v Middlesbrough (a) - 26/12/25

[Old Codger]

For the avoidance of doubt about the standard of refereeing at today's game, I remind you of another 'red card' incident involviing Rovers and Boro..

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/33746/12776496/i-honestly-cant-explain-john-buckley-is-sent-off-with-red-card

The tackle by Hackney in today's game can't really be excused as 'late' or clumsy, it is simply and clearly violent conduct.

See 1.38 in this - it is unbelievable.

 

The officials shouldn't be involved at this level if they can't apply the laws of the game in such an obvious and basic way.

Rovers looked like a team. But Ohasi, oh my word!

[M_B]

I said after the Preston game, I'll bet Montgomery is thinking why does that ball keep going to Tronstad?

He's very similar to Cantwell in that he nicks the ball a lot , it's a quality not many at this level have, they know what the other player is going to do before he's done it. 

[wilsdenrover]

6 minutes ago, Old Codger said:

For the avoidance of doubt about the standard of refereeing at today's game, I remind you of another 'red card' incident involviing Rovers and Boro..

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/33746/12776496/i-honestly-cant-explain-john-buckley-is-sent-off-with-red-card

The tackle by Hackney in today's game can't really be excused as 'late' or clumsy, it is simply and clearly violent conduct.

See 1.38 in this - it is unbelievable.

 

The officials shouldn't be involved at this level if they can't apply the laws of the game in such an obvious and basic way.

Rovers looked like a team. But Ohasi, oh my word!

The law needs changing so the referee giving a yellow doesn’t mean retrospective action can’t be taken.

This wouldn’t change the fact we didn’t get the man advantage but it would at least mean the player is punished.

 

[RevidgeBlue]

5 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Jackson said in his podcast that BTA was his first choice, Also Sky Sports said we bid for him. We never put a bid for for Bamford or McBurnie 

Sky Sports were the only media outlet who even mentioned BTA. Why are you obsessing about it?

I never even mentioned him in the first place. I was talking about Bamford. None of us know for certain whether BTA or Bamford were anyone's first choice, and it doesnt really matter. Neither ended up here.

[Hasta]

3 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I'd like to add, the hallowed Callum Brittain did nothing for 90 minutes against Hedges and Pickering...

Well as a defender in a back 4 he kept a clean sheet.  But no, he didn’t run riot down the wing and bend one in from 20 yards.

Edited 2 hours ago by Hasta

[Penwortham Blue]

51 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I dont rate "holding midfielders" who havent an all round game in general. Travis for example is a far better player imo and coincidentally he's the one that has thus far earned a big (ish) money money.

For me Tronstad just nips in and makes a few nice tackles or interceptions per game and is completely anonymous the rest of the time. Is risk averse and never makes anything happen. 

I know people dont agree so that's fine. I don't mind. 

 

Simply no comparison, Tronstad is a far better player than Travis. I liked Lewis as a committed player and someone who came through the ranks but he was extremely limited as a player.

[Roverthechimp]

4 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Well as a defender in a back 4 he kept a clean sheet.  But no, he didn’t run riot down the wing and bend one in from 20 yards.

Did we put Hedges on him after 25 mins or shift Yuki to the left to keep him occupied? Beginning of the match he was playing like Messi and was behind a lot of Boros attacking play. Then effectively disappeared…

[roversfan99]

3 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Im watching it.

He's surprised me tbf.

There's about 32,000 reasons p.w. why he would never come here. 

Allegedly he was Eustace's first choice last Jan but as we know Waggott plumped for Dennis. 

Do you think Waggott individually went rogue and specifically wanted Dennis? And had total autonomy 6 months before he had totally been edged out of the club?

[roversfan99]

Good result today, and great character shown to grind out a good point.

Tronstad again excellent, and Cantwell was also good. The 2 real bits of quality (Alebiosu also falls into this category) who could easily slot into a top 6 chasing side and they stand out in our team.

Pratt I think again was really good. Still clearly need to sign a Hyam replacement, but Miller and McLaughlin both did well today.

Baradji also showed a lot of promise when he came on, surely he needs to start on Monday.

Going forward I thought we was really blunt as I expected. Ohashi is a good partner for a striker who offers more of a goal threat but isnt ever going to be prolific and Henriksson clearly isnt the answer. We need 2 strikers ASAP.

The threadbare squad is a real concern and needs to be sorted.

 

 

 

[chaddyrovers]

46 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Sky Sports were the only media outlet who even mentioned BTA. Why are you obsessing about it?

I never even mentioned him in the first place. I was talking about Bamford. None of us know for certain whether BTA or Bamford were anyone's first choice, and it doesnt really matter. Neither ended up here.

Elliott Jackson mentioned on his podcast that BTA was first choice 

[...]

3 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

That's gotta be post of the year!

😆

Lmao 😂 

[rock steady]

1 hour ago, Old Codger said:

The tackle by Hackney in today's game can't really be excused as 'late' or clumsy, it is simply and clearly violent conduct.

There was no tackle. Just a simple kick that the ref obviously saw clearly.

Which makes the yellow inexplicable.

[onlyonejackwalker]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I dont rate "holding midfielders" who havent an all round game in general. Travis for example is a far better player imo and coincidentally he's the one that has thus far earned a big (ish) money money.

For me Tronstad just nips in and makes a few nice tackles or interceptions per game and is completely anonymous the rest of the time. Is risk averse and never makes anything happen. 

I know people dont agree so that's fine. I don't mind. 

 

Yeah you loved Travis. Weirdly, you always quote him in the Tronstad debate, but he is hardly Tugay, so i've absolutely no idea why. 

9 goals in 250 appearances for Rovers, zero at Ipswich and Derby. 1 assist last year. Typical stats for a defensive midfielder with little to no skill or creativity. 

He got a sideways move to Derby, not a big club, where your other big hero is laughably hardly top of the league ripping it up like you stated he would with absolute certainty. Many of his own fanbase are already questioning the 'project' and can see through his soundbites.

If i was in charge i'd be doing everything in my power to keep Tronstad. Strangely, your messiah seemed to like him also, any thoughts why?

 

Edited 1 hour ago by onlyonejackwalker
Sp

[onlyonejackwalker]

19 minutes ago, rock steady said:

There was no tackle. Just a simple kick that the ref obviously saw clearly.

Which makes the yellow inexplicable.

I've no idea what the ref was watching. A late, blatant, aggressive, petulant kick. Clearly a red card. And then to book Ohashi. Pathetic.

[tonyoz]

3 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

A "bit off"?

You seem to be in the minority on that one.

Ohashi was bloody awful. I’m glad the crowd agree, the BRFCS “Rovers player ratings” placed only Henrikkson and Morashita below him. He was lucky to get a 5 from me!

By the way Rev, Tronstad was voted Man of the match…..deservedly so in my opinion. I gave him 8.

[wilsdenrover]

If the Hackney incident isn’t covered by the second thing on this list then I’m not sure what would be:

[47er]

2 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I freely acknowledge that Im in the minority on here about Tronstad so I dont know why it excites people so much. No-one continually digs out people who said Raya was crap or Dolan would never get a Club at our level.  Didn't think Tronstad played that well today either.  Was Ok. Not brilliant, not terrible. Same as always.

Im content enough in the knowledge that my opinion seems to be shared by all Premier League and top Championship Clubs. If that situation changes I'll re-assess.

You'll find out when he's gone.

[SuperBrfc]

You know what I loved about that game today? Seeing 'big', 'scary' Middlesbrough dumbfounded and being unable to cope with Blackburn Rovers. They had no idea what to do. Even during the worst of times, we've always had your lot's number, Honeyman. Let that sink in.

That is the kind of thing we did regularly to teams in the Premier League before the clown show arrived. We will be back when said clown show disappears.

A superb performance today where we made Boro look very ordinary. The fact they are currently in 2nd place shows what a huge opportunity we have missed this season and all due to people with no footballing knowledge deciding they want to 'transition' and cut costs. Go and f#*k off and transition somewhere else. Professional football certainly isn't for you.

Never mind the play offs, automatic promotion was there for the taking this year. A smidgeon of ambition from that shower would have seen us right in the mix. They aren't winners in any way though. Those who defend these people and use the 70s and 80s as some sort of cover for their own egos are exactly the same. Just imagine where our club would be under normal owners and a normal Board.

I was impressed with how we hassled and harried Boro for the majority of that game and with how dangerous we looked on the break. That was more akin to a Premier League showing from us. We just lacked that bite needed in the final third. There were so many counter attacks where we took too long to play the final ball.

Despite that, it was fantastic seeing Boro being swamped and they could have had no complaints had we come away with the win. I don't think they'll see a better away performance at the Riverside all season.

Big performances from Tronstad, Miller and Pratt in particular today. Baradji is a tank and there's hopefully a lot more to come from him.

I think we are a lot better than the League table suggests and I expect things to pick up soon. Just like Ismael keeps saying. He and the team are giving it everything in difficult circumstances. Fair play to the young lads who are stepping in admirably and doing a decent job.

Pasha out. Venky's out.

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, Hasta said:

Well as a defender in a back 4 he kept a clean sheet.  But no, he didn’t run riot down the wing and bend one in from 20 yards.

Or, y'know, do anything of note in 90 minutes.

[Exiled_Rover]

49 minutes ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

I've no idea what the ref was watching. A late, blatant, aggressive, petulant kick. Clearly a red card. And then to book Ohashi. Pathetic.

It's quite amusing watching some of the regulars criticising the referees (not calling you out in particular).

I've been calling them out for years - the standard of officiating is atrocious. 

[Exiled_Rover]

3 hours ago, norwichblue said:

He’s always excellent. Duracell Bunny. Just keeps on going. Shame he didn’t bury his big chance.

Unfortunately he's got a bit of Andy Cole about him - needs 3 good chances to score. Alas we don't tend to create 3 good chances a game like Utd used to do.

[RevidgeBlue]

21 minutes ago, 47er said:

You'll find out when he's gone.

We will won't we! 

[RevidgeBlue]

26 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

If the Hackney incident isn’t covered by the second thing on this list then I’m not sure what would be:

It was bad but not nearly as bad as the one on Baradji at Preston and they never took any retrospective action there.

[wilsdenrover]

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

It was bad but not nearly as bad as the one on Baradji at Preston and they never took any retrospective action there.

I’m not sure I’ve seen that one but I maintain if kicking out like that isn’t covered then they may as well not have this option for retrospective action. 

[RevidgeBlue]

39 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Unfortunately he's got a bit of Andy Cole about him - needs 3 good chances to score. Alas we don't tend to create 3 good chances a game like Utd used to do.

Lol.

Ohashi and Andy Cole.

As likeable as the former is that's the last time you'll ever see those two mentioned in the same sentence!