JHRover

May be correct, but I think this is ultimately the responsibility of the club, owners, board, to not just sit back and wait for the Trust to come along with proposals and ideas and then when they do 'yay or nay' them. Someone somewhere in a position of power and decision making has to take a lead on it and be judged on it. Unfortunately the owners don't get this, or simply don't care, and as such it appears nobody is tasked with growing anything, infact quite the opposite, if it saves money they have licence to cut and reduce. Over a decade the damage becomes huge and potentially irreversible, no matter how positive the intentions of people trying to change it.

What it needs is the club to DRIVE this and build on it. That's the only way we will get attendances moving in a positive direction and for it to be sustained. What we appear to have here is the ideas and effort being made by supporters, which I've no doubt the club will facilitate and allow, but that can't be the way of it longer term, it is the club's job to do something about numbers through the turnstiles. Unfortunately with negligent ownership quite content to leave the same old faces in place ticking their boxes and meeting their personal targets that isn't going to happen, and no matter how much goodwill is developed by JDT's team and initiatives such as this one, it will be smashed to bits if Waggott keeps on bumping up ST prices and reducing the quality of the product on offer.

Could always promote half season tickets, but at not much different price to a FULL season ticket at Preston and Bolton and with presumably zero ambition to do anything in the January transfer window I can't imagine many will see much value in those.

They just keep digging a deeper hole for themselves. Quite rightly criticised for another pointless and insane policy the biggest effect of which will be to annoy home fans and almost certainly reducing what would already be a low gate, rather than admit this and revert to normal ticketing plans they keep on going with it. It seems they now accept and recognise that some fans will be unable to participate in 'digital day' and so have released a statement about this on....you guessed it.....the club website. So those people who don't have internet access or use social media, even those who only use it occasionally, likely won't see this statement. Over the phone support....but what use is this if you don't have internet access or a smartphone? To some people it isn't that they don't know how to use digital tickets / online ticketing....they simply don't have it. No amount of 'support' on the phone will overcome that. A 'digital hub' in the Rovers store.....to guide people through the 'online journey'. But again if no printing of tickets is available this still leaves the question of how someone with no internet / printer / smartphone is going to be able to get through the turnstile come matchday. And the best one of the lot.....online resources. One big problem, as above, is that some people don't have or use the internet. So what use is online guidance to them? It's just a complete fiasco.

That's the sort of short term but potentially difference making signing a play off and promotion targeting club would make. Low risk, short term, add a bit to the wage bill but valuable experience and know-how. Then compare to the ridiculous transfer business we've conducted over the last couple of years whilst sat just outside the top 2 but with reinforcements needed.

Good, I think it is external humiliation particularly by the media and rival clubs that will get Waggott's back up. He clearly has no interest in what Rovers fans think or want, because such grumbles can be kept 'in house', but the more people outside the club know what a tinpot outfit we are the more likely it is he'll feel some degree of embarrassment, hopefully.

I suspect it is just dealt with on a game-by-game basis, made up at the point the 'powers that be' are deciding how to approach the fixture. In much the same way as it seems the entire club strategy is made up on a year-by-year basis depending upon what side of bed the owners get out of and what they fancy doing. With the skeletal, bare-minimum-will-do system down there they've got it sussed for the League games because those are easy to predict and cater for. It's the same every year, they know in the summer that they'll have 23 league games to deal with and those will fall roughly each fortnight and usually the numbers turning up will fall somewhere between 11,000 and 14,000. They know from the start they'll have their Preston/Leeds/Sunderland/Middlesbrough ones which will cause some additional hassle but will be covered by them charging £30 a head for it. There's more of a problem with cup games, because these are possibles rather than guaranteed and we don't find out about them until a few weeks beforehand. Also in the vast majority of cases they are against small clubs with small followings and there are much less home fans interested in going. The difficulty this creates is ensuring the fixture passes with minimum hassle and expense, that's all they are interested in doing down there. So shut the Riverside, shut the BBE, digital tickets, close hospitality, these are all brainwaves coming from Waggott and his underlings as to how to reduce and minimise cost and hassle whilst still meeting the obligation of hosting the match. Bare minimum effort. I've no doubt they'd rather we didn't have any of these games and they could just do the 23 league matches. I'm sure there's people down there who would rather we exited the cup at the first hurdle every year or played every tie away from home so it saves them extra work. Digital tickets just saves them a job. Keeps fans away from the shop and ticket office, avoids any need to pay staff to sell them especially on matchday. So what if it means 4000 instead of 5000.

Think of the brownie points Waggott will get from India when that deal happens, he'll probably get a massive bonus and another 5 years in the job as the idiots in India credit him with landing them a massive transfer fee.

No shame in losing at Southampton. They have a better team and squad than us, for a number of reasons, and they have dealt with pretty much everyone who has gone there this season, apart from Leicester and Ipswich. What is really annoying me is the number of goals we are shipping. People will make out that Southampton are dismantling all they come up against but in reality their wins at home have usually been tight affairs decided by a goal or two. 2-1 v QPR, 3-1 v Leeds, 1-1 v Rotherham, 3-1 v Birmingham, 2-1 v WBA, 1-0 v Bristol, 2-0 v Cardiff We break new ground by shipping 4. I don't believe this is all down to Dominic Hyam being injured, and if it is I think that is arguably more worrying that we are so reliant on his presence to stop the flow of goals. 38 goals conceded in 22 games. Only Rotherham and Norwich have let more in. 11 defeats in 22 games, only the bottom 3 have lost more. These are deeply alarming statistics for me, they suggest a big problem somewhere.

That may all be correct. The important question is whether he is any good at his job, not whether he tries, listens or is a decent bloke. This is supposed to be a professional organisation in a cut throat competitive industry. Having a cup of tea with people and listening to their views pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. It really takes a special level of thought process to give away fans more options and choice than you do for home fans including season ticket holders, but that's what we have here. 'Sh1t on your own fans' certainly applies here

Some other similarities between us and them. They had 'stability' under Mark Warburton who I think is similar to Mowbray in that he is a safe pair of hands, mid table maestro but stubborn and frustrating and probably won't ever haul a team to promotion. They got rid of Warburton when we got rid of Mowbray and for a while they were linked with JDT, but ultimately went for Michael Beale. Our trajectories have differed since then I believe purely because we made a wise choice with JDT and have managed to keep hold of him (so far), whereas they've had managerial chaos, some through no fault of their own (Beale going to Rangers) but the Critchley and Ainsworth appointments were disasters, two people plenty on here have advocated as future managers of Rovers. We could easily have made a similar mistake and paid a huge price for it and really need to hope Broughton has a plan.

They used to get a priority period to secure their own seats, another small yet potentially important gesture that has gone out of the window in recent years, probably linked to turfing season ticket holders out of the Riverside. Games treated as nothing more than an inconvenience to be dealt with as easily and cheaply as possible. Thats Waggott's job. If there's a way of cutting corners or costs he'll try it.

No priority, discount or benefit for being an 1875 member again then?

I can think of a few people I know who won't be able to go to this unless they go to the trouble of asking someone else to go online and buy them a ticket and somehow get it printed off. It is additional hassle, and a lot of people won't go through hassle for the chance to watch us play Cambridge in the cup in a 80% empty ground. I'm amazed he's dropped the Blackburn end stunt but even rhino skin Waggott will have got the message about how pathetic that was. But in typical Waggott fashion instead of just leaving it at that and trying to sell as many tickets as possible there are more strings attached. This time putting obstacles in place that make it more difficult to buy a ticket, dressed up with nonsense about being environmentally friendly. The club has used 2 coaches to transport players and staff to away games, imports its stock and training gear from China, gets its food and drink stock from god knows where yet seriously claims that avoiding printing a few thousand paper tickets is going to make any difference? No this is all part of a longer term game, in much the same way as automated tills in supermarkets, aimed at transitioning people into buying online and away from the club. That way he can save a few quid by not bothering opening the ticket office or putting on staff. With a bit of luck he'll get an award for being environmentally friendly on top.

To be totally honest I can't really remember that many games in League One, especially away from home, where we played good stuff, or certainly not good enough to brush aside far weaker teams with relative comfort. In the main when we won games it was getting the job done, admittedly all very important and enjoyable in getting us back up but certainly not in my opinion anywhere near the level of football JDT has served up at times. First half of the season there were diabolical performances such as Southend and Oldham away, and even when we got our act together after the January window for the run in whilst we were getting the results I wouldn't say the performances were impressive or free flowing. On promotion night at Doncaster we just did enough, but it was the same at MK Dons, Bradford, Scunthorpe, Portsmouth, Walsall and Fleetwood with one goal narrow wins often late on. Disappointment at Bristol Rovers, awful at Northampton, Gillingham and Plymouth, on the beach at Charlton, Infact aside from Oxford, Bury and Peterborough away I don't think we really impressed considering the calibre of players at our disposal. Not that it bothers me because it is a results business and the job got done. Same applies to JDT now. He's clearly decided or has been instructed to coach these players to play a certain way, and I think given the sustained attempts from India to undermine him and make his job even harder he's been forced to take off the handbrake and 'go for it' more this season. But I don't think anyone rational can say this squad should be any higher than it is or probably as high as it is, which means JDT is doing a good job. A very good job in my opinion and I fear his departure for what it will likely mean to our league status.

A decision. Might be a good one, might be an indifferent one, might be a bad one, but at least they've an owner and board reacting to results and performances in pursuit of something rather than tumbleweed Ewood. He was always very fortunate at Ewood to be blessed with healthy financial backing for much of his tenure with zero pressure to deliver on the pitch and the ability to run his contract down with nothing coming from upstairs. He was never going to get that elsewhere. Looking at it objectively he inherited an upwardly mobile side put together and promoted from League One before his arrival. He rode the crest of the wave last season and got to the play-offs, this season they have been typical Mowbray-eque. A good run left them 4th recently and they've now won 2 in 9 to slip into mid-table. They'd just carry on with that over the rest of the season and end up 7th-10th at the end of it as we often were. It will be interesting to see what he does next. Given his apparent weariness and feeling hard done to at the 90 minute drive down from Teesside to Brockhall and having lost the Sunderland job his Championship options are thin on the ground unless he's now happy to drive for hours on end to his next one. To be fair he'd be ideal for quite a few Championship clubs like Preston or Huddersfield, probably keep them up and implement a 'nice style'.

I find it odd they are inviting fans views on safe standing when they've made it perfectly clear they won't be incurring what they see as unnecessary additional expense in installing such a thing. A bit like when they recently invited fans to offer their views on kits for the next couple of years I wonder how much of this is actually going anywhere and how much is just them wanting to appear to be taking fans' views on board.

Rovers fans will save £5 at most going to Huddersfield. Their prices are reasonable anyway. I'm not complaining about it but the saving is minimal and the critical issue here is their numbers at Ewood which will probably go up by a few hundred offsetting any loss. This in no way compensates or makes up for the Leeds rip off which will see Rovers fans charged £45+. He knows this and knows people are unhappy about it. Its no surprise that just days after the Leeds debacle anf then PNE announcing a reciprocal deal and putting Rovers to shame that he's come up with a counterweight. He's not as daft as he looks old slippery Steve. Unfortunately a large portion of Rovers fans are daft as their social media posts prove and deserve everything they get from the chancers running Rovers.

For me the worst part of this: a) That he tries to pretend as though he's tried to negotiate with Leeds but failed to reach an agreement. I'd suggest that is not the case and that his agenda from the minute they were relegated was to ensure that we went as high as possible on prices and avoided a reciprocal deal. b) That Rovers fans are going to be disproportionately affected by this. It isn't the case that both sets of fans will both end up paying the same rate. I understand that the most we can charge Leeds fans at Ewood is £30 a head (still too expensive IMO) whereas at Elland Road they will be able to charge us upwards of £45 a head. So his latest short-sighted cash grab disproportionately affects his own club's fans. Leeds fans probably paying no more than they paid at most PL grounds last season, Rovers fans paying an obscene figure for a 2nd division game. But all he has any interest in here is getting that Darwen End as full as possible, I doubt he'd lose a minute's sleep if 0 Rovers fans went to Elland Road.

Just had a quick look at other games at Leeds recently. Watford fans were £20 per adult Middlesbrough are £29 per adult Bristol City were £30 per adult Huddersfield were going to be £47, people complained and later agreed to £20 per adult West Brom were £28 per adult QPR were £45 per adult Cardiff were £21 per adult Sheffield Wednesday were £47 per adult So we can see there is a wide discrepancy, the likes of QPR and Sheffield Wed getting slapped for the top end prices, Huddersfield almost too, then numerous clubs agreeing quite reasonable reduced pricing. Thanks to the people running Rovers I am certain that we will be looking at £40+ a ticket when we go there. Of course Waggott doesn't care, he's on the expenses and complimentaries anyway, and has probably never paid for a match ticket in his life. I'd appreciate it if this post could be saved and produced to slippery Steve at the next Fans Forum with a simple question put to him of why we can't do what those other clubs have done.

Another option would be to do what Bristol City did last season which was to admit members to Ashton Gate for £15 each whilst charging Norwich fans £30. They filled their ground. There are people who say we cannot charge more for away fans than home fans. They are wrong. It is perfectly legitimate to provide discounts for members for games such as these. Imagine if we did the same and offered Rovers fans £15 tickets if bought under a membership. I've no doubt we'd sell plenty, could still coin it in from the Leeds fans and would actually provide an incentive to buy 1875 membership, rather than offering some left over tat from the shop.

Rotherham are one of those perennial strugglers at this level. I think they are overachieving by being in the Championship but it seems no matter what the weather or who is in the dugout they are destined to be in the bottom 5-6. I anticipate that given time that is what these owners will do to us, making us regular strugglers unable to accomplish anything more than Championship survival.

Daily Mail reporting that Rotherham have sacked Matt Taylor. No official confirmation yet.

Luton were awash with experience and Football League know-how. JDT isn't allowed to do this, see Danny Batth. He's only allowed to sign cheap, unproven 'prospects' and work with them to try and increase their value.

He's got a win return pushing 50% at the club across almost 18 months. That's pretty good going for any manager at any club but when he's been constrained, undermined and forced to use teenagers to build a team with scumbags above him cutting budgets overnight and imposing drastic cost cuts, I'd say it is outstanding. He'll quickly move on to bigger and better things than Rovers and to be honest I am amazed he is still here. When he does I am absolutely certain our results and league position will quickly deteriorate, quite possibly back to League One and quickly