There was still plenty of it though. The first goal is a case in point, it centred around Grahams brilliant hold up from a ball lumped forward. I would suggest that firepower of Assombolonga, Graham, Dack and Armstrong is as good as anything in the league. The problem is then the foundations on which it is built, ie maintaining the tight base we have created recently. As well as keeping all 4 happy when only 3 start! The mention of us also signing Gallagher is something which particularly makes me question the information.

Id be absolutely amazed for so many reasons: Why would Boro sell him to a team in 8th? On what planet would we afford him considering weve already spent 10m this season? Mowbray has repeatedly said he doesnt want someone on wages outside the parameters of our current wage bill. How would we afford his high wages? Why would he come here? How would he fit in short term? Dack and Graham are undroppable and critical to our team. So he either is a sub or out wide. Mowbray only plays one "attacking" wide man and at the moment Armstrong is in incredible form. He is far less effective wide anyway. Hes 26, so obviously he would outlast Graham and be here for a good few years. What does that mean for the 9m worth of forwards we bought in the summer? Armstrong is on fire playing from wide but Mowbray sees him as a striker long term. And Brereton at 7m as ever is the elephant in the room. Then theres Nuttall too. You cant play them all. Lets be clear on the quality of Assombolonga. He is a proven goalscorer over a number of years. He is far, far better than the likes of Sam Gallagher. He is a good age too, he would be a superb addition. But I dont see it happening in a million years sadly.

Has he? Again, thats my opinion above, not Mowbrays. We are taking a huge risk the longer we leave it.

Or Brereton. Our first 2 attacking subs are obviously Nuttall and Rothwell. Smallwood is good to have on the bench. Conway or Brereton to make way for me.

My point was simply not to be naive to the fact that a bigger club offering more money will most likely cause the player to want to explore that option. How that move turns out depends on each case but is irrelevant to the point im making. As @DeeCee says and something that was my point, lets not be naive, this happens everywhere. Lets hope we sign Rodwell up this week to a new deal. If he continues to impress and then a bigger club nabs him weve only ourselves to blame. Lets hope thats not the case.

I only started discussing it because I saw biz mention it. (who said he was replying to someone else to be fair) Have a bit of empathy for those who think giving 100% for a week and a half longer prior to 3 months off to try and win a very achievable league title is a big deal. You seem to have missed the point again with your "missed chances" comment. People werent so upset that we didnt win the league and thus it wasnt saying 2nd wasnt good enough. People were aggrieved that Mowbray had implied prior that it wasnt that big of a deal and picked a team sheet accordingly. People arent bringing it up randomly just to moan about something during our excellent run. I had forgotten about it until I saw someone who is defensive of Mowbray for it mention it, and I am full of praise to Mowbray for the job hes done.

I know. This is a messageboard for our opinions, not to echo the managers opinion. That being said, it is not about playing a certain way, it is about players being effective in the positions they play. Take Armstrong. He is a striker, but he is very (more?) effective from wide, his goal yesterday was a carbon copy of a number of goals last season. I have seen Gallagher play wide, and his effect on a game is massively diluted, he doesnt understand the defensive side, and he is a lot more ungainly than Armstrong. And that was in a front 3 with 5 defenders, making his defensive game less important. His skillset means it is far more important than he plays central than Armstrong. Likewise with Assombolonga, he is very much a goal poacher, move him wide and lose his effectiveness.

I am sure he does, and I agree. But if a bigger club (Prem or Championship with strong chance of promotion) comes in for any of our players, they are more likely to want to leave than stay.

Don't want either him or Gallagher to be used wide. Would prefer an actual wide man wide. Neither of the 2 would dislodge Dack and Graham, nor would they be effective wide. Assombolonga a far better player though.

Greed is a little unfair. Plus its naive to put so much emphasis on a supposed healthy relationship with a manager/club especially after 6 months. If a bigger club offers a bigger wage, as in any industry or to any person, the likelihood is that someone will move on. We have to get him tied down to a longer contract, otherwise we would only have ourselves to blame.

Especially just to bring on Anderson at half time anyway. West Ham are the same as Leicester, a cup win would turn an ok season into a memorable one. I remember the dilemma when Wigan won the cup and went down, as if the 2 are mutually exclusive! But id rather Rovers won the FA Cup and got relegated than stayed up and didnt. Easy to say after a win but i felt that Solskjaer treat the Arsenal game perfectly. He did make 2 or 3 changes but they didnt necessarily weaken them, they gave starts to Lukaku and Sanchez with Rashford and Martial both coming on later. The game on Friday night was excellent to watch with 2 of the big 6 wanting to win. Klopps team selection v Wolves was very strange for a man yet to win a trophy in England. Him and Pochettino should be all out in the cup to get a trophy.

Think thats a little unfair. Reed has fair more ability than Kane and Kane was at a far bigger club. Southampton do have the likes of Romeu, Hojberg and Ward-Prowse but its hardly Todd Kane trying to dislodge Azpilacueta and Reed could push amongst that lot following another successful loan spell, with his high energy style suiting Hassenhuttls style, a manager who seems keen to blood graduates. Even here, hes rarely played in his favourite position.

Gallagher can not play wide and Assombolonga I have never seen play wide.

We will have to agree to disagree that there was more (negative) focus around the surrender of the league title than the (positive) focus around promotion. There was a full house v Oxford and it was forgotten about. If you choose to believe that there are hoardes of fans who dislike Mowbray, who arent behind him (the fan base is united behind him) or who didnt appreciate the promotion, or whatever exactly you are suggesting, then thats your issue. For me though, if hes fit obviously then hes in our 18 man squad every week. Making him too important to loan out. I would have more faith in him starting than Mowbray seems to (was superb when he started v Portsmouth and the pressing he showed for our first that day would have been right at home here yesterday) but even if he failed to dislodge the Dack, Graham, Armstrong attack that most would struggle to remove, then he would be my first sub, above Rothwell, above Nuttall, above Brereton. The one that would end up not making 18's who has struggled for game time and form anyway would be Brereton, who would be perfect to loan out if the club could swallow its pride and let him for the good of his development.

Also, Samuel has been mentioned once or twice. Hopefully he will be moved on in the summer, an opinion I held even prior to a serious injury. Lets not make his absence allow us to forget he isnt of the quality to push us forward, a player who failed to score after November in League 1.

Dont see us paying the wages for Assombolonga. Would be a terrific signing and is a proven goalscorer, that being said does he dislodge the Graham and Dack partnership? Not for me. Theres no reason to sign Assombolonga and Gallagher and I don't suspect any chance either.

@Biz as you are liking my posts sarcastically from 5 months ago! Whilst not forgetting his injury problems already with us and a couple of less than competent performances at centre back earlier in the season. I am happy to state that Rodwell and Mowbray have proved me wrong in the last few weeks with some superb performances, and I hope he signs longer term.

I would probably him in the squad over any of the attacking players on the bench today whenever he was fit, and as close to starting as any of them. For a start we are a Kasey Palmer down from the start of the window. Dont get it at all.

It was brought up by @Biz

What sort of hypothetical situation is that? It only has any meaning if winning the league has any knock on effect the season after. It doesnt. The argument is seperate to both getting promoted, as that was already secured, and anything to do with this season. Guess it rankles more when you pay to travel down to London, and for a ticket. I dont understand it at all. We do not win any league titles very often. Its not dismissing the overall good job Mowbray has done so I dont understand the defensive nature of these posts. It is also not a scathing criticism of finishing 2nd being not good enough. Promotion is irrelevant to the argument, at that point it was guaranteed. It is about NOT BEING THAT BOTHERED as to whether we won the league or not. There was a week and a half of the season to go, 2 more pushes and we could have been champions. And @chaddyrovers it was brought up by someone who is defending Mowbray for it, lets be clear.

We did really need to win. Promotion was secured, and a win was crucial to winning a league title! It was mainly the attitude of Mowbray pre-match. He seemed like it wasnt that big of a deal. Blackburn Rovers winning a league title, not that big of a deal. The most puzzling aspect of the side he picked was that it wasnt even one with this season in mind. Token starts to Caddis as a wing back after months on the sidelines and also Payne as a false 9 with Graham on the bench were bizarre.

Once promotion was confirmed at Doncaster, it had to be the only priority. At that point, promotion was already secured. It is not dismissing the achievement of promotion to be aggravated to disregard the importance of a league title. I dont believe you can recall loans out of the parameters of the transfer window but may be wrong. Do you agree or disagree with loaning out Chapman?

Excellent performance and result, best performance of the season for me. We are such a threat when we press and pin teams in, and Hull were hopeless. Evans was for me the stand out player, he was absolutely outstanding. Travis I think had his poorest game since he broke in, his passing was loose at times but he was still 7 out of 10, he still complimented Evans perfectly and he still offered plenty that Smallwood wouldnt have so fair play to Mowbray for continuing to pick him. Raya could have sat with me. Kicking a bit off but didnt have much to do at all. Rodwell HAS to be given a new contract immediately, outstanding with Lenihan yet again and got a goal too as a nice bonus. Bennetts passing was off and I still dont trust him as a one on one defender but his pressing was indicative of the team, superb in winning the corner for the 2nd goal and he was good on the ball too. Bell was fine as well which is far better than he usually is, I cant recall him doing anything wrong bar one awful clearance from a Grosicki cross in the first half. The defence as a unit should be kept as it is after 3 very impressive clean sheets even though I think Mulgrew and Nyambe are both important players. A very good problem to have. Armstrong is on fire at the moment, superb finish and always a threat again. Reed was much improved and back to the energetic displays we have got used to, and superb composure for the goal, would love him signed up long term. Dack has come in for some harsh criticism, even though the goals have dried up slightly he is still a joy to watch and the pass for Armstrongs goal was sublime. Graham continued as our player of the season, his hold up play again was text book, especially for the first goal and was very unlucky hitting the post. Subs were all fine without really doing much. Well done to Mowbray for getting things spot on today.

Welcome back to the messageboard. I sense an inconsistency in your comments about Chapman compared to Brereton, done perhaps to fall in line with Mowbrays exact suggestion on what he will do. Brereton has been the very definition of a bit part player here. If Chapman was fit he would be in the 18 every time, above Brereton in terms of someone who could improve us. So why keep Brereton collecting dust on the bench (at best) and loan out a player who has shown far more in a Rovers shirt to suggest he can give us something different and offer a real threat? Regarding scouting, I suspect @Stuart shares the same mindset of me, in that Chapman and Gallagher would be very unimaginative signings, solely based on knowing them based on previous mixed spells at the club in the past, there has to be better out there than a striker who is not a focal point in attack so will no doubt be put wide, and an injury prone winger the manager doesnt trust to start football matches.

1.Has anyone even mentioned the Charlton game in months and months? You are over exaggerating the fall out of seeing a potential league title as unimportant, in comparison to the praise and unified backing he received on promotion. The Charlton game was only such a big deal because he had implied in the week that basically he wasnt arsed about a league title. We had 2 more games to push through, and a very realistic chance of a title. To see that as unimportant is a pretty big deal. That being said, it was forgotten about soon after, we had a full house on for the Oxford celebrations and it was praise from there on in. No one has said they would swap the title for struggles this year. If you see a potential league title as unimportant, then thats up to you and fair enough. It is a big deal to some. It doesnt mean that people havent praised or dont appreciate a bloody promotion! 3. I am more referring to fans on here, not to Mowbray and the team. 4. I agree that centre back is not first priority to be honest. I think a left back and a winger are bigger priorities. My views on the Chapman deal are as I have said before, I think its an unimaginative one, and one we should have avoided based on his injury issues. But there has to be an element of excitement because he is undoubtedly talented. I dont get loaning him out at all though. We need a winger. Does a fit Harry Chapman get into our 18 man squad? Certainly. Would he be possibly the first name to be brought on off the bench if he didnt start? Yes. So why loan him out, rather than Brereton for example, who hasnt offered a threat off the bench, perhaps wouldnt get into the 18, and is in need of a pick me up?