StHelensRover

The commentators are saying the game has boiled down to 'three mad minutes' where a couple of misplaced headers on the edge of the box have cost us. Not having that, since taking the lead, Coventry have completely smothered, nullified us, we have offered nothing in reply. Don't have the depth of squad, ability of player and the right mentality to respond and fight our way back in.

We did play well in the first half. However, if you play well for 45 mins every week over 46 games, that's half a season of good performances, but if you don't win those matches, you're in trouble. We're in trouble.

I don't agree with that. Two very good football teams of their eras with unbearable large armchair and internet fanbases, no one wanted to see them win, but they didn't become winning machines due to luck.

Saints having a a bit of a stinker so far, all things considered, maybe we'll be able to frustrate them and nick a point. I'm dreading the other fixtures in that list.

Yep, already lots of comments this season about how 'unlucky' we are. No excuse IMO. Loser mentality. Shit teams always bang on about how 'unlucky' and 'hard done by' they are, but we never say that teams that win every week are extremely lucky and fortunate.

They probably won't be in the discussion by FT on Tuesday 😄

We can't hit a barndoor and they can, that'll be the game then.

That's not a mishit, it's a good strike.

Sorry, I lost internet for about 6 or 7 minutes during that half, when it came back on, the stats on screen said we'd had 9 shots with none on target, I didn't see Henriksson's effort. Then at HT the stats updated to reflect that shot.

9 shots so far, but none on target.

We have started well, considering the gulf between the teams in the table. If we don't take one of these chances we're going to rue it eventually, if/when Coventry wake up and start playing.

Stat just flashed up on the stream of the game: "Since Ismael took over, only two Championship teams have lost more matches than Blackburn Rovers" Remember, 100+ applicants, he was the best, 3 year deal...

Rovers commentary team don't sound overly optimistic about our chances today, they're also uncertain about what the shape of the team will be with that line-up.

It's a funny game football isn't it? I was convinced he would have them performing much better than we are this season. I thought they would be gritty and difficult to beat, but they're really not. I wasn't too bitter towards him either. I was annoyed, but could completely understand why he did it. I would jump ship at the first available opportunity if I worked for our lot as well.

It could go the other way.. "The only one of their players we were worried about was Cantwell, so we'll be fine now" I'd snap anyone's hand off for a draw now. COYB

El sackico - though maybe not, as we gave Ismael a 3 year deal for a reason which no one has ever been able to decipher, so we probably can't afford to sack him.

The way it's going at Pride Park, there's going to be a game in a couple of weeks that John Eustace is going to have to win to save his job after a torrid run, wonder who it's against.

If they've gone for plain white it's probably just because it's by far the cheapest option. Suhail has been to both Grays and Whittakers and bought every white polo they have, then a few hundred iron-on crosses for a tenner from Temu. Few late nights ironing and jobs a good'un, seventy quid a go. Would love to have egg on my face as always with this club, would love them to unveil a work of art and I'll queue up to buy it, but I can't see it happening

If it isn't blue and white halves then I give up. No one cares if the very first kit the team ever ran out in wasn't blue and white halves, there's probably no surviving photos and it means very little. We've played in blue and white halves for more than 99% of the club's history, we're known for it, the kit stands alone in the modern British game. It's one of the last remaining unique and beautiful things about the club after 15 years of being laughing stocks. If they insist on the Maltese cross, then I can go along with that as there is some limited historical evidence of it appearing on blue and white shirts and it bears some relevance to the club founders. Would maybe have been better going with either the town crest or an artistic/tasteful rendition of a red rose (not AI slop) Let's film the team wearing it while fighting over a plate of fried chicken again. Edit- just another thought, if it is all white, will be add extra hilarity to the fact the anniversary match is against Derby. They have all our players and manager, we'll wear their kit.

I bought one of the shirts this week, it came yesterday and I'm really happy with it. The sizing is spot on and the material feels really nice. Thanks very much guys for organising everything around the shirts. 👌

At a time when almost every single club in England has seen a rise in attendances (the last ten years or so), our attendances have remained pretty much identical. That means in real terms that our attendances have fallen compared with everyone else, I wonder why that is. That's also without doing the eye-test at Ewood where you can see for some games that the attendance is many thousands below the officially reported one. It's not because we're tinpot, or have no fans, like some would like to wind us up with. The derby match last season was capped at 27k or whatever and realistically that game could have seen 28 or 29k tickets sold if they hadn't gone OTT with the security. The game against Oxford at the end of League One got a similar gate as well. I believe that attendances Will jump significantly if we can get these owners to sell up. I'm not saying we'd be getting 25k every week, I'm not daft. But the feel good factor at the club would certainly bring a few thousand back and if we could build on that momentum, then who knows? 25k attendances pre-Venkys, now looks like easily under 10k for some of these midweek games. Venkys out

Didn't realise until listening to BRFCS podcast recently that we haven't won in the city of Coventry (beat them at St Andrews) for 3 decades. I've been 3 times in recent years to the Ricoh/CBS and seen us lose 3 times including a sickening late 1-0 winner on a freezing Tues night, when Coventry weren't very good. So I'm not paying £32 to watch us on Saturday while Coventry are currently very good, I'll watch from behind the sofa at home. Football is a strange game, a bad decision, a sending off or an own goal and we could somehow pinch a 1-0 win, but my gut tells me we'll be put to the sword here. Would loved to be proved wrong, but the amount of goals they're scoring terrified me. Coyb

I never really liked JDT that much, found him incredibly smug, cocksure and then increasingly stubborn and one-dimensional once it all went pear-shaped. I wonder whether any other British or top European sides will be back in for him, or whether he'll be managing in Scandinavia again. He was never backed by our clown board when it mattered, agreed, but I'm not convinced he would have taken us up anyway. I think he only knew one way to play and was eventually found out. We were gung-ho in attack which could be good to watch, but stank the place out defensively. While he hadn't been backed properly in the summer, I'm not having that his second season was anything other than an aberration, I think we would have gone down under him, only Rotherham had conceded more goals when he left and we were the only team not to beat them that season. I'm glad he's spoken out to a wider audience about the shambles he faced while at the club, anyone highlighting it is doing us a service, but it was only to save his own blushes, not because of any loyalty. I'll never forgive him for that performance at B*rnley, it was men against boys, we were bullied, taunted and absolutely buried by them, it was vile, he takes a lot of the blame for that. That must have been what the 5-0 felt like in 2001. Then the 4-1 defeat the following game at home to Preston. That combined was unforgivable and he didn't seem arsed.

The LT article clears it up for me nicely, the facts are there for all to see. However, I can't reach the same conclusion as the club. It's not to do with the amount of rain we got because Chorley, B***ley and others in the local area all played at the same time, both less than 10 miles in either direction. It seems to be to that small matter of having a pitch that's nearly 4 decades old. I wonder whether that makes it the oldest or certainly one of the oldest pitches in the division, that wouldn't surprise me. Sounds like an expensive job, but not for billionaire owners who love the club like their baby.

First game this season I've not been able to watch, just got the notification about Stoke goal. Has it been business as usual?