Never in a million years. He's thrown himself to the ground at every opportunity today.

This ref needs to book S. Armstrong for diving.

Ah and Brittain gets a yellow for a slight shirt pull in their third of the field. Fuck the EFL.

I bet if a Rover felled a Saint in the D with a mistimed sliding tackle he'd get a yellow card...

This is crazy football - we're just letting them have the ball. They'll eventually pick a through ball to one of their quick attackers.

We've been playing without an experienced striker for most of it. This is a return to the Dolan / Szmodics False 9 stuff. Really feel for Ennis, Telalovic and Leonard - what a snub this is for them.

I do that every Wednesday night at my 7 a side and sometimes get bollocked for it "I didn't call for it!" 🤣

Szmodics replaced Dack as the #10 last year. We were chasing ST targets all summer - the list changed when the owners turned the taps off. I think the plan was always to bring in Ennis (as a replacement for Vale) and A.N. Other as the #9. Leonard would have been sent out on loan.

I think he was intended to replace Vale - then the rug was pulled from under Broughton / JDT and he suddenly became the marquee ST signing.

Did I miss JDT pissing off the EFL? The referee tonight was a disgrace again - for the third match running.

How so? They only scored 'cos we moronically gave them the ball. A very tired Rovers team were too good for them.

That counts season ticket holders who didn't turn up - quite a few of those around me. To be fair they have young kids and can't get to weekday matches.

They've spent 'at least' £3.5m on Hirst and Taylor, brought in three expensive loans and are probably paying Tuanzebe a small fortune.

The biggest criticism is his reluctance to use subs. I know the players on the bench aren't as good, but Szmodics is dying on his feet out there - take him off for his own good.

That's a very American mindset.

I was having this discussion with my dad on the walk back to the car. If anything I'm amazed we still have a club - Kean and Anderson / Kentaro systematically dismantled the club that Walker and Williams built - and then handed out contracts to their mates (and son!) to leech every last penny they could from Rovers. We've done well to be disappointed at just missing out on the playoffs every year, all things considered. We were flirting with being Bury before Bury at one point.

Mowbray paid £500k for him - and then he tore his hamstring on his debut. If he had any pace, it was gone after that. I'd like to see him as a #10 - I'm not even sure he's a L1 wide player.

I thought we played fantastically today - I was disgusted that so few Rovers fans remained to clap the players off at full time. They simply had better players and a referee that was determined not to give us anything. We were the better team on the day.

The game they conceded 4 in?

Kompany (and co) simply hasn't bought players that are good enough for the PL. I saw their goal against Wolves - it's suicidal football to play like that against the sharks of the PL if you don't have supremely talented players. You can get away with mistakes at the back at the Championship level, but the PL is a different beast - did you see how quickly Wolves pounced on the mistake, shifted it twice and slotted it into the back of the net?! They've bought 'tweeners' (players that are too good for the Championship, but not good enough for the PL). A team full of Teemu Pukki's, if you will. And for all that money they're still playing Jay Rodriguez upfront - he's never been good enough.

That's the thing - the game has changed. It's no longer end-to-end at 100mph (for better or worse). I think the players are much better technically now than they were 10-15 years ago, but they're also all put on a creative leash. It's all very much data driven now. Here's an interesting video around the topic:

Develop a sense of humour, pal.

He also made several very good saves (I think a World Class goalkeeper saves some of those goals, but there's only a handful of those on the planet). My prediction is that he's a good GK and we'll sell him for more than we got for Kaminski.

They'll sell Carter and A. Wharton in the summer - so you're relying on Broughton identifying targets (both at Head Coach and players) and the Venky's not pulling the plug again.

Under, unless you're counting literal touches (he dribbled the ball at one point).