v Reading (h) - 15/3/23, 7:45pm

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Good god, Morton starting for the rest of the reason.

I despair.

Bring back A Wharton ASAP

Wharton should come in but Morton is at least better than Garrett. But it is a massively weak area as even Buckley has not convinced in that role.

[philipl]

Morton has had his poor games and goal conceding moments but is a class player who has been showing more grit recently. 

Tonight is not a must win but will make more future games must wins if we don't. 

Plus drive anxiety levels skywards so 3 points please lads.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

Morton has had his poor games and goal conceding moments but is a class player who has been showing more grit recently. 

Tonight is not a must win but will make more future games must wins if we don't. 

Plus drive anxiety levels skywards so 3 points please lads.

I don’t know. Think tonight is a must win. Reading are a walking three points at the moment, we can’t afford to miss out. Our run in is not kind and this is arguably the ‘easiest’ game we could ask for (possibly aside from QPR at home).

Ignoring the performance, there is no shame in losing to a Stoke side who are in decent form, but tonight has to be a win to keep a gap to Norwich. If we can’t beat Reading at home with their current form,  we don’t deserve to consider ourselves top 6 material.

[arbitro]

I don't get the 'must win' comments. There are 30 points to play yet and there will be lots of twists and turns for all the clubs involved.

 

[philipl]

Reading absolutely battered us at the Used Car Stadium. Yes they have injuries and yes Ince was a disaster managing at Ewood but given what he has had to work with, he is one of the Managers of the season for Reading to have done what they have.

Carol could easily bully us and Joao always scores against Rovers.

Travis and Thomas have to watch themselves for bookings tonight as well. Is it a card happy ref tonight?-  if so we could be crippled for Norwich and Huddersfield irrespective of players recovering from injury by then.

I am more than half expecting JDT to surprise us with line up and formation. Whatever he does, JDT has the buy in and faith of the players and that counts for an enormous amount in this dog eat dog league.

Fingers and toes crossed for 3 points but Reading won't be lying down this evening. 

[M_B]

Whether it's a "must win" game or not is open to debate,but it will be the first result everyone points to if we don't win it and we miss out. 

 

[BankEnd Rover]

On paper we should be winning. Think it will be a low scoring game but think we will get it over the line - Paul Ince to be sacked the day after. 

[BigUts]

It isn't "must-win" but we absolutely have to win this game if we have any designs on finishing within the play-offs. There will indeed be further twists and turns but you can't always guarantee they'll drop in your favour.

The more we can do to mitigate them affecting us as the season draws to a close then it'll make our job a hell of a lot easier and a lot less stressful.

[Cuppliance]

I know a few neutrals that have got tickets for tonight's game. £10 a ticket for live championship football is an appealing prospect it seems. I think the club offering this promotion can only be seen as a positive and that's despite seeing a few opinions that have somehow turned it into a negative. Maybe 'The Halo Effect' could be at play there.

[TimmyJimmy]

If our target is a top 6 finish then this has to be a must win game.

Get three points in the bag and then the remaining games get less stressful, we just have to match the teams results below us, they lose, we can lose, they draw, we can draw.

The teams below us can't all win all the time so the points from tonights game would IMO guarantee us a top 6 finish.

Don't shoot me for jinxing it but I believe a win agsinst Reading means we finish top 6.

So for me, a "must win".

[Mattyblue]

Not a negative. the crowd will be c15k, which is obviously better than a standard midweek and can only help the atmosphere.

But it was just the wrong game to pick. As midweeks will always have limitations with a lot of fans being unable to attend. Instead, if you choose a 3pm game in the run in and you will have 22-23k+ . If you are only doing a tenner game once all season, you obviously need to target it at a game that will pull the most folk in. A Wednesday game, in March, against a team fetching about 300, isn’t the one.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Mattyblue

[Mercer]

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Broughton wasn't at fault for the O'Brien transfer but the administration team at Ewood Park ballsed it up

Wasn't Broughton with O'Brien in Manchester dining out until later returning to Brockhall?

As DOF he should have been at Brockhall earliest ensuring all going well.  He should have INSISTED the asministrators were also in situ at Brockhall.

IMO, absolutely farcical on the day the window closes you have Waggot in Birmingham, Broughton in Manchester, admin at Ewood and others at Brockhall.

Broughton is the DOF and it's his feckin responsibility to make sure all the cogs in the transfer wheel move smoothly.  It's as simple as that.

 

[BigUts]

15 minutes ago, Cuppliance said:

I know a few neutrals that have got tickets for tonight's game. £10 a ticket for live championship football is an appealing prospect it seems. I think the club offering this promotion can only be seen as a positive and that's despite seeing a few opinions that have somehow turned it into a negative. Maybe 'The Halo Effect' could be at play there.

Same. I'm bringing 3 Everton fans with me 😁

[TheRevAshton]

Looks like ~13k seats are taken so far, from the ticket map. Hopefully there are a couple thousand walk-ins!

Edited March 15, 2023 by TheRevAshton

[tomphil]

35 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Wasn't Broughton with O'Brien in Manchester dining out until later returning to Brockhall?

As DOF he should have been at Brockhall earliest ensuring all going well.  He should have INSISTED the asministrators were also in situ at Brockhall.

IMO, absolutely farcical on the day the window closes you have Waggot in Birmingham, Broughton in Manchester, admin at Ewood and others at Brockhall.

Broughton is the DOF and it's his feckin responsibility to make sure all the cogs in the transfer wheel move smoothly.  It's as simple as that.

 

He was probably shadowing the lad to make sure he didn't u turn and sign for someone else it's not unusual.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

I don't get the 'must win' comments. There are 30 points to play yet and there will be lots of twists and turns for all the clubs involved.

 

These were the comments thrown at the same stage last season... don't want to rely on the later games.

[arbitro]

31 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

These were the comments thrown at the same stage last season... don't want to rely on the later games.

I think we will win and will be really frustrated if we don't but if we do lose there are still plenty of points and games left. 'Must win' implies we are in the last chance saloon. And the comparison to last season isn't fair as we had Mowbray then and were in our death spiral.

[47er]

10 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I think we will win and will be really frustrated if we don't but if we do lose there are still plenty of points and games left. 'Must win' implies we are in the last chance saloon. And the comparison to last season isn't fair as we had Mowbray then and were in our death spiral.

If we lose I'll feel we are in the Last Chance Saloon.

[only2garners]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Not a negative. the crowd will be c15k, which is obviously better than a standard midweek and can only help the atmosphere.

I suspect 15K is too optimistic. As of Monday night less than 12K had been sold, including about 150 from Reading. It seems a tall order for us to shift more than 3,000 in two days. Particularly given the weather forecast of heavy rain from tea time.

[Mattyblue]

There you go then, as I said, poor decision to choose this game.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Mattyblue

[Sweaty Gussets]

36 minutes ago, 47er said:

If we lose I'll feel we are in the Last Chance Saloon.

JDT will be in the last chance salon if his stalkers catch up with him ahead of his hair appointment. 

[RoversClitheroe]

Good god.

How isn't this game Must Win? 

What's happened to our fans? Where's the ambition?

Reading absolutely riddled by injury and looking to not get relegated? Yet not must win?

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I think we will win and will be really frustrated if we don't but if we do lose there are still plenty of points and games left. 'Must win' implies we are in the last chance saloon. And the comparison to last season isn't fair as we had Mowbray then and were in our death spiral.

Every team above and around us would class this is a must win

[Sweaty Gussets]

We've won 7 of our last 10 at home.

We've won 2 of our last 10 away.

If we're making in the play offs the above would suggest our home for is key. And four of our other home games look tricky. In that context tonight is a bit of a 'must-win'.

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

Wasn't Broughton with O'Brien in Manchester dining out until later returning to Brockhall?

Broughton was with O'Brien at his medical at Manchester City training ground. I don't know why it held there before you asked. 

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

As DOF he should have been at Brockhall earliest ensuring all going well.  He should have INSISTED the asministrators were also in situ at Brockhall.

If you actually listened to his interview properly you would know that he and O'Brien got back to Brockhall as soon as possible. 

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

IMO, absolutely farcical on the day the window closes you have Waggot in Birmingham, Broughton in Manchester, admin at Ewood and others at Brockhall.

Waggott was attending the Birmingham game whilst Company secretary was at Ewood Park finalising the paperwork and a couple of the media team was at Brockhall interviewing O'Brien cos we thought the transfer was done. 

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

Broughton is the DOF and it's his feckin responsibility to make sure all the cogs in the transfer wheel move smoothly.  It's as simple as that.

 

The company secretary and his role is responsible to Waggott not Broughton. I see it Broughton runs the footballing side of the club and Waggott the administration side of the club