What a relief getting three points! We were always the better side but delighted/relieved we weathered the storm they generated middle of the second half and scored two lovely goals to secure the win. Rothwell and Brereton were the players with the eye catching performances. Great to see Armstrong fully mobile. Nyambe was very good apart from one horrible loss of possession which lead to the corner which lead to the penalty which lead to the goal. Nobody had a bad game and Kaminski clearly commands the back in a way Pears can only dream of. Lost count but even with Rothwell, Kaminski, Johnson, Trybull and Grayson back I think we still had eleven players unavailable with Evans the latest casualty addition after two minutes. Hugely happy with the international break for once. I think could be down to only Dack, Travis, Bennett and Butterworth being out by the time we go to Luton which will feel like our season starting all over again. 8 points off top 7 points off 2nd 5 points off 6th The damage of the recent weeks could have been far greater than it has turned out to be.

We have the beating of QPR but when we are in advanced positions the movement by players off the ball stops instead of speeding up the way you see Prem League teams play. We don't hurt teams by pushing on when in possession well inside the final third which means we are playing in front of defenders instead of behind them. At the very least there is a sending off to be had if we gamble a bit more. Has the feeling of Dieng having a man of the match performance. We are not being clinical again.

Evans hamstring?

OK with Evans trying to regain his international place on our dime but the ball is not going to flow through the middle of the park in our favour today is it?:

Is Louis Annesley injured or is our friend from Gibraltar about to see him on the bench v QPR this afternoon?

I expect this will be much more entertaining than recent games. I think we will need some good fortune to get the win. My ITK of team selection tactics and subs can be exclusively revealed now:

Vale is back! Presumable Sam Burn is on the bench. @richsharpe89 Stewart Downing on the bench as #Rovers U23s look to extend their unbeaten start to the season against Arsenal. Jack Vale also back after injury. Team: Stergiakis, Pike, Barnes, Saadi, Thompson, Lyons, Whitehall, Paton, Brennan, McBride, Vale #Rovers lining up in a 4-3-3, with Vale as the centre forward, Brennan on the right and McBride the left.

Subs: Bell, Grayson, Vale, Butterworth

145

I have never looked forward to an international break so much. Is it 8 or 9 players who won't be available Saturday should come back into contention for the Luton game? That should just leave Travis and Dack amongst the players who would get into our strongest eleven out but with the prospect of both back by the New Year. Even without those players, most of our performances so far this season should be good enough to scrap our way to three points against QPR. If we don't, anyone starting a relegation thread would be justified.

Ref looked like he was terrified of Warnock. Awful from him. We got the point to stop the run of defeats against top sides. Pears did well.

On iFollow

Ridiculous booking of Trybull who otherwise he has been pretty decent.

Boro looking as complete and well-drilled a team as I have seen in the Championship this season. Defensively we have been much more capable of getting to the opposition players receiving the ball. Need to make it stick a bit more when we are going forward. We have scarcely beaten a player one on one since they have managed to isolate Brereton. We have had three shots and killed three pigeons on the Darwen End roof. Need more composure lads!

Adam Armstrong in the commentary box.

Chrome freezing on me so switched to Safari

Better than I expected. Should be entertaining...

I give him the benefit of the doubt in that the opposition is the intended audience... But I agree. Armstrong should have been subbed after 10 minutes. It shows how little faith Mowbray has in his £5m forward signing.

Enormously grateful for the distraction from the US Presidential Elections.

He can play left back and the two we have are quarantined.

Great to have Downing back

I'd take either Davenport or Buckley for Evans or even push JRC forward and bring in Pike from the u-23s

Looks like we will have 12 unavailable for this one including the Covid quarantiners. Would just be grateful for us not making this 6 defeats out of 6 against probable top half teams. Best we can hope for is a draw. If Arma is out, replace him like for like with Gallagher and give the big lad a chance in his natural position. Otherwise, unless we are drafting in more under 23s it has to be same again as at Swansea.

In the games I have seen Lewis Thompson has looked the real deal BUT There is a world of difference between playing under 23s and the Championship even if what was substantially Liverpool under 18s embarrassed Everton's first team in their FA Cup run last season...

Forgot about Bell. That's eleven out. Kaminski Bennett Ayala Johnson Bell Vale Travis Douglas Dack Butterworth Rothwell OK some Mowbray-esque out of position options you may disagree with but the Rovers "crocks when they get fit" XI would give the Rovers "team that played at Swansea" XI one heck of a good game.