Old Codger

Talk about setting the tone.. Rovers' website preview of the game states as follows: "Sitting eighth in the table, McKenna's men will rise to fourth in the standings with a victory this evening." Not being funny, but can't anyone on the Rovers staff actually write English - a more accurate sentence might have used the word 'would' rather than 'will'. Pedantry, I know, but it feels like the club already accepts the inevitability of a negative outcome, instead of going in knowing it is a game of football, in which as we know, anything can happen. As I said earlier, we need to stick the form book up their conceited tractor boy arse. What we need, and what we get - often two diametrically opposed concepts, from the existential perspective of a long-standing Rovers fan.. FWIW, COYB!

Ipswich will be creaming themselves in anticipation of this fixture. Feck em to high tractorworld and back I say. Just dig in boys, and pull something, anything, from the locker to put the record straight. It's all we ask. Rob o the green - Rovers 1 Tractor boys 0 Robbery most foul - Rovers 0 Arnold Muren's love children 1 Realistic reckoning - Rovers 1 Whipsnitch 2 COYB!

It begs the question, "Why couldn't it have been Rovers laying siege to the Wrexham goal at the death, and snatching a second goal (or at least creating more chances?" - that, dear friends is 100% game management, an art that seems to be missing from the Coaching 101 manual apparently thumbed by Ismael and his bumbling technical team. The management should wear clown pants.

He wasn't offside. There were two Rovers players prone on the goal line, with Pears behind them. Wrexham got a get out of jail card there, and any normal side would have just shut up shop and headed to the corners from 90 mins, instead of inviting the opposition to attack in wave after sodding wave. At least my early aftternoon pessimism was unfounded, and the 6-0 dicking didn't occur. I thought we had enough in the tank to deserve a win against a Wrexham side that flatters to deceive - bur then Kieffer Moore gave them the bollox to keep coming back for more, and our tactical geniuses on the sidelines encouraged them on.. inevitable that we would concede, once the hairy balls were substituted for castrato smooth bollux, and I am only thankful that we didn't capitulate completely. Tuesday now has a completely different complexion, especially as they won't want to lose two on the bounce away from home. Too little time to worry about that now, but team selection, availability of billy big balls substitutes (or not) and a whole load of smelly stuff and bitten nails are going to be the reality versus them thar tractor boys.

Kieffer Moore is killing us. Looks a proper player, and our makeshift defence just cant cope with his strength and movement.

11 shots to their 2 at this point... Yup

Venkys. Keep up, old chap.

I am expecting this to be another low for this crazy season. End of. Wrexham 6 Rovers 0

An incredibly limp performance last night. The only good thing is it was so bad it can't possibly linger in memory. All down to the impeccable stewardship of the owners, whose honouring of the legacy of Jack Walker is the equivalent of me taking a dump on the Cenotaph. Lest they forget. VENKY SCUM OUT OF OUR CLUB, OUR TOWN, OUR NIGHTMARES AND OUR MEMORIES.

Smallest bloke on the pitch heads easily past Pears. Baffling. Can't see us threatening their goal now. Bollux.

And there we go. Numpty management.

I think we win the prize for the stupidest haircuts. Pratt, who looks like a decent footballer with his feet, looks like he's been conned at Paserelli's..

that is a good shout to be fair - old head, able to read the game, not afraid to put a challenge in..

As with all such things, there is always a tell-tale in the patterns around it. Whilst there is nothing 'illegal' per se in what appears to have been done so many times under Rovers' flag, it stinks like the bag of shite that it really and truly is. If it smells like shite, it looks like shite, and it plays like shite, well then, don't be amazed if it is actually shite, despite the protestations of the gob-shites and their acolytes. VENKYS AND VEXATIOUS ACOLYTES OUT!

Optimism is one thing that we as Rovers fans cannot rely on, and a Rovers side this thin on the ground cannot afford. We need solid graft (Yuki style), a decent ref (like that is suddenly going to happen!), some modicum of 'home advantage' (even if there hasn't been any so far this season) and more than the rub of the green (and you know what they say - "The harder you work, the luckier you get...") We aren't going get all of that any time soon, so probably best to buckle up, cos Kansas is probably about to go bye bye.. Keeping it all crossed for this evening.. COYB!

Billy Whizz used to play for Blackburn College, a million years ago when I was goalkeeper in a very decent side. Alan from Newry, Cointy Doin. What's Sammie Szmodics up to these days, he wondered out loud, apropos of nothing..

You might as well make some names up. Everyone else does, especially the club.

VI needs to work out some way of adding steel and resolve to our home performances, or risk further damage to our already dwindling support. I mean, what is so wrong about battling relentlessly and with passion for 90 minutes and against the odds wherever we are playing? There is something deeply concerning about a set up that can garner the kind of hard-nosed commitment we have seen repeatedly on the road, but which meekly accepts powder-puff performance in front of home fans, and it is up to the manager (coach) to iron out whatever psychological bumps are preventing equal measures of resolve and persistence at Ewood. On to the game. QPR are only 3 points ahead of us so this is a true 6 pointer. Their record this season is not dissimilar to our own, albeit they have scored more and conceded more than us. It is a club I've long held disdain for, ever since their plastic pitch in the 1980s gave an obvious and unfair advantage - an experiment that always seemed to work against the hard-grafting Rovers visiting Loftus Road. Having said that, we have enjoyed decent returns there in recent years..on and off. The Gerry Francis cast off club don't like travelling Norff, so perhaps there is a glimmer and shimmer about Wednesday's game under the Ewood floodlights...There won't be hordes from West London, that's for sure. On paper it is a nailed on draw. On form it is anybody's game. On reflection there will be a sparse collection of eyes on the game from the seating and terracing of Olde Ewoode Parke.. Football is of course a game of confidence and form, chance and chances, right place right time and right mess right now. It isn't clear what will be served on Wednesday, but I do hope it isn't another dollop of dosy downcast demeanour from the brave boys in blue and white. Hiding to nothing, Rovers 0 Sweaty Hoops 0 Hating the Home Form Rovers 0 Hula Hoops 2 Hooray for the faithful Rovers 2 Betty Boops 0 COY miserable home form Blues! Oh, and VENKYS OUT!

Sadly it is more likely, based on the modus operandum of those behind the curtain, that the team will not be bolstered in January, but butchered instead. Whilst I like to hope that dead wood would be cleared out (Big Mak needs to move on, imo, for example) I am more worried that players who have grasped the opportunity to show some capability during the first half of the season (e.g. Gudjohnnsen, Cantwell, Alebiosu, and even Hedges) will be touted out as a way of generating cash flow for keeping the lights on a little longer. Thank goodness Balaz Toth is injured (and how crap that I should be typing such a sentence) 😞 I agree with your sentiment that the players seem to have found a miraculous formula that works (away from home) but I wonder how much of it is Dumbo's feather, and how much is actual team spirit derived from a reality of utter adversity? Let's hope the potion (whatever it is) doesn't wear off at Christmas..(as usual for good old Blackburn Rovers, the best team on the day). COY potion induced grafting B!

A big step up for a pressure cooker game in a cauldron atmosphere. It's the kind of thing that can make or break a career. Let's hope it is the former, not the latter. COYB!

There has always been a scummy underclass in attendance at association football games. The ones who sing the most cringe-worthy 'songs' (and I use the term loosely of course) are generally those with the least actual life experience and perspective, whose capacity for self-reflection is negligible and whose values are shaped by the shallow horseshit digital diet they depend upon for confirmation of their backward views. It was always so, although back in the 70s the rhetoric was fuelled more by anecdote and actual interaction, than the drivel that emanates from the gobby rat-holes that today's yoof yell from. Best to put the noise on 'ignore' and try to filter out any unpleasantness that ensues by focusing on the actual reason you are there - to show your valuable and valued support for the Rovers. I do hope your evening gets much much better 🙂 Thank you for standing up for your values and those of many others who can't make it to Deepdale this evening. COYB!

More likely to see Lord Lucan or Shergar...

Apparently the players are 'All fired up and ready' Except, of course, for those in key positions that have been instrumental in delivering unexpected results at Bristol, Leicester and against Southampton, specifically in goal and our back line. Old git feel about this is that we will leak goals like a teabag in boiling water, as the Preston cockwombles turn up the heat in that in yer face style beloved of Mr Scowlwhilstyouwank himself, Heckingbottom. Strange things happen in football, so I'm not going to complain if somehow Rovers conjour a positive result (draw or even nicking a win) but neither am I going to hold my breath whilst the tactical genius of our coaching team floats like magical cream over the scum of the North End Bovril. Unless there is something psychotropic in the pre-match orange squash in the home dressing room, I'm inclined to be expecting a sobering reverse this evening. Lillywhites loving life 3 Rovers rue-ing recent recurring regression 0 Knob End knocking one out 2 Rovers reacting remarkably robustly 2 Deepdale despair 1 Rovers Rocking Right Round Roman Road 3 Just as long as VI understands the importance of 'bragging rights' for those who live (or were born) in Bamber Bridge....* COYB! VENKY VANITY VAMOOSE! * I'm pretty sure he a) doesn't and b) doesn't give a toss

Can already hear the fingernails of lady luck dragging down the blackboard of results for this one...Sadly I feel like Rovers have self-sabotaged and become victims of the hard man-slog that is Championship football just at the wrong time, with an otherwise winnable game at home against rag-bag opposition now becoming more of a challenge to compete. Coupled with the day being ostensibly one of 'celebration' it feels like there may well be (self-inflicted) rain on the parade, despite the sunshine and feel-good factor of three hard-fought wins on the bounce. Certainly the loss of our talisman keeper between the sticks, with his strong hand style, rapid reflexes, distributive excellence and ability to organise those in front of him, is a major concern. His 'understudy' blazed the ball straight out of play from a goal-kick on his first act of return midweek, demonstrating (worryingly) little or no change in approach during his time on the sidelines. Ho hum. On to the game. The Rams have also picked up a bit of momentum recently, and can be expected to want to dominate, although their manager will have less insight into Rovers tactics than he might had there been a more familiar nucleus to our line up than the completely re-engineered side his pseudo-Rovers-Rams will face. That might play to our advantage. Football is a game that is highly sensitive to factors such as confidence, and our team can rightly take some kudos from having ground out three successive wins following a painful fallow period. Stability and team spirit are highly volatile factors too, though, and we now have to chop and change with our ragbag journeymen international player soup squad to find a combination of resolve, drive and flair capable of battering the Rams. So, here goes.. Rovers rally, Rams retaliate - Rovers 1 - Derby 1 Rovers revert, Rams relish the resigner's return - Rovers 0 - Derby 2 Rovers Rampant Raiders (w)reak Resounding Result on Retreating Rams - Rovers 3 -Rams 1 Meh.. at least the sun will be shining and we will be in Blue and White at home 🙂 COYB! VENKSTERS AND VANITY PROJECT VENDORS OUT!

Sometimes you just have to win UGLY.