v Sheffield United (a) - 3/5/2025

[simongarnerisgod]

i`ll be rooting for bristol city against sheff utd ,wilder is an obnoxious human being,id`e love to see him crestfallen after getting knocked out

[Gav]

I’ve felt the hurt of playoff loss, it’s awful, the Palace game in 89 was my worst day following the club, it will never be surpassed. 

Of course I wanted us to win today, the tremendous support deserved that much, but we’d have been hammered in the playoffs by Sheff Utd, who in my opinion will go up.

Don't let this fluke change the narrative.

VENKYS OUT - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

[OllieNO]

4 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

if you hav`nt got any money then make sure you have a good scouting system,we`ve got neither so im`e not expecting much next season,wonder what the model will be this summer???????????

That’ll have to be the Let Your Best Players Leave For Free model (LYBPLFF). Combined with some significant investments. Which, as far as I can recall, historically has successfully pushed a club that used to play in League One as far up as 7th in the Championship twice. Proven track record👍

[USABlue]

4 hours ago, TheKitGuy said:

It just doesn't make sense to me that the players can't get themselves up for a game like today. Should we of won and managed to go up, their whole lives would've changed 50% increase in wages I imagine etc etc... 

Some teams want it more 

Some owners want it more. 

Will be the same for a long time, a shadow of the club we used to be. 

Not sure you watched the same game as me.  I would have to say the only one really with poor effirt was Dennis.  I was pleased with our approach and play enough to overturn the feeling of absolute despair about our next season.  To have ended where we have in the table is quite remarkable considering the turmoil here.  More than half our 1st teamers were missing for each games.  Just how many games did we actually field what we might consider our 1st 11.  Few nice things like Baath were super bonuses.  At least I dare look forward to next season i stead of not really caring.  Now we have several weeks for Waggott.and Co. to put me back to square one.  Looking certain Dolan is gone by choice, reckon he's known where he is ending up.for some time.  Trav, Sonny, Cantwell are all probably in the shop window. 

   Sadly the bad side to doing so well is at one quick glance the Venkys will say well looks like you are.doing fine why do you need more players?

[USABlue]

2 hours ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Wheels wobbled on the truck when Baker left. Good player. They came off when Eustace bailed. We finished well, 7th hurts but not too shabby taken in context. One gets promoted from the 4 play off teams, it was never going to be us.

Kargbo will come good, needs proper coaching. Dennis, please go. Dolan, please stay.

Venkys do one, waggott etc do likewise.

VI and backroom staff have earned the right to have a punt next season.

Academy, look out we're coming for your kids.

Onward and hopefully upward 😞 yes I know, whistling in the dark but you know, Rovers supporter and all that.

Laters.

Great post summed up well and with a lot less words than I could manage.

[Mercer]

24 minutes ago, Gav said:

I’ve felt the hurt of playoff loss, it’s awful, the Palace game in 89 was my worst day following the club, it will never be surpassed. 

Of course I wanted us to win today, the tremendous support deserved that much, but we’d have been hammered in the playoffs by Sheff Utd, who in my opinion will go up.

Don't let this fluke change the narrative.

VENKYS OUT - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

Agree with that other than I fancy Coventry to go up - Lampard enjoying a fair old share of luck.

[TheFinalCountdown]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

He is literally on the club's payroll - he'll be towing the line.

Oh, yeah. He does the lounges too.

Weird choice. Weird chap.

[Jackh]

20 minutes ago, TheFinalCountdown said:

Oh, yeah. He does the lounges too.

Weird choice. Weird chap.

And always calls us Blackburn

[Mattyblue]

Which for a bloke that has lived surrounded by Rovers fans for almost thirty five years has always grated on me.

Edited yesterday at 19:22 by Mattyblue

[London blue]

I can't remember who said it recently in this thread but the fact that for 80-90% of the league the new season is a lottery scares me. This time next year we could be anywhere from 8th to 24th, and I wouldn't want to put any money on it.

Today was a huge ask, and we fell short. The dreadful form at the start of the year was and is unforgivable. 

We didn't play especially well, but SU are a far better team who were playing without pressure. It would have needed one of the performances of the season to get a result, but I suppose that's what should be expected in these circumstances.

Onto next season. For fucks sake.

[SuperBrfc]

Gutted to have it be another case of 'so near, yet so far'.

No matter how much we try to take the "we'd have taken 7th at the start of the season" approach, it doesn't change the fact we were ONE damn goal away from making it today. It doesn't make it less painful either.

From 5th in January to missing out like this. It's unacceptable for this to have happened again. We know who is ultimately to blame and can't let them peddle the "nobody expected the play offs in August" line.

One goal. FFS. It doesn't get more 'cursed club' than that, for me.

How many close shaves and "nearly" moments have we had under these wretches? Every time, the outcome is the same. Gallant failure. Opportunity blown. PR from club stooges.

It's not necessarily the fault of the players/manager, though that's not to excuse Ismael's start, as this shit has been going on for years. This doesn't change for the better until we are rid of the lot of them upstairs and new owners are in place.

In the immediate term, my stance is to look beyond the latest stooges, who are just shields, IMO. I have no interest in hearing from them. Forget the manager, the recruitment team etc. I'm looking at the key cog in the wheel. The one constant in a 15 year Venky circus. Get him out and it all begins to crumble.

Hopefully, there are more 'Pasha Out' banners at Ewood next season accompanied by "Suhail Pasha, get out of our club". It's been a long time coming.

On today's game...we just didn't have the quality required in the final third to find that winner. Sheff Utd were the better side and could have scored three if not for late blocks. Very disappointed with the contributions of Kargbo and Dennis, as others have said. The latter is a shadow of the player I thought we had signed and I'm glad he won't be wearing our shirt again.

On a brighter note, our last few dashes with the top 6 show that underneath it all, our Rovers is still there. We have showed in patches that we are still capable of doing special things. However, it has always been fleeting, because of the way our club is ran.

I fully believe our Rovers will be back when Venky's, Pasha and the rest are out of the building. We aren't far away from better days returning. It won't take long, nor much, for new owners to have us back to where we belong.

Yasir, Rudy...do yourselves a favour. You pair aren't the issue, but are making yourselves the issue by the crap you are spouting.

Have a think about the standards and history of this football club and ask yourselves...is this acceptable? Are the last 15 years seen under Venky's acceptable? I do not mean 1995 when I say 'standards', just to be clear.

Pasha Out. Waggott Out. Venky's Out.

[aletheia]

Let attempted control of the narrative continue and deepen.

JE’s fault; Pears fault; refs fault; nobody expected us to be 7th; nearly made it but we’ll rebuild (how many times now?) again in the summer; new project underway; new manager to take us forward…

…meanwhile internecine warfare behind the scenes, budgets cut, contracts not sorted…

We all know the real score here and it wasn’t just what happened on the pitch today.

…good luck glen. Frankly, you are a hero.

 

[Exiled_Rover]

3 hours ago, lraC said:

For me, the big loss was Tronstad. When I saw his hamstring go, I immediately had a heavy heart.

Based on the last few games, the big mistake was persisting with Pears. Evidently Toth is an actual GK - they had us convinced that he wasn't because they refused to play him.

How many points did Pears cost us AGAIN this season? 

[bluebruce]

5 hours ago, superniko said:

I think it’s fair to say Birmingham (record points) and Wrexham who are both going to outspend the majority of the league will be better than Derby and Pompey who came up last year.

Point taken on the 3 relegated sides but this year SU had points deducted, Burnley changed manager and Luton hadn’t been a yo-yo club at that stage.

If we don’t spend, which we clearly won’t, we won’t be able to compete with the majority of the league next season 

I do think Brum and Wrexham should be tougher than the usual because of their backing (and momentum in Wrexham's case), that's why I didn't mention them. Not sure either is getting top 6 though unless there's another big spending spree. Which tbf there may be, especially for Brum. I don't think Reynolds has disposable income to the tune of Championship promotion push though (unless he's so emotionally invested he's happy to spunk tens more millions), I always thought they'd get to this level fairly quickly then settle for a while. Any well managed team can get out of this league though.

[...]

15 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I do think Brum and Wrexham should be tougher than the usual because of their backing (and momentum in Wrexham's case), that's why I didn't mention them. Not sure either is getting top 6 though unless there's another big spending spree. Which tbf there may be, especially for Brum. I don't think Reynolds has disposable income to the tune of Championship promotion push though (unless he's so emotionally invested he's happy to spunk tens more millions), I always thought they'd get to this level fairly quickly then settle for a while. Any well managed team can get out of this league though.

To make a good run at the premier league and with a realistic view to stay in it, the championship is a holding pen where club owners culminate a plan to make a move upwards and remain there. 

However we appear to be in a queue in Argos were the shop assistant has lost our receipt and forgot our order so we have to go back to the till to print another out..  

[Torgeir]

Today was fun! A cup final feeling and we did well against a side that had a 15-3-4 record at home and ended the season 24 points ahead of us. Not our best performance, obviously, but at least we tried. Overall it's disappointing to fall one point short of the play-offs but that point wasn't lost today, it was lost in January.

Last season we beat Leicester on the final day to stay up, this season we have never looked like being relegated. Unfortunate that we didn't build on our position in January, and unfortunate that we haven't renewed more contracts, and unfortunate that not more youth players are making the grade.

Must've been some experience being at the stadium. Loud and proud.

[Paul Mani]

Overall, we’ve overachieved for the season. There’s not a single Rovers fan who wouldn’t have snapped your hand off for finishing 7th when the season started last August.

The clubs problems are well documented but I do think Ismael will do ok long term.

Start next season with Toth, Brittain, Hyam, Batth, Ribeiro, Sonny, Trav, Cantwell and Ohashi. With Carter, Wharton, Pick, and Kargbo.

For the live of god, get rid of Hedges and I pray Dolan leaves too. Both absolutely crap, hardworking but genuinely useless. Dennis, Sanderson and Woodrow can disappear too.

I wouldn’t be against offering new deals to Weimann and Forshaw.

Big summer ahead!

[Herbie6590]

Today…enjoyable but “what if..?”

[Penwortham Blue]

7 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

Today…enjoyable but “what if..?”

Sadly reminiscent of the disappointment at the QF under JDT, real heartache yet again.

[norwichblue]

44 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Overall, we’ve overachieved for the season. There’s not a single Rovers fan who wouldn’t have snapped your hand off for finishing 7th when the season started last August.

The clubs problems are well documented but I do think Ismael will do ok long term.

Start next season with Toth, Brittain, Hyam, Batth, Ribeiro, Sonny, Trav, Cantwell and Ohashi. With Carter, Wharton, Pick, and Kargbo.

For the live of god, get rid of Hedges and I pray Dolan leaves too. Both absolutely crap, hardworking but genuinely useless. Dennis, Sanderson and Woodrow can disappear too.

I wouldn’t be against offering new deals to Weimann and Forshaw.

Big summer ahead!

Harsh on Dolan but otherwise agree 

[...]

1 hour ago, Herbie6590 said:

Today…enjoyable but “what if..?”

Great pics looks like you weren't too far from us either

 

[RevidgeBlue]

Sobered up a bit but not really calmed down after yesterday.

Everything went in our favour yesterday.  Sheffield rested seven players and had nothing to play for,  results fell in our our favour as our local rivals Burnley and surprisingly Preston did us a massive favour, we took the lead and STILL couldnt get the job done.

There's a massive mentality issue at the Club and seemingly no desire to ever achieve any success, over the years we've perfected the art of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory no matter how impossible it initially appeared to do whilst at the same time managing to make it look like a relatively close run thing. When are we ever going to achieve any success? The out and out  optimists like chaddy and the die hard fans like arbitro who trailed up to Sunderland for what was ostensibly a dead rubber deserve so much more.

The damage wasnt really done yesterday but in the dire run of two points from twenty four when the players looked as though they couldnt care less. As usual we played ourselves out of contention, rallied when it was too late then when against all odds there was actually a chance, couldnt get the job done. As for Ismael, overall fifteen points from twelve games was a pretty poor return and Im not convinced he's the man for the job but we're stuck withh him for 3 years regardless.

As for the owners and the 3 stooges, funding cut off and the vast majority of the family silver already flogged off. Difficult to see anything other than a downward direction of travel, and fast, unless Glen and the coalition have any joy in shifting them and attracting new ownership.

P.S. How bad was Dennis yesterday? Seems Waggott's genius move to bring in a player on £20k p.w. who hadnt kicked a ball in over 10 months wasnt so inspired after all. And rudderless speedboat Kargbo wasnt much better. 

Apart from that.........all good. Lol.

 

[RevidgeBlue]

8 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

Overall, we’ve overachieved for the season. There’s not a single Rovers fan who wouldn’t have snapped your hand off for finishing 7th when the season started last August.

The clubs problems are well documented but I do think Ismael will do ok long term.

Start next season with Toth, Brittain, Hyam, Batth, Ribeiro, Sonny, Trav, Cantwell and Ohashi. With Carter, Wharton, Pick, and Kargbo.

For the live of god, get rid of Hedges and I pray Dolan leaves too. Both absolutely crap, hardworking but genuinely useless. Dennis, Sanderson and Woodrow can disappear too.

I wouldn’t be against offering new deals to Weimann and Forshaw.

Big summer ahead!

 

8 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

Overall, we’ve overachieved for the season. There’s not a single Rovers fan who wouldn’t have snapped your hand off for finishing 7th when the season started last August.

The clubs problems are well documented but I do think Ismael will do ok long term.

Start next season with Toth, Brittain, Hyam, Batth, Ribeiro, Sonny, Trav, Cantwell and Ohashi. With Carter, Wharton, Pick, and Kargbo.

For the live of god, get rid of Hedges and I pray Dolan leaves too. Both absolutely crap, hardworking but genuinely useless. Dennis, Sanderson and Woodrow can disappear too.

I wouldn’t be against offering new deals to Weimann and Forshaw.

Big summer ahead!

Disagree completely on Dolan, agree 100% on Hedges.

Agree on Dennis, Sanderson, Woodrow get rid. Ditto Forshaw.

Weimann knows how to be in the right place at the right time and score the odd goal but his legs have gone. I wouldnt offer him a new deal.

Batth must be offered another year imo.

[RevidgeBlue]

14 hours ago, JCRovers said:

Toth 7 - solid display. Can't be blamed for the equaliser. Made some good saves. First choice next season ahead of Pears?

Ribeiro 4 - poor crosses into the box. Never looks a threat going forward. 

Batth 6 - did his job well enough, won his fair share of headers. 

Hyam 3 - poor again; is the main man to blame for the equaliser as Ahmedhodzic was allowed space inside the box for a tap-in at the far post. Won a few headers but the mistakes he has made this season have proved to be costly ones. Hopefully one of the coaches can show him a few clips and explain that you have to concentrate and follow your marker instead of being a ball-watcher all the time. 

Brittain 8 - good performance with his driving runs on the right flank. Looks a constant threat with his crosses and overlaps.

Tronstad 6 - solid together with Travis at the centre of the pitch

Travis 6 - solid just like Tronstad. Won his fair share of tackles.

Hedges 4 - worked hard defensively but never provides a threat going forward. Seems like the injury he picked up will keep him sidelined for at least a couple of weeks.

Dolan 4 - same as Hedges, works hard but his decision-making in final third is horrendous. Final game in Rovers shirt?

Cantwell 6 - worked surprisingly hard in winning the ball back on a few occasions. Front trio of Dolan, Hedges and Ohashi aren't good enough to make threatening runs that suits Cantwell's playmaking abilities, however. 

Ohashi 6 - worked hard, got a bit lucky with the goal as it took a deflection off the defender. Doesn't really suit him playing alone in a number 9 role as he's neither quick and/or strong enough to be a genuine threat. 

Subs:

Kargbo 3 (Hedges) - way off it. Constantly making wrong decisions in final third. A disappointing performance. 

Gueye 5 (Cantwell) - did OK. Didn't have much to work on with the limited time he got on the pitch.

Dennis 2 (Dolan) - horrible. Decision making was horrendous from his part. Doesn't even look fit? Instead of utilizing his pace, he opted for a pass on many occasions.

Woodrow (Travis) N/A

Forshaw (Tronstad) N/A

Overall team performance: 4 - not good enough; very passive in the first half with the team happily sitting in a mid- to low block trying to stay in the game for as long as possible instead of being proactive. Pressing up the field was not synced with the team being played through far too easily. Rode their luck with Hamer missing a good chance at the back post. Second half provided a good start with goal from Ohashi but the team never looked like they were in control. Equaliser came after a bit of a scramble inside the box with Hyam failing to pick up Ahmedhodzic at the far post. Very disappointing final 30 minutes as the team never really built up any momentum to get a decisive winning goal.

Valerien Ismael: 4 - poor choices/setup from a tactical perspective. Defensive approach in the first half followed by some strange subs (Forshaw/Woodrow for Travis/Tronstad) going into added time meaning that the team basically played with no midfield for the final ten minutes. Should've brought in Gueye way sooner to add a focal point inside the box for crosses. Failure to capitalise on the fact that Sheffield Utd. went down to ten men going into added time has to partially be blamed on the head coach as Rovers looked very disorganised and with no real plan.

 

Excellent analysis. The only one Id disagree with was Cantwell who as usual I thought was particularly poor.

Terrible defending from Hyam for their goal and there you have it, season over, despite the fact we were playing a second string side who had nothing to play for and weren't really at it.

[arbitro]

There was clearly a game plan today which up until the equaliser played out pretty well I thought. If we hadn't conceded so soon after going ahead I could see us going to a back five with Forshaw coming on in a three man defensive midfield as we have successfully done recently. Them scoring within eight minutes meant the other option covered by Ismael was all out attack. In that respect I thought he left it five or ten minutes too late but I could also understand his reasoning as conceding a second with so many attacking players on would have given us a mountain to climb.

We were in with a chance of promotion up until the last kick of the season. Had that been said a few weeks ago the poster would have been deemed certifiable.