Dunn came through after Duff. There's Jones as well. Hopefully he eclipses both. Help us win promotion and a cup like Dunn did, then we can flog him for megabucks and wish him well to go and win the major honours (kind of) like we did with Jones.

Pickering being suspended is a bit of a concern, but seems we've got 3 strikers who will be useful even if none are the silver bullet option. It's not a big leap to say we could be here with 4 wins from 4 so far this season if Szmodics and Pickering hadn't cost us early on. And regardless of the final result against Hull, it was a hell of a performance for 80 minutes with 10 men. Hopefully the past 2 games have at least shown that the days of us rolling over every other weekend are behind us. Don't get anyone sent off and score any penalties we are awarded, and I fancy us to win. 2-0 Starting striker with a brace (no idea who it will be... Probably Gally... So we won't get a pen because I'm not sure how we can get one, not miss it and Gally score both a 2-0 win, that just doesn't seem possible).

I assume this was aimed at me, and fair enough. But in my defence, certain posters posting the same nonsensical opinion day after day, which is calmly discredited each and every time, becomes extremely tiring. Especially after a defeat. That person's comment, knowing that most disagree with them, can only be considered bait, particularly when it comes with a childish "Greg the egg" quip, and deserves be called out for exactly what it is... Utter bollocks.

Until 2013, we'd basically had blue on the left and reversed on the back since WW2. Nearly 70 years. That's pretty traditional if you ask me. In the following 10 years I think we've had blue on the left and reversed halves, once? Maybe twice. Flip the colours on anniversaries or every now and then, that's fine. But alongside the reversed halves being traditional (even if not our original shirt), they stop the kit looking all white or all blue when you watch from the side or on TV. It just looks wrong.

Not the best disguise... Signed up 2 weeks before a Dingle game, only replies in the Dingles thread or to negative posts about the Dingles 🤔

Well, that didn't take long.

Think it actually looks alright. Nice blue, nice sleeves, don't mind the mix of blues. The sponsor looks better too. The collar is a bit weird, but will probably get used to it. That said, the halves aren't reversed on the back, so it's a no.

You never seen a map of Europe? Italy is clearly one of the legs, what's at the top of the legs? The arse. What's at the top of Italy? Austria.

Having a vaping company as our primary sponsor is not a great look (regardless of the MS Paint logo) when there are plentiful stories in the media about an increase in under age usage. Particularly of disposables, which are also terrible environmentally. Usage is up 50% year-on-year in under 18s according to https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-young-people-in-great-britain. There are some comments along the lines of "they're for adults", "it's illegal to sell to children so it's irrelevant" etc. which is true, but it's not illegal to give them to children free of charge oddly enough, and the promotion of e-cigarettes where children see them is also increasing... Like on their footballing idols for instance. I'm not anti-vape in general, as a smoker the benefits are obvious. They may be bad, but cannot be worse than traditional cigarettes. But that doesn't mean having them front and centre of the Rovers "brand" is a good idea. Rovers could be used as an example of vaping companies advertising to children. What if in a BBC news piece they show the Rovers kit then transition to a shot of kids stood outside school vaping and poking dead squirrels or whatever kids do. It just shows it hasn't been thought through. Add to that, the financials surely can't be that great. The company's turnover isn't huge by any stretch. So it feels like an easy, unimaginative option that is probably sub-par financially, has the potential to paint Rovers in a negative light, means kids can't wear the same shirt as the team, and the logo looks shit. Not the biggest commercial fuck up over the past 5-10 years, but definitely another one for me.

It is mine view

Maybe it would be better for everyone if the teams that dominate those leagues join the ones that dominate ours for a breakout league in the middle east then?

Competition? If you say so. The fact that only 9 different clubs have finished in the top 4 since England got a fourth Champions League spot 22 years ago would say that word isn't the best choice. Chelsea, Arsenal, United, City and Liverpool account for nearly 90% of all top 4 finished in getting on for a quarter of a century. The system is beyond broken in terms of "competitiveness".

I do. What you mean is fans of United, Chelsea, Arsenal et al, the Premier League and UEFA don't want it. The PL and UEFA merely want to protect their revenue and those fans have benefited plenty over the last 25 years from the pseudo closed shop we already have. If they're collateral damage to a more fair and competitive pyramid then those clubs can't go soon enough for me.

Ah. Still kind of get it, if/when we do get back to the prem there will be a tinge of deflation thinking about VAR and watching players earning £10m a year

I don't want Rovers to compete in the same league as state run clubs either, with plastic fans on the other side of the globe who care more about celebrity than sport, who's sole reason for success is to indoctrinate the next generation. I want Rovers to be in the top division, I just want those clubs to either lose their nefarious owners or fuck off to a Super League so I can enjoy the football I watch without the need to scrub my soul clean at 5pm on a Saturday (or more likely 6pm on a Sunday, or 10pm on a fucking Friday). I presume that's the same point JB is making.

The amount of urinals is fairly adequate

Fair enough. It's not what he goes by, or ever has done I guess was my point

I love how that article gets Xavi's name wrong... "Xavier". Little did they know. I used to watch a lot of Spanish football back then, and I remember being extremely confused by the team sheet using the "proper" last names of the players. Torre instead of Gabri, Hernandez instead of Xavi, Martinez Garcia instead of Luis Enrique etc.

Sold out

I'm 35, recently moved back to the area, I've had season tickets in the past, and I can afford the £400+... But there's no chance I'll pay it when the match day experience is crap. The ground is 2/3 empty and I still can't get a pint (of crap beer) at half time. Premium price for a half arsed product. I'm not having the piss taken out of me, so I won't pay it. A VPN and a RoversTV subscription is far better value. Or just watch the games on Sky since half are on there anyway. Shit as it is, the atmosphere in my living room is just as good and the beer is better. Twice the number of people in, and I'd buy one. Decent beers on tap and the ability to actually buy it, I'd get one. £250, maybe I'd get one.

I wouldn't use Burnley to back up that argument when they comfortably had the highest average possession in the league. There are many ways to skin a cat. There are crap teams that try to control the ball, crap teams that play on the counter and crap teams that play for set-pieces. You definitely don't need a "particular type of manager to get out of the championship", that's nonsense.

Coyley? ... 🤮 Also, I wouldn't give him my dog's shit to put in a bin. It would somehow end up smeared on a window.

I'm not sure I agree with us having less control when we've been in the lead. The two recent example of Preston and Coventry, they didn't look like they were going to score playing for weeks until the two fluke goals. Those could just as easily have happened earlier in the season but didn't. That's kind of what I mean about the luck evening itself out. If we'd carried on as we had at the start of the season, with no progress and still ended up where we did, I'd be much less optimistic for next season. I think the style we've adopted - or I'd argue what was always the plan and that we've started to look like we can execute on - does suit us. How many times in the last few years have we bemoaned not being able to break teams down who have come to Ewood for a point? I can see us working towards overcoming that and actually creating chances when we're dominating the ball. We're still good on the counter, but if you want to be a top side in any league that's rarely enough. It means you've always got to score early. Concede the first goal and you're screwed (as we were for 3/4 of the season).

We weren't the second best side in the league going into the world cup break. We put up some awful performances and got swept away by some crap teams. But somehow we were managing to win any game where we weren't blown out. In the 4 games prior to yesterday we could easily have had 7 more points with the exact same performances, exact same games but with more luck or correct refereeing decisions in the last minute of each. Had those gone our way we'd be 4th. They didn't and on balance of the season I think that probably evened out. Looking beyond the results I am confident in saying we are better now than we were at the start of the season. Better than we were when we were in second. That's the difference. The coach has actually improved the team. Hopefully we'll get the chance to see that improvement bear fruit next season.

Very similar outcomes and January windows. Very different story on the pitch. This season we got better as the season went on. We got so much more confident in possession, the style of play became much clearer and we actually started dominating games rather than scoring with our one shot and holding on. Unfortunately we used up all our luck pre World Cup and it came back to bite us in the last month. Over the whole season we weren't good enough to be in the top 6 but by the end of the season I'm convinced we were easily one of the 6 best teams. Compare that to last season where we looked good until Christmas and faded badly towards the end. In both results and performances. Again, we didn't deserve to be in the playoffs over the entire season and we definitely weren't one of the best 6 teams in the league by the time the season was over. So much so that most probably fearer for how we'd fare this season. You can see what we're trying to do now, what we're trying to be. That was never the case in 5 years under the old manager. A few astute signings in the summer, JDT still being here and I will be counting down the days to the first game.