Results have been mixed this weekend. At least Norwich and PNE lost. Can put ourselves three points inside the POs tonight. If we can’t beat Hull then I can’t see us getting much out of the remaining fixtures

Don’t understand the desire for JRC in midfield. The reason he‘s so effective is that the opposition don’t know what to do with a free roaming right back. Why change it when it’s working so well? Leonard from the start is also a big call. Much prefer starting Dolan and bringing Leonard on towards the end.

Ewood will be half empty tomorrow and we’ll consider it a decent turn out. I don’t think we have the right to criticise any other fan base to be honest.

Dreading tomorrow. Effectively a play off quarter final. Need a reaction to last week. If we lose, frankly we don’t deserve a play off spot. Take a draw right now.

On 09/03/2023 at 10:46, Mattyblue said:

Does it matter if the ‘club would’ve been slated’ by nobodies on social media?

In this instance the club themselves obviously thought he was on the way out, so no surprise his contract has started to run down. But generally if the club wants to protect its assets, it should do it, the opinions of roverboi1995 is neither here nor there. Like we did with SG last season (the club did get slated online, but so what) and what we should have done with BB in 2021.

You’re missing the point. Of course the club shouldn’t care how fans might react but the point is that there were very good reasons for not offering JRC a new deal before now and yet some are criticising the club for not acting sooner. 

2 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

Jesus, lots of mediocre in there.

As was BBD two seasons ago. Are you glad we didn’t offer him a contract back then?

7 hours ago, yankfan said:

If you’re to believe GB, this couldn’t have been true as it would have had to been reported to Rovers by Viareal  

 

Doesnt matter anyway as he’s not going to be here next year anyway. Highlights the utter stupidity of the last regime letting so many players run their contracts down and walk for free. 

The Brereton situation is different to Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell for me. He was on the periphery of the squad until 2021 and if we had offered him a new deal then, plenty on here would have been angry (look at the reaction when Gallagher signed a new deal last year). His transformation over a summer could not have been foreseen and after that, he was never going to sign a new deal with us - unless we get promoted. 

26 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

But that is the point though. With proper management of the club we can get average attendances of 25000. 

In the Champ? Regardless of management or pricing, we’re not getting average attendances above 20k in this division. It was only in a handful of PL seasons that we got an average 25k+ attendance. 

The Oxford game was nearly 6 years ago and we’ve not had an attendance similar to that since, regardless of league position or pricing. That’s no criticism of the fans, it’s just a reflection of where we are. I really hope that the final home games this year (incl. play off leg) might see us get towards full capacity.

The cold truth is that we could close the Riverside and there’d still be plenty of empty seats most weeks. 

For aesthetic reasons alone, I really hope something new will be built but it won’t happen until we reach the PL. Talk of a hotel might be the only other reason to redevelop. 

Lowering the capacity makes sense. The stadium is far too big for us now and we even struggled to fill it in the PL. I remember the days under Hughes where we’d often get less than 20k home fans in (Fulham at home on opening day in 2005 was around 16k..). The only times we got close to full was against the bigger teams who took the whole DE.

Too young for 95. Gutted I missed the 02 Final. As a family, we never went to football games when I was young so it never occurred to me that I could have gone. Watched it at home, recorded it on VHS and was horrified the next day when I realised that I’d accidentally recorded 3 hours of BBC1’s mid-afternoon programming instead. 

Now that I’ve slightly calmed down - Re Morton: in fairness, his run and pass set Gallagher up for the shot that led to the penalty and his tackle created the second goal. I don’t understand what he was playing at for their goal but I think the change in shape/subs cost us more.

Overall, this will take a while to get over but proud of the effort. Getting pumped by City in the Semis wouldn’t have been enjoyable and this will hopefully galvanise the squad for the final run in. 

That stings. JDT has done amazing things but it is on him. Too defensive too soon. Invited them on and got what we deserved.

Unacceptable from Morton. Gave up. Pathetic.

We are not destined to enjoy football.

Tyldesley and McCoist on comms. Slight upgrade from Dack and BBD in the last round. 

Been feeling less confident as the game has got closer. After the Stoke game, I’m worried that we still have that type of performance in us and we didn’t look overly solid against Reading.

I can see it being either a repeat of Leicester or a collapse similar to Burnley. The first goal is everything.

1 hour ago, J*B said:

Did you read Pears interview in the LET? He’s not happy to be back up anymore. 

To be fair, I can see why. He’s clearly a decent enough keeper at this level. Still prefer Kaminski overall, but he’s done a decent job since stepping up. Think he’s earned a move to somewhere he can get first team football assuming Kaminski stays.

1 hour ago, tomphil said:

I just don't think we've enough of an active fanbase now to get a decent number behind both goals.

Sure they'd turn up at a tenner a ticket if we'd got promoted or were maybe guaranteed a play off place.  Would be nice to get half of it at least half full with home fans though with aways in the other half like it used to be.

Would make for a good atmosphere for sure.

I’d prefer we open up the BBE Upper before the Darwen End to home fans. Let’s fill the ‘normal’ home ends first before expanding. Having 1k rovers fans scattered around the DE lower doesn’t look great.

Good that the Norwich prices are sensible. Hope we really see a noticeable increase in support to get us over the line.

6 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

I think I would be very tempted to take the semi final. In theory, we would also be one win from being in Europe too!

Football is about memories and moments, not balance sheets.

We’d need to win the cup to get into Europe. If the team who wins the cup are already in Europe, the place goes to the next available team in the PL.

Got a bad feeling about this one. It should be comfortable and therefore it won’t be. Can see Reading nicking it and earlier in the season I would shrug it off but it matters now, it really matters.

47 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

There you go then, as I said, poor decision to choose this game.

Same. Good initiative but really odd choice. If the final home fixture against Luton has anything on the line (which it should) then that would be a much more logical choice.

1 hour ago, philipl said:

Morton has had his poor games and goal conceding moments but is a class player who has been showing more grit recently. 

Tonight is not a must win but will make more future games must wins if we don't. 

Plus drive anxiety levels skywards so 3 points please lads.

I don’t know. Think tonight is a must win. Reading are a walking three points at the moment, we can’t afford to miss out. Our run in is not kind and this is arguably the ‘easiest’ game we could ask for (possibly aside from QPR at home).

Ignoring the performance, there is no shame in losing to a Stoke side who are in decent form, but tonight has to be a win to keep a gap to Norwich. If we can’t beat Reading at home with their current form,  we don’t deserve to consider ourselves top 6 material.

13 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I wouldn’t offer him a five year one that’s for sure. That’d be crazy. Look at Henley, lots of big clubs were looking at him apparently - he’s at Chorley now by all accounts.

And look at BBD, Rothwell and Lenihan. We need to tie down our assets. Every contract offered is a gamble but we can’t risk more good players walking away for nothing.

20 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

They didn’t, that’s why they are putting the request in now as they’ve obviously been caught by surprise by the demand.

But all’s well that ends well. 

I’m impressed that we’ve sold 5k with nearly a week to spare. Thought being on TV and the travel issues would put people off. Big win on Weds will tee it up nicely.

Looked back at the Millwall QF and saw that we only had 8k fans at Ewood for the second leg. Almost as many Rovers fans will be at Bramall Lane!

4 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

They should have realised that there is a real buzz around this fixture. 900 tickets for general sale was never going to be enough. The request for the extra 1,000 should have been in last week as they watched 4,000 fly out the door just to ST holders.

Unfortunately ‘the club’ just doesn’t understand fandom and what drives big away followings.

But I thought ‘the club’ didn’t understand the buzz around this fixture? 

19 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

The club aren't particularly bothered about going the extra mile for the fans though, seen enough evidence of that.

I bet it hasn't even registered that there might be more tickets available, 

Why don’t we actually wait before slamming the club? You have no idea if we’ve asked for more tickets or if we’ve  already asked but Sheff Utd have refused. 

37 minutes ago, philipl said:

The more players we have whose places are at risk because understudies have come in and played even better, the better it is for everyone. 

At some point inevitably Ash Phillips and Adam Wharton will come in and displace players we currently think unreplaceable.

That said, Bradley Dack thankfully showed enough both that he can play in the JDT way of football and that he is still one of the most gifted players in the Championship.

My guess if we ever achieved the nirvana of the current squad 100% fit and playing to what they are currently capable of, Dack would still be an automatic pick in his favoured hole behind the front man position. 

 

Not for me. Szmodic has been fantastic the last few games. His energy is infectious. On ability, Dack gets in, but SS is more suited to how we play and he’s started to show more quality on the ball recently. A good problem to have either way.

6 minutes ago, garnersfags said:

My prediction is that if he plays the team that won on Tues, we will play well for 90 min. 

If we replace Morton with Buckley, and bring in JRC, we will also play well for 90 min. 

If we bring in Thomas or Diaz, my prediction is that we will play less well. 

It's about shape, and energy.

Sure I'll be reminded of this at 2.30....

100% commitment for 90 min, and we'll be fine.

COYB !

Thomas replacing Hedges wouldn’t change anything imo. Hedges was wasteful against Leicester so wouldn’t be fussed if he was left out.