THERE has been much talk among Rovers fans across web channels about whether Gary Bowyer should remain as our manager.

An online poll on probably our biggest fansite BRFCS asked ‘do you still have faith in Bowyer as Rovers manager?’ As it stands, 58 per cent of the 273 respondants (160) said no, while the other 113 said yes. Pretty close if you ask me.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Well-known Rovers fan Kamy, via his Twitter account @NorthernRover, held a poll of his own, asking ‘11 games into the season, do you think Bowyer can take Rovers up?’ with users of the social network asked to ‘retweet’ if they believe he can or ‘favourite’ if not.

The results? Just 21 people said they believed he would take us up while 274 said he would not.

Kamy tweeted: “I am genuinely surprised. I knew the tide was turning against GB but thought he had more support.”

Starting with Twitter, any poll on there can be manipulated as it is open to anyone and it isn’t representative of the fanbase as a whole.

On BRFCS, I voted ‘yes’. I still have faith in Gary Bowyer.

Although almost 60 per cent said they no longer had faith in the manager, this was still only a poll of fewer than 300 people.

There were 13,000 Rovers fans at Ewood on Saturday, not all of whom use Twitter or Rovers fansites.

There is pressure building on Bowyer as it is. This whole season has been geared up around the faint promise of a push for promotion.

Nobody is naive enough to expect a top two finish, but we all know the squad is capable of the top six, and this year really has to be the year to do it before the likes of Jordan Rhodes push for a move.

Bowyer took control of a team in crisis and is still going through a long process of sorting it out against a backdrop of impending financial fair play regulations.

Since the club was taken over by Venky’s it was plunged into turmoil with a succession of bad publicity stunts and poor decisions.

But none of those have happened in the months since Gary Bowyer stepped up and he should be lauded for that. And realistically who would come in and do any better?

Note Russell Slade’s appointment at Cardiff as a marker of the quality of replacement that we would be likely to attract.

Is Gary Bowyer the man for the job at Ewood? For me, yes he is.

All this online hysteria serves to do is create extra pressures that are wholly unnecessary.