when you get to 43 points and expect to get the necessary points just to idle over the line; maybe be blood a few youngsters. The aim like every season we are in this division should have been to get to 50 points and then really go for it. Pick your best team every week and aim high. When you are within 3 points of the play-offs after two-thirds of the season, you need to be looking upwards not downwards. Start to build that team from January, not from the Summer. We have/had money - why not? Are we covering up a big mistake in buying Brereton after finding out he wasn’t up to it during his loan spell? “Project signing” indeed. How arrogant. There are no guarantees that we will buy well in the Summer. There are no guarantees we won’t get a bad run of fixtures at the start of next season and then get some injuries to key players. We are set to lose this season’s player of the season (time now) in the Summer. Can we replace him? We have a dodgy defence that the manager doesn’t think needs upgrading. Wil his hand be forced - or will Rodwell sign? Let’s face it, our scouts don’t seem to have rail cards, let alone air miles. We could easily be in a relegation battle next season - top 6 could be extremely difficult indeed with the next three ex-PL teams joining. No team gets the luxury of picking and choosing when they go on a promotion charge. You buy well, inject them with fitness, give them a game plan and hope for the best. When it starts to pay off, you capitalise, you build and you try to take the opportunity that fate presents you. Last season fate gave us the chance to win the league and we simply didn’t bother. The manager didn’t care enough. Same this season. Maybe he doesn’t want to build up any expectation or pressure to then fail. Aim low, just about get over the pre-season target line, and then relax. Not good enough. IMHO.

January was the time to deal with this. But no, we are pretty much safe, may as well draw stumps. Can I have a refund on 30% of my season ticket, please? Preston, Wigan and Bolton to come - lose those without a fight, I dare you...

Absolutely shite.

Raya summing up our shit tactical thinking. Comes all the way out to the halfway line in stoppage time and plays a short free kick.

Lol! That’s about the most positive spin on a defeat ever.

FFS

Bell!

If tonight’s bench played against tonight’s starting team, the 7 would win.

Well there’s nothing we can do about that. The only transfer window Rovers can do any real business in is the Summer one. Apparently.