Mattyblue

Jack Walker looks far busier than it would normally with nine days to go. As a rule of thumb we played Wigan on the 23rd December 2019 at tenner a ticket and there were c17k home fans there. But that was a night game on Sky, so you’d hope we would top that this time for a 3pm, but I don’t think it will be much higher than that figure by KO. But of course with only 9k ST holders in a 30k ground you need to sell a hell of a lot of walk on tickets to get the place looking even remotely full.

They happen to be one of just three league clubs in the whole north east of England. Ergo they can attract big crowds and obviously as a result of that there’s a hell of a lot of potential there, especially with an oil state’s sovereign wealth fund backing them. Good for them, but there’s nowt special about them regardless of what the media makes out.

Can’t say from what I’ve seen of them both this season that Travis is a ‘far better’ option. He’s far more experienced, certainly, but he hasn’t been pulling up many trees when in midfield this term.

‘We gave it a real good go’… after 90 minutes of doing the exact opposite.

‘Et al’… being a brfcs regular? 😀

Don’t rate him one bit, but the quality of their players in comparison to Swansea’s will get him plenty of results anyway.

If you don’t find your club winning loads of games exciting then you may as well give it up.

Think that was a ‘best XI’ interview on Sky, where he picked the best players he played with. From memory not a single Rovers player got a mention even in passing, never mind put in the XI… and just think of some of the players he was with here from 1996 to 2003.

And that’s fair enough, we all see a game from our own standpoint. My response was that a decade of low crowds, particularly for cold midweek red button fixtures, obviously has nothing to do with a fella that only arrived in summer 2022.

End of the day it’s the way football is now going to be for the next few years, so all you can hope is that we master it quicker than our opponents.

Midweeks are a red herring, so put them to one side. The standard Saturday home fan turnout is c12/13k - Coyle season and post Covid aside that’s pretty much how it’s been every Championship season since 2012. The club is in a deep commercial malaise that’s lasted for a decade, it’s especially noticeable in recent years as football booms across the country. So it’s obviously bugger all to do with the bloke that’s been here less than 18 months.

Hmm, wonder what the difference might have been down there…

Not saying otherwise. But you say you aren’t enjoying the football ‘at present’, so presumably then you were enjoying the football on show in recent times from other managers, who?

Who has played better football here in the past decade? Who has got better results?

The football was more prosaic at this stage last season, but yes we we were in the top 6, ergo exciting, so it IS all about results then.

Always makes me laugh how irate football fans get these days whenever the ‘soccer’ word gets used like it’s some modern phenomenon worming its way in from those pesky Yanks. But as the above shows it was often used interchangeably with ‘football’ in days gone by.

We’ve had gates pretty much like this for a decade, especially low for night games purely because ST sales are so low. JDT is nowt to do with it, as you know yourself as you often call Swag out for his ticket policies.

Gates are a tad higher that’s a fact, so is not about opinions.

Compared to when? Crowds are no lower with JDT than any other time this past 5/6 years. Indeed they are actually slightly up on where they were when he took over. We know why gates are low and it’s nowt to do with this manager.

Yep my father in law (who has Sky) comes over from Lytham and for the first time since the 1960s he nearly didn’t renew his ST this time due to the ridiculous amount of non 3pm Ewood games we had post the World Cup. Once this new TV deal kicks in what happened with Sky last season will become the norm and our STs at £400-£500+ will look even more expensive than they do already.

No we would not have had plenty more on if we’d have won a couple more home games. It was a red button midweek just before Christmas. As a comparison the season we were second under Mowbray for long periods the standard Tuesday/Wednesday ‘official’ gate was 9k, with probably 5/6k in the ground. Just the way it is midweek. If you honestly think he’s not doing well with this budget, injury list and the resulting bench, then well, not a lot else to say, game of opinions and all that.

I’m afraid it’s just part of the game now. For how long, I don’t know. But who knows it could be a permanent change like when teams first stopped playing with two up top. ‘“Four four two, four four two” would be the chant at grounds, now that formation seems as quaint as when the old timers talk about a player who was an ‘inside left’.

We have 9k ST holders so an official gate of 11k is fine for a midweek in December with red button and a tiny away following. The ‘real’ crowd was so low because a load of ST holders didn’t trap as is often the case for midweeks. Last night meant nothing in isolation. Generally want bigger crowds, sell more STs, simple as that… but obviously that won’t be happening until he finally fecks off.

The crowd last night tells you nothing. We always, always get turnouts like that for midweeks in winter. We have a paltry 9,000 ST holders plenty of who will give such games a swerve, also you don’t get many walk-ons or kids going in midweek ergo far less folk there than a weekend. Generally our gates are a bit up on recent years, nowt to write home about, obviously, but there’s certainly been no drop off under JDT. You keep banging on about ‘PR’, ‘hype’. It’s a results business and he consistently gets them with a squad as weak as this, just look at the bench. You think we should be doing better?

Far fewer bums on seats for midwinter red button games than you see on a Saturday, was ever thus.