A friend of mine came up with the acronym GROIN towards the end of his tenure: Get Rid Of Iley, NOW!

Well, that was depressing, wasn't it? Because the conditions underfoot made it too risky for me & my walking sticks even to get a taxi to as near as taxis stop outside the ground; and because I'm too frugal (a.k.a. "tight") to pay for Sky, I had to listen to the game on Radio Lancs. It was all so grimly predictable; after an awful display - which felt like Men vs. Boys - in the last game before the World Cup break, we have virtually a repeat performance yesterday. And I fear that we'll continue with repeat performances for some time for a number of reasons In the early days of the previous manager, I cut him some slack because of his PR in those days. I thought we'd got a good, experienced manager who would at the very least stabilise us where we were when I saw the first match I can remember seeing at Ewood in November 1953, namely mid-table in Division 2. Eventually the scales dropped from my eyes and I realised what a time-server we had in the Manager's Office at Brockhall. Similarly with JDT, I was really enthusiastic about his appointment. A man who had European managerial experience with what sounded like a realistic approach to the problem he was facing; he implied, that it was going to take three or four transfer windows to improve the squad sufficiently to get us where we, the fans, want the team to be. I'm not sure he gets where that is. For me, it's back to where we were at the time when our owners, for some reason I still don't understand, sacked Big Sam; namely as a mid-table Premier League team. Rarely able to recreate the excitement of the absolute glory days nearly 30 years ago but secure enough in the Premier League to, hopefully, become self-sufficient there. But really; I'm beginning to wonder if JDT, for all his European experience, isn't a bit naïve. He talks the talk, all right - reaching the Promised Land is a Project which will take three or four transfer windows achieve. We haven't the players presently to implement his strategy; he doesn't seem to "get" the strength of our rivalry with the Dingles and, increasingly, these days with PNE, and he seems to be developing the tendencies of a "Tinkerman". We're in a false position at present; no team that's lost as many games as we have should be as high in the table and we're approaching the second of his three or four transfer windows with questions to be answered. Will he and "Gregg" be allowed by our owners to buy players who can improve the squad, rather than the panic-buying of players I, for one, had never heard of? And can we transfer out at least some of those players who, with the best will in the world, have taken us as far as their abilities can?

The two words I've put in bold explain why I don't think Southgate is the right man for England. That said; I don't know who is. I heard one of the pundits - sorry; I can't remember which one - say after the game v. USA that Southgate's good at getting England through the group stages of tournaments but not so good at getting through the knock-out stages of them. The thing about that which worries me is the mentality which that approach can inculcate. Southgate's mentality seems more about not losing a game, more than actually trying to them. And until the English FA appoint a manager with a more positive approach, I can't see their HQ being home to any of the major Cups.

I was a bit surprised not to see Jason Leutweiler in goal for them! 😉😂

One of the thoughts that this year's World Cup has put into my mind is whether a midwinter break will be more acceptable going forward in our Leagues? Maybe not as long as the break that this tournament's brought about, and maybe deeper into the winter; but a break to recharge teams' "batteries". I'm obviously thinking about Rovers here; our squad, to my mind, is too small - and too young? - to cope with a schedule of two games every week for a 46-match League season. For teams which have Cup success - as we have this season - that pressure could get to be too much. I suspect that the Premier League's paymasters wouldn't like the idea; but to an old fogey like me that savours of the tail wagging the dog.

Only 7 minutes of second half stoppage time!! I can't help wondering if some of these games with their 10 minutes of stoppage time will influence English Referees later this season?

Were you, @bazza? I didn’t see you!! But yes; the reaction when the North Koreans went 3-0 up was sensational, wasn't it?

What a good opportunity for the Rovers fans who are there this evening to rehearse our version of a well-known song from Mary Poppins, ready for Sunday!!

I'm sure I've read somewhere today that VAR isn't being used until the semi-finals.

Well, if nobody else has started the chant, I will; "He's one of our own; he's one of our own; WacoRover, he's one of our own!!"

You can tell yesterday's feelgood factor's really kicking in when a thread for the next game starts the best part of 6 days before it kicks off! I know a couple of blokes from Hull - a father & son who are mainly into Rugby League - but I've no doubt that I'll be hearing from them before the week's much older. Imo, it's too soon to be predicting scores; let's see how the midweek fixtures go before seeing how the land lies.

Yes; he looked like a happy footballer yesterday. And if he's enjoying his job, his manager will get more out of him.

"... we'll do well...", obvs. Bloody predictive texting!!

I agree with those who say that Birmingham are likely to be a difficult opponent on Saturday. They came from behind in their midweek game to draw with our neighbours to the east - I think that's the fifth or sixth time this season they (the neighbours, that is) have dropped points in the last 10 minutes of a game - just saying!! It just feels like whichever team JDT puts out, and I'm not going to try to second-guess his choice for this weekend, we'll do we'll to bring more than a point back.

Yes, I'll be similar tonight. Mowbray deserves a bit more respect than Coyle would if he ever brought a Championship side to Ewood again; but I wince at the memory of some of the comments I made on here about him in the early days of his time in the Manager's chair. And I think it's an ideal time for the "WLWL" sequence to end. Which I think it will. I don't know a lot about the theory behind statistics; but a sequence like that surely has to end sooner or later and no better time than tonight. I'd like to see us get an early goal and use that as a stepping stone towards the victory I hoped we'd get last Saturday. It'd be nice to have a chant (gloat?) of "Tony, Tony, what's the score?", ringing round Ewood for the last 20 minutes of tonight's game.

I'd be happier with a Lenihan header into his own goal from a Brittain cross. 😂 0-1 Rovers anyone?!

Bad news for the commentators, though! Hopefully that eleven will be enough to get one goal more than 'Boro.

But aren't you making the same mistake as others have done on here in recent weeks and picking 12?!

I'm open to correction on this, but I thought JDT kept virtually all Mowbray's coaching staff in place at Ewood?🤔

That's odd, @BigBar I don't have Sky and the BBC Radio Toytown commentators said before the first half kick-off that it was Wigan's choice to turn us round. Presumably on the basis that we'd taken so many fans. (They implied that with 3,000 brave souls we'd be roared on to victory!!)

Well, I've never lived abroad, but have a pal from schooldays of the Claret persuasion. He emigrated to NZ 50 years ago and still has no sense of humour when I use the phrase Lancashire's Most Historic Football Club when referring to Rovers! The sad thing for him is that the friend he plays golf with in NZ is Blue & white through and through!

You weren't the only one on here to have the first impression of Sherwood, @Mercer; and more or less word for word, too! Thinking about tomorrow night's game, I wouldn't tinker too much with the team. I think Ayala will probably be rested and I'd like to see Brittain back with Hedges pushed further forward, possibly at the expense of Gallagher. Another 3-0, hopefully. Specially if we have the higher crossbar to aim at in the first half! 😉

Ah but you don't have an old schoolmate of the Dingles persuasion who lives in NZ and, to mis-quote Kevin Keegan, "would love it" if that happened. He wouldn't be able to get on a WhatsApp phone call to me quickly enough if that happened.

I hold onto the comments JDT made on that "glad confident morning" when he arrived. Namely, that we were "a Project" which would take three or four transfer windows to get to where he wants us to be. January '23 will be the first of those; let's see who we get - and get rid of - then.

2-0's always a dangerous score. How often do they do this to us??