Ashley Barnes warming the bench ....

Given he referred to your storied Club as " The Bastards ", live on Sky TV after the 3-0 game at Turf Moor in November 2022 ( fined £7,500 ), I very much doubt his signing would have been greeted with him being carried shoulder high into Brockhall, to a chorus of " For he's jolly good fellow " .....

Happy game day, all ... We'll be no doubt giving Palace's new manager a dream start in his first full game in charge, whilst I'm sure you're all looking forward to welcoming Ashley Barnes back to the area, with a traditionally warm East Lancashire welcome !!

I'm glad you're so certain ... I'm not !!

No, I think VK and the Directors are following the plan ... instead of buying maybe 3 " oven ready " EPL players for c.£70m, we've gone for 10 or so £3-6m younger players keen to develop and learn under Kompany. It was always meant to be a 4-5 year project, and we exceeded expectation last season. It's one of the reasons that VK's position is secure, most of these players would not have come to Turf Moor without his presence ... if he was sacked, any new manager would have a major issue on his hands, simply by not being Vincent Kompany ... We're definitely improved, but it won't be enough to stay up. I'm still not sure he knows his best team yet, and the major criticism I'm hearing is persevering with Trafford in goal, rather than recalling Muric ...

Yes, how different might history have been if Bobby Charlton had jogged over to the touch line and said ... " Nah, I'm fine Alf, fresh as a daisy ! " Really pleased for you lot, by the way .. a great way to end a week during which the owners and managers of your great Club have done their best to make it the laughing stock of English Football ... 🙄

Need to see full evidence, but if true I trust she was well paid off !! Only two are authorised to deal with the EFL regarding transfers with the necessary codes, and if either of the senior staff " delegated " these roles, it is they who should resign ... I give you the example of Peter Carrington, ( 1919-2018 ), 1st Tank Commander across Nijmegen Bridge in 1945, ( Military Cross ), various political offices until becoming Foreign Secretary, under Thatcher in 1979. Negotiated the Rhodesia settlement in 1979, but after the Falklands Invasion on 2nd April 1982, he resigned 3 days later, because " It was my responsibility, my team failed to see the problem, I didn't ask the right questions, and I am ultimately responsible " .. A man of honour, and decency .. He's chucked an admin Clerk " Under the Bus " whilst failing to take responsibility ... In days of old, he'd have been asked to take a bottle of Malt Whisky and a service revolver into the woods, and do the decent thing !!

Outsider looking on, in peace ... Not one word of praise or thanks for the owners, directors or senior management in his statement ... players, coaches, catering staff and fans all get kind words, though ... " If you can't say anything nice about someone, then say nothing " springs to mind ! As for the DoF's statement, he says JDT is moving on to new opportunities, which, if he does get the Sweden " gig ", will be spun as " we knew of his interest in this fantastic opportunity, and felt we could not stand in his way " ... The " JDT has given me great advice over some challenging times during the past 18 months " made me laugh, one can only imagine JDT's advice to him after the 3 transfer debacles .... " time to look at another career, you incompetent burke " perhaps ? " I look forward to the opportunity of working together again in the future ", a sentiment that I think may not be mirrored by Mr Thomason ...

I have resisted any comment on this matter, but that made me laugh ..

If " yer man " really wants to leave, he needs to be a little more robust about matters ... He could simply pack up his things and resign, at which point the owners could try and sue him for not fulfilling his contract. His response should then be " OK, see you in Court ", at which point he would then be obliged to reveal the promises made to him about the support he was promised, in terms of transfer funds, retaining players etc. The other Rovers staff and owners would be called as witnesses under oath, at which point the Venkys would quickly settle " out of court ", or drop any case, to avoid having to reveal financial details or details of their Indian Court issues. The alternative would be for him to resign, and then bring a " Constructive Dismissal " case against the Club, again citing mental stress, family issues, loss of reputation etc that were caused by the false promises given by the owners and/or Senior members of the BRFC management ..

Claret in peace, as ever ... Just occurred to me this morning, that whilst Orlando City will receive a loan fee of around £500,000, Rovers will be paying all of McGuire's wages. Last year, he was reported to have earnt around $75,000. Even if Rovers are paying for a 6 month house rental and a lease car for him, it's still going to be a Championship player for less than £3k a week ... Now I'm sure his agent would have pressed for more money, but Rover's reply would surely have been, " No, we pay what he's been earning. Duncan now has a great opportunity to get himself a future in English Football, and obviously we'll look at it again when/if the deal is made permanent in the Summer " ..

3-1 was progress ... it's traditionally 5-0 ! As others have said, their bench was frightening ...

Preston, Wolves, Burnley, Sheffield United & Portsmouth are the 5 Clubs to have won all 4 Divisions, or top four tiers .... Just to save you all the trouble, I understand the traditional response to this statement as a " Rovers " supporter is ... " Yeah, the only reason we're not on that list is that we've never been shite enough to be in the 4th Division to win it, unlike you Dingles ! "

No, the other factor was that Trafford had got on the wrong side of the Referee already by some rather cynical time-wasting tactics for which he'd already been booked, he was in no mood to give him a soft free kick ...

I think that would usually have been given as a foul in the modern game, 95 times out of 100 .... however, once the Referee didn't give it, it's not a " clear and obvious " error, and the VAR officials couldn't intervene. If the Referee had given it on the field of play, then VAR wouldn't even have reviewed it ... What do you think, again with a non-tinted glasses view ? 😉

Yes I think the official " Head to Head " only includes Football League, FA and League Cups and two Anglo-Scottish Cup games. If you include those two, Burnley lead 44-41-19, without them, it's 43-41-18 ... We've obviously met many other times, with fixtures before the League started, Lancashire Cup ties, Manx trophy etc ... We're all lucky to follow two great Clubs with fantastic histories ...

8 page souvenir pull-out on the Friday before the game I believe ...

On the subject of the draw, is it just me or has Gary Mabbutt morphed into the late Bob Monkhouse !!

Roughly 900, for a Friday night game in London, 10 days after Christmas and live on ITV ....

We're just happy to be part of his rehabilitation .... 😉

An unfortunate oversight following a house move, I believe, the debt has been cleared and an application to annul the Bankruptcy order is proceeding ... With all due respect, I'm surprised you raised this given the track record of Brad Friedel, Colin Hendry, Mark Paterson, Barry Ferguson, Lucas Neal and Danny Guthrie amongst others ...

That was a shocking dive to win the penalty, and don't get me started on the deliberate handball when Foster was through on goal ... Happy new year to you, I suspect the " Derby " will be resuming next year .... 😊

Actually lived in Clitheroe from 1975 having moved there from Tunbridge Wells due to my Dad's work ... someone once wrote about Reading, " No town more successfully hides it's attractions from visitors than Reading ", and I would concur ... I met a Burnley girl in 1988, married the following July and have lived there ever since. Blackburn & Burnley, like virtually every town in Britain, has areas you'd love to live in, ( Pleasington / Worsthorne etc ) and sadly, areas that you'd be scared to let your children play out in ....

Graduate of University of Reading ( 1986 ), a 2:1 in ... Politics and International Relations !! 🤣

I think it fair to say that the years have been kinder to Herbie 6590 than myself ... 😁