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We played some incredible stuff under JDT, I just wish he’d have been less stubborn and more pragmatic defensively. Still, weird that people have some sort of beef with him, when he was, like any manager that works under them, hamstrung by the owners.

He knocked the ball purposely out of play to allow himself to be treated and slams the physio got to him there was a signal to get a substitute on. It looked like a lower leg injury but I couldn't be sure. I did see him sat on the ground soon after with other substituted players so I presume it might have been precautionary. He was sat on the ground because there are no dugouts at the Preston Academy.

From Rovers perspective this for me was the proverbial game of two halves. For the first 40 or so minutes we dominated the ball, passed it well, were aggressive, on the front foot and played at a good tempo. The two goals we got were in my opinion not reflective of our dominance. Those two goals were almost opposites with Doherty rattling one in from distance and Joseph with an easy header from close range. In a rare foray forward Preston scored a goal just before half-time but it certainly looked like a deliberate handball in the penalty area skirmish just prior. That goal seemed to rattle us and Batty spent some time with the match officials on the pitch after the half time whistle. All the good things we were doing earlier seemed to disappear as Preston seemed to sense our unease. However we defended stoically and Honor in goal is looking better every time I see him. It wasn't until the last ten minutes when Preston were bombing on that we looked like scoring again. In the end we were probably a touch fortunate but a win is a win. Aside from Honor Atcheson looked good I thought with Joesph showing some good strikers attributes although he does, in my view get overly involved with centre halves and plays on the edge in this respect.

any idea what was up with mullarkey-Matthews? I assume injured

Well he's been sacked now. Not really surprising, with the way it seemed to be going, it was probably the right decision. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clyl5906qnzo Pretty scathing from a Swedish Journo:

He has absolutely no people skills, he does various after school clubs for a company and i know of at least 5 kids who are refusing to go to one of the ones he does because of the way he is

Fair play to you and I admire you for doing what you have.

Raise with club first regards standards of reporting etc. Also trying to garner some international interest in an absolute scandal regards the forced relegation we took upon ourselves. Amongst other things

Care to elaborate?

Miles away from championship level, but the potential is there.

Good first 20. Goalkeeper and Atcheson solid. Powell lively. Joseph started off great and faded badly after around 20. A deserved win but should have been many more.

I think there's a lot of managers very much like JDT at the moment, in a similar age bracket, who know nothing beyond "their way". Martin & Amorim fit into this category. Stubbornly only playing "their way", and somehow being proud of not having a plan B, which just makes them look ridiculous. The reason that Ferguson was the best was he wasn't scared to play 5 in midfield and a lone striker away in Europe, and then on the Sunday play a front 3. He was flexible and did what worked for the players he had/opponents they had coming up.

Never seen him play but Valentin Joseph always seems to be in and around the goals. He looks an absolute unit from the highlights too. Goal and assist today. Has anyone seen much of him? Is he a way off the first team?

In the league yes that's correct, we do have one cup win though in Coventry back in 2017 when we were in league one.

Didn't realise until listening to BRFCS podcast recently that we haven't won in the city of Coventry (beat them at St Andrews) for 3 decades. I've been 3 times in recent years to the Ricoh/CBS and seen us lose 3 times including a sickening late 1-0 winner on a freezing Tues night, when Coventry weren't very good. So I'm not paying £32 to watch us on Saturday while Coventry are currently very good, I'll watch from behind the sofa at home. Football is a strange game, a bad decision, a sending off or an own goal and we could somehow pinch a 1-0 win, but my gut tells me we'll be put to the sword here. Would loved to be proved wrong, but the amount of goals they're scoring terrified me. Coyb

Golden generation but no golden defenders and that lies the problem! even someone like Jonas Olsson would've been a great fit in that side last night.

Willie Tee - Walking Up A One Way Street

Definitely was suspended

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Dark End Of The Street

I never really liked JDT that much, found him incredibly smug, cocksure and then increasingly stubborn and one-dimensional once it all went pear-shaped. I wonder whether any other British or top European sides will be back in for him, or whether he'll be managing in Scandinavia again. He was never backed by our clown board when it mattered, agreed, but I'm not convinced he would have taken us up anyway. I think he only knew one way to play and was eventually found out. We were gung-ho in attack which could be good to watch, but stank the place out defensively. While he hadn't been backed properly in the summer, I'm not having that his second season was anything other than an aberration, I think we would have gone down under him, only Rotherham had conceded more goals when he left and we were the only team not to beat them that season. I'm glad he's spoken out to a wider audience about the shambles he faced while at the club, anyone highlighting it is doing us a service, but it was only to save his own blushes, not because of any loyalty. I'll never forgive him for that performance at B*rnley, it was men against boys, we were bullied, taunted and absolutely buried by them, it was vile, he takes a lot of the blame for that. That must have been what the 5-0 felt like in 2001. Then the 4-1 defeat the following game at home to Preston. That combined was unforgivable and he didn't seem arsed.

What a strange thread this is turning into, a man that came to make a difference, was promised the earth, lied to and left? Now we seem to be enjoying his failures elsewhere? VENKYS OUT - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

Swedish media now reporting that he's been sacked. His stats for the Swedish national team were: 9 wins, 2 draws, 7 losses. Eerily similar to what he had with us in terms of not getting many draws: Season 1: 20 wins, 9 draws, 17 losses Season 2: 10 wins, 4 draws, 16 losses Some of the main issues with his style of play when coaching the Swedish national team has been: - Pressing with a very high defensive line even though the three at the back aren't very quick. - Team often gets exposed on the counter-attack/transition as a direct result of the high defensive line when counter-pressing fails. Defensively, they've been very naive at times. - Team selection has been questionable, often benching good players like Anthony Elanga and Hugo Larsson (Frankfurt) and using players from the lower-ranked domestic league (Allsvenskan) instead. - This generation of Swedish players are described by many as a 'golden' one having players like Kulusevski, Isak, Gyökeres, Elanga, Bergvall, Ayari and Hugo Larsson. More than capable of qualifying into big tournaments and challenge some of the bigger nations on a good day. JDT has failed to make the team competitive in that sense.

Loved the bit where the England keeper catches the ball on his goal-line.....and immediately boots it upfield. Cue Russell Martin heart-attack!!