2 hours ago, Hasta said:

So what's the purpose of the surcharge then?

If they put £2 on a replica shirt on match day would you find that reasonable?

I simply wouldn’t buy a shirt on a match day...

I can’t justify why it’s there and I don’t necessarily agree with it. But equally, to suggest that 800 fans have been ripped off (by £3..) when many could just have bought cheaper tickets earlier in the day, is a bit much. 

I don’t see it as a major issue. If you don’t want to pay it then buy tickets earlier. 

10 hours ago, blueboy3333 said:

800 people being unnecessarily ripped off every game. Shameful.

If only they were able to buy their tickets earlier at a cheaper price. 

Shamefull? Think we’re getting slightly carried away.

1 hour ago, RovingRover said:

Okay then. Let me put it another way.
Who would folk rather have long-term? Brereton or Reed?

Is that how easy it is?

Got no idea how much Reed is worth.

We had no idea how good Reed was going to be or how bad Brereton has been. Wind the clock back and I’m sure we would do things differently.

55 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I take it it used to be substantially higher than 40% of match ticket purchasers who bought them in the run up to KO?

If not, the surcharge has made little difference and is purely ripping folk off...

Or they could buy tickets earlier in the day..... 

The club is a business. In a perfect world the tickets would be free. I’m not defending it necessarily but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. 

I understand that for one off games it could be  tricky but for regular season fixtures, fans will have plenty of time to buy tickets without the surcharge. I don’t really understand the fuss. 

Very even game. Bell has improved. Bennett has got worse. Need to get more direct.

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Shaun Edwards got a high tackle resulting in a fractured cheek bone after 5 minutes of a Rugby League Cup Final at Wembley. He played on with that for the next 75 minutes. Just saying.

This isn’t the cup final..

Fine with the line up other than Nuttall. Not up to this level. I’m ready to be proven wrong.

Just now, alcd said:

Brereton being criticised for lack of hold-up play - exactly what Graham does so well.

But it was Evans who tripped Perez for the penalty. Brereton did nothing but he’s not to blame for that.

Just now, alcd said:

Brereton on...collapse starts. Groundhog Day - again.

Had nothing to do with Brereton. Just more clumsy mistakes

Evans fault. Gave the ref a decision to make. Soft but can see why it’s given. Stupidity.

Anyone able to sign in to ifollow? It just doesn’t want to know. I’m in danger of having a pleasant evening in otherwise.

Awful day. Deserved nothing. At least we turned up for half the game at Bristol.

Clearly TM can’t let go this false number 9 nonesense. It’s never looked like working. At best it should be a last resort. We may not have beaten Preston regardless but at least get the right players on the pitch.

Nyambe was our most dangerous player, think that says it all. 

Waste of time and money. Won’t be making the same mistake again until at least Tuesday.

Nyambe was a force yesterday. Prem eyes may be on Dack at the moment but it won’t be long before he starts getting recognition. Transformed over the last 18 months.

2 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

I think he was meaning perm signings mainly - loans can always go either way as they are usually youngsters.

I am not going to put BB into any list as of yet as it is still too early to judge, same with Davenport as we are still yet to even see him properly. 

Good: Dack, Smallwood, Rothwell, Rodwell, Bell, Armstrong, Downing (did the job in L1 but not sure he good enough for Championship) 

Good Loanees: Reed, Palmer (tho not featuring at the minute), Payne (didnt do much but was a good option off the bench), Antonnsson (split opinions but got some important goals)

Bad: Caddis, Whittingham, Gladwin, Samuel (mainly for the fee), Hart

Bad Loanees: Harper

Close to being about 50/50 overall which I believe most managers will have similar.

My issue is the positions that have been targeted rather than the personnel themselves. We have players like Rothwell and Palmer that can barely get time on the pitch while we are very light up top and at the back and have no actual wingers. 

That’s 6 players in the bad category and 11 players in the good. I’m being pedantic but it’s more like 70% success. 

Id also say that signing Dack alone (from £700k to now £20m+..?) easily makes up for the likes of Gladwin and Samuel.

Poor transfer record..?

Dack, Smallwood, Reed, Rothwell, Rodwell, Bell, Armstrong - all current first teamers and Mowbray signings. Can also add Downing, Palmer and Payne who have made contributions. If anything, Brereton is one of the few failures (based on limited appearances).

This side is streets ahead of anything we had in the Championship under Bowyer. Several of our bench players yesterday would be starting in many Champioship teams. The depth is really impressive. I think we can genuinely start talking about the play offs being a realistic aim. Momentum is so important. We just seem to find ways to win and we’re now doing it against decent teams. 

Good comments from Mowbray afterwards. We need to be much better.

Awful game and a poor performance but I’ll take the win especially with a  clean sheet.

Level on points with 6th place at this stage is as good as we could have expected at the beginning of the season.

The easy answer is to lower prices. But we are a business and have had low prices for many years. I’m not justifying the increase from last year but I can understand both sides to an extent. I’d like to think that if we can sustain this good start then fans will slowly come back, particularly for big end of season games. Oxford showed everyone that the fans are out there which is a start.

Cant understate how significant having every midweek game available on Sky is turning out to be as well. 

A £10 ticket initiative for a non televised game would be my suggestion. Get people back into the habit.

Armstrong played no better in the latter part of his time here on loan. Lots of running but doesn’t actually pose a threat.

Don’t know what Rothwell has to do to get a game. Real shame he hasn’t been involved since the international break. 

Logged in for the first time since the match and we’re still discussing a photo of Dack. I really think we can move on..

Played well in the first half but didn’t take chances. 4-1 flattered them but can’t say we deserved much. It happens. TM clearly took a gamble second half and it didn’t pay off. Other days it might. Couldn’t fault the effort.

It’s a reality check not a crisis.

2 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Which is why he has let them down.

Honestly can’t believe anyone is defending this.

Because he’s injured. Injured. Like he was last game. And the game before that. You’re reading far too much into this

Just now, Stuart said:

Glad I don’t work with you. You’d happily let me do all the work while you ring in with your best “got flu mate” voice. Because you couldn’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.

The only thing you are convincing me of is the entitled and irresponsible nature of the current youth.

What on Earth are you talking about? Dack clearly wasn’t due to play and (at this stage have to assume) was allowed to go out. Unless there’s evidence to the contrary, this isn’t a story.

looking forward to this. Good to see if Brereton can get on at some stage. 

2 hours ago, Stuart said:

5 at the back? Or 4-4-2 with Bell on the wing?

If we’d have used Coyle’s tombola machine I don’t think we could have come up with a more misfit team.

Expect Lincoln (top of L2) to win this one with some ease.

In your own time.

7 hours ago, AAK said:

Just watching highlights and sorry but most were wrong about shutting darwen end it now looks terrible without home fans in and the atmosphere is worse, simple as.

Disagree. There were virtually no home fans in there when it was open. At least the JW looks a bit fuller than normal. Having 150 home fans in a corner of the Darwen End doesn’t look any better than just giving the whole lot to the away fans imo.

Rodwell has everything to prove. He won’t be on big wages and he’ll know what everyone thinks of him. It’s an underwhelming signing at best but I can see the logic. I’d like to think this is one of 2/3 deals between now and the end of Aug and if that’s the case then I’m ok with it. Down to him to prove himself now.