We asked our fans' jury: As he approaches the milestone this week, how do you reflect on Tony Mowbray’s three years at Ewood?

It would take a miserable old curmudgeon like me not to recognise Mr Mowbray’s talent and value to the club he manages. He inherited a depressed and demoralised concern lurching from one crisis to another and which was inevitably becoming a laughing stock.

As I write, Rovers are three points from the play-off places despite having to contend with a litany of serious injuries to key players. So he must be given credit and a vote of confidence.

He comes across as a thoughtful man who sees himself as a father figure to young players who are making their way in the game with, one presumes, the older campaigners respecting his experience and wisdom.

It’s interesting that he rarely shows any emotion and little seems to be said of him when the players are interviewed. Early on in the season I thought he was ready to move on but since then he seems to have got his “second wind.”

I still question his team selections, strategy and transfer dealings but Gallagher on the right is a small price to pay.

Paul Yates

 

Tony Mowbray was tasked to tidy up the mess that Owen Coyle had created and it took taking the club down and rebuilding it for that to happen. Now we have a young, talented squad with a great togetherness and even talk of the play-offs (albeit slightly ambitious).

I know Tony Mowbray has had his critics, often unfairly, but looking at his record, we are on a gradual incline, improving each year.

We have at the realm, an honest, hard-working guy who loves football and cares. With some of the less reputable managers that preceded him, I for one am happy that he’s leading us slowly but surely onto bigger and better things, all along with integrity.

It’s easy to write this on the back of our current form but we must also remember what he’s done for the club, both on the field and off it when the form isn’t quite as impressive - which it will be again - that’s just football.

Kelvin Wilkins

 

Mowbray has been criticised at times this season, sometimes that has been justified as well. He isn’t perfect as a manager but who is? When you look at the position we were in when he took over three years ago compared to now, it really is chalk and cheese.

We were on a downwards spiral with no signs of it stopping. The fans were as disillusioned as they’ve ever been, we had a manager who didn’t know what he was doing, and fans were beginning to turn on each other. Ewood Park was a toxic place, it wasn’t enjoyable.

Fast Forward three years and it’s totally different. I enjoy being a Blackburn Rovers fan, of course fans still disagree but more often than not it is done in a way which is respectful. There is an honesty in what Mowbray says, we believe in him because we can see that he realises what this means to us.

Results on the field have improved and that’s brilliant, but Mowbray was the catalyst that sparked my clubs revival and for that I will be forever grateful.

Tom Schofield

 

Nothing short of remarkable to briefly sum his time up in my opinion. He very nearly engineered an unlikely great escape in his first few months, in his second season after a sticky spell delivered a vital promotion, and since then we’ve improved month by month.

If we achieve or don’t achieve a play off spot this season will have no significance for me, to be merely competing in the home straight is good enough for me.

Three years ago we had a guy in charge who should not have been in the car park of my club let alone the manager’s chair but Tony has completely transformed us and made a lot of us proud to support Rovers again.

It’s not been all fantastic as his signings of Brereton and Gallagher show but they both may come good, but look at his signings of Dack, Downing et al to balance the argument. Happy third anniversary.

Andrew Robinson

 

As a Rovers supporter hailing from a younger generation, up until 2018 I’d never had anything positive at all to cheer about. Our League One exile of 2017/18 was the most exciting season I’ve ever experienced as a football supporter. New stadiums to visit, winning games consistently, a trophy at the end of the season and parade through Blackburn town centre.

By contrast I’d seen our fall out of Europe, relegation to the Championship from the Premier League, a chicken on the pitch at Ewood, multiple fan protests and then relegation from the Championship in 2017.

Some people will try to move forward from the 2017/18 season as quickly as possible without looking back, but what Tony Mowbray brought to Ewood Park that season was a great style of a football, a team that wanted to win, worked for each other and communicated with the fans.

The attitude of players like Elliott Bennett, Richie Smallwood and Charlie Mulgrew, who all thrived under Mowbray, passed onto the rest of the first team squad, and the supporters themselves.

I’ll always remember Tony as the man who brought some joy to this young Rovers supporter’s Ewood Park days.

He is a testament to an old style, one of the only managers left in the Championship to have ever won promotion from the division, and hopefully, will bring about even more happiness and joy before his time is up as manager.

Joe Harvey