sharpysharps86

Very naïve and poor 2nd half to not expect Luton to come out and take the game to Rovers. I think we were all pretty happy to see the same starting eleven but I hindsight I'd have sacrificed someone like Dolan for an extra midfielder at half time to try and stifle the Luton midfield. Having Dack come on to sit deeper than usual and trying to pick out balls to Hedges and BBD on the counter would've been something that could've given us a bit of creative spark. For one reason or another I think we all feel that JDT doesn't fancy Dack in this team, which quite frankly is bizarre because he's the only one that can turn a game on its head with a defence splitting pass - see Blackpool away from a couple of weeks ago for evidence of that. We could have so easily been in front at the break and it seems that this team walks a very thin line based on whether they score first or not. If they concede first then they seem to fall apart, particularly the midfield, who can't handle the more physical and aggressive midfields of other teams. The games will come extra thick and fast up until the World Cup break now. Let's hope that they do some good work on the training ground during the international break and we hit the ground running for what will be a critical part of the season.

Same team as Watford please. Brittain might be in the squad but Id be surprised if he was thrown straight back in from the start. We'll need that same back 3 if we are to keep Luton's forwards quiet, especially as the midfield battle to be very tough, probably tougher than Watford given Luton haven't won at home yet and they'll be desperate to change that. Let's hope the team goes into it full of confidence and not the slow and tentative approach that we've seen in other games. Rovers really have been a Jekyll and Hyde so far this season. I'll go for a 1-1 draw. Rovers to score first, and we'll probably be hanging on a bit by the end but we have to draw at some point...right!?

Having S. Wharton and Ayala back in the quad and with at least one of them starting would be a huge boost. That being said, it won't count for much if the midfield don't have an impact on the game as we saw against Bristol City. Instead of 3 at the back, I would look to sacrifice one of the forward players to install a holding midfielder to beef things up in the middle. Not ideal but then Watford are a far superior side to Rovers at this moment. GK. Kaminski RB. Carter CB. Hyam CB. S. Wharton LB. Pickering DM. Travis CM. Buckley CM. A. Wharton RF. Hedges CF. Hirst LF. Brereton The concern of course is that Hirst could be very isolated, but if they can get the ball into him I think can do a good job at holding the ball up and bringing others into play.

Now that it's been confirmed that all games are off this weekend I'll try to look at the positives...we might have more key players back from injury by the time Rovers play another game.

Seems like they should be doing the exact opposite of calling games off. Sporting events and the like should be used as a celebration of the Queen and her life.

Ah, didn't realise that! I'm really not sure how the club thought they were ok for cover at right back. I think you're right...the best option looks to be Carter at right back for now providing Wharton or Ayala are available to partner Hyam.

We have to draw at some point and that's as good as we tend to do at Wigan, so I'm going for 2-2. Dack to get his first of the season, and one of the CB's to score a header from a corner would be nice! We really need Brittain back so Travis can move back into midfield. If JDT wants to continue playing 4 at the back as he apparently did most of the time at Malmo, then the defenders need greater protection than two inexperienced 18 year olds. Yes they did brilliantly against Blackpool but teams with more tactically astute managers than Michael Appleton will know how to set their teams up to overpower that midfield. If we switched to 3 at the back then you'd need that central player of the 3 to be confident in stepping out from the back as well, something that Van Hecke generally did very well at times last season, and I'm not sure we have anyone who can fill that gap now. Hopefully S. Wharton and Brittain are back, and If so I'd like to see this team: GK. Kaminski LB. Pickering CB. S. Wharton CB. Hyam RB. Brittain CM. Travis CM. Buckley LF. Brereton CAM. Dack RF. Hedges CF. Hirst To me this seems like a team that is more than capable in this division...but I do worry about the midfield and the lack of protection they can give to the defence...especially as they seem to be experts in giving the ball away as we continue to try and play it out from the back.

Well that was effing dreadful. Final score flattered us. The players never looked like they wanted it. Sluggish and passive. BBD didn't look up for it. Hirst showed signs of promise when he could get involved but was totally isolated for the most part. Think he was unlucky to be taken off. Not sure why Dack and Hedges went off, although perhaps its fitness related. Why we continue to try and pass it out from the back I don't know. The players are clearly not good enough to do it when most teams tend to high press. We saw this style of play 2 years ago when Mowbray tried it.

A great win - fully deserved as well and a very good team performance. It really should've been 2 or 3 so I'm glad we didn't pay the price for those missed chances. The first 10 - 15 minutes were a tough watch. We didn't look up for it and Blackpool were pressing high, but the goal relaxed the team and it all 'just clicked. I'm glad I was proven wrong with my pre-match prediction! Hyam was exactly what we need at the back - solid and very good with decision making. Carter also did well. Hope he keeps it up. Vale impressed me off the bench initially but went quiet as the game went on after his yellow card. Would've been a great moment if that chance of his had gone in. I thought Dolan was also a bit better tonight but he's not a starter for me. Hopefully Hirst can come in and make that central forward role his own. Great win, back into the top 6. Hopefully we can top this week off with a good end to the transfer window and another 3 points on Saturday! 😄

His recent history before signing for Rovers - yes...he had an awful record at Sunderland.

No problem with giving Hirst a go. We've had a few strikers come to the club with poor records in their recent history who turn out to be great players for Rovers (Rudy Gestede, Danny Graham, and even Adam Armstrong had a really poor record at Championship level until things clicked for him at Rovers. If he's been identified as someone who can come in and play to the system that JDT wants then that's good enough for me to support this signing. We really need a focal point down the middle of the attacking positions to link up with the likes of Dack and Hedges, so I'm hoping Hirst can be that. No idea who else we'll try to bring in, but hopefully it'll be an exciting end to the transfer window 😆.

To an extent that's true but we have after all lost 3 league games on the spin so the manager deserves criticism just as much as he deserved praise after winning 4 on the bounce in all competitions. That criticism needs to land at the feet of the players as well though. The coaching staff prepare for a match as much as you want during the week but if the likes of Buckley, JRC, etc. are doing the absolute basics wrong during a match then there's not much that can be done on the touchline other that to do what JDT did and haul the drastically underperforming players off at half time.

I think we'll lose unfortunately. There's too much uncertainty around certain areas of the team and the players are trying to adjust to JDT. That combined with Blackpool being massively up for it as I expect them to be (as was the case last season) will be too much of a shock to the system for Rovers. 3-1. Dack with Rovers only goal.

Talk of no more than 3 signings is deeply alarming given how lacking we are. I'm ok with Caulker coming in to bolster defensive options as a backup to Ayala, S. Wharton, Hyam, Carter and Phillips. I think that looks like a fairly decent set of central defenders. Hyam is a very solid Championship signing so pleased with that. Its not Van Hecke but it'll do (funny how things work out if Mowbray takes the Sunderland job and Van Hecke ends up on loan there). Beyond central defence, I'm really worried about the lack of strength in midfield, and we need a focal point in that centre forward position that we've been lacking since Danny Graham was a starter. Going back to last season we just seem to have a bunch of headless chickens running around in the attacking roles. Dack adds some creativity and vision but everyone else is far too erratic - Dolan in particular needs to improve his footballing brain. Other than that, as many have said Pickering is a concern, likewise the backup options for Brittain. JRC should be nowhere near the first team at the moment. I'd sooner starter Hayden Carter as RB if Brittain is injured. Yeah...3 signings isn't going to be enough.

Really poor result against a fairly average Stoke side. You cant play like Rovers did for the first 45 mins and expect anything other than a defeat. It shouldn't take 45 mins of crap to get going in the 2nd half. Has to be said the ref was garbage as well.

On Dack, he's barely played in pre-season due to injury. For someone still recovering from two major injuries as well, he's the kind of player you bring on when you need a bit of magic (Derby at Ewood last season springs to mind), not the player to bring on when you're 1 nil up and needing to stay solid. I can understand the logic of Dolan coming on because he's got a lot more energy about him. I suppose the concerning thing for Dack is the imminent arrival of Szmodic. It might be the case that for Dack to play for this team longer term that he needs to adjust his role to be more of a goal poaching forward than a goal scoring attacking midfielder. I get his frustrations of course, but I'm not sure it was the right situation for him. That being said, it was surprising that we didn't make more changes generally, especially as Gallagher and BBD looked absolutely shattered for the last 10 - 15 minutes. I was probably more surprised that Edun didn't come on given he's played well in pre-season. It's a very long season. I'm sure the players who didn't feature yesterday will get a chance, but you can't really argue with the fact that the players who did play yesterday ran themselves into the ground and won the game. All you could really ask for on opening day 😆. Anyway, transfer wise - if we can keep hold of BBD, bring in Szmodic, Morton, a solid left back and a centre half (please be JPVH) then I'd be delighted with this window.

First 20 mins or so very scrappy and nervy. The goal coming a little out of the blue as neither side looked like scoring. Since then we've played some good stuff. Travis certainly thriving on being captain by the looks of it, Buckley needs to be really careful on a yellow card. The shot from BBD deserved a goal after a slick passing move.

Don't know anything about Szmodics, but as with any new recruit if they join the club then they'll have my support. Hopefully he is followed by JPVH and Bowler (wishful thinking I know). Sounds like Morton will join next week. Friend of mine is a Liverpool fan and reckons he is miles ahead of Clarkson and not as lightweight at all.

Not concerned about Rich downplaying an offer for Styles. The locals seem to know absolutely nothing until it is already reported elsewhere first - the Brittain confirmation seemed to come from Barnsley's side at first If I recall, and the Tyler Morton deal came from The Times. The Telegraph seem to be essentially the newspaper equivalent of the official Rovers website in terms of news - basically they won't know anything until its practically a done deal.

Probably nothing but Rovers have now 'unpinned' their tweet about Brittain signing on the official Twitter account. It might mean absolutely nothing, or it might mean that they're anticipating posting something relatively important in the near future like the next signing.

Even by Rovers standards this is an embarrassingly abysmal window so far. We're barely getting any rule of 3 links with many players, never mind anything substantial. I'm aware we only made our first signing of last summers window after a couple of games into the season and that was bad enough, but this time round we've lost a number of first team starters including the club captain. This was a window that required urgent incomings, and while I appreciate getting bodies in for the sake of it isn't the right way to go (looking at you Reading), we appear to be sleepwalking into the season. Whatever this new process is at the club, it's not looking good at all, and you can only use the 'DOF has only been here a few weeks' as an excuse for so long before it runs dry. Difficult to see a happy ending to the window at this point, but fingers crossed they pull something put of the bag.

Absolutely fantastic and crucial win! Tense as anything but I thought Rovers put in a brilliant performance. It would've been easy for their heads to drop after the other night, and even at half time after missing 3 pretty clear chances. We should've been out of sight at the break but the character of this team to keep going is something special. Get Fulham out of the way (there's no reason we can't get something from that one - this is the Championship after all) and we then have a set of very winnable fixtures coming up. Its hard to keep sight of the longer term when you're in the middle of a poor run and tough fixtures against the top teams in the league but we're nearly through the other side of that now.

Very disappointing to see Rothwell heading to a promotion rival. He has been such a key player for us this season with those surging runs. Yes it's a big loss but our position in the table hopefully gives us a better chance of bringing in some better standard of players, even if just loans for the remainder of the season. Looking forward to seeing Hedges play, and the return of Dack will hopefully ease pressure on the more attack minded players. I just hope we can bring someone in tomorrow that fills the void that Rothwell will leave, as I was already pretty concerned at Bradley Johnson being the replacement for the last two games! (Nothing against him, he's actually done ok considering his legs have gone). Fingers crosses for an exciting and positive conclusion tomorrow.

With Fulham's two games in hand and Bournemouth on 49 points it would've been great to get the win today, but Huddersfield are a really tough side this season, proving that by beating Forest away recently, so you have to look at it as a point gained, especially when you find yourself playing against the ref as well. Incredible that we are currently 2nd in the table at the start of the year! This is the most likeable group of players we've had in a long time and they are throwing everything they've got at it this season.

I dunno, i'm not that surprised really....nothing to do with the manager as I think he's a good choice at this level, but when you have a team that has been on such a downer for a long time, it's not surprising to see that form carry over into the next season even if there is a change in management. They hadn't signed anyone over the summer until very recently I think? So it's a very similar squad and a group of players that got slapped down quite significantly last season. Confidence will be extremely low and if you're not confident going into the Championship then you'll get a nasty shock.