Groundhog

He's possibly one of the most naturally gifted players on the ball I've ever seen, the way he takes the ball with that outstretched leg, already shielding from his opponent and dropping his shoulder, it's like "watching the fucking ballet or summat" as my mate said 😂 However I'm getting a bit fed up of these comments from "fans" saying JDT has frozen him out, and "if we had played Wharton all season we'd be up" - that is utter post-event hindsight bullshit. He played really well at Blackpool, then had a tough few games after that, it was too soon to play him week-in week-out and it would have done him no good at all. He's incredible, but he's only 18, he tires easily (for now), and gets targeted. Those same armchair fans I imagine would be criticising JDT for over playing him if it was the other way round. The reason we're seeing the Adam Wharton we see now is down to the lad himself and JDT's man management. It's all about next season, and always was. Work on his upper body strength a bit, phase him in and slowly build a team around him, get him some support. ...oh and to all the Carrots saying "that lad in midfield who's he? we should put a bid in for him" fuck off and do your research 😂

I think it's why we've been so poor up front recently, Dolan's chance against Hull, he thought he was more central as he glanced up and subconsciously lined himself up with the middle of the V. It's got into their heads, they've got the yips. I blame our failure to remain in the top 6 solely on whoever did this and the person or persons should be fired immediately 🤣

This is torture, bring on 8pm

Amen

Diaz, if you're reading this me old mate me old lad, give us one last performance, one last world-class showing, and then you may go and feast on tapas and sangria and enjoy your life, wherever you may roam, be it at the top of La Liga or warming the bench at Wrexham in 2 years. Just do what you need to do to be forever immortalised in our history. COYB!

Bit harsh, see the winning goal against Reading. He was one of our best players on the pitch 2nd half against Preston, that's what made his soft chip even harder to stomach. I think he's typical of a few players in our squad, age is right but just not experienced enough in the big pressure games, the week by week toughness of the championship, where you need that calmness of thought when it matters, he's not played that much football in relative terms. There's a lot of players like this nowadays, just drifted through football and never been in the thick of it. I bet this season has been a shock to the system, it's intense. Putting my positive hat on, moments like Preston will hopefully stick with him and make him a better player.

I agree, I worry about his fitness, like many Burnley fans they seem to enjoy telling us how they "pass teams to death", but yes, if any fixture was made for him to cement his legend at Rovers then this is it.

That's the spirit!

It's more likely he's found it on the floor somewhere, probably nicked it, or took a pic of someone's card and is just on the wind up. He comments on everything Rovers related with a high level of deranged vitriol. Typical modern fan let loose with a social media account.

Don't blame anyone, not what I wrote was it? What a daft thing to say.

Must be so easy to play against, just stand up to him and be strong, you know he's going to do it. Would only take watching 1 half of a game in the week beforehand to have it figured out.

I agree, but not sure it was down to Wharton being physical, it just meant Hamer had to get tight on him and stop him from playing, which in turn stopped his own game. Second half they noticeably went harder in on him, gave him less space. I think Robins identified him as our playmaker in the first half. Teams are going to do that to him.

Anyone considered he's just had a kid? I know he'll have support but it's like having your world turned upside down. Don't know about anyone else but when I had my first I was a mess at work, and all I had to do was sit at a desk. SAS levels of sleep deprivation, constantly drained mentally too. It's not a walk in the park for every couple. Must be a factor.

It could be the worst couple of games in recent years, it could be the best, we could get 0 points we could equally go on a run, I've recovered after that late equaliser, and maybe, just maybe, that might bring the squad together, nothing like a bit of adversity to do that. Whatever happens it's exciting, it's better than being sat in mid table, though I do appreciate that ironically that's where we could end up... Just getting this stretched squad up and ready for two tough derbies is a massive ask, I can't believe how these two fixtures have fallen. Doesn't help that lot down the road appear to be resting and rotating so there'll be nice and fresh for Tuesday.

Should be working but hey ho, make your own mind up. hand-of-chod.mp4

Who cares which part of his body it hit - Sky and the EFL highlights team plus everyone else seem to think it's "hilarious" and are having a good old laugh at Rovers. I'm sure if Pears did it we'd get branded as unsporting. Lot of Cov fans laughing at our time wasting - they were genuine injuries, just like their lads in the first half. 5 mins added on in the first half, same as the second.

If Mowbray gets Sunderland into the top 6 at the first attempt with no striker we're going to collectively lose our shit

But JDT isn't telling Thomas to hit a clearance on the Riverside touchline first time on the volley, miss-hitting it, skimming off the bottom of his studs and going out for a Cov throw-in, which they then move 15 yards forward to put us under more pressure... They were no other options to shore it up. On paper, putting Dolan up front makes total sense, nick the ball and take it into the corner, get them turned around - he didn't make one decent touch. The short of it is: no one marked the keeper, Diaz turns his back on the ball coming in. Pears didn't come out. That's it for me. Edit: If every player put in that extra 10% that Szmodics put in last night, we'd have been fine - he clearly wants it, wants the club to do well for himself and the fans. There's that slight extra percentage of determination when it matters that separates the best from the rest. I wanted someone to put their foot through it last night, hold the ball up, win a foul, chase every last cause.

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I have something similar But 3 points isn't pessimistic, it's optimistic! 😂

He's playing like he has a knock or doesn't want to get a knock, simple as. Must be so easy to defend against, he has that one move cutting in onto his right, watch a few games in the week and you've got him sussed. He's stopped using his strength to take people on and even just win a foul. The one thing he did to get himself into form after his shaky start was work his fucking bollocks off, harry, run at people, get stuck in, take that out and he's half the player. I still have nightmares about that shot against Hull that went out for a throw in. He's performing a role in the team at best, getting back, covering etc but not getting forward enough, as he knows he won't be able to track back. He's currently only getting the ball on the wing with his back to goal on the half way line.

I agree that things can get better in this regard, but how does he change it with what he has? We could all see that Brittain was getting overrun but what could he do, Brittain being on the pitch still gives us the occasional chance of working it forward which is the best form of defence. We can't pack the midfield with the players we have. Even Mowbray had the "luxury" of bringing on experienced midfielder extraordinaire Bradley Johnson. I'd bloody kill for a player like that sat on the bench for situations like last night, and I thought he was total bobbins 😂

I agree - there's, as always, been some pretty horrendous reactionary comments online - but that's online for you - someone called him the "danish steve kean" FFS. Check your head. I need to stop checking social media after games, never ends well and just makes your blood boil. We're basically a bundled last minute goal away from 3 points against a playoff rival. He's working with so little. It's not JDT's fault that Dolan and Diaz did nothing to alleviate pressure in the final 5 minutes. Two injuries so he had to go to a back 5, that's a normal thing to do, fair enough it hasn't worked well in recent games but it's such fine margins, it's also won us points. People calling it "suicide football", I agree it's hard to watch, but what's the alternative, go for broke with an exhausted side and push forward? It's not always so black and white. We've barely got a squad. We're missing a leader, some experience and a striker.

Wharton is the player we need to take the pressure off, he can take the ball under pressure so he provides some relief and gives us a reliable option playing the ball out from defence. He can tackle and get stuck in too, so he has a presence. I think the Coventry players were told to target him in the second half as they got a lot more physical with him, he's not got much upper body strength currently but once he does he'll be even better. Was saying to my old man on the way home, in recent games there feels like there's never been a midfield battle, no 2nd balls dropping and loose balls there to be won, just waves of attacks that break down, we had that last night and were able to mix it in the middle of the park. I'd forgotten what that felt like.

Any Carrots in the home end might get away with causing a stink in sections of the Riverside or JW upper, but it won't last long. It plays right into our hands if they invade the pitch, kick off outside etc, justifies the decision to keep the ticket allocation down, regardless of the what the police say. No one mentions one of the main reasons for the low allocation: they'll smash the facilities up and with the Luton game coming up there'll be no time to repair them. So keep one half of the Darwen Dingle free and we can still cater for the away fans on Monday night. Thick cnuts are their own problem. Heard a few mutterings of "it was handball" last night walking out the ground, so tried to look for some video footage on twitter - but couldn't find anything due to the cesspit of a platform being clogged full of Dingles revelling in their Wednesday night entertainment, they're obsessed, I'd thought their successful season would be enough to keep them occupied? One thing that made me laugh though: lots of comments from Cov fans slagging off our ground (least we've got one), usual Burnley fans wading in - one Burnley fan described t'Turd as a "cauldron" 😂😂😂 Delusions of grandeur that lot, too much success can go to your head.