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12 hours ago, Mercer said:

This is a MUST win game.

In fact, given our last 5 fixtures, I think we need a minimum of 7 points from the Norwich, Huddersfield and Hull games.  I think Huddersfield will be the most difficult of the 3 games as Warnock has proved the catalyst for their mini revival and no one will fancy going to Huddersfield.

I think we need a further 14 or even 15 points as there's always one team who makes a charge - take your pick from Norwich, Coventry, WBA and even PNE and three of our last eight games are against those teams with games against Burnley, Luton and Millwall thrown in for good measure.

It will be tough but I remain confident PROVIDING JDT gets his team selections right.  I don't want to see Morton starting another game for Rovers, whatever sh1t has been going on with Adam Wharton needs resolving NOW (as I believe he could be the difference in making the play-offs or not - it's clear as day midfield is our achilles heel) and Dack has to be brought into games far earlier than yesterday's 81st minute (30 minutes of Dack almost guarantees you a goal and/or an assist).

 

For what it's worth, they're almost all Must-win games now, @Mercer .

When there were 9 games to go, I started a little "Predictions sheet", featuring the teams then in 2nd (Sheffield United) - 9th (West Bromwich Albion). Quite apart from showing what a rotten tipster I am, it shows that Luton Town are on a roll.

Their last four games have ended: 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 and 2-0. That run includes Sheffield United (A) and Watford (H). That's 9 points more than I predicted they'd get.

Meanwhile Norwich City, with a record of 0-1, 1-1, 0-0, and 0-1, have got 5 points fewer than I thought they would. They seem an unpredictable team and as we've already had their measure this season, I'd be happy with a 1-0 win on Friday.

Because our goal difference is so poor, I'd be happier still with a bigger win, but first things first and three more points in the bag.

10 minutes ago, Bethnal said:

FFS. Khadra has been absolutely awful the whole game. 

Bollocks.

14 minutes ago, JohnD said:

City said they would keep the gate open as long as needed 

So where are Swaggott and his cohort of acolytes who go to away games - well, they, certainly did on transfer deadline day - arguing the case for our loyalists?

18 minutes ago, Bethnal said:

I think I’ve sussed him. He’s an auxiliary and he simply cannot perform in a two. You can use him to bind two combative CMs or you can sit him between two very dynamic CMs and he can play from deep, while kind of disrupting any breakaways.

Can now see why he’s well-liked at Liverpool, as sat between Fabinho and Henderson, he would work. But he’s not what we need.

And that sums up for me what's wrong with the loan system from the perspective of the borrowing club.

It seems like we're offered a player whom the loaning club think we can develop in a role they need him to understand, irrespective of our needs.

If the needs of both clubs align, then fine. Which is one reason, imo, why Elliott's loan worked so well. Less so, this season.

10 minutes ago, J*B said:

Should be two down here, it all feels very Tony Mowbray at the moment. 

But we aren't!! Keep the faith, lads!

16 minutes ago, pick32 said:

🎣 happy first of April, come on you blues 

But surely everybody knows that no "joke" cracked after mid-day counts as an April Fool.

No matter how hard you try, there's no excuse for the thought behind your earlier, mindless, post.

13 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I wonder if he's being rested 'cos he was playing internationals during the week? Or maybe it's a reward for Hedges for scoring hte winner?

We've got 8 games to play this month, the squad is going to have to be handled with kid gloves. 

Difficult, sometimes, to get the rationale for some of JDT's decisions. But he keeps getting - overwhelmingly - the majority of 'em right.

1 hour ago, levi said:

I don't live in blackburn anymore and only get over to a few games a season mainly due to grassroots ko times

When we had our son i steered him towards rovers by buying him kits,taking him to games etc but also used to show him barcelona/messi on tv and buy their kits for him so that was his glory team

 

He's 12 now and a proud rover...asked for giant rovers emblem on his bedroom wall,rovers screensaver etc...also still asks for barca kits!

 

Gets no end of friendly stick off his glory hunting mates but i don't think he'll be changing teams at his age...so it is possible😁

He sounds like the mid-1950s me; having to cope with Blackpool fans (ah, bless, nowadays!) winning the F.A. Cup in one of THE most famous F.A. Cup Finals, while we were mid-table in Division 2.

I KNEW we were the better team, cos Dad kept telling me of our F.A. Cup history. With that attitude, he did two things: got me interested in history as a subject; and, more importantly, made me 'Rovers Till I die'.

5 hours ago, Upside Down said:

It's like being forced to eat your vegetables, one day he'll look back and realise that it was the right thing to do. 

And thank you and his Mum for bringing him up properly!😏

8 hours ago, tomphil said:

Physically the weakest keeper iv'e seen at Rovers and he was bang average at best although i thought he improved a bit as time went on. Then he seemed to go downhill after John Keeley left and was awful in our relegation season but that's when all the questions started about Benson as the new coach.

Training with a rookie number 2 and a rookie coach in an ailing team/club can't have helped him although he was crap at Sunderland as well.  Spent most of his time at Brighton as 3rd choice but seems their manager now has given him a chance so perhaps he's a late bloomer.

Talking of Brighton's 3rd choice goalkeepers, I'm sure I remember Christian Walton, whom Brighton loaned us in 2019-20 season, being described that way at the time we signed him.

The same season, they loaned Sanchez to Rochdale so I'm not sure if lending him to a Division 4 club meant they saw him as their 4th Choice keeper at that time. I only saw Sanchez play for 'Dale once that season and he was more impressive than I ever remember Walton being for us.

And me! (Bit worrying for this 77-year-old that the "age" question stopped at 55+!)

9 hours ago, oneandycrawford said:

Burnley didn't seek re-election. They had to win on last day to avoid relegation from Div 4. If I remember correctly it was the first season of relegation from the League to the Conference (now National League). 

 

Much as I enjoy it when we beat Burnley (and enjoyed bragging rights at school when they were in the 4th Div) it would have seemed a bit unjust for them to get relegated on their first time at that level when teams like Rochdale and Hartlepool and many others had finished bottom multiple times but been saved by the 'old boys' network. I'm sure there will be some on this forum who disagree 😉

Yes; my Burnleh-supporting old schoolmate in NZ really loses his rag when I point out that Lancashire's Most Historic Football Club has never come within 5 minutes of dropping out of the League!

2 hours ago, renrag said:

Every first choice keeper has eventually been overtaken at some point by his number two. We arguably missed the best of Shay Given by not giving him an opportunity when Flowers had passed his peak

Glad I'm not the only one to have thought  like that, @renrag.

4 hours ago, The Gull said:

This isn't normal trade though, is it a players fault if the club haven't prepared them well for the game and they get injured, or is it the payers fault?

What if some chodder takes them out?

I understand the reasons for this in normal working conditions but for instance if you get injured at work normally you would get full pay, and maybe even some compensation if the employers was at fault.

To say footballers should get sick pay if someone has broken their leg seems a little harsh to me.

I'd have said there's scope for a legal Eagle having a field day with a Test Case on that issue, @The Gull!

8 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

You wouldn’t learn any of that reading Th’ Obby.  It’s beyond useless now. I think it’s produced in somewhere like Warrington. Hardly any local news and full of nonsense.

In the spirit of the detours  the Birmingham(A) game thread's taken,@Tyrone Shoelaces , surely it's not just now. The Rochdull Observer's been flirting with being beyond useless for decades!!

54 minutes ago, oneandycrawford said:

No - 3 up by then. West Ham making 2023 Burnley look average in comparison! At 3 points for a win and 46 games would give WH 103 pts. Particularly when draws were more valuable back then in comparison - I suspect with 3 points for a win they might have looked to convert some of those away draws into wins.

Thanks for this, @oneandycrawford. In what you've attached, there's almost a lesson for this season.

It's not quite like like back then - when we missed out on an automatic promotion place on goal difference - but G.D. will make a difference between where we fit in among the group of teams who miss out on automatic promotion and have to play off with neighbouring teams.

Memo to Gregg: Please find us an goalscoring forward to sign during the next transfer window!

On 19/03/2023 at 21:04, rigger said:

On the same day as we won at Bristol, Preston couldn't hold Swansea at Dumpdale. Swansea went up, we didn't.

With added misery as we passed their coaches on the south-bound carriageway as we were on our miserable way home.

Speaking from memory, wasn't that the last season when only two teams got promoted?

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Over the years I must have been to Spotland nearly as many times as I have been to Ewood. I don’t go now at all since the new current board started shitting on the Rugby League club that shares the ground with them. They’ve wrecked the chances of Hornets doing anything and now they’ve wrecked the football club. What goes around comes around.

I didn't realise that.

Now I don't get Th' Observer, . . .

3 hours ago, bazza said:

Bill Shankly could probably answer that question if he were still around.

Today's game was like watching paint dry. I was asleep for both goals in real time.

The Italy game at the weekend was far better. Second half of that was Italy upped their game and pushed us back. We didn't sit back. We did a "Rovers" and held on to win.

Glad I wasn't the only one, @bazza!!

12 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Mike it does cost £25 a week. If it costing you 50 pounds to travel to Preston in that car I suggested getting something more better fuel economy better. 

I am happy to DM my car report which will show you that I am spending 25 pounds a week on Diesel 

FFS, Chaddy; Let It Go!!!

Life's too short!!!

34 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I wasn't joking about this. I'm deadly serious. It's all the news ever talks about 

Only because it's really important.

4 hours ago, roverandout said:

Piss off talking about the Ukraine.  Sick to the back teeth of it. Was never interested never will be 

And where's there any mention of appendices in that post? @roverandout

53 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Easily forgotten I suppose.

Aww @Tyrone Shoelaces, that's a bit harsh!!

As one who was also a Rochdale Council Taxpayer until a couple of years ago, I always had a soft spot for them.

Several of my former colleagues were season ticket-holders at the Crown Oil Arena. If it didn't clash with our game at home to Luton, I'd have gone - for auld lang syne - to their last home League match for - at least - a season.

3 hours ago, roverandout said:

Was a joke 

If your remark about Ukraine was intended as a joke, then, imo, it couldn't possibly have been in worse taste.

Many of those lads playing in yellow this afternoon will have family members and friends who've - in the worst case - died in the defence of their country and, at least, are suffering privations, the like of which we're lucky never have seen in this country.

Another factor which also has to be taken into consideration, imo, is the way in which the last few seasons have been atypical; either because of Covid and/or the World Cup. Fixtures have had to be squeezed into fewer weeks. This has contributed to a rise in the number of night matches.

And, as someone who'll become closer to 80 than 75 early next season,  my reluctance to leave a nice warm home on a midweek evening/night to cheer the team on increases and a season ticket becomes of less value.

I'd like to cheer the lads on at every home game, sure I would; and if I were younger and fitter, I'd do it. But the effort - and money - that I have to put into getting to every home game will, I fear, inevitably increase. I haven't driven since I took early retirement in 2008. So buying a match ticket for those games I can get to makes more financial sense than buying a season ticket.

I'm not saying I can't afford a season ticket; I can. And now that I've moved back to live in Blackburn, attending night matches is more possible than when I lived 25 miles from Ewood.  But when night matches - played at a time when there are fewer buses for me to flash my bus pass on - come into the equation, then that's a minimum of an extra tenner on taxis to and from the game.

If we - not just Rovers; the whole of the Premier League and the Football League - could get back to playing more matches at the traditional time, then a season ticket would make more sense for an old beggar like me.

But I fear that ship may have sailed.