Because he’s Wayne Rooney.

Oh yeah, the Jack Walker being the focus instead of the Riverside on TV makes Ewood look great, still a testament to who the stand is named after, especially with a decent gate on like Friday, but yes, let’s not pretend they did it for aesthetics.

Very brainy from their point of view as it shoehorns the vast majority of fans that are left into camera facing areas (which is why they switched said cameras to the Riverside in the first place) Of course increasing gates so you don’t have to engage in such schemes in the first place obviously takes actual brains.

You will never get any dissent/protest if the team is doing ok, simple as that. The only reason it stirred a little bit last season is because we were on a horror run… we then beat Stoke, a new manager to get behind/a league to stay in and that was the end of that. Most fans at the ground couldn’t give a toss about off field stuff as long as the team is steady enough.

Any Oxford fans fancy it on the morning of the game… tough.

We know, obviously very important to you.

https://www.oufc.co.uk/news/ticket-details-blackburn-rovers-trip Oxford have been given the paper ticket surcharge for their visit by the looks of it. Also, ‘All Ticket game, no sales on the day’ - why? When there will be thousands of seats available in both home and away areas - that’s new for this season, to save employing a person for three hours in the away ticket office, presumably…

No, always get more walk ons than usual for the opening game. I’d imagine 13k or so gate for Oxford (as fewer walk ons and far fewer away fans).

Their ST sales have gone down this summer. It’s like we’ve said you need to time reductions with a bit of momentum on the pitch - a terrible end to last season, poor recruitment and keeping Lowe is the opposite of that.

‘Can’t accept’ 😅. I don’t care, I’m a Rovers man, like most I probably won’t give England a second glance now until 2026, just amuses me that your rules seem very flexible, probably because there are so few Englishmen to pick from so an Irish international qualifies too (and with that I’m off to the Rovers threads).

In recent seasons PJ had stopped presenting watches anyway and had awarded a nice little trophy instead (as per the photo)… now it’s a bottle of Grant’s Vodka with a new label 🤷‍♂️

Folk on here don’t actually give a feck where he’s from/who he played for, the only person that was obsessed with Englishmen is now getting tied up in knots as a fella with 40 Ireland caps has come along.

Half an hour up the A12, about as well connected as you get down East Anglia.

He’s from Colchester, it’s less than twenty miles to Ipswich, so yes pretty local compared to here.

Is John Barnes Jamaican?

This place does pick his game apart to a molecular level, however more generally ‘around me’ pretty much everyone was of the opinion we need a new keeper.

Anyone saying ‘certain’ relegation before a ball is kicked in this league is daft, it’s full of bang average teams.

Errors galore in the BBC report… https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cz6xx06qwzxt

Their forum is pretty unanimous in wanting Lowe out. Ridsdale too, not a happy camp.

Rovers is his meal ticket, I presume the in house media is still done through his (and his dad before him) company (CREATV) that was based out of Ewood or he now directly works through the club. Either way you are getting nothing but the club line - though you imagine his thoughts are a tad different when you think he started in the Souness era.

An Irishman in charge of England, shocking.

He spent years getting away with saying fuck all to the wider fanbase, nowt through Covid, he even tried to justify the flogging off of Brockhall with just a five minute in house video with Neil Yardley. I remember fans saying last summer, ‘oh I didn’t know he was a Geordie’ Now his contradictory nonsense is there for all to see and hear, not just hidden away in FF minutes.

If you aim to be ‘stable’ in football you go backwards.

Mid table in the second division is now a ‘good season’. Nice one Venky’s.

Tonight won’t be a million miles off… but then again the upper tier will be completely empty as will the Darwen End of home fans and the Riverside will be two thirds empty. The club have been very canny in shepherding fans to where the camera is pointing in recent seasons… shame they ain’t canny in much else.