Wheelton Blue

It's all about control, as is the case with many things in modern life.

For all the recent talk of how great Dolan has supposedly been this season so far, last night was a massive reality check. For the occasional good things he does, he more than offsets those as we saw last night. What the heck was he playing at for that second goal? The lad has what, 3 season's experience now, but doesn't seem to learn and thus improve. If only he'd ground himself, rid himself of his cockiness and flashy antics, and just concentrate on improving the basics of his game. IMO, he'll never be anything more than infuriating and inconsistent, with rare occasions of sparkle.

The trouble now is that they've painted themselves into a corner - yet again - with their exhorbitant ST prices. What they could do now is offer an incentive to those buying match tickets for a reduction on next season's STs. Buy a match ticket, get £2 or so off next season's ST.

The lack of commercial nous is staggering. Instead of asking themselves why footfall is low and then proactively doing something to increase it, instead they simply just shut up shop.

It wasn't that long ago, that people - yourself included IIRC - when defending Southgate during the Euros, were claiming that the skills needed to manage the national side are different to those needed for a club side. You obviously believe that Southgate has the necessary skills for both types of role.

I'm predicting a draw for this one. Crap early kick off time (bloody Sky yet again) with a lowish crowd and an atmosphere to match. Law of averages says we're due to not win at home. 1-1

Opening hours of 10-4 makes no sense. If the intention is to limit opening hours in order to cut costs, then why not do 12-6? At least then (working) customers have the opportunity of going either at lunch time or after work. They patently don't want footfall in the shop.

Here we go again, round and round in circles. Chaddy thinks ST's are value for money. The overwhelming evidence of tickets sold, or lack of, completely suggests otherwise.

A comment I overheard walking off yesterday was 'our game management was really poor'. Summed it up to a tee, I thought, both on and off the pitch.

Some realism. Dolan is a one-in-ten player. He was very good last week, but was really poor again yesterday, even by his standards. At times, his close control is non-existant, he doesn't seem to get the ball under control, giving the opponent half a chance to nick it. Hedges is such a limited footballer. He's passable when shoring up one side of the pitch in front of the full back, but offensively he offers nothing.

Blimey, that's a blast from the past! I spent countless hours as a kid messing around up there! I wonder if it's still there...

We'll obviously lose and hit a sticky run at some point (hopefully not against the nobbers!), but it feels to me that we've become a much harder team to beat.

I got one just after 9am

When teams park the bus against them, is when they may struggle. They didn't look to have much guile against us.

If we somehow got to the final again, 35,000 Roverites would absolutely care about it.

It will be a tricky one for Eustace to manage will this game. Straight after the confidence boost at The Turd, a few selection decisions to be made, and ahead of another big derby at Nob End. Hopefully he'll be able to get the side in a good place for another home win. 2-1 Rovers.

They've got plenty of quality players, but didn't look like a 'team' to me. That's to be expected what with all the turmoil. The key is whether Parker can knit it all together.

I would be amazed if three or four of our squad hit 10 goals. Here's hoping, though!

The signing of Cantwell in particular has far exceeded my expectations. We still have massive issues, though. Three quarters of the back line are suspect; we've no idea if Pears has actually been adequately replaced; the team is still one paced; and I'm not sure where the goals are going to come from. The real test will be if/when we lose 2 or 3 key players to injuries or suspension.

Much better still, it's on live, in person, at Ewood.

Any relation to Tony Yeboah?

Has the Dingle game sold out yet?

Exactly this. The transfer monies received, £40 million or whatever it is, won't be received all in one go, but rather in installments over a timeline of say 3 years. In this scenario, the yearly income from transfers is only £13m. If the outgoings are say £20m, then an additional £7m of income needs to be found - per year - just to keep the lights on. This is without buying any players.

A tricky game is this and it will be a close call. Oxford will be no mugs and will be well up for it. I'm going for a 1-1 draw.

Whether the owners can't or won't fund the club, it amounts to the same thing; we're several players short. Despite the positive start, I still stand by my pre-season prediction that based on Szmodics staying we'd be in a relegation battle, but without him, we're nailed on for the drop. Unless Waggott et al sign at least 4 Championship calibre players in the next few days, we're screwed. The squad simply isn't deep enough, nor has it sufficient quality. Before too long, injuries and suspensions will start to tell.