I haven’t posted on here for a while but I feel quite strongly about what’s happened today. This seemed the best topic to post on. Clubs and venues in all sports have been royally screwed over by the govt today. They’ve worked with the govt thus far banking on things being relaxed after 1st October and now Boris has pretty much said no crowds for 6 months. Clubs and venues now need to get canny about this and utilise the restaurant loophole. I attended a greyhound racing meeting last Friday in hospitality and it was absolutely superb. They are opening it as a restaurant, it’s Covid compliant as per the standard restaurant guidelines and it just so happens there’s live sport outside the window! There isn’t a thing the govt can do about it as it’s a restaurant with waiter service. It also happened in Australia in Rugby League when general crowds were not permitted to attend a few months ago. The NRL teams opened up their hospitality and the Australian govt conceded it fell under the definition of restaurant. Ewood has more indoor window table seating than most grounds. There’s space to accommodate several hundred at window tables in a Covid secure environment. I think they would sell out every week. I couldn’t afford it every game but I’d do it several times. I suspect many season ticket holders would have the same attitude as a means to watching a live game. It would also bring in some much needed income. Hopefully it’s something Rovers and sport in general will consider after today’s bombshell.

At least the Birmingham Mail read this board! Some of you are famous..... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/all-familiar-blackburn-rovers-fans-17514436.amp

Good to see Barrow being referred to as a lancs club. This “Cumbria” nonsense annoys me! I’ve always looked out for their results and will be great to see them hopefully return to the football league. In fact Barrow are 1 of 5 teams in the top 5 divisions who have the lancs red rose on their current badge.......

The worst bit of Mowbray management today was replacing Downing (our joint best player today with Armstrong) with the weak and ineffective Buckley. Downing still had plenty to give and he looked perplexed to be taken off. Mowbray brainwave - lets take our most creative player and one of the few who can actually finish and bring on a lightweight player who is nowhere near this level. The team was instantly weakened at a crucial point when Brum were on the ropes and there for the taking. Ridiculous decision. Annoyed about today. Mowbray’s record at Rovers in the cups is rubbish. A little cup run would have kept the season alive.

Just had chance to watch the goals on quest; to anybody just watching that it would give the misleading impression it was a 3-2 epic! It was anything but! It was the worse 3-2 win I’ve ever witnessed. Our saving grace was a moment of quality from Downing (probably ruled out by VAR due to Dack interfering in an offside position) and a fantastic reaction by Dack to score the winner. Indeed that’s the difference between a quality player like Dack who had the brain and reaction time to anticipate the rebound, and an average striker like Armstrong who should have had the nounce to react to Rothwell’s long range effort but instead was flat footed and day dreaming. Re the defending I actually think our 2 centre halves did okay but they are hindered by inferior full backs. Point in question is Barnsley’s first goal. Lenihan was dragged forward out of line and therefore out of position; that’s when a centre half needs his full backs to sense the danger and tuck in. Bell should have spotted this, swept round and cut out the danger. Unfortunately he was another caught day dreaming, he reacted too late and their lad had the freedom of the box to score. It’s basic full back defending and frustrating to watch. Particularly more frustrating when our manager was a respected top flight centre half! If I can see it and I’m sure others can, why is such poor defending happening every week?!

Frustrated with that performance. Twice we have lost at home to poorer sides this season in front of a semi decent home crowd. Kids attending for the first time yesterday will not be inspired to return. At times this season we have played with high intensity, tempo and moved the ball well. All we needed to do was produce a performance of that nature. Unfortunately we produced the opposite. Too many players were lethargic yesterday. Dack, Johnson, Gallagher to name but a few. Ive watched the goals - really poor defending for the first. Cunningham as an international left back has got to read the game better when their lad picks the ball up and get across to stop him. Instead he sticks with his man instead of sensing the danger which is the Luton player running with the ball down the edge of the box. Basic defending. Harsh perhaps to single him out but if he had done his job we don’t concede. Knowing Rovers we will probably put in a performance against a good Forest team on Tuesday.

Watched it on a live stream and literally struggled to tell the 2 teams apart with a ridiculous colour clash! I don’t know if it looked worse on tv than in the ground. It may well have helped though given their player passed it to Dack for the opener. I suspect the grey kit was the best option of a bad bunch as the other 2 kits would have clashed with Albion’s as well. I thought the ref favoured Albion - I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the disallowed equaliser - the ref couldn’t wait to give that decision. On the basis of the first 6 games it looks like a season of mid table again - perhaps with the odd run to get us on the brink of the play offs. I hope I’m wrong. Disappointing as the standard of the Championship really isn’t great this season. Albion are nothing special and are seen as one of the top teams. The fact Charlton are up there speaks volumes. There will never be a better opportunity to get promoted out of this league. I thought I saw something in the the way we played at Hull that we could be up there this season - I’m not sure after the last 2 league games.

So you wouldn’t clap Mulgrew on his return? Our captain who nearly jeopardised his international career to stay with us in league 1? He was one of the hero’s of that promotion campaign, scored a record amount of goals and got the winner to send us up! He’s as much as a hero for what he did that season than anyone who played in the premier league glory years. That season in league 1 was as important and equally as enjoyable as any in our long history. I agree with their being no room for sentiment in football and I concede he didn’t look great on Saturday. However give the man a bit of respect! I know it’s off topic but the fickle nature of some Rovers fans in terms of quickly turning on players who recently they revered really annoys me. Whilst it’s clear the likes of Mulgrew, Smallwood and Bennett have struggled recently, these players stood up to be counted in that very important league 1 season, and this shouldn’t be forgotten.

That’s the frustrating thing. 13,000 home fans there yesterday; that’s roughly 4,500 walk ons based on the figures in Waggot’s LT interview. A decent convincing performance and some of those may have been persuaded to buy a season ticket; getting us closer to Waggots 10k figure. Unfortunately Mowbray and his team served up a pathetic performance and I speculate the vast majority of those walk ons will be keeping their money in their pockets! Instead of bemoaning in an LT interview re season ticket sales, Waggot should be banging on Mowbrays door and telling him straight how the drivel served up yesterday has likely cost us in this regard.

Some positive news - Rovers must be doing something for the Stoke game on Saturday 6th April in terms of cheaper tickets. My lad is involved with Darwen Rangers u6’s and they have been allocated free tickets - 30 adult and 30 junior in the Blackburn end upper. I hope this gets pushed in areas other than Blackburn borough. I have also raised concerns about Hyndburn as per the posts above and how our traditional catchment areas are being eaten into by Stanley. As a further example I know someone involved at Langho juniors - their team have been given free tickets for tomorrows Stanley game and they are playing a match on the pitch at half time. Langho is not even in Hyndburn and is traditionally a strong Rovers area! I respect Stanley and their owner Andy Holt; however it’s a dog eat dog world and a resurgent Stanley is not good for our supporter base. Particularly when our support base is dwindling in the town of Blackburn for various reasons and we need to rely on our traditional outer catchment area more than ever.

Read through and agree with the general consensus - we were lacklustre, tired and too many players below par. It was the kind of performance you would excuse after a midweek cup replay going into extra time! It is also a game of fine margins and we could easily have nicked the win from a set piece. Indeed if Derek Williams knew how to head the ball in an attacking sense we probably would have won! I recall two examples of his terrible attacking heading; he does well to find positions but the end product from his head usually ends up in row z of the Blackburn end! I find it really frustrating as his defensive heading is fine.

Outstanding performance. The first 20-25 minutes was a good as any I’ve seen from Rovers in a long time. Evans was my man of the match. I cannot advance anything that hasn’t already been said. Underated player. I’ve read through all the posts - I’ve seen a couple of posters criticise Graham?!! That’s beyond comprehension! Alex James covered the game for the Lancs telegraph in place of Rich Sharp who is on holiday. To quote Alex James in the match report - “Danny Graham produced a lone striker masterclass, holding off Hull defenders as if they were smaller children in the playground.” I couldn’t have put it any better. I’ve also read a couple saying Dack was poor. Dack started off like a man possessed, he was everywhere in the first 20-25 minutes, this rubbed off on the team and consequently the game was won. Even if things don’t quite come off for him, when he is running around like that being a constant nuisance for their defence he is still our most important player. Mowbray should be nailed on January manager of the month with 100% record and 3 clean sheets. 30 years ago we got into the play offs with Garner and Gayle at the helm. No reason why we can’t do the same this season with Dack and Graham leading the way!

It’s absolutely pathetic by the club. Plain and simple. It is added to the ever growing list of similar decisions by the club which only serve to upset loyal fans. This includes shoving the away fans into the corner of the darwen end upper. Or moving home fans out of the darwen end. The financial reasons given by the club are a smokescreen. These decisions were made primarily for security reasons! They don’t care that the atmosphere is now worse or the fact the empty lower tier looks terrible on tv. Another one is the central comfortable seating in the jack walker upper darwen end side. A group of us had sat there in these empty seats through 6 years of dross only to be abruptly moved by the charming and delightful stewards last season. We approached the club at the start of this season and offered to pay extra to sit there. We asked them to name their price. We were just told they weren’t for sale at any cost and they are for hospitality only. The club could have made some extra money! A mate recently mentioned this to Mike Cheston; to be fair to him he seemed a little shocked that our offer had been dismissed without consideration and said he would look into it for next season. Also pretty sure a couple of years ago the club ordered the brown cow public house to take down their own Rovers flag on display outside and replace with an official club one! If it wasn’t the brown cow it was another Ewood pub. Another one - we must have been the only professional football club in the country where you couldn’t buy a kids kit for Xmas as they sold out ages 5-12 in October and decided against ordering a new batch! I’m a massive lifelong fan of Rovers and care fervently about the club. The club do a lot of good things - charity work, things in the community, strikers lounge etc. i also think they frustratingly get a lot wrong. There seems to be a number of ‘jobsworths’ working there as highlighted!

I know you aren’t down yet but it’s looking increasingly likely. Relegation to League 1 seems like a bad thing now but I say embrace it like we did. I appreciate you haven’t been in the third tier for over 60 years and the prospect of it now may seem worrying for the future of the club. We had the same concerns. A season in league 1 reinvigorated our club and fanbase. It was enjoyable being the big fish in a division and winning most games! It’s one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve ever had with Rovers. Suddenly kids in the area were wearing Rovers kits again and there was a feelgood factor around that we hadn’t experienced for years. We took more away fans in League 1 than we did a lot of the time in the Premier League. Lots of new ground to tick off for Ipswich fans. Lambert has a mixed managerial record but does have promotions with Colchester and Norwich on there. A couple of shrewd signings should see you at the right end of that division. I think he is the right man to get you back up. He does have an eye for a decent player; he signed Bennett and Graham for us and they are ever presents in our team. As I say if you go down hopefully you will have the same great experience in league 1 and return a stronger club!

I also thought he was a decent player 2-3 years ago. However his career must have stalled; he’s at a mid table league 1 team who have just been walloped 9-0!

I haven’t read anybody blaming Brereton for surrendering the lead. However I have read a few quite rightly querying his application when he came on. For the record I have been sticking up for brereton in public, I’d never have a go at him in the ground and I cringe seeing a couple of morons making comments about his transfer fee on his twitter feed after he signed. Indeed i really want him to come good and take positives when Graham describes him as his protege and is mentoring him. However he was invisible when he came on and I’m entitled to voice that on here in private with fellow Rovers fans; it makes no odds as Brereton won’t read it. He should have been chomping at the bit; he has just signed permanently, glowing comments from Mowbray, coming on at St James Park etc. All he had to do was put himself about for 10 minutes as one would expect from a 19 year old keen to make an impression. Instead he was off the pace, blowing out of his backside and not challenging for anything. If he had reacted as one would expect from a sprightly 19 year old he would have been through on goal from an underhit backpass. I also accept the service to him was poor and desperate; but he should at least try and win a header! He is 6 foot plus and a striker; isn’t that what tall strikers are meant to do? He ducked a couple of times whilst ‘going up’ for the ball. Evans will cop the blame for giving the penalty away but he has put himself about as much as any other player this season and at times during this game he was very influential. I really want Brereton to come good but at some point he is going to have to put a shift in, do a bit of the ugly work and hopefully it will lead to a goal and fans getting onside.

Fantastic article - obviously terrible news re mark Venus wife

I thought he had a solid game for 85 mins but was woeful right at the end. Aside from needlessly giving the ball in the wrong areas at the end, he also ‘went up’ for a header during a mad scramble in the box in very half hearted pathetic manner. In the dying minutes you need your defenders putting their bodies on the line to see out the win - see Mulgrew block. Bell isn’t the kind of player you’d want in the trenches with you.

Good preview SA. You are quite right Yarm is a nice town and is my usual stop off for a pre match drink. However having a change tomorrow and taking a slight detour to the Teeside coast - Saltburn for a parmo pub lunch and a couple of pints. I like Teeside and a parmo is a must have dish when in these parts! Had some good away days at Boro over the years. My favourite was probably a season opener when Santa Cruz equalised on his debut and Matty Derbyshire came off the bench to bag a late winner in front of the Rovers fans. Unfortunately got a bad feeling we will get beat tomorrow. I think their drubbing at home to Villa last week has come at the wrong time for us.

Bannan is very talented when he is on the ball and all of Wednesdays best play came through him. However on yesterday’s showing he seems very lazy defensively. Mowbray likes players who put a shift in off the ball and do the defensive work too - particularly central midfielders - see his criticism of Rothwell. Two of our goals started with poor and lazy defending by Bannan - the second Downing walked past him like he wasn’t there. It’s even worse for the fourth - he does no tracking back at all and allows Travis to run past him from 30 yards away. It looks really poor watching the goals back on tv and I’d be fuming if I was a Weds fan! I have to admit I have some humble pie to eat re team selection. In the pub pre match I suggested Dack should be dropped to give him a ‘rocket up the backside’. I also said Brereton should start over Graham! I was still reeling from my trip to Wigan. They were both outstanding yesterday. Fortunately I’m not the manager! The build up and moves in the run up to our goals was top class (albeit helped by lacklustre defending). Dacks first touch in the build up for the last goal - to beat their defender in the box - was worthy of a top class premier league player. As for Wednesday - I can see them potting their manager. I have just seen his post match interview on sky - he lacked conviction and looked a defeated man.

I’ve read today about Accy Stanley distributing over a 1000 shirts to Hyndburn school children. That’s what happens when you have a canny local man in Andy Holt running their club. As much as I admire how he runs Stanley I share the same concerns as the posters above - Stanley are a threat to our dwindling catchment area. Rovers should be ruthless about this and should be targeting these traditional blue and white places. Hyndburn is a load of administrative cr@p anyway - Knuzden is Blackburn and yet falls under Hyndburn. Rishton and Ossy are still just about Rovers supporting towns but the club need to do more to protect this given the rise of Burnley and Stanley. Someone mentioned above there is an EFL gentleman’s rule that a club shouldn’t encroach into another borough. If that’s true it’s ridiculous. Again the borough boundaries should be ignored. Rovers wouldn’t target schools in Edgworth and Belmont as they are Bolton Wanderers supporting villages despite being in Blackburn borough. Unfortunately this is what happens when you get somebody running the show who doesn’t understand the town, the fanbase, the traditional catchment area etc. John Williams did.

So would I. Which leads me to my first moan of the day - Rodriguez! I stand to be corrected but pretty sure the challenge on Mulgrew was by Rodriguez....again! Yet all we hear is ‘he isn’t that kind of player.’ I thought he studded Mulgrew very late and high - the fact Mulgrew went off with a rib injury would support far. Make no mistake Rodriguez was on a mission yesterday - his reaction to the Rovers fans following the Albion goal was symptomatic of that. How funny was his miss though! The Raya incident is a difficult one. It doesn’t seem as bad as when Stephen Hunt did it to Petr Cech. I still maintain Rodriguez could have done more to avoid Raya. Which leads on to the second moan - the ref! He bottled the handball. Everyone in the ground, including the ref, could see the ball hit his hand. My view a 100 yards behind the ref could see the hands were raised and outstretched in an unnatural position. The ball also travelled a good 5 yards from where Reed crossed. It’s an absolute stonewall penalty and it’s frustrating that a professional ref isn’t giving it. Moaning over it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Felt like a win. I dont mind Albion as a club - similar in stature to us - the hawthorns is also a nice ground. The Vine pub is also a good crack and one of the best ‘away friendly’ pubs around.

Or M6, M56, M53 and then the a483 Chester to Swansea. That’s the way I am going as the M6 is just a nightmare. I reckon I can do it in just over 4 hours.

This is my first away game of the season. Making a day / night of it - shall enjoy a couple of ales on the Gower and then Wind St in Swansea centre! I went to our only previous competitive match at the liberty stadium in April 2012 - it was a disaster - culminated in leaving the match with 30 minutes to go at 3-0 down and ending up ridiculously inebriated on Wind St! The difference between the manager and players re both these matches is telling. We currently have a fantastic honest manager and a squad of players who care and give their all. Back then we had Kean and a bunch of overpaid useless mercenaries, albeit Nzonzi played that day! Anybody who went that day will recollect how spineless the performance was. Also rumoured that Givet punched Kean in the dressing room before hand and he was mysteriously left out of the match day squad. Play like we did yesterday and hopefully this visit will be more positive than the last!