Whilst I agree, our main issue with our current style of play is how exposed the defence is. Wharton is totally overrun as our sole CDM, leaving a 4 on 4 vs our defenders. I actually think man for man the defence are quite good, but we are reliant on them having great games to keep the opposition out as they're left with so many difficult situations. His main ire seemed to be the lack of attacking signings (which is fair), but I'm not sure it would have changed much at the other end of the pitch. He prefers Wharton deeper to collect and play the ball, but for me we need Travis a bit deeper too - or some sort of 'enforcer' to protect the back 4. On the flipside - my gut feeling is that the current style is an exaggerated version of his preferred style of football, with us over compensating with kamikaze football due to our lack of finishers and clinical edge. He perhaps wagers we need to pile more players forward as we don't have a number 9, and as such we suffer at the other end. It's clear we need a balance, but perhaps with a balance we'd never score and we have to throw more mud at the wall for something to stick. I realise the post starts by disagreeing and ends with agreeing, which shows the indecision I have!

I am inclined to agree on this, but of the players we lost: Kaminski wasn't picked and he preferred Pears, he clearly wasn't sold on Dack, Phillips wasn't played and Ayala was always injured. Morton played more consistently and of course we do miss Brereton's goals. I'd say Moran and Sigurdsson are pretty good replacements, with full credit going to GB for acquiring them on such a limited budget. He has been completely let down by those idiots in Pune, but it isn't that dissimilar to what's happened in the past - Armstrong, Rothwell etc all left. As for JDT winning the league there by October with £12m, I'm not too sure. He would do very well there, but Celtic hardly drop many points themselves. Ange might be gone now but I reckon an Ange-JDT tactical battle would be a fascinating one. Two quality styles of football.

Eh? Mowbray was getting absolute pelters for most of his last year or 2 on here and on social media. He got far more criticism (including from me) than JDT is getting currently.

Sick of being patronised by opposing bosses who pat us on the head and say how good we were. We never got such praise under Sparky, because we were a nasty, difficult team to play against. Leicester would love to play a team that are such a soft touch every week. It felt like in the second half our strategy was to sit off them and wait for a mistake, much like at Swansea last year, but with their quality it wasn't coming. Our success came when we pressed them aggressively, leading to the goal, but we just stopped doing it and showed them too much respect. Has JDT been sold a dud? Almost certainly, he hasn't been backed. Aside from a couple of strikers bought every other year, Mowbray would probably say the same though, and I can guarantee he would be getting absolute pelters in the same situation (including from me). It might all click at one point, but this kamikaze football feels like it will lose us more points than it will win. For all the talk of not being backed etc, which is true, we've lost the following from last year: Diaz - lots of goals (which aren't much of an issue atm), offered nothing past January anyway Dack - wasn't favoured by the manager anyway Ayala - experience but perennially injured Kaminski - manager favoured Pears anwyay Phillips - wasn't really picked If we have weakened slightly (which I'm not sure on as I think Sigurdsson and Moran improve us going forwards), it doesn't justify us suddenly having the worst defence in the league and looking nervously over our shoulders. I like to think JDT is too good a manager and too intelligent not to turn things around.

Don't worry, JDT will smile away in his interview and make a joke about team buses or a similar dig at Waggott. Regardless of transfer failures, we are massively underperforming and have the worst defensive record in the league. That is on the manager and he needs to address it asap.

Exactly this. We won 8-0 in the last round - no attempt has been made to encourage supporters to cheer on our record breaking, goal-getting youngsters. Unless he wants our under-23s to play in front of attendances they are more accustomed to.... 😂

It shows the muddled thinking for me. They want to project a better image on TV, yet for a long time insisted on shoving away fans in the top tier of the Darwen End, creating a huge void of empty seats behind one net. Given most of our games (including Cardiff, I believe) are not televised, surely more fans behind the goal would have better optics as the vast majority will only see highlights of this fixture. If they really wanted us to progress further in the cup, they'd be focused on trying to get supporters in to watch and support the team, rather than ostracising further an already disenfranchised and disrespected fanbase. If this was any other 'product' and wasn't a form of such deep attachment to me and so many, I would have binned it off long ago. Only football supporters can have the piss taken out of them so readily - but even us loyal folk have a breaking point. I really hoped that horrible 18-months COVID period would result in a change in how supporters are treated, but the status quo was very readily returned to. All the 'football is for fans' nonsense, as we suspected at the time, were empty platitudes.

I've conveyed all of the above in my reply, and asked for how many tickets need to be sold to offset the cost savings we have made in closing the stand: Thank you for your reply. I can almost guarantee the attendance will be considerably less than the Walsall game, when in reality it should be higher (being a round further). I’d be intrigued to know how many tickets we need to sell to offset the costs associated with closing the Blackburn End – surely an attendance of even 1,000 lower (£10,000 lost in ticket sales) would trump the costs of hiring staff in the Blackburn End for this fixture, in addition to any other operational costs. It feels nonsensical commercially, notwithstanding the long-term effect such a decision will have on supporters who feel ignored. I already know of many long-term supporters who are not attending this fixture out of principle, and fear the long-term effects will be dire – it is hardening belief amongst our fanbase that Steve Waggott is out of touch with the supporters and that the supporters are disregarded and not considered. I, for one, am postponing any plans to return to Ewood anytime soon on the basis of this decision. As for the broadcast element, I cannot fathom how it will present a better backdrop – the optics of an empty home stand behind the net will more than outweigh this, as well as the certain mockery we will receive from fans across the football pyramid. It just feels like every decision made is aimed at saving a few quid, even if this means alienating loyal fans – which will have a long-term cost both financially and non-financially. Whilst this decision would make sense on a spreadsheet, it will undoubtedly come at a cost, and I sincerely hope the resultant attendance decrease will offset any reduction in operational costs, and therefore not be considered moving forwards.

I contacted the club regarding this and receiving this reply from a PA on behalf of SW: Thank you for your email in regard to the closure of the Blackburn End for our Carabao Cup match versus Cardiff City on Wednesday, 27th September. There are a number of factors to consider when creating the operational plan for a matchday and the decisions made are based on these. Initially we review what the anticipated attendance is going to be and then measure this against the financial cost of opening the entire stadium. For the first round of the Carabao Cup; BRFC V Walsall, we attracted an attendance of just over 6,000 supporters. There were fewer than 2,000 supporters in the Blackburn End for this fixture, which is less than 50% capacity for the lower tier. Due to the make-up of the stadium, once the decision is made to open a stand, the staffing of that area remains the same whether the stand is at capacity or accommodating fewer than 500 supporters. For this week’s fixture, although we expect an attendance similar to that of the Walsall game, with just over 48 hours to go, we have sold just over 2,500 tickets. The Jack Walker Stand has a total capacity of 11,000 seats, which will adequately cater for the demand. We do appreciate that many of our long-standing supporters sit in the Blackburn End and would argue that this stand is affectionately referred to as the home end, but the Jack Walker Stand can be relied upon to accommodate all supporters with ease, provides a better backdrop for the broadcast footage and ultimately it will help us to manage costs at a time when all costs have to be carefully considered. I’m sure you can appreciate and understand why the Club has taken the relevant measures on this occasion. Of course, these decisions will be reviewed on a match-by-match basis should we progress further in the competition, as we hope to do. Thanking you for your continued support. Of course, most of the above is easily rebutted. The 'broadcast footage' point is absolutely mind boggling - it will look great on broadcast with no fans behind one net.

I was also one of those people. It was a miserable time. I was constantly conflicted between wanting the team to win and play well and knowing that any wins would be used as ammo by our scumbag manager to belittle the fans who were trying to expose the horrors behind the scenes. As well as knowing that winning the odd game of football was a minor battle and the real fight was in winning the soul of the club. Every now and again I have thought the penny has dropped, but it always ends in tears. Waggott is the latest in a long line of shysters interested only in lining his own pockets whilst giving two fingers to the supporters. Looking back, I wish I was one of the supporters who just shrugged their shoulders. The frustration of the protests between 2010 and 2012, as well as the brief re-emergence under Coyle, were horrible, stressful and just felt like shouting into a void. I wish I cared less.

The radio silence on this is a disgrace. We are about to become a UK-Wide laughing stock as people wonder why the feck we only have 1 home stand open for a competitive match. Swag has managed to shave a good 2,000 (at least) off an already low attendance with his short-sighted, penny pinching, negative decision. A lot of people simply won't bother going, when the tool should have been trying to attract new fans into the stadium.

We are at risk of being dragged into a relegation battle. Leicester next. JDT has some very fair gripes about those above him but this squad is better than having the 3rd worst defensive record in the league. He has to own that defeat as he has kept faith in the absolute clown in net.

Hedges and Dolan coming on. JDT on the wind up?

JDT made some odd subs, but to suggest Mowbray will beat us every week when we should have been out of sight after 30 mins seems an odd comment to make. If TMs game plan was to hope we miss guilt edge chances and give away a stupid penalty then his plan did succeed, but somehow I don't think that was it. They improved second half mind, but even then we were wasteful. Very poor subs by us and that's on JDT, but we were playing them off the park first half.

You'd hope so, but he continues to give Dolan chances to disappoint. It's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned.

Very concerned by some of the new signings. Leo not trusted behind Pears, Ennis a sicknote, Telalovic a last resort with the game done (despite there being no striker on the pitch), Tronstad relegated to the reserves. Moran looks alright but final ball/shot a lot to be desired, and bloody hell we better hope Sigurdsson is a player.

JDT has to take some blame for those substitutions. Wharton off for Garrett who repaid him with a horrendous booking. Dolan looking like a raffle winner up front, a genuinely garbage player.

Moran been one of our better players imo. Although like some others he faded as half wore on, although not as dramatically as Hedges.

Hedges has no footballing brain. Some poor decision making from him in both boxes.

This football is a joy to watch.

Any idea when the navy kit is back on sale? It's down as 'pre order' and mentions a few weeks to wait, but not sure if that is regularly updated.

Not too sure about that. They might overwhelm a few teams in the league, but I reckon at least 14 teams in that league would happily go toe to toe with them and beat them. Only Luton and Sheffield United have much to fear from them, and the latter demonstrated last year that they're easily got at if you target their weaknesses. I don't think they'll go down, mind.

Gibson has a history of being trigger happy. I would agree that they should stick with Carrick, though.

Last season we got better as the season went on - results didn't bear fruit but JDT's stamp was evident and we developed an identity. As people have said above, if our new lads show the same trajectory and adaptation to JDT's ideas, we have the potential to do something pretty special. I keep forgetting we signed Sigurdsson - if he hits the ground running then it solves one of the huge problems we have in the final third. I'm very excited to see how it all pans out.

I remember when you'd go to any local town and see our season tickets advertised on buses, bus shelters and billboards. Nowadays I (as a non-renewing ST due to geographical issues) get the occasional email and we are extremely shy about marketing our football team in our own bloody town! The frustrating thing is we do quite a lot right with making the matchday experience an enjoyable one. I might be wrong but there's good facilities for kids and games rooms, but they do nothing to get those fans through the gates. I used to have hordes of schoolkids near me in the BBE upper when I was a young lad - often to my annoyance, but I reckon a good percentage of these fans caught the bug and became Rovers fans for life. Our focus is on bleeding dry the die-hards, an approach that has no long term feasibility.