14 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Great to get the points, but we were awful. Been poor for a month now, need to snap out of this. What's happened?

Snap out of 8 wins in 10, no defeats and three consecutive away wins without conceding…?

Brilliant result. We look so solid. Even down to 10, we were relatively comfortable. These are the type of wins that get you promoted. 

33 minutes ago, BRFC_Polky said:

Buckley attracting some interest from Leeds.

He’s not a winger and wasn’t Championship player of the month for December. Can’t even give them marks for effort on that one.

44 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

There's clearly no ambition for the club to go up.  Just like we can't get players in early to give us the best possible chance.  The club is not geared to success. 

Let's just hop the young lads some how pull it out the bag but I can only see a downward trajectory, starting tomorrow.

Happy Friday everyone 😂

Mowbray isn’t saying anything particularly revealing. Clearly the financial situation is far more challenging than many fans want to believe and it’s lazy to simply label it as a lack of ambition.

It’s frustrating but I’ve simultaneously seen the same fans want the club to slash ticket prices, give the out of contract players any salary they want and expect the owners to spend big money in the window. At some point we have to look at running the club sustainability.

If we can keep the out of contract players and BBD during January then we have a chance. Hopefully we can add one or two but realistically that’s as good as it’ll get.

If we keep all the soon to be out of contract players than I can accept not going overboard to an extent but we still need numbers in. Zeefuik is a decent start but now Gallagher is out, we desperately need something more up top. Don’t want us to go anywhere near Burke.

Surely some of the Armstrong money will be made available..?

On 10/01/2022 at 14:18, Sparks Rover said:

This is the lad that Tony let go and replaced with his mates son.....you couldn't make it up could you...?

A player who didn’t play for the first team got replaced with a player who has very rarely played for the first team. Mind blowing stuff.

1 hour ago, USABlue said:

The beginning of the end as the bubble pops in glorious style.  ToMo holding the pin.

And I’m sure you’ll be first in line to congratulate Tony if we get a win on the weekend..

3 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

Rich Sharpe claiming we haven't bid for Hedges this month contrary to Sky, Josh Maja is rated at £3mil by Bordeaux which is putting us off that pursuit, and the Sommerville links are also made up.

It does beg the question where he gets his info from. My guess is straight from Waggott's mouth. Every link we've had, from every news outlet (bar the one already basically confirmed re: this new right back) he's shot down and said is wide of the mark. But we clearly are talking to clubs for players this month... as every club is, yet he suggests no names we actually are interested in? 

Makes no sense. 

Maybe we aren’t advertising who we’re pursuing. Don’t think the journos are connected at all when it comes to transfer stories. Sharpe was denying Maja all through deadline day last summer and it turned out he’d been at Brockhall having a medical. The Zeefuik story seems to have been broken from the German media rather than from over here as well.

29 minutes ago, Spartakfenni said:

Because he’s a mates son who’s shit. The clean sheets came in front of a solid back 5 not a made up one where we lost our Captain before they scored. Pears should be shipped out. Eastham one of our own is 10 times better as those who go to the u23’s will testify.

I don’t think the Pears comment was meant to be taken seriously..

21 minutes ago, pomster said:

Yeah, well ... even he might be out out the door shortly!

If we do manage to get promoted i wouldn’t want him has our manager, heaven forbid who knows what player would be playing where

If he gets us promoted, Mowbray can do what he wants with the team selections. Find it ridiculous to see some posters suggest that he should be sacked regardless of results even if we get to the PL. I wanted him gone 12 months ago like most people but you can’t deny that this season we’ve done remarkably well and he deserves a lot of credit for that. 

5 hours ago, perthblue02 said:

Problem is if we don't get into the top two spots at the end of the season, we face three "cup ties" to gain promotion, on recent cup records I'm not confident are you?

True but I had no confidence that we’d be in the top half of the league come the turn of the year. The fact that we have a realistic shot at the promotion is remarkable given where we were in August. 

I’m going to enjoy the ride for what it is. Promotion would still be a massive bonus given our squad depth. If we can make the play offs, that would be a huge achievement.

14 minutes ago, 47er said:

Yes----perspective . We haven't got past the first round (for us) in 5 years---that's perspective.

What happened to the thrill of the draw, waiting to see who you'd get in the next round, a team being inspired and lifted by a Cup run?

Some of the most exciting times we've had, occurred in Cup games. Not since TM rolled up.

I accept we are having a great season in the League by the way, just fret the we may have lost some momentum today.

I don’t necessarily disagree but today, to me, doesn’t show that TM disregards the competition. He named a strong side but was let down by a shocking keeper display. We’ve had other cup defeats which are far more painful to accept (Morcambe being one..). It’s disappointing and it’s fair to point out that our cup form under TM has been poor but we have so much more to play for this season.

7 minutes ago, 47er said:

You won't have been worried for the last 5 years then!We have a long, proud history in the FA Cup.

Quite clear that TM doesn't give a stuff about it. A few thousand Rovers supporters waste their afternoon while he takes the piss.

He played a stronger team than most on here wanted to see. Can’t legislate for the individual mistakes made today. It’s a cheap shot to blame Mowbray considering the season we’ve had. Keep it in perspective.

16 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

TM seems to think playing RB is easy...he just slots anyone in there. Gallagher, Buckley, Carter, and now Dolan. 

With Nyambe injured, who would you play? 

Disappointing but hardly season breaking. Not going to blame the manager for a Karius-esque performance in goal. Beat Cardiff and this is forgotten. 

Just now, RoversClitheroe said:

Well that RB from Germany will be that replacement.

It's so short sighted from the management selling Nyambe when we're 1 point off automatics (realistically) why break up that team.

Because maybe he wants to go, someone has offered us a reasonable fee and we have a decent replacement lined up?

Nyambe is more replaceable than the other two. Selling Rothwell or Lenihan are the red lines for me. 

4 hours ago, USABlue said:

How many times have we wrote off "unimpressive" signings only to have a large serving of crow shoved in our face.  Mmm, let's see... Friedal, Samba, Nelson, Santa Cruz nany more I am sure.  I like the look of the unpronounceable named full back.  Bit recless bit some exquisitely timed tackles too.  

I agree with the point you’re making but who wrote off Santa Cruz?! He was arguably the most exciting signing we made during the Hughes era.

Be a shame to lose Nyambe but he is more replaceable than Rothwell or Lenihan especially considering his poor injury record.

31 minutes ago, JHRover said:

He still sounds like a man telling the supporters what he wants and communicating with the owners via the press.

He isn't saying that things will or won't happen, just offering an opinion on how it would look if we started selling our best players now.

I stick to my theory that he hasn't heard a peep from India in months and hasn't the foggiest what their plans or thoughts are. His contractual situation all but confirms that.

Still amazes me that people believe we are actively engaged in serious discussions with these out of contract players. Strikes me that Venkys are doing nothing. If Mowbray can't speak to them and has no idea as to their plans how the hell are we meant to keep players?

You’re basing all this on a press conference? What would it take for you to believe that the club are actively involved in serious discussions. Mowbray to openly discuss the details of each contract negotiation? 

None of us have an idea what is going on behind the scenes so why choose to take an overly negative slant for the sake of it?

1 hour ago, RoversClitheroe said:

People seem to be pointing the blame at the players for the lack of contract acceptance.

But I think what people are forgetting is that it's 3 key players for the squad, it can't possibly be agent/player greed for all 3 players that would be mental! 

Maybe it is because they've been offered shit deals, let's not forget the initial contract offered to Nyambe was the same wage 😂, if he's been offered double it's going to be around £8k then, whilst we have Gallagher on circa £15k I assume.

The discrepancy between the 2 is quite frankly insulting.

I don’t see anyone blaming the players. All the guns have been aimed at the club.

We have no idea what the players have been offered but the club have clearly been talking to them for a long time. 

I assume we’re offering the best deals we can within the wage structure but they’re all holding out for better offers from PL sides which is fair enough. It’s a regrettable situation but if the players genuinely want to hold out for a big move then there’s not much more we can do.

It says a lot about how far we’ve come that a point against a team in the play offs which lifts us into the top 2, is underwhelming. What a remarkable season.

Re attendance. Yes, 16k would have been considered poor 10 years ago but we were getting only 9k earlier this season. It’s just good to see fans coming back to Ewood and hopefully (Covid permitting) we can continue to see an upward trend. 

30 minutes ago, Bad Boy said:

Poor gate at just over 16,300.  
 

But a decent point.  We can’t win them all and we can’t perform every week.   Our CEO should be disgusted with the pitch.

Poor gate? How often have we got over 15k since the prem without ticketing initiatives? Not to mention COVID and £30 tickets. 

Take a draw right now. Keep the unbeaten run going and maintain a gap to those below us in the league. 

29 minutes ago, USABlue said:

Why oh why have we done that?  In my mind the worst player on the squad and I am sure it will serve to alienate our other contract holdouts.  Baffling.

This would have been the reaction last winter if we’d agreed a new deal with BBD. The club can’t win.

How does re-signing Gallagher have any bearing on the players out of contract?

No need to manufacture a negative slant for the sake of it.

19 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

The fantastic ride has been used to push half season tickets, it's worked, the facts speak for themselves. That's clearly been the focus, half season tickets aren't as appealing if we start dishing out cheap match day tickets, yet. I dare say there'll be a few cheap games coming up if we can maintain the promotion push.

Anyone who bought a Barnsley ticket had that deducted from the half season ticket price, if we were to do that following this game then that would push even more, 170 quid becomes VERY appealing especially if we win again, roughly 18 quid a game....

Everyone's never going to agree on pricing or price promotions, the only thing I think we'll all agree on is they messed up at the start of the season. Nobody, literally nobody (apart from Chaddy obviously 🙄) expected the season to pan out how it has though or they'd have shifted more even at those prices. Very naive indeed but I do think Swag is listening now, well I know he is as he's been in discussion with fans saying they'd look at pricing and he did stick to his word.

That’s a fair assessment. They got it wrong in the summer and they’ve almost admitted as much by restructuring the pricing in the autumn. 

I do think some of the reaction is over the top. The tickets should be cheaper but they’re not outrageously expensive (relatively) or above what other clubs often charge.

It’s pleasing that we’re still seeing an increase in attendance despite Covid.

36 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

13,500 Rovers fans tonight,good vocal support but we can and must pull more through the turnstiles.

Slightly embarrassed by the round of applause as the attendance was given out??😟

 

Can’t underestimate the impact of COVID on attendance at the moment. No guarantee that any game is going ahead until the kick off not to mention those who have to isolate. Pleasantly surprised that we had a relatively decent crowd on tonight.

1 hour ago, Ricky said:

This is definitely the type of game we’d lose in the past. 

The last 5 games are the type of game we’d lose in the past.