The FA are astonishingly weak and quite simply have acceded to the big Premier League clubs but at the expense of others who don't have the benefit of being state owned or have billionaire owners. In a normal world this should have been decided democratically by all the full member clubs not just a few who are selfish. Most of the big clubs could actually field two separate teams full of experience and internationals. The FA are there to act in the best interests of all the clubs but don't. It's interesting that they have slipped this in before the new regulator is appointed. Hopefully ITV and BBC also have something to say as they are losing live matches to broadcast. The FA Cup was once the jewel in the crown of English football. It's the very people who should be protecting it that are damaging it.

The club have essentially trapped themselves on ticketing due to their high season ticket prices. Gradually increasing season ticket pricing to a point where we have one of the highest starting adult prices, despite the greatest number of spare seats, one of the least affluent and most competitive areas in the country, before we get on to the other nonsense that goes on here under these owners. this is only going to get even more problematic with increased Sky coverage, dodgy sticks, red button, less 3pm Saturday games. Not only does this all put many people off buying a season ticket in the first place, but also it prevents the club, or seriously restricts it, in offering 'cheap' matchday tickets on a regular basis, as to do so would effectively undercut or wipe out the price benefit of being a season ticket holder. This effectively means that we've got little alternative but to keep prices high to ensure season ticket holders still get 'value' for their money. Ultimately it means we will be stuck in a rut as you aren't going to get massive numbers of people paying £25+ to watch Championship basement battles, especially not on Sunday lunchtime, Tuesday night etc. There is a solution. Radically rethink the season ticket offering particularly on pricing and go down the route of Bolton and Preston. This doesn't mean just cut prices and sit back and wait for people to come. It means coming up with a marketing plan. It means getting them on sale early. It means pushing them in areas, communities, clubs, schools, way above and beyond the current 'efforts' of BwDBC only. Get the prices down, emulate Bolton The ground is immediately more full, and then the added bonus is you can start offering matchday tickets at £20 a head knowing that even if you did it every week a season ticket holder would still be saving £100+ over the season.

Absolutely fucking disgraceful. Makes my blood boil. Replays need to be brought back throughout the competition. Greed and money grabbing and just outright lying. These top clubs have huge squads often at the detriment of others and vacuum up all the talent (think Philipps to Spurs) and yet complain about fixtures. Oh but don't worry, they'll spend 2 months in pre season flying around the globe several times packing in as many games as possible. Go to hell FA, and take your shite European competitions with you

the big clubs have now killed the history of football. Its like the weds manager moaning we got 24 hours extra for sundays game ( eustice should get in the weds head with this n all) . They all moan and groan they are tired and then sign up for worldwide games pre and in season . They want euro games to have more teams . Its all about the wonga at the expense of the fans and certain fans on here fall for it hook line and sinker. The romance of the cup has now gone .Its like leicester and newcastle being midweek games . The cup was and still should be magical but its now a diluted wreck . Its going to a pub and only barbican being sold at 10 quid a go. Love a cup game but think i will sack them off now .

Why does that matter? It will just make the uefa cup or whatever its called now, stronger, like it was in the 90s

Actually a lot of the leagues around Europe have been made massively weak since the changes to the format were made. We also lost the cup winners cup that was the second most prestigious European competition. Between the F.A. and UEFA they have totally destroyed the game and rid any chance of actual competition from it. The champions league and premier league were set up in such a way that only the biggest and wealthiest clubs would stand a chance of winning them. That's why it was such an affront to them that Blackburn Rovers not only won the league but did so by beating them at their own game.

Home Tickets sold so far (via the ticket map SVG); Jack Walker - 5,573 BBE Lower - 4,432 Riverside - 2,055 Total - 12,060 We normally get a couple thousand walk-ons too, so factoring in that and the away support, it'll be an okay turnout overall. Massive missed opportunity by Waggott though, could've near-filled the place had he dropped the prices right down a few weeks ago.

The answer, "He beat you (Rovers) on his own in the semi-final at Ewood back in early 90's"! 😭

Think I saw that Walker's been dealing with an injury, but a quick perusal of Oldham's forum suggests he hasn't impressed much in his limited minutes. Don't think he's one to hold out much hope for anyway. Think his contract is done at the end of the year, so presumably he'll be off. Bloxham's lack of gametime is disappointing. It was mostly a function of our threadbare squad, but he did make our bench a number of times and JDT gave him a couple subs. Seems he was at least getting thrown on as a sub fairly regularly at Harrogate, but that seemed to stop and now not even making the bench. Can't find any word as to why. On the positive side: - Charlie Weston's had 4 starts + 1 sub since his loan to Kidderminster. Had a quick look on their forum and they seem to like him and are resigned to him not returning with their relegation to NLN. - Vale and Gent establishing themselves as starters at Motherwell is probably the best story of our loans. Their manager was recently quoted saying he'd love to have them back: Gent's played enough (League: 14 starts + 10 subs 1 goal 3 assists, and now firmly a starter, plus 2 starts and a goal in the Cup) that you'd have to figure he'll get a look as to whether he's ready to provide LB depth next year. We have our reasons to doubt Vale (League: 8 starts + 2 subs, 2 goals 2 assists, plus a goal in a Cup sub), but even if he's not in our plans, he may have at least shown he's worth a small fee for a lower league side? He's signed until 2025 + an option, so presumbly Eustace will get a look at him first.

Waggot is a lazy bastard and just uses examples like PNE who did an ST deal that boosted their ST base overnight from about 8k to 12k yet despite higher gates overall their ticket income was a bit less than ours. He failed to address the extra added income from everything else to balance it out plus the fact he was able to fleece a few larger away followings here than Preston were able to accommodate. I've often said the guy should be a politician because he has spin prepared for everything or 'we'll look into it' which means it's now in the bin. The whole point is fan re-engagement and boosting the gates and there is no other way of doing it in these areas without being a top challenging side or being in the Prem. It's the same for every club in the Lancashire area so at some point you might have to take a slight hit in income and try and make it up elsewhere in order to get a quick boost in numbers. Games like this one though are what Waggots policy thrives on, guaranteed full end from big city club, same regulars and 10k empty seats in home sections. Lazy bastard.

Supply and demand. Sky charge what they do simply because the demand is there. The money swishing around in football is purely because of the armchair viewer. The match going fan is an afterthought to the powers that be; we don't register with them.

Dear FA - If someone could explain the benefit of depriving lower league clubs of replays in rounds 1 & 2 I’m all ears…

I'm still of the opinion that only champions should play in the Champions League. Arsenal haven't won the league for 20 years. What exactly are they champions of? I always thought 2nd place meant you were first of the losers.

If someone draws with a European qualified PL team they should automatically go through to the next round (no extra time, no penalties) 🤔

Simple explanation for it is that all other clubs have one eye on factors other than immediate cash flow. Factors such as positive atompshere, growth, medium to long term consequences of decisions, footballing concerns. Here we have a charlatan masquerading as CEO employed to take the focus off the owners and cut their expenditure. With that remit he will do whatever he needs to do to keep his figures looking well, and as we've seen with some of his 'policies' to date there's nothing off the table in pursuit of that. Last I heard one was renting out Ewood for Liverpool and Man Utd legend events, a clear sign to anyone just what sort of people we are dealing with here.

End of the day we don’t know how the season would’ve panned out under JDT but the players had downed tools and the form had fallen off a cliff, so even as a big JDT fan I’ve no qualms in saying we’d still be in big trouble - yet we do go down, JE had to take a big part of the blame he’s had plenty of time and a points buffer throughout. (Obviously neither are the real culprits)..

🤦‍♂️ - go with the 7-2 then.

I ain't jinxy catting anything

How do they feel about Paul Warhurst?

Love - Alone Again Or

We have a Wednesday season ticket holder in the family and many of our close friends group are fans. I’m just trying to decide what I post in our WhatsApp group to get them going 😃 The 7-2 win or Semi final win in our league cup winning season 🤔

I do feel I get a real insight into the life of the Chadster on these threads.

Crafty fox in Accrington. Great food. Great owner. Great chef. Just 1 course with a couple of drinks. But mainly I've stop eating out cos I prefer to make at home and buy from local meat providers

£50 for two people...crikey, I'd love to know where you eat out these days for that @chaddyrovers !!!

Did make me laugh when they also said the winter break has been scrapped and the season opener moved a week later instead to aid rest… yeah like they won’t be using that extra week in August go fly to Sydney/Shanghai/Seoul instead 🤦‍♂️

To be fair to the Chadster, value is in the eye of the beholder, if he think he has his money’s worth, then fair enough. Indeed the only reason Sky can pay out their billions is because millions of others think the same.

mate is wed fan and we aint talked or texted or anything this week . Nervous as owt me already.

Wow Look what these lot have done to our attendance. Walker would be devastated

You've used a very small amount of effort and brain power there. The people who run this club possess neither of those things.

I remember UEFA cup on Tuesday, Champions league on Wednesday and cup winners cup on a Thursday

We should be going into every game looking for a win, regardless of the opposition.

It's should be just the Champions of each of country in the champions league with it being knockout format from the start like the 70's and 80's. The clubs from small playing nations in the champions league faced a massive disadvantage year after year. Teams like Legia Warsaw and BSC Young Boys are always at disadvantage

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner

How anyone can justify the extortionate Sky prices is beyond me. That is a big factor in streaming being so common now, Sky have made it unaffordable to watch sport for many people. Those prices will likely only go up, inconvenience to matchday going fans will go up with even more games moved, attendances will go down, ticket prices will go up, wages will go up, who is winning here? Non parachute payment Championship clubs make considerable losses. Not saying that is just down to Sky, but still. Off on a tangent slightly. But there are no Premier League sides in the semi finals of either major European competition. Im not saying it is or isnt, but will it dampen the "best league in the world" narrative that Sky love to promote?

Disgraceful again but football is beyond saving in this country at this point. The top clubs all have owners who have paid billions and want to monopolise the sport in return for the investment and have for some time. The EFL absolutely needs to put their foot down, even if the effect is limited due to their diminishing power. There are so many "reforms" that would need rolling back to save football at this point. The subs rule, the changes to competitions to maximise European games and summer friendlies etc. The Premier League as a whole has done such unbelievable damage and the way they've stacked the money means that the rest of the pyramid would be left to go bust if they stand against them.

*Sky have invested in increased player and agent incomes for the long term.

The Jam - Man In The Corner Shop

My prediction (and I’d love to be wrong, of course)- we’ll sell Szmodics and won’t buy anyone anywhere near the same quality, or enough in the areas that we need.

It isn’t even pandering to the premier league, it’s pandering to ‘the elite’ of that division.

I guess that when even Championship clubs don’t take the FA Cup too seriously until the later rounds (if they get that far) then the competition has undoubtedly lost it’s excitement. But to be pandering to the Premier League who would rather fit in with UEFA’s requirements than domestic competitions is sticking two fingers up to the smaller clubs who dream of money spinning replays at Old Trafford etc.

Precisely. They want to be able to play their strongest teams in every match and yet they have ridiculously massive squads (to the detriment of all the other clubs) Then the same said squad size allows them to change half a team if a match isn’t going their way. At this point, I really wish they would all fuck off to their so called super league.

Like the 5 sub rule - fundamentally changing the fabric of the game to benefit the bigger, richer clubs.

I remember the Owls pretty well from the Jack Charlton era. Their fans didn't half make some noise in the old Darwn End. They were a physical and aggressive team and names like Bob Bolder, Mel Sterland and Terry Curran readily spring to mind. Some good battles were had home and away.

Interpret that as a come and get me plea but good luck to the fella. What can we offer as a Club with our 'survival and make do' mentality?

The players had thrown JDT under the bus The reality is that none of them are fit to lace his boots. It speaks volumes of our "senior council" that they were prepared to be so blatantly lacklustre under him. Was it Callum Brittain who had a veiled dig after the Stoke game? JDT had only just left and he was ready to start the blame game There are a number of players I'd be looking to move on if I were Eustace. I'd start with Callum Brittain and Dom Hyam who, in my view, have been quite stand out in their poor attitudes We have lost too many big characters in recent years. What we have replaced them with are either young lads, or are just not comparable. Losing Kaminski, Ayala and Dack in one window is tragic

We could be right back in the shit by Sunday afternoon. A few wins underneath us on Saturday followed by another abject home performance and we're back in the thick of it with the pressure firmly on... I don't think we're safe just yet.

Completely agree. At the low level I played the biggest crowd was about 2,000 and the lowest was a man out walking his dog. I know which I preferred, the more the merrier. Sammie will enjoy scoring at the Darwen End and hushing up 7,000

So what you are saying is that our players can't perform if there are 7,000 visiting fans at Ewood. However, they can perform in front of 30 odd thousand home fans at Leeds and 40 odd thousand home fans at Sunderland. I'm not sure I follow that argument. At the end of the day we won't agree on this. For me we need the cash and in the 60 odd years I've supported the club the number of visiting away fans has never really seemed an issue.

After winning arguably the hardest game of the season against Leeds, in true Rovers fashion I could see us losing this, especially when a win sees us safe and we are at home. Time for Rovers to give the home fans something to cheer. Gotta win this.

I do get why its a must not lose, but bigger picture, say we draw, probably seals safety, but that would still leave Eustace yet to win at home having played Sheff Wednesday, Plymouth and Millwall. It would be pretty depressing and wouldn't bode well for next season. Talk of filling the side with as many big players as possible to stop them. We are playing at home to second bottom, a draw and we are still catchable, a win and we are safe. Anything but a win is a huge let down IMO. A draw helps us limp over the line but lets just impose ourselves on them, win a game that we should expect to win and start to plan for next season.