Bethnal

Christ, what’s their recruitment like? ”who’s that lad who scored two chips against us? Yeah… he’s top scorer in the league, as well? Banging, make an offer.”

I’m surprised there’s enough interest in him by this stage. Would have thought he’d interest clubs going up from or coming down into the championship at the end of the season. Leaving now to a Championship club (or lower Premiership, even), I’d be a bit miffed at him. Only club I wouldn’t have an issue with at any time, is going as a squad player to West Ham, given what it would mean to him on a number of levels. Leaving end of season, for a good fee: fair play, he’s contributed a lot for a relatively low outlay and been an excellent example to everyone. Actually think he could contribute at a lot of Premiership clubs, as a squad player/impact sub. Obviously missing some attributes, but he’d be a serious handful late in the game.

Forgive me for laughing extremely loudly at the usage of this. Excellent work.

As far as I’ve heard (distantly, mind), there’s a new generation of Raos being groomed to take over.

Since you keep asking the room; I’m a fan of JDT and his tactics.

For me, there are very few people (tealady, ball boys, bar staff, etc) at the club that aren’t at least a bit responsible for what’s happening. The manager is responsible as the main face of the club, the players are making the kinds of errors that come from complacency, lack of effort/discipline or fatigue, the DoF is delivering about the best you could imagine with his budget and remit, but all of them have this run on their records now. I genuinely believe that more players back from injury (Hedges, JRC and Gallagher) and we see an improvement on the pitch. Rotation increases, players can give more, for longer. We all know the truth though - this club has a ceiling, which is imposed by exec level and the owners. This is a nice little earner for the jobsworths (include Benson, Lowe and Johnson, there, by the way) so going above this level barely suits their agenda, least of all Waggott’s. “JDT Out” is understandable after we’ve been watching this kind of football, but this is temporary. Four winnable games in January. Go unbeaten in January and there’ll be very few calling it.

I’d be inclined to agree on the principle, but I think he’s just not met the challenge of being the captain. Probably best for everyone if we can get a good fee for him and he can try and kick on elsewhere.

Sparks, he’s solidly linked with the Palace job, which is basically up for grabs at the minute. I can’t think of a manager with a higher stock and currently out of a job in this country at present, just as a lot of clubs here and abroad will be looking at their managers as disposable. He badmouthed this club’s current administration over the O’Brien debacle to the extent that you could only assume we marched into his living room the previous Christmas Day and pissed on his family. If you think Steve Cooper’s even taking the call, you’re beyond help.

Christ, that’s a laugh. Planet are you on?

The way it is, you’d expect us to be lodging the complaints regularly and I wonder if The Saddest WhatsApp Group Chat In The World (EFL match officials) has decided they’ll take the piss. Thoroughly meaningless to be apologised to after the fact and with the standard of referees visible, it’s not like the FA/EFL have a production line of capable ones ready to step in.

Refs are piss weak in this league and are cowed to home fans/not getting grief. Be a ref, we need more of them, but be half decent and stand by your decisions. Make proper decisions, stop trying to have an easy life for 90 mins and whinge about abuse when you ref totally inconsistently and arbitrarily.

Only explanation I can come up with for Hyam is he’s been rushed back.

To be fair, his first cameo, he looked like a fish out of water, didn’t appear to have any of the right attributes. We were expecting a speed merchant, if you remember. Both he and Gregg said as much in interviews. Has clearly been hard at work in the intervening window, he appears a lot more aligned with what we’re doing and utilising what he does have to good effect.

Well-deserved that we came back into that. Second came through dogged determination and a rare spot of luck with the deflection, but well-earned. Reset at half time but take the game to them. Hull will be that little bit unsure coming back out to a home crowd who will probably not believe the score if they went to the bar at 20 mins gone. Big opportunity, but needs calm heads, hard work and presence of mind. JDT can instil that at half-time. 4-2 Rovers FT, one early from Telalovic, one late from Szmodics on the break.

Harry Pickering is floundering. How have the defence become so shaky?

This could be 2-2, but we are woefully down on confidence, luck and momentum. They’re awful goals to concede, almost a comedy of errors. You can’t invite players on as we did when you’re this out of sorts. Telalovic and Markanday appear sharp and have been bright, which is encouraging. Reliable players making errors like that will undermine any good, though.

Really didn’t want to see Brittain in the team after recent performances. Still not over the double-yellow petulance.

O’Riordan’s 6’4” and has 3 goals so far this season, so something that fans have been crying out for, which is a set piece threat (assuming he is netting from set pieces, of course). If there’s cash to spend on players that could profit for us further down the line, I don’t see much of a problem with it. Will wait to see how he does, if it does happen, but he’s had games at L1 and L2 level, so he’s probably ready to challenge for a place in a Championship team over the next few months.

JRC, Hedges, Dolan, Pears and Gallagher out and you’d say they’re all either starters or are challenging those ahead of them every day in training. I was watching on my phone while out in Clitheroe y’day, so fair to say I was distracted, but I think it’s difficult to place too much blame on the players. Didn’t look up for it at all and the bare minimum is effort. Anything less than maximum effort is an insult to your supporters and inexcusable. Some players losing their place on merit, others keeping it in spite of poor performances (Moran is visibly exhausted, everything about his game has fallen away and he needs a rest). It’s true that our style is stubborn but I don’t think we can implement an entirely new system overnight. I hope the players get a bollocking, I would expect JDT to be the kind of manager that can dole one out in his own way. I still think JDT is right for the job. Those calling for a change are justifiable in doing so, but I don’t think it’s close to as bad as is being made out.

Where the ever-loving fuck have I said I was looking forward to it?

Huddersfield have executed a game plan extremely well, no slight to them, fully deserving of the three points. I disagreed with those at the beginning of the season predicting a mid table finish, but it’s clearly where we are. Ho hum, life goes on, I’ve hopefully 50 years of loving Rovers and hating Venky’s, still to come.

Not at all. The industry I’m in doesn’t really exist here to any meaningful extent. If it helps, I’ve been trying to open a branch here for about a year. As the song famously says, “Oh, Lancashire is Wonderful.”

Ewood Park catchment area supremacy in full-flow. No surprises. Sorry for having aspirations outside of East Lancs, I guess?

You could just as easily look to the fans that do leave when we go behind and wonder if that affects mentality for the players on the pitch. Average age of the 11 on the pitch when we conceded the two goals is 22.9 years old. The 23-year-olds that work for me tend to need a helping hand and a bit of encouragement when things aren’t going well, not being stormed out on and written off as not being good enough. Different strokes, I suppose.