I've never and probably never will understand this. Personally I'm not going to feel any more like singing just because I'm stood up. I don't really get why people are (apparently) singing less because they're sat down. It's completely bizarre to me.

Point though is he is indeed Premier League fast.

Oh thank fuck we didn't sign 3 already injured players this summer then.

Butterworth will need to start on the bench. TM would probably put him there regardless, but he looked tired after a short cameo recently, and just started against Accy for the u23s. I don't see him having the fitness yet to play 60-90 mins on Saturday, and risking it with his injury record would be pretty stupid. Although that last bit about it being pretty stupid makes me wonder if it will happen...

Ged Brennan

Very worrying when 7 of that starting 11 are frequent members of the first team squad and have first team experience. I mean I'm doubting Accy have put their best side out? I was actually thinking it was odd to put such a strong side out for this game and not our u23 league games.

Can see his eyes watering up at the end there. Don't blame him. It must have felt strange to be probably the only Englishman invested in football who wasn't delighted that day. Robbed by fate of what could have been his greatest moment.

One of the most satisfying aspects of that day is how Spurs had been built up as the strong favourites, despite being only negligibly higher than us in the league. It was such a ridiculous 'big club' and Londoncentric love-in, and it was fucking great to crash that party.

Big test this one. Apart from WBA, the only team currently in the top half that we will have played. A win would lay down a marker of sorts and show it isn't just teams with terrible form we can put away (although it would probably condemn Cardiff back to the bottom half so the conversation may continue to a degree, and there are better teams ahead). Since 2018, we have apparently never won a game whilst placed higher than 9th in the league. That's in 15 games played whilst 8th or higher - 5 draws, 10 defeats. The 12 games played when we have been in 9th have been better but not great either (3 wins, 5 draws, 4 losses). So it may also begin to banish our nosebleed problem we have whenever we get up here. A defeat however would reinforce the belief that Mowbray's Rovers crack under the pressure of competing at the top end of the league, and at least for now shift the expectations of many back to a mid table scrap or worse. Come on lads, let's send em packing!

If I'm remembering rightly (and google isn't giving me the answers I need here), Shearer and Greaves are the only two strikers in English football history to score 30 league goals for three consecutive seasons. When I was younger I always felt like Al could have taken the record for himself if he had stayed at Rovers one more season, but we will never know (and I can admit now that Newcastle were a better side at the time so perhaps not). RIP Jimmy. Never saw him play but his goalscoring records breath rarified air.

For those who I've seen say Armstrong was fast, but not Premier League fast.... https://www.90min.com/posts/fastest-premier-league-players-ranked/partners/46790?fbclid=IwAR0xMUn2QNqUBvi2BVAJvWrAhES6XJrlq-6Ewm9Q7M7rAfJNbs1z1UoDdeU

And two games is the epitome of a woefully inadequate sample size. Of course Brereton looks Championship level, he has 4 games and an assist in 8 matches, mostly from the wing. I feel some people apply a misleadingly high standard to this term 'Championship level'. Is he one of the best in the league? No. Is he Championship level now? Yes. As I said, we need to use the options we have properly. Harsh to say they're not working though, as in at all. After all, we are in 6th as I keep being reminded. But I do think there is room for improvement there. We have had crap attacking options since Graham left and Dack got injured. Basically just Armstrong until BB found form, with two useless lumps on the flanks. Now BB is looking decent if still not fully polished, and we can field a few reasonable options instead of Gally there. That's how we can have our best attacking options in a while but not a CF. We are overloaded in the wide area and limited with reliable players in the CF spot. The options are unbalanced but plentiful.

Premature statement about Poveda. Yes he was poor, but equally he was good in the other game he played for us and has just come back from injury. We need to see more of him before any conclusions can reasonably be reached. 2 years ago Brereton didn't look a footballer of any description as long as he had a hole in his arse. Now he is one of our most valuable players. He hasn't played centre forward, at least not more than the odd game, since he joined us. He is bound to struggle to adapt to not being used as a 'winger'. Actually totally disagree, I think we have the best set of attacking options we have had in a while. The problem is none of them is a natural centre forward. We have two who were raised that way but have been used as wingers for ages, and foolishly didn't buy any this window. On the flanks up front we have a range of decent options IMO. Need to use them right though.

It only shows form this early, not the real standard of the side. And yes, the converse applies that we are in good form, I've never suggested otherwise. I'm not trying to have it 'both ways'. Form is temporary, class is permanent as they say. We have beaten teams in poor form, which has contributed to us having good form. We're doing well. All I'm saying is it doesn't make us a top side in this league, which you seem to agree with. Hopefully we are wrong and it continues.

I've also had this thought lately, that we are finally setting up to counter attack now we have lost our best counter attacker, and what we could have achieved playing on the counter last season. Big wasted opportunity.

Why would I want to find excuses to be negative? I'm just pointing out all angles. Of course I wouldn't have thought we would have 13 points or be in 6th by now, and of course I'm happy about it. But we've had good runs of form before under this manager only to death spiral, I'm not about to be conned again when our squad is paper thin, the teams we have played have all started poorly and we've rode our luck quite a bit. Yes I'll have a crack at predicting it, why not? Just because you don't know the future doesn't mean you can't make guesses at it. I think we will death spiral once the injuries and better teams come along, and I think we will be back around mid-table by Christmas, probably finishing bottom half at the end of the season. Which is an improvement on my pre-season prediction of relegation. If we somehow end up in the playoffs, feel free to drag up this post and say I got it wrong, I'll be more than happy about it. It will, however, just have been a prediction. I predict roughly the right area of the table correctly most seasons, including the last two times we got relegated, but nobody gets it right all the time.

After 10 years and an unscrupulous CEO trying to milk one of the poorest towns in the country, that is.

In fairness, whilst it could be cynical, it's also possible that he simply was bored by it all last year. If you've been working in football your whole life at his age, with the fans in every game, it was probably difficult to keep his motivation going. Of course on the other hand he is paid handsomely to do his absolute best. But we are all human no matter what you pay us.

We have. Most of them would still have had poor starts even with more points against us. Yes we are 6th but you don't honestly expect it to last do you? I know you're a very positive person but you also know the manager isn't up to scratch and the squad is thin.

Correct. They do show form though. And we have played teams in poor form, almost exclusively.

Most of those will take time to get up to speed, and some are prone to mixed form anyway. We will also inevitably pick up more injuries yet.

The most unpleasant journeys are often the most memorable.

And should have been in the back of the net.

Even if he is, then it should have been Edun staying on the bench for Butterworth's sake. Tony has said before that we don't do business like that (guaranteeing loan players game time). But, Tony says a lot of things. If he was telling the truth though, I'd say it has more to do with wanting to curry favour with managerial heavyweights like Bielsa and Klopp.

Results have improved. I do think we are riding our luck though.