Bethnal

De Neve is a waste of a shirt. An horrendous football brain. Looks completely out of his depth and if I never see him in a Rovers shirt again, it would be too soon. However they’re handling the players not really getting a look in is ruining any impact they’re capable of making. Henriksson looks a yard behind both mentally and physically. Baradji clearly not going to get started properly for a long time. Have to be holding onto these leads, that’s five goals conceded at 90+ minutes this season. Not a good sign.

Looks like he’s after it today.

Really low confidence moment for Ohashi. Took far too long to get the shot away. Andri has a tough job to try and put that away. All on Ohashi to finish.

Can’t fault anything there really. Seem to really enjoy pressing and winning the ball back. Some excellent anticipation on display with the interceptions and seem willing to fight for the ball. Think Ismael has a lot of work to do on the home “philosophy” because these players can play this style well. Their keeper hasn’t looked comfortable any time I’ve seen him, need to ask more questions of him than we have so far.

Meanwhile I can very distantly hear “North London Forever” being sung at the Emirates from my window.

Reckon Kevin Gallagher would beat Forshaw in a foot race

An unexpectedly pleasant end to a torrid day (hangover and bad news are a lethal combo). Such a torrid day had me primed for a battering, but the golden boys were fully at it. I say that with the qualification that we are not a squad filled with quality, but there was a lot of graft and that’s always satisfying. Pratt got through a debut in a hostile environment, under the lights, in front of the cameras and a strong and vocal away following. Excellent blocks, little bit of naïveté, but I’ll be more interested in his future performances to get a measure on him. Deserves a pat on the back. Tronstad, Mori and Miller impressed me, but Hedges really was everywhere. I groaned entering Ewood for the Derby game and working out that we had him at LCB, but the fact is, he is our most reliable player right now and he’s got so much running in him. He gets a lot of grief, he deserves the credit for his performances recently. He’s clearly setting a standard of application. I like to think I can get the measure of a player early on for Rovers, but I couldn’t tell you what I think of Baradji. I’m inclined to believe he’s showing the signs of a difficult lay-off and will need a gradual introduction to Championship. No pre-season means you never catch up, so I’ll reserve my opinion until I’ve seen a lot more. Bit of urgency needed in his play by the looks. Friday night win makes the weekend easier, so I hope it’s as such for all of you.

The problem for Wharton last night was England wanted to build to the edge of the Albanian box and play through at that point, in the first half. He was asked to stay deep and found himself caught amongst the high sitting defenders/Stones moving into midfield. Second half was more to his style, as the Albanians went more direct and the game stretched out. He doesn’t necessarily need much time on the ball, but he does need his forward players to be finding space. Anderson is more useful against teams sitting in, as he’s busy and constantly shouting for the ball, also being more likely to run at the opposition to create openings for others. For more open games, Wharton would be the better choice to find clever runs or opportunities. There weren’t many opportunities for him to play the key balls into the forwards. Having said that, he looked like he felt the pressure, which is unfortunate. He could do well to improve his off-the-ball further, too. England had a good general shape last night and he didn’t sit well amongst it fir periods.

Ewood Park existing and needing to drain into the river isn't a choice made by the council, though. It's not causing an environmental hazard when the water level is high. As I understand it, there were enquiries made by the club for an alternative (viable) solution and were presented with one. Guess the "who" and "why" those enquiries weren't pursued?

Where was “135/15” today?

That Roberts lad has to be one of the worst defenders I’ve seen at this level. Is he playing out of position?

Particularly enjoyed him pleading his innocence, as though the ref wasn’t five yards away.

No, quite, the 400 mile round-trip for me should be light work for a true fan and the business I’ve built down here can fend for itself, I suppose, while I take the days away to prolong the inevitable. Because as we’ve seen over the last 15 years, the likes of yourself and your friends have been making huge strides on our behalf.

That is a tenuous and disingenuous argument, which is either completely naïve or wilfully ignorant. They couldn’t send money over when they were under the cosh with their own government on financial grounds. The conversation was had ant that time across a lot of fan groups, a bunch of fans (some of them very visible) cried “poor me” at the prospect of a boycott being called for. If a boycott was called for, any fans not adhering to it would be apologists/complicit, not sage, forward thinkers, who are fighting the good fight against corrupt owners. There are many, many people at Ewood today (relative to the paltry attendance) who would still attend, the point is that they’re not the hardcore, they’re just a combination of selfish, ignorant, stubborn or not very bright. It’s not a crime to be any of those but it doesn’t preclude them from criticism.

We’re roughly 24 hours from witnessing a boycott and NAPM campaign ousting a delinquent owner from a football club. Forgive those of us who are frustrated at the people who refuse to back a boycott campaign because they’re in denial.

Hardcore is N01, the rest are literally happy clappers and day trippers. Most of those couldn’t tell you who Suhail Pasha was or pick him out of a lineup.

Figured this out a while ago and didn’t want to believe it. Have a look at the visible Rovers supporter personalities that refused to back a boycott early on in the Coalition campaign, for example. “I won’t let Venkys take my enjoyment away from me.” You have to submit to a higher purpose to achieve something like ousting your ownership and you have to do it in numbers. Too many would rather moan about it on Twitter or podcasts than actually take action. They’ve also all got an opinion on the actions of others trying to make a difference. Anyone trying to do so for this club is on a hiding to nothing.

Just a brief reminder that the manager signed a 3.5-year deal and is absolutely not getting sacked by Rudy “we are not a sacking club” Gestede or Suhail “spending money does not guarantee success” Pasha. Rao family will be updated on tonight’s scoreline and “bad luck” at breakfast in a few hours, before moving onto more pressing matters.

Minutes 45+2 - 45+17 (spent in the dressing room) made us weaker. Came out with less intensity and lower concentration.

You can’t play well for 45 minutes and hope your opponents give up. You can’t buy height and not do any work on set pieces. You can’t turnover most of your squad and gamble on wholesale unproven players from abroad. You can’t rip out the overwhelming majority of your home-grown/academy-developed players in one transfer window and expect a positive outcome. You can’t employ interns to oversee your most important department. You can’t hire a manager with a track record for upturning the morale apple cart at the first opportunity and expect him to get a tune out of a thrown-together squad. You can’t run a football club properly from 5000 miles away. When you do any of these, you make survival in one of the most competitive leagues in the world very difficult. When you do all of them, you make it borderline impossible.

Some committed performances for the first 50-odd minutes, credit to the manager for actually trying to set us up with the opposition in mind, but that’s about as far as credit can go. Lot of players in the squad are missing the ‘x’ factor required to play at this level or higher and we don’t have the required intangible attribute at the club to compensate for that (ironically enough, it’s stuff like “togetherness” or toughness, that does it). Some sympathy for being thrown together as a group with a lot of turnover, but results don’t often lie. You can’t have an effective plan B when your plan B players don’t get minutes, which is why Gueye, Kargbo et al struggle to get into the games when they come on. Disappointing for them when so many others have offered nothing and get a starting berth. Quite how Gudjohnsen commanded a fee is beyond me, but you have a feeling his surname is doing a lot of heavy lifting. To outline where we are - we don’t have much of a budget, we have a divided fanbase, absentee owners, an anti-man-management manager, over-promoted orange juice salesman cosplaying as a CEO/COO dynamo, an intern running the entire football department and a squad of game-albeit-not up to it footballers, with one player visibly more capable than his teammates but with a patchy availability. We’re aiming for 21st position as a best-case, but some of you might be fortunate to compulsively purchase your season tickets next year for the promotional price of £151, to mark spending our 151st year in the third division, so there’s that to look forward to. Turn up to the 150th anniversary game, it could be a watershed moment.

I've dropped you a DM to get further into this. We're on a relatively tight turnaround, but can make quick progress, hopefully.

Genuinely very embarrassing that we’ve given the #8 shirt to Tavares. Do not want to be hammering on about it as much as I am, but he’s lacking in absolutely every department.

Plumbs new depths with every touch.

De Neve isn’t at the level, looks lost whenever he’s on the pitch.