A very tough gig after the ongoing financial issues saw them demoted last season.

Fisher 6.  Missed opportunity with a sloppy 2nd goal that slipped through.

JRC 7. Looked lively, keen to venture, growing in statue. Will deserve a run further up the field.

Lenihan 6. Okay, nothing more.

Wharton 8. Solid, grabbed his chance by the scruff of the neck. He has racked up games and crucially winning games on loan and it showed. Good distribution.

Bell 4. Oh my...

Travis 6.5. Battled away, better than the friendlies.

Johnson 6. Okay, but are the legs going / gone?

Holtby 7. Cracking goal, and nice touches - we lost our way without him for a while.

Chapman 4.5. Another missed opportunity, game passed him by.

Brereton 7. Pressed, harried and chased. Missed a sitter, but goals will come with performances like that.

Armstrong 7. Like Bereton, good performance.

Rothwell 5.  I am a fan, but another to miss an opportunity to stake a claim to start. Will be frustrated as had plenty of touches.

Dolan 8. Great, exciting cameo. Deserves a chance to start, set to entertain.

A good match, with a deserved win.  Doncaster battled hard, so will have been a helpful run out ahead of the league start. 
 

Credit to @Ewood Ace - I copied & pasted your review and added my scores / summary ??

I hope Wharton gets the nod, he has had two good, solid loan seasons so has some racked up some decent experience.

As it’s Doncaster, I’d start Dolan, an opportunity to show what he can do, though suspect Chapman will get the nod from Mowbry.

Presume Fisher will be in goal as he got to start both friendlies.

Should be a good game if the friendlies are anything to go by - I’ll pay the £10.

14 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I'm quite excited by the potential emergence of various young players like Brereton, Pike, Wharton, (Chapman?) and  Dolan. The Covid crisis might be the best thing  that's happened to us if it forces us to rely on youth.

I just hope Tony doesn't cite the need for "experience" and bring in a few one last payday merchants on loan to block the youngsters' progression.

Yes agreed. Lots of good potential on show.

Yeah, to be fair in these unusual times I’d pay that

29 minutes ago, RoverInverness said:

I seem to be on my own with this, but I’m hoping for a season where a lot of our young players break into the team. Buckley & JRC could become starters. Wharton could be getting games and maybe one of Fisher or Hilton will be given a chance to claim the number one spot. There maybe others breaking through by the end of the season too.

I know playing kids does not necessarily bode well for promotion. I know it could all go wrong and we could see ourselves looking like we are regressing  - but such is the way of things when clubs give their youngsters a chance. The truth is that playing kids is a gamble, but personally I would love to see OUR club play OUR kids and it be OUR team. I felt that way with Duff, Dunn, Jansen, Taylor. I also did with Wilcox, Atkins, May and Hendry the first time we went up (I know Atkins and Hendry were not our kids - but they sure felt like OUR players - like Dack does now). 
 

So I do have some optimism. I don’t think we’re going up, I think we have a manager who is fundamentally compromised by not being able to organise a defence, but I am hoping we can have a team that is truly a Blackburn Rovers team again - packed with our youth team players and the dark days of foul smelling mercenaries like Best, Orr, Murphy, etc, but a distant memory. 
 

Hell, I’ve even got a secret hope that Brereton might come good.

 

If we make all the signings of £1million & £500 grand journeymen that everyone on here seems to be clambering for - the kids are never going to break in to the team. 
 

I’m prepared for the criticism, tin hat is ready, but I’m looking forward to tuning in to ifollow and cheering on a Rovers team that is, at the very least, with a few less meaningless journeymen and with a few more ‘proper’ Rovers players. 
 

I’m not looking forward to reading the relentless and unforgiving criticism that our kids sometimes get on this board as they set about learning their trade though. We all hate it when Mowbray bad mouths a young player, so it irritates me when fans go OTT with criticism of youngsters too. If we do end up with Fisher or Hilton in goal, Wharton at CB and Buckley trying to pull the strings - lets not purposely set about destroying their confidence when they inevitably come on here to read what the fans thought of them. Please.

 

Some very good merit in that! If a few come good (and our Academy has in the past delivered) that could get us more hope in the coming seasons.

Is there no chance one of our younger keepers couldn’t step up? Certainly looks like they’ll get a chance in the first friendly.

Perhaps they’ll just let everyone take turns in goal, 10 mins a go?

I would always hope I’d get missed, but when it was my turn I looked like I could be pretty decent (shouting and organising) and then promptly couldn’t catch a cold when the ball headed in my direction. Mind you, soon allowed back outfield.

Lots of fair (critical) comments, but he has that something extra if he can click.

He needs a run of games (where he hasn’t got the pressure of either being a late sub, or hauled off) in an attacking position.

We can’t afford the finished product, but there is a chance with him he could become one.

Big fanfare on a future star when we paid over the odds for Jimmy Corbett, a Woy signing?

Ashley Ward / Nathan Blake as it showed how far we’d sunk from Shearer.

Diouf, an embarrassment with the spitting.

Have to say I feel for Wigan and their fans.

12 point rule is rightly in place to stop clubs gaining an unfair advantage on budget, but it does seem they were unlucky, very unlucky on a new owner defaulting.

Good decisions on the released players, especially as I suspect that has reduced a big chunk of the wage bill.

Downing, I imagine it has come down to money. Presumably we have offered a reduced deal, or pay as you play but allowed him time to see if he can get a better deal?

Will be interesting what money is released back into new signings? With the fall out of Covid-19 and uncertain economy there will be an impact on season ticket sales and general attendances.

Id imagine we will have a slightly smaller squad (more academy players) and wait a little longer for any additions as players demands drop?

Okay, I don’t remember it getting dark, so I am going March, not December!

Thanks! Hmm, this is confusing as I was sure it was Ainscow who scored, but suspect I was more likely to have mixed that up with Hendry than Price.

You don’t have the West Brom line up for the 1st match do you?

On 09/07/2020 at 21:18, chaddyrovers said:

I would expect Dunn to come back for a couple of young players on loan. 

Would be sensible for the club to do that.

Apologies if the wrong section, but this is driving me mad!...

My first match watching Rovers was when Rovers beat WBA at the Hawthorns 1-0.

It was either 21 March 1987 (86/87 season) or 12 December 1987 (87/88 season).

I know Alan Ainscow scored the winner and Simon Barker missed a penalty.

I can’t find a line up online for either game.

Anyone able to help?!

Wonder if the ifollow payments will drop off after Wigan?

As ever TM will baffle us by shoe horning random players into random positions.

On 27/06/2020 at 17:59, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

To score goals he needs to do two things that he's shown no signs of doing so far  -  1) Get in the bloody box ! 2) To quote the great Paul Ince, SHOOT !

Ahh yes, fair points!

1 minute ago, RoverKyle said:

Thought Ben played reasonably well again today. Much more assured than Gallagher, who is really starting to test my patience. 

Yes, a goal will come and you can’t fault his work rate to try and get it.

He should shave his head and beard, and go grab that goal on Tuesday.

Positive - controlled good parts of the game, and some nice football.  Had we taken one of the chances, we’d have deserved 3 points, but fine margins... Travis, Rothwell, Bereton and Nyambe all tried.

Negative - Walton again soft hands, but this time cost us, he has gone backwards this season.  Countless strikers (Armstrong aside), including big wage Graham and Gallagher who simply aren’t cut out for this level - Samual is probably League Two. Bennett hopeless and Davenport needs to find his passing range, which is hard without game time.

Decent keeper and off-load lots of our ‘strikers’ to get one or two who can shoot and we will be ok next season.

Well after the Liverpool friendly I feared the worst, but what a cracking performance and suddenly we are in the mix!

iFellow worked first time, commentary team were good and it even deployed replays of the key moments.

Lots of decent match reports / comments already, but:

• Bereton was good value (goals will come if he keeps up that work rate).
• Pleased for Evans who stepped up.
• Walton, soft hands - put it down to rusty.
• Gutted for JRC as a goal would have been great for confidence.
• Armstrong continues his goal scoring run, that’s what you need at this stage of the season.
• Travis clearly fancies a stint in Game of Thrones with that hair style!

Burnley on tomorrow night, only club expecting a higher than normal attendance despite the lockdown restrictions.

20 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

If perchance we go up, we’ll see a few score lines like that.

By which point Mowbry will be deploying Gallagher in goal...

Sub-optimal result that. Yes only a friendly, but doubt that will have been a confidence builder.

As ever why spent so much on a striker, a target man and then play him on the wing?

So no red button on Sky for any of the matches?

On 13/05/2020 at 22:32, simongarnerisgod said:

the one i do remember who had prodigious talent was carlos villanueva,the chilean,not one to impress big sam though?

Yeah I remember there was a lot of excitement about him, but apart from a man of the match performance against Blythe Spartans in the FA Cup was never really given a chance.

Matt Derbyshire, seemed he’d finally get a chance on merit, then didn’t he get sent off pre-season (Plymouth) and was back to bit part and off away to Greece?