Eastham and Hilton have always sounded decent from what I've been told. Not 'they should be in the first team' decent, but it must be hard to develop when you're only getting a few games at a time at youth level.

At least his positioning was better on the free kick this time. But yeh he doesn't look anything special. Think maybe he should be the one who sticks around playing for the U21s whilst we find loans for the others...

Yeh I mean to post before the game saying it seemed an unfamiliar, young lineup, and where was Burns, Saadi, Gilsenan...like you say, Cirino and Eastham too. Not sure how many are just injured.

Nearly conceded a fourth due to pissing around with stupid passes at the back. It hit the bar.

3-1 down now. Not been as good this half so far (other than maybe in the 5 mins the stream went down), creating nothing and more easily exposed at the back. Intensity has dipped a bit too. Commentator saying it may be Pike that put it in his own net in the end.

Stream back and Brighton back in the lead as soon as it recommenced.

You were both (unless you got a free ride!). It's not difficult Jim, most things in the English language have more than one word that can be used to describe them. You'll spend most of your life having pointless arguments if you take umbrage at it. Or should that be if you're irritated by it. Or annoyed by it. Or....

If it costs the club anything at all (and perhaps if it doesn't), you can bet Waggott would want to monetise it. Especially since it could stop fans coming on the night and paying a couple of quid or whatever it is. Though tbf, it being a perk of Rovers TV would be better than it not being shown at all.

Was about to post that. Suggests he will be at least on the bench tomorrow.

Nah look closely at the replay, keeper's arms suddenly swing up towards Leonard's face. Bit of a scuffle now.

Thought it was weird that the linesman didn't, as far as I could tell, make that decision until the ref came over to ask him.

I take it back. Their keeper's hands cleaned out Leonard and he's describing it the other way. Penalty squeezed under the keeper, 1-1.

I called exactly where that free kick was going. Dowling shouldn't have been stood over to the other side. His positioning gave him no chance.

This 'kids football' as RF99 likes to call it...well it seems to mean a lot more to these kids than it does in some of the first team games I've seen. The intensity is there.

Commentator doesn't seem to be a biased bellend. That's refreshing!

O'Grady-Macken shouldn't be missing that.

Looking at the stand on the opposite side, if they're the same then it's probably about as high as it can go without extra equipment they're not gonna fork out for a youth game.

That's more like it. I didn't think there'd be two young lads called Tom Bloxham playing at this level, so I didn't look around long. Not a common surname. Cheers. I thought when they named him on the stream I may be wrong, as that's not a 6 ft 5 player!

Think I read recently he's just coming back to training, so maybe. Not named in tonight's U21 team though, and I think they said something about needing to build him up for game time, so I'd assume he'll be a no for tomorrow. Shame, he was exceptional last time we played Blackpool.

Who is that on the photo? I'm bald and I've got better hair than that!

Was about to post this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Bloxham_(footballer) 2 goals in 24 appearances whenever that was last updated. One of them was in the FA Cup against Stratford Town, the other was in the league. 6 ft 5 makes him a big lad for sure. But at 19, I'm not sure this one fits the profile of what we should be looking at. By that age then, unless they've been in the academy of a Championship level or above club, where games are hard to come by, I'm expecting more than 2 goals in 24 apps for a League One outfit, one of them being against non-leaguers. Sounds like another James Brown, Brad Lyons, Tom White type signing. Where they're coming in a bit too late for a youth team signing and just realistically aren't going to make it here even if they do have a bit of talent.

I find it hard to believe you read the forum for years without posting. You definitely have the posting bug now! Good to see your contributions.

Yeh it's been discussed - in the absence of actual information it's been a difficult one to understand. Nixon's original article where the claim came out was (typically) unclear, as he's not a very good writer. He basically said something like they want to know what happened in the event of relegation. This has led to speculation in subsequent articles and in discussions on what that actually means. I summed it up somewhere else in the thread but basically it could mean: 1) Would we still sign him for 10 million if we got relegated to League One this season? 2) If we got promoted and bought him, would his contract include a wage drop in the event of relegation back to the Championship? I think there was a third possible interpretation that I mentioned in my other post but I can't remember it. Both are, as you say, fucking stupid. Obviously relegation isn't promotion and from legal or common sense perspectives I can't think of any way to justify asking that question. We also aren't obliged to include relegation wage drop clauses in our contracts, so whilst there's a thin argument for asking that to help safeguard the club, since it isn't compulsory it shouldn't be used to hold up the deal. Especially since holding up the deal damages the club, and also because if we won the £170 million jackpot of the Prem we would have more than enough money to cater for LOB's high wage in a subsequent relegation, as long as we didn't blow it all in other, unrelated deals. In either of these instances I should think the EFL would be on very thin ice in any courtroom or arbitration that doesn't have EFL officials presiding over it. But it could be the 'leaked' information is incomplete, completely wrong, or means something else, or there could be another factor with more weight behind it that kills our case, so there's no point us getting too irate or self righteous until we have official information.

I was just talking in terms of the actual Brereton outlay. It wouldn't entirely pay for the outlay on another striker. That's without considering that it would be a multi-year deal. However yes it might create enough space in the budget for us to sign a striker...presumably that space would also be there the next season though after we've had another season from a lad who is almost guaranteed to notch 10-22(+?) goals in this league without even taking up the central striking berth. I'd be fine to keep him another year at those wages, as I can easily envision us signing someone else with the money who isn't any good, and unless a loanee, would burden us for more than a season if they weren't any good. The 'will he won't he' saga continuing would be an annoyance, but I'm more interested in what yields results. Another thing is it gives us more time to resolve the issue. We have ostensibly been looking for a new actual striker since the summer, presumably we will continue to regardless of BBD being here or not. Say we sign someone in the summer, it gives us a season to see if they're any good. If they are, it may reduce our desperation when Brereton leaves, if they're not, we've had two rolls of the dice by the subsequent summer instead of one. For me we should have tried to get some money for him in January, but that was only because I had given up on the playoffs actually happening. In fairness, that isn't something the club itself should be doing (although our lack of transfer activity suggests otherwise!). As for my ex...haha none of them are up for it anymore, exhausted those channels so to speak! There's only one I'd really like back if given the choice anyway, but c'est la vie!

The more I read your comments actually, the more I'm starting to see you view it as a case of 'identity' and a word to replace 'fan' in that context. That's not what anybody is driving at. Our identity as it relates to Rovers is of course as fans. Stakeholder is something else altogether, that fans are one chunk of, and whilst you're claiming to understand it, you very clearly aren't. So far at least. I don't think anybody can explain it to you any clearer than we all have though, so I'll leave it there as I'm sure it's gotten tiresome for some.