We didn’t mention it at the time - but this feels like the moment to, when Tony’s diagnosis was announced we sent him a card, some blue and white flowers and his favourite chocolates on behalf of BRFCS members…

It's been a long, long time since I loved a Rovers player like I love Sammie Szmodics. The season he has had is up there with the Shearers for me as he has pretty much single handedly kept us up. We should all be eternally grateful to him. In all honesty I didn't think we would get anything today and would have to rely on other teams inadequacies. Our angst was even greater during the game as very few people in the stadium could get a phone signal to keep tabs on the other games. We heard that Wednesday had scored then Plymouth and then Birmingham. This is it now, we all know what is coming and we will drop into the bottom three any time soon for the first time this season. We were quite stunned but the Rovers fans kept at it and I sure were inspirational. Can we hang on, there is a long way to go but we are defending exceptionally well. Then Szmodics gets the ball out wide and keeps going and going, looks up and there is nobody to pass to. He opens up his body and passes the ball into the net. Unbridled job abounded amongst the Rovers fans. His second goal will live long in my memory primarily because if was like slow motion. Did he really celebrate before he put it into the net? That's it, we're safe now and we really enjoyed the moment. For a few minutes we forgot about the Indians, Waggott, Kean, Anderson and all the shysters that have besmirched our great name for 14 years as we bounced about and hugged each other. This is what Rovers means to us and they can't take that away. As at Leeds Eustace got it right with his set up and tactics. Well done to him and the players who showed they care and have some pride. Lots of heroes in yellow today but my last word is for Szmodics. Fanbloodytastic.

Being a Rovers fan should absolutely come with a health warning. From the despair of Wednesday to the euphoria of today. And I'm delighted to eat a huge slice of humble pie after decrying the five at the back in the days before today. And if I read the game plan correctly it worked really well. We defended our own box pretty much for the entirety of the first half and allowed Leeds plenty of the ball and really the only threat I thought was from set pieces. I overheard some Leeds fans across from the ground talking disparagingly about our defeat on Wednesday and it occurred to me that they thought today was a foregone conclusion. An early goal they said and Blackburn would crumble. As we approached half time I noticed some murmuring from the Leeds fans and a nervousness. We played our three strikers further up in the second half and Eustace did a number tactically on Farke. The Leeds players looked slightly confused when we did this as they couldn't get forward as much. The goal was incredible not from a quality point of view (it was a really good goal though) but from the press and quick forward play. Could we hang on? The clock seemed to be going backwards most of the last twenty minutes but we got over the line, we did it against all odds and the relief was palpable. I particularly liked the time consuming by us today which really added to Leeds frustrations. I actually predicated that Pears would get booked after the 85th minute for time wasting but by then the horse had bolted. We aren't completely safe yet but I feel hugely more comfortable than I did on the drive home from Bristol and the following couple of days. My granddaughter and a friend who came with us actually both predicted a win. I was worried about their sanity when they said that but now after the last few days I'm questioning my own 😃😃

It's been so depressing over the last 4-5 months that I have not been able to muster the energy to post my thoughts about our farcical season. But after watching that s-show yesterday, I feel that I need to let it out. I'm in the Eustace = useless camp. I did not like his appointment from the start, because I thought his good spell at the start of the season was a purple patch and not indicative of his normal standards. But I did not want to pre-judge him and certainly hoped that he would come good. Given our constraints, we need our head coach to be able to get the team to produce at 110% of as a collective, and I just don't think he has the tactical and coaching nous that we need to be able to do so. Eustace's initial comments about togetherness sound like an empty soundbite recycled from JDT, who in contrast, meant it when he said it. In fact, Eustace lost me on day 2 with his dramatic entrance in the second-half of the Stoke game. I thought he saw that we had a safe win, and wanted to claim credit for it, though I'm sure one could argue that he genuinely wanted to shore the team up. For me though, it was more performative than substance given that he had not had any training session with the team before that. The fact is that the Stoke game was one of the few positive games that we've had in the last six months, and Eustace did not set the team up. Since then, I've not been impressed at all with Eustace's contribution. Sure, he shored the defence up somewhat, but the team as a whole looks disjointed. For all the players' complaints about JDT and our poor results this season, we could see a plan and a method to the madness - there were indications that the players knew what to do, what patterns to play, and were well-drilled. Whether they could do it or not is a different story, but on balance, I would argue that JDT extracted more from them than they otherwise would have been able to produce. In that sense, our current situation is just a reversion to their normal standards. Going back to statements and how he presents himself, Eustace has also proven useless. No clear communication, hides in generalities, and as yesterday's comments show, does not pursue accountability and certainly does not set the right standards. These are basic leadership traits which you would expect a good coach/manager to possess. I hoped he would prove me wrong; after all, who expected Gary O'Neil to turn out so well? Unfortunately, Eustace is more in the Ince/Coyle/Appleton class. On JDT, I lament what could have been everyday. I think he's the best we've had in the last decade, and could have done something special with us. It pains me but objectively, I definitely hold JDT responsible to some extent for this season's mess too. In this regard, I think his broken relationship with the board is the key factor. There was no trust after the Lewis O Brien incident last year and no alignment of vision, and I think JDT found it difficult to be motivated in such a demotivating environment. If Maggot had been more professional, if the board had been straight with JDT, if they had set more ambitious targets despite the financial difficulties - tell JDT we need to ride it out this season, that we still want to have a good go despite the limitations, find a way to do it - we might have had a better outcome. (Remember, JDT showed that he could deploy tactics to shut the shop and play the dark-arts when he first arrived - I remember this well during our win/loss sequence in the first half of last season, when we barely conceded when we won, and it looked like we were playing some form of 90s Italian tactics.) Instead, Maggot obfuscates and publicly says that mediocrity is ok, sets no targets except to develop players - well, my assessment is that JDT decided to work to rule and gave Maggot exactly what he asked for by playing an expansive game at all costs and giving kids like Adam Wharton and Harry Leonard (too) much game time, even when it might have been better to rest them at times. In the end, JDT's departure was inevitable. That said, if we got relegated, I would still have more trust in JDT to create something with a youth squad in L1 - in fact, I would be pretty confident of a reset and our chances of winning the league by a clear margin, given how we regularly spanked lower league sides with youth-heavy teams over JDT's reign. Now with all the above said, the root cause of our woes is still Maggot and Venky's, no doubt about that. I don't know how involved or uninvolved the Venky's are on a day-to-day basis, but if we had a competent CEO who can set the agenda correctly, aim high, and maximise what he can within his remit, we may have a fighting chance. Instead, we have a chancer, more than happy to settle for the mediocre, so we get what we get. Put it this way, if we sign Coventry rejects (both in the boardroom and on the pitch), we get Coventry-standards (the terrible version from a couple of years back, not the heroic one at Wembley yesterday). Finally, our prospects this season - we're certainly doing our best to snatch relegation from the jaws of safety. I've had a foreboding feeling all season. Too many similarities to our relegation in 2016/17 - massive cost-cutting, terrible signings (Telalovic - Stokes, Moran loan - Emnes loan, Greer - McFadzean etc), the same type of FA Cup draw (good effort and near upset against a big PL team - Man Utd then in the freezing cold and Newcastle this time), freakish results in the run-in (I remember thinking that we had done enough when we beat Villa(?) was it, and Brentford on the last day), but the other relegation candidates fought hard and chalked up enough points elsewhere. I'm praying for a miracle in our last two games, but am not optimistic. If we somehow survive this, I pray that we can somehow reset in the summer. But back to the start of this post and the theme of this thread, Eustace is not the man to get us there.

Says a lot about the direction of the club and what has happened in the last 6 months that weve gone from 7th to being happy about other results because teams might try harder against teams in order to keep us up. Best player sold, captain loaned out, no funds from the owners and an ambitious manager quitting and replaced by one that seems out of his depth. Thanks Venkys.

When the CEO is going public that his ambition is to stay in the division and develop more players just weeks after missing out on the play offs on goal difference and the manager then spends 6 months taking the mick out of him publicly for those comments then yes, it's certainly a culture of failure.

Just get the fucking job done, please. For once this season, just turn up when needed and win a fucking game of football. Can't wait for this miserable season to be over.

I watched the FA Cup game this afternoon and Roy Keane in the after match comments on Man Utd said an interesting thing - “ this set of players are extremely difficult to like “. Just how I feel about the current Rovers team.

All I can think about is how that performance AGAIN was by a bunch of players that sat in a function room sulkily moaning about how the fans were unfair on them. The absolute arrogance, delusion, and cheek of that moment hits hard today. Fuck the lot of em.

Maybe its just me, but I have a real sense this season, that the club have gone back 12yrs on and off the pitch. I haven't been to a game since Wharton was sold and JDT walked and I have no intention of attending anytime soon, they can shove the season tickets where the sun doesn't shine to be frank. In my opinion we made JDT's position untenable, after what can only be described as a superb first season. He came in during the summer, after many managers had turned us down, and seemingly pulled rabbits out of hats week in week out. We hit last summer with a real sense of optimism, the club able to push on, the football excellent at times and then the bombshell that our bent owners are in court and funds are pulled, the taps turned off, coincidence? or just criminality? Either way the club suffers, the fans suffer and its back to 2012 all over again. Selling Adam Wharton this season was absolutely criminal, they couldn't wait to get the lad out of the door. Here we have a Rovers fan playing for his boyhood club, a future England star, sold from under the managers nose as soon as a bid came in. I don't care about administration, I don't care if we needed the money, they sold at the first opportunity that arose, that is the point here. Then JDT walks, lied to again by owners who promise so much, yet deliver so little and its back to square one, the best manager in 12yrs and they've bolloxed it up. Then on the back of that we have the players, our wonderful players who put us in the position, telling the fans they need more backing, more people coming through the gates, talk about no bloody accountability of self-awareness! Needless to say, our season ticket money will be staying in the bank, I doubt I'll go again until these owners leave, but when they do, we have 5 season tickets waiting to be bought, the clock is ticking for these abhorrent owners.

When you have absent owners doing next to nothing, and when you have the people in charge at Ewood deciding that we’d just take a year out and stay up, this is inevitably where you’ll end up. Someone tell me which of these so called professionals really know anything about football? It’s scandalous.

What 'major financial trouble' is the club in? Over the last 3-4 years it has barely spent anything be that on transfers, facilities etc. Our wage bill has been drastically cut. We make substantial annual losses but we are no different to any other non-parachute laden Championship side in that respect. If you are referring to the 'issues' preventing the owners from sending money over that's a different matter altogether. That is their issue and their problem to sort. It isn't the club's fault or a result of the club's financial structure. With or without Szmodics being sold we should be in a very strong financial position going into the summer. As you rightly state we have already brought in over £25 million from sales since last summer and are likely to go past the £30 million mark with Raya joining Arsenal. None of that has been reinvested yet. Most other professional clubs would be ready to push 'go' on multiple quality signings using a large chunk of that cash to ensure we hit the ground running this summer and next season. We all know this won't happen and it sums up the miserable existence of BRFC in 2024 that rather than relish a rebuild and reinvestment and a brighter future pretty much all the transfer talk is about weakening ourselves further by offloading the one positive from this season. Unfortunately many will be suckered in by false promises of reinvestment which won't materialise and then they'll come with more ridiculous excuses about admin issues as to why not.

Stay up or go down, for me, Eustace has to go. Simply don't think he's up to it. Young and upcoming - no, the guy's in his mid forties with a track record of 3 years at Kidderminster, caretaker spell at QPR and a brief spell at Brum until it seems the owners concluded he wasn't the man to deliver their ambitions. So, in my book, Eustace has achieved very little as a manager, is relatively inexperienced and has certainly not been 'in demand' and for that there would have to be reasons why. I think his league record with Rovers is very, very poor and we go into our last game still with a real risk of relegation and hoping and praying results go our way in other games. To average less than a point a game over the course of a season will get you relegated. What a state of affairs. Eustace's record P15 W2 D8 L5 F13 (5 of which came in 1 game) A18 P14 Eustace's home record P7 W0 D5 L2 F4 A7 P5 At home, we have failed to score in 3 out of our 7 games (and 4 games out of 8 away) and his home record includes games against teams of the ilk of Owls, Plymouth, QPR and Millwall - just one win against any of those teams and we would now be safe. Think his game management yesterday when a fatigued Coventry went down to 10 men for 40 minutes (including added time) was negative, unimaginative and potentially catastrophic with our failure to get a win. IMO, he's a 'yes man' (unlike JDT) who causes no ripples in the boardroom, is weak and therefore a player's dream, is negative and also tactically inept. I also find his interviews cringeworthy, IMO, full of cliches, platitudes and bullsh1t. Sadly, no matter what league we are in next season, I think Eustace will remain in charge. If we are fortunate enough to stay up then I think relegation will be nailed on with Eustace, if we go down, think we will be no better than mid table in League 1. As one of the Apollo 13 astronauts said 'Houston, 'we have a problem'.

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.

Without doubt, better to have tasted the riches. For me personally Venkys changed the way I saw Rovers. It shouldn’t have done, but it did. Things they can never do though. They can’t take away those memories of Ronnie Clayton running out of the tunnel with the ball under his arm. They won’t ever take away the memories of the class of Bryan Douglas. Nor can they take away Jack Walker taking on the biggest and best clubs in the country and beating them. That was some team at Man Utd at that time, but for a short time, we were better. When I get totally pissed off with the turmoils that we are currently going through, I’ll console myself with those memories. Even if the club went to the wall, Venkys and this crew could never take that away. Cherish the club as you best remember it.

New New New new new new new New new new Szmodics

The below stats show he's done a great job This season Win/draw/loss JDT 10/3/17 JE 4/8/5 goals conceded per game JDT 1.9 JE 1.1 goals scored per game JDT 1.45 JE 1.05 He took a team that had the worst form and defence in the league, only lost 5 of his 17 games, plugged the leaky defence and made us hard to beat, had bristol not put 5 past us we'd have conceded less than a goal a game under Eustace. He's done his job in keeping us up so he now deserves full backing from fans and the board to kick on with a clean slate next season. It hasn't been pretty, but pretty football was sending us down to league one.

Bollocks. We should have never been anywhere near that situation today.

Not that old chestnut again. The best advice they were given was when Williams, Finn and Goodman wrote to them telling them they were wrong in what they were doing ie letting Anderson have the run of the place. Had they heeded that warning we wouldn't be in the state we are now. Instead of listening to those three they got rid of them and carried on with reckless abandon. I wonder who 'advised' them to do that. Similarly Paul Hunt wrote to them about the poison that was Kean (although Hunt had an ulterior motive) and he was sacked. Please don't come with the 'badly advised' excuse. We could get relegated for the third time in their watch on Saturday and it's all on them, they are totally to blame.

Firstly I think Eustace got it wrong today with his decision to play a back five. Because it worked really well at Leeds he didn't have to go with it today and whilst it wasn't the reason we lost it certainly helped Wednesday dominate midfield who won pretty much every second ball as they outnumbered us. As the manager he has to take responsibility for results and whilst he has been here they have been poor and the concession of eight goals recently puts to bed the theory we have stopped the flow of goals against. It's not good enough and from the high of Leeds last week the players seemed to be expecting to win on the back of this by just turning up. Individual and collective mistakes are really hurting us and the players looked like they were feeling sorry for themselves after Wednesday's second goal. They showed very little character and the body language really worries me as we go into the last two games. Not one player comes out with any credit today (contrast that to a week ago) and defensively we were shocking as Wednesday couldn't believe their luck. Pears will rightly come in for the most criticism but pretty much every player showed very little courage on the ball and took the easy option far too often which again played into their hands. The biggest worry from the last four games is which Rovers will turn up for the Coventry and Leicester games as our bipolar performances have really confused us. I was desperately trying to avoid the word 'bottle' but that is what it might come down to. If it does I fear for us.

He has a bee in his bonnet but to be honest i don't remember him getting much stick. Like a few former managers as well as players and execs it's an easy stick to beat Rovers fans with to cover for themselves. I've not met one fan in the last 20 years who still thinks or expects 1995 or anything remotely close. Just because we have a bunch of fans who expect hard work as a bare minimum from every player every game it doesn't sit well with some of these entitled wankers.

'They met our valuation' was the comment from either Waggott or Broughton when we sold him. What qualifies either of them to put a price on him? He was sold as a fire sale because our owners couldn't fund the day to day running of the club because of their nefarious business dealings. It was the first offer they had I am told and Palace played a blinder knowing they were dealing with amateurs and we were desperate for cash. There are many, many things to despise these people for but giving Adam away is up there with the worst.

I'm sure you pretty much preach this teacher to pupil type sermon every summer and i'm sure most of our fans are well aware of all the details. The ST thing above is such a weak argument i'm surprised you included it to be honest, getting fans back into the ground regularly is a priority. In order to do that a small hit in takings will have to be swallowed like Preston have done, like Bolton have done. Their cheapest STs are over a hundred quid less than ours. A fortune to open stands ? Again what bullcrap the bloody things are already open all it would need to comply is a few more stewards. The extra spend in the ground/shop etc will easily cover that. The figures you posted are a nonsense, how is 12,500 grand per game going to bankrupt the club ? It is easily covered by the extra tv money or a good cup run or loose change from the near 40 million quids worth of players we'll have sold in a year by the time Sammie departs. Get fans in, take the hit, rebuild the ST base number ONE priority.

Look, Eustace wasn’t officially in charge for that match, you’re gonna need to get over it.

Pears - didn’t chuck one in huzzah. Now clear off Brittain - taken a real dislike to this fella, not fit to lace Heaton’s or Brannigan’s boots. Eff off. Carter - the only defender who makes a forward worry what might happen if he traps the ball. Mcfad - a worthy past it successor to MacNamee, a real captain’s performance. Hyam - worst captain in our history. Only not a spineless disaster when he has no-one to mark and got his dad beside him to tell him what to do. Get rid. Pickering - too timid to play wing, too slow to play back. Cheerio. JRC - I like him as the extra attacking midfielder, not convinced by him being the attacking midfielder. Play him in a 3. Tronstadt - Automatic pick Dolan - when he plays 1/2 touch he can be really effective, once the triple salko’s start he’s Sunday league. Sammy - start carving the statue Gally - oh, there’s the statue. Sayanora, finally.

Our travelling fans deserve that

Wow...shows how dumbed down the ambition and success the scum have reduced us to. Celebrating staying up is outrageous. Did I celebrate, nope , had a sense of relief only. #venkysout

Hats off to Ipswich. Just shows - a bit of investment and ambition when you get promoted and you ride the momentum. Never forgive Mowbray for that bollocks about needing to stabilise and not go for it.

Thank fuck ...not celebrating just relieved..fuck you waggot and venkyscum

Sorry folks, while DE is speaking truth here, I added a word filter into the forum about 2 years ago when @chaddyrovers kept turbo posting we should sign "Jay $tansfield" so that every time he said "Jay $tansfield", it automatically changed his post to "Luca Toni". I found it very funny.

Great article Rich, I think you have it nailed it. For me, despite the poor form from December, JDT was the answer. He and his ambition scared the hell out of Swag and the other idiots behind the scenes at Ewood. If they had backed him last year we would have at least made the play offs and if they had backed him in the summer with a reasonable transfer kitty and salary budget, he would have taken us close again. They tried to crush his ambition and infectious enthusiasm and it became untenable for him and with him leaving, I really do worry about the future of our once great club. Scandalous.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s it for the season now - we won’t get a point from Coventry or Leicester, 49 points is our lot and we will have to rely on the clubs below to be even more inept in order for us to stay up. The win over Leeds was obviously an aberration. The “display” today was that of team of players who, with one of two exceptions, have no hunger for the fight, no pride in the shirt and no pride in the club that pays their wages. They, and the manager, should apologise to long suffering fans who deserve better than what was on show at Ewood today

Right, I’ve calmed down (just). That was THE WORST match I have ever seen at Ewood. Worse than the Wigan chicken fiasco, worse than any thumping we may have received and worse than any derby defeat. From the ultra negative 5 at the back to the non-existent midfield to the lack of creativity to the worst performance by a Rovers keeper at Ewood in memory…add in the fact that all 3 goals were gift wrapped, that we allowed the away team (and relegation rivals) to fill the entire Darwen End (too right it felt like a home game…quote Wednesday player) to the ridiculous inevitability that any substitution would make absolutely no difference to our plight and to cap it all off, nearly 20 minutes of stoppage time in a match that was pathetic from stop-start to an eventual (bloody eventual) finish. I’ve never felt so bereft at what I was witnessing…so utterly and totally aghast at the shower of ineptitude in front of me. Wednesday were a limited but powerful team, that’s all. We let them dominate, we caved in, we put up no fight, we stunk the place out and then some. Regardless of how Coventry will be after today’s epic semi-final (and didn’t they show the pluck and fight we so dismally lacked)…we won’t beat them…we don’t beat Coventry when all is rosy in the garden let alone when we’re as bad as we are now. I really don’t want to go next week, any more torture and I might have to insert my season ticket card into an unmentionable Eustace orifice. It’s Sammie Smodzics plus ten imposters. Pathetic, morose, moribund and defeated. Are we going down? We deserve to be and it’s still a real possibility. Pity the teams that finish below us

Think we are a shambles from top to bottom. IMO, we have a bullsh1t joke of a manager leading a bunch of the most spineless individuals, masquerading as footballers, I have seen in 60ish years supporting Rovers. We won't go down - a point against a knackered and disinterested Coventry is all that is needed. The club needs sweeping clean from top to bottom but sadly, unless the Indian courts bring about our insolvency in August, this will not happen and relegation will almost be inevitable next season. Time for a long walk, a few pints at the local and a nice bite to eat tonight.

Everyone still think it was a good idea giving Wednesday a Wembley final at Ewood? think Waggott missed a trick there not selling a few thousand more Wednesday tickets in the Jack Walker. The club contributed to a great occasion for them. On and off the field. Encouraged nerves and bottled it. Our CEO is a scumbag, has been for years in football.

On another point. - inspite of the press rumours linking him with Celtic, Luton, Brentford etc Sammi has never slacked off for a minute. He’s always given 110%. Not like another recent striker we had when his head was turned.

Well he definitely wasn’t on speed during his time here!

I keep hearing about the need to consult with fans. I don't think this is necessary and would only serve to muddy the waters. Price cuts across the board is the ONLY way of halting or reversing decline in sales. It isn't complicated, and doesn't need some lengthy discussion. It needs price cuts and the only question should be how much. I don't think the new Sky deal will immediately put loads of people off buying, they are more likely to balance price with product (largely dross) served up this season and ask if they can be arsed with it all over again. But medium to long term this Sky deal and fixture changes WILL shave even more off attendances. Once people realise the realities on a week-by-week basis and experience first hand the number of inconvenient kick off times, one by one they will come to the conclusion it isn't worth it when they can watch from home instead. Lets face it. We don't have any issues with supply, so people know if they change their mind later they WILL get a ticket, maybe not in their favourite seats but somewhere decent in the ground. Some clubs can at least continue to use that as an incentive and the risk that tickets won't be available at a later date. Fully agree that for all the incompetence and ineptitude around Waggott certainly has his eye on the ball when it comes to making sure his targets are hit. He will know how fed up people are and will know this season has been a disgrace from the owners down. He will know there will be a sizeable drop off coming regardless of price with so many people just totally at the end of their tether with it. So he will probably add some more on to prices to offset that loss. Name of the game here isn't to grow, increase, improve. It is to screw those going for as much as possible to hit his targets and to hell with the consequences.

Sounds like win, win, win, win for Waggott this summer Get shut of Broughton Fans 'blame' him for the January debacles and struggles this season. Waggott seen to be taking action to correct things. Broughton's wage off the books. Back to the old routine of signing players linked to certain agencies and individuals. Waggott gets the credit in India for £30 odd million coming in from AW and Szmodics, both a large part due to the work of JDT and nothing to do with Waggott or the shadow man. Another few years on the gravy train whilst people delude themselves lessons learned or reinvestment coming. Wake up folks, this is typical Venky manoeuvring to make it appear things are happening, they won't and the same old faces remain behind it all. Only at Rovers would we employ a DOF structure, spend 2 years at it, rake in £40 million through sales then get rid and start again to save on costs.

You mean like shushing opposition fans? Dom fucking Hyam did that to his own fans!

Tells you alot when you can try and skew the numbers to defend him by adding on a game he wasnt in charge of and dismissing the cup exit and you still only get to 3 wins in 16. Its not rocket science, against a 10 men with no interest in attacking, you can lose one of the 3 centre backs for a more attacking player. At the end of the day, he hasnt had the easiest of hands but has anyone really seen much to suggest that he can take us forward? His record of wins and points is horrendous and he has massively eaten into the healthy buffer above relegation.

Great post - but I just worry, and sorry to be so pessimistic and potentially piss on any optimism you may have, that I feel this is a step too far for most. It's all about hope, and lack of it. When we went down under Mowbray, there was a core of players you could get behind, and Mowbray seemed a steady hand and offered a glimmer of normality, both on and off the pitch. We signed Dack, and the team regained an identity. The League One season was fantastic for many people under 30 who missed the glory days in the 90s - and it did what most relegations do, the cliche of galvanising a club. There were still issues but it felt like a small reset and things could start to improve, especially the relationship between board and fans, not just the usual case of success sweeping issues under the carpet, but a real chance to rebuild. When we went down under Brian Kidd there was trust in the board and the owners that they'd guide us through it and make sensible footballing decisions, which they did. I actual miss the days, when for example, we were losing at home to Stockport in the league cup in 1996, stood in the BBE chanting "we want Harford out" that the board would go away and listen to the fans and do the right thing, that fans and board were on the same level. This is what is getting to supporters at the minute - that whatever they do, it doesn't matter, there's not that connection any more. The only way to move onwards, and to be honest a total pipe dream, is for the Venkys to leave, magically write the debt off, and we get new, sensible owners who are sympathetic to the area, and who can put a pro-active board in place, whatever division we are in. It pains me that the Wanderers are doing an amazing job, and getting 15,000 season tickets, it's madness. Of course I don't want administration, I don't want job losses, and the more we struggle the harder and harder it will get, but even in League Two with a small fanbase, with the right owners and some clear messaging and direction, you'd get that siege mentality that would make matchdays a passionate affair again. I get we need to reduce expenditure, and I get we need to become a selling club to survive in the current climate - but it seems whatever new model or scenario we set ourselves up for, there's issues, and it just wears away at us fans, wherever we turn we just can't seem to make anything work: - we try and be proactive, hire a DoF, sign an ambitious coach and start to develop a model (JDT, Lambert) - but the owners turn the taps off and there's a clear divide behind the scenes. Fans see an identity and a plan and get behind it, but there's that nagging feeling it'll be short-lived, so what's the point? - we, as supporters, get our heads round that our youth is our "identity", and except that the team might struggle but we'll be watching our "own" play week in and week out, and we can get behind that and support them, but we then sell them off before we have a chance to actually watch them grow in our side, the money goes into general admin, we don't see it reinvested. I get it - but it's still sad to see, it's something else you can't get excited about. - we hire a steady hand in Mowbray, but let a number of transfer windows come to nothing even when the team are riding high, and let a bad situation drag on and fester for too long causing the club to stagnate. - we go from a "solid" if old-fashioned recruitment setup under TM, a network of mates basically, but it worked, seemingly using his connections to sign great loans and gems from the lower leagues, giving the fans trust and excitement in any new signings, to now seemingly scraping the barrel of Europe. And if we do get the basics done, the i's dotted, and get the forms sent off in time, if we do actually sign players, they are literally the bottom of the list - whilst other teams seem to steadily strengthen and sign lads who can out-fight us and who are better at a rough and tumble scrap in the Championship. So now the fans immediately doubt any new signings. When was the last time we got excited about a sub coming on and changing the game? When was the last time you saw a new signing on the bench and couldn't wait to see him get a run out, that roar from the BBE when he comes on the pitch? I've totally forgotten that feeling. The way the ground fell silent and emptied after the Pears calamity on Sunday, that's the feeling I get - it's total apathy, because we just can't see a way out, or a way to turn. There was time in the game to lift the team and a "normal" scenario would see team and fans as one trying to claw back some respect, but because of this gradual dumbing down of the squad, you know what's coming - we don't have the players to perform under pressure. Couple with everything off the pitch, it's like we've been neutered as a fan base. We never come from behind, we never score late goals, this stuff is so telling, it really means something - there's a reason why Utd in the 90s kept scoring late goals, the whole "Fergie time" aspect, the whole place had belief. As someone else put it better than I could, we've got billionaire owners yet need to sell the crown jewels to keep the lights on. We're at a point of complete stagnation. So what's the model under Eustace, I presume treading water from one season to the next? Bringing on youth and selling for a profit I presume, while the mysterious 20m leaves each year. Normally I would give him the benefit of the doubt, based on a normal scenario of him being allowed to sign his own players, just to see if he can pick a player and build a team - but who knows what our transfer policy is now, it's all up in the air. Apologies for the long winded rant.

Pretty much agree with the lot of it. What a post. JDT by no means perfect but he had valuable assets. Ambition, drive, personality, a vision. I think back to last season, particularly August to February, and the first half of this season, and this was a guy capable of dragging this club out of the stinking cesspit that it has been dragged and into a potentially bright future. Alas as we saw with the Allardyce fiasco, as we saw with the Bowyer/Lambert fiasco, these owners and their minions will always find a way to derail and destroy any positive momentum or progress and set the club back years. I should have known better but I admit I believed. I genuinely thought that with the Director of Football approach and JDT leading it and after the season we had, going so close in league and cup, that the ingredients were there to take the next step and crack the play-offs. More fool me. I can't describe the disappointment I feel about the way in which once again these people have destroyed something that should have been good and positive and that fell into our lap almost by accident after Mowbray finally left. Yes it was clear that JDT was burned by the O'Brien fiasco, yet he stuck at it and we still went close last season. It was clear he was unimpressed by the summer's shenanigans yet he stuck at it, moved his family over, accepted the constraints and we, somehow managed to get ourselves sat just outside the top 6 in December with this squad. Then a third transfer window of nonsense, culminating in Adam Wharton being sold, the McGuire disgrace (what sort of club treats other clubs and players in such a disgusting and humiliating fashion?) and no reinvestment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Totally understandable for anyone with any self-respect to draw a line at being undermined by your colleagues. Of course ownership and a board with any finger on the pulse would have sacked JDT once it became clear that the damage was irreparable and the direction things were going. I agree that he was essentially saying 'f... you' to them and going gung ho wanting to be fired. Yet they couldn't even manage his departure correctly. It came far too late, even in the week it happened they took days on end to announce it. They're just a disgrace. There's no coming back from this in my book. It's happened too many times and I won't fall for it again.

For the first time in 30 years of watching Rovers with my 76 year old Dad, he's suggested not going on Saturday and just going for a walk instead and turning his phone off, it's that bad. He's usually pretty pragmatic and optimistic even at the worst time, always siding with the players, but I think that second half finally did for him. After the match we both just stared into space over our pints. Not felt this low for a very long time, it's a different kind of feeling - think it's the lack of hope or trust in anyone at the club from players to board level, feels like a truly lost cause.

Please don’t shout at the players! It upsets them, especially the captain.

If Kaminski or any decent GK played for us this season, we would have been mid table easy even possibly in the top 10 with all of Szmodics goals. No other team in the championship has pair of unreliable GKs like we do - Fact Whether we stay up or go down we will need a new GK for next season

I think back to the impromptu meeting between some fans and senior players which was brokered by Waggott. Hyam was whining about being booed off at half-time by some supporters and the effect it had on the players. That told me a lot about his character. And then the 'calm down' gesture to some Riversiders near the end of the Millwall match when he took the easy option of going backwards instead of forwards. He's certainly not captain material.

Thrilled and delighted with today win. We defended as a team and everyone of those players played for the fans and Eustace. Our shape was very good. The defenders were excellent today and Hyam was back to his good self. Carter did excellent after his booking in the first half. Brittain and Pickering did excellent against their wingers/full backs We had the best 2 chances today and Leeds ended up diving and trying to win a penalty which none were. Eustace got his tactics spot on. Excellent finish by Szmodics by great play by Dolan after Gallagher wins the header. I think I never shouted so much after that when in. The Rovers fans at Elland Road were loud and proud. Delighted for the fans, the players and Eustace. Great 3 points. Rovers till I die 🔵⚪ Eustace's Blue and White Army 🔵⚪

That interview about "no pressure on Jon to get in the top 6"; "it is just about staying in the league" It was a car crash moment. Steve Waggott's "I don't sweat" moment The level of ambition at any business is determined by those at the top of it. They are happy to wallow and so we wallow

Genuinely the worst result and performance in recent memory, with Hyam probably the worst individual performance I can ever remember seeing. In a game we needed not to lose, against Bristol Fucking City. If Eustace's first words after this game aren't 'we apologise to the fans', he is absolutely clueless. If we stay up this season, it's purely down to how bad teams below us are.