First impressions from Ewood (5 pints and ??? Baby Guinness’ deep): They looked a team full of athletes at kick off and I was nervous. Some solid play to break the WBA press. We will get beaten by others’ press, but today and against many teams in this league, we will play through it effectively. That’s a real skill and the result of a lot of hard work. Some of the play was excellent. Give Szmodics the armband. Harry Leonard is a Championship striker. He leaves today with a hat trick if he was on a run of five games (working through the nerves) and I can see him scoring a lot of goals this season if he’s given a regular starting berth. Naturally gifted. Markanday will be an asset this season. Got muscled around a lot but his press and positioning was very solid today. We are very disorganised when broken against. Defense loses shape when the opposition breaks against us and that’s how we conceded. We could’ve conceded at least two more because of this. On balance, we were much better than WBA today, which means we’ve done good work over pre season. Tronstad is a very tidy player. Adam was a bit too careless at times today. Trav worked hard but I don’t think he’s suited to this style of play. Lovely assist to Markanday, even still. Ewood had a great atmosphere. If you can, get on Ewood as much as you can allow.

No Ennis at all? edit: nevermind

Defence look really disorganised.

Absolutely should not have to be leading the line next Saturday but I think he’s going to give a good account of himself. Looking forward to seeing him develop.

To be fair to you, he’s just found the gap between two of our players directly to the touch line but aside from that, he moves the ball quickly and generally looks forward. He looks comfortable in possession and as the “pivot” that’s what you want.

Tronstad seems very neat and tidy in his play.

The owners need to leave

Good movement from them both, although Sammie looked very tight for offside. Leonard does have instinctively good movement, he’s definitely a prospect. Leagues ahead of Vale, for me.

Congratulations to all those who’ve grafted to get this initiative off the ground and over the line. I’d be really pleased to see more of it in future. I’m about 200 miles away from Ewood today, but hope everyone has an excellent day.

Not much in the way of eye contact between those two. Difficult not to read into..?

Not a fan. Think the only colour for accents on a Rovers home shirt should be red, if you’re gonna do them. I also think that you should pick a lane with a design feature collar. They’ve tried to merge two here and it hasn’t worked. Not an instant classic.

I happen to run a merchandise company. It’s not hard to make things, just needs time, resources and imagination, but who can say how much of that we have at Ewood?

The above goes for anyone, obviously! More the merrier.

Cool, there’re a few of us, so let’s see if we can get organised! DM me your numbers if you’d like to start that up: @Feed the Yak @ben_the_beast @Rover_in_the_South @berkshireblue @R is for Rovers

Even still, I envisaged a WhatsApp or something for fans that wanted to travel together to games, coordinate in smaller groups/gather at pubs to watch the myriad Sky games we’ll no doubt have this season. If people are interested in that, I am, as well.

Cheers. Any idea where/who’s best to email at the club?

Cheers. I’m not on Facebook, so that’s why it may have escaped me. Will give this a try.

Never been able to find anything active online that I can join!

Right. I’ve tried this before and not had enough time to make something of it, but there’re a few games we can go to quite easily in the south this year. My Rovers-supporting mates have moved back north now and while I do plan on getting back home more this season, I’d like to be catching a few of the away games. Let me know in here if you’re in a similar position and we can set something up!

Always been madness to me that clubs don’t pursue grocery chains as sponsors and especially now, as they’ve had a good few years. Reading had Waitrose for a bit. The first place I’d have been going would be Booths (would look excellent in a contrast red on the front of the home kit), but we’ve got a historical link to the Co-Op (via CIS) and they’ve aggressively expanded in the north. The most compelling thing for any sponsor would be the boon of the charitable trust we have and the work we do with a very diverse community. Our demographics coverage would be appealing and there’s no downside to them running promotions at home games, for club or sponsor. Cost of living crisis and your club is able to offer savings/discounts via their sponsor when you attend home games? 5% discount for season ticket holders? Possibilities are there for a creative commercial department. We haven’t had talent there for a while.

Loved the orange one and the luminous one, but I am prone to controversial viewpoints on our kit. Also always liked blue shorts with the home kit, or white shorts, but all red socks. I stand by it, you can tell me I’m wrong but I don’t care.

More specifically around the local area, which I live on the edge of. It’s been a bit controversial among some, but it’ll ultimately end up improving things in the long run. It’s an area that’s needed it and when you see the scale of events they’re able to put on (concerts and NFL things) I think it’s already been a huge success. He probably did make a bad call around construction, which I don’t know too much about, but if that’s a bad call in appointing someone to oversee it, that’s happens, I guess? I know I’ve picked the wrong agency before.

It’s all down to Levy. Think he’s not as canny an operator as people make out. It’s not an incredible level of nous behind his famously hardline negotiating style. Did a good job as a business administrator and around the development of the stadium, but he cannot get transfer policy or managerial appointments right at all. Litany of failure and he’s the common denominator. They can’t progress until he’s gone. Glad we’re indirectly benefiting from it, though!

JDT leaving is absolutely not what we need right now. No idea how we recruit playing staff with the manager not appointed. How far up the Feyenoord list is he likely to be?

If it was, it’s a smart and considered move. If you trust a former player and rate their opinion, why not ask? Rather that than roping in James Corden to suggest someone who’d been sacked a year ago, as Chelsea did.