'A must win game'

So what happens if we don't win?

Nothing, we just say that Plymouth is then a must win and on it goes.

I know which side between Rovers and Millwall I'd put my money on in a relegation scrap.

12 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

The 12th of March is looming ever closer. Our only hope is that the judge will deny the owners being allowed to send over funds and we eventually end up for sale or in administration.

Not sure if this is a real possibility but hopefully they cite the Wharton sale as evidence that the club can generate the necessary funds and tell venkys to fuck off.

We can but hope.

I think sensible people would long ago have taken proactive steps to get rid of the club knowing the situation they were facing. The fact they have done nothing but force us to sell more assets tells us they really don't give a stuff about the best future for the club or doing anything to mitigate the damage to it, it's more important they keep hold for no purpose and drag the club into the gutter whilst doing so.

25 minutes ago, broadsword said:

Yeah, I'm no Eustace fan especially, but the rot set in ages ago. Does anyone else feel like the club is on the verge of collapse? It's just got that feel to it.

 

The court case, the massive debt, the position in the table, the players being sold, the debt level. The lack of communication from the owners.

Well he lucky to about relegation this year. If we do, then I can't see us surviving next year unless there's big changes.

It just feels like the club is slowly dying

It's been slowly dying for years, left to rot and wither. What we have now is the later stages of the decay.

2 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Last time it seemed to be a no no being in League 1 for some reason. The owners seemed quite happy to carry on paying the wages of high earners like Mulgrew Dack and Graham to facilitate a swift return to the Championship.

Even sanctioned the purchase of Armstrong in January.

This time? I'm not so sure. Don't see us bouncing back for some time should the worst come to the worst.

 

l

Mowbray, for all his faults, crucially agreed to jump on a plane to India within a few weeks of the season ended and had a meeting with Madame.

The rest is history. Once he got that personal link to them and talked the talk they loved him and agreed to his requests. 

That is why he got relatively healthy financial backing during his time in charge where others didn't. It is also why he was unsackable and left alone to run his contract down.

You never know, maybe Eustace will be invited over in May where JDT wasn't but I doubt it, so instead we just have the underlings cutting costs and ticking their target boxes.

3 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

Awful set of results for a second weekend running. We're just not even getting close to getting a win.

I fully expect us to be relegated from here. 

When QPR are beating top of the league opposition, you just know you are doomed. 

2 wins in 17 and the cause of that set of results is what will doom us, not QPR winning at Leicester.

If you don't get to 50 points you have no right to expect survival. If you get there and still go down, as we did last time, then you can claim an element of misfortune.

I'd be more worried about the situation if I had any ounce of belief in things changing and getting better once this season was out of the way.

But it isn't, at best next season will be another relegation battle. And it will keep on being until we finally go down. 

At best the Indian restrictions get lifted and we go back to business as usual. Which still means budget cuts, excuses, incompetence and sales of best players. None of those things are created by the Indian funding restrctions, they were happening before.

So I'm not worrying, relegation is inevitable, and dare I say totally deserved. It is only a question of when and what happens after that we need bother with. 

Fleck will have been a deadline day panic after selling Adam and realising that offloading Travis was insane.

So they'll have looked around for easy deals to do, in this case a bloke never playing at Sheffield Utd and out of contract soon, ticks a lot of boxes. Happy to come here until the summer to try and get game time and match fit, no obligations beyond that, effectively a loan which is the way they like it here.

Everyone happy. Sheff Utd get rid of a wage and place in the squad allowing them to put money elsewhere. He gets an audition here and much better prospects of game time and we appear to plug a self inflicted hole in the squad until the summer.

Suspect we aren't paying his full wage, probably he's done a deal with Sheffield to go early. Takes a lump sum pay off and we pay him the shortfall.

I use turnstiles L and arrived at 7:30pm just as they announced kick off had been delayed. It was chaos and no way would all the home fans have got through the turnstiles in time for 7:45pm.

To make matters worse one of the three turnstiles was closed, but then bizarrely opened at about 7:50pm which of course allowed people to get in much more quickly.

I just think the ground looks awful looking at the BBE and having the upper tier shut. 

Visually it would look so much better if open, even with only 500-1000 up there at least it would appear better.

Their incredibly limited efforts at putting people up there via the free tickets to a few schools in Blackburn appear to have ended and they now get put downstairs in the family stand.

With cutback Steve and vile Venkys going nowhere I wonder how long it will be before that area is opened to general admission fans.

Just now, frosty said:

I wondered the same when I saw a list of our highest attendances post-relegation. The Liverpool QF replay in 2015 and Oxford game in 2018 were both 'sold out' I'm quite sure, yet the attendances were about 28,400 for Liverpool and 27,600 for Oxford.

Neither were sellouts. Oxford only filled about half the DE upper so over 1500 empty up there and then the lower tier wasn't completely full, nor were the top corners of the BBE.

For some reason we never fill the full capacity of the DE these days whereas back in the 90s I'm sure they got an extra 300-400 in there. 

Against Newcastle there were chunks of seats in the bottom corners empty.

I don't understand where 2000 empty seats were in the Jack Walker stand. From the seat planner and TV there were perhaps a couple of hundred in the bottom corner of the family stand and upper top corner, then the small block nearest the Darwen End. That is 14 rows of about 10-12 seats, maybe 150 total. So unless there were 1500 empty seats in the directors box I'd be surprised with that.

BBE lower was virtually full. A sprinkling of single seats here and there, can't imagine any less than 4900 in there.

The number announced was about 2000 short of what I'd expected.

But yeah, sums up the operation when with a 2/3 full ground they can't cope and have to delay kick off.

10 minutes ago, Crimpshrine said:

Any port in a storm.

The money is running out. Court hearing two weeks today if it isn't postponed again. HMRC bill due.

I can think of a quick guaranteed way to save £6,000 a week and it involves getting rid of the CEO.

Then however much the shadow man is on as well.

You know you are small time when you are doing one-off sleeve sponsors for televised cup games.

Sort of thing Maidstone would do when they unexpectedly got through and put on TV in the next round.

We are two years away from a World Cup. UEFA has 16 qualification slots and Sweden have a full qualification campaign to prepare for starting in a year's time.

Most managers would love a crack at qualifying for and going to manage at a World Cup.

He'll get a fair crack of the whip and they'll be focused on getting there.

Beats wasting his career away here.

6 minutes ago, NeilInBristol said:

We were so fortunate to have him for the few months we did to show us what the possibilities are. Forever grateful. Loved the run we went on at the top end of the table end of 2022. Gave us so much hope. 

Our descent into owner created oblivion will soon be complete, if not this season then next. That is a certainty unless they leave or change track.

When we are slumming it in League One with 5000 turning up the days of JDT will seem like distant glory days.

Brought to a rapid end purely by owners and underlings who have no ambition or desire to achieve anything.

Such a shame and even more so that some idiots can't see it for what it really is.

8 hours ago, 1874 said:

W.B.A hardly debt ridden received 50M parachute payment at end of last season, with a final 20M due this year if they fail to win promotion

https://www.thebaggies.news/news/seven-figure-debt-laid-bare-as-west-brom-warned-of-extreme-financial-problems/

4 hours ago, NeilInBristol said:

 

"The 26-year-old, with just shy of 200 league appearances for the club, "

Maybe if he played that 200th game he was due a bonus?

Very well spotted. Hadn't worked that one out myself but makes sense.

It would be no surprise at all if he was due a bonus or payment for reaching 200 Rovers appearances and knowing the way we like to operate with 'add ons' suspect it was a hefty payment.

Waggott and the Indians will be all over such things and I've no doubt would instruct the manager and staff not to play a player due to this.

Scum.

Their away form isn't impressive of late. Their only league away wins this season have been:

2-1 at Hull

2-1 at Bristol City

3-2 at Cardiff

4-0 at Huddersfield

That's it.

Their win at Hull was via an 88th minute winner and at Bristol via a 95th minute winner. At Cardiff they scored twice in the last 8 minutes to turn it around.

Point being their away record isn't particularly good and even when they've won they've tended to be narrow and last gasp affairs.

Draws at QPR, Ipswich, Coventry, Southampton

Losses at Leeds, Millwall, West Brom, Watford, Sunderland, Swansea, Plymouth and Rotherham.

We need a win and I'm not really taking the 'juggernaught rolling into town that poor little Rovers will struggle to compete with' mantra that no doubt many will be offering up.

9 minutes ago, roverblue said:

I don’t know who can get the message through to Waggot and co but they are looking at a total decimation of the season ticket holder base this summer.

The performances on the field and the clown show off it have pushed me and plenty others away for next season.

No matter how good an earl my bird offer goes out there is no way I’m even considering getting one until it’s clear there will be some reinvestment in the squad.

I doubt Waggott or anyone else down there has even given it a seconds thought.

It will be kicked down the road until the season is out of the way and they can get India to sign off on the pricing.

Forget about early birds, promotions, price reductions or anything outside the box. It will be £400 a head again with at best a £20 discount if you buy quickly before the transfer window unfolds.

It will be marketed as a 'new era' with Eustace's photo next to it. Yes they are that idiotic.

Total decimation of numbers incoming and totally deserved.

Bloody hell, 4 wins in 12 is hardly crisis time, we'd have sacked Kean, Mowbray and JDT about 25 times between them if that was the case.

It seems to me that Beale is quite an unlikeable character. He's had 3 jobs in just over 18 months and all have ended quite quickly with the fans at QPR, Rangers and Sunderland not keen at all.

They're giving the job to Mike Dodds until the summer, be interesting if JDT does rock up there or elsewhere in the Championship after I was assured he was lined up for the Sweden job and maneouvured his way out of Ewood to get that job.

I hope we focus on putting out our best XI to try and win this one rather than resting people with one eye on the Norwich game. Beating Cardiff is the priority, none of this 'positive result' nonsense, just need the 3 points at a struggling side. Having said that a draw would at least keep us going and adding to the tally with our game in hand.

We've had it before where previous managers have left people out for the Saturday and then we've ended up not winning either.

I always worry about these sort of games. On paper a decent fixture and chance to get a much needed win, but in practice our record in South Wales weary and think our record generally in Tuesday night away games is dismal.