I’ve seen quite a bit of Burnley this season and they don’t look like they will make the top 2 at all. Serious lack of creativity and goal threat compared to last time. I suspect they will need to take a risk and throw money at it in January to get up, which judged on the summer seems unlikely.

Pears JRC. Hyam. Batth. Beck Trav. Tron Siggy. Ohashi. Cantwell Leonard

On the ground I didn’t really notice anyone jumping out of tackles. I saw a lot of shit control, badly executed passes and wrong decision (and a lot of pissing around at the back which could be solved quickly).

To be fair you are right. We had a net spend of £40million and still got relegated.

I meant relegated in 1999 when Jack was still in charge and, despite all the enthusiasm, vision and control he had, still couldnt stop relegation. Go back and follow the conversation. London Blue was saying that criticism yesterdays performace should be tempered because Sheff United were a level above us because their owners have spent money and we haven't. Basically Venkys have sold anyone decent and just replaced with bargain basement buys (incuding in the board room). Therefore, although you can level some blame at Eustace and the players, it's always going to be difficult to compete against teams on seriously larger budgets. Abbey said that not being able to compete with them was 'nonsense' and "good job uncle Jack had a better vision than you." My point is Uncle Jacks vision was to spend money. But to your last point, yeah Venkys were fully responsible for relegation last time and are fully responsible for our inability to even look like we can mount a sustained challenge to return at any point. Therefore a lot of the blame for yesterday's performance rests with Venkys and not fully down to JE and the players.

Uncle Jacks vision was having vastly different spending power than most. Once we didn’t we got relegated.

I’ve backed them to win the league and still think they will. They can play good football, break quickly and also just toss it in and go direct. They will adapt their style depending on the opposition and how the game is going.

You could argue that we lacked ambition in the game but I didn’t think effort was lacking from the players. They’re just not good enough. Sheff United were just better in every department.

Sheff United were just better than us, both technically and in decision making. You watch some of the basic errors we make (JRC not clearing, Dolan and Ohashi not playing the pass accurately, Gueye running it out of play, half of our team unable to control is properly) and you you rarely saw Sheff United make those errors. Time may show that they are the best team in the league, but they were way infront of us today. However the pissing around and the back, refusal to leave anyone up from corners and lack of any real changes to how we were playing was frustrating.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/makhtar-gueye/transfers/spieler/606849 I hope those fees quoted are in cents and not euros

Don’t know why but I suspect first goal wins in this game.

I was annoyed after all 3 games, but I think after yesterday I absolved Eustace of any blame, which was not the case at Coventry and Plymouth. I felt the setup and the game management was OK, but the players simply lack quality. Gueye and Ohashi stated well but almmost every Rovers fan is now questioning them to some degree. The Weimann signing looked a good experienced head on paper, but ultimately he's been an averge Championship player for average mid-table Championship sides for almost 10 years now. This during the 'best years' of his career. Therefore at 33 what can we realistically expect from him. Even so, his decision making for that chance was poor. He had several options, and gently looping it over the bar was the worst.

Yes. Same fans who said Telalovic was shit when you said he was a work in progress and just needed time. Some opinions people get right. Some opinions people get wrong.

It's hard to pick the best of the early albums. For me I used to say NOTB, but over time that became Piece of Mind and then Seventh Son. In the 90s they went off the boil a bit, but it would have been very difficult to keep that level of consistency. However I think since the reunion there have been great moments. A Matter of Life and Death is just solid front start to finish for me. Probably in my top 5 albums. And the title track from The Book of Souls is also in my top 5 tracks.

He was the best for the style of those first two albums. Iron Maiden and Killers were excellent and very raw sounding. I also love Piece of Mind, Seventh Son, A Matter of Life and Death and many of the Bruce albums. Paul wouldn't have suited those.

Yes. And if I got caught and refused service so be it. And if they stuck a sign up in the pub telling me I wouldn’t get served if I was under age then I wouldn’t be arsed about it.

I just disagree with you here. I know people that have done it (still do) and it's not because they can't afford the full prices. It's because they don't want to pay it. The ones I know still go up and down the country away, and that's not cheap. It's never bothered me they do it, but I also know they run the risk of not getting in and if they get caught being blacklisted by the club. That's the chance they take. It's a club statement aimed clearly trying to stop people doing it going forward by making them aware they are now taking it far more seriously than before.

I don't like the regime as much as anybody, but they are trying to "cheat the system" and "defraud the club". How is that divisive? I've no idea if there were any delays getting into Ewood on Saturday due to checks as I wasn't there, but if there was and that's the only way they can identify those on concession ticket then it does now inconvenience other supporters. I don't know how you want the club to word it. "We caught only 25 people on Saturday. Pretty please stop doing it".

How so? It's just written stern and factual. I fully agree with @Mattyblue and @J*B that the issue is worse that it should be because of unimaginative ticket pricing.

Not really. It's fair do's. Not sure that handing out season-long bans to people that are actually bothered enough to go down (albeit cheaply) is a great move. Now that it's being made widely known that checks are taking place and people are being caught, I'd maybe have an October amnesty and announce bans will come into force for anyone caught from November.

As much as a wanted it ruled out, at the time of the header he clearly is out of the line of vision of the keeper. Silva’s been cute. He’s annoyed the keeper enough (without it being a foul) so that the keeper is not set when Stones heads it, but when Stones does head it Silva has cleared off out of the keepers way.

I missed yesterday’s game and I literally couldn’t give my season ticket away. Nobody was interested.

Once you've played with BBD and Rothwell and seem them get big moves at the end of their contract I suppose you will think something like that should be available to you. He's obviously not had a stellar season like BBD had, but Rothwell was also hit and miss and ended up in the Premier League. I don't think that will happen here, but I feel like a Boro or Sunderland will look at his minutes played, distance covered, retained dribbles and some other random modern stats and move in on a limited fee. Any indication what tribunal fee we would expect?

In his interview after the Ireland game I got the feeling Carsley wasn't all that struck with the media attention. I think he may take the Finland game and then return to the under-21's. I chose watching the darts over watching that on the TV, but I had it on the iPad and it looked awful. Greece clearly deserved that. Hopefully its like Keegan losing to Germany, then we get a proper manager in and go smash Greece in Athens 5-1

Of course he can be criticised for the defeats. Certainly starting with that XI at Plymouth was completely on him. If he feels that defending stoutly most of the game and then nicking wins at Leicester and Leeds is the way to approach all away games then it might be dull as dishwater but he's entitled to try it. If it works no-one would care. But now it has failed badly twice he needs to change that approach.