That’s a small minority of fans at Ewood and you know it. Don’t understand this urge to paint Rovers fans as impatient and abusive, Ewood this hostile environment, when we’ve been anything but as a collective this past decade, especially considering the shit we’ve been put through...

Who would rather that? Name names. Nothing more annoying on here when folk come out with stuff like that, equivalent to the perennial ‘some posters on here WANT us to lose’

What’s for tea?

That’s exactly where are Brian, it is that adaptability that will be key when playing sides away from home of higher quality who can hit us hard on the counter and home games when teams sit in. So not sure why it has led to posters being tagged as ‘not understanding the game’ for merely pointing that out. But I will put Cardiff and Forest to one side, as we just didn’t have the quality of players, on the pitch or bench a month ago. We will get a much better feel to where the season may head over the next week - top of the table Reading, a decent side away in Swansea and then Warnock’s Boro at Ewood who you imagine will be tough to breakdown...

Being into cricket, you realise just how many terms end up in everyday speech. ’I need this done by close of play’ ’On a sticky wicket’ ’Hit for 6’ ’flat batted it’ ’had a good innings’ British equivalent to all the baseball terms you hear in American discourse

Cricket term. Some batsmen can score 100s for fun when the pitch (Track) is flat and easy paced, bowlers struggle to move the ball and the batter can just hit through the line of the ball and whack it around. On a tougher pitch, where the ball is deviating about, the same batsman can struggle - I.e a ‘flat track bully’. The best batsmen can thrive under any conditions. Ergo, can Rovers thrive against top end opponents, not just struggling ones.

I think what we are seeing with both manager and players is that time can be the greatest asset. Most clubs in the Championship don’t have the patience (or finances) to wait around for two years + for the required improvement. They need promotion. We have a set up in which the manager is seemingly under little pressure from his Chief Exec or owners. Maybe this very odd set up is actually working out to our benefit. Though the crux of it all will be FFP...

Midweek on the red button? It wouldn’t have mattered that we’d been handing out a few beatings. Presuming we’d sold the usual number of STs, It would be 10/11,000 (real crowd about 7,000). A reasonably priced 3pm against decent opposition would get a decent walk on crowd - alas Waggott likes to bang those at Cat A/A+, so snuffing out any support building momentum. (I like this virtual attendance scenario game).

Main difference now is that he is not close to being a starter when everyone is available, not sure that’s ever been the case in his loooonnnggg stint here. On ability alone it would be bonkers to give him a new deal (never mind his ‘injury’ record), as he’ll be looking for one last big 3 year deal at his age.

You’d think we won’t be seeing much of Evans now (what’s new!) and him and his sizeable wages will be off at the end of the season...

Watford could have put 5 past us! They picked us off at will on the counter - that isn’t ‘obliterating’ a team. Amazes me that you constantly try and flex your expert credentials, but lack the basic knowledge that football isn’t just about what you do going forward with the ball. That will be the challenge this season when we go up against the better sides. Though the fact higher quality players are now being integrated into the team in holding/defensive areas will hopefully begin to negate it.

159 games, 83 goals... in a League ‘far beyond his level’. I mean, honestly.

I was just going to say the same bazza. 12 months plus out, got to say I didn’t expect it to be quite that long. Who knows what kind of player we’ll now have...

I personally think Williams has a better all round game at centre half then Lenihan. I like Darragh, always plenty of commitment, but he seems to be getting worse with the ball, if anything.

And top level Gaelic Football for Dublin (won two All-Ireland Championships before he signed for Man Utd), which obviously set him up for a career of putting his body on the line.

Considering the way the club is still run off the pitch, the improvement on it shouldn’t be sniffed at - and wouldn’t be if club’s were looking for a manager.

Dreams is correct. Apart from newly promoted Ainsworth at Wycombe, Mowbray is the longest serving manager in the league. Venky’s were seen as trigger happy loons by the wider game in 2017 (though not necessarily true as Bowyer got a very fair crack of the whip, these owners are prone to long periods of inertia), so for Mowbray to last so long and seemingly improve the club year on year means he will not be short of offers when he does finally leave.

He’d be doing a jig down his street (dodging the Road Sweeper) if we signed Dwight McNeil.

Well, whatever’s left of it...

Knives from who? BRFCS, I suppose, but that will be it. He’s the main man inside the club and he receives unstinting support from the majority of the fanbase. There are glimpses that we can kick on this season and we just need to hope for the best that he can actually harness it as there’s no alternative. The forum needs to get it out of its collective head (save yourselves the angst of ‘Should He Go’? Polls and the like) that he’ll be going anywhere this season, even if he massively underperforms with the squad we’ve acquired and we bumble around in Mid table (again).

Lenihan has always been fairly prosaic, but don’t know if it’s him playing on the left side to accomadate Ayala, but he’s looking very ponderous in possession and a mistake waiting fo happen.

Bit like thinking we are playing ‘top’ and are in line for automatic promotion. Bit of realism needed on both sides. There’s promise there, but can we win the requisite amount of games? I foresee a few matches in which we are picked off like last night, more home frustration as sides sit in, but a fair few good wins against some of the average sides. Will it be enough?

Any reason why my posts are being deleted? (Oh I see, because even the Mods know it’s a one man fishing expedition, and nobody is actually that deluded).

It was us that fell over the line in ‘95, not them.

A non starter I would think. Bit of a political play with UEFA by the clubs, so the ‘reformed’ Champions League due to start in 2024 will be a European Super (Premier?) League in all but name.