First things first I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, Rovers aside of course, writes Tom Schofield. 

My last column came off the back of a fantastic win against Bristol City, oh how things have changed since then.

The injury to Bradley Dack was always going to have a negative impact on the team and thus far we haven’t been able to find the perfect way to combat it.

As a fanbase we have gone from being bright eyed looking at the play-off places, to all of a sudden worrying that a repeat of last season is about to take place.

In replacing Dack, Mowbray has looked towards John Buckley and Ben Brereton. The latter of which has come in for increasing criticism.

As fans it is without doubt our right to criticise players who aren’t performing and with the fee Brereton comes with, he is under increased scrutiny. He hasn’t been good enough, however I haven’t sat comfortably with some criticism.

I am not overly fond on jeering and booing a player who is being substituted and I am a tad frustrated that this happened against Birmingham, with that being said I can understand to a degree the rebuttal that as paying customers fans have a right to voice their opinion no matter what.

The fans live and breathe the club after all, to many this makes or breaks our weekend and in the moment frustrations can get the better of us, this is our club after all.

For Brereton I think a spell away from Ewood Park is best for all parties. He can attempt to endear himself to a fresh set of fans, hopefully score some goals and come back a new man.

It’s a poisoned chalice currently and a spell away may go some way to resurrecting his Blackburn career.

Despite all this negativity we are only five points off the play-offs, a few wins starting against Lancashire rivals Preston and this column may be very out of date.