Six midfielders on the bench. That means the midfield trio have two subs each as cover! Dolan the only forward option and Carter the only defender although Downing could fill in at left back. Millwall playing 3-4-3 and are injury hit like we are.

I would never have anticipated that line-up. There are signs of Holtby and Elliott really clicking together so we will find out if they do tonight. Elliott gives us more buzz energy and creativity but cannot run through the entire opposition the way Rothwell can. Interesting.

Stanley will go 6th equal with 3 games in hand if they win at lowly Shrewsbury tonight. Heady times for our nearest neighbours!

Millwall have only lost once on the road so far and drawn 8 games all told. We should diminish how tough they are going to be to get all 3 points off.

You did indeed raise this point. The Patel points system cripples us. You fall in love with a girl/player and have to keep her/him in a foreign country until together you scrape together enough Patel points to be able to live together at home. If you cannot, just have to forget about the whole thing. Brits and British football clubs are second class now. The lesson is you need a foreign arrangement so investment in foreign clubs by people who also own British clubs will grow where foreign players, particularly youngsters, can be safely developed until the Patel points can be gamed to your advantage. I already have Maltese clubs asking me if I can find them English partners who can park players with them. Alternatively, like Burnley have done, you register your Academy as an Education establishment and you try to use the student visa system which many Tory MPs are lobbying to be exempted from immigration rules. As my deleted post pointed out, this tilts the playing field towards the Premier League and the Big 6 in particular with no time and no window to prepare by doing deals before it comes in.

I will ask this question. Name one fixture between now and the end of the season we can be pretty certain to lose.

1963 yet so many of those scorers are familiar names still today.

PNE did us a big favour at Bournemouth. Brentford and Bristol City on for 3 points each in away fixtures they might have dropped points in.

Just hoping Stanley will have to reach the Premier League to be able to play us again... Where are Darwen these days?

Voted, Glen. Good luck!

Morecambe Bay derby this evening. Occasions like this really must hurt the fans not being able to be there for their first ever meeting as league sides.

No both

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.