This will make you really arsey, I heard it relayed from Puna.

OK you live in your reality, I live in mine.

Mowbray sounds very optimistic about a new deal for Ryan being signed.

Still looking but my recollection of Mowbray's explanation of how the Ben signing came about is this. Mowbray had agreed his transfer budget for that summer in Pune then pointed out we couldn't rely on DG keeping going for ever. The Academy was yielding defenders and midfielders but there was a hole up front before some promising very young kids might make it. The extra pot was made available to address that issue with a triple caveat - must be young with profitable resale potential - preferably English - wages had to be within the club structure This made finding a player who matched the requirement pretty difficult and hence Mowbray's comment at the time that summer about having had money burning a hole in his pocket before he signed Ben. I am pretty certain this has been posted within the 180 pages on this thread but itis not in the first ten pages after which I gave up looking. I don't think my source for this is only a private conversation. I also now recall Mowbray disclosed this as part of a wider interview so hence it is hard to find. But I think Mowbray has explained this more than once. As with Harvey Elliott now, we are finding Mowbray can be very persuasive. The transfer fee is now consistently reported as £6m. Perhaps Ben didn't trigger a clause to make it £7m?

And not conceding free kicks around the area. Millwall are deadly with them.

Chorley have to fancy this. Spurs will be wondering where they are going... All four non-league sides are at home; Stockport entertain West Ham. Morecambe are at Chelsea

I will take a repeat scoreline now!

Let's show them what they are missing...

Agreed renrag. I don't know how I wasn't physically ill leaving Selhurst that day. We also had the seats in the stand at that end to the left of the away pen which is where I was.

Watched a few Millwall highlights and they are not as dire as their results suggest. Wallace is very dangerous with set pieces. They also know how to ride their luck at the back. Going to be important for Rovers to press high up.

In the late '60s we perennially challenged for promotion then fell away at the season end. I think in the 26 seasons we were out of the top tier, we had serious promotion challenges to get back in about half of them plus the two successful third division campaigns. Makes this decade look extremely dull.

From outside the UK, the FA Cup doesn't exist.

Any idea when the draw is? To say the BBC have first dibs on the FA Cup, their coverage is abysmal.

I remember that one but it isn't the quote I had in mind.

Fingers crossed we can average only around 7 or 8 absences in the Millwall, Bristol City and Brentford games and we will see. 13 absences which is what we have had were a bit too much. JRC, Travis, Evans, Dack, Vale, Butterworth for sure will be unavailable. Question marks over Ayala, Wharton, Williams, Douglas. Hopefully no more casualties and Mowbray keeps his brainfarts limited to what happened at Luton.

Was looking for the Mowbray quote on the Brereton signing (and haven't found it) and saw these- https://readliverpoolfc.com/2018/01/11/liverpool-favourites-sign-ben-brereton-forest/ £15m https://metro.co.uk/2017/02/07/liverpool-failed-in-january-transfer-move-for-manchester-united-target-ben-brereton-6433908/ Forest supporters are following Ben very closely even now. This written less than a year ago shows what a stunning turnaround we have seen https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-transfers-brereton-gallagher-17517877 Looks like Chaddy will be proved right: On 29/08/2018 at 17:23, chaddyrovers said: I think 7 mil is steal. Still cant believe Forest sold him tbh.

These are the questions I continually ask myself. Rovers full squad or Norwich's? - Rovers Rovers first XI v Bournemouth 1st XI with everyone fit - draw ditto Watford Any other club in the division? Nobody immediately leaps out as better than Rovers other than perhaps Reading first XI on a good day.. In fact I wouldn't take any other of the 20 clubs' first team or complete squads over Rovers. Any suggestions otherwise? There are four keys to the second half of our season. 1) We reach New Year within 6 points of top (currently 7 behind Norwich with a better GD) so keep level pegging with the top two whoever they are on 1 January. 2) Mowbray doesn't get vertigo and over think things- I don't see Mowbray being capable of achieving promotion through the play-offs so it is top two or bust so far as I am concerned 3) Travis and Dack recover full pre-injury form and are hungry to make up for lost games 4) We have a decent half season with injuries, suspensions, illness and quarantines. Let's be greedy and say as good as the first half of the season has been bad. Grant me these four wishes and I would say we have an evens chance of automatic promotion.

This one will need an early goal and God help us if Millwall get it!

I hope these are still four day games?

You might be right which is unusual... However when we were struggling first half with their high press, there were often five across midfield harassing our 3. This was a reason for Arma dropping deep which then meant we had no out ball by-passing their midfield.

I think it is really good we now have 4 very decent central defenders to select from when they are fit. They each offer something different and you can see why over lapping central defenders Sheff U are reportedly interested in Lenihan. Hayden Carter currently is not of the standard we need- he is on the slow side and it was noticeable Barnsley pulled one back when they very effectively bypassed Carter in a way they hadn't been able to with Wharton. I hope Wharton can play v Millwall but that looked like concussion and a mandatory seven days. Scott Wharton in my eyes has in these few games unambiguously shown he is a very competent Championship central defender and this is another unexpected bonus from this most peculiar of seasons.

Interesting that injury-hit Norwich had the same number of players out (13) that we had for two matches. They could only assemble a bench of 6, 5 of whom are untried kids. When we were 13 out, Hayden Carter who had recent Championship experience and came on yesterday, couldn't even make the squad of 18.. I don't think he was the only one with first team experience to miss out at that time either. All credit to Delia Smith and hubby for getting Norwich to where they have been in recent seasons but even with the parachute they are cheese pairing. At £25m net worth, they are by some distance the least wealthy Championship owners.

You have made my point for me!

I will give Mowbray this. He has come up finally with the 4-3-3 which he has drilled into the squad so that subs don't disrupt the flow and increasingly fit into the system. 4-3-3 really suits rotating Brereton, Gallagher, Armstrong and Elliott and Travis will take to it like a duck to water. The big question is where Dack fits.. but what a nice problem to have when we eventually have it. This is essential with a huge squad with multiple players coming through the Academy complementing the 25 named players. Having such a monster squad is essential this season and Norwich are less well set up for handling absences than we are currently. He got away with 3 against 5 in midfield against Barnsley because man for man we had the better players all over the park. The expanded bench and ability to use 5 subs helped Rovers a lot today. It meant we had specialists for all positions and arguably we didn't get disrupted by either injury. I expect to see two pairs of subs to be used regularly throughout the season by Mowbray now with the changed rule except when we have injuries. So kudos to Mowbray for the system and foresight.

Wood26 recollection is the same as mine. Not judging either the wisdom or indeed veracity of this but Mowbray has twice said that Venky's set aside a pot to get a young, preferably English forward and it was burning a hole when he signed Ben. The £5m on Gallagher was always the more puzzling spend in the context you mention. He chose to spend on a relatively high waged forward when there were huge gaps still at gk and in defence. The development of Ben since lock down and Sam in recent games are the huge unexpected but prayed for bonuses of this season! As much a surprise as Ben being qualified to play for Chile. Actually there is another big bonus of this season which is the 4-3-3 system. Barnsley's 3-5-2 is another unusual but well drilled system which suits their players and took us 40 minutes to come to terms with.