Hill going back to Bournemouth is a big blow given current injuries and suspensions. He may not have played well recently, but not many have. Not sure bringing in a lad from Crewe as a replacement is the best plan.

Wahlstedt needs to be given a break from first team football. He's shown himself not to be ready for the Championship. The problem is that Pears isn't that much better than him. An experienced goalkeeper is needed in January, but sadly I doubt it'll happen

Bringing in young players and selling for a profit later down the line is all well and good, but young players need more experienced heads to learn from to help improve their game. Experienced players are a must this month.

I think his time at the club is coming to an end. I don't think they'll sack him because that would involve paying him off.....so I'm expecting a Paul Lambert slow death scenario.

If he was to go, I'd be looking at John Eustace. Knows the league, worked under mad owners at Birmingham, and was doing very well over there before they saw dollar signs in appointing Rooney.

The sad reality is we'd probably end up with an internal appointment or someone deeply underqualified like Lee Johnson.

Next season has me terrified for the future of our club. God help us!

Yeah that's it for me with JDT. 1 win in 8, 4 defeats in a row followed up with a home draw to bottom of the league. We all know that the problems run deeper and Venkys are to blame, but this style of football coupled with no real plan B and no defensive organisation isn't working anymore.

Yes I know we have a shocker of a goalkeeper and recruitment has been rough, but this group is better than making such basic errors. A fresh pair of eyes is needed.

Anything but a win here is an absolutely catastrophic failure. As much as I like JDT, this is a results business and the pretty football has got us going backwards. 

Quite simply this is a must win game, firstly to stop the rot and secondly to stave off any concerns creeping in that we might end the season in a relegation battle.

I think Rovers will manage a win in this one...just. Going for a 2-1 win. 2 nil up and as usual we'll let in a super soft goal to give Rotherham a sniff. Backs against the wall for the last 15 mins. It's the Rovers way.

Eff it, Telalovic to get a brace 😂.

Just now, oldjamfan1 said:

Has Neil Warnock definitely retired?

Unless something drastic happens (eg one of our forwards starts scoring, one or two of our defenders start defending, or one of our goalkeepers stops leaking soft goals) this mon will be sacked before the end of January. 
 

No, Warnock has always said that he would take another job if something came his way.

Not sure he would consider Rovers though given he was once given the job verbally, only for the club to change tact and appoint Coyle instead.....plus it likely goes against the clubs strategy. If JDT was to go then the likelihood is that we'd bring someone in from Scandinavia due to GB's connections over there.

Were stuck between a rock and a hard place. JDT is a good coach and earlier in the season Rovers played some of the best football I've seen them play in years...but that now seems a long time ago. Not many managers / head coaches survive this kind of run of form unless you're Wayne Rooney at Birmingham....or you're employed by Venky's. Mowbray certainly had a couple of runs like this in his time at Rovers. Isn't JDT's contract up in the summer? If that's the case then I can see the owners simply waiting for it to run down. The only way I can see JDT getting sacked realistically is if we were to slip into the relegation zone at any point.

What on Earth has happened to some of these players?? Brittain was one of our top performers for much of this season but the drop off has been crazy. Carter, Hill, Moran, etc. have all dropped off so badly.

Not supporting the idea of sacking JDT at this point but this continues to be a deeply concerning downturn in form. Fail to beat Rotherham and it'll be extremely difficult to justify his position as head coach.

No problem with us bringing in a promising young player, but again it's not the position we need right now. Next season, yeah sure.

Hopefully the lad turns out to be a good investment, but I am left scratching my head as to where we are going to get a centre forward from (if at all, which seems the more likely outcome.

With the way we're playing at the moment I can't see anything other than a Hull win. I still think we'll do enough this season to not get sucked into any relegation battle.

2-1 Hull. Szmodics for Rovers.

We've won the last 2 at home, so I'm hopeful we are turning a corner with home form.

Watford have improved a lot recently, I think this one could be a draw, as unlikely as draws are with Rovers these days.

The team I'd go with:

                    Wahlstedt

Hill     Carter     S. Wharton     Pickering

          Tronstad     A. Wharton

                    Szmodics

   Moran         Ennis         Sigurdsson

Can't believe we lost to Preston after watching them last night, but that's the Championship I guess.

QPR look much more organised under their new boss. Suddenly they have a chance of survival.

Anything other than a win would be extremely poor.

I'll go for 2-1 Rovers. Don't think we'll cruise to a win but we 'should' have enough to get the 3 points.

If Scott Wharton is out, then I'd opt for Brittain at RB and bring in Sigurdsson. rather than have Travis at RB.

Great win, hard fought. Hopefully we can start transferring this great away form back to Ewood.

Bonus that Burnley lost again 😂.

Bitterly disappointing result, but with the number of players missing it isn't all that surprising that they got undone in the end.

Had no really problems with the starting 11. Can't really pick out any nightmarish performances from that group but its individual errors again that are getting punished. We have a pattern to our games in that we usually start on top, and if we score in those first 20 mins then we tend to go on and win....but if we fail to score in that opening period, we tend to concede a soft goal and are chasing the game. Thought we did enough to get at least a point, and I'd have been happy with a draw with how the game played out.

Can't fault the effort of this group and the style of play on the ball is a joy to watch at times, but they do lack the nous to get the job done. Down to the bare bones is an understatement, and with JDT seemingly not convinced by Ennis or Telalovic, we really have nobody to turn to off the bench when we need a goal.

Preston were generally solid but unspectacular, but that's what has got them to 4th in the table, so credit to them. I thought they generally looked dangerous whenever they got forward, and the introduction of Evans really changed the game in their favour.

Unfortunately it looks like it's going to be a season of mid-table inconsistency. We'll be in no danger of a relegation fight, and likewise we'll not threaten the playoff places either. We'll look back on this as another season of what might've been had we had brought in a proper striker.

It's what happens next season that worries me, with Venkys financial issues and JDT likely to move on, a period of uncertainty awaits.

Injuries and suspensions all over the place. Here's how I would line-up on Friday:

                 Wahlstedt

Travis     Hill      Pickering     Brittain

         Tronstad    A. Wharton

                 Szmodics

Moran         Dolan        Sigurdsson

Considering no recognised striker and a massively makeshift defence, I think I'd take a draw as much as I'd love the win. Preston getting a win against Coventry will boost their confidence, and they'll be far more threatening than Norwich were. Expecting lots of direct play from them to try and catch Wahlstedt out.

I'll go 1-1. Dolan to bag against his old club.

Great win today. If we think we are open at times, Norwich's midfield and defence were like the Grand Canyon.

Had it not been for the sending off I suspect it would've been 4 or 5 nil. Each goal was exceptional in the transition / counter attack, and the composure shown for each goal was superb.

The main concern in performance was the goalkeeper flapping at crosses. Although it's not saying much I still prefer Leo to Pears.

Probably the best I've seen from Dolan since Leicester away in the FA Cup last season. Took his goal well, and showed great composure and intelligence to pick Moran out in the build up to the third goal.

Let's see what Friday brings. A win and we would leapfrog Preston on goal difference and move up into 6th place temporarily. Get into the international break and hopefully get some of those injured / suspended players back and ready for Stoke.

For what it's worth, I don't think we'll be top 6 this season, but it is a real pleasure to watch us play when everything clicks the way it did today.

Really tough one to call. Norwich are in a rotten run of form and it seems like David Wagner's days might be numbered.

However, they do have a couple of particularly exciting players. Jonathan Rowe seems to be having a fantastic season so far, I think he'll give us some trouble on Sunday.

They comfortably played us off the park at Ewood towards the end of last season as well. My gut says a Norwich 1-0 win.

The team that I'd go with:

                    Wahlstedt

JRC     Hill     S. Wharton     Pickering

           A. Wharton    Tronstad

                    Szmodics

 Brittain        Leonard       Sigurdsson

On 31/10/2023 at 22:31, Andy said:

Yep, we were flying high under Hodgson until Sherwood, Sutton and company decided that 2 x training sessions per day wasn't going to fly.

Things went downhill from there.

Shame, he was ahead of his time in many ways, when he landed here.

1997/98 is a season I'm really quite fond of. It felt at the time like we'd found our 'new Kenny' with how we started that season. The 7-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday is iconic. The way it panned out for Roy at Rovers really saddens me when you look at the career he went onto have.

Expecting a pretty different line-up for this. I'd go with something like this:

                      Wahlstedt

Gamble        Carter       Wharton      Pickering

             Garrett       A. Wharton

                        Moran

    Markanday   Ennis    Dolan

I just hope the players put in a good showing in defeat, and equally I hope Telalovic gets more than 5 minutes on the pitch, just to give him some match experience if anything!

Disappointing result but I reckon that kind of sums up were we are at. Like so many Championship sides we are inconsistent and it'll likely leave us pottering around in mid table for the season. No real complaints about the final result.

We are really going to miss having Hyam in the team. He offers an assured and calm presence that Scott Wharton just doesn't have, which in turn will impact on Carter.

I suspect we might see Adam Wharton come in alongside Tronstad at Norwich, which in turn could mean JRC at right back with Hill moving into the CB role. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Norwich sack their manager soon, hopefully its not before we play them!

Swansea had won 3 in a row, but have since lost the last 2.....they'll be there for the taking IMO.

I'll go 2-1 Rovers. Szmodics and Moran the scorers.

If all are fit then I think JDT will start with the same side as Cardiff and Millwall. Alternatively, if Hyam isn't fit then bring in Scott Wharton, and if Siggy needs a rest then bring in Moran.

I really wish we'd been able to keep Sigurdsson at the club for the international break as it feels like it has set him back a little based on the last two games.

Fantastic result last night especially after conceding so early with such a weak goal as well. Disappointing from Wahlstedt, but glad that it didn't seem to effect him as the game went on.

Early days but James Hill has been a revelation so far. What a pass that is to Brittain for the goal. Another solid performance from Tronstad as well by the sounds of it!

On to Swansea. Can we make it 4 in a row after losing 4? I wouldn't be at all surprised, just look at Boro....in the bottom three when we beat them at Ewood, now 7th! There's no reason we can't continue this good run on Saturday.

An away draw would be a good result, managerless teams are often unpredictable and it's their first home game since Rowett left.

I'll go for 1-1, Szmodics with Rovers goal. I think we'll go with the same starting 11, although personally I'd prefer Ennis to start ahead of Dolan up top.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Yes Coleman deserved alot of praise for his work there but I do wonder if Andy Holt should have sack him last season in order to stay up. 

Really not sure it would've made much difference but we'll never know. When Coleman does leave the club I think they could really struggle to transition to a new manager. Looking at other clubs who've had managers for a long time, they tend to struggle afterwards....Charlton when Curbishley left comes to mind.

I hope they get it sorted. Stanley are a good club, it's sad to see this happen and hopefully they can have a good season in the end.

The team could gel and come good eventually, but their summer recruitment is looking more questionable with each defeat. Some of their key players last season were loans that haven't been signed permanently, and it appears that Kompany doesn't know his best team yet. They signed a lot of young players that haven't played in this country, never mind the Premier League.

The change in goalkeeper continues to baffle me. James Trafford I know did well for the England U21s but he was playing LEAGUE ONE football last season with Bolton, who didn't even go up. The jump up from that to Premier League football at such a young age is putting a lot of expectation on him, especially with their leaker defence.

Bournemouth away next up will be interesting.