GHR

Was thinking that, two forward balls he had near the end, both were as bad as each other.

Very rarely I have a go at refs as most of them are subpar these days, but I'll make an exception for the one today. Absolutely abysmal.

Still have 11 on the field, just Gallagher came on...

Well that shut me up

Probably for the best given the quality of football from both sides.

If Gallagher is the answer I dread to think of the question!

Edit - deleted

I'm quite fortunate in that I'm still working full time throughout this, and during lockdowns I think the tenner for Rovers every so often is my only non-essential expense. All that said mind, I have no intention of ever looking at how much I have spent on iFollow since the restart in summer!

Must say I am looking forward to this game for no reason other than the combination of international break and lockdown was awful. I'll make a scoreline prediction at approximately 14.01 tomorrow...

Only drifted in and out of that it was a decent watch and a well-deserved point. Thought Saffron Jordan was unlucky to have her one on one called back for the Liverpool player's handball (?) in the second half - imagine the outrage if that had happened in the Men's game. What a game Alex Brooks had for us in goal by the way, two or three superb saves. Get her in the Men's side if Kaminski's not back in time for Luton!

Very professional job on the Liverpool FC YouTube channel in fairness. Unsurprisingly though the commentators aren't the most balanced, so I think I'll be watching on mute!

I can imagine for an American something like the Madejski would be very familiar. For me, one of the best things about British football, and it still remains true by and large, is that the clubs are so ingrained within the towns and cities they represent. Even though the clubs have grown into global brands, stadiums like Anfield, Goodison Park and even Spurs' new place still sit within the suburbs, with all the pubs and other landmarks that have served the locals for decades. For me, Ewood Park rising out of the rows of terrace houses and narrow backstreets around Ewood is as synonymous with the club as the blue and white halves. I would hate to spend my Saturdays traipsing to an industrial estate, miles from a pub but with plenty of Pizza Huts, to sit in a perfectly symmetrical bowl that could just as easily be in a different end of the country altogether. Thank God we chose to redevelop Ewood in the 90s instead of flogging it to the highest bidder and moving to wherever we fitted. Like North End managed at Deepdale, we ended up with a thoroughly decent modern stadium (well, three sides of one) whilst staying on the patch we've occupied for 130 years now. Anyway, about the Luton match...

They had some sort of legal challenge I believe from Intu after they received planning permission, not entirely sure what became of it but as far as I know they're good to proceed now. I've only ever been to Kenilworth Road once - that FA Cup fixture where Samba made his debut - my overriding memory of the day is the abuse Luton keeper Marlon Beresford got from us for his claret and blue past. As someone too young to remember the olden days pre-Taylor Report and all that, I still love the likes of Kenilworth Road and Griffin Park. Give me (safe!) tightly hemmed in, cramped old school grounds a million times over a 'perfect' soulless box in the middle of nowhere. Some of them are occasionally decent - Derby and Rotherham - but Reading and Leicester? Dreadful days out.

Has Pears made a save yet? 3 down 20 mins into a debut...

Wow

There are generally two sorts of pundits I am fond of - people like Roy Keane who just say whatever takes their fancy, without worrying about old loyalties or who their friends are. Savage and Sutton are broadly the same on their radio stuff for 606, Savage especially, with callers talking rubbish. Not the height of debate but great entertainment. The others are people like Micah Richards, Ian Wright, and on commentary, Ally McCoist - no ego or agenda, just downright enthusiasm. Dinosaurs like Paul Merson and whatever Jamie Redknapp is are awful. Often times I enjoy what journalists have to say more than ex-players - their grasp of language and communication, especially if it's off the field stuff, more than makes up for their lack of 'been there, done that'.

That was fun while it lasted.

Always been that way on BBC Sport, anything below the Conference in whatever capacity comes through in dribs and drabs, suspect it's more to do with their feeds for the data than lack of effort. It's the same for the likes of the Highland League in Scotland. My main problem with the BBC's coverage is that they'll spend from now to Christmas gibbering on about the 'magic of the Cup', then as soon as the big names come along the cast aside the Chorleys, Stanleys and whoever else of this world so we can watch Man City drub Charlton 8-0... It's a shame really, when the Beeb want to they can pull off 'obscure' football journalism and representation with the best (one of the reasons I genuinely admire their attempts at promoting the Women's game). Sadly, there's more mileage in 'who would make your combined Fulham v. Leicester XI?'...

Must say I prefer the royal blue with yellow letters surrounding on the circle to the sky blue and bright yellow we have at present. My only dislike on our badge!

Finding it hard to get going at all. Would normally have watched this morning's draw and hoped for a decent match up. On Friday I'd have spent the morning planning which away days I'd go for, which weekends I'd conveniently come back home for and drop by Ewood, when the crunch time is so we'd know if this season might be the one, who we play on Boxing Day, New Year's etc... Couple the likely prevailing situation of limited home fans only, and even then with minimal fun and interaction with the sadly unsurprising lack of signings, kit or even general news and developments from the club and it just feels a bit hollow really. My last Rovers match was Derby away and I had a great time despite the score - new ground, typical wedged away end, plenty of alcohol (numbs the pain!) and found a great pub in Derby afterwards. The fact that that could well be my last such experience in years genuinely hurts. I could stand the finish to the end of last season I think for two reasons - we could hardly do anything else as an alternative passtime anyway, and the closeness to the climax of the season coupled with the intensity of matches meant it was actually rather fun, for all the usual anger, pain and frustration. Being as it is now, when the world has practically reopened except for football grounds, coupled with the lack of general excitement, in all honesty I will find it very hard to maintain full interest. I'm not spending my weekends following text updates or looking for dodgy streams.

This will have been said by many others I'm sure, but I want to join in the deserved praise. As someone too young to remember the 1990s I have to make do with the early and mid 2000s for my 'good old days', and this bloke was the centrepiece. He was in his 30s when he joined, smoked like there's no tomorrow and scarcely warmed up; but he could do whatever he wanted with the ball and always gave his everything. The goals, accolades, quotes and World Cup exploits speak for themselves, but my fondest memory however is the genuine love you could tell he had for us, and we showed back. In a sport nowadays where players are judged by spreadsheets of data and their rating on Fifa, I fear the Tugays of this world are a dying breed, for absolute shame. Thank god then that Souness took the punt on it working out for him at Rovers when it hadn't at Rangers. In doing so, he gave us Rovers' greatest foreign player ever, my favourite player ever, and the club arguably one of it's five greatest players in history. If, somehow, Tugay ends up dropping back over here for whatever reason, I really hope he does 'An evening with...' like MGP did and Samba was to. The bloke would sell out Kings George's Hall! Our Turkish Delight.

Loved him when he played for us, what he lacked in ability he more than made up for in attitude. Could do with a couple of proper old school types like him these days, might bring some passion and determination back into the dressing room if nowt else. I know football has changed in general but we used to have some absolute units on our team - Todd, Short, Neill, Savage, Dickov, Bellamy - we had some proper balls on us in them days... We have maybe on Bradley Johnson and a couple more these days cut from that cloth.

You'd hope not, kits and other merchandise is probably the least painful way for the club to make money at the moment. Mind you, the way this club has been run for the last decade...

I sadly believe this to be true - I don't think it is in the best interests of anyone apart from the top three or four teams in the continent at the given time (Liverpool, Man City, Real Madrid, Barca and Juve for example right now). How do someone like Chelsea, Atletico Madrid or Dortmund sustain the model they've created for themselves when instead of competing successfully on weaker domestic fronts all of a sudden they're getting beaten every week by vastly superior, stronger teams? Much better for them to have the annual competition as it stands and build their foundations on Cup titles and top 4 finishes. There's a really good book called Can We Have Our Football Back? by John Nicholson that goes down a lot of the roads @S8 & Blue's post above touched on - well recommended to everyone with that mindset.

Cheers both. Can understand him to be fair, they were acting like absolute tossers the more time went on, if we had anything riding on tonight I probably would have gotten wound up by it. Suppose it makes a nice contrast from our permanently-seated, silent manager.