Maja looked to be exactly what we are short of.

As they said during the game - when did we last score direct from a free kick ?

I thought Dolan looked better playing wide on the right in the second half. Hedges doesn’t do enough for me.

Not the most exciting game unless you think passing the ball around the back four with a West Brom player breathing down your neck is exciting. Having said that we gave a very good West Brom team a problem or two. They’ll be up there in the play off zone at the end of the season. Our defence was a bit harum scarum at times but the scoreboard said West Brom 0 at the end so I’ll take that. We did look toothless in attack, too many players are taking the ball either facing our goal or stood still. We rarely get a run on the opposition back four. When we do we look dangerous but we don’t do it often enough. When they attacked there were occasions when they’d 7 players in or around out box, we usually have 3 or 4 at the most. I won’t bother with the scores tonight. Nobody played really badly or really well. The pick of our lot was - Pears for once, Cantwell, a class act wasted out wide, Tronstad, his usual performance. Why he brought Siggy on is a mystery. Did he actually touch the ball ? He won’t be needing a shower that’s for sure.

Well that wouldn’t be my starting 11 but let’s see how it goes. I suppose it’s hard to drop a couple when only Beck played well.

That’s the problem as I see it We have two water carriers in central midfield plus a back four. One is our captain and the other is possibly our most consistent player. So un droppable. In an ideal world one of centre mids would have a bit more of the Andy Wharton about them. That’s why we look turgid at the moment.

Definitely, but he’s somewhat injury prone.

Yeah, do it now, he’s got his whole career ahead of him.

You still need to know what your best starting 11 is going to be irrespective of whatever changes are made later on. We don’t.

That’s my expectation as well.

You’re right about our recent form. I think we don’t know our best starting eleven, that’s never a good position to be in.

Yeah, I wonder who Beck would prefer to be helping him out on the left hand side ?

Play like we did on Saturday and we will.

There’s something about the way Gueye strikes the ball I don’t get. You’d think that a long time pro player would have a cleaner, smoother action on the ball.

Sums up my feelings on those players you mention.

I don’t know what Hedges brings to the party. Most of the time you don’t know he’s playing. One of our many strange signings. We paid a fee when we could have had him for nothing a few months later.

I’d forgotten about that. He let the ball get away from him.

Me too. I’ve never had a season ticket for a variety of reasons in the past.

How many times yesterday did we pass the ball out of the back four to a player running back towards our goal with an opponent one yard behind him waiting for the mistake ? Nobody can thrive in that situation. I lost count of times it had to be passed backwards again. We need to mix it up with the odd ball into space but we can’t because we’re a team without any real pace with the exception of Beck.

As against a “ magic box “ for about £80 a year and watch all the sport you want.

I know people like that. They wouldn’t go if you gave them a free ticket. What the answer is I don’t know.

When I first got really interested in the game I was playing schoolboy football. After the Saturday morning game me and my mates would say “ Right, where are we going this afternoon ? Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Utd, City, Bury, Oldham, occasionally Rochdale ? Somebody would say “ Spurs are at Bolton let’s go there “. So we’d all jump on the train, pay at the gate, and you were in. Dirt cheap and some great players that you rarely saw on tv. Rovers were a great team to watch then so a lot of the time it was the bus over the tops to Ewood. You can’t do that today.

Season tickets might go up a bit, a thousand or two, but the days of filling Ewood are over. As a spectacle the game just isn’t attractive enough. Yesterday I caught myself thinking “ If football had have been like this back in the day would I have got involved ? “ I live in Rochdale and I go on their site quite often. They have exactly the same complaints. Dull football, guys one step up from pub team players being expected to play Pep style football, the centre halves having ten times as many touches of the ball as the strikers. Hardly any goal mouth action. The goalkeepers being able to wear the same kit without needing to wash it etc etc.

I honestly don’t think that applies anymore to a significant degree.

Right, let’s see.