If Waggott is back in control now, who was in control before? Who imposed the DoF/Coach model on him?

Sammy finished his “Adam didn’t want to leave…” sentence with “…but sometimes you have to” in the context of for the good of one’s career.

I still don’t understand why, if he was so obviously underpriced, one of the other 19 clubs didn’t swoop in.

And all these alternate histories being proposed could have included him doing a Dack, or indeed a Scotty, and getting some horrendous injury, perhaps twisting his neck while watching Pearsy’s endless boots up to our lead-booted ace striker.

So the three teams that went up come straight back down again - what a farce this so-called pyramid is becoming.

I’m sure Swag, as an ex-agent, will appreciate the benefits from being more hands on with transfers…

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yep that first goal took some scoring. He was second best right from the off but he made it into a goal. He’s running with the ball from out wide. The defenders are running without the ball and straight up the pitch.

Also I get the feeling he’s been playing less than 100 % fit but he’s never took a backward step. We had a real captain on the pitch yesterday. It ‘s great when you’re in a jam and you have a player like that. “ Just give it to Sammi, he’ll do something with it “ ! Like Dougie in the old days.

An even better goal when you factor in the number of touches he had to make at that speed, any of them less than perfect and he gets caught.

Watching the goals again (and again)…Sammy takes 5 touches for his first goal, all at full pelt, and each one of them perfect direction and distance for what he wanted to do. Gallagher hasn’t had 5 perfect touches all season.

The second goal, I cannot remember us ever having a run on an empty net from that far out, nor seen a player celebrate a goal that long before putting it in.

Shit first touch takes Gally too wide, they he fails to anticipate Chrisene’s cross.

To my mind, Adam Wharton is blossoming because, for the first time in his life, he’s playing with lads who are as good in their positions as he is in his.

I’m not convinced he would have developed any further at all had he stayed with us, especially after JDT left. No matter how many sublime passes you play to Gallagher, he isn’t going to control any of them, and Eustace binning passing out from the back would have greatly reduced the number of touches he got in a game. If there was going to be an auction for him, I can’t see why it didn’t happen in January. 

He isn’t typical of the kind of player our academy produces, nor should he be as players of his ilk will never stay long enough in the first team to make any meaningful difference. I’m wondering how good Harry Leonard is given he’ll be playing without Adam’s passes for the first time in his life.

His first and last home games notable only for performative touchline antics. Plus the Dick Emery joke shop teeth.

Once he’d gone it seemed pretty clear Johno and Plug were not part of the in-crowd.

11 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Dolan and Gallagher both had xGs of FA, Nada, Zero... At Ewood against bloody rubbish

Has Gallagher even had one attempt at goal since coming back from injury? I can’t remember one.

The more I watch the goal the more I think it was made on the training ground. All three were stood very close then as soon as Pears launched it, Sammy peels away and Dolan edges forward. When he got the flick on, he knew where Sammy was without looking.

Best Pears game since he came back, Carter added some much needed bollocks and rarely gives it away, Hyam played safe, Wharton showed why JDT binned him, midfield two good as ever, McFaz immense - paid for his swansong gig in that one half, Sammy our only threat, but what a lethal one.

Skipper my arse, get Carter back in.

On 02/04/2024 at 18:28, Dreams of 1995 said:

You couldn't have it more wrong about Eustace

But, it isn't a theme to know what you are talking about when it comes to John Eustace to be fair

I can't remember a manager getting as much undue stick on here than this bloke. It borders on stupid to be fair. Eustace had a few job offers before going with Rovers. He wanted this gig

We are indeed blessed to have his 15-months senior-level management experience then. Did many of the clubs whose offers he spurned have double-digit top honours wins, 30,000 seat stadia and Cat 1 Academies?

He’s a novice at this level; he may come good and I hope he does, but currently he’s a lot luckier to be at Blackburn Rovers than Blackburn Rovers are to have nabbed him.

JDT was very employable, wanted to go places quick, knew - and let be known - who wasn’t up to it, and wasn’t afraid of getting fired. 

Eustace was on the scrap heap, grateful to get another gig, is delighted to not be managing complete donkeys, and will cling on by his fingertips no matter the indignities.

Great goal! Hilarious that Gallagher’s contribution was a fuck up getting a lucky rebound. 

Glad to see we are implementing the 8-touch Scottyball plan today.

I bet he’s very deflated by the shit players coup. How many chances will he get now from Brittain, Wharton and then Pears booting it straight to opposition centre backs. 

I thought he was much better playing JDT ball, 1-2 touches, buzzing around. Now he’s gone back to stepovers, going round in circles and falling over. His interplay with Sammy that led to Sammy’s shot was JDT stuff.

2 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Understandable.

Just checked Jim Iley's record. 14th of April 1978 to the end of September 1978.

P 12

W 1 D 4 L 7.

Come on Mr. Eustace. You REALLY don't want to be inviting those sort of comparisons!

Actually Eustace reminds me of the fella who took over from Iley, John Pickering: decent bloke, fractured squad, no pot to piss in, but not good enough to impose himself on the squad and get enough points to stay up. Unfortunately we won’t be getting Howard Kendall in over the summer.

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

I don't think he is directly in the keepers eye line but enough to be interfering with it. If course it's subjective and some are given, some not but there is definitely enough in this to support the referees decision in my view. Another point is that having seen it back he didn't need to be offside. As good as he has been He frustratingly gets caught offside a lot.

Under 70s rules it’s offside end of story but then Sammy would never be in the team for getting goals disallowed by being offside so carelessly and so often. The new rules have made players not bother about going offside while making them ridiculously bothered about where their arms are. Madness.

I actually can’t see what Eustace and his henchmen have brought. Less playing out from the back but replaced by long punts to midget forwards. Still individual game-losing errors aplenty, but hey, Brittain and “our” Scotty are happy now because their inability to pass to teammates doesn’t matter to the new gaffer, because he has no playing system anyway.

The clips I’ve seen of Adam playing for Palace made me think we were already holding him back by making him play with donkeys like Brittain and Gallagher. Better players making better runs are already enabling Adam to look much better.

There’s no doubt we play better with a back 4 who play it out from the back, and have an extra midfielder to play it to. JDT had them practise it every day for 18 months, and we’ve seen how crap they are at anything else.

I like Bucko but his slowness of thought vs A Wharton is why he takes 4-5 touches before he sees a pass, if he doesn’t lose it in the meantime. He can pass though.

Of all Gallagher’s many shortcomings, his stupid runs that offer the passer no possibility of finding him annoy me the most.