Generally, Norwich excepted, the opposition wants it, and we don't. JDT literally w*nking over the possession stats, even when 2 nil down. We don't generally create chances, so it doesn't matter who we put on up front. We don't particularly want or need to win, so there is no urgency to do so. 2 nil down and very few thoughts about getting into their box. Any thoughts on why we are so uninterested in shooting? Towards the opposition goal? I'm literally sat here watching us stroke the ball around in our own half for a minute or so, before knocking it long to their keeper, or out of play. 'Just keep the ball', shouts JDT. Literally no plans to shoot, and we know what that means.... Please defend this approach, someone.

Only in his own box....

As usual, under the JDT model, getting the ball into the box and creating chances is optional, and certainly not a priority, so JDT a happy man. It's soooo 20th century to make scoring and winning your premier objective. Sigh...

Much better last 15 min. On the goal, it's impressive how many times Pickering has been directly or indirectly responsible for recent goals we have conceded. Big question now is who has the quality to put an easy chance away?

I may well have been as energised as everyone else at the time, if I'd been on when it kicked off, but the way the rumoured Kilkenny signing from Bournemouth was hysterically lambasted, made me think it was deadline day. Thank god it was nipped in the bud quickly. I'm not happy with our transfer dealings so far, obviously, but it might be worth waiting til someone signs, or is rumoured to be signing for at least 24 hours before we get carried away, whether in support or against. We know the type of player JDT wants, and that is Hedges, and he'll have identified 4 or 5 similar athletes, and if BBD goes, we'll sign the higher quality 3, and if he stays, we'll sign the less well-known, cheaper 3. I'll panic in 10 days time when we've signed no-one and let 4 go. Ok, now to focus on Mola and Vale dismantling Rotherham....

I would expect a number of clubs were alerted to BBD around Xmas 2021, for obvious reasons, but his record in 2022, was less stratospheric, and his 90 min performances as clubs are considering whether to take the plunge, have been mediocre, against average Championship defences. He's not right at the moment, and it's difficult to judge whether that is physical (which is what it looks like), or mental, or both. Either way, in terms of making the prospect more attractive, his value to other clubs at the moment is akin to the perceived value of our half season tickets as we tearfully streamed out of Ewood after the PNE mauling....

He most certainly is a professional footballer, but what 'comments on here' have suggested is that from his 1st kick for Rovers, til his last, he didn't for one second show any ability to justify paying him to play football. At any level. Is that more palatable? We just say what we see, and deal in facts. Those are the facts, in the eyes of 98% of unblinkered Rovers fans.

Glad Markanday played well, although I think Hanley's back-pass was his to win, and he didn't fully commit to it. Probably better that he didn't get his foot to it in the end. Very interesting to see the ebb and flow of opinions on JDT. It really is impossible to work him out, but I still maintain that his unfathomable change of personnel against PNE, after a 6 game winning run, was as arrogant and naive as I have ever seen, and has derailed our home performances since, including against Cardiff, despite the result. There is something brewing though, I just hope we can achieve some consistency, and allow the same wave of confidence throughout the squad that we achieved following the Sheff Utd home game last season. This season really is as barmy and bizarre as last season. Really hope we can give genuinely serious focus to getting to the 5th round, after which anything can happen. £12 or £15 tickets will be a start.... Really good win today....

Thanks for this, the clarification and example is appreciated.

https://www.google.com/search?q=kounde+red+card+vs+barcelona&oq=koundexred+card&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i13i512j0i13i30l2j0i5i13i30l2j0i390l5.6536j0j9&client=ms-android-samsung-ga-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4799e4f1,vid:J30Ot05K7yo

The important point here is that regardless of the law, no other referee has (ever?) applied the law in this way, so the ref was wrong to interpret in this way, as he has seen the ball thrown at an oppponent many times over the years and never given a red for it. I also agree that it was the Boro bench, who complained to the 4th official, who then alerted the ref, who had to make a decision whilst not knowing what force the ball had been thrown with. Therefore, he assumed the ball may have been thrown with the same force as Kounde against Barca, and covered himself by taking the same action. A chain and catalogue of small errors and misunderstandings. Very sad, and an overreaction by both JB and the Preston-schooled ref....

Think we need more explanation of the truth in these comments about AW, as they seemed to be accepted as fact by many on here. The question is whether there is an actual 'stand-off' between JDT and AW, and how we know if this is the reason he is not getting minutes on the pitch. Honest answers, please, so we can move on. Thanks.

So, a couple of things. Buckley is our best passer of the ball. He will continue to be periodically dropped for his 'relaxed' demeanour. He will always be brought back in as he is still our best passer of the ball. Please could we have more comment/detail on the sending off from our qualified referees? I still can't see how it is 'violent conduct', any more than a gentle push to the chest, which is never given as a red. But a gentle push to the chest, using this logic, is also violent conduct. I do not accept it was a clear red card, or we would have seen a number of similar red cards, and I have never seen a red for this in 40 years. We played well in the 1st half, and if we play as well on Sunday, we will win. The only reason we may not play as well, is the absence, ironically, of Buckley. I thought Pickering generally played ok in the 1st half, but was at fault for both goals, this is not sustainable. J R-C was a revelation, he has been re-programmed by JDT, as had JB, before his retaliation. So, not all bad, but unf JDT will never be able to re-programme Gally, as he is an athlete, not a footballer. Strange, contradictory, confusing days....

We now know, or most of us do, that winning individual games is not a priority for JDT. I hope we now all agree that this is the case. I now go to the games hoping for the odd detour from the project, where we have the odd lighting break, or hopeful punt for the strikers to run onto. I feel the squad is frustrated enough after the last few games, for individuals to risk electric shock punishment, and just decide to create and score a coupla goals, and therefore actually win a game. We live in hope! COYB !!!!!

Back to tonight, we need to remember how to play cohesively, as a team and squad that has trained together continuously for 6 months, many of them for 4 or more years. I know JDT is actively preventing this, but I still think that we should be able to lift our head up, see the run of a team-mate, and play a relatively straight pass for them to run on to... It's hard to watch our inability to do this, game after game. Having said all that, if, and it's a very big if, JDT can bear to play the side that won SIX GAMES ON THE SPIN, we will win tonight, an then win on Sunday. C O Y B ! !

Just read the last 4 hours of posts on here, and not a single mention of tonight's game. Think there is a JDT thread somewhere.... I am going tonight, and looking forward to it. It's important, when we've had a series of disappointing performances and defeats, that we make sure that we are there for the victories. I'm concerned about BBD, both from a fitness, and transfer perspective, but if he is out tonight, Gally will hopefully prosper, as he was as poor as ever on Boxing Day. There are a number of regulars who haven't played well or shown much bravery for a couple of months, so it is their chance to step out of the shadows. I hope we take the game to them, as they will be fancying a smash and grab 3 points. See you at Ewood, and Happy New Year to you all! 🥳🍻

Could we please re-name this the Forest Cup Game, or similar. Cheers.

........or send your 17y old down with his 4 mates. Total cost, a tenner.

This is a decent contribution to the ticket pricing debate. It is Christmas week, and times are genuinely hard, but it's also school holidays and you can take your little girl and her 2 friends for £18 total. I also agree with many that it hasn't been a full-on marketing campaign from Waggot and Co. It costs nothing(apart from environmental impact) to send 30,000 emails and get on R Lancs a couple of times, really seems strange we missed that trick.

That line-up would win, but there will be more changes from Saturday. Wonder whether Forest will make 11 changes, unlikely as this is their only proper warm-up game before their return to PL action. Could be a tough evening, as their 2nd 11 are all multi-million pound players.....

I'm more surprised than most that there wasn't more of a surge for tickets as soon as the prices were announced. The Burnley peeformance brought any sales momentum to a grinding halt, and the Norwich result came too late. A few hundred sold in the upper central JW, as here is the biggest discount, and a block just behind the goal, but v few sold anywhere else. There is only one other daytime home game til 28th Jan, but still no interest beyond th perennial 5000. Half season tickets sales also immediately slowed after the Burnley game, and stopped after PNE. All very bad timing. I thought we would have a chance of beating Forest, because I stupidly imagined there would be 14000 on. My mistake, but I think we now have less chance of winning. With 15+ changes out of 22, though, it is anyone's game. Come on, be a devil and get yourself a £12 ticket, it's certainly brilliant value! COYB!

I'm really sorry as I'm sure this will have been mentioned loadsa times, but performances aside, many of us would have taken a point against Burnley, Preston and Norwich. I couldn't find a single Rovers fan with a good word to say about JDT after the PNE fiasco. Strange days, indeed. Don't get me wrong, I thought his decision to change the forward line that had won us six home games in a row, is up there with the worst footballing decisions I have seen. However, dropping Trav was a similarly unexpected decision and obviously it really paid off. Norwich were poor, even when we didn't press as well, but we were very composed and consistent, and deserved the comfortable win. I think this will be the nature of our season because a winning run isn't an objective under JDT, so expect more baffling experimentation. 11 changes on Wednesday, anyone.....? Maybe this is why we're not selling many tickets, I'm taking 5 more family members than usual, so hope there is a late surge....

Ok. Now we are getting somewhere. I wanted to find the one other person who agreed with JDT that playing Dack instead of Gally would be likely to ensure that 6 wins out of 6 would become 7 out of 7. I thought at kick off, that it would lead to a disjointed performance and a loss. If he had played Gally and left Dack on the bench, I thought we would have matched Preston, and got at least a point. Fitting Dack into the team(which I agree would improve us if he was fit), at the expense of a different player is a separate discussion.

This is interesting, as I just want him to stop being so bloody-minded, and occasionally accept that it may be a good idea to play the team that has won us 6 games in a row. He will be here all season, and probably next, so we just need him to grow up quickly and develop a pragmatic side to complement his visionary ideas. There has been as much good as bad this season, but it is hard to accept that it has been just as much of a roller-coaster as last season. Ouch.

Ok. The dust is settling. We won six home games in a row. All 12 players who predominantly delivered that dominant, consistent run of results, were fit and available to play today. Did anyone reading this agree that suddenly playing Dack (who hadn't started a home game for months and months) instead of Gallagher, was likely to help continue this brilliant run? (Answers please. There won't be any). It was clueless, experimental, apprentice management, based on training pitch form, and a managerial hunch, rather than hard-nosed, proven, Championship experience. I thought, based on watching the team for the whole of the season, that we would be less likely to perform and win with this experimental line-up. There were also many, many calls for the manager to be wary of Ched Evans having a similar physical impact on our central defenders, as Barnes did in our last game. All this is ignored by our manager. Let me tell you that without those six home wins in a row when we played predominantly the same team and tactics, we would be in 16th position in the Championship. I repeat, our focus at the moment is not winning games, it is focusing on our (or at least JDTs) style of play, which coincidentally is not the style of play that won us the last 6 home games. Those results were often based on long ball breakaways finished by BBD, when one of our defenders had the audacity to break free of the shackles of our 'style of play'. Jesus, I'm hurting, as the midweek away poisonous tactical ineptitude has now infected our decent home and away weekend form. I'm hoping the manager will see that the team that will win him many more games is still there and waiting to be selected, but for me, the tinkering is killing us. And me.