“We love it when the away team bring a big following. Like Preston and Wrexham. There is really only an atmosphere when the away end is full. We want to play in front of a full house.” - Aynsley Pears. In that infamous meeting at the start of February. Gallagher and Hyam were in agreement.

Just witnessed a very good performance from the U21s who came back from 2 down to draw with Arsenal. I’d start Leo Duru on Saturday and have Nsangou on the bench.

Michalski Carter O’Riordon McFazdean Pickering JRC Tronstad Dolan Szmodics (c) Gilsenan Big Billy

Brilliant that. The perfect reaction. Great to see Carter back, he makes a big difference and for me is our best defender. I was very nervous when McFadzean came on but he was excellent today. JRC MOTM. You’d have to say that Eustace executed the perfect game plan today. With no excuses around P&S/FFP this summer we should be in a position to build a proper squad again based around things other than just “the numbers”. Obviously the cashflow and court case issues will be the biggest factor though unfortunately.

I think this is 10 or 11 games for Gallagher without a goal. That’s a drought to any normal striker, but with him it’s just what you come to expect. That substitution has me worried.

They clearly watched the midweek game and have decided to target us down our right hand side after seeing how calamitous Brittain and Hyam were. Carter has been left isolated out there a few times but fortunately stood up to everything pretty well. Gallagher offering absolutely nothing in their half. We’ve been sloppy with our passing when trying to break, but you can see the idea with that good chance Szmodics carved out. Still a long way to go and I’m not sure we can sustain this. Better than expected so far though.

5pm will be too late. 12:30 kick off so I’d get the number pinned by 12:45.

Pears JRC Carter Wharton Pickering Tronstad Garrett Dolan Szmodics Chrisene Gallagher Wahlstedt, Billy, O’Riordan, Buckley, Moran, Gilsenan, Tyjon, Duru, Markanday

We have had a lot of discussions over the past couple of years about making a significant reduction to ticket prices but it’s always been countered with the need to hit a revenue target that Venky’s have set. They don’t believe that a big reduction would improve sales enough for them to still meet that figure and have dismissed the idea in previous years. I should also point out that we first pitched our ideas for next season to them months ago, before the transfer window debacle and the complete collapse of our form. We’ve continued to have discussions and since pointed out that they ought to be expecting a significantly bigger drop off in renewals than they have seen for the past couple of years, and that they need to think about doing something drastic to mitigate this before they start thinking about attracting new season ticket holders or re-engaging with lapsed ones.

Not sure how the two worst culprits by far survived the half time cull

We paid something in that region. I presume recouping the fee would form part of our compensation, but there’d only be about 15 grand on top.

Compensation fee. A pittance.

Tyjon is wanted by Man City, so giving him some first team exposure is about the best way we can persuade him to stay when we can’t offer him a pro deal yet. Telalovic hasn’t proven to be much of an option so I’d rather give this lad some minutes.

I’m not sure of any initial fees, but Rovers do get a percentage of concourse sales. Don’t quote me on it but I think it’s a third.

Obviously success on the pitch is the main driver and the only thing that will significantly increase gates. If, and it’s a big if, we sell 12k season tickets at £250 a pop we’d bring in less ticketing revenue than we do now. Obviously there is an argument to be had about additional income (average spend of 2-3 quid a head on the concourses with the bulk going to Sodexo), and the intangibles like better atmosphere (although would 12k season ticket holders make that big a difference?), plus would we just end up cannibalising our walk ons? There’s no magic wand that can be waved to automatically double our attendances overnight, apart from maybe promotion, that includes drastic price reductions. It’s a long term rebuilding job that has definitely become more difficult this summer.