Even if he didn't make an immediate impact up there (some of his international appearances suggest otherwise) he'd still be an asset. We've been complaining all season about him going for free, there's no way I'd let it happen given the choice (within reasonable wages of course). Let's say we offer him 60k p/w to stay, and let's call that a 4 million cost over one season once you factor in national insurance, bonuses etc, do you think we wouldn't be able to find a Championship club who would pay say at least £5 million for him next summer? A recently relegated side would be able to cover those wages. Even if we took a small loss instead (let's say it costs 6 or 7 million to keep him a season, due to loyalty bonuses which I think have to be paid in full if a player moves without requesting to leave), it's certainly worth the gamble for me that he might cope with the level. Even if he is just a fairly average Prem level striker he'd be worth upwards of 20 million fully contracted.

Rhodes was reported as around 8 mill, I don't know which of the two actually cost a bit more.

This was his best strike for us, albeit not his most important:

I think the early release during a run of good form, combined with a slight decrease whilst everything else gets more expensive, and the possibility that these may be Premiership season tickets (along with uncertainty over whether prices will jump up in the Prem) should result in more sales though. Maybe not thousands, but it should sell better than last year. They're still a bit high for this area of the country and a demoralised fanbase, but it's a positive step for a change.

1. The Worthington Cup win. 2. The '95 title win at Anfield. I watched it on TV while my parents went to the match, I was gutted but they were lucky to get the two tickets they got. It was still an amazing moment for me but not the same as being there, and I'll never have that chance again. I'm not attached enough to our history before my time to pick any other moment, probably because I haven't lived in those times. Would have been lovely to see Douglas play though as I've heard so much about him, and I'd have loved to see the matches in the very early days of Suter et al, partly because it's so historic but also because it would be fascinating to see how different the football was.

The posts above say, we beat Preston 2-0.

Had some injury issues this season I believe, but if he keeps this up maybe he'll be working his way into contention soon. He'll need to, as at 20 he's approaching shit or bust time.

Yes, the odds are 50/50 each time, but the odds of 10 home ties in a row or 10 away ties in a row would still be very high (I've not done the maths but 1 in 1024 sounds right). However the odds of 9 home in a row and then 1 away would be exactly the same. It's essentially the odds of any given sequence of 10. So, H, A, H, H, H, H, H, A, A, A would have the exact same odds of happening (1024 to 1) before the sequence was initiated. Because there are 1024 different sequence combinations of home and away for any ten cup draws (not including neutral grounds of course). 10 home ties in a row for the most marketable club in England does seem suspicious to me though. As well as irritating when we had I think it was 4 away draws in a row for it this year? Can't remember last year to know if that sequence extends further.

Speaking of greatly disappointing European games, and with the Champions League campaign and Trelleborgs already having been covered...Celtic. Both games. The first one of course we utterly outplayed them for nearly the entire match, then conceded a late Larsson sucker punch. We all went home thoroughly expecting to pound them at Ewood with home advantage. Instead we lost 2-0. Many like to say we got just as outclassed at Ewood as they were at Celtic Park, but I've always thought that was bollocks. The stats back this up somewhat...we had more shots, and 6 shots on target to Celtic's 2. So they scored the only times they hit the target. We also had more possession and more corners. I felt robbed in both games, I don't care what anyone else says. I feel the memories of the second game are distorted by the expectation vs outcome, the 2 goal deficit rather than just 1 late sucker punch, and how Celtic's fans thoroughly outsang us. It was definitely depressing trudging home with them lot going wild.

However, it wasn't a standard request that could have reasonably been anticipated, so I refuse to blame the club for it. If it was a routine and mandatory part of deals, we would be fully to blame for not having catered to it in time. But I'm sorry, we're not to blame for the league's illogical nitpicking. By that logic, they could then ask us any number of further irrelevant questions (what happens if Rovers are relegated under a half moon in a leap year? What happens if Rovers transfer the club to the French leagues? Does he get a payrise if Rovers qualify for the Champions League? etc etc) taking us past any deadline no matter what we do, and that would still be our fault. We are, of course, 100% responsible for not having the right people in the right places at the right times though. The club are not blameless in this, but neither are the EFL or Forest. At least Rovers are the only party of the three admitting some culpability. The mistakes made by Rovers absolutely cannot happen again, nor similar ones. Lessons must be learnt. I'd think a head should roll somewhere too, but I'm not familiar enough with the internal processes and the days events to say whose head it should be.

Thing is if they do, and we don't go up, we'll end up lamenting it as we're sanctioned for breaking 'profit & sustainability' if that's what they're still calling it.

I won't criticise JDT in general for it, but I do think the subs were a mistake. Not in terms of freshening up personnel, or who came on, more that it seemed to be going fine and I didn't see any need to change formation. I said at the time it seemed a risk to me. But he has shown this season he is a much better manager than his predecessor, who never got out of the starting blocks in this competition for us in 5 years.

It confused me right away when he got a yellow. I don't know the letter of the law on it, especially these days, but for me it makes sense that although the player didn't intentionally handball it, the shot was going in the net, so the penalty makes sense. If you think it's deliberate, you definitely send him off I would think. If you don't, but it needs to be given because his hand stopped a nearly certain goal and the rest of his body wasn't going to, you give the penalty but no card. Not the first time I've seen a yellow given for handball though, but I'm sure they ruled years ago that a deliberate handball is an immediate red. I think refs just bottle it, especially if they've already given a penalty, because handball intent can be hard to discern in real time, so they take a 'safe' middle option. Of course, this ref had the benefit of VAR. Personally I don't think he meant to handle it, and his arm was in a natural position for trying to get the block in.

I don't remember the 80s at all, but I've still seen us live at four semi final games. I might even be forgetting one? I'm thinking the two Sheff Weds games, Arsenal at the Millenium Stadium and Chelsea at Old Trafford. I feel like there might have been another we reached.

Wash yer fucking mouth out with soap!

Lol one of them used Buckley as an example of shithousery 🤣

U21s 2-1 down at half time to Liverpool. Kaminski in goal. Ours scored by Gilsenan.

You obviously just don't rate the player, but young players who have established themselves with us should be eligible for deals of at least four years. 3 year deals are a bit crap...you need to start thinking of negotiating a new one a year down the line, usually with another payrise. A 5 year deal for a player who can fetch a fee and wouldn't be put on a particularly big wedge at this stage provides a lot of security for the club, and gives us a strong negotiating position if clubs come in for them. Dolan has shown enough for me that I'd be delighted if we put him to a 5 year deal. A 4 year deal would be lovely to hear about too. A 3 year would be fairly disappointing and just kick the problem a bit down the line, at which point it could potentially take a huge pay rise to avoid losing him for free.

There may be a clause, there may not. Morton playing badly and still being in the team doesn't prove there is, much as him being dropped recently doesn't prove he's not. On the first point, sometimes managers subconsciously attach a bit more calibre to loanees belonging to huge Premiership sides like Liverpool. Also even without a clause, a player might be kept in the team to retain good relationships with Liverpool for future loanees, especially after we (rightly) dropped Clarkson last season. Obviously I'm not saying that's a good policy, but it could factor into the thinking if the management don't see much between Morton and Buckley. On the second point, we've no idea what form a clause would take if it is there. It could be something like must play 70% of the games he is fit for to avoid a fine, in which case playing him so much early on would mean we barely need to play him now to get that over the line. It could be a monthly thing, where we are charged more if he doesn't play any games in a month, in which case just sticking him in now and then would do the job, but it wouldn't explain how much he was played for most of the season. Or he must start 90% of games he's fit for each month, or over the season, but now we're in the business end of the season and promotion is on the line, we don't give a fuck about the fine anymore. Or it could be pretty much anything else. Without knowing how a clause would be structured, it's impossible to infer whether it does or doesn't exist based on how things have gone.

We probably just assumed Aberdeen would play him. From what I've seen, and the standard of Scottish football, I'm surprised they aren't. Like, not even off the bench apart from once, early days, when they were down to 10 men...he might not have been breaking into our team but I shouldn't think anybody expected he'd play so little for Aberdeen. They must be mad at us for taking Hedges off them fairly cheap (kidding, before anyone starts)! It's looking like a bad loan though so far. Hopefully we are in dialogue with Aberdeen in the hopes of improving the situation. If he doesn't earn himself a starting berth that's one thing, but to not even be getting chances off the bench to show he deserves a starting berth, that just makes for an utter waste of a loan, of a player we could have used as backup or a bench option ourselves.

Betfred is one of the only three I'm on...but I'm struggling to figure out where I can make that bet on it! Might be for the best, my bets are often the kiss of death...

Where can I get that?

I'm astounded by that answer, but to each their own. So essentially, you think this match is more important than the rest of the season combined?

If that happens, I'm building a shrine to JDT in my house.

I thought he did his best work between and in front of the sticks 😉