philipl

Two points dropped by Mowbray. The players we have are easily good enough to challenge for promotion, the Manager is clueless. Great goal by Rothwell, Dack back as good as ever but no shape to the team.

Trybull not featuring for "personal reasons"

Pollock has scored for Grimsby at Morecambe. Appropriate in the week of the Brexit deal.

Mowbray has set this team up all wrong for that first half. Let's see if he can correct it now. We are certainly the better of the two sides and should be capable of turning this around. 74% possession has only generated 7 shots of which 1 was on target. Powder puff stuff..

I am feeling so good about this game now.. Almost certain this optimism means we're going to come yet another Ewood Park cropper against Sheffield Wednesday.

Great to see Ben back on the bench.

Happy healthy Christmas everyone!

Wednesday have three key players coming back from injury for their trip to Ewood apparently

Just 6 are English: https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2020/dec/21/the-100-best-male-footballers-in-the-world-2020 List topped by Sam's planned Rovers signing Robert Lewandowski. How a volcanic ash cloud changed our world...

There are 14 fixtures in England listed by the BBC this evening. 7 are postponed because of players testing positive for Covid.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/18924455.stoke-city-1-middlesbrough-0/ That is what the attachment should have been.

https://www.ft.com/content/c85a6be0-533d-4c57-b5c7-a6084a139a77?segmentId=bf7fa2fd-67ee-cdfa-8261-b2a3edbdf916 You won't be surprised to learn it was Neil Warnock criticising the portacabin as a pig stye. It does sound unhygenic and disgusting from the description.

He is actually working around the clock for Rovers. Folks can criticise his effectiveness but to suggest he is putting in less than 60 hours a week (and often a lot more) is well wide of the mark.

I cannot remember who but Championship clubs have complained about it.

Three pieces of evidence 1) LT report that he was offered a significantly lower contract 2) It was so low Downing was so confident he could beat it elsewhere that he was out of the game earning zero for four months. That only makes sense from Downing's viewpoint when the gap between offer and player's expectation is an annualised £250k at least because of what he wasn't being paid during that period. Did he expect another £750k year at his age? - probably not. Did he (or his agent) think he could command £500k?- probably. 3) The offer to renew at the end of last season was made when Rovers were at their ceiling for FFP so it would have been low enough to keep within the limit. That low offer inevitably would be Rovers' anchoring starting point for when they started talking again and clinched the deal to secure Downing.

Great goals. If allowed 12, Shearer's swivel and strike at Liverpool which Jan Molby described on 5Live as "fuck me" and Le Saux's screamer for the 7th against Forest but there were so many fantastic goals. No place in there for strikes by Sutton, Santa Cruz, Cole or Macarthy either...

That Anderson had a contract to run Blackburn Rovers and Kean was Anderson's client most people would accept as a matter of record. That and the consequential dismantling of Rovers in a few horrendous months puts Kean beyond any forgiveness or rehabilitation. There are quite a few of us aware of allegations, some with documentary evidence, beginning a year before Kean was appointed Manager continuing to when he went which cannot be written on here. Mentally totting up, I can think of six separate alleged facts people much closer to the club than me have privately discussed. All except perhaps one (which would have endangered the source had it been disclosed) have been presented to powers that be and not met with the sort of outrage and doubts about the speaker's sanity type of reactions I fully expected. And I will suggest one additional pointer which has appeared on this message board many times. Kean's weird relegation clauses in his obscenely lucrative Managerial contract which most people could easily read as rewarding him for taking us down.

Two big issues with Gallagher. - first touch not good enough - instinctive positioning/anticipation not there. Seems to me he has to make slow conscious decisions by which time opportunities are gone Both faults militate against him using his obvious physical advantages to lead the line and I think Mowbray compensates for them by sending Gallagher wide where he gets a fraction more time to get in control of the ball and has less options to weigh up. The problem is the nearer the touchline he is, the worse he plays. The best of Gallagher is when he runs the inside right channel. As has been pointed out, with a fully fit squad, it is debatable if he is in the 20 on merit and is some way of being an automatic starter. Armstrong, Dack, Brereton, Elliott cannot all start together and I challenge anyone to make a case for Gallagher starting ahead of anyone of those 4. Then I'd bring Dolan on as an impact sub before Sam. And we have Butterworth, Vale and Chapman to develop.

I had a horrible premonition Dack had been injured again. Thank goodness I read this thread and all is well. Of course he is ring rusty but there are 6 days before hopefully he is among the subs on Boxing Day and gets a few minutes at the end.

Tier 4 introduced in London and the South East bans all inessential travel. No mention whether football teams can move about.

Need to make the most of this- could be the last game for sometime if Johnson stops all sport with Tier 4. Having 4 games off because of Covid is not good in that respect.

Gallagher carrying on his poor form. Rothwell too deep Holtby not sparkling Douglas and Trybull playing much better than previously and Johnson OK in his new role. Where was Lenihan when they scored? I thought Kaminsky could have come for the cross. Too much being asked of Elliott. Game is there for the winning if Mowbray gets it right at half time. I would bring on Dolan for Gallagher.

Don't know what to make of this line-up. Not confident.

In Stoke? Even though it is close they are probably over-nighting there.