No it wasn't. Dolan wouldn't have had the kick if he hadn't picked up the ball and refused to give it back. Effectively he started it and the Stoke player was booked for retaliating.

I've just checked the FA rules and you're right - it's after the 19th league game of the season. Then it's a suspension after 10 cards up to the 37th game. It still doesn't exonerate 3 players doing something daft with a silly bit of time wasting. Obviously it's sensible to do a bit of managing a game when you're only 1 up in the closing stages but those players yesterday were well able to manage keeping hold of the ball against a poor Stoke team.

We now need to be very careful with bookings for the next few games then. We have 4 players on 4 bookings and all are key ones - Lennihan, Dolan, Buckley and Brereton Diaz. We don't want two or more picking up a booking in any one game before the end of the year.

This was my first away game of the season - usually I would have done at least one before now. It was bloody cold. Not the coldest I've ever been at a Rovers game (away at Oldham on a Friday night still winning that one) but it's probably in the Top 10. As with all football fans we get carried away a bit when we win or lose. Lose and everything and everyone is at fault, win and we're a couple more good wins from promotion. Usually both reactions are wrong. It's way too early to be making any serious predictions about the season - we are still 3 games away from half way. In the last 4 games we have gained 5 points on Bournemouth and 7 on West Brom. As we all know those numbers could be reversed in the next 4. Yesterday as a whole we did not play well. Some of that was the wind which really did spoil things at times. But as a team we did not play all that well for the first hour until we scored. After that we seemed to be in almost complete control and ended up comfortable and deserved the win I have always championed John Buckley so I am as delighted as anyone to see that many more fans are seeing what I thought I saw a few seasons ago when he made his debut at Hillsborough. I think one reason fans have trouble is that he doesn't loo like our idea of a footballer. He seems to be too slight and be all thin arms and legs. It was somewhat ironic yesterday than in what was probably his best game for Rovers he got an assist for a richochet off his arse for the goal. Conversely I have struggled to accept that Joe Rothwell is our most creative player. I think he has only occasionally imposed himself on a game for more than a few minutes and too often his long mazy runs have produced no end result. Yesterday was another of those occasions when he was more consistent and particularly his defensive game was more on show. There was one complete brain fade in the first half when he stood and let Harry Pickering defend against two but overall a great performance. It was frustrating to see us get three yellow cards for timewasting near the end, for Dolan meaning he is on 4 for the season and one away from a suspension. How the referee deemed Nyambe was time wasting with his throw in I don't know, as he usually takes that long when we're losing.

Oh Christ - we’re doomed.

Possible, although the wind on the west of the country is strong but not exceptional - 30-40mph gusts. Had we been at Boro or Hull it would be a real concern.

He's a big mate of Ben's.

Three wins in a row before Wednesday and they deserved something at Bristol City? Still if Powell isn't playing that's good news, given the number of times he has scored against us.

You could say that about an awful lot of footballers Matty. Rothwell has huge talent but not a great football brain. When he makes the right decision he looks a world beater but time and again he makes the wrong choice about when to pass. It's no good gliding effortlessly past several players only to give the ball away.

They were a couple of days ago. Could they be sold out?! is this a record - two out of the last three game previews started by away fans?

Christ - I still have you down as a young kid Tom!

Bournemouth in two weeks surely lads?

Where we are after the Birmingham game will be instructive as we will then have played everyone once and be half way through the season.

Clearly I'm crazy then.

No - infoman has definitely done it before! Having a wife from Bristol and two brothers-in-law still there (one of them a ciderhead ST holder), this would normally be a banker away game for me. But my wife planned a craft fair for the charity we are both trustees of for this Saturday before the fixtures came out and anyway both brothers-in-law have gone separately to the US to see daughters. Hopefully Alan will make it up for the reverse fixture and I can do a preview for that.

I very much doubt that he was one of the Chile delegates at COP26, given that he lives in Milwaukee.

You all need to bear in mind that the actual take is way below the figure you get by multiplying the adult ticket price by a number. You need to bear in mind that there are huge numbers of concessionary tickets being sold - seniors, kids and young adults. That 4.5K extra tickets last Saturday would have grossed an average of well less than £10 I would imagine.

I think I read that the break for the World Cup would only be for the group stages for the Championship. I guess it's quite likely that if Chile get there that they won't get beyond that anyway but who knows.

Still tight but Liam Livingstone taking two key wickets will help a lot.

I don’t think there are too many hoops at the moment into Chile Tyrone, especially for someone like Ben. A test before and when he arrives and a form to fill in (which I suspect he might have done for him). Then another form to come back and a test back here. The pretty constant media attention in Chile would I think be more hassle.

Buckley's passing and vision is well ahead of Rothwell. Joe can make great long runs into the opponents (although he still hasn't worked out when to pass from them) and he is capable of some great passes but he rarely seems to be heavily involved. He can disappear from games for long periods. Buckley always seems to be involved and playing a range of passing from simple to ambitious. Whilst he's clearly not physically dominant he still frequently wins the ball, an example of his visio.

That's why I said he wasn't entirely innocent Gav. But it sounds like he has tried to hold the club's managers responsible, failed and then resigned.

Whilst I don't think Roger Hutton is entirely innocent it does sound like he is not the root cause. He only became chairman 18 months ago well after the event and it sounds like all the non-exec directors have been trying to get the exec directors to take some responsibility and have been stonewalled. It sounds like Martyn Moxon and Mark Arthur are at the core of the problem.

I thought the complaints that Rovers were making was about the two qualifiers that are scheduled for late January/ early February 2022 and not the November games? These games are not in a recognised international break and will mean that BBD will miss two league games (unless he’s already moved on by then of course!).

Is that Abdul-Nasir Oluwatosin Oluwadoyinsolami Adarabioyo you mean?! Anyway, he's suspended tonight.