Slightly positive opinion incoming. We will survive next week and we will be grateful for the scrappy home points we’ve scraped together against Norwich, Southampton, Plymouth, Millwall and Coventry. It’s not been great and there have been some catastrophic performances along the way but we have amassed 50 points which is more than enough in most years and it will take a fairly unlikely (not very unlikely I accept) set of results to see us relegated next week. Eustace rightly won’t get a lot of credit, but he’s not been Eusless as the squad he inherited was completely bereft of confidence and ability. Yes you should beat a tired Coventry side down to 10 men, but they have good players and regularly score late and perform against the odds. Losing would have made next week significantly more perilous. 

4 minutes ago, superniko said:

Jeez yeah I just assumed only Plymouth had a better GD than us, but we’re the same as Brum. That makes it a little more squeaky!!

The drubbing at Ashton gate is looking more and more costly 

A must not lose game to pretty much secure our championship position and Pears does that! Now the situation is perilous again. I just can’t believe how calamitous it was. It shouldn’t impact him as he’s a highly paid professional, but having 7400 fans in the away end behind him clearly doesn’t help matters. Nullifying whatever home advantage we had is utterly preposterous. It shows a complete lack of care and footballing insight. It’s one of a litany of atrocious decisions and errors since the O’Brien shambles and frankly we deserve relegation. I still suspect we will stay up and for a few days that will feel good, but then the runaway mine train that is Blackburn Rovers will continue to speed towards ruination. I feel so sad for my 6 year old son who wants to support his Dad’s team so badly, but he now prefers to just ignore what happens at the club because it’s clearly something that’s very difficult to get behind. 

Perversely, I think we will stay up and despite the utter shambles that was last night, I have an inkling we might grind out a couple of surprise draws from the remaining fixtures and that might be enough. I feel Huddersfield, Brum and maybe even Plymouth are equally as useless as us and they need a few points to surpass us. I also don’t have an issue with the Eustace’s post-match interview. I thought it was okay. He accepted we were rubbish and apologised but threw nobody under a bus which seems sensible given the critical situation we find ourselves in.   

Why did Sammie play the full 90 mins when he’s clearly exhausted? Once the game has gone at 3-0 surely you bring him off? 

Speechless. Choking when it matters most. Same happened last season albeit at the other end of the table. Rotten to the core. 

7 minutes ago, DaveyB said:

Absolutely this - and I find it so infuriating that he squandered our best chances of getting wins by being so negative. Similarly, I fully believe we could have come away from Birmingham with 3 points had we played to the players strengths and passed the ball in the way that they were used to from the first half of the season, instead of him trying to force some kind of route one shite on a team that just didn’t have the players to do it. 

On a related note, given that we would pretty much all agree that Mowbray was very lucky to survive his regular runs of 9/10 games without a win, how long do we persevere with Eustace before we accept that we’ve dropped a bollock and cut our losses?

I can’t see us firing him even if we lose every remaining fixture. It would cost some money. We don’t fire managers anymore as the owners aren’t interested enough to bother. Mowbray’s contract expired and JDT was so desperate to leave he made his position completely untenable. A proactive club who cared/paid attention might roll the dice again in an attempt to eke out a few extra points. A couple of wins would probably be enough. Instead we will hope to scrape a few draws and pray that the other clubs do worse. 

4 minutes ago, cesus said:

To concede the softest goal of the weekend at one end and look at the other end with no recognised striker, simply fuck off Venkys. 

My thoughts exactly. Sell Kaminski and fail to replace him on the cheap. Sell AW and bring in a crock who lasted 15 mins. Mess up (another) transfer deal on deadline day meaning we have no striker to start a crucial game. 

11 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I know it's "only" Luton but do you think TK actually didn't want to move to a Premier League side? 

He went for too small a sum and we ‘replaced’ him with a young unproven keeper who has been shown to be vastly inferior. They made a small profit though and brought in someone cheaper. We are eroded as a consequence of their cost cutting. 

Kaminski playing for Belgium in midweek and Pears costing us a critical point on the weekend is a perfect example of how the Venkys are destroying us. 

I’m clutching at straws here, but facing the top teams at the end of the season is not the worst time to play them. They are all pushing for the automatic spots and pressure can do strange things to good teams. The end of the season always throws up some surprise results. A couple of fluke wins might be enough or failing that we rely on 2 of our competitors crashing badly and us stumbling over the line and a few more draws. 

A lot of negativity around (rightly so). Last night was pretty lame, but it was a 6 pointer and losing would have been a lot worse. 

Based on the form of teams at the bottom we are set to finish 23rd. To think we were in 6th on the run up to Christmas this is worse than relegation form. Something will have to change quickly to avoid the inevitable. 

Where on earth did that come from? Unbelievable performance and such a fantastic effort. Defended heroically and kept a brilliant shape all match and managed to have an attacking threat. When you look at the shambles of the past 2 months and given the tough recent schedule, the performance was exceptional! JE has converted us from a defensive horror show to a defensive masterclass in a few short weeks. Finally something to be proud of! 

Given the complete shambles that was December and January, I think Eustace has done really well to make us competitive again. Some wins would be nice, but its certainly refreshing to not go into each game expecting to concede at least 3 goals. 

Given the complete circus that is Rovers at the moment, this seems like a remarkably decent appointment. Fingers crossed he helps arrest our rapid decline. 

We can’t sign a player or sack a manager without delays and confusion. We are absolutely useless at everything. 

The way I see it is that we have a manager who wants to be sacked but a club who are too tight/disinterested to pay him off. We absolutely mustn’t go into a crunch match in this position. It’s looking increasingly likely that we will though. Sleepwalking to relegation. 

I know the board are busy finger pointing and buck passing, but at any vaguely functional club there would be some attention given to the current form. You either back or sack the manager. It would show that they had a vague interest in the club's fortunes. I can't see anything other than defeat given that we have a manager who doesn't want to be here and players who presumably would leave given half a chance. This degree of apathy is only going to lead to relegation. 

I am not the suspicious sort. I generally don’t give much credence to a conspiracy theory. I’m truly dumbfounded though (and aghast ) by our 3rd transfer related administrative error of the year. If reports are to be believed, we supposedly finished the paperwork at 8pm. I’m assuming you receive some kind of receipt from the EFL to confirm the paperwork is received and then some notification of a successful  registration? At 10.30pm having not had any EFL reply, rather than calling the EFL to check on the status of the transfer, instead we take some pics of GB and the player and just announce the signing nevertheless. If this is genuinely incompetence and not willing negligence then the incredible lack of safeguards and oversight is beyond belief. We were reported to be interested in McGuire in early December I think. We have obviously been working on this deal for a long time and you’d think one of the many adults in the room might double and triple check the paperwork and the submission. When you submit an important essay or you transfer a large amount of money for a tax bill you triple and quadruple check. It really doesn’t add up and despite my generally trusting disposition I smell a rat. 

I have a suspicion we may have signed the player but not actually registered him to play. 

Theres a pun in there about Venkys 'coming home to roost'. 

It has to be the Newcastle match on BBC 1 for maximum impact. It seems like the perfect opportunity. Something peaceful, law abiding and poignant. Maybe 20 000 people clucking on 17 and 85 mins. I dare say the Newcastle fans would join in. Chicken based arm actions optional. 

6 minutes ago, DE. said:

Zero accountability at Ewood. Remember when Derek Shaw "went rogue" (Venky's own words), costing us millions in Berg's payoff, and then proceeded to stay employed for years afterwards?

You are completely right. It has all the hallmarks of owners who don't care. Every decision seems to take aeons. Theres just no accountability and indecision at every turn. We are just completely paralysed by incompetence. If the owners had a vague interest they would sack all the board and JDT tonight. We clearly need a completely fresh start but this will just drag on for weeks like it did with Kean and Shaw and the outcome will likely be relegation and the shrinking of our club and its reputation.  I'm grateful to JDT for shining a torch on the chaos and subterfuge behind the scenes but the toxicity is spilling over onto the pitch and any board worth its salt would act decisively. 

Im just really struggling to fathom how they could have got it wrong again? I suppose if you don't sack the responsible parties due to a complete lack of interest in events at Ewood park then you can't be surprised when it happens again? Surely you triple and quadruple check every last detail after what happened last year? Its just inconceivable that this could have happened again! Im still reeling from the O'Brien debacle and joked on the transfer thread on deadline day about the flashbacks I was having. Its just outrageous. How are these people still in handsomely paid jobs?