Much better the last few games. Very comfortable tonight in a 2 with Jagielka, who I think is helping him along a lot.

Caught out playing from the back last night for the only goal of the game. Fans not very happy. He's been alright so far but has made at least two or three sloppy errors which have led to goals or good chances. Coupled with our awful form and inexorable drift towards a standard anonymous mid-table finish, it's been a pretty inauspicious start. I think he's a good player, hope he can sharpen up and do well but it's only a half-season loan so it needs to be soon...

Well he’s finally signed. Sounds like just what we need, but good to read some moderating opinions there as well so we don’t get too carried away... Seems like he'll slot in on the left of our three, which unfortunately still leaves us with big bad Batth in the middle. But still a definite improvement. Cheers for the feedback, I’ll let you know how he gets on.

Sounds perfect. Where in the 3 did he play?

Haha, cheeky swine. The Pulis reputation tends to stick with us, although as it happens one of the most fun memories from that era was making a sport of regularly battering Mowbray's self-styled Brazil-esque WBA team, leaving him most sour about it. 😉 A ball-player is exactly what we need tbh, we started the season with a very young back 3 of Souttar, Ostigard and Wilmot, all of whom are modern ball-playing defenders, and we played decent football out from the back, which is O'Neill's preference all things being equal. Then we got hit by injuries and form fluctuations and had to revert back to the errm.. "traditional" style of defending Danny Batth generally inspires. Sounds like THB should help us get back to a bit more dynamism coming from the back, lord knows we need it.

Hello Rovers, I hope this is ok for a new thread, I had a good search round and couldn't find one on him. Appears he's signing on loan for Stoke today, we're very thin on the ground for centre-halves, Harry Souttar being long-term injured and us having slightly mysteriously cut Ostigard's loan from Brighton short. And we were supposedly in for John Souttar along with yourselves, although that seems to have gone a bit cold. Just thought I'd ask for a bit of insight on Taylor.. he seemed to be well-liked here, any particular strengths to look forward to or weaknesses to be aware of? Did he play in a 3 or a 4 with you? Cheers 😀

I don’t think he’d need you to, it’s got a shoulder strap

Dead to me since then 😉

Yeah he’s had loans at various lower league clubs over the last couple of seasons. Still a bit rough round the edges but he’s young, and well established in the England setup. He’s certainly got the attributes to have a top career, shame for him to get injured now.

Missed this before sorry. First-teamers missing today were Bursik, Souttar, Powell, Allen.. then Thompson and Clucas who would have been in with a shout of starting but also have knocks. The midfield was really threadbare. I expect we'll add in January - ideally an extra centre half and a strong DM, plus we have the return of Tom Edwards from a loan.. with that, and players coming back from injury, hopefully we can still have a tilt at it. But today was pretty abject and didn’t give much hope.

Well given how it ended up he was making it whether he wanted to or not 🙂

MON still has credit in the bank but he’s frustrating, on the one hand cautious and reluctant to change things but also won’t add any steel in the midfield for some bizarre reason. Today wasn’t a good day to judge our tactics because of the injuries we have, we played some super quick passing football earlier in the season and scored some lovely goals from it. Sawyers is talented but so flaky. Waste of a shirt today, I think the fact he got MoM from our corporates has to have been someone on a wind-up.

I think exactly the point he was making was that Stoke aren't a good side either

Piss and shit bag of wank. We're going nowhere. Shite game decided by a crap mistake and a good shot. That's about all I've got in me for a Stoke perspective review. Congratulations to you lot like, deserved the points 🙂😑

I’m the end we went with: Davies Wilmot Batth Chester Smith Sawyers Tymon Vrancic Fox Campbell Brown Nice to see Campbell back in the starting XI but very worried about BBD getting at Chester and Fox, as well as our midfield.

BBD talks about his boyhood heroes Fuller and Delap https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19745609.ben-brereton-relishing-hometown-return-blackburn-rovers/ Hoping his Stokie blood compels him to “accidentally” sky all his chances today 😉

There's a now-infamous old thread on our (Stoke's) board about us signing Bale from Spurs. It's full of absolute catastrophising about how garbage he is, not a footballer, shows how little ambition we have, going down if this is the level of player we're going for etc etc etc etc. Always worth a giggle to review now.

That’s about the size of it.. Allen suspended, Powell injured, don’t think Thompson or Clucas will be fit. Our wing back Tymon may have to fill in, which he’s done before to reasonably good effect to be fair. Crossing fingers but if you’ve got any steel and guile in there you’ll play through us piss easy.

Wouldn't know about ticket sales but someone on our board said you'd sold 2k.. could be bad info. I wouldn't normally with a home game but I'd be quite tempted to take a point tbh

Alright Rovers, thought I might as well start a quick thread as the board's semi-resident Stoke fan. I live in Chile but come from Stoke, so finding myself in the unlikely position of being the world's leading expert in the Potteries-Chilean football crossover, I signed up when Brereton (Diaz) got his sensational call-up to La Roja. Crazy crazy story, especially living through it here and him coming from a couple of miles down the road from me on the other side of the world. Looking forward to seeing him on Saturday, and how we deal with him... Anyway just thought I'd give a bit of Stoke perspective on Saturday's game.. Since O'Neill took over he's been ever-so-gradually turning things round after the disastrous Rowett and Nathan Jones experiments. We were rock bottom and eight points from safety when he took over at about this time two years ago and saved us from potential oblivion, so has an awful lot of credit in the bank. The way he's brought young players like Tymon, Souttar and Ty Campbell through to be key first-teamers is a particular highlight, although the jury's still out on his signings record. We were in desperate need of a defensive mid in the last window and he decided it was unnecessary, which means we have a slightly ragged band of talented but flaky bodies in the middle. Expectations flourish quickly in football and last season, while offering solidity and tantalising glimpses of the team we could be, ended up being underwhelming overall, never really looking like worrying the playoffs and finishing one spot ahead of you in 14th. This season feels like another step up and we find ourselves in a good position to secure a spot in the top six - I think most of us would be very disappointed if we didn't. As well as our similar league position we've also had very similar recent form, so it should be a close game. In fact our last two fixtures are exactly the same - Posh at home and Bristol C away - from which you've come away with a slightly better record, getting four points to our three. Last night's defeat to Brizzle was one of those games for us, we played pretty well, dominated possession and had about five or six excellent chances but just couldn't put it away. Conversely at home against Peterborough we were bloody awful but came away with a 2-0 win. The main issue for us is injuries and suspensions.. we've had two late red cards in the last two games so Joe Allen will miss Saturday's game (ordinarily this would be a good thing for us but we're so thin on the ground we need bodies in there), meanwhile our best goalie is injured along with Powell and Souttar, probably our two best players, while Campbell is still on the comeback trail. Might start, might not. Bit hard to pick a lineup before press conference news but it will probably be something like Davies Ostigard Batth Chester Smith Sawyers Vrancic Tymon (or Thompson or Clucas depending on who's fit) Doughty Brown Fletcher I'd rather see Campbell starting up top and Ben Wilmot in place of Chester. Apart from BBD I don't know a great deal about your team other than remembering Dack running the show against us last season (I think? Or the one before). I noticed he wasn't in the squad last night.. How has Pickering been doing? He was always one we kept tabs on at Crewe, seemed a stand-out young player. Anyway I hear you're bringing 2k or so so should be a decent fiery atmosphere. I think it'll be a good battle but I'm not too confident with our frail midfield and the injuries we've got (and your on-fire Chileno.. if he gets at creaky Chester we'll be in trouble). Enjoy the day if you're going, all the best.. see you in the playoffs in May 😉

Nice finish. That rifled near post shot seems a bit of a signature goal for him

As in "t'owrate duck, ast thee ad thy eowtkeeks yet this meowneen?" PM for private dialect lessons, good rates

That’s the place. I’ll not argue with your summary either 😄

Maybe “thick” was the wrong word but considering it’s her second language it’s still totally recognisable as Stoke (in words like “received” and “open arms” and “eet”. Actually more or less everything really).