I kind of get the playing out from the back thing. But isn't it the case that only about 4 teams in world football are technically good enough to pull it off. It has the hallmarks of a modern football fad, to be pursued at any cost. And yet with all the analytical tools and time devoted to tactics in the modern elite game presumably JDT could explain why he continues to play that way. It's a strange one for me.

Not many thinking Pickering was an upgrade on Amari Bell now I'll wager.

but it's OK cos we're brave in possession

I know. Let's keep giving them set pieces. ffs.

Think I'll wash the car

look like conceding from every set piece

I'm getting the Brentford relegation match feeling. Glorious, plucky, unavailing victory. It's always London where the pain comes isn't it?

I can't think of a game where Brereton has played down the middle under either manager.But I agree it's worth a go.

How pathetically petty that is. £18 discount then. If that's how they treat their friends eh? mind you we should expect nothing less from this regime as has been remarked upon ad nauseam. I really must be stupid. But then as this Watford fan put it so very well: "There will be some people, unfamiliar with the concept of paying to be repeatedly inconvenienced, miserable and cold, who do not understand how any kind of dilemma exists here. The idea of doing this to yourself is manifestly imbecilic. But for football supporters, turning your back on your team is treachery. Our job is not just to enjoy the good times but to endure the bad. Turning up to watch a successful team means nothing; it is buying expensive season tickets for rubbish ones that defines us. More than that, it is only by enduring the bad that we can appreciate the good. Misery is an investment in future happiness."

Just been reading the club email as thoughts turn to parting with the hard-earned (as if I'm not going to, fool that I am). You have to laugh: To secure your seat, simply click below. We strongly advise booking online to avoid queues and inconvenience. Don't get knocked over in the rush! Queues if you please! About as big a queue as at a local election polling station at 10pm.

and assuredly no David Speedie. Sigh.

How are we not above Millwall. Painfully ordinary. But they do have a centre forward which helps.

at the same time I respect Gavs visceral bitterness. all welcome surely.

should we have a vote? longsiders v sympathetic claret I think SC is the more intellectual but really I'm happy with both. Free speech! Just no more than two.😆please.

Your mindless dedication does you credit. I hope you are a native Ulsterman inveigled into the Blackburn cult! If an exiled Blackburnian then equal respect.

It's all a bit rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic isn't it and there's just fewer chairs as the weeks have passed since January. I thought we looked best with Hedges left Gallagher down the middle (I know he's injured now) and Thomas right, with Dolan as a wide back up sub. But it's beyond academic now. Amen.

This is absolutely the correct analysis. Very concisely and perceptively put sir.

As Scrooge said on Christmas Day: "I don't know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man." I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worst, yet strangely I've gone from weeks of trepidation to actually looking forward to it in a perverse way. One has to try to enjoy it somehow.

🤣🤣which "men" were in volumes (fleets?) 2 and 3?😅

Somebody (who presumably doesn't really like him) bought my mate a hospitality package tonight. The star guests? Tony Diamond and Mark Patterson. Fitting somehow. The circle of life.

Now what were those generous season ticket terms again...

Now I hate DIY. But I'm actually going to build a flat pack chest of drawers in preference to watching it. And I've got Sky. It's just become that unbearable.

I heard that it was £10,000 off his loan fee of about £300,000 for every appearance. Might be nonsense, but plausible I think.

No recriminations today. They played at their maximum. A paper thin squad just ran out of steam. Can't ask for any more. The tactical change was a bit ToMo, but on another day it might have looked like a masterstroke. An empty feeling but they were excellent.

I need this thread so badly when we lose. Love all you guys.