Seen the game now, my ratings: Toth (6,5) - did OK, can't be blamed for any of the goals conceded. Mostly opted for safety when in possession by booting long balls up the field. Ribeiro (7) - up against Gray and Osayi-Samuel but thought he handled it well together with Hedges. Apparently has a good shot as he powered one towards the bar in the first half (offside in the lead-up). McLoughlin & Hyam (both 7) - won a lot of aerial challenges together. Played it safe when on the ball. Alebiosu (7,5) - won the ball back quite a few times, tough in the challenges. Had a chance in the first half (foul in the lead-up?) where he displayed lack of vision for not squaring it to either Ohashi or Cantwell. Showed great work rate and athleticism throughout the game until his injury. Got left isolated a few times in second half when Kargbo didn't track back. Hopefully the rib(?) injury isn't too serious. Tronstad (6,5) - protected back four fairly well. Rarely seen having possession as we played more directly. Tavares (6) - surprised that he played full game (lack of options?) given he played 70 minutes in the cup a few days ago and having just returned from injury. Involved in the penalty conceded when he tripped Laird inside the box. Poor corner which resulted in a last-minute winning goal for Brum. Cantwell (8) - showed his quality and technical skill when scoring with a great strike from just outside the box. Delivered some good crosses from set pieces as well. Worrying that he seemed to have sustained an injury (groin?) and was substituted with five minutes left of normal time. Hedges (7) - put in a good shift. Better suited when we sit back and play more direct as he has the work rate to track back and provide a decent outlet out wide on the left during transitions. Kargbo (7) - good going forward with his threatening runs on the right hand side. Won the corner which led to the goal. Tired in the second and didn't have the energy to track back after 60 minutes. Will become more consistent if he can improve his work rate. Ohashi (7) - ran tirelessly throughout 90 minutes. Didn't get much to work with but battled well against the centre backs and did the pressing off the ball as usual. Subs: Miller (6) - once again showing his prowess with the long throws. Nearly got an assist in the end when finding Gueye inside the box. Wharton (N/A) - missed closing down Dykes in the last minute for their winning goal. Gueye (N/A) - nearly became match-winner when meeting Miller's long throw in stoppage time but keeper made a good save. De Neve (N/A) - was at fault for allowing Laird to turn and attack the box with pace, leading to a penalty. Henriksson (N/A) - had the chance to make a professional foul by stopping the counter-attack at the end but didn't get a connection/directional change on the ball. Overall tactics (8) - thought the team was disciplined by often sitting back in a mid block, frustrating the opponent, and taking no risks in possession by playing direct. This playstyle benefits many of our players as they're not particularly comfortable on the ball or playing out from the back. Negative aspects are that we didn't create a lot of chances and we (apparently) didn't prepare our routines regarding set pieces. Also felt substituting Hedges for Miller after 60 minutes was a bad call as we lost 'defensive control' after that. Would've been more natural to sub Kargbo off as well at that point instead of shifting him to the left hand side as he was tired and bring both De Neve and Miller on. Summary: restricted the opposition to few chances but need to improve our game during transitions as well as setting up better set piece routines.

True and absolutely embarrassing. Sometimes you're better to have decent wages available... vs bargain basement fees for relegated talent in poor European leagues... paying peanuts. That's not a strategy aimed for success, nor was it Brentford's model. Alfie Devine has already bagged for Preston on loan. McBurnie hitting the ground running....... Meanwhile I'm still waiting to see if Henriksson and De Neve can control a football. We scraped the barrel last summer for Ohashi and Gueye and they just don't quite look good enough if we're being honest.... do they? The result of this sign as cheap as possible exercise will be a full team that's simply not up to it all over. I think Gestede is about to complete that puzzle.

I think they tried to avoid "big" games between title contenders on the first week. Im sure I've read that somewhere.

Until the owners change it will be an up hill battle, why there still what our club is beyond me but we can l8 ein hope that are some point there will go but what state the. Lib is in by then is anyone's guess. As for the match we were a bit unlucky to lose but the second goal should never have happened still on to the hull game

Imagine Rovers playing at turf moor!! We play and support our teams because of our rivals and without them football just isn't the same. I'm hoping we can finally get rid of Venkys one day soon... Well done and congratulations - good luck for the rest today the season.

Really I watched it myself….Rubio changed the game completely for them

I mean this logic is as stupid as our defending from that corner. Are we really using what doesn't happen - as in doesn't actually exist- as the argument for us being decent/good? The mind boggles? Where to start? It doesn't guarantee a 2-0 win for certain, and where do we end with the hypotheticals? If the corner hadn't been crap we'd have got our second? If Cantwell stayed on he'd got a hat-trick? I get I am over egging the pudding but to defend a team with something that didn't happen (and even if it did wasn't a certainty as to what would follow) is Venky-esque. Ludicrous.

Yep, watched that came on at half time and he put some good crosses in and changed the game for them. Very good considering he’s new to the league + country

Thought he was just Ryan Hedges with instagram?

Dolan getting good reviews in Spain.

you can`t describe the situation better than that🤣 that quote should be handed round to the idiots who are still defending the regime

your only basing that on mowbray partnering him with a lazy and disinterested jack rodwell at the back,then tony blaming him and raya for letting ****loads of goals in,mowbray definately at fault that season for not buying a couple of decent defenders instead of spending 13 million on gallagher and brereton

When you look at the squad...no its not

It's another one of those strange situations. A strange circumstance that doesn't tally up with having wealthy owners. An ownership of this wealth, who apparently wanted to make 'Blackburn India's premier club', has done zilch in 15 years to bring Indian brands on board for sponsorship. Why not? They surely have plenty of contacts over there. Some might say they don't have a clue what they are doing football wise. No disputing that...but this is very odd.

I'm open minded about the approach by Gestede, I hope he succeeds, although I suppose success is different to different people. It was Waggott out, now it's Gestede out, it wouldn't matter who replaced Gestede, it would be get them out, which is why I take any criticism from certain posters with a pinch of salt. I'm not on Facebook or Twitter either. As for club stuff, it's generally so bland, I hardly ever read it, unless we've actually signed someone . Why people scrutinise press conferences is beyond me, some of the Eustace stuff written on here in the early days was mental. So, I hope Gestede and Ismael know what they're doing and get it "right " , the recruitment team have got it all to do.

If they'd actually made some effort and made us a well known name in India as they claimed was the plan we'd at least have a bit more income from over there. Didn't want to spend any of their personal money though did they once the Venky Xpress UK plans went tits up.

Delta, Virtu, Nike, Coral sounds like an ambitious commercial department meanwhile our lot go to one naff Lancashire networking brunch and get a main shirt sponsor from down the road and can’t bring in anything with reach outside of a 25 mile radius of the club (macron as the exception by necessity) edit: JH beat me to it and put it much better

Birmingham and Wrexham have exploited their owners' connections abroad particularly in the USA and signed highly lucrative international sponsorship deals despite only being able to offer League One/Two football up until this year. Ambition. Thinking big. Not accepting your lot in life with a shrug of the shoulders. Contrast to this rotten regime, refusing to look beyond Darwen for sponsors or fans, not having a commercial director. 'We're a local small town club' bizarrely used as some sort of badge of honour yet hamstringing the club financially. These owners have done NOTHING in 15 years to secure the club advantageous sponsorship. Other than their own 'sponsorship' - forced to do it as a way of legitimately getting more money into the club (stickers on the shirts and filthy boards across the Riverside) there hasn't been a single sponsorship of any size or duration with Indian companies/firms. Zero effort or interest.

They change the cast every few years and they think they are doing something different and can't seem to understand why they get stick. They should ask the producers because they give the same script out over and over. If George Orwell wrote a '1984 - Football' novel then we would be it.

This reads very much as the venky party like being towed

No one said it was gonna be easy. It's taken us 14 years to get rid of Chinese ownership. Funnily enough we helped Coventry City by letting them ground share with us for two seasons when they were gonna be booted out of the football league because they would have been homeless. When our fans protested rival fans applauded us.

Going to get pumped by a team who can't sign players and still managed to have a better transfer window than us

As I just posted in another thread. So fucking predictable.

I don't know about the thin part but they're certainly thick.

We really are hard up if we cant or wont sign players until we allow 3 players, none of them involved in first team squads, and none of whom will be on much, to be bundled out of the door.