onlyonejackwalker

I've no idea what the ref was watching. A late, blatant, aggressive, petulant kick. Clearly a red card. And then to book Ohashi. Pathetic.

Yeah you loved Travis. Weirdly, you always quote him in the Tronstad debate, but he is hardly Tugay, so i've absolutely no idea why. 9 goals in 250 appearances for Rovers, zero at Ipswich and Derby. 1 assist last year. Typical stats for a defensive midfielder with little to no skill or creativity. He got a sideways move to Derby, not a big club, where your other big hero is laughably hardly top of the league ripping it up like you stated he would with absolute certainty. Many of his own fanbase are already questioning the 'project' and can see through his soundbites. If i was in charge i'd be doing everything in my power to keep Tronstad. Strangely, your messiah seemed to like him also, any thoughts why?

Well played lads. Nullified them. Eleven unbeaten on this ground.

Been very, very good this half.

We've been the better team this half. Blatant red. Hoping we can sneak a goal. All i can hear are the Rovers fans.

Failed? Why not give them 60 test matches like Crawley has had and then tell me they have failed. A seamers pitch? We've struggled on fast pitches, bouncey pitches, now moving pitches. What are you not understanding Chaddy? Rob Key said we are performing at 20% of these players abilities. Who are you blaming for that? Who? The Aussie press? A green wicket? The players? The captain? The selectors? The County game? We are under prepared, poorly managed, lacking character and struggling to even do the basics. Topped off with the drinking and slobbing about. Who are you blaming for that? The successes of the last few years have coincided with having the best batsman in the world performing at his peak during that time. The only one, who, despite the odd rash moment, has played professionally. It's a malaise brought on by the unprofessional approach of this regime over two or three years. Cowardice, masked as bravery, stupidity shrouded as creativity, recklessness purported as positivity, carelessness disguised as strategy, desperation spun as confidence, fogginess as intellect. The old 'bullshit baffles brains' and its worked. The arrogance of this shower, thinking they can re-invent test cricket. Well, i guess they have. We now get two day test matches and regularly struggle to get 200. These fucking idiots struggle to get double figures. It's confused the vast majority of our fans lacking the intrinsic nuances and knowledge of the game at the HIGHEST levels. A few last chance wins against lesser opponents, thrilling run chases and being better than what came before sufficing. Until you get to the very highest level. And it slowy dawns that you are lost. Because you can't ramp Starc at 90 miles an hour without losing your teeth. So its immediately back to the basics, which you've not practised and grooved for 3+ years. And you are then royally fucked. Goosed. Up shit creak without a paddle. Nowhere to turn. Rabbits in headlights. Trust me, it's a very bad place to be when you don't know your own game and can't trust your own technique. I'm all for continuous professional development, but that is refined amd developed in practice, in the nets. You don't want to rip up the test team, but do want to rip up the entire cricketing structure in the UK. And whilst there is merit in all your suggestions, to a greater or lesser degree, shit rolls downhill and we must now make it clear that what has been served up is not just losing cricket, its losing cricket without positives. I've gone full circle. I hope we get pasted. Heap on the humiliation. Then get rid of Key, Mcullum, Stokes as captain, fitness coaches, batting coaches, fielding coaches, catching coaches, dieticians. All of them. Start afresh. Atherton, Hussain, Vaughan. Lets get some intelligence back into the leadership and change cultures. Keep Root and Archer for sure. Stokes as an all rounder if his body is up to it. The bowlers in general deserve consideration. Your good at asking quesrions Chaddy. Riddle me this. Who is to blame for losing the Ashes in eleven days? Who are you blaming?

There are no words!!!! Well done to the bowlers. If this is the best we can do when batting, heaven help us. A new broom sweeps clean.

They hate playing us up there. But i cant see it this time round. They will score. We won't. 2-0.

Fucking dynamite. Seriously well done. A quite brilliant achievement! Happy Christmas to you all.

The fans form part of my thinking as well. As usual, the best sporting fans in the world. Who on earth gave those players permission to go on the raz mid series? They had only played 6 / 7 days at that point. Badly i might add. Yup. Mcullum and Stokes. The ones you wish to keep. Mcullums record. 44 tests - 25 wins - 17 defeats - 2 draws. Won 10 out of the first 11. Won 15, lost 16, drawn 2 of the last 33. Decent improvenent against the average teams. Little improvement against India and Australia. Bashing up Afganistan, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Outer Mongolia. All English fans want positive, aggressive cricket. I would rather lose trying to win anyday. But these players have no filter. Carte blanche to do as they please. No one ever gets dropped. Once they get these central contracts we are stuck with them for two years. I believe our players were undercooked and not prepared and are better than they have shown to date. And that is the fault of those in charge. The ones you wish to keep. Stop rewarding failure.

For me, nothing less than sweeping changes will now suffice. Because there is simply nothing good to have come out of the first three games. So theres absolutely nothing to lose. And nothing to gain by repeating the process with these players. Root made a ton. Archer got a 5 for and bowled at 90+ and made a 50. Stokes showed true grit, with bat and ball. All of which we expected. The bare minimum from those three. What else did we get? Wood got injured. Crawley got past 50 a couple of times. Brook hit a few sixes. Duckett and Pope collapsed. We dropped catches. All of which we expected. The series is over in eleven short days. Of which we enjoyed maybe four. Eleven days. Its pitiful. Which has far wider implications than just irritating me. The travelling English fans. The Aussie fans that bought tickets. The Aussie venues. The TV companies. Corporate and hospitality. Grass roots. Promotion of the game. Millions of pounds have been lost. Touring England teams used to have 4 x 4 day warm up games before the first test. Acclimatising to the timezones, weather, pitches, humidity, conditions, different ball. You know, like being professional! This lot are going on a 6 day bender when 2-0 down. They are slovenly and it shows. There's something badly wrong and rotten about the set up. No standards, no responsility and no accountabiliy. Failure is constantly rewarded. I'm really disappinted.

We did finish above Derby. Well above. We finished 7th, they scraped survival. Still missing him, bless. You'll get over it.

I'm pretty sure De Neve was advertised as a winger not full back.

That back four looks amazing compared to what we have now. Its going to be a tough period ahead. Rovers 1 Millwall 2.

It's much more likely to be Ribeiro anyway. He let the cross pass him by, then inexplicably let the ball dribble out for a corner.

Pleasing result for St Mirren.

The big error was the 2nd goal. Two of our simpletons ushered the ball out for a corner to them! I've never seen anything like it.

We had a good 10 minutes after half time then totally collapsed. Too many poor performances. Subs came 5 minutes too late. Portsmouth deserved the win.

We've just allowed a ball to go out for a corner instead of the keeper picking it up or the full back clearing it. Absolutely pathetic.

More likely to concede. Struggling to get up the pitch.

Brilliant.

Its all Rovers so far. A bit more quality / composure and we would be 2 up.

We worked very hard that half to protect our goal. I'm expecting them to throw everything at us. Tidy little finish on the break.

With a fully fit Aussie squad and a fully fit English squad, very few of our team make a combined eleven based on the stats. Especially away from home. Therefore it was imperative to focus on and do the basics extremely well. Which we have failed to do spectacularly. Our fitness and concentration has been very poor across all disciplines. Our specialist batting has been pathetic, our fielding and catching atrocious and our bowling lacks consistency, guile, options and penetration. Only Stokes and Root have performed to any sort of par, but we needed much more from both in the abscence of any sort of contribution from the majority. I don't see how this improves for the remaining tests. My only hope is it doesn't totally disintegrate. The Aussies will get better and we will become more tired, demoralised and jaded. From this point on Crawley, Duckett, Pope and Smith are playing for their future. Brook needs to stop believing his own hype. Root and Stokes as usual need to be world class. I am cutting the bowlers some slack as only getting 35 overs rest between innings and trying to constantly defend 150 is depressing watching on tv, let alone trying to pull it off. Yes we were crap before Bazball. Yes we are crap now. And......? Scooping, switch hitting, charging the bowler, driving on the up, hooking, hitting across the line, hitting in the air should all be banned unless youve got 100 on the board, or match curcumstances dictate. And instead of getting pissed on a beach, practice your fucking catching instead.