If we weren’t prepared to play Ennis last night, even as a sub, when are we going to play him ?

I’m uneasy about JDT using the travelling as an excuse for players being injured. As I said earlier you need to avoid giving players excuses when things aren’t going right.

Give 90% of pro players excuses not to perform and they’ll take them.

The culture at the top of the club isn’t right. There is no real pressure on results from the owners. We don’t have enough players with a winning mentality. We retreat into the last third of the pitch too easily. We lack the courage to keep playing a “ normal ” game and persist in dropping back. I got told as a young player - “ You can defend your own half for a long while, you can defend the penalty area for a short while, but when you try to defend the six yard box for any length of time you’re in trouble “ .

I agree with that, in fact I said it myself earlier. Why is it that we have so many starters out injured ? I read somewhere on this site that JDT said “ We train as we play “. If that’s true, at this point in the season it’s not too smart a policy.

But that stumbling block will always be there as long as they own us. Imagine for one minute we got promoted. What would happen next ? The full spotlight of the Premier League circus will be on them and their dodgy dealings. They’ll be expected to chuck relatively serious money at the team, otherwise we’ll be embarrassed in front of the English football world. As I see it there’s no incentive for them to back a promotion team and every incentive to keep us bumping along, not making waves, in the lower reaches of this league.

Well we’re more likely to finish in the bottom 6 as we are the top six.

The Valentino’s - Looking For A Love

It got Luton promoted last season.

If he was on a “ pay as you play” contract we’d be laughing.

We’ve no size in the team. Losing both Carter and Hyam was a big problem.

Anybody know why Ennis didn’t get on ? If he can’t run his bollocks off for ten minutes at the end of the game what was the point of signing him .

When did we last score from a set piece ? That’s criminal in modern day football.

I agree - we had 7 players out tonight who would probably played if fit. The back 5 plus Gally and Hedges. Given if those had been playing we would have had a much stronger bench to call on. I know lots of teams have injuries at the moment but we have more than our share. Is it what we are doing in training ? Regarding the manager - has he won a derby yet ?

It has been for a lot longer than this season.

When you keep conceding at the death it just encourages your opponents to keep going when normally they have given up. Rovers must be known throughout the Div as not having what it takes to see a game out.

On another day that would be the the reserve back five. Pears JRC, Carter, Hyam, Pickering All out.

What are we doing to get all these injuries ? The most energetic training this week should have been on the dart board ! Maybe Pickering got a dart in his foot.

Same with me living in Rochdale. Beating the red rats was always number one on my list.

Barbara Lewis - Someday We’re Gonna Love Again

I see the lad Foster at Burnley has been diagnosed with mental health issues. He has my sympathy, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Obviously being a top player has its down side. Being away from your home , strange environment, new language for some, living out of a hotel room maybe, nothing much to do after training, possibly being on your own. I’ve worked away from home and it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea although the money was great. Lots of time in the pub, eating out all the time. So I can see why it gets to some players. Maybe we need to cut our new signings a bit of slack with this in mind. I hope Foster is back playing again soon.

Subbed off on 66 minutes tonight with Villareal losing 1-0. They are 2-1 up now !

That’d do me with the exception of Dolan in for Leanard.

Yes his past history suggested he’d miss games if pushed a bit too hard.

Not as embarrassing as when I congratulated “ Jeff Kenna “ on having a fine debut for Rovers only to be told I was actually speaking to Tony Gale !