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I’d argue that over two legs, the bigger club has a greater advantage than in a single leg that goes to extra time. It’s easy to say now because Spurs ultimately won, but Tamworth were 30 mins from penalties. That’s a better shot than another 90 away from home. Certainly good arguments regarding the huge financial benefits for smaller clubs etc but don’t think scrapping replays significantly alters the odds of a big cupset.

Surprised people are seriously considering the Brereton rumour. He’s not coming. Better teams are linked and he won’t want to come back here. It’s just lazy journalism.

I would judge BBD immensely if he came back here. To wind down your contract to ensure you have an easy way out, only to return on loan two seasons later? No chance. Move on.

The Darwen End arrangements will need explaining but as Burnley now have the whole lower tier, there’s probably not a lot that can be done. The club will need to learn lessons and restrict away sales for these fixtures in future until the demand from home fans can be properly gauged. The potentially available sections in the JW and Riverside remaining closed off, makes no sense.

The club are too busy finding reasons for why they can’t do things instead of trying to find solutions. The fans are turning up. Open the bloody stadium.

A maintenance issue prevents the club opening up the final seats in the BBE upper? - what type of maintenance issue only impacts the side blocks of the upper tier? - why doesn’t the same problem affect the Darwen End? - hasn’t the Ewood Express been using those seats within the last year? What’s changed since then? It’s ridiculous that a game which is practically sold out over a week in advance, will still see several thousand empty seats. It’s bad enough that the Darwen End will be nearly half empty but for there to be spare seats in the home end is inexcusable.

Not every game captures the imagination?? This is the first game in seven years we’ve had to open the top tier of the BBE and shaping up to be the best home attendance we’ve had in the Championship since the early 2000s. To be fair I haven’t checked the exact points totals but from memory we were 2nd in the table under Mowbray going into February 2022 and a year later we were in a similar position to where we are now under JDT. At no point did we see gates like this. Its hardly a complaint, more just an observation that whilst it’s not surprising this game has sold well, I don’t think anyone could have expected it would do this well.

We’ve done better than this and not sold as many tickets. It’s been 7 years since we last needed to open the BBE upper.

That didn’t take much. So you expected us to sell the ground out because we drew with them earlier in the season, despite not coming close to shifting this many tickets for over 7 years? Maybe write it down next time. I don’t know what they’re playing at with the upper tier of the BBE and it’s a shame that a game with so much demand will still see 3-4k seats empty in the Darwen End, which is not a good look. Saying that, I dont think anyone expected the game to sell this well.

Did anyone on here foresee this demand a few weeks ago? Considering there’s nearly two weeks until the game, it’s crazy how quickly the game is selling out. No other match in recent memory has sold as well regardless of our league position or ticket price.

Big pressure on the Hull game to avoid going into the derby off the back of four defeats. Anything from the other two would be a bonus off the back of yesterday’s performance.

From afar, this might look like an unfortunate defeat but from watching it, I thought we were deservedly beaten. Showed little ambition and never exerted any sustained pressure. Millwall were unremarkable and lacked quality but at least tried to be positive. If you play like we did then you forfeit the right to complain if the opponents grab a late winner. Id classify that as only marginally better than the Coventry performance. Only because of the unfortunate circumstances with going down to 10.

Cantwell did nothing. Fortunate to not be replaced earlier.

Grim. A waste of time for everyone who bothered to make the effort to turn up. Only one side was going to win that. Millwall had nothing about them but if you allow any side to keep throwing balls into the box eventually something will happen.

Not quite sure what the club are asking fans to do, just wear a home shirt? It’s early January and everyone will be wearing coats so hard to show club colours. I saw some mention of a Tifo being designed?

This isn’t to contest the wider point but our averages have often been helped by giving up the whole Darwen End to the bigger clubs. It’s actually interesting to see how often our attendances dipped below 20k between 04-08 despite how well we were doing. Obviously we were getting much bigger crowds than now either way. Looks like we’ve already sold almost half the available tickets in the upper tier so can see them opening the other half soon. This will likely be the first time since Oxford that we’ve had 20k home fans in the ground.

Not long ago? It was nearly 15 years ago! It’s good to see a decent attendance, the team deserve it for the first half of the season if nothing else.

Feels like people are prioritising the Burnley match over the other home games at Christmas. The Hull game would have been perfect for reduced prices. I recall we got a relatively decent crowd for the Bournemouth home game a couple of years ago, when they opened the Darwen End. Must have been around 19/20k home fans. This will almost certainly be the highest attendance for a game without price reductions.

Not defending the prices but if we had more ST holders, we’d get fewer walk ons. Even with reduced ticket prices in recent years, we’ve not come close to filling Ewood. Oxford was the closest since relegation and that was 7 years ago plus included a range of factors beyond price that won’t apply to most games.

Mowbray didn’t get interest because we rarely looked like getting promoted! JDT had a higher profile due to his playing days so was more likely to get linked elsewhere when we were doing well. Look where he went to after he left us. That doesn’t happen to most Championship managers. I think Eustace is still too unproven for a PL side. We’re more vulnerable to ambitious championship teams with parachute cash. Luton might not be attractive enough but if an Ipswich/Leicester come down next season and make a change, I can see Eustace being a strong contender.

I think it’s too soon for a prem job. Saints will want an experienced PL manager. He’s only managed one full season of championship football hasn’t he? If we stay on this trajectory then he’ll be gone within the next year but I think prem clubs will look elsewhere for the time being.

If you’re not getting excited by six wins in a row then what’s the point of following it at all? This doesn’t happen often so I’d enjoy it for what it is.

Is McFadzean now the only summer outfield signing who hasn’t scored in the league this season? With Gueye and ACD now getting into form, the summer window may go down as one of the best in recent memory.

I’d rather they open the BBE Upper than the Darwen End. Get the home end full first.

The home attendances at the other Christmas games look average but the Burnley game is selling well including hospitality. If tickets keep selling at this rate then the BBE upper might get opened. Even acknowledging the ticket prices, if we can’t get a good crowd for the Burnley game with our current form and it being the Christmas period - we never will.