This is a confident Rovers right now. Play like this against Sheff U and we have every chance of winning. Could have up to 5 if our finishing was a touch more clinical/fortunate. Hope JRC is ok.

That's a very good assist from Gally, no doubt.

Tbf, whilst that would surely deliver a bumper crowd, I think it would be asking for trouble. I'm thinking of the sorts of people the last home game in League One attracted, thousands of them were only there to start trouble by invading the pitch. I expect many of those same types would attend, just for a kick off with Burnley fans. Also, you can't charge away fans double what you charge home fans. I think you can't charge them more than your lowest priced equivalent seats.

I think it's more to do with the injuries you mention, players being pulled out of it for the first team and much of the squad used in a lot of games essentially being under-18s. We had a very similar dip in results I think it was 2-3 seasons back, and the next season kicked on again...in fact didn't they start pretty badly last season then surged late on? Lads currently playing in the U21s will be bigger, tougher, more experienced by next season. Think there are still players to come through. Whitehall, Batty, Barnes and Burns from the injury list you mentioned, have all been well regarded at some point or another. Goddard who is out on loan. Gilsenan and Harlock have been well spoken of in the past too. Walker has great technique. And there is still a whole U18 side that I'm largely unfamiliar with.

Finished 3-2 to Fulham. Goals from Walker (penalty) and Saadi for us. Stats suggest a fairly even game.

Be that as it may, it was a poor result and that was my only point. That wasn't a foul on Pickering though for me, or at least it would have been soft. Seen them given but hardly cast iron. Then someone has to put it in too.

Losing 3-1. Really need to start putting some points on the board or there's still a risk of relegation.

It advertises Umbro mate 😉

Taken in isolation, it certainly was. Drawing at home to the bottom side in the league is a bad result.

It's not lining up the targets that's the problem, it's actually landing them.

Definitely loves us! QPR were the bookies' favourite when I looked.

Embarrassingly amateurish. In fact amateurs would probably be embarrassed.

It really is as simple as that. Great post.

Yeh JRC has played some beautiful passes in the past. I would say he always seemed like his technique was pretty decent. His main flaws were his speed and stamina, and his ability to be caught out of position, all of which were tied to some degree to what must have been his poor fitness due to injury issues. Even then, there was a legit argument for a while that he was a better option than Nyambe for games where we expected to take the game to the opposition (when we played possession style camped in the opponent's half), and that Nyambe was better for games where we expected the opposition to come at us. Later, JRC went off the boil and seemed to not be much use for either, but now he's back with a vengeance. Great to see, I hope his injury woes are behind him as I think that's the main thing that could curtail his progression now. Needs to be disciplined looking after himself and have a bit of luck.

Lol, nah mate I'm not struggling with this at all, you're demolishing your own arguments repeatedly. You just confirmed my quoted post more firmly. Amazing you don't seem to be able to see it. Thought you were going to bed? And I already agreed with JB that this is boring again, so, combined with you beating yourself in this discussion, I'll just leave you to it. Night.

Agreed. Be a lot easier if he stopped dragging it up any time a current RB does well though.

I'll answer you by paraphrasing things you yourself have said. They offered Rothwell and Lenihan better deals and withdrew their offer to Nyambe. Seems pretty clear to me they wanted to keep them more. You're defeating your own arguments quite effectively.

The club clearly wanted to keep Lenihan and Rothwell more than they wanted to keep Nyambe. Even those with only 'outside' info can tell that. You yourself though said the club even withdrew their offer to Nyambe. So that only confirms a pattern of you going along with what the club want to do and their verdict on players. Fairly sure you can be found in other places repeatedly defending the failure to get Lenihan and Rothwell onto new deals, despite you really liking them. Pattern confirmed, again.

Trying to win this argument by claiming to be ITK is poor form. And yet still, even your version says the club didn't rate him. Awkward. Venus' expertise better belongs in property development. Mowbray dragged Nyambe in public and dropped him for like 2 months over one mistake when loads of other players were making more mistakes. Some way of rating him. Nyambe's agent fucked up, for sure.

JRC was injured for most of the other 72 games...

Like I posted earlier, I don't think he was ever physically 100% when Mowbray would fudge him into the side. You can't play at your best when your body isn't cooperating.

How he is at Wigan and how he has been managed is something to ask a Wigan fan, not me. Although it's worth noting their captain plays at RB, always going to be hard to knock the captain out of the team. I do have Wigan fans in the family actually, and one of them reckoned Nyambe should be playing over their captain. However, I already said factors stopped him reaching his potential, and I feel he regressed in the last year of Mowbray's rule. It was blatant to me that damage had been done to his confidence. Some players are confidence players. See BB in his first two seasons, compared to BBD in his fourth. Being repeatedly unfairly dropped, and called out in the press when other players were far worse, did a number on Nyambe's confidence and he'll probably never get to where he should have. How cheap Brittain was is irrelevant, I could equally point out Nyambe was free. Thinking JRC was better than Nyambe at RB during Mowbray's time is just laughable to me, he was a liability week in week out, but you're welcome to your opinion. My opinion is you've tied your opinion to those of the club time after time, so you found it easy to justify dropping Nyambe for worse players and calling Nyambe crap. But hey.

Fair enough, delete my response to the one you already deleted if you like.

Until Jack Vale shows a lot more than he has on the football pitch against 11 senior professionals in competitive matches, he will continue to be seen as not good enough. And that's exactly how it should be. I don't care if he's Pele in training, he's been utterly ineffective when he plays and cost us points as a result. If he comes good and starts smashing them in, everyone will be happy about it. Similar shite was said about Jason Lowe, and the fans indeed did know more than several professional managers.

Other people can rate a player that you don't, without it being some sort of fucking syndrome you know. Always rated Nyambe from day one, so hardly Stockholm syndrome. Mismanagement and injuries stopped him becoming the player he could have been. But doesn't mean I can't acknowledge the current JRC (the old one was dogshit at RB) and Brittain offer more in an attacking sense and probably more overall.