StHelensRover

Another masterclass from Val again. It'll be the refs fault today though I reckon. Let's see. Referee was poor but he didn't stick the ball in the back of our net. How many matches has Val been in charge of at Ewood Park and how many have we won? Not including friendlies or Old Etonians

That's not bad luck that's negligence on the part of the manager, recruitment, board and owners.

We concede so many late goals. We are weak mentally, poorly organised and cannot concentrate for 90 mins. That's what our level of investment and our dud of a manager gets you. Magical substitutions again from Val, is he drawing lots in the dugout to decide who, where and when? Why have we taken off the only player capable of scoring, again? Gueye is getting worse every week. Complete passenger, embarrassment to the shirt. Did absolutely f-all and then was trying to "gee up" the Blackburn end when it was still 1-0, he wouldn't get in a league one side. Referee wasn't great so that will be Val's ready made excuse. The starting eleven is just about good enough for this level (just!), but the rest of the squad is dogger. Sick of watching away fans celebrating at Ewood every home game. The atmosphere is miserable at Ewood because the club is miserable at every level. Thanks Val, Rudy, Pasha and Venkys 👍

I just remembered something else he said on radio lancs today which I didn't really understand. It may have been a bit lost in translation, not sure. He said something along the lines of "I wish we had conceded the equaliser earlier rather than right at the death". I don't know why that makes a difference, maybe he thought that would give us chance to still go on and score again. Usually when a team pulls level against us, they go on and get another. So f*** knows what he was getting at.

From his social media account just now

Captain Donkey and his donkey subs have cost us yet again. Made a triple substitution on Weds against QPR with a third of the game left. We immediately conceded a goal and barely threatened the opposition afterwards. Was a while back but I seem to remember the exact same happening against Sheff Utd. Made his subs today with a third of the game left, we suddenly stopped offering any attacking threat whatsoever and camped in our own half until Wrexham scored. Yes the squad is paper thin and the bench stinks the place out, but that's all partly his fault, alongside his pals Gestede and Pasha. He's clueless. I can only remember his subs having a positive impact once, 9 times out of 10 they make us much worse. He's a dud.

Walking out the ground and that feels like a loss. Wrexham are not very good and we blew it in such typical fashion. Cannot believe we haven't scored a second goal in that game to kill it. I got flak on here last week for suggesting that Gueye is one of worst players we have ever signed, apparently Kevin Davies was worse. I'm doubling down on it. He is horrendous by any measure.

I agree. Many people who live in the 'Bolton area' probably live as close to Old Trafford as they do to the Breezeblock, which is closer to Wigan than Bolton. There's load of people in Blackburn who glory hunted toward the likes of Manchester and Liverpool, so it's surely worse in Bolton, given how much closer it is to Manchester. Bolton has also lost much of its identity in recent years as a town in its own right, instead being part of 'Greater Manchester'. I think that probably makes it difficult to attract younger fans. As you say, our two clubs have had similar sized attendances over the decades until quite recently. They have good owners and a good pricing strategy. We have terrible owners and a poorer pricing strategy, which isn't the worst in the league, but it's not as good as theirs.

From behind the sofa. (It's not on UK TV so there's no official way of watching. Can't comment on unofficial ways)

The Bolton one is the example I think is most galling for us as it shows how to get it right with the fanbase. Despite them being in a lower division, I strongly reckon their fans are generally much happier overall, enjoy match days more and are more optimistic about the long term future of their club than Rovers fans. Their stadium is almost full every week and it's pretty much all down to the cheap season tickets that they've had for several years now. Bolton is a slightly bigger town than Blackburn but it's also closer to the big Manchester clubs, so they are doing very well on their attendances. They wil eventually get out of that division and back into ours. With all the positive momentum that they will build, they'll probably fancy getting back into the top flight eventually. Something which no one has even got close to at Ewood Park for 13 years.

Well that win for Oxford was not a good result for us, but it gives a glimmer of hope that maybe we will be able to get at Ipswich again.

None of us there to blame. I'd love to know what figure they'll pluck out the air for tonight's attendance. We know the stadium has 31,000 seats. It was barely a quarter full, they'll still announce it as 13000 or something mental.

Sidney Tavares is so bad that I'm expecting a TV crew to run on the pitch at some point and tell us all we've been pranked in signing him. Like that fella at Southampton who claimed to be related to George Weah. Montgomery also sadly just not good enough.

Another absolutely stinking home performance. It was poor throughout and then the substitutions completely finished us off. After the triple substitution the players looked like they had only just met each other. Looked totally disjointed and created nothing.

Really enjoyed both sections of this episode. Thanks to all involved.

"Who would want to buy a football club that loses tens of millions a year?" Turns out people are queuing up to do it. That's not what we're usually told. Same as with Coventry and Derby in the last few years. They got new owners and didn't end up with Bury in NW Counties equivalent. Crowds way up at both clubs and both above us in the table. Oh well

I remember seeing something in Blackburn Museum about Blackburn being the 'Beeriest town in England" at one point, with the most pubs per capita of any major town or city. In more recent years I think it was reported in the Guardian that we have the most takeaways per capita and that people in Blackburn had better access to takeaways than GPs per capita. Interesting reasons to be on the map, or not(?). I'd rather we were back on the map for footballing reasons but appreciate that could be many years away.

I don't disagree with any of that. But then it just makes me question why the manager allowed the club to sell Dominic Hyam right at the very last second of the transfer window? He was by far our most experienced and least injury-prone central defender, we didn't need to sell him for any reason. We should actually have been doubling down by giving him a small pay rise and a new contract. VI should have been arguing for this. But we 'cashed in'. If I was VI I would have blocked/vetoed that sale and made it a red line. It was a crazy decision, but he allowed it. Knowing how injury prone our other defenders are and not knowing whether youngsters like Pratt would be ready to step-up made it a massive gamble. Yes we've had bad luck with injuries and suspensions, but that's why you keep the squad as strong as you can and retain as much experience as you can. We didn't do any of that this summer. On his watch. I don't understand what his ambition is for Blackburn Rovers. I know I come across as really negative about him, I would genuinely like nothing better than to be eventually proved wrong, looking a fool and have people saying "cannot believe you wrote him off, you're an idiot". However I cannot see us making any progress as a football club under him. To me, he's part of the cheap, cheerful, mediocre approach which is endemic throughout the club.

That's not the whole story is it? If I was being interviewed for a job and I was told that the strategy was to let all the most experience staff leave and replace them with much less experienced staff on lower wages, where we have no idea how long it will take them to become competent, or whether they would ever become competent at all, that would be a massive red flag. Ismael presumably knew this would be the case when he took over, they must have discussed long term strategy with regards to current playing staff and future recruitment. So he doesn't get to use it as an excuse, he doesn't get a pass as he took the job on those terms. If he had no idea any of that would happen, then you would expect him to be extremely disgruntled about it, in the same way that Eustace and JDT evidently were. Instead he has indicated that everything is fine, fans and journalists are wrong and he, Rudy and whoever else are correct. He slapped down the suggestion that the squad is weaker than last season's when we can all see that it is. Not 'tosh' is it?

This is the first game this season (and we're at the end of November) that I'm expecting we will win. QPR are very inconsistent, they won't bring many fans up to East Lancashire on a miserable cold November mid-week. It won't be a classic but I think we'll win this 1-0.

I still think he's shite. We're 18th in the league, we've won one home game and got knocked out the cup by a lower league team. If I was appointed instead of him last year I think I could have made a better fist of getting us into the playoffs than he did. Anyone being smarmy about him because we won a local derby can jog on for me. I never wanted him appointed and my jaw will go through the floor if he ever musters anything measurable as 'success', which would be qualifying for the playoffs, he won't. Edit - I don't want to see anyone using transfer policy as an excuse for him. When he interviewed for the job, that was his chance to interview the club about it's plans to progress. If he didn't ask, didn't listen, or simply waved through their shambolic, tinpot, unambitious plans then he doesn't get the excuse of "doing well with a poor squad".

9 points of breathing space now, hopefully that is a big mental boost for the squad. We just need to keep chipping away and maintaining that gap and we can do it with the big six pointers we have coming in December 🤞 I think we all acknowledge that at least one of Sheff Utd and Norwich, if not both, will eventually begin to climb out. Another 10 wins needed this season to stay up, hopefully we can get 3 or 4 of those before end of December.

I don't think he's that arsed about us, he has no connection beyond managing us for almost a year, I don't think it's that deep for him. Like many he probably saw us as a stepping stone, it's just that on this occasion he made a sideways (at the time a step down) away from us which was galling for us, I don't think it keeps him awake at night. Out moronic owners keep me awake though. It's probably the satisfaction that came from the performance. They completely mugged us off in that game, it was the perfect away performance. Any manager would want to hang their hat on it. They've barely won any matches, so not surprising it stood out.

Great performance that I didn't see coming. We do seem to be a completely different outfit away from home. Maybe playing with less pressure and not expected to take games by the scruff of the neck. Regardless, we were definitely the better team last night. Apart from the crazy 15 seconds which led to the Preston goal, that back 3/5 looked okay. Very pleased for Pratt to see him step up and deliver. I couldn't really fault the performance of any of the starting 11 who all worked their socks off. The subs all did well when they came on. One exception was Maktar Gueye, who honestly. I give up with. I know he has put the ball in the net on a couple of occasions, but he might be the least gifted striker we've ever signed and his attitude stinks to boot. The poor man's Grabbi

I'm down at the ground by the turnstiles and is a lot of younger Rovers fans (can't be older than 18/19) singing absolutely disgusting songs about Tom Finney. Tried to call them out on it and basically got told to F/O. Hope others will call it out when they hear it as well. Cannot believe anyone would sing about anyone dying at football matches, let alone someone like Finney. Disgraceful.