Now the dust has settled and you can finally relax after what has been a horror show of a season, it sounds daft to say, but it's only really fully sinking in what this man has done for the club. For about 15 minutes on Saturday the club felt like it was knife edge, the trap door was open. Like a few have said, if we'd have gone down, we'd have stayed down for a long time - a financial disaster and a disaster for the fan base that we may have never recovered from. That run for the first goal, I keep re-watching it, he's literally single handedly kept the club alive (for now at least), it's bloody massive... The fact that he's a "very nice guy" too, a proper personality, makes it even better - he'll be sorely missed. Get the statue built, or surely there's a new cul-de-sac that needs a name? Or perhaps name the Blues Bar after him and make sure it sells Moretti on draft.

It was a typo, it's 19/1 I sincerely apologiese for any grievance caused as you where

You're right it would be odd, like I said it's just a waking fever dream I keep having. He's damned whatever we do, if we sit back we won't get as lucky as we did with Leeds, if we attack they'll just pick us off. We've just got to harry and press and work our arses off and let them know they're in a real game, bust a gut for one last time.

I feel Ayari cares in that he seems to have a point to prove, either for his own career or like in the last game, against his ex-teammates at Coventry. He seems to come on with the bit between his teeth. He's at an odd place in his career that lad, where does he go next?

I've watched him a few times too, to be honest it says everything about our season that often I've been more excited to see how he's got on. At first I couldn't bear it, like seeing your ex with someone else, but I just love watching the lad play. He's been played really deep compared to the role he was allowed to have at Rovers. It's almost like they've told him not to pass the half way line at times. I think he's been playing better and better each week, he seems to be running games from in front of his own back 4, and doing all the dirty work, he's also not afraid of a tackle and really works hard to win the ball back if he ever loses it. He may not have had many assists or action in and around the box, but it's usually his pass that sets the move going. The games against Newcastle and Fulham he started having more shots and was around the box more. The only issue I see is he seems to fade late on, and has been caught out being slow to track back a few times, but to be honest who hasn't.

Travis was literally brought in as cover for Morsey, same reason they wanted Gally to cover for Hirst, as mad as that last bit sounds. I like Travis, but am on the fence, I can't decided whether he would have helped or hindered us - he is more of a leader than anyone else in the team, he gets it (him and Sammie would have hauled a few games over the line I feel) but his temperament lets him down at times. Free from the shackles of JDT and the pressure of having to become technical box-box midfielder overnight, he maybe would have bossed the 2nd half of the season for us. He's a proper Eustace player for me. How many Champ teams do you think he walks into though?

My worst fear with this game is that he might buck the trend and actually try and go and win this one, compared to when he should have against Millwall, SW at home. I've got this worry that he'll think they won't be up for a fight, and it'll cost us as they'll raise their game. I've stuck a tenner on us to lose, Plymouth and Brum to win, and SW double chance at 90/1, as to me that seems a totally normal day in the madness that is this season's Championship. My bets never come off. It should be an easy game to get them up for, it's one game, one cup final to give it their all, in our hands, just give fucking everything for one game! What is playing on my mind is that after 15-20 mins there's a chance that Brum and Plymouth could be 1-0 up, and the players will hear about it and then start to wilt under the pressure, as we know they're well capable of doing.

Yeah it was embarrassing, all of it was just cringeworthy. The players have complained about the lack of fans and for them to come out to Ewood almost a 10th full was a hard one. I was going to go but felt at least while we are in a battle I wanted to show my support, but I can totally see why everyone left. Total apathy. Hyam and Fadz stayed longer with the Cov fans, don't blame them, much more positive, and I can't stand that fanbase. Some bloke was given Brittain stick from the Riverside at the final whistle, no matter what you think of Callum, whatever was going on didn't look pleasant and Brittain was clearly pissed off. Am I right that I didn't notice him coming out after? Eustace seemed to take an age to find somewhere to sit on the front row and then he disappeared? It definitely seemed odd. Noticed Waggott and Pash were in attendance, and they appeared to be sat next to GB? Might be wrong, my eyes are fooked...

Birmingham needing a win to send us down, I wouldn't put it past Barnes smashing into his own net.

I found it really hard seeing Sammie potentially playing his last home game on Saturday. I stayed for the lap of honour just to give him some respect. However, it's really hard to know what other teams and their scouts make of Sammie. Would love to read a scouting report from one of his games. He's been playing in such a poor, fractured side - he hasn't had any assistance up front, he's scored the same breakaway goal, latching onto a through ball, over and over again. Seemingly the only type of goal we can score, and I stand by the fact that he's only scored those goals as we haven't had a striker as he's had to play further upfield. You can't deny his workrate, his footballing brain, his nous and his passion, but I almost feel like we haven't seen any of his hold-up/linking play, as his teammates haven't been up to standard. If he goes to another team, it won't be as a forward, so his new fans need to get accustomed to the fact he won't score 20+goals again, and cut him some slack. I just can't hack it anymore that we're potentially watching another talent leave before we get chance to see them bed into a side.

I do agree with you - it's not all on the players, for a start we didn't seem to have a plan B again, we had 30mins as a group to get back into the game. It's all well and good keeping it tight, but when you go behind you need to be able to change it or see what is in front of you. To be fair we don't have a bench at all to change it, and JE clearly doesn't trust any of our other attacking options apart from Markanday. That's on the owners, the board, and lack of investment again - the failed project rearing it's ugly head. I think Eustace has tried to calm a very disparate group lacking in confidence and it's backfired. Sheff Wednesday were right up for that, it was a must win for them and they went for it, I get that he's tried an approach to not lose and eventually when they tire to possibly draw them out and pick them off - but we don't have enough on the pitch to change it when the going gets tough, where's the leadership? I think our lads are the victim of the last three failed regimes, each trying to do different styles, and the modern player is more robotic than we think. We've seen a few approaches and "game plans" and they've struggled each time, the same shit happens and it's due to it being a squad devoid of a clear goal in mind - we are not a team greater than the sum of it's parts, we occasionally surprise but it feels in spite of the manager's plans or tactics. It's no surprise to anyone watching us, the club is in turmoil and it's reflected on the pitch. Some of the group aren't expected to be here (Gallagher, Dolan), rumours of Hyam being shopped around in January, it's not a happy squad. Look what happened after January window under Mowbray when we completely folded, it's no coincidence. We're shopping in the bargain bin too, Barnsley fans told us Callum wasn't up for a fight, maybe that's why he ended up here...

Exactly, TK was an international keeper. The goalkeeping issue alone at Rovers is like a condensed version of our plight over the last few years, a metaphor for the club's struggles overall.

But there's the issue - those players were at the top of their game, internationals - apples and oranges (or plums in our case) compared to what we have now. This is the problem for most of us I think, myself included, can't compare our current squads to years gone by as it's just not the same scenario. Also, no matter how hostile the away fans, there was some level of grudging respect aimed back at players like Friedel and Flowers, they could take the piss but deep down any fan knew they were dealing with a proper pro keeper - unlike at Champ/League One level where they're just another player making up the numbers, lambs to the slaughter...

I was right behind that one - it was a total freak. It was in a game that didn't matter that much either. The Pears one is on another level for what it means. I would have thought the club would have maybe waited slightly on this too, come on Admin, the comments are, well, as you can imagine... Anyway, Happy Birthday Aynsley Pears. Hope you manage to enjoy your day. However bad we feel as fans, blimey, imagine what it's been like for him. Poor bloke.

Great post - but I just worry, and sorry to be so pessimistic and potentially piss on any optimism you may have, that I feel this is a step too far for most. It's all about hope, and lack of it. When we went down under Mowbray, there was a core of players you could get behind, and Mowbray seemed a steady hand and offered a glimmer of normality, both on and off the pitch. We signed Dack, and the team regained an identity. The League One season was fantastic for many people under 30 who missed the glory days in the 90s - and it did what most relegations do, the cliche of galvanising a club. There were still issues but it felt like a small reset and things could start to improve, especially the relationship between board and fans, not just the usual case of success sweeping issues under the carpet, but a real chance to rebuild. When we went down under Brian Kidd there was trust in the board and the owners that they'd guide us through it and make sensible footballing decisions, which they did. I actual miss the days, when for example, we were losing at home to Stockport in the league cup in 1996, stood in the BBE chanting "we want Harford out" that the board would go away and listen to the fans and do the right thing, that fans and board were on the same level. This is what is getting to supporters at the minute - that whatever they do, it doesn't matter, there's not that connection any more. The only way to move onwards, and to be honest a total pipe dream, is for the Venkys to leave, magically write the debt off, and we get new, sensible owners who are sympathetic to the area, and who can put a pro-active board in place, whatever division we are in. It pains me that the Wanderers are doing an amazing job, and getting 15,000 season tickets, it's madness. Of course I don't want administration, I don't want job losses, and the more we struggle the harder and harder it will get, but even in League Two with a small fanbase, with the right owners and some clear messaging and direction, you'd get that siege mentality that would make matchdays a passionate affair again. I get we need to reduce expenditure, and I get we need to become a selling club to survive in the current climate - but it seems whatever new model or scenario we set ourselves up for, there's issues, and it just wears away at us fans, wherever we turn we just can't seem to make anything work: - we try and be proactive, hire a DoF, sign an ambitious coach and start to develop a model (JDT, Lambert) - but the owners turn the taps off and there's a clear divide behind the scenes. Fans see an identity and a plan and get behind it, but there's that nagging feeling it'll be short-lived, so what's the point? - we, as supporters, get our heads round that our youth is our "identity", and except that the team might struggle but we'll be watching our "own" play week in and week out, and we can get behind that and support them, but we then sell them off before we have a chance to actually watch them grow in our side, the money goes into general admin, we don't see it reinvested. I get it - but it's still sad to see, it's something else you can't get excited about. - we hire a steady hand in Mowbray, but let a number of transfer windows come to nothing even when the team are riding high, and let a bad situation drag on and fester for too long causing the club to stagnate. - we go from a "solid" if old-fashioned recruitment setup under TM, a network of mates basically, but it worked, seemingly using his connections to sign great loans and gems from the lower leagues, giving the fans trust and excitement in any new signings, to now seemingly scraping the barrel of Europe. And if we do get the basics done, the i's dotted, and get the forms sent off in time, if we do actually sign players, they are literally the bottom of the list - whilst other teams seem to steadily strengthen and sign lads who can out-fight us and who are better at a rough and tumble scrap in the Championship. So now the fans immediately doubt any new signings. When was the last time we got excited about a sub coming on and changing the game? When was the last time you saw a new signing on the bench and couldn't wait to see him get a run out, that roar from the BBE when he comes on the pitch? I've totally forgotten that feeling. The way the ground fell silent and emptied after the Pears calamity on Sunday, that's the feeling I get - it's total apathy, because we just can't see a way out, or a way to turn. There was time in the game to lift the team and a "normal" scenario would see team and fans as one trying to claw back some respect, but because of this gradual dumbing down of the squad, you know what's coming - we don't have the players to perform under pressure. Couple with everything off the pitch, it's like we've been neutered as a fan base. We never come from behind, we never score late goals, this stuff is so telling, it really means something - there's a reason why Utd in the 90s kept scoring late goals, the whole "Fergie time" aspect, the whole place had belief. As someone else put it better than I could, we've got billionaire owners yet need to sell the crown jewels to keep the lights on. We're at a point of complete stagnation. So what's the model under Eustace, I presume treading water from one season to the next? Bringing on youth and selling for a profit I presume, while the mysterious 20m leaves each year. Normally I would give him the benefit of the doubt, based on a normal scenario of him being allowed to sign his own players, just to see if he can pick a player and build a team - but who knows what our transfer policy is now, it's all up in the air. Apologies for the long winded rant.

Tronstadt

I think he didn't want to catch it with his knee and put it in, trying to not bundle if over, but in the end just froze, coupled with the back pass rule in his head. He let one go across the box in the first half too that nearly cost us.

Exactly - no recency bias for me neither. No one mentioning the Ipswich goal he let under him too, almost as bad as the first mistake against SW. The Leeds game was an odd one, he didn't have that much to do - wasn't put under pressure, and the saves were fairly routine. Only got MoM as they couldn't pick a Leeds player, and he was the obvious choice to "explain" the type of game we'd just seen. I hate throwing players under the bus, but no, sorry, it's inexcusable.

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference. The one common factor over the time of TM, JDT and now JE is: 1) the board, lack of ambition from the top down, cost cutting in all areas 2) the slow dumbing down of the playing squad, death by 1000 cuts, poor recruitment (1 player from the last 2 transfer windows in the starting XI) I'm not sure even Warnock or Allardyce would get a tune out of this lot. I totally get the frustration of playing 5 at the back at home, just because it worked at Leeds doesn't mean we should have carried it into a must-win home game, totally different scenarios. The Millwall and Plymouth games were tedious dross too. But I'd love to hear what people would do to get this lot taking the initiative at Ewood, to put teams who are sitting back to the sword - what could we do differently with this set of players? The only thing I can think of is getting the squad to get back to basics when under pressure, get Gallagher running the channels, spread their back 4 wide, stop trying fancy flicks, keep the ball, play it simple for periods just to regain control - I just don't know what the game plan was. Against Stoke at home, they were poor, and trying to attack, leaving space, plus we never went behind. As someone said: 1) we're neither a technical, pacey free flowing side built to play JDT's football, City on the cheap doesn't work - fed up of club's trying to emulate it 2) we're not physical or have the nous to play long ball and have a striker who can hold the ball up - imagine if we had a Kiefer Moore, or prime Danny Graham? We're stuck in between two schools, with League One players, no subs to change it either. It's an impossible job - the Sheff Wed players harried and closed down, they weren't easy on the eye or technically any better but they were physical - where do you get lads like this? Why is our recruitment limited to players like Clinton Mola? That for me is the real issue. It was probably a "sensible" approach (don't shoot me down for saying that) to keep it tight against Wednesday, don't over-commit, remain calm, and pick them off as they get desperate, trying to bring them onto us. We went out all guns blazing against Sunderland and we still lost 3-1 - but both approaches have the same issue: no plan B, and players who can't handle the pressure as it slowly ramps up when we go behind. Is that on the manager or the lack of options from a poor squad? Whatever is it, I'm sure when JE is falling asleep at night, he's thinking to himself "why is someone who's built like Gallagher no able to become a decent striker at this level" just like we all are, he just can't say it. If JE was at another club, and allowed to spend and build a side, do you think he'd be able to pick a player? So many unknowns.

For the first time in 30 years of watching Rovers with my 76 year old Dad, he's suggested not going on Saturday and just going for a walk instead and turning his phone off, it's that bad. He's usually pretty pragmatic and optimistic even at the worst time, always siding with the players, but I think that second half finally did for him. After the match we both just stared into space over our pints. Not felt this low for a very long time, it's a different kind of feeling - think it's the lack of hope or trust in anyone at the club from players to board level, feels like a truly lost cause.

I just can't believe we didn't offer any incentive for the home fans for this game to counterbalance offering the whole Darwen End to one of our biggest relegation rivals - kids for a quid etc - just proof no one in charge at Ewood prioritises the support. For all those saying "the crowd doesn't matter" - where you there at Ewood on Saturday? When you have L1 level players like ours who crack at the merest hint of pressure, at home, trying to force the issue in a game against a team fighting for their lives. They literally sucked the ball in to make it 3-1 FFS! 🤣 (sorry trying to see the light side, it's hard) Comparing 7k away fans to 37k home fans at Leeds away isn't the same thing - it was a magnificent performance but it was a free hit, almost no pressure, no expectation and we grew into the game from a confidence point of view, a backs-against-the-wall performance when no one expects anything is a different kind of approach mentally and tactically compared to trying to force the impetus against a stubborn, determined opponent at home who are willing to scrap. I don't want to go over old ground, but who's decision was it to limit the Dingles for 2000? Did it come from JDT? I can't remember. If it was, and although it didn't effect the result in our favour (although it was a "better" performance), it just shows what happens when someone with a competitive and ambitious spirit is calling the shots.

There's a few that aren't - remember Barnsley fans telling us about Brittain when we signed him? "Not up for a relegation scrap". His tracking back for their 2nd yesterday proves it. Can't do it under pressure.

Nerves are already cranking up for Sunday Are capable of producing two good displays in a row?

Yes there's been a lot made of poor Leeds not getting the penalties they deserved and how our time-wasting sorry superior gamesmanship got in their way of them physically being able to put the ball in the net. I thought Bamford threw himself forward when he realised he'd been outmuscled by Fadz for one of them, bit pathetic if you ask me. Edit: just watched that Bamford attempt to handle the ball in, that's an absolute joke, totally missed it at the time (busy jumping around celebrating). People complaining about our "dark arts" - that's another level. On timewasting, it's strange how no one mentions the fact that, in the first half especially, the amount of rolling over on the floor by their lads was beyond a joke, must have wasted 2 minutes alone - any contact was being milked to death. There was also even a moment in the 2nd half where we won a free kick and the Leeds player who was penalised just ran off with the ball and threw it away. 🤷‍♂️ Also watch any fan clips from the game in the home ends and you can see Leeds fans have an odd sense of how long a second lasts - can barely get to "Mississ-" before the next number comes along 🤣 I've been sick to death of teams doing it to us, and watching Rovers teams of recent years plain refusing to take part in any dark arts as the clock ticks down, hence why we're one of the worst sides for conceding and scoring late goals. I actually thought Ipswich at Ewood were the one of the worst teams to do it in recent memory, no one will mention that due to their status as media darlings.

We almost don't deserve to stay up after a performance like that - they (and I use the term "they" intentionally) are so lucky that other results went our way last night, let off the hook big time, but only for last night. I agree with other posters that arguing over managers and tactics is pointless when the one common denominator over the years is the dumbing down of every aspect of the club from off-field to on. Attitude bleeds down from the top (see Man U for a high profile example), and the resulting failure of the Bowyer side to gain promotion, our relegation to League One, the constant post-January bottle-job act, and now this current shit-show: they all bear the same mark, the same common thread. I'm in envy of clubs like Luton, Stockport etc where every employee is pulling in the same direction.