Mattyblue

For a dead rubber with crap transport links on Good Friday and tickets up to £33, a following that will probably not far off a 1,000 is a good effort.

Pep on the touchline was like performance art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fJ3Cbzk_3M

I went to the India test at Trent Bridge last summer and it was like a mini Lord's. Just little touches like the old brickwork, hanging baskets etc. LCCC really missed a trick with the re-development, but hey, just think of how many conferences and concerts they can put on!

Definitely. I know we are at a lower level, but I can't remember a crop like this since Duff, Dunn and Johnno himself. Perhaps the Phil Jones and Hanley cohort - maybe it's a once a decade occurrence!

All that development and the ground still feels souless. Trent Bridge, it aint.

It used to feel like half the PL keepers were wearing it!

The state of Ewood is something that really annoys me. We have discussed at the length the total lack of initiatives when it comes to fan experience. However, at a more basic level the place looks like it hasn't had a deep clean or a lick of paint for a decade plus, yet is that solely the fault of the owners? I think I've said before that I used to use the gym built into PNEs away end and it always struck me how there were always people jet washing the stands, painting and generally sprucing the place up. Does Trevor Hemmings insist on this? Does he put more cash in than Venky's? i would say probably not on the first and definitely not on the second, yet they still seem to have maintained a professional pride at the club that we have lost. This can come down to constantly changing execs on the ground - and that comes back to the owners again ultimately.

600 sold so far by Bolton Another packed Darwen End predicted by Waggott not materialising...

Don’t Iceland have more professional coaches and pitches than any other country in Europe per head of population? That may have more of an impact than the fact they are scary Vikings!

They’d sold about 300 a few days ago. Waggott’s role is to increase turnover here and now, simple as that. Now I think that two great games to have had cheaper tickets for would’ve been New Years Day against one of the top sides in the league and a local game on Easter Monday. Big (for us) bank holiday crowds and atmosphere, great occasions, that casual fan may come back for more. However, Waggott simply looks at it as - ‘ah West Brom and Bolton’, they’ll bring a decent following - Cat A it is’. There is no thought about using attractive/bank holiday games to increase home support, but just to make a quick buck from fleecing away fans. Only problem is a lot of the clubs he’ll have expected to bring big numbers, haven’t done, which makes it even more short-sighted.

Be interesting to see how long this ‘player managed dressing room’ stays onside with top earners and ‘managers’ like Mulgrew and Evans out the side - or perhaps that’s a reason they won’t be...

Course they can. Norwich just did if for their away game at Wigan- https://www.canaries.co.uk/News/2019/march/norwich-city-to-offer-half-price-tickets-for-wigan/

I’ve accepted that there certainly won’t be any creative thinking with adult pricing. Though if they push them up any further we will start to lose fans, never mind add any - our fans are very price sensitive, as even the PL Rovers found in the mid 2000s. But what they MUST do is get into the modern way of thinking with young adult offers and singing sections. Such sections have been a big driving force of the big increases in crowds at this level - Forest having to cap their season ticket sales, Bristol City doubling crowds and so on. Will we see anything? Nah.

Looking around the Championship, ST price freezes and more deals for young people seem to be the norm. Will we buck that trend?

Paul - Audience with Mowbray in Blues Bar.

End of the day if you’d have bought 23 match tickets (including an odd offer like this) it would cost you far more than a season ticket, so it still pays to be a ST holder. But you’re right, ‘we’ve made it £15 to thank you for your support’ is badly worded as half the folk who end up buying one probably haven’t been to Ewood since the Oxford game.

Wonder if he’ll be telling Venky’s to ‘slow down’ again this summer?

QPR and Bolton are ideal games to blood a couple, both dead rubbers (I imagine Bolton will be relegated on Friday - if they can get the game on!). Plus Chapman has surely had his in-season pre-season by now and must be on the bench at least - if not there must be something in this contract rumour.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/april/special-offer-for-swans-clash/ ‘We're hoping to end our first campaign back in the Championship on a high note and we want as many fans as possible in at Ewood Park to make it a day to remember. More than 28,000 were packed in for the final game of last season against Oxford United and we want to top that this time around!’ Good luck with that!

It is. Looks like Easter Monday isn’t though. Good on the club. https://www.skysports.com/watch/football-on-sky

Great win and 1,215 there too.

JH for Director of Football!

A lot of evenly matched sides in the Football League, in contrast to the top flight.

Hasn’t stopped Steele making a nice living...

Done a cracking PR job has Lambert... It's been a difficult season, nobody can deny that," said supporters' club chairman Mark Ramsay. "But the fans are optimistic. We're looking to the future and moving forward, not backwards. "The football's been far better this season, far more attractive to watch. "We like Paul Lambert, he likes us and we want him to become the modern-day Bobby Robson and move forward with a young squad coming out of the academy."