philipl

Davenport is the one I am waiting for.

Welcome to Rovers Ben!

Watched the Laurie Cunningham tribute earlier today. Memories of the three decades when the Baggies used to play some of the most attractive football in the land.

Yes we played very well that day which increases my fear we will be sussed in the return fixture. Given our propensity for leaking late goals and being down to ten, it was a point won and definitely not two lost.

Travis certainly deserves his place based on the Bramall Lane showing.

Many reckon West Brom are the best footballing side in the Division. We certainly stole a point at the Hawthorns so we could well get hammered. That said, we will probably be competitive for 70 minutes.

I have seen at least two Rovers wins there.

The more I think about it the more obvious the reaction to Sheff U going down to ten men should have been an immediate substitution replacing Smallwood with Dack and going from 4-1-4-1 to 4-4-1-1. We no longer needed Smallwood to stop the over lapping centre half so his role had become superfluous.

Yes that is a very reasonable scenario but as I point out, if games finished after 70 minutes, we would have deservedly taken 7 points and be unbeaten against half the top ten this month. The problem we have is easily fixable with the right recruitment at the back in January.

That is not completely fair. We had very encouraging reactions during minutes 0 to 70 against Brum, Boro, Norwich, Leeds and Sheffield United....

Is there any reason for being so certain Gallagher is coming in January?

Any wins will be very hard work with late heart attacks. Having said that I expect at least two wins from the Millwall, Ipswich, Hull and Brentford games and not ruling out winning all four. I am conscious other fans are rating West Brom the best footballing side in the division and we are playing them at perfectly the wrong time. This will be a home hammering- going for 0-4.

Cannot repeatedly be getting into great positions then end up with nothing without there being a huge issue with player fitness throughout the squad. This is just basic. Unfortunately this is not something we can do much about at this stage of the season. Pre-season preparation must have been inadequate.

Totally disagree. We need a towering centre half who can command the back line.

All credit to the lad today. Poor start, awful miss then ghosts past three players in midfield and the confidence surges and he has a really good spell either side of half time. Right at the start of he second half he was cruelly robbed of a clear run on goal by a drag back the opposition player should have been sent off for. Mowbray should not have subbed either Brereton or Palmer. Williams and Bennett were falling to pieces yet stayed on.

Those are very poor comments from Mowbray giving no confidence for the future whatsoever. I thought the ref was tough and brave- 27,000+ crowd and he gave the home team six yellows including the double yellow for the sending off. Yes he bottled not giving a straight red when Brereton was through on goal and pulled back and if Smallwood was a straight red hen so was the early foul on Reed. But he should have booked Rothwell for that outrageous dive just before Sharp got the first.

Norwich have been taking coaching lessons from us. Went 3-2 up against Derby in the 81st minute, now 3-4.

70 minutes of solid hard work undone in under 15 minutes. Terrifying thing about Rovers is the speed with which we collapse. Points to lack of character and strength in the playing staff again. Boy we need a leader on the pitch.

Really silly by Smallwood. No need for that. Williams and Bennet have been distributing terribly. Sharp scores.

Getting tasty now this one.

Rovers much much better than I ever dared hope so far. Rothwell doing well until giving away possession which has happened much too often. Palmer looking up for it. Brereton had a nightmare until he beat three in midfield and has done much better in the last ten minutes.

We will find out today...

Going 4-1-4-1 with Smallwood holding midfield and Brereton up front. Sheffield Utd unchanged for 4th consecutive game.

I don't know if this is prophetic for the result but on my phone the Rovers team sheet is showing as a large featureless black rectangle.. Dack and Graham both rested- wow!

We have seen how Brum and QPR rocketed up the table with a sequence of wins and how close we have come to gaining more points than we have collected. I expect two more defeats in the coming two games but not ruling out a run into 7th at season end.