And another £12 million.

Or perhaps more a symptom of the messageboard’s long-term loss of quality posters, leaving an increasingly unrepresentative clique taken in by the Mercer spoof account?

I also think Elliott’s one-footedness has been figured out by opponents. Dolan currently offered more variety up front and better defending

He doesn’t have a clue positionally though: too far forward when we don’t have proper possession and usually no idea where his man is when defending.

Very disappointing result, but in all the dummy spitting in the last 8 pages not a mention of us hitting the post, two fantastic saves and two gimmes missed, whereas all they did was a scabby scrambled goal. Personally I think Armstrong and Elliot lost us the game between them for the shocking misses and Armstrong’s usual no hope shots. Nyambe deserved the hook IMO, first 20 mins he was a disaster, and when not doing that he’d be 40 yards upfield leaving Travis to spend half his time being a right back. No surprise when the City lad came on that Travis was much more influential in the centre. Should’ve won at a canter but with Armstrong and Elliott being crap for weeks now we don’t have enough goals. Need more consistent goalscorers to be a real top 6 threat.

It’s the fluidity of the front 3 causing QPR all the problems IMO

Terrific last 20 mins, Travis, Davenport and Gallagher have all been playing really well, centre backs solid and front three causing a lot of problems. Only weak points for me have been Nyambe’s and Bell’s defending, both dire, every QPR attack has come from one of them ballsing up. Swap Rothwell for Dack at HT

Delighted to see Davenport picked ahead of Trybull, also glad to see Gallagher - only having a 5’5” bloke up front in away games means we are under the cosh too much. Rothwell needs to shine or he’ll be getting an early hook for Dack

I was at that and the Derby cup game. We travelled to Derby full of optimism - God knows why after that Blackpool display, 5 soft goals!

I wondered if it was Valley Parade

Your memory is going, old man! Fear missed the pen at the Bee Hole end early in the second half. 😉 Easily the most intense atmosphere at a game I can remember, even more so than VE Day, turbo-charged by the Longside configuration, standing, pint pots to crap in, and pay on the day.

When Watford went up with 15 loan players in their starting 11, I remember it being lauded on here as the modern, imaginative way to do things, leveraging the top 4s scooping up of young talent who will never get a game for them. Much better than having to take 3-4 year risky punts on other clubs’ cast-offs who will turn out to be either useless or get crocked.

I think it was actually John Pickering who signed him after Iley had been potted.

Ahhh yes!!

Half the time for goals scored in the Darwen End we needed to read Alf to learn who had scored, let alone who touched the ball in the second phase! I wonder if our memories of Plymouth 5-2 and Boxing Day at t’Turd would be tarnished by endless replays showing plenty of mistakes in our play. I can recall exactly our goals at Burnley whereas the second half goals against Plymouth (and their two) are all a blur given we were 120 yards away!

I think anyone who started following us in League 1 will have had a highly satisfactory 3.5 years: promotion and now close to the playoffs, league’s top scorer and signing future England internationals on loan. When we were in Div 3 I had zero time or respect for the old farts telling me they packed it in after the cup final or that Tony Field wasn’t fit to lace Roy Vernon’s boots. Similarly, today’s Facebook fans aren’t deluded fools for not wanting to harp on about Venky’s, Allardyce or lemon drizzle cake, they are enjoying the here and now just like we did.

Same applied in the early ‘70s Tyrone. The 1960 cup final then two relegations saw off the majority who had luxuriated in watching Duggie, Pickering et al in their pomp. The Div 3 fan base were to a large extent young, new to following Rovers and had a blast watching us at Halifax, Rochdale and the like. If new fans inherited the gripes of the old fans, there’s be fewer and fewer new fans to the point there’s be no club at all.

On reflection Mark, I agree with you on the Don. He was good for 10-15 goals but after that we struggled for another prolific scorer. Blacklaw was very hefty, not bad, but Sir Roger coming a year earlier would’ve made a difference. Newton, Hunter, Wilson, Knighton, Meccy and Eamon were all top notch.

That 1969 team is the first one I can recite in my sleep. Hill, Mulvaney and Blacklaw were the weak links IMO.

Funny you should say that Tony, I was just trying to remember if we had one for Tony Field, and nothing came to mind. We did have “Sirrrr Roger Jones, Sirrrr Roger Jones, Rogerrrr” repeat a key lower. I think most of the songs back then were tribal taunts to opposing fans, either singing our praises, denigrating theirs, “He shot, he missed, he must be fking pissed, (insert rival striker’s name), or threatening imminent violence!

Just beat me to it, Tony!

Not in January

I’ll take wins like the last two at this time of the season all day long. The key point for me is that we have much stronger benches than the teams around us - all four subs today gave Luton new problems, as did last week’s three. Howard Kendall would be lighting cigars after the last two win.

That deflected shot took an hour to go in as seen from the Darwen End side of the Riverside

I’d be very surprised if Allardyce ever thinks about us at all. It was ten years ago, he was only ever passing through to rehabilitate his reputation after Newcastle, he wanted offski even before Venky’s rocked up, and he went on to manage England (just about) and make a fortune at various struggling Prem clubs. So I don’t think he’s thinking’ “but for Venkys I could’ve still been at Blackburn.”