We would be stronger, absolutely no question. Yeah I’d take it.

Nobody could have foreseen this. For a full price match this may well see more walk ons sold for a league game for probably c40 years.

We’d be straight back down an infinitely stronger club. We got beat 9-0 but ended up in the Premier League, I’d get over it pretty sharpish.

Why is it crazy to think we might lose this game?

Yep, if we lost 4-0 in a couple of weeks but then got to wave at them as we went past to reach the PL it would be just as sweet, maybe even sweeter, the game would have been a total pyrrhic victory for them. Anybody obsessing about one fixture is as small time as that lot used to be (and what we used to take the piss out of them for).

What on earth are you talking about Rev? What ‘work’ is Travis ‘doing’ for him? No inkling that Tronstsdt’s discipline in there has freed Travis up?

Yep, if we ‘collapsed after Christmas’ how were we still in with a shout of the play offs on the last day considering we were never actually right up in the top 2 to start with (I.e 1991/92)? We were pretty consistent till April.

So if it isn’t unreserved seating why won’t they be selling the additional 500 seats in the upper tier, if required, then?

No, we won’t, however we do have a good Christmas for once and you can imagine another spike in demand. ‘Sorry, you can’t come as we’ve decided not to sell a few blocks of the ground’.

There’s the two closed blocks in the Riverside and JWL too currently. But of course we can’t sell them as we need that Berlin Wall level of segregation for such an uniquely hostile Derby.

An often half arsed attitude in training is what I’ve heard re Buckley, which Eustace doesn’t stand for. His career will quickly fade away if he’s not careful.

Strange season, appalling away from home, as good as ever at Ewood, Shearer possibly even better than before considering he was in a rapidly declining team. Massive strategic errors that summer and our chance to have a sustained period at the top (my view was one that we could’ve have competed to around the Abramovich era, then petro-billions would have usurped us), and that decade at the top would have made us the undisputed club in the north west outside Manchester and Liverpool, especially considering the likes of Burnley and PNE were nowhere, just think of the coaches that came from all over, the supporters clubs that had been set up. The fanbase would even now be substantially larger, a Venky buyout would probably never have happened. We blew it in the summer of ‘95, that team stumbled over the line and needed rejuvenating, loyalty should never come before progress - Ferguson was the master of that, he was ruthless in breaking up his teams when he had spotted a few had peaked, it was all a bit too cosy here, and that was that.

I bet if the club came out with a figure right now it wouldn’t be 24k. It’s all guesswork as we don’t know what the ‘true’ capacity is anymore, especially when it comes to how many corporate seats will be full in JWU central as they are always greyed out.

I would’ve have done if results were poor, they weren’t.

Stoke have been a complete disaster since leaving the PL, spent a fortune on wages and fees too.

Yep read a piece the other week where it was outlined that Pep flatly does not want his wide men dribbling and taking players on.

Picked up a few draws but wouldn’t have been close to being enough without two totally unexpected wins. But we got them, the end. Don’t get the issue, he got stick when we couldn’t win a game, he gets unadulterated praise when we win every week - that’s football forums.

Sure I remember reading you can sell 90% of an unreserved seating stand.

Didn’t win his first 9 games, didn’t win a home game until this season. I don’t see the issue in folk commenting on those results.

I’d say c23k sold when you discount the closed blocks and in reality the actual ‘working’ capacity of the ground isn’t ‘31,367’ as even if a total sellout they’d announce ‘30,500’.

I imagine we won’t need them but another 500 or so in the netted off areas of the JWL and Riverside too theoretically… of course could we dare only have a thousand seats of segregation in the Darwen end 😱

Swings and roundabouts, JDT was very popular on here, but not particularly at Ewood. Whereas Eustace has always had the fans right behind him since day dot at the ground.

I agree going on about work rate and keeping the shape isn’t exactly what you’d want primarily from a ‘winger’, we’d all love a Ripley or a Gillespie but that kind of player’s been largely coached out of the game. I mean, not an exact like for like but look at what’s happened to Grealish. Beige-isation of football.

Folk still want to buy tickets in person? Surely not.

He’s a modern day wide man. Disciplined, works hard, helps the team keep its shape. It’s what today’s managers want so he’ll get signed up if he wants to stay, as boring as that feels to us fans who are used to/want to see proper wingers beating a man and whipping crosses in. Maybe one day they’ll return like so much else that’s been lost to the game.