Blue blood

But imagine if we didn't make that effort. I think the percentage would be even lower. If kids aren't introduced to Rovers early it's less likely to be picked up in later life. Also kids in the ground is a key element but must be supported by other things to get/keep them involved. Not criticising your effort btw - sounds really great way of introducing kids to Rovers.

Restaurants do this. Also if not games how about a free shirt after X number of games (we change each season anyway) or a free pie or drink. On season tickets how about something for people whose circumstances change for a year - say they can't get a season ticket after years of having one because of I'll health or redundancy - as in the year after they can renew at the old price. Have seen a few people have to drop out like this and it could help them get the habit back.

Already answered by others - but much easier to do if fans are already thinking about it, building on feel good factor etc. No they are not. Contrast with cinema, meal out they ain't cheap. Add in all the food, programme, transport etc. And it becomes even more costly. Also for someone on minimum wage or unemployed etc. it is a heck of a lot of money. Without going political food bank useage is on the rise suggesting a ton of people are struggling to get by too. Not saying footy instead of food but maybe shows not everyone can easily afford our tickets. But it puts off last minute and spontaneous decisions to come. It's about reducing barriers, as is the above. The more barriers reduced the less people are out off and the more people come. Same as the above. Football is a social thing - as being on here shows. People are more likely to go with friends and family so if there are more people you can socialise with going you are more likely to go. One case in point in our family is my Dad has gone less since my sister emegrated as opposed to living 10 minutes away. Can't comment. Not true - if food prices contribute to a negative experience and this means people decide not to return then it does affect attendances. It can be a cumulative factor in making people less likely to go. Perhaps the manner in how it was done, regardless of whether it is better? The attitude is as important as the action and the club has been pretty high handed at times with these things. No but would put money on a podcast / fan site increasing club publicity, awareness and strengthening and growing the fanbase. Think a modern day equivalent could do wonders for Rovers. Someone answered they did. Hopefully not again. See point 7 cumulative effect on customer satisfaction and returnees. Not thought about this at all. Has anyone done a survey of fans to see where most fall. You must have X ray vision then! Agreed. I think freebies for kids is a good thing too. But it isn't about increasing attendees but rather cultivating new fans. Probably not. But again it's what kind of experience we are trying to create. Every little helps and hinders. Put it this way if it were a restaurant - admittedly different business- it'd be very easy to clock things that attract people in, but also things that put people off and reduce the ambiance. No one goes to a restaurant for the lighting for example but it can put people off returning. The club needs to be asking how we can make the experience as positive as possible and reduce barriers to people coming as well as what attracts them. Again, we really aren't that fan centric as a club since the cluckers have arrived.

Not at all. There's things the club can do for the now and also things the club can be doing to get the next generation. Dreams has it right that those are the biggest 2 ways to increase attendance in the short term but I agree neither seem forthcoming. Now: free plus 1 tickets for season ticket holders , more deal games e.g. 7 game ticket bundles, a public apology from the Raos and genuine communication (sadly the latter is unlikely too.) The manager being under a bit more scrutiny and looking for more than to plod along would help too especially as this would lead to a genuine push for promotion (not a guarentee but looking like we have a chance) or a new manager aiming for this would also attract fans. Future - school visits, free school tickets , free kits to under 7s , a better social media presence, holiday clubs are just a few possibilities. Both on and off the pitch Rovers are average at best imo.

There is admittedly some good stuff in there (as well as some debatable ones - e.g. all clubs have a family stand) but as to the 3 problems I highlighted, the solutions myself and others have suggested and the low attendances themselves show, there is more the club can be doing. One point to make is that a lot of those initiatives target people at the ground when they are there - there's not loads in there to pull in new fans and get people interested. Getting new, especially kids, interested and getting them to attend is crucial, as well as having a good match day experience. Edit additional thought if the club hadn't treated fans so badly during most of Vs reign of terror then there may also be a bigger fan base. We've lost about 10k since the cluckers turned up which suggests the owners - and club - are far from innocent in our low attendances.

How about free kits for 7 and under? Spoke with a colleague whose son's interest in rugby stems from a kit when they were 3. If we capture fans young we've a better chance of keeping them. 0r how about free plus 1 tickets now and again. One of my mates was a season ticket holder for years but got into it solely because I won a couple of tickets in a radio competition and I invited him along. Without going silly maybe 1 free tixket per season ticket holder - could bring in extra fans. Loads we could be doing.

Agree with the conjunction of point 1 & 3. Teeneagers can take themselves on their own but only if it is a) affordable and b) they already are into football and the club specifically. To me that means affordable prices for kids and adults - especially as primary kids need to be taken so the adult needs to be able to afford it to. Combine that with a massive push to upper primary school - school tickets, lots of appearances at primary school, holiday club/soccer schools - maybe free highlights of Rovers somehow. So perhaps better social media engagement as they get into teenagers to keep more in their sphere. Just a few thoughts thinking out loud but we have to think seriously about it.

We're 11th so have had a decent start. If we had a good start we would be higher, if we had a bad start we'd be lower. Pretty average really - as Sparks says midtable mediocracy all the way under TM. The first 11 looks a bit stronger than last year as father time hasn't caught up with Graham. And bar a couple of horror shows the defence looks more stable. Johnson looks a good addition as does Downing who offers something different. Gally when played up front is a better bet than Samuel or the hapless Bereton so we've improved there too. However it's not a great start as I feel whilst there is improvements we should be doing better. We really shouldn't have a right mid at right back, we would be better if Rothwell played, if players played in their.correct position, the selection tombola didn't come out and £15 mill onwards should see us have a lot more firepower than we do. For comparison the Norwich team that beat City cost £6.5 million... I also felt we played a few teams at a.good time - Fulham, Boro and arguably West Brom and perhaps.could have nabbed a couple more points then. I also feel we've kicked a few problems down the line Vs properly addressing them but that doesn't impact the start to this season. So to me a decent start but could be better. The good news is we can build on it. The good and bad news is that we could still be doing a lot better with doing a few obvious things right and aren't. So it's in our power to get better but I doubt we will.

Agreed. Having all your other 3 injury prone centre backs out and putting Williams there isn't a master stroke, it's desperation. Fortunately it worked. In fact IF the 3 at the back is a regular plan going forward he still hasn't addresses or as we only have 3 centre backs in the squad! Agreed. Although in fairness good use of loan players is to be applauded. The issue is the defence relies too heavily on this. Overall though his recruitment is poor - especially when spending money. Agreed.

Thing Bennett is the best option we have of standing in for Travis or Johnson when injured as that was where he has performed best. Allows a proper rb to play too. Sign a defender, and let Bennett cover midfield more. Appreciate won't happen as Bennett has to start.

Poor attendances to me are down to 3 things: 1) Cost - like it or not we've been in an age of austerity and that makes a difference. There's a reason shops like Aldi are growing, money generally is tight. Without wanting to defame Blackburn or the north west in general, I think it's fair to say Blackburn isn't the most affluent of areas, and relatively speaking the same for the north west. Whilst I'm not sure it's the sole or even primary factor, it does make a difference both practically and psychologically having higher prices than previously. 2) Winning / exciting football - probably in that order. We saw how when we got promoted for the final game we got a capacity crowd pretty much. Plus attendances in League 1 were better (I think). Why, in part because winning football tends to attract people, and nudge those on the fence into coming. Whilst there's no guarantees in football, if you think there's a better likelihood of you winning, it is a more attractive day out. This probably affects most people from full out bandwagon followers (can't say glory hunters at Rovers any more) to casual fans, all the way through to regular fans who don't have season tickets. (Again not trying to say all these fans are fickle, glory hunters etc. but that winning football influences people's eagerness to go.) Given we look set for another season of mid table nothingness, on top of a poor second half of last season, added in the attractiveness of the championship is much less than seeing the stars of the premier league, and it all amounts to less motivation to go. I think we're treading water with TM, and I reckon that' it's hard to motivate people to come for what looks to be another season of mid table slog. 3) Fewer new fans coming through. I often share a story from teaching a footy mad class in Carlisle - over a decade ago now - where they all loved footy but all supported manure or liverpool, over their local team. With the saturation of seeing the big clubs very easily, with only the big clubs winning things, with all our media from match of the day through to shoot magazines glorifying only the top 6 and top La Liga teams, is it any wonder that kids decide to support these teams instead. In my opinion the imbalance of football with the power towards only a few big top clubs with a chance of winning anything is going to kill football, with most League 1 & 2 teams, and probably a few championship teams, not having a fan base left within the next 50, certainly 100 years. Digression aside, I'd say Rovers like most other clubs, probably have less fans coming through as the big 6 hoover them up. To me that's a pretty bleak picture, but also one Rovers can actively combat on 3 points. Cost could be adjusted, with the many excellent and different suggestions people have made being a part of it. Winning football, a better manager could be instilled giving a sense of optimism (the most unlikely of the 3.) And young fans could be addressed in a whole host of ways from getting them to the ground - school tickets, cheap kid tickets, through to community work. In many ways the latter is a losing battle for many fans, but if we can stem the tide of children leaving for the big 6, hopefully we can survive long enough for the big 6 to bog off to a European league or better yet implode. As it is, without action on any of these 3 points, and I would suggest in co-ordination, then attendances won't get better.

After a week of feeling very confident about the win, some odd formation and team selection made me begin to worry. Fortunately our quality shone through and we got a comfortable win. It's hard to complain after a win, a clean sheet, and being comfortable in doing so (making a number of other chances) and yet there's still a lot troubling me from the selection of certain players and non-selection of others, through to the constantly playing players out of position - the Dack-Gally-Armstrong nightmare being the worst of it. I guess you could say it's a kind of "and yet" feeling: we won and yet I feel we could be doing so much better with the correct players in their favoured positions. As it is, a nice win, 3 points and a clean sheet, lots of chances, and a nice confirmation that we are definitely better than the weaker teams in the division - a hell of a confidence boost - make for a happy Saturday evening. there's reason to be pleased all round and credit to the manager and the players. I just can't shake that nagging feeling at the back of my mind though, that with a few obvious moves, we could be doing even better.

I'd hardly call a formation you don't start with ever one that is a regular plan. I'm also not convinced we've been signing players for that system - i.e. wing backs, (although maybe Bennett is less bad there?) or a decent number of centre backs, and signings like Downing a wide midfielder, go against a 5-3-2 too. Not even convinced that someone in the hole works as well with only 3 midfielders vs 4 around him in our usual formation. We've hardly played it in any of the other seasons either - the very, very few times we have ending badly. . Not sure this is the thread to debate it in but think it's kind to say this is a regular formation of TM's

Dack into midfield then?? Look a bit light in the midfield.

Phases, come on mate, that's not a formation you use, that's a reactionary change. The odd "phase" here and there is hardly a tried and trusted formation. As for Downing, that could be a fair whack of running about for him, and with Buckley as well in there, that's a lot of dirty work left to do too. Either that or Johnson is a very busy boy. It may well be a surprising masterstroke but I don't think anyone can say it is not unusual for us or risky.

Not really. Where is Downing in a 5-3-2 Also no Travis - one of our best players this season seems a very odd decision. Especially against the battling qualities of Millwall. Also given that we don't play 5-3-2 it seems foolish to give the opposition an advantage by playing a formation we aren't familiar with.

Thing Hughes may be past his sell by date now with more losses than successes of late, grateful as I am for the brilliant job he did for us. That said he did best with teams with promise and potential but not big clubs or expectations, like us and Fulham in the Prem.

Sadly it isn't well placed at all. Samuel, Gally, Bereton, all don't seem to be good value for money. Only Armstrong, who hasn't been amazing, has come anywhere near value for money, much less good business.

Think I'm pretty confident of this one - regardless of screw ups in team selection and our potential issues at both ends of the pitch. (That's the fun with Rovers you never know if they'll have a shocker or a blinder and are equally capable of either...) We've done ok against the weakest teams in this division so far this season and last and Millwall fall into that category. And despite a tombola and square pegs in round holes approach, we have some rather talented pegs who can cause problems in spite of ant tactical hindrances. Watching the game last season Vs Millwall, they should have been out of sight in the first half and us likewise in reverse in the second so we are certainly capable of winning the game. All of which suggests to me a narrow, harder than it should be, win. There's a lot of doom and gloom over TM and the team but a big part of that is tbat we're decent and could push on if kept things simple rather than being a weak team. All of which adds up to a narrow win as our consistently inconsistent season continues.

My bad. Am sure you mentioned him a fair whack - possibly negatively instead. or to get the best out of what he has? There'll be some decent players in that squad. No doubt will want to bring his own players in too but no club can afford to completely start again. A good manager can turn some players form around and get them working well in a system.

My mistake. Am sure he mentioned him a fair amount though. Perhaps it was all negative then...

As explained above this is a tad misleading. A huge number of our shorter passes are dithering along the back line.

This first 11. It's pretty stronf. Guarenteed it won't happen though.

The problem with statistics is they don't tell the full picture. Namely we shunt it about the back 4, and defensive mid occasionally, for half a dozen passes before seeing no openings and wellying it forward. Now the stats will say only one of those passes is long, which is technically true, but stylistically it's utterly long ball as the other 5-6 passes do nothing.

Fairly confident Chaddy was championing Hurst. Still remember when I saw us Vs Hudds in the last days of Bowyer. We both sacked our manager around the same time. Under Wagner Hudds rocketed up the table getting promoted the year after whilst we plodded around before crashing to relegation under Coyle. Given we were at the same situation back then it shows what a huge difference the right manager can make - hence why I bring it up. Huddersfield and Norwich's continental appointments has really benefitted them, Sheff Utd imo would be nowhere near the Prem if not for their canny manager and look at the difference for Villa that Smith made. Whether or not Cowley is right a bold managerial appointment can bring a club on leaps and bounds and we probably shouldn't be sneering at a club for trying to exploit this.