1 hour ago, berkshireblue said:

joey Craig was garbage, these 3 better than some dross we have had Norman Bell , Lowey, Stonehouse etc

That's harsh on at least Kevin Stonehouse, imo.

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Why stop at Brad, what's Terry Gennoe doing these days? 

Broughton probably still wouldn't be able to get either of those over the line though.

Jim Arnold's only 72!😉

4 hours ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

That's helpful for someone living in Bristol. 

Not for me to comment, I guess (but, as you see, I'm not letting that stop me!),  because each of us has different circumstances.

But being able to get more easily to Ewood was one of the factors which influenced my move, 18 months ago, from Heywood to within a couple of miles of Ewood.

Then Sod's Law struck, and I'm stuck at home for at least the next month until an injury to my left leg has healed.

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Blackburn End isn't far from being full and Jack Walker looks busy. Hopefully 14k plus Rovers fans today. 

Yes Ewood Park. 

Brilliant, @chaddyrovers !😉😅😂🤣

And before anybody asks, I know, I know!! But I won't be fit enough to take my new seat in the JWU until the bandages can come off my left leg. (A month's time🤞)

1 minute ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

So Tomasson has been qouted in the local paper as stating the team is even more stretched than ever going into this new Season...on behalf of our ambitious Manager and our expectant supporter base and just about anyone who gives a damn about our great Football Club I would liike to give a big shout out to our shithouse owners for their fantastic Support and backing...yeah, fookin righty oh!

😠

Well there's a coincidence!

I'd begun typing what follows before @SIMON GARNERS 194 's post had appeared on the Board and, not being a regular reader of the LT, had begun with:

"Well if nothing else, the coming season could well be a test of JDT's coaching skills."

It now continues as follows: I'm going into the new season with less optimism than for several years.

The only things that encourage me (and this is probably down to football journalists in those parts of the national media I read/listen to focussing on the Premier League, almost to the exclusion of the Football League) are: i) the continued development of some of our younger players; ii) the apparent alacrity with which Gregg used the opportunity to recruit players who may, or may not have been on his wanted lists but without the continuation of the war in Ukraine, would probably have had to remain there; and iii) the media's obsession with the Premier League which means that I haven't a clue how the other teams that were "there or thereabouts" near the top of last season's Championship have approached their recruitment so I don't know how the Championship table is likely to settle down.

When it comes to Saturday's match, I've not much of a clue about what Gregg's opposite number at W.B.A. has been able to achieve during the close season in terms of strengthening their squad.

So - and with no disrespect to Leonard this is very much typed with fingers crossed - I hope that Leonard has a blinder on his League debut and fulfils what , based on his display in the pre-season game at Parkhead, I hoped Vale might achieve last season.

And that we win with the only goal of the game in the 8th of 9 minutes' stoppage time. When it comes to the scorer's identity, I'd like it to be Leonard, irrespective of whether it's a blinding shot, or goes in off his arse in a goalmouth melee!

On 26/07/2023 at 08:30, Herbie6590 said:

At the moment it’s just us wearing the gear…partly to identify us as the stallholders but also to test out the interest if anyone fancies buying some. Your replies make it more likely we’ll do something…

If there is sufficient interest - we really would need a minimum of 10 orders - we can add these to our range of merch that we sell on here.

So if anyone else likes the look of it - add a comment on here then I can contact our suppliers…⚪️🔵   @tomphil @Polky

Put my name down for one of those FTH tee-shirts, please.

3 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

My new bestie…😆

Beware of the company you keep!

On 16/07/2023 at 14:25, R0verb0y said:

I'm gutted that I can't go to this game; a longstanding, slow-healing couple of injuries to my left leg just above the heel (I stopped describing them as "slow-heeling" a long time ago!) prevent me wearing any footwear other than bedsocks. In other circumstances, I'd have been there.

I'm guessing that the actual playing of the music was down to Waggott Enterprises (Very) Limited??

Anyway, I'll be thinking about you all; and hope that the weather's fair, so that anybody local without a leg-itimate😉 excuse like mine; or who had already booked their holidays for the close season - that's what it's there for(!) ‐ will be there.

I'm gutted that I couldn't make it - it sounds like everybody enjoyed themselves - but quite heartened by the comments on here.

I was really quite pessimistic before the game, but at least I can quote the comparison with Real Madrid in my usual Sunday morning WhatsApp chat with my old schoolmate in NZ who follows The Dingles!

I'm gutted that I can't go to this game; a longstanding, slow-healing couple of injuries to my left leg just above the heel (I stopped describing them as "slow-heeling" a long time ago!) prevent me wearing any footwear other than bedsocks. In other circumstances, I'd have been there.

Anyway, I'll be thinking about you all; and hope that the weather's fair, so that anybody local without a leg-itimate😉 excuse like mine; or who had already booked their holidays for the close season - that's what it's there for(!) ‐ will be there.

9 minutes ago, JPTSwindon said:

It’s important to not carried away from pre-season friendlies.

With that in mind I think the WBA XI is starting to take shape:

            JRC

JRC JRC JRC JRC

       JRC JRC

JRC    JRC     JRC

           JRC

😉 😅 😂 🤣

Yes; that team's probably best playing a 4-2-3-1 system, @JPTSwindon !

Maybe it was because it was only 12 years after VE Day when I went to "big school"; or - more likely - it wasn't a very good school, but we never learned German when I was at school.

So I couldn't have sung "Can we play you every week?" if I'd been at today's games!😉

1 hour ago, rigger said:

I would say anyone who buys an 1875 membership, is a mug. I cannot see any advantage for the purchaser. If you can see an advantage, please post it.

I already did, @rigger.

And no; I discounted the items that @bazza listed!

24 minutes ago, rigger said:

So the main selling point of the 1875 club is that you can spend £20, to save a fiver on each of the three cat A games.

And it's for poor sad old beggars like me who like to: i) "collect" away Grounds where I haven't previously seen us play; and

ii) are too aged and infirm to stand on terraces for 90+ minutes.

It must have been popular last season because, if memory serves, it was only £10 then. 😉

Not for me to put the words "Swag" and "money-raising scam" - sorry, "scheme"; you know how these words sound similar! - in the same sentence, you understand.

4 hours ago, Ossydave said:

Swag will be stood at the turnstiles offering to pay for our fans 👍

Damn; and I've left it too late to go!! 

On 06/07/2023 at 00:02, SuperBrfc said:

.... .... .... .... .... .... 

The prick got his move to Brighton a week later and it was all seemingly forgotten about. Not all of us have forgot about it though.

He is in the Orr, Best and Stokes bracket for me.

We bear grudges; and rightly so in cases like this one. Those two goals in the one game were so far out of order as to be almost unbelievable.

If I remember rightly, weren't they early in the season? (Far too late at night for this old beggar to check.) I seem to recall thinking that, if he'd got them at the other end, those three goals would have made him top scorer in the Division.

On 10/07/2023 at 17:15, Tugayisgod said:

JDT on JRC !!

 

😉

Move over, Trent Alexander-Arnold!! 

On 08/07/2023 at 18:14, BankEnd Rover said:

There’s still 8 weeks of the transfer window?

Shouldn't that read, "There's still 8 weeks of the transfer window? 😱", @BankEnd Rover ?😉

18 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Spare a thought for those Rovers fans that now go and watch Accy Stanley. Must be a truly confusing day for those turncoats….

Can they truly be "Rovers fans" any more??

Just asking.

If the weather at the Wham Stadium's anything like it is in BB2 at the moment, serious respect to anyone who's there.

(I would have been; but I'm 77 and recuperating from surgery.)

Yes, that's a brilliant evocation of how things used to be "back in the day", @Tyrone Shoelaces . Thanks for it.

There were always some players who could fit into more than one of those roles, I seem to remember. This may be an old man's memory playing tricks on him; but didn't Tom Finney sometimes play centre-forward - No. 9(😉!) for PNE?

And because I'm the "Sandgrown 'un" (born in Blackpool) son of two Blackburners and lived there till I was about 24, I didn't see as many Rovers home games in the 1960s, as my contemporaries on here.

So I need to ask those on here of a similar era, am I correct in remembering "Duggie" playing either as a Right winger or as an inside-forward as the "2 - 3 - 5" morphed into "4 - 2 - 4"?

On 12/05/2023 at 14:51, philipl said:

Very solid A from me for JDT and GB.

Ownership and CEO bought into the vision and plan of the two of them in making the appointments so assessment has to be against the criteria they set.

Both have been absolutely clear to the point of being repetitously boring this is a project which JDT has signed up to for 3 years.

Looking around the EFL, the clubs with ownerships willing to contemplate such an approach are extremely rare-

Coventry, Luton, Rovers, Wycombe, Accrington, Sutton are the ones I can think of.

So JDT and GB have to be judged against the benchmarks they set and have been accepted by the Raos.

JDT - a transition season. He has given chances and integrated the academy youngsters, imposed his approach throughout the club (in many ways to the detriment of results in the u-21s and u-18s) and has got more out of Carter, Pears and JRC I would ever have believed possible.

Oh and we missed out on the play offs on goal difference.

Go back to the season expectations posted on brfcs last July and tell me this isn't a solid A for JDT.

Giving GB an A is more controversial. Mola and Hirst didn't work out, Morton is no Elliott but no Clarkeson either, Brittain and Szmodics very good replacements in slots we never wanted to become vacant while Hyam is an upgrade on Lenihan.

The hard work was done in January. Thomas, O'brien and Brierley was a fabulous set of signings. The easy bit was cocked up but Broughton stood up in public to take the responsibility even though in my book the CEO always is where the buck stops.

I am more generous than everyone else but by the same measure, the project will be more than half way through this time next year and an A in 23/24 will require a concerted serious promotion campaign. 

True, dat @philipl !

I don't remember any commitment by the ownership; let alone them "being absolutely clear to the point of being repetitously boring this is a Project which JDT has signed up to for 3 years."

I've read JDT say that; but nothing from our owners. And what if there's another snafu on the next transfer deadline day, leading to us missing out on someone else JDT thought would advance "the Project"?

In such an event, he wouldn't be human if he didn't think he was surrounded by incompetents; and start looking - before the three years of The Project were up - for a more business-like football club for him to be Head Coach.

God knows the last transfer window proved that he seems to have the reverse at Ewood.

On 08/05/2023 at 21:29, goozburger said:

I was expecting a lower mid-table finish during what was no doubt a transitional season with a difficult situation regarding contracts, so I'm pleased that we were well above that.

We have had some absolute stinkers, and the players need to learn when to be up for it. It would be nice to be the dominant force amongst our local rivals for a change, but we always seem to get outdone.

One thing I like about JDT is that he is decisive - both in the style of play (whether we like it or not), and who deserves to be in the side. It seems like years since we had a manager who appears to have a plan.

If JDT stays, is given a reasonable budget to play with, and the form filler-outers get their fingers out their arses, then I'm hopeful that we can reach the play-offs next season.

You're right, of course, @goozburger ; but don't forget what a very big word "If" can be.

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Well there's a difference between dismantling the squad and retooling the squad. 

If we just let Ayala, Brereton, Dack and Kaminski walk and replace them with Academy players then we're getting relegated. Until proven otherwise I'm going to believe we're going to use those freed up wages / any funds recouped through transfers to build the squad in JDT's image. 

A cynic writes, "Well, don't hold your breath, @Exiled_Rover ."

It'd be nice if that happened, but this is the cynical world of Swag & Co.

4 hours ago, wilsdenrover said:

I imagine even the ‘oldies’ have more than just Rovers in their lives. 😀

Yep! Well, this one does, anyway.

And sometimes you just think, "I can't be arsed going to watch us playing - e.g. - Luton Town because I've always found games against them drab battles."

And I'm getting a bit old for getting home from evening kick-offs. If I have my bedtime Horlicks too late, . . !😉 😁

Now here's a challenge: Mark Chapman on BBC Radio 5 doing a preview on tonight's game involving Sunderland begins his interview with the BBC Local Radio correspondent who follows them by saying, "There's nobody in football who has a bad word (for Tony Mowbray)."

I immediately thought, "I can think of a few who can!!"💩