37 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Didn’t know I was disagreeing, it is what it is and it won’t change unless we double our ST numbers (ha!) - it’s a ground that will always have lots of spare seats otherwise.

But there obviously is a reason most clubs restrict away followings even if they have more seats available.

I agree with regard to season ticket sales and the new TV deal is more likely to decrease sales rather than increase them.  I looked at Sunderland and Leeds with 40,000 and 30,000 plus on each ground and fans paying £30 + per ticket.  I'm going to have to pay £33 at Leicester and that's an OAP price!  FFP makes it almost impossible to compete income wise over the course of a 46 game season.  Hence, I can understand why we will try to fill the Darwen End whenever we can.  

12 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Oh I thought we were talking about the impact of big away supports at Ewood.

So what you are saying is that our players can't perform if there are 7,000 visiting fans at Ewood.  However, they can perform in front of 30 odd thousand home fans at Leeds and 40 odd thousand home fans at Sunderland.   I'm not sure I follow that argument.  At the end of the day we won't agree on this.  For me we need the cash and in the 60 odd years I've supported the club the number of visiting away fans has never really seemed an issue.

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Didn’t we lose all those games?

I thought we won at Sunderland and Leeds and Newcastle was one of our best performances.  I know we lost under JDT to Sunderland and Leeds at home but I was referring to more recent events. 

41 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Nobody else in the country gives the away team 7000+ away tickets at the drop of a hat to make some extra money 

Apart from fake club MK Dons 

Why do Rovers?

Why wouldn't you?  Football is a business and if 7,000 people want to give Rovers 30 quid we are no position not to take it.  If the argument is that the players will be impacted by it then I really don't buy that argument - the Leeds, Sunderland and Newcastle games would suggest they are more than capable of handling it.

For me, Dolan would always be one of the first names on the teamsheet.  His work rate is tremendous and even when some of his decision making lets him down, he never stops trying.  He never hides on the pitch when things aren't always going his way.  I don't get the theory that he's not quick - he's shown that on numerous occasions, and his control and pass yesterday was a perfect example of what he can bring to the team. 

His attitude, the setbacks he faced in life, the way he has overcome his struggles with mental health, would suggest that this is the short of lad you want representing your club.  For me, he is one player that I would want to get signed up to a new contract.  I've always believed that he is a cracking little player.  The fact he has played so many games, under three different managers, would suggest that he his highly regarded by those who work with him on a daily basis.

1 minute ago, K-Hod said:

Not Eustace’s solitary win so far, nah?

Not helped, but December and January are the games against relegation rivals that JDT couldn't win that have really hurt us.  We failed to beat Rotherham, and Huddersfield home and away.  Same with Plymouth. 

14 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Does anyone think we'd do worse under JDT?

Personally, yes.  If he was still here we would be relegated without doubt.  He lost interest and the players in December.  One win and six defeats in December and in his last four games in Jan/Feb it was two draws and two defeats in the league.  We lost away to Sheffield Wed and Huddersfield and then only drew with Rotherham and Huddersfield at home and lost to QPR at home.  Those results are really hurting us now.  For me, its those two months, when we had winnable games that have really come back to bite us. 

I must admit that I was sat at Ashton Gate last night totally bemused by the performance.  It came out of the blue as the previous three or four performances had been totally the opposite of what we saw last night.  At the end of the day human error is something you can't legislate for and the goals were a result of players making basic mistakes.  You could see the confidence drain from the players as the mistakes were made.  I don't believe any of the present squad go onto the pitch to intentionally have a bad game but they are human and not robots, so mistakes will happen and results like this will happen.  However, the game has gone and the only thing that matters is the next four fixtures.  Eustace is right when he says that all that matters is responding to defeat in the right way.  We don't have a big enough squad to make wholesale changes so he has to work with what he has.  

I still believe that these players and this manager are more than good enough to keep us up.  Obviously, the game against Wednesday is going to be key to survival  but we are good enough to beat them if we play as we can.  

Totally agree with Eustace on this point.  The most important thing for the club this season is staying in the Championship.  The last three games have shown that the players are more than capable of doing that.  With the new TV contract and increased revenue from that from next season it's vital to stay in the Championship.

50 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I personally wouldn't have complained at selling Rothwell or Brereton when it was clear neither were signing new contracts IF the money was used to replace them,

Unfortunately the very reason they weren't signing new contracts, why virtually nobody other than academy graduates on their first professional deals have signed extensions, is that the club has systematically and rapidly reduced the wage bill.

So I doubt they were even offered sensible terms, or if they were they were never going to sign them as they simply weren't competitive for the standard of player in question. 

And for the same reason we were never, ever, ever, going to see the money reinvested, which is why the McGuire and O'Brien stunts were little more than con jobs orchestrated by liars. Serious money was never changing hands.

I believe that deals were already in place for two players but it required Rothwell being sold.  Unfortunately, the owners opted to keep Rothwell which meant the other two deals couldn't be done.

More than happy to give Eustace time to work with the players in the pre-season.   That's the least he deserves.  I believe he inherited a complete shambles that was left by the previous head coach and that will take time to sort out.  Even if we went down, and I still believe we won't, I would stick with him.  

More than happy to give Eustace time to work with the players in the pre-season.  I firmly believe he will keep us up and in the long run will be decent.  I remember Howard Kendall had a dreadful start to his time at Ewood but proved one of our best managers in the end.

Thought we deserved a point today for our second half display.  Couldn't ask anymore of the players who I thought gave everything they had during that second period.  Still believe that we stay up.  The officials were appalling - but the same thing happens week after week and these guys still get appointed to games despite their performances.

Disagree about last season.  The Cup runs were excellent no doubt about that.  But in the league the results came in fits and starts.  At the end of the day he reached 69 points.  Mowbray, who for some reason gets castigated at every opportunity by some, achieved exactly the same the previous season.  

I admit, that JDT's football was easy on the eye and I enjoyed watching games.  But, ultimately, he failed to get the results that were needed and for me the Southampton away game was the one where I started to believe that he'd lost some of the players.  I don't think the fall out with Travis helped his cause and the more I hear the more I agree that he needed to go - as you say probably sooner than he did.

11 hours ago, M_B said:

We were in freefall under Tomasson and going down. 

Some of the football under him, especially earlier this season, was as good as we've seen for a good while, but he obviously lacked the nous to turn around the form when a different approach was required. 

We were/are in a tailspin, hopefully Eustace can pull that nose up before we crash land into League 1.

Must admit that I totally agree.   The football was easy on the eye but results were shocking after the Southampton game.  That was an appalling performance and I think highlighted that something was not right.  We ended last season with two wins from the last eleven games - the 69 points we ended with was the same total as Mowbray achieved the previous season.  Different styles but same outcome.

I'll judge the present manager when he's had a pre-season to work with players.  However, from I've seen so far he seems to be able to adopt a more pragmatic approach to the game than JDT.  If JDT had been able to turn defeats into the odd draw or two we may have reached the play-offs.  Unfortunately, he seemed unable to move away from one way of playing that all too often left us open defensively.  

10 hours ago, rigger said:

Gent has always been the understudy to Batty.

Batty really needed to go out on loan like Gent.  He's not had the best of seasons with the Under-21's.

6 minutes ago, rigger said:

Since the change of the structure of the U21s league, I have not been going to games, so I don't know many of the newer youngsters. But I still rate Batty, but he doesn't seem to feature much now. I don't know if that is down to attitude or fitness. He has or at least had, two main attributes, pace and aggression. Two qualities that the first team lack. I have always thought that Batty would fill the left wing-back spot, but the opportunity seems to be passing him bye. 

In truth, Batty hasn't been good this season.  Really needs a loan to help with development.  Duru, Atcheson, Gilsenan and Weston have been the ones to catch the eye this season.   The loan to Harrogate for Bloxham should help him - he's looked decent but needs to play at a higher level than Under-21's.

An entertaining game tonight with plenty of good football on show from both sides.  Chrisene looked very good at left-back and must surely get a game in that position on Monday.  It will be interesting to see the line-up for Sunday's Under-21 as that will surely reveal who's playing against Wrexham.

Dolan looked very lively on his comeback and can't be far off returning to the senior team.  I thought Atcheson looked the part at centre-back - big lad, who can play a bit and improving all the time.  Likewise Duru again impressed at right-back.  He's good defensively but gets forward with some purpose and is quick.

Gilsenan showed how impressive he can be breaking from midfield.  His second goal was a quality run and finish.  

I must say that I was again disappointed with Ayari.  Decent finish for his goal but didn't do anything to suggest that he is anywhere near ready for the first team.

Another hugely disappointing home performance.  Whilst I've enjoyed JDT's football over the course of the season, recent weeks have seen a number of baffling decisions.  However, taking Chrisene off, a player who was signed to cover left-back, when Pickering went off injured was beyond baffling.  Scott Wharton was asked to cover the left with only Sigurdsson - who doesn't tackle or track back - for support.  Although the system seemed to start as a 3-5-2 today, it often ended up as a 4-4-2 but still couldn't stem Huddersfield's quick counterattacks.  We have struggled all season with any opposition that is prepared to run at us in a direct fashion.  Whilst at times, we seem to take far too many passes in the final third and allow teams to get organised defensively.  

Huddersfield, with better finishing, could and should have won.  They created the better chances with Sorba Thomas looking like the player we thought we'd signed last season.  He caused us endless problems and delivered the perfect corner for their equaliser.

Too many players seem to have lost form and confidence.  With no money to bring in new players, one wonders if the club is going to have to cash in on young Wharton for Szmodics.  At the moment this one out before we can get one in is not going to give us the depth of squad required. 

The only real positive for me today was the return of Pears who I thought played well on his return to the first team.   

3 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Wharton is worth more £20m right now

No club is going to pay £20m for Wharton at the moment.  He is a lad with huge potential but there are flaws in his game which need to be addressed.