StHelensRover

Oli McBurnie bagged them a last minute winner today. Maybe we should have made inquiries about him. They've now already picked up 4 points which isn't bad considering many expect them to struggle with this embargo, etc.

I don't think we had the game by the scruff of the neck, Birmingham had loads of the ball and did little with it. We did very little when we did actually have the ball. At least we had taken a chance and nicked a lead. The shot off the bar in the first half wouldn't have counted the game had stopped for an offside.

To be clear, I can't say for certain that there is disquiet/disharmony in the dressing room or ah brockhall etc. I have no proof of that. But the mass exodus of senior players, several of those being determined to link up with our former manager, and the general approach we have with renewing (or not renewing) contracts, way we have treated the women's team, our approach in the transfer market and the general way the club seems to be run means I wouldn't be surprised if players were unhappy.

Based on Jackson's ratings today I assume he would have given Shane Duffy versus Cardiff at least a 6 😄 I do actually like Elliot Jackson, I think he's genuine and doing his best, but I don't agree with some of his overly positive ratings and reports over the years, but I appreciate he is in the local paper and so he has to tread carefully for a number of reasons.

Your opinion is usually whatever you heard last from either Jackson, Ismael or an official club statement, so that fact he gave most of the team an 8 out of 10 is probably why you did as well. If those players are getting an 8 I would be terrified of what a 5 or a 4 is, presumably scoring several own goals or shitting themselves on the pitch like Lineker did. You don't seem arsed that we have managed 3 attempts on goal in 2 matches. You're talking about how we nullified Birmingham as if we were playing Liverpool. In the championship you're supposed to try and beat every opponent, especially if you're the home team. You're talking about us like we were a plucky lower league team going away from home against a big club. We should have been creating chances to score goals, we were not doing that, so how can it be a good performance?

This. If we had lost at Albion last week and at home to Birmingham today but we had been regularly testing their keeper, hitting the woodwork, carving out chances, all that good stuff, then you hold your hands up and accept that's football and that anything can happen. The reason we didn't put in those type of performances, rather than what we have actually offered up so far, is why everyone is so pissed off. Our squad is cheap, cheerful, thin, inexperienced at this level and in some parts clearly unhappy at off the pitch issues. Recipe for disaster.

I'm so angry at everything that is going on at the club. The performances in all three matches so far this season have been unacceptable IMO. Some people very carried away with pre season results. These three matches have not passed the eye test. I will not get on the players backs at the matches, I don't boo or jeer them. I do not think there is a lack of effort, there is a lack of organisation and actual ability in the squad and a general rot setting in throughout the club. We're level on points at the moment with the two Sheffield clubs. I wonder which one we'll be closer to by Xmas, Easter and May.

Your analysis boiled down: 1st half, we didn't have a single shot on target so you've said we were compact and solid. 2nd half, you have said that Todd Cantwell's fortunate (but extremely well taken goal) was justification to make him captain of the football club. What? He didn't play Birmingham off the park. He was very average like everyone else, but a loose ball fell to him at a set piece, right place, right time. Great goal. After that you say we were still really solid at defending despite the horrific defending which led to their penalty and the horrific defending that led to their winner. You're still trying to argue that the penalty was soft or whatever or that he was looking for it, he was tripped from behind. It was a clear penalty, clumsy from Miller but he had to try something as De Neve had let him straight in. I cannot believe you think that was a good performance. Two shots on target, barely any possession, created nothing and defended poorly when Birmingham actually strung something together. If you got a neutral to read the stats, they would struggle to believe we played well. I've read the stats and watched the match with my own eyes, we did not play well. Anyone who thinks we did I think is bonkers.

Just watched the goals back on ITV. I remember at the time thinking how it was a really shit corner, but it takes an absolute age for the ball to end up in the back of the net at the other end. The defending against their counter attack is even worse than the corner. Comically bad. Someone needed to commit a professional foul and take the booking, then we almost certainly get a point from a below average performance and we aren't all as angry as we are now.

Edit - posted in wrong thread

1 trophy in 150 years 1 trophy per million residents Massive club.

With those Elonex signs, I think anyone can pay for the digital ads wherever they want to target. Did you see Liverpool fans did it to the big hoarding as you arrive into Manchester when they won the title in May? Edit - link https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fans-taunt-manchester-united-31633311

I think Birmingham City will have paid the private company for that ad space, won't be anything to do with us. It's impressive attention to detail from their owners that our owners couldn't possibly grasp.

"It's the first game of the season FFS, so negative, just back the lads" They'll be the ones shouting Venkys out when it's January and we're staring down the barrel.

All these people who are talking about how well we played, did we watch the same match? We've had 3 shots on target in 2 matches. We weren't playing PSG or Liverpool. I have no idea whether it was a pen or not as didn't get good view from BBE. Sadly it has cost us and also sadly it is giving people an excuse to say we were hard done by. I thought Birmingham were dreadful, completely different to how they played against Ipswich, no intensity and created very little. Yet we managed two shots against them in 100 minutes. They were rubbish today and so were we.

Our recruitment strategy is now to fire Rovers shirts into the crowd. Just watching them do it in front of the BBE. If you catch one they'll unveil you at half time and you can be captain next weekend.

Fingers crossed the standard is a bit poorer than the last few seasons, it's horrible for Sheff Weds fans given the circumstances but a quiet relief for everyone else that they're almost nailed on to go down. Only really leaves two slots

Bonkers that we'll be massively outshone/outdone here by a club who are the same age as us and would sell their own grandmothers for a hint of the success we've had across three centuries. 10 major honours to their 1. They've basically got nowt to shout about, but they'll still do it better than the donkeys running our club. Our marquee friendly was against Everton, a club we have no connection with other than the short distance and an away game that fans were banned from attending. We then got a 150th anniversary kit that had halves done incorrectly, the one thing fans asked them to do. We're probably gonna get a voicenote from Alan Shearer and an AI deep fake of the Venkys singing No Nay Never on the club's social media or something. I'm really not looking forward to that Derby game, I think it's going to be a sour, dark day in the history of the club when it should have been brilliant.

I don't think we'll definitely go down, I think we'll be in the mix for a fair amount of the season though, looking over our shoulders nervously most of the year. Edit - when we last went down, the league was extremely competitive and we went down with a very high points total. Our side right now as I mentioned previously is probably not better than the one that went down but I think the high watermark will be way lower than 50 points so we'll be ok.

Who would ever want to buy Bolton Wanderers Blackburn Rovers? Would anyone else except Bolton's owners Venkys want to put £18m a year into Bolton Wanderers Blackburn Rovers? I think this is the thing which annoys me most now when I hear it from other Rovers fans. That we should be somehow grateful and accepting of our current owners and that we couldn't do any better without "doing a Bury/Morecambe".

I don't know why you're all humouring Chaddy by responding to his snide "you have all the answers" remarks when anyone who can read and doesn't live under a stone knows we pay well below the going rate for absolutely everything at our club, players, coaches and the rest. Even if you give him the facts and figures he will bury his head in the sand, the club can do no wrong in his eyes. He probably hasn't read the latest forum minutes yet.

Eustace gloating in the local paper at how cheaply and easily he's been able to fleece us for half our team. Thanks again Venkys

You're right, they probably could have brought in 2 or 3 really good overseas players for £10m and really bolstered their squad and looked towards the playoffs, big outlay for one player for them. Our scouring the foreign markets is completely different though, sadly. Wrexham could have picked up several players for £2-3m, we're looking to pick up players for £200-300k. That's why they'll finish way ahead of us this year. 👎

Can see the club have now announced the tiers of membership packages on the website. Hard to see how the prices justify the benefits, it basically seems like a pass to get into Blues Bar. Of course they've not bothered to use an image of Ewood park on the images, looks like a photo of some South American stadium.

Sorry to be Mr Negative but I thought we were tripe against West Brom. Tons of possession, did zero with it, one shot in 99 minutes. Once Albion got their goal they were happy to sit back and let us have the ball, seemed to cotton on we didn't know what to do with it.