FFS

Crowd looks as thin as was to be expected. Thin crowd. Thin budget. Thin squad. Thin returns this season. Thin effort to score this evening. No thin to shout about. 😞

We are having good possession, but not hurting this lot. Doesn't bode well.

Lets be brutally honest - it doesn't need to be a biblical torrent. A simple sea fret / light mist should be enough to bury our chance of winning this evening in the circumstances. Hoping beyond hope to be proven wrong. Whatever happens, I don't think it is going to be a pleasure to watch. Happy to be proven wrong, of course. COYB!!

Was thinking about this overnight, and I remembered something someone once said to me about getting through a crisis, which went along the lines of, "if you are in a skid, you need to focus on the outcome you want (e.g. staying on the road) rather than the outcome you don't (e.g. hitting the wall or landing in a ditch). Whatever you focus on, tends to become the reality you experience". Good advice. I know it feels like a tail-spin with an inevitable outcome, but remember, these players more than held their own last week against a team whose collective value was well over 50 x greater. Ok, so we aren't the fastest, most defensively capable, cohesive group of players in the league, but we aren't the worst either - AND when we put our minds to it, we can compete with the resources we have. Time for us all to focus on the outcomes we want, such as Rovers to succeed on the pitch, Venly's to F-OFF, Waggott to be gone from the club, rather than the unpalatable outcomes we definitely DON'T want. So actually, all of the below, are POSITIVE STATEMENTS of outcomes I'd like to see: F-OFF VENKY-DESAI-RAO wastrels F-OFF SUHAIL PASHA-SLINKING AROUND IN THE SHADOWS F-OFF WAGGOTT AND YOUR SELF AGRANDISING SCHEMERY COYB!

The only glimmer is that we seem to play better against stronger opposition. I would rather be safe and looking ahead to next season in the Championship, but it looks like we are going to take it to the wire. Not a great fan of Russian roulette to be fair..and when we so often seem to spin the magazine to the loaded slot for our opponents, it makes me wonder if we are doing it on purpose. Said it before, we have no god given right to be in the Championship and at the end of the day the table doesn't lie, especially in the goal difference column. Rich people sometimes have a very mean streak, especially when it comes to putting those they consider beneath them 'in their place'. We will get no assistance from the club's moronic owners, who don't even see us as a plaything anymore, but just a lingering reminder of their own vanity and poor judgment. F-OFF VENKY RAO DESAI SUHAIL WAGGOTT MORONS

Not looking too much like we want this. Swansea players fighting for the ball more, showing more intelligent movement off the ball, playing in passes that are pressurising our back line - all these things we don't seem to be doing at all today. We need some kind of miracle to get anything other than another bloody nose on our travels. Not sure who might be a miracle worker on present showing? 45 minutes to save the season. NOBODY too good to go down. Come on you absent on your travels Blues 😞 FFS!

Brittain really should be hitting the target there, if he had he'd have beaten the keeper. FFS

Well there's any notion of the rub of the green going in our favour gone.. Pears impeded and Moran unlucky with a bobble. What the hell was the ref doing up the other end - two clear fouls on Dolan and Gallagher. COYB

It's one of those games where expectations are naturally very high, on the back of a performance to be proud of on Tuesday against much higher quality (on paper) opposition. Which means we probably need to gird our loins and expect a reverse - unless of course JE has connected deeply enough with his players for them to conjure another cohesive and committed showing. We know that Rovers have often struggled away this season against lower ranked teams, and that key to getting any kind of result is the imperative to score first and defend like the Alamo. If we put in a Davy Crockett level of energy and take the game to Swansea then there is no reason to fear the outcome. If we concede early and heads go down on the assumption we can claw things back later in the season, we are fecked. For avoidance of doubt, I'm absolutely desperate for the team to build on the platform we gave ourselves on Tuesday, and to gain more upward momentum away from the anathema of relegation. We know that on the day, practically any team in the division can beat any other, so we need the rub of the green in terms of lucky bounces, passes that come off rather than drift away, a referee who isn't a complete spoon and conditions that suit our style of play (which JE seems to have found in a remarkably short space of time). More please in terms of the astounding levels of effort. More please in terms of the staunch resolve in front of goal (both ends). More please in terms of solid no nonsense use of the ball, with a smattering of the fast movement and tippy-tap on the break to hurt and confound the opposition. More please of those back-slap high five big grin YEAH moments that showed these players care on Tuesday against the bar-codes. More please that I, as a Rovers fan, can be proud to be part of, and look back on for years to come. COYB!!

Well I am delighted to be eating humble pie for supper last evening, and again for breakfast this morning. What a performance from the men in Blue and White, against the spoilt boys in black and yellow! Shearer squirming like a turncoat bastard in the commentary box, Lineker obsequious and fawning as ever, and the Geordie hordes out sung, out booed, and outwitted (not difficult) for 120 minutes till the lottery came a calling. To be fair, I feel like it was the best thing that Rovers should end their cup run on a high, rather than risk going out with a battering later on. For me the stand outs were: Sammie Szmodics - where does this man get his energy from? He was amazing from start to finish, and did the business for us as he always has done this season - we need to hold on to him and make his name a legend at the club, rather than looking at him as another means of keeping the lights on Scott Wharton - a warrior performance again from start to finish, and stamped his credentials on the team with some no nonsense defending Aynsley Pears - a goalkeeping masterclass, and a player whose confidence is growing game by game. Rovers have always had favourites between the sticks, and with a display like that, Pears is beginning to catch the eye as a potential favourite. Chrisene - Where has the lad that turned up last night been hiding all season? Did well on pretty much everything he'd previously struggled with Kyle McFadzean - OMG a man mountain, a terrier, a rock and also a player with masses of craft and guile. Dolan - again a Duracell level performance from a player some have mocked for his showboating - seemed to work just fine last night, bamboozling millions of pounds worth of talent and causing havoc in their back line Koumieto - looked like a rabbit in the headlights when he came on, but grew in confidence and showed that there is some promise in his boots. Gallagher - worked really hard and put in the same shift as everyone else on the night. To be fair, there weren't any stand out poor performances for me. Siggy perhaps lacked something, but his penalty was a fizzer. Onwards and upwards (hopefully) we go. If we can play with that cohesion and passion from now to the end of the season, we should be safe. Eustace sounds like a man who knows what he is doing, especially about keeping the opposition's scoring chances down. If we are solid at the back, we know we can score goals. Proud to be a Rovers fan, and very pleased that we showed steel and some flair against the Saudi cheque book boys.

I think we will miss Gallagher at set pieces

It is always darkest before the dawn. Someone switch the floodlights off for fecks sake. When the Rovers heads go down, we know that even the poorer teams can score a hatful against us, so gawd knows what carnage awaits us on the beeb this evening, if we don't score first. If you are from Burnleh and reading this, fuck right off. If you are from Newcastle and reading this. Fuck right off. If you are from Pune and are a befuddled, spoilt bastards with too much money and not enough nous to know when you're not wanted, especially fuck right off. Now. Blackburn Rovers. Stand up, be counted, and do your best for the fans. Or fuck right off 😡 COYB!

London has a transient population who never stand still long enough to perceive anything much other than where the next gap in the traffic / queue is, and you could walk round painted blue and white and no-one would bat an eyelid. Back to this evening. I've had to disappoint two ardent barcodes who wanted to go to the game with me, as I felt it might get awkward for all kinds of reasons regardless of the score if they were ensconced with me either in the JW Upper or Riverside. Sadly, even these days and in my 60s, I've still got one eye / ear open for the prospect of things kicking off, although I have certainly no appetite for wading in like I might have when I was in my teens and 20s. I think we are going to get battered this evening, with perhaps a consolation goal to take away some of the pain. Oh of course I'll be delighted if we can somehow pull a rabbit out of the hat, but let's face it, this is probably the end of the line this year, for this group of players. Bring on the barcodes. Send on the chickens. Gird your loins with Waggott Out banners Shout out for Lancashire and all that might have been. COYB!

Clearly a long time since you ventured to Ewood then... I'll get me coat.

Premier League winnaz, tho, innit...

And they wouldn't accept his resignation, or treat him in any single way that even vaguely honoured their side of the contract he'd signed with them. The onus for resolving the impasse was always with the organ grinder and not with the hired monkey. Generally, when you go to the showroom and put your money down, you walk away with the car with all its faults, not the tits and teeth they wheel out to distract you from the faults in the first place..

Complete bollox imo - if he'd been given the resources he asked for and was told would be made available, we'd have never been in the sodding position in the first place. If we go down, it will be VENKY RAO DESAI WAGGOTT SUHAIL scum who are to blame, and nobody else 🤨

The man can't be blamed for being completely undermined by the idiots manning the email account and fax machine. It is incredible that folk seem unable to see this. But hey ho, feck it. Each to their own. We have to start getting the best we can from the resources we have available, and if 'the project' is to run the club on North West Counties level funding and management set up, then we will just have to put up with the consequences too.

Yeah. Everything to look forward to. 😢

Imagine if we were to progress like in previous years under JDT. At some point there would be an upswing in interest, just in time for the hammer of reality from Waggot's master plan to swing down with crushing consequences for the underlying fan base. Talk about being set up to fail Rao family to Waggott, "So, Mr Stephen, vat is da plan to bring our baby brand back to prominence, so vee can get our money back?" Waggott to Rao & Desai contingent, (fumbles flat cap nervously and licks lips like an edit), "Oh, erm, plan, oh, yeah, right, err, plan.. millions in the UK will tune in on Tuesday evening to see your mighty warriors compete once again most nobly against the cream of the Premier League, a team bankrolled by royalty with even deeper pockets than your own gracious and generous cashmere lined codpieces" RAOs to Waggott, " Great work, Mr Stephen, to gain us such exposure for our only slightly delayed by 12 years campaign to invade the UK market with chemically induced chicka-beasty tasty product, much loved by the rotund and jolly ex playing fraternity. Any news on how our test market is going - has Mr Dunn emerged yet from that three ton order of chicka-beasty tasty wings we sent in 2015 yet, for his live on stream tasting session?" Waggott to Rao Desai mob assembled around iPhone in a tax-investigation hostel somewhere north of Chandigarh, "Oh yes, I'd forgotten about Mr Dunn and his extended consumer research project.. well, he is much better now, and once he was able to move away from permanent residence at the sewage treatment facility at Martholme, he felt and smelled much better, thanks for asking. Yes, I have done an excellent job in gaining such widespread exposure for the VENKY brand on nationally prominent media. Why, only last week, your esteemed logo featured prominently in the front window of a high speed communications platform hurtling through the second and third most densely populated areas of the UK, albeit in the dead of night." Rao Desai Rabble to Waggott, " Mr Stephen, what would we do without you?. Any news on that trip to Bockinghem Place you promised you could get us? Madame is looking fowwad so much to sharing lemon drizzle recipes with the British King concubine, do keep us in the loop. You may go, Mr Stephen." Sound of Bog Flushing... Job done, chuckles the FWagoott, now let's just hope they can't get BBC iPlayer in Pune next week as otherwise we will have to unplug the phones and fax machine again, like that time when Man you dicked us at theirs ..

Loving the glass half full perspective Neill! Might have to watch through beer goggles myself on Tuesday 🙂

Oh I don't doubt it is going to be exciting. I mean, the Saudi-bank-rolled Toon Army, smarting from a proper slapping by the Arrogant Arse, a chance to progress into the meaningful stages of the longest running cup competition in football, the prestige and pleasure of playing at one of the North West's finest stadiums, and the chance to spank the downtrodden upstarts from that little place where Shearer used to ply his trade.... I mean, what's not to look forward to? I'm not looking forward to it 😞 Sadly I think there will be no hiding place from the glare of the TV lights and incisive punditry. It's likely to be a painful watch for the committed faithful of Ewood. Best thing that could happen would be some sort of protest, some sort of show of dissent against the vile tenure of the chicken chokers, some sort of clear signal to the world that whilst Blackburn Rovers might be but a distant and fading memory for most in terms of any footballing milestones, our fans still feel strongly about the club because of our pedigree. Dogs in! Venky's OUT!!

Yo Dom HYAM!

We are getting a new one torn on Tuesday evening, in glorious technicolor on TV.