Your problem is it appears that there are three teams breaking away at the top of the league. Early season it looked like just you and Wrexham, but Wycombe have really got on a roll. One of you will miss out, and like Leeds last year, being clearly third best will be no guarantee of play off success. Normally id probably want the underdogs to go up and the bigger clubs to miss out, but in this case I actually want the Wrexham hype machine to come unstuck.

The only major attribute of Hedges is discipline. He holds the team shape and does his defensive duties. Im presuming he’s on a slightly above-average salary in this squad. If we were financially OK then I’d understand having him as a squad filler. But as we need every penny to be competitive on salaries I’d rather fill that role with academy or development players, and use the cash to get people in who can improve the first 11. I’ll caveat that with the fact Beck is now filling the ‘disciplined’ wide man role, and he’s not here next year so we will be back to being light in that position.

Baath and Hyam have been outstanding recently. Hyam has rediscovered hi first season form, and Baath has massively exceeded expectations. But I do worry about them having to keep playing 90 minutes of every game, especially with 5 games in 14 days coming up. At some point I think mcFadz is going to have to step in, which would be a worry.

Waggot points out that our adult season tickets are more expensive than other local club but our concessions are cheaper than others. And that we now sell more concessions than adults. It's almost as if the two points are linked !

Hmm. Ward came in during January in the season we went down and scored 5 goals in 17 starts against the likes of Chelsea, Villa, Everton. He then scored 7 against championship opposition in a full season. Whereas Chris Brown couldn’t score against Championship defences full stop. In the battle of “who was shitter”, Brown take this hands down before you even look at the stats from other clubs.

Once he gives the free kick, how he doesn’t send Whiteman off is baffling.

Looking forward to it providing the tills and the drainage are working 👍

😀 I take the point. There are way too many songs with slow drawn-out intros. The short, sharp "radio-friendly" songs have largely gone. The person that likes the The Trooper and Run to the Hills but doesn't appreciate Revelations or Seventh Son isn't going to be too fond of the 21st century albums. However there's still tons of great stuff on the later albums. Saxon have always been good and are also in a bit of a renaissance period. I think the last two albums have been very strong, and they were great at King Georges Hall a few years back. I've never really got into Priest at all. I must be missing something.

The problem with Maiden is many people got turned off with the quality of No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark and the Dickinson exit in the 90s. Therefore they have no appreciation of how good the 21st century renaissance was, albeit with a slightly more drawn-out proggy sound.

Nixon is also good at spouting shit on behalf of his mates. If he is close to Park (hence the supposed improved information this summer) then he’ll just be doing his best to paint his mate in a good light. Not saying it’s not true. I just don’t trust the source.

Nicko McBrain retired as drummer from Maiden this weekend after 40 years, playing his last gig in Brazil. He suffered a minor stroke back in January. He was still able to tour this summer onwards, but admitted he had to adapt and simplify some of the more complicated numbers. At 72 years old, he’s a bit older than the rest of the band so it looks like he’s gone out on his own terms. Bruce made a point that he has only retired from ‘live’ performances, so will possibly still feature on future album releases. Simon Dawson takes over, drummer from Steve Harris ‘other’ band British Lion.

Everyone being well, hopefully back to the team which started against Leeds for this one.

Not when we’re involved. Last time we went down we had 52 points Had we lost at Leicester last season we’d have gone down with 50.

Not quite what I meant but yeah. I’ve reworded it 👍

It feels that way but surprisingly it’s not actually true. This season after 19 games we have scored 22 goals. 4 of those goals are from our main striker (Yuki). 11 other players have scored a combined total of 18 goals Last season after 19 games we had scored 32 goals. 16 of those goals were from Sammy. 11 other players scored a combined total of 16 goals. However it was from now on when we hit the shocking run that led to JDT’s demise when only Szmodics could score.

And Wahlstedt, Telalovic, Mola etc, etc weren’t good enough, who people were right about. It’s about opinions. You’re not going to get everyone coming on here saying everyone plays well. But if someone genuinely thinks that someone had a bad game, or is a bad player, there’s no harm in them stating that on here. If you were giving them shit on the ground it’s a different story. However some people think that giving the opinion Big Mac looked fairly poor again when he came on is some kind of cardinal sin which will undermine all of our progress.

In my best Darth Vader voice, “I find your lack of full stops disturbing.”

Yep. The more you watch him, the more you think “what’s the catch?”

12 points from 12 has certainly made it the most wonderful time of the year (so far) Beck was outstanding again.

https://www.theposh.com/news/club-disappointed-scheduling-fa-cup-third-round-tie Peterborough statement on their big trip to Goodison being moved to Thursday night.

Cesc Fabregas says “That’s not Barcelona football”.

So in these minutes Rovers:- - admit Rudy was treating us as fools regarding us not spending money cos we only receive fees in instalments - Admit 65% of season ticket holder have to pay a higher price than other local sides (Preston) - Complain about the average home fan ticket yield for a game which was moved to 12.30pm kick off and which the tv deal they agreed already financially compensates them for this. - Says lower prices don’t significantly increase sales, despite the efforts of the fans takeover game (and certain other Saturday games previously) to the contrary. - Say ticket office staff doing ticket office things they have had to do for years is an “extra workload”.

As mentioned, nightlife is ‘limited’ locally. If you want a decent night out and rarely or never go to Manchester then I’d stop there Friday night. Even if the trains happen to go on strike you’ll get an Uber for about £45. If you are concerned about it and just want a few pints in different places that are OK but nowhere special then stay at the M65 J4 Premier Inn or one of the Darwen hotels and go into Darwen. Under no circumstances try and go into Blackburn centre. It’s rancid.

I work with a Stanley fan who has attended Ewood with me for some of the League / FA Cup games in the past. (Generally a football fan who saw the appeal of cheap tickets against a good club) If it had been at the Crown Ground I'd have probably gone with him to this with Rovers being away. But I CBA travelling to Liverpool.

Also we’re are now back to having a great view from the camera being on the JW stand and the Blackburn End to the left. This still confuses the hell out of me when I watch a game now.