Out of my own curiosity, our FA/EFL Cup home attendances since 2016: 2016-17 - EFL Cup: 3,448 for 2nd Rd vs Morecambe. FA Cup: 9,237 for 4th Rd vs Blackpool, 23,130 for 5th Rd vs Man Utd 2017-18 - EFL Cup: 16,313 for 2nd Rd vs Burnley. FA Cup: 3,710 for 1st Rd vs Barnet, 4,472 for 2nd Rd vs Crewe, 6,777 for 3rd Rd vs Hull 2018-19 - EFL Cup: 5,211 for 2nd Rd vs Lincoln. FA Cup: 14,228 for 3rd Rd replay vs Newcastle 2019-20 - EFL Cup: 5,215 for 1st Rd vs Oldham 2020-21 - behind closed doors (Covid...) 2021-22 - EFL Cup: 5,283 for 1st Rd vs Morecambe 2022-23 - EFL Cup: 6,844 for 1st Rd vs Hartlepool So, yeah, big turnout for a 5th Round FA Cup game against Man Utd, and okay turnouts vs Burnley, Newcastle, Blackpool at a stretch. But otherwise struggle to get more than 6k for such games... Would have hoped that a bit of a Cup run could spark above-average interest, but weather/poor marketing/derby losses/Nottingham Forest not being particularly exciting have scuppered that. I'll guess we get to 8k in the end...

Blackpool already sold him on to Scunthorpe in January, so if we got anything additional it would've been then (I doubt it was anything material!) Wasn't the rumour that we get a decent 6-figure fee for him when we sold him to Blackpool (I recall reading £500k, which sounded high to me!)? He ultimately turned into a decent profit turn for us after being picked off the scrap heap from Aberdeen...

😞 (proud of those boys regardless)

Yeah, my understanding is matchday revenue is split 45/45 (with the remaining 10% going into the prize fund, I think) Some back-of-the-envelope math (assuming an average ticket price of £18; the £10 tickets were only the corners of the upper level) suggests the 40,534 attending the West Ham game netted us ~£325k. Nothing major, but that alone is maybe 8-10% of our typical annual matchday revenue... Our first mini Cup run in a while is a nice, minor boost to the coffers... Nottingham at home on a Tuesday night in December may not be as lucrative!

FWIW, I was there and thought he was pretty good last night (heck, the whole team was quite good as a unit). Skimming through the game thread, seems there were a couple negative comments after West Ham's first goal, but having now seen the replay of the West Ham goal, I think it's harsh to judge what was more of an unlucky bounce (Edun was similarly a bit unlucky on the second one, albeit he does appear to lose his man for a second). In the flesh, my first reaction was Mola was too soft, but looks like a foul by Antonio on the replay too!

Ah, I'm actually a London-based Canadian, so it was just a quick Overground trip for me tonight! (A great credit to those who did travel down! Some great noise. Sadly got my ticket too late to sit in the away end, so had to keep my pen celebrations relatively muted among some West Ham fans!)

Ah, well that was a fun one 🙂 Generally quite a good effort/performance from everyone. Just before the equaliser, my friend (a neutral) commented, "huh, I wonder why they're not trying to get it to Brereton more...". Classic cut in and finish from him! That backline had me nervous throughout, but West Ham's goals were ultimately the result of a couple lucky breaks (Buckley deserves some stick for the one goal - I'd have to see the replay - but otherwise I thought he was pretty good tonight). Edun had a couple awkward moments defending the ball in the air, but was otherwise excellent. JRC definitely struggled a few times defensively, but also played a few great balls. Mola was good, but unsurprisingly tired. Carter... not sure he'll quite make it, but he did well in the end. Can't believe Markanday couldn't finish either of those chances, and he went absent a few times. Showed he can handle the ball well, but I worry about his overall speed. Kinda like how Dolan (who was good tonight) has poor straight-line speed but can make up for it with his short bursts. Dack struggled a bit when we were chasing West Ham, but also showed his class quite a few times in midfield. West Ham... seemed to know how to generate a lot of corners but not much else. Pears seems to be an okay shot stopper, but an adventure with crosses. Plus some excellent pens!

We were also 2nd place for a period last year with Buckley having started almost every game, so... Buckley has plenty of time to sort it out. Let's just be thankful that Morton's turning into a fine replacement for the interim. It's a tricky thing to track, but curious that I can't seem to find any 'man games lost' tracker for the Premier League (let alone Championship). There's some attempts at tracking such a thing for the NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.

Well, I'll be there. Hoping to see some good signs from Buckley and some class from Dack, and a good runout for other younger players. As a random aside, this tie may actually be a decent revenue bonus. My understanding is away sides get 45% of gate receipts for cup games. West Ham seem to manage decent turnouts whatever the opponent in recent cup games at London Stadium (pandemic aside!): West Brom 59k, Man City 60k and 57k, Leeds 54k, Birmingham 54k, Macclesfield 25k, Tottenham 50k, Bolton 35k, Shrewsbury 40k, Accrington Stanley 40k, Chelsea 46k (??)... Assuming we'll be a slightly bigger draw than Macclesfield, let's conservatively (🙃) assume an attendance of 35k and an average ticket price of £18 (only the upper bowl corners are priced at £10). That works out to about 285k of revenue? So, our first big-ish cup draw since Newcastle in the 2018-19 FA Cup (Newcastle EFL Cup in 2020 being closed doors...). Break out the bubbly. (And to think winning the EFL Cup only gets you £100k!)

And so may end my mild fondness for Southampton...

Pike is injured according to Sharpe:

Oh, it was just a quick anecdote that Craig Short was demanding more from Rhodes one half-time and Leon Best apparently decided to stand up for Rhodes for some reason and he and Short almost came to blows. Spurr's comment was that it was clear there were some egos in the dressing room relative to playing with Doncaster.

Ha, Alex Marrow's name comes up again in the Spurr interview. Sounds like him and Marshall were a real terror. I bet Bowyer brought him in remembering him as a big, hard-working kid from his Rovers Academy days, or whatever, but he unwittingly brought in an absolute psycho haha Interesting to hear Leon Best of all people apparently standing up to Short to defend Rhodes in the dressing room haha... Those ~2012-14 squad must have been a basketcase to deal with. Have to give Bowyer some credit for righting that ship, albeit pretty much every player seems to agree that those teams should also have accomplished more...

He's bound to have some frustrating games as his kind of 'loopy' style can look odd, and frustrating when he loses the ball, but Hedges is gradually turning into one of my favourite players to watch. Love his creativity. Actually kind of remarkable that Travis has never been sent off for a second yellow in his career, and only got a straight red that time he first broke into the squad back in L1. I can't recall if he's ever missed a game for too many yellows, but he generally rides that line perfectly. Rest easy 🙂

I know it's not something that counts for much, but I also get the impression that Pears is quite popular in the dressing room. The players were ecstatic for him when he filled in well last year and seems quite social on the sidelines/after games. Not a bad quality for a backup keeper. Obviously can't defend that one Wigan performance and he doesn't have the talent to be a 1st choice keeper, but I think he's deputised fine when called upon. Hopefully Eastham and/or Hilton can get some decent loans, while let Pears sit on the bench/fill in for Cup games...

Random (overly wordy) thoughts: - Been funny to read fans try to either under- or overplay how much we've spent so far. Usually we'd hope for the former numbers, yet worries about how much Venky's is willing to spend (/we can spend) makes us hope for the latter too... Across the various reports, it seems clear to me that the respective ranges are £900k-£1.5m for Brittain, £1.5-2.5m for Szmodics, and £1.5-2.5m for Hyam, with the higher figures accounting for installments, add-ons, bonuses, etc. So, let's all agree that we've at least committed to spending £3.9m so far, and that figure is likely to rise to £6.5m 🙂 - Even after signing Hyam, Phillips' emergence, and Wharton/Carter returning from injury, I liked the idea of SvDB as cover for both CB (enabling a back 3) and RB. Without Brittain, we're stuck with either Buckley deputising (I think we'd all prefer that he figure his shit out at CM) or JRC, who sadly isn't up for it (he's still signed until 2024, so a year on loan could be a good idea to get his feet under him after so many injury layoffs). So, still hoping we bring in cover for RB/RWB, and if they're an okay emergency CB too, that could allow another L1 loan for Carter. Could be a case where a loan is sensible. - Hirst: shouldn't be too harsh on his failures as a sub for a shit Rotherham side (only had 662 min). However, could also argue he should've done better to force himself into that starting lineup. 13 goals (+ 2 Cup goals) in L1 for Portsmouth (where he was also often only sub: 27 starts + 13 sub), plus U21s pedigree, suggests there's something there. So, an interesting option, but it depends on if he's brought in as young depth up front (yay) or part of 'replacing' BBD (boo) - With JDT signaling that A. Wharton is (deservedly) sticking around, I suspect a loan move will be lined up for Garrett? I like what I've seen from Morton so far. Probably time to unload Butterworth in any way we can. Also, hopefully a good loan can be found for Hilton, who intrigues me given his size and apparently doing pretty well at Hamilton last year.

Haha, excuse my mixing of North American and UK slang! (I have Scottish ancestry myself!)

Nonsense. Plenty good coaches/managers who didn't play at a high level. Most athletes are just dumb jocks. I've brought this up a few times, so forgive me for repeating myself, but for what it's worth, Dean Henderson has also randomly touted Benson's qualities as a coach. There just might be something to him (and it's ultimately pretty hard for any of us to say...)

Not that he'd count as a 'senior' CB, but to add, it's a real shame that Sam Barnes went down with a serious injury too... especially after apparently catching JDT's eye in preseason.

This one too haha:

Gametime guarantees for loans is a fair concern. It'll depend on the player/club, but I don't see any recent evidence of us getting burned being forced to play a loan (it's of course possible there have been unreported financial penalties). Looking back: 18-19: Palmer was in-and-out of the lineup before being returned in January. Reed a deserving regular starter. 19-20: Adarabioyo a deserving regular starter. Walton less-so, but it wasn't as if Leutwiler was going to usurp him. Cunningham injured. 20-21: Elliott a deserving regular (although he was dropped to the bench a number of times when his form trailed off). Trybull was in-and-out of the lineup. Doubt there was any such clause for Douglas. Clearly weren't restricted in benching Branthewaite when he wasn't good enough. I recall a couple odd subs for THB, but he was also probably the best CB we could manage after Ayala and Wharton broke down. 21-22: JPvH a deserving starter. Poveda was left on the bench plenty before he got injured (even if we did get burned on the wage commitment there). Khadra also dealt with injuries, but was only a semi-regular starter and was left on the bench a few times. Clarkson sent back in January after barely playing. Zeefuik injured/a view to buy. Giles was dropped. 22-23: Early days for Morton, but he was only a late sub in his first game. Probably similar deal to Clarkson. So, the 'automatic starter' loans we've had in the past have been Reed, Adarabaiyo, Walton, Elliott (to an extent), THB, and JPvH. I don't see much to complain about from that group. Sepp van den Berg may be a different case, particularly if we're competing for his loan, but he's a proven Championship player and there will likely be plenty of opportunities at CB here, so I wouldn't get hung up on it.

Obviously only a high-level view, but thought I'd look at Elliott, Clarkson, and Morton's relative game experience (including how often they made the bench, which is a pedigree indicator, to some extent...) at the time of their Rovers loans: Elliott Age: 17/18. PL: 2 subs, 24 mins, 15 subs benches. Cups: 7 starts, 1 sub, 576 mins. Cups (u21s): 1 start, 1 sub, 110 mins. CL: nil. Clarkson Age: 19/20. PL: 3 subs benches. Cups: 1 start, 1 sub, 3 subs benches, 103 mins. Cups (u21s): 3 starts, 270 mins. CL: 1 start, 4 subs benches, 90 mins. Morton Age: 19/20. PL: 1 start, 1 sub, 7 subs benches, 66 mins. Cups: 3 starts, 2 subs, 3 subs benches, 299 mins. Cups (u21s): 2 starts, 180 mins. CL: 2 starts, 1 subs bench, 180 mins. So, by this (very broad!) view, Morton is a bit further along than Clarkson was (while Elliott was clearly a step above simply because of his age!)

Brittain had a few mishandled (misfootled?) balls along the touchline, but overall a solid game. Don't recall him being challenged too much defensively, but he did make at least one key clearance. I suspect his defensive game may be the biggest question going forward, especially in a back 4. What I found most exciting was it's clear his dribble stats aren't a mirage as he managed to skin QPR defenders a few times, and consistently showed a willingness to do so. I can't remember the exact timing, but my favourite was in the 2nd half where he was standing still in QPR's corner against 2 QPR defenders, maybe supported by Bucko. Seemed like a dead situation, but he then made one sudden move and managed to squirm his way past both defenders. It actually came to nothing as the ball ended up wriggling over the goal line, so didn't get much attention, but I remember thinking 'where the hell did he pull that from?' edit: Understand the mixed reviews of Hedges as he definitely lost the ball a few too many times and struggled to be the link with the midfield. However, I really like that he clearly has some talent in his locker and looks to have a real creative flair, making lots of clever flicks. Also curious to see him let loose on that left foot... not sold yet, but I'm more optimistic after his last few games last season and yesterday (and he was ultimately a pretty cheap transfer if he doesn't work out).

I suspect this is what Broughton had in mind when he specifically praised Barnsley's professionalism after the Brittain deal...

It's a minor typo, but Sweden did recently switch to a curry-based currency system. (Feel free to add an equally stupid curry-currency wordplay joke. I also understand if I am banned.)