Mattyblue

You can still criticise players after a win. You hear many a conversation in the pub or walking up Livesey Branch Road of folk saying ‘ good win, but I thought player x was poor today’ Was ever thus.

It is pushing it because that would mean we need to sell around 15/16,000 season tickets, and we will not be doing that until a) prices are dramatically reduced or b. we are promoted.

Agree with that. In Cunningham and Bennett you’ve got two ideal wing backs. As you say though we only really have Nyambe as a back up if any of the three centre backs get injured. Certainly worth sticking with as we finally have a back 3 and wing backs that can actually play the formation. Much more of a square pegs in square holes system for us.

I think 18,000 is pushing it for us in this league, especially as we are forever an also ran, regular home attendees of 14,000 or so would be fine for now. We had many a PL home fan attendance of less than 18,000 in the 2000s. But for us to have a 1,000 less home fans in the ground than was seen at Deepdale yesterday is a worry - though I believe anyone buying a ticket yesterday were guaranteed one for the City cup tie.

A decent set of fixtures on paper up to the next international break, if we limp through these without picking up a few wins we are probably looking at another mediocre season.

Once we get to September I stop worrying about it as there is nothing we can do. As the season gets properly going they may rise a little for a game against decent opposition, a little more after Christmas if we sell our standard few hundred half STs, but generally the die is now cast until next season. As our crowds are 80/90% made up of ST holders with very few walk ons, our gates only wax and wane on season ticket sales, we’ve lost a few hundred this summer, ergo crowds are a few hundred down. For the second year in a row Waggott has missed his targets, indeed we aren’t even stagnating now, but going backwards. He now needs to reflect on why. He won’t, of course, as he still doesn’t understand the fanbase and catchment area one iota.

11,300 home fans today. So crowds are a few hundred down on last season, which is purely down to us selling less season tickets. Big failure on Waggott’s part who gave it plenty of big talk about selling 1,500 more, and we’ve actually sold less.

Depends what time you are starting, if plenty of time you could start at the Lord Raglan or Wellington and saunter down the hill to the rest. If later perhaps the Brown Cow.

Get yourself up Livesey Branch Road, loads of boozers to go at

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17899304.mowbray-discusses-transfer-interest-rovers-striker-graham/

‘Rovers tend to struggle to break down the more resilient teams at home despite the flair they possess in attacking positions.’ ‘Flair’ side, us, according to Smith https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17896349.consistency-missing-ingredient-rovers/

Indeed. Of course the later rounds had some exciting and high quality matches. The elite players of world football are all involved. However for the ‘good of the wider game’ It’s been a terrible innovation, just like the PL.

‘I think there will be a few senior players, who need game-time. I’ve said to them it’s important that they are ready. “I don’t bully senior footballers in to playing. I’ve said to them that there’s a game on Tuesday and they should think about whether to go and chat with the Under-23s coach about getting some game-time. “The younger ones I can tell that they need to play. “With the senior players, what’s the point of me telling them they’re playing for the Under-23s and then they don’t apply themselves? “I leave it with them. If they’re telling me that they want to play then I know they will run and chase and do the job.’ Mowbray the other day. Smallwood couldn’t be arsed then...

Not saying you do, from memory you’ve always put our woes down to the owners, not individual managers etc. However, it certainly is used to absolve them, I hear again and again at games, online etc telling me that they ‘were badly advised at the start’ but ‘we should be thankful to them’, ‘they put loads of money in’, ‘look at Bolton’. Many of our fans seem happy enough to be plodding around in the lower leagues for evermore, indeed it’s ‘our natural level’, so maybe I should just ‘get behind ‘em’.

They obviously did get into bed with the wrong people, but the buck stops with them. The ‘badly advised’ line when used to absolve those wreckers of any responsibility is what riles me. We’ve seen the club regress decades due to their idiocy.

Thought he was going to take the Sheff Wed job which would’ve been a good move. Huddersfield seem to be in a Stoke-esque downward spiral and they are bloody hard to reverse.

Fantastic commitment!

Because the KOs mirror the old European Cup, they have peril in them. The group stages are just a money making procession.

With the WC and bumper T20 crowds too, must have been Lancs’ most lucrative summer ever for cricket. So obviously we need a new franchise called the ‘Manchester Originals’

Cry baby fans? Most fans I come across seem to be happy enough treading water for ever more in second division mid table.

Ok, take Venky’s, Kean et al out of it. Sounds like you want it to be about the recent team and managers we’ve had. But on the pitch we’ve been largely shite, so who on earth would be the slightest bit interested in a documentary about this complete non event of a decade?

The response to Hillsborough was not thought through and has had long standing consequences. It was never standing itself that was the issue. We now have horrendous atmospheres in the home areas of most grounds and away fans standing anyway, but in seated areas!

Honestly? The same? The game that was just on left me cold in the few minutes I had it on, in fact I don’t think I’ve watched a full game since the WC semi final. Whereas with the Rovers I kick every ball. Can’t remember us ever having a deep and meaningful about Southgate or Harry bloody Kane. Though maybe that’s because you’d have got the Partridge shrug of a shoulder from me if you’d tried to initiate one

With you there, removed the series link for MOTD this season. I absolutely love the sport, the impact it has had on English society for 150 years. The fact that clubs levels down in the non league pyramid attract crowds bigger than some SPL clubs. Blackburn Rovers means everything to me, for me and my family the club is part of who we are. But the game at the top level? No interest.

Ok... not sure you are really listening... anyway, good luck with it.