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I checked the table for the first time this season yesterday. Rovers are 6 points off 6th, and 6 points off a relegation spot. It looks like a typical Championship year table. 1 team, Coventry, running away with top spot. 1 team, Sheff Wed, miles away at the bottom. The rest are fighting in the middle.

I was once speaking to a lady born in 1920 who said she remembered as a young girl Rovers bringing the FA Cup back on the bus in 1928. As a side note also claimed that when she was young there were around 100 pubs between Witton lights and the town centre. Not everything changes for the better!

Looks like a Pink Floyd album cover.

Trouble is overhauling of the squad is going to be an annual occurrence moving forward so results will continue to drop off each season by your reckoning until the inevitable happens.

You'd think so wouldn't you, but this is Rovers you're talking about!

Couldn't choose a better fixture to get the home form monkey off our back! The southern softies will be like lambs being led to slaughter. Pile in on Rovers' win at 5/4 and have yourself a very Merry Christmas!

Id be happy with one plus O Riordan. The general point I was making was that I dont suppose our January budget will be very big so I wouldnt want it all blown on CB's. As regards Pratt, he came in and seized his chance with both hands. Surely you have to give him the opportunity to kick on and be considered a first teamer? Until he proves otherwise it would be harsh in the extreme to dump him and forget about him as soon as someone else comes in.

so what is Pratt? would you play him on Wednesday and what did you think of his performance on Friday?

Agreed. It was deja vu from my comments after the City game. Too many players were mis controlling balls, playing errant passes, and generally playing scared. The ball dinged off Konate's shin twice before going out for the corner that Forest scored their first goal from. Mac Allister missed a simple tackle for the second, and Robertson got turned inside out for the third. Their current predicament can be nicely summed up by 2 incidents in the first half. Gakpo pitifully pulling out of a challenge he was favoured to win, and with 20 seconds to go before the halftime whistle instead of getting the ball into the box they played a couple of backwards passes on the left side and the ball ended up going out of play for a Forest throw. They have no heart, desire, or graft. They are ponderous going forward too. They play too many deliberate, safe passes in and around the middle of the opposition half without anyone trying to make anything happen. None of their wide players - full backs or wingers ever get in behind. Salah and Gakpo cut inside at every opportunity further decreasing space. They are very easy to play against. Sit off them and let them pass around in front of the back line.

That doesn’t take account of the injuries we’ve suffered. Given a bit of luck we’d have had Toth, Carter, Wharton and Cantwell playing. They’d all be playing if they were fit. Instead we’ve had to use bench players and kids as starters. In spite of that we’ve always competed and never once given the impression that we’re feeling sorry for ourselves like I’ve seen other Rovers teams under other managers do.

Great view of Gudjohnsen’s goal. That wasn’t an easy chance by any means. It would have been easy to hit the keeper with that. A good view of the Gueye header as well. How did he get that so wrong ? Alebiosu hung that ball up a treat, right where he wanted it.

I think in the modern system, I would argue Scholes gets in alongside Carrick in midfield, with Gerrard roaming behind the lone striker. That is despite my own belief that Lampard is better than all three 🙃🤯

Do we look far more solid away from home specifically without him? He played in 3 away games and we kept clean sheets in 2 of those.

Same thing will happen in a few months time when they start getting in a lather about coming here. They'll be delighted at having to pay £33 in the lower and £38 in the middle of the upper tier i'm sure.

Pratt did very well but it is premature to just consider him a first teamer going forward as a result. One new centre back and O'Riordan would be the minimum we need. We are so short there especially playing a 3.

I once went watching the Rugby League at York. It’d snowed in the morning but then had stopped so the game was “ On “ . About 2-15 it started snowing heavily again. If it hadn’t have been a Challenge Cup game with a big gate it would have been called off. Me and my mate were stranded on an open end behind the sticks and we were like snowmen by kick off time. I’ve never been as cold ever, what saved our lives was my mates half bottle of rum he’d brought along ! Then we lost a very close game we should have won and then the coach broke down coming back over the tops ! What a great day !

Great post.

And the sideways header at Bramall Lane.

Im not Cantwell's biggest fan but I do think if fit he should be in the line up. Extrapolating a fairly limited snapshot of results and claiming results are better without him in the side is imo a bit like blaming Jordan Rhodes for the fact we didnt go up when you've got players like Jason Lowe playing behind him.

I once went in every pub between where I was living in Blackburn and Ewood. I remember Le Tissier’s wonder goal but that’s about it. To this day I’m not sure how I got home afterwards 😁

I think so, playing just behind the front two is made for him.

We’ve had some bad loans recently but given the wages we were supposed to be paying Dennis he must have been the worst loan ever. All I can remember about him is him getting sent off.

Cantwell is something of an enigma. Away from home, we look far more solid without him. It's the home games where he really out to shine and have an influence on results. Yet home results are poor, whilst the last three away games have seen good performances and good results without him. Cantwell is a mercurial talent but fitting him into a system that works for the rest of the team is not always easy. Kendall managed to do it with McKenzie, so hopefully Ismael will be able to find a solution. I must admit, that I'm not really bothered one way or the other regarding his future in the January window.

That's not the whole story is it? If I was being interviewed for a job and I was told that the strategy was to let all the most experience staff leave and replace them with much less experienced staff on lower wages, where we have no idea how long it will take them to become competent, or whether they would ever become competent at all, that would be a massive red flag. Ismael presumably knew this would be the case when he took over, they must have discussed long term strategy with regards to current playing staff and future recruitment. So he doesn't get to use it as an excuse, he doesn't get a pass as he took the job on those terms. If he had no idea any of that would happen, then you would expect him to be extremely disgruntled about it, in the same way that Eustace and JDT evidently were. Instead he has indicated that everything is fine, fans and journalists are wrong and he, Rudy and whoever else are correct. He slapped down the suggestion that the squad is weaker than last season's when we can all see that it is. Not 'tosh' is it?

Any Beanie Hats in the pipeline?...