The only metric that matters is not that we finished behind them last season. A miss is as good as a mile is the old saying. We may have finished 30 points behind them not just 1. If we finish above them this season we've progressed or they've declined but truely the only metric that matters is that we are promoted or not in today's financial world.

Still early though, just remember Villa last season at this stage were well behind us points wise.

To be fair, they are a good side to bench mark us against. They did just finsih above us but they battered us at their place and beat us at ours. I agree Radio PNE sorry Lancashire do seem to overhype them but if we finish above them then we are heading in the right direction.

@AdamArma9 coming up trumps for once!!? There I've corrected Greg's spelling mistake!

Its amazing what a couple of wins and a new signing does for morale of fans isn't it? Lets not forget, people were saying similar things at the end of Janurary last season when we were on the edge of play offs. Then the bottom fell out of the season and looked what happened. Potentially this season feels different and I personally feel more positive but there still is potential of a West brom defensive performance and a lack of goals from his big money forwards that needs addresssing before I change my mind about big Tone.

Great win yesterday. I've been critical of Mowbray and his tactics but I'll give credit he got them right yesterday. For those criticising Evans previous performances, I'd say he always plays better when he has a decent partner alongside him who shares the load. He goes missing when he is the main midfielder. Now we are getting better midfielders maybe we will see a better player. The recent Oldham cup game when he was poor with Smallwood played alongside him helps my point. Whether he is good enough to be a fixture in the team is debateable but as I've said before he is certainly good enough to be in this squad if he can stay fit.

Back in the Geordie reserves!!!!

Cunningham should have concentrated on clearing the ball, not shielding the ball hoping that Walton was coming. Yet again not doing the basics has undone Rovers. Last seas there were too many times the referee was blamed when it was our inadequencies which cost us.

Which makes Raya leaving even more daft. If it was weeks before then Mowbray must have known it wasn't happening so should have stopped Raya leaving.

For those saying Baggies' first goal was a foul. No way Cunningham was not strong enough. There is too much of this trying to shield the ball when a player should concentrate on clearing the ball rather trying to stop the opposing player from getting it. As for the third, what was Johnson doing? He only started to try and cover once Lenihan failed to foul. Upto that point he seems unaware there is a problem. If he had reacted as soon as Lenihan had lost the ball then he would have been in a position to deal with the situation.

Bell prooving you wrong though......not everyone could play fullback

How long will Cocu get at Derby? Listening to Talksport yesterday the fans are turning.

Both have played centre half long enough to have learnt the positions bearing in mind Williams previous history.

Actually he isn't. He was a centre half who could play full back. The fact we have choose to play left back whilst he has been here is our manager's doing. The fact that his performances at left back have been worse than his performances at centre half back this up.

Yet again mistakes from experienced players go unmentioned by Mowbray. If Nyambe had been done as easily as Lenihan was I bet there would of been mention of it.

But surely you sell Reya after the keeper arrives so should something goes wrong you still have the original so you're not weaker.

Did sign Matt Dickens to be fair

Oops. Only started reading this today, so hadn't seen several others post my thoughts on the subject.....so moving on.

He played on that devasting day at Brenford on the wing from memory

Formation 3-4-3. Another option would be Cunningham-Williams-Lenihan Bennett-Johnson-Travis-Downing Dack-Gallagher-Rothwell or and not advocating this XI Toisin-Nyambe-Grayson Rank.Costello-Evans-Smallwood-Bell Armstrong-Graham-Chapman Just proving, in Mowbray's mind, there is cover i every posiition

One or the other for me. Got to give teams more to think about other than Dack but also need some cover for full backs

I can only assume Nyambe will be considered a centre half by Mowbray going forward. Grayson will get more game time this season. Wingbacks will have JRC as cover for Bennett. Which leaves left the left side. Cunningham is the obvious choice but where does that leave Downing? It is the only way that this season's transfers begin to make sense

In the present formation the only round pegs are Graham, Dack and Downing but on the whole oppositon teams have worked it out. As Warnock proved man mark Dack and take him out of the game. Give him space and we are seen as an attacking force. Hughes also had McCarthy and Santa Cruz as well. When we had Dickov and Stead we struggled for goals as well so lets not paint Hughes as a miracle worker with limited players. What he had a strong defence and strong tigerish midfield, not dissimilar to Mowbray in the last three games. I actually think Rothwell might be the better option instead of Armstrong playing off Gallagher. I also think he may need to go three at the back with wing backs [Downing and because he has to play, Bennett] to try and get the best of the forwards.

I'm sorry he was not outstanding although he played well. I'm really am puzzled with this ethic from Rovers fans in general. They would rather see someone put in 110% effort and contribute nothing to a game than actually influence the game by using their brains and skills. Who played better in the game Graham who touched the ball 7 times all game or Gallagher who won everything in the air but in most cases contributed very little to in an attacking sense? I accept not all players are blessed with great skill and as such they as a minimum requirement have to put total effort in. but as Chris Wilder said on Saturday at Sheff Utd, he cant understand why it gets a round of applause when it is their minimum requirement.

In theory, Gallagher and Armstrong partnership could work but there is a big reason why it won't happen. Bradley Dack. Another thing is whether Armstrong has the intelligence to read Gallagher's knock ons. One of Jordan Rhodes' problems was that he couldn't read where Gestede was flicking it onto. Third thing is whether Gallagher could do it consistently win the aerial duels against a big strong centre half pairing like Gestede used to do.