Amazing what clubs can do. Reading also restrict away followings to a couple of thousand in half the stand behind the goal and wedge them between the two most vocal areas of home fans. Would be easy for them to move home fans to other parts of the ground and open up the full stand behind the goal for 4000 away followings but they refuse it.

West Brom have failed to win in 3 home games this season v Millwall x2 and Reading, scoring 3 goals. Expect the usual lowering of expectations and bigging up of the opposition but once again this isn't Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Set ourselves up correctly and we can get a result. More mind numbing backward and sideways passing and we won't.

The 'consultants' they brought into the club in the summer of 2017 were accountants. So well placed to advise the owners on a financial strategy but I'm not sure how qualified they were to advise on a footballing strategy. 'Invest in promising young players who will grow in value and be worth a lot more in a few years' isnt a football strategy, it's a business one. In any event the owners already did all that under Bowyer so it is hardly something new to them. Many people have tried and failed to run football clubs on the advice of non footballing people on non footballing agendas. It rarely works. As far as I can see there has never been any football expertise other than the manager they stumbled across and like.

Some heartbreaking interviews on NW Tonight outside Gigg Lane. Normal down to earth football fans who have followed their club their entire lives. Would have been easy to catch the bus to the Etihad or Old Trafford but stick to their local team. Terrible shame. Hopefully now they regroup and rebuild under transparent ownership. The least the authorities should be doing is ensuring that Gigg Lane isn't demolished and built on and is preserved as a football ground for the phoenix club. Doubt that will happen as the suits will have their claws into that for housing in no time.

Nah he's a dingle, based in Blackburn. Never trust a dingle.

Wish we had ball boys who slowed things down and helped the team out when defending leads. The one at Sheffield looked at least 16-17 and was no doubt a youth team player well rehearsed in such things. Our ball boys are young children of Primary school age by the looks of things. We could do the same but don't.

If I were a Bury supporter I'd be wanting to know whether the same processes and levels of patience have been given to both Bury and Bolton or if Bolton have been treated favourably. Next news is the 'EFL' will refuse to comment on Bury FC because they are no longer members of its competition. Another slap in the face. Time for the FA to get involved. If the 'EFL' is really just a competition organiser then it needs to go up a level. The FA are the national association and should have more power to deal with this sort of thing.

What it needs is a wealthy individual to go after Day, Dale and the League and take them to the cleaners and drag them through the Courts. The least that should be done here now is justice and those who have done wrong or failed in their responsibilities to be dragged down too. Sadly we all know that the authorities will commence a cover up operation to shield themselves from further criticism and that will be that. Only ones to suffer will be the club, town and fans.

Another frustrating match with some positives but a feeling of 'what if' at the end of it. Much in similar fashion to the Fulham game not long ago. First half hour I thought we played some good stuff, opened them up and looked dangerous getting forward. The winning of the penalty was just one of a number of nice moves into dangerous areas. Then came the inevitable regression as we cannot sustain the pressure indefinitely although we were still competing well in the game when we fell behind. They probably couldn't believe their luck going in at 2-0 given the balance of the game but sadly that's the way we seem to operate these days - bucket loads of possession, some nice passing and moving around the midfield, some decent play getting forward, but then nothing by way of a final ball or killer instinct. Just wasteful, hesitant or poor decision making - take your pick but it happens every time we get into advanced areas and means we are struggling to convert our possession into goals or even decent goalscoring opportunities. It seems Mowbray's frustrations boiled over which they rarely do which probably sums up the ineptitude of the referee tonight. An abysmal performance from him who I think was just looking forward to an easy and comfortable night out and a routine home win. Sadly not the first time we've had to endure that particular referee and won't be the last. Still major concerns for me about our attacking play and how effective we are at scoring goals. Again tonight for all our possession and positive play we've really not done much to test their keeper. We need to get this sorted because it has now happened in most games this season and it will cost us dearly.

Looks like Bury are going unless a miracle happens. Surprised it has come to this but their finances sound like a complete minefield and their last 2 owners have run them into the ground. Even more gutting for their fans to be given hope on Friday and then turn up at the ground today to get it ready for Saturday. If they do go the biggest problem will be nothing will happen. The Football League, operating under the facade of 'EFL', will merely seek to mitigate the fallout, keep the other clubs happy and ensure a smooth transition. It will be business as usual once they've got back to 72 clubs and the media and sponsors keep the cash flowing in. Bury will be forgotten about just like Stanley, Stockport, Chester, Hereford and Darlington were until they force their way back in. Sky will get back to hysterics about how many hundreds of millions the Premier League clubs are going to spend in January. Then Bury will be a hunting ground for City and United to brainwash the youth into 'supporting' them. There should be root and branch changes to football governance. The only hope is if their local MP forces it into Parliament and it is forced down from government. The pigs in the football trough will carry on regardless whilst the pay cheques continue.

Yeah, think the combination of the League deadline and administrator threat to liquidate the club will have got the message across to all the parties involved and they will get things sorted. It was always likely to take a firm deadline and some tough talk. Nobody wins in liquidation so expect compromises and extensions to avoid that outcome.

Normally I'd agree entirely with this view. There always seems to be an excuse for treating the cup competitions with disrespect. We should be taking it seriously as tonight is a realistic chance to progress. If an average 2nd division side can't take it seriously now then we never will. Ironic because for all of Waggott's wailing about revenues and needing to shift more tickets if we were to progress and get drawn against a City or Liverpool home or away we'd make a fortune out of it and that would cover missing season tickets. But, thanks to our insane recruitment we simply cannot afford defensive injuries of any description given Tosin and Lenihan have already been out this season. Shame because with any depth to the squad we would be able to risk it.

Why would Bolton be allowed to join the National League North next season? If they are kicked out then they should start at the very bottom like Stanley and Wimbledon had to do. Why should clubs fighting for promotion to the National League North be deprived of a chance of promotion?

Brighton built a new stadium in the middle of fields in the middle of nowhere with no parking and beyond walking distance of any residential areas. Prior to that they'd had 4 figure gates renting an athletics ground. Never been in the Premier League and been regular League One strugglers. They knew they needed to make extra effort to get their new ground filled up before they got promoted to the Premier League. They couldn't offer Premier League football, or big names. So they set about making it as easy as possible for people to get there - free public transport for ticket holders, regular coaches and buses from all sorts of areas outside of Brighton into the ground, publicising routes and benefits to people, trains to drop people off outside the ground and waiting to get them away afterwards. All in all a well co-ordinated operation which saw their gates rise massively from about 6000 a week to 26000 a week in the space of a few years. Then there's the efforts made to get people to the ground as early as possible and encouraging them to stay behind afterwards to allow traffic to die down. Good bar offerings, good beer, entertainment, the list goes on. Now that's an extreme example with some obvious differences to what we are dealing with - obviously the Sussex catchment area is much bigger and wealthier than ours and they've crucially had an upwardly mobile club driving that growth but more examples here of the efforts clubs have made which have paid off for them. We should be looking at Leyland, Chorley, Bamber Bridge, Lancaster, Hyndburn and Rossendale as our catchment area. A massive population. Accepted we have a lot of competition but we need to get ahead of the game and think outside the box. The fact we offer nothing in those areas except a few posters for season tickets is the problem.

Not sure it is so simple as that. We are in the Bolton position of 4-5 years ago, not the Bolton position of today. 4-5 years ago Bolton were a Championship club losing millions a year and relying on Eddie Davies underwriting those losses every year like he had for the previous 10-15 years. Unfortunately for Bolton Eddie Davies was knocking on, approaching his 70s and was never rich enough to endlessly subsidise them through years in the Championship. He decided enough was enough and he was going to fund them no more. Unfortunately for Bolton they ended up going down to League One and they got saddled with Ken Anderson who has, shall we say, a chequered background and certainly not the cash needed. As for Bolton's current predicament that has come about due to the various amounts they owe to various creditors who are unable to agree on a deal, meanwhile the club runs out of cash under the administrators. For us to end up like them we would need a) Venkys to decide to walk away all of a sudden, b) them to leave the club saddled under their 'debt' and to seek repayment of it and c) nobody else be willing or able to take the club on after them. Clearly the last one depends on what state they left us in. Without wanting to sound blase about the situation a lot has to happen before we end up like Bolton. We've no idea whether that could happen here or not. I'm sure Wigan fans feared what would happen to them after Whelan left but he seems to have done OK so far at finding them new owners.

There's two ways of looking at the crowds thing. Of course back in the 2000-01 period we had both more people coming to watch AND the numbers watching in the Championship were much less on average. But then the makeup of clubs in the Championship has also changed significantly. Historical minnows like Bournemouth, Watford, Burnley who would have got 10,000 a week or so maximum at Championship level have gone on to get themselves promoted, whereas historical big city clubs like Leeds, Villa, Sheffield and Forest have become Championship regulars. Back in 2001 time there were clubs like Crewe, Grimsby etc. in the league. This shows that the make-up of the top divisions has changed significantly. Arguably numbers through the turnstiles have come to be less and less important over the years as rich owners have flooded in and Sky tv money props up the division. Nonetheless it is a fact that clubs like Forest, Bristol City, Brighton, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Derby etc. have in the last 10-15 years been able to significantly increase their attendances having previously had very average gates at this level. They haven't done it overnight, they haven't waved a magic wand, most haven't been able to offer Premier League football or promotion. They've just set out to bring new people in and retain them, think outside the box, employ people to come up with initiatives, improve the matchday experience so kids and younger people enjoy it. Nothing ever changes at Ewood. Still go about things as though it is 1999 rather than 2019. A very small but simple example - when we got our Jumbotron screen it was one of the first of its kind at a football ground in England. We were one of the first to go out and get one. Since then virtually every club has got hold of one and use those screens to do all sorts. Videos, replays, highlights, sponsors, scores. But at Ewood we don't put ours to its full potential. All we use it for is to show the teams, a few scores and then a slideshow of adverts. Yesterday was the 4th home game in a row where the screen displayed a faulty image of the Stoke match from last year over the top of a menu. A small point but it sums it up - a complete lack of interest or effort by those running it to get 100% use out of it. It just looks like people turn up at noon on matchday, switch it on and off we go. It goes on and on. A complete failure to properly honor former players who have passed away. Why? Can't be bothered. Playing music pre-match so low that it can hardly be heard. There has to be more done and every year that goes by without doing it makes it harder to recover.

Its happening with Barnsley, it's also happening with Preston, it will happen with Luton, its already happened with Huddersfield. Small clubs that usually float between the 2nd and 3rd divisions are catching up to us and overtaking us. There are two responses to that. Shrug your shoulders, have a moan, then use it as an excuse for us struggling on the pitch. Or do something about it. I'm afraid shuffling prices about a bit whilst maintaining a price increase, coming up with daft competitions (does Waggott seriously think that people are going to cough up for a season ticket just to potentially give themselves a £10,000 lottery ticket?) are not going to deliver the numbers we need. There's more to it than simply 'freezing' the price and sticking a few posters up and some videos on Twitter. We are way behind the game these days as the club has been reduced to a skeletal staff with little idea on how to grow the fanbase. Football is changing and we are getting left behind. Is that because we are as a club behind the times or because Blackburn is a unique place in the country that doesn't react to things the same as everywhere else? I know what I think is the answer. The whole club needs revitalising and there needs to be an acceptance that we are falling well short as a club. A quick look at Stanley under Holt shows what can be done on a budget to increase numbers. I've done it to death the lack of interest in doing things at Ewood, even from minor things such as improving the bar offerings. Weve closed home areas down, moved people around, put no effort into relocating them. The Darwen End area - not my cup of tea but certainly better than it being closed. Most clubs are actively trying to build singing sections next to away fans, we are actively discouraging that by moving away fans upstairs and breaking up our singing section. Just ludicrous but typical of the downscaling operation. Reading, Huddersfield have recently succeeded in creating singing sections next to away fans. We failed miserably because we had no interest in promoting it or growing it, eventually shutting it when numbers dropped because it saved a few quid.

That's the only one and it must still be about 20 minutes walk from the away turnstiles. Sadly West Brom is one of the poorest grounds in the division for pubs of any standard within close proximity to the ground.

I don't think so. Top 6 at best and to do that he'll be carried by their expensive attacking players.

Wigan will win their home games which will keep them up. Doubt they expect much more than that. Hughton will be a man in demand and will have his pick of jobs. Question is whether he would move up North to manage a struggling Stoke or Huddersfield when he can wait and get something like the Fulham job when Parker gets axed.

The way I read it was that if there's no sign of progress by 5pm Tuesday then they will 'consider' lifting the currently suspended 2 week membership withdrawal notice period. Think the League have to give a club a minimum of 2 weeks notice of being kicked out. Bolton havent yet had that because of administration which means the notice is suspended until ownership is resolved. Bury had it 2 weeks ago so nothing stopping them kicking Bury out. The Bolton one will rumble on a while yet. I'd be interested to know how Bolton provided proof of funding to start the season in administration when Bury haven't been allowed to play due to a lack of proof of funds.

In the end a point was a fair result for both sides. An entirely predictable performance and turn of events. Bet your house on us going in at half time with 0 goals because it always happens at Ewood. Perhaps time we tried changing things around. Thought we were solid enough defensively although did get caught out a couple of times. Going forward I thought we were weary up until Armstrong coming on which caused them problems and could have seen us snatch a win. Seems a lot of people were happy with a point because 'this lot were in the Premier League last year' which ignoring the fact that they'd been well beaten in their previous 2 away games conceding 6 goals in the process to mighty Wigan and Reading. So not exactly mission impossible and their defence is clearly fragile. The fact we've scored 0 and barely tested their keeper to me says we've failed, as the home team, to really take the game to them other than a 5-10 minute spurt late on. Personally I'll never aim or set out for a draw at home no matter who the opposition and i'll only accept a draw as a good result if I believe we've done exceptionally well to come away with it. Having turned up with another offensive no-show I don't think we've done anywhere near enough (again) in front of goal to win the match. This is becoming a recurring them and whilst Mowbray and the team can point to a defensive improvement recently if that means we are completely toothless in attack then it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. Mowbray has to be more astute and organise the defence whilst having much more of an attacking threat. However much positive spin you want to put on things our goals for tally and attacking play simply hasn't been good enough. The positives are that by virtue of a defensive improvement we are putting points on the board, and you would hope with the personnel we have that goals will come. But they need to come soon because 450+ minutes with 1 OG, 1 penalty and 1 header from a free kick is not good enough. Given the expensive collection of attacking players Mowbray has brought in it is concerning that we appear no nearer to going with a unit that can open teams up and bury chances. Waggott wants more people to buy tickets but I'd say better offerings than we've had so far this season would be the best way to do that rather than cash prizes. A good number of walk ons came down for the Charlton game, went home disappointed and the football at Ewood since then has been abject albeit successful in getting 4 points and 2 clean sheets. Personally I'll watch whatever the weather and product but i think some people will want to see some level of excitement and entertainment rather than 0 goals and passing around at the back.

If they approve the new ownership and grant a delay to complete then it might save Bury for the time being but if the new owners are skint or unsuitable or if the takeover runs into difficulties then the problem is only going to get worse. Similar to Bolton - at the 11th hour with a choice between allowing a takeover or watching the club go bust which do the League accept? Either way they are opening the door to severe criticism.

Usually at this early stage Cardiff would be whipped up into some sort of juggernaut coming to town that we'd do well to get a draw out of. Unfortunately for those who are happy with draws and want to downplay expectations Cardiff have started off in poor fashion. 2 defeats from 2 and 6 goals conceded v Wigan and Reading and two late narrow home wins v Luton and Huddersfield suggests they are struggling. At the very least I expect to see us have a few chances and ideally get some goals. Our first half home record is terrible in terms of goals.

Maybe that's why we struggled against Oldham, because their fans were in the lower tier so we didn't benefit from the marginal gains of them being upstairs. In all honesty the only benefit to shoving away fans upstairs is to charge them more for a higher category of seating. We aren't doing that so there's no point.