StHelensRover

None of us know whether a boycott will work at Ewood, but there is evidence it has worked at other clubs, so there is hope. After 15 years of failure, mediocrity, countless embarrassing PR stories and zero ambition shown, there is no other realistic set of options for ways we can protest the regime that are within the law except a boycott. I hope as many fans as possible will bite the bullet and boycott just the one game to see if that makes a difference. It's just one game to send a message, the sky won't fall in if we all just miss one game to let them know how we feel. As a fan base we can assess the impact and go from there. We need to think about the long term, not dwell on missing one 90 minute match which will mean little in the grand scheme of things.

Do people think the club will pull out all the stops to entice people to the Watford game? Slash prices, bring a mate, kids for a quid, family fun day, tons of free tickets to local schools etc? If they suspect only a few hundred will actually boycott, they might be able to plug that gap with a big one-off push/giveaway, so that they can then point and say there was no drop in attendance, no boycott, etc. That is something I would do, if I was in that position. Let's say real home attendance circa 6k, but 500-1k boycott. Imagine they could claw most of those back in other sales if they offered hundreds of free tickets and had a huge one-off ticket deal.

I'd be really interested to know what the main decision is for those who go as to why they're not prepared to boycott, ones I can think of myself are: - the owners don't care and it won't work - not fair on the players - it's really important part of my routine or the routine of my dependents (e.g. children, elderly or vulnerable) which I cannot forgo, even for one game - I don't care about what happens off the pitch, I just 'back the boys' no matter what - No one tells me what to do That last one in bold is something I heard a few people saying at Ewood on Saturday, that included people who chant against the owners etc. I don't really understand that last one, just sounds like oppositional defiance. For each of those above reasons not to boycott, it's hard to get a message or interaction across that can interact with each point and put something convincing across without attracting hostile responses. I sympathise with the coalition on that point, it's very difficult

The best thing you can do is to use the mute feature. I'm going to take part in the Watford boycott and I am having to seriously consider season ticket renewal after 27 consecutive seasons. However, the responses I've now seen on here, social media more widely in addition what I've heard down at Ewood at the weekend have left me resigned to the fact that it won't work and that many people are going to ignore it. There are certain people on this message board who probably cannot wait for it to fail and you're best muting them.

I'm not too surprised, they were complete rubbish at Ewood (both teams were). If they play like that most weeks they will join Sheffield Wednesday in L1 next season.

Only just listened to this latest episode, got a very important question ahead of our huge FA Cup 3rd round tie at Hull... Can we have the names of these fish and chip shops? 🐟🍟

No doubt there will be a big tribute to Chris Rea at the Riverside on Boxing Day. Insert your own remarks about Rovers, Venkys and the road to hell.

Height is not a given that a player will be good in the air, see Sam Gallagher or Maktar Gueye.

When Birmingham's current owners came in, one of the first things they did was give St Andrews a facelift. Obviously in the long term they're planning to move to a new stadium, but the existing ground had a load of issues, looked shite and knackered. I went there last time we played there and it looked miles better. In most parts all they had done was clean it up, repaint it, upgrade signs and billboards, add new digital/electronic features, etc. but I definitely noticed the difference. It probably cost a million quid, but like the Venkys, they're not short of the money. It's a small thing but it doesn't go unnoticed and it puts pride into the club and the fan base.

If this guy and his firm are struck off, does that mean there is any chance of further investigation into his past dealings with other parties over the years (Meaning his involvement with Venkys and Rovers)?

This is because it's moved past anger to general apathy now. Where I stand in the BBE, everyone has had a ST in the same spot here for years. For a while now, everyone is just turning up, going through the motions. It's a very strange experience. As everyone gets to their seats at kickoff, they just sort of roll their eyes and give each other knowing looks, puff their cheeks out and all just generally look fed up before we kick off. It's really sad and bizarre. It's not like going to any other football ground in the country or sporting event in general. The fun (or maybe even soul) has been sucked out of the club. It shouldn't be like this. I can't speak for other areas of the ground but I know a lot of these fans are die hards who go to a lot of away games etc as well.

Thought Katie did well on Elliot's podcast the other day but didn't get as long to speak on Lancs tonight. Just glad people are being given airtime who speak for people like me who are fed up.

Great comments and assessment from Herbie on Radio Lancashire just now. He's on with Katie from the Coalition.

It was more full than versus Oxford but still definitely less than 10,000. I'm gonna guess about 8k.

The consensus of those around me in BBE was that this was a truly awful game of football. Would have bitten your hand off for a win and a clean sheet before kickoff however, so very pleased and relieved to finally win another home game. Pleased for the young players Pratt, Litherland & Atcheson to get a clean sheet performance under their belt. On to Boro, but we will have to play better than we did today. 🤞

Yes they've never managed to fully understand anything we've told them the last 15 years at Sky, it's not delight it's nervous relief.

Wow 😂

Millwall are bloody awful how are they 4th? Surely they won't be this bad 2nd half 😯

Double that turned up for the game against Derby County and created a good atmosphere, then the team stank the place out. As much as we all love the club, people need to stop linking the size of crowds to player performances, it doesn't make a difference.

This team isn't Miles Davis but it is Miles Off It

I think it's actually somewhere in-between. Because while I think probably 90% of fans dislike the owners and are really frustrated with them, a sizeable portion of those are also too risk averse to want a change of ownership, that's where we get the "I don't like them but at least they're putting the money in, we could be another Bury, no one will buy us" comments. That sizeable group of people dislike the owners, but will either never protest, or will only protest once we're bottom of League One. Those are the ones we need to convince regarding a boycott. We need to convince them that it is worth rolling the dice with new owners. Edit- I don't have an answer about how to do this, especially after 15 years of nonsense.

Tony Bloom probably the best/most successful club owner in the last 15 years. Local man done good. Transformed Brighton from a league one club into an established premier league team that qualified for Europe. Very smart man who brought in a load of other very smart people and worked hard to create a club which looks nothing like the one he bought. In the last 15 years our owners have completely transformed our club, in the opposite manner. No smart people, no good decision making. Shebby Singh, Suhail Pasha, Shaw, Agnew, Gestede et al. Steve Waggott looks like Jeff Bezos against that list. Appalling.

This goes to show how difficult it is to grow and achieve with a football club using the 'Brighton' model. You can keep selling players for more than you paid, but in our case the club has stagnated while that has happened. Clubs like Brighton. Brentford, the dingles, have bought cheap, sold high and progressed the league position of the club. To do that, you have to keep reinvesting the money wisely and appointing smart football people. We've done none of that. It's all on the owners and reason 358 that they need to go.

This poster (Chaddy) has possibly posted more than anyone else in this thread. This thread is exclusively about dissatisfaction with the owners and ways which we might be able to protest against them and get them to change their strategy or sell the club. Said poster has no intention of protesting against the owners, no intention of boycotting, has no interest in doing anything which might encourage them to sell. Only under extreme duress from several other posters will they provide any criticism of the owners and it's always brief and minimal. Given all of the above, I can't understand why they constantly post in this thread, other than to try and undermine the overall sentiment which is one of anger and protest. It's a free country - they absolutely have every right to post where they want on the message board, nothing to do with me. I can't understand it though. All they are interested in doing is telling everyone else about how they'll never protest and coming up with as many arguments as possible against anything which anyone suggests. Obfuscation, obstruction and distraction away from any discussion which criticises the owners and suggests solutions. I don't actually think they're a club plant, but some of the views and behaviour on here is as close as you could get to one. I have nothing personal against said poster. I'm sure they're a nice person IRL, but I have had to mute them for some time because reading some of their views on the club in the last 12 months since I rejoined the board has made me think I'm losing my mind. No one is perfect and no one is right 100% of the time. But I can't find anything I agree on about Rovers with this poster and I find I just need to scroll past everything. Edit - apologies if that is too ad-hominem. I'm not saying the board should be an echo chamber with no disagreement or dissent, but the guy seems to be on a one-man mission in this thread to distract and obfuscate the discussion.

I obviously hope we win on Saturday, but I do worry that some fans will be pleased with the three points and yet again simmer down and forget about or criticise the call to boycott. I also think that if we win, the club's propaganda machine will go into overdrive against the protesters and that some people who are on the fence will be won over by it. This game on Saturday is a must win IMO, in really tough circumstances. We have to claw our way to 50 points this season or we're doomed. It's strange feeling that if we get a good result it will have other knock-on negative effects around the club. Not a nice feeling to have.