Parsonblue

Decent run out for the Under-23's at a very wet Brockhall today. Southport had six former Ewood men in their line-up and gave a good account of themselves with Charlie Albinson outstanding in goal. Nuttall came up with two, the first a superb free kick over the wall which beat Albinson all ends up. However, Nuttall's general play was not quite so impressive. Chapman, again, flattered to deceive and despite his pace there was no end product until the final stages when he created the goal for Nuttall. Danny Butterworth, recovering from illness, was lively. The back three of Louie Annesley, Tyler and Matty Platt, were rarely troubled and looked comfortable. Brad Lyons was the pick of the players for me with a very good display in midfield. It will be interesting to see who Mowbray keeps and who goes out on loan. My guess is that Platt, Tyler, Lyons and Nuttall will be given the opportunity to taste first team football elsewhere for the first half of the season before re-evaluating in January.

Agreed Gavlar, my examples are old - bit like me - but are merely to illustrate that different clubs work in different ways. The role of a sporting director who buys and sells players as opposed to the manager is probably the way we are headed and is very similar to the American model of a General Manager and a Team Manager. I don't think that will happen with the present manager at Ewood but I can see it happening in the not too distant future when Mowbray leaves if someone like Johnson was appointed as manager to work with the players and a senior figure appointed above doing the administrative work, including the selling and buying . We had something a little bit similar in the late sixties when Eddie Quigley was the team manager and Johnny Carey returned to Ewood as an administrative manager. Quigley worked with the players and Carey did the paperwork etc.

It seems similar to the Busby/Murphy - Clough/Taylor relationships in terms of the manager and the assistant handling different aspects of the job. Then Waggott and the owners either sanction a deal or don't. Every club handles things differently. Personally I don't see a problem with it. At some clubs the manager has no say in who is bought and sold - it's done by others and the manager just coaches what he is given.

Tony Carss. I think Darragh Tuffy was assisting him.

Comfortable win for the Under-23's at Kendal last night. Four first half goals in a seven minute spell - Vale, Chapman 2 and Nuttall - proved far too much for Kendal. Credit to them they worked hard in the second half, as the Rovers seemed to ease off, but never threatened our goal. Louie Annesley again looked impressive at the back whilst Tom White and Brad Lyons held the midfield with little difficulty. Chapman troubled them with his pace in the first half but often tried to beat one man too many and faded out of the picture in the second half - clearly still working on his fitness. Nuttall troubled them with his strength and power but his finishing was erratic at times. An enjoyable night in a very warm Kendal.

Have to say that we spent a very enjoyable time in the Louden before the game. Everyone was very friendly and the staff were excellent. Great place to go for a pre-match drink.

Thanks for a very sensible assessment of the position we are in. I totally agree with everything you say. I'm sure a few years ago both Bolton and Bury fans were saying someone will buy us - and they did and look where they are now. Slow and steady progress may not be exciting but I'm more than happy to keep on that path rather than gamble the future of the club away. As you say, massive mistakes were made early on but we can't alter that - the past is the past - we can only look to the future and, sadly, our income streams mean we are always going to be up against it with regard to FFP.

We were told at the last consultation meeting by both Steve Waggott and Mike Cheston that it would be tight with regard to FFP by next summer.

In the seventies and eighties they used a different badge on the shirts - a rose head in full bloom with the initials BRFC underneath. However, at the same time today's badge was used on programmes.

Thoroughly enjoyed my first trip to Ibrox and walking around the stadium you really get the sense of just what a huge club it is. Spent time in a Rangers pub decorated with photos of former heroes - Souness, Dawson, Munro, Tugay, Ferguson, Amoruso amongst them - and the folk couldn't be friendlier. For a pre-season game it was a competitive, enjoyable affair and served it's purpose in giving players time on the pitch - which is what pre-season is about after all. Travis and Buckley looked a good partnership in the second half and Hart continued to look decent at left-back. I thought we looked good during the first twenty minutes and the last twenty minutes with Rangers dominating the middle part of the game. We looked better with the high pressing game we played in the second half when younger legs caused them problems, It was during this latter period that our passing finally started to cause them problems.

I must admit although I don't buy these shirts I do like this away kit. It's different, seems a touch more modern than what we usually have and when you are changing shirts every year you might as well have something that is distinctive. When I first started watching the Rovers the away kit, like the home kit never changed. Never a hint of red on the home shirts and the away kit was a plain red shirt. Commercialism in sport means shirts have to change on a yearly basis and tradition really counts for very little when there is money to be made! That is not unique to Rovers it's the same at every club. As with everything, some will love it some will hate it. The success or failure of this away kit will be dictated by sales and I suspect it will sell well simply because it's the 'latest' kit. Personally, I would congratulate whoever came up with the design for actually coming up with something different.

Luke Brennan

A decent performance tonight by an Under-23 team that was largely made up of the Under-18's. Jordan Eastham saved a penalty in the first half and looked fairly assured in goal. The defence was very well organised by Louie Annesley, who looked solid at the back. Daniel Pike was his usual steady self at left-back and continues to look a very good prospect. Stef Mols scored a spectacular overhead kick to give us the lead and Jack Vale came on at the interval and quickly made it two. There were a number of decent performances from the likes of Zimba, Boyomo and Brennan but Mols was really outstanding. Brad Lyons ought to have scored early on with a well worked move.

Enjoyable enough night at Mansfield and the youngsters looked impressive over 90 minutes. Butterworth and Buckley looked very comfortable at this level and coped with some physical challenges. Andy Fisher made some excellent saves in the second half. A night when Mowbray gave the young players game time, and left the likes of Mulgrew and Dack on the bench, and in fairness they did exceptionally well against decent opposition. I suspect Sunday will be the time when we see an eleven that will give us an idea as to the players who will be starting the League season.

If you intend attending every away game then the away travel season ticket works out cheaper than buying coach tickets on a match by match basis. I think this season it works out at something like an average of £18 per trip with the away travel season ticket.

When they introduced the 1875 membership scheme it became part of the away travel package. The away travel season ticket tends to be flexible in terms of price from one year to the next - due to the distances travelled and fuel costs. You also have to remember that if you travel by car or rail and decide not to go to games you incur no costs. With the away travel season ticket you pay up front for the season and if you don't go to the game you lose that money unless your seat on the coach can be sold to another supporter. The real benefit with away travel, particularly in the past, is that you are guaranteed match tickets. This proved usual during our brief excursion in League One at a couple of grounds but these days has no real benefit unless we reach a Cup Final. I must admit that I got full benefit from the 1875 membership over the past couple of seasons with things that I was able to get from the Club shop with little or no cost due to points on the membership scheme.

The cost of the away travel season ticket includes the fee for 1875 membership - thus if you are an away travel season ticket holder you automatically become an 1875 member.

Typical early pre-season stuff. Best player on the pitch by a country mile was Charlie Adam - wonderful range of passing and superb vision.

I thought it was a very positive meeting. It confirmed my view that Steve Waggott is the right man in terms of taking us forward off the field and seems to have to right ideas for taking us forward in terms of finance. Whether we agree with it or not, it is a business and the bottom line is it needs to increase the daily income - Waggott certainly has plans for it becoming a seven-day-a-week operation. It's clear that FFP is something that we are having to deal with on a day to day basis and is impacting on financial planning. As Miller11 said above, it's clear that the owners are here for the long term and are happy to keep ploughing money in on a monthly basis - something which Mowbray, Waggott and Cheston all agreed on. It was good to see that the feeling of the meeting wanted the owners to return to Ewood and there was an acceptance that they had been poorly advised in the past and that it would be a step forward if they could publicly acknowledge that poor advice had led them to making poor decisions. From the names of the financial companies now monitoring the club it's clear that they are paying for very expensive financial audits of the club on a regular basis. I think the real positive is that there seems to be a very good relationship between Mowbray, Waggott, Cheston and the owners. Both Mowbray and Waggott both acknowledged the important role that Suhail has played and both went out of their way to praise his work on behalf of the club with the owners. Again, both Mowbray and Waggott underlined just how closely the owners follow results and progress and want to take the club forward in the future. Whilst I accept not every supporter will agree but I suspect the majority who came away from the meeting last night felt rather more positive than on some previous occasions.

Very disappointing performance tonight against an exceptionally good Everton side. Too many players simply had an off night and didn't really turn up until the last 20 minutes. Doyle made an uncharacteristic mistake early on to gift them a penalty and we never really got back in the game after that. In fairness, Everton were excellent - which they have been all season to lift the title. Davenport was probably our best player over 90 minutes in terms of keeping possession. Nuttall was very disappointing up front and Chapman was very hot and cold - scored a good goal, had a decent effort saved but was otherwise largely anonymous. Buckley couldn't make an impact in midfield, Tyler and Charly Doyle had indifferent games by their standards and Danny Butterworth couldn't really make things happen. We livened up a bit when Stefan Mols came on and we went to a 4-4-2 formation. However, Everton were worthy winners and look good to win this trophy.

That brought back memories Paul. I remember Luke Staton playing for our youth and reserves - must be nearly twenty years ago, frightening how quickly times passes. If I remember rightly he had a brief spell with Bolton after we released him and then ended up playing in Wales.

I reckon you need to get out more if you think anyone takes social media seriously! It's a forum, it's meant to be a bit of fun!

Totally agree. Let' be honest, BRFCS is just a small group of folk talking about football - as we did in the pub in years gone by. Nobody's opinion really matters in the great scheme of things, particularly as there are a wide variety of opinions on most subjects. The forum is simply a medium for discussing football but nobody would seriously suggest that anyone actually takes any real notice of it or allows the forum to colour their own views and opinions. Football is a game of opinions and that's part of its attraction. We all think we can run it better than those who do but in truth I doubt we could come anywhere close to making a decent stab at it. The overwhelming majority of clubs are run by professionals for whom football is their day job and in general most clubs cope with the ever increasing difficulties that the modern game presents them. At the moment I would put the Rovers in that class of clubs who, for the most part, are now back on track and fairly well run - although I know many would disagree but ultimately none of us have any real say in how clubs are run. Those employed to make decisions about the running of the club make decisions in what they feel are the best interests of the club and the team and the ultimate judge of those decisions are the owners of a particular club not those on forums. There are differing views on the manager but he certainly hasn't come anywhere close to losing the support of the fans outside this forum - I certainly haven't heard anyone at games shouting for a change of manager, far from it the fans seem right behind him. Of course we all have differing views on players, style of play etc, but supporters have always had those debates - I go back to the early days of Jack Marshall and nothing has changed in that regard. The forum is just a bit of fun but one or two seem to treat it rather more seriously for some reason.

An enjoyable trip to London and a fairly routine win in glorious sunshine - a perfect day! Lenihan and Williams continue to impress as a defensive partnership and Travis had another excellent game in midfield. The disappointment was Leutwiler who totally failed to impress on the one occasion he was called to do something. Raya is a young 'keeper with huge potential but he needs better than Leutwiler to challenge him for the number one spot. I think today also underlined the fact that we need another striker to support Danny Graham because when he goes off we really are lacking in terms of someone who can hold the ball up. He's still our best out and out front man by a country mile. We are on course for a comfortable mid-table finish which is surely what most would have settled for at the start of the season. It's been a season of ups and downs but we've never really been in any serious trouble which underlines, for me, what a good job the manager and players have done this season. I didn't expect any of the youngsters to play today or on Monday with such a tough game at Goodison Park on Tuesday. We haven't beaten Everton Under-23's in four meetings thus far this season so I can fully understand why those players were left out today to give them time to prepare for Tuesday's cup-tie which will be a very difficult game - Everton, like ourselves, have a cracking Under-23 team .

Pleased with the result even if it got a bit fraught towards the end. There were times when we played some good football and others when panic set in. I agree with arbitro that Lenihan and Williams looked a good partnership in defence. I think Williams looks much better in the centre and seems to combine very well with Lenihan. Bell was a mixture of mistakes and some excellent tackling and blocking, but really doesn't convince as an out and out left back. I think there is a player in there but whether it's a question of confidence or not I'm not sure but he needs to improve defensively if he is to be retained as first choice. Travis was a workhorse in midfield and Graham an absolute rock up front. Dack had his moments but really ought to have scored. I thought Rothwell was much better defensively and whenever he ran at the Forest defence they looked all over the place. He's not the finished article but he looks a much better player than earlier in the season and should be one of our key men next season. On the whole, as the season comes to an end, I think we've basically done what I expected which was to consolidate in this League. We could easily have gone the way of Wigan or Rotherham but, in fairness, have never really looked like getting dragged into a real relegation battle thanks to our early season form.