Herbie6590

Hornet related commentary, predictions, speculation here please…

https://x.com/brfcsdotcom/status/1693367854005879072?s=61&t=YzghmFC1hBTxrcVJBu1kGQ MOTM template .mp4

The Tony Parkes 1973-74 Retro shirt is available to purchase now in both short-sleeve & long-sleeve variants, each lovingly reproduced with a fully sublimated number 10 on the reverse. These shirts are manufactured by our good friends at Ribero once again, in man-made, "cool dry" fabric with the number 10 on the back in red, fully sublimated in the printing. Shirts cost £30 & BRFCS will donate £5 from the sale of each shirt to Tony Parkes, to assist in the costs of his ongoing care. If anyone would like to donate to Tony's care but doesn't want to buy a shirt, then a Donation Only product is also available in the store and BRFCS will pass on all donations to Tony along with the profits from each shirt. To purchase a shirt CLICK HERE now... & help us to help a true Rovers legend. Orders will be taken until midnight on 13th September so don't delay, order today. Delivery targeted for end of November. Short-Sleeve Long-Sleeve

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/21/nostalgia-for-the-deep-fried-jam-sandwich

@rog of the rovers of this parish shares his on the whistle thoughts… https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/500-words-on-tigers-torment/444

Don’t forget to vote for the POTM https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/football/match/1047460/blackburn-hull-city?tab=voting

My maternal grandparents ran a grocers shop in Padiham. My grandad would give me a fresh tea cake, warm from the baker’s wooden delivery tray, together with a slab of Lancashire crumbly of such magnitude merely lifting it to my mouth would today be deemed as aerobic exercise, in order to keep me quiet. How that shop ever made a profit when I ate most of the cheese counter is a mystery…

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/jack-walker:-1929-2000/443

https://x.com/brfcsdotcom/status/1690702166627856384?s=61&t=YzghmFC1hBTxrcVJBu1kGQ Look out for Ellie…😆

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/500-words-on-rotherham-redemption/440 Some reflections on yesterday…

Has to be said…terrific entertainment, the game contained a bit of everything, except the what I believed to be an inevitable red card for Szmodics. Plus points : character in the 2nd half, Ennis’s cameo, Pickering’s work rate Negatives : no shots on target for about an hour, susceptible to the long, high ball over the top, only got going against ten men Quite the roller-coaster today…

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/they-played-for-both-rovers-and-the-millers/301

Does some poor bugger somewhere look like me then ? 😆

For folks wanting to vote in the POTM 👆🏻👍🏻

We have forgotten to change the default season to 23/24…🤦‍♂️ Change this drop down selection… https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/football/match/1047435/blackburn-west-brom?tab=voting Hopefully @StubbsUK or @Roth can sort it for us soonest…👍🏻

There goes the neighbourhood eh ?😆 @StubbsUK suggested we try the JW after we enjoyed the Girona experience, so we are testing it out. For a small fee we can be persuaded to return to the Riverside. Yesterday’s weather made it a sound choice for sure…

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/match-report:-wba-(h)-5823/437

Nice seeing you this afternoon T 👍🏻

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/they-played-for-both-rovers-and-the-baggies/46

Ahead of the season opener against WBA at Ewood, the podcast panel of James Marsh, Ian Herbert & Tiebreak judge Roger Whiteside, consider who the key movers & shakers are likely to be this season & predicts their 1-24 for the upcoming championship campaign. The format owes a little to sorting methodology, agile project management techniques and squash club ladders...bear with it, you'll get the hang of it soon enough. In Part 2 Roger interviews Fraser Read, Head of Marketing at Rovers and talks about the newly revamped 1875 membership schemes. https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/podcasts/the-'what-now'-show-1-24-prediction/32

1. Who will win this year’s Championship ? Leeds United 2. Who will claim runners-up spot ? Southampton 3. Who will finish rock bottom in the Championship ? QPR 4. Where will Rovers finish this season in the league ? 15th 5. How many league goals will Rovers score this season ? 50 6. Who will win the BRFCS POTY ? (using the ratings provided in the match centre after each game. Our first winner in 2022 was Scott Wharton and last season’s winner was Joe Rankin-Costello FYI) Adam Wharton

Each season the excellent Loft For Words site contacts fans of Championship clubs for their views on what is about to unfold and I’ve written mine about Rovers for 3 or 4 seasons now. My words are below but it’s definitely worth reading the whole section on LFW for some terrific insight… LOFT FOR WORDS WEBSITE Local Knowledge — Ian Herbert @Ian Herbert brfcs.com “Much like my A Level studies, the ultimately, surprisingly good outcome belied the difficulties, lack of beauty and inspiration en-route. “JDT entered Ewood with the first team squad looking somewhat sparse following departures of key players on free transfers and prospects looked bleak. Somehow he fashioned a team that accumulated enough points to consistently threaten to break into the play-offs but in a nod to his predecessor, failure was once again snatched from the jaws of victory in the run-in, leaving Rovers fans to rue what was possibly the best chance since relegation to return to the top table. Being objective for a second, Rovers finishing seventh, missing out on the play-offs purely on goal difference was a demonstration of footballing alchemy. JDT clearly has a style of play that he wishes to deploy; a passing game, tidy, lots of movement - but for large parts of last season it seemed like shooting had been ruled out as a legitimate way to score. It’s possibly telling that our goal difference at season’s end was -2 (minus two..!). “After 46 games, Rovers netted just 52 goals - only Preston (satisfyingly for us) scored fewer in the top half. The biggest win of the season was 3-0. We scored four just once and that on the last day of the season, but in mitigation, we also conceded three in that game. The points were accumulated haphazardly, in odd runs of form, but without ever truly convincing the discerning spectator (i.e. me) that this team was the real thing. The most enjoyable football came in the cup competitions. Spirited away wins at West Ham (albeit on penalties) in the Carabao and a quite fabulous victory over Leicester (live on a BBC sub-channel) in the FA version, were possibly the best performances of the season. Two deep cup runs were a pleasant and welcome surprise after the frequent capitulations under Mowbray in the cups. “In order to support Blackburn Rovers these days, the informed follower must be proficient in Indian tax law, psychology and body language. All of these skills have been necessary in order to interpret just what on earth is going on right now. In a nutshell, it appears that the (somewhat sparse) budget that was agreed at the end of last season has been further reduced to accommodate new Indian tax laws aimed at disincentivising external investments. The scenario seems to be that Venky’s aren’t keen on paying the additional tax to send the same amount of money to Ewood and so the ripple effect is that JDT apparently threatened to walk, as he felt he had been misled; asked as he was to repeat last season’s alchemy, but with even fewer resources than last season. From his perspective, it’s understandable that he feels betrayed and equally, it’s his reputation that’s on the line. If (as seems inevitable) Rovers struggle to match last season’s efforts, his prospects of using Rovers as a springboard to a bigger job will be impacted…adversely. The verdict after 12 months is that he has done well with what he had, but the reward for that is to be asked to more with less…which coincidentally is spookily similar to my annual performance reviews… “The director of football, Gregg Broughton, promised “three in before the end of June” and in fairness delivered three new signings on time. Ennis from Plymouth Argyle on a free, Tronstad from Vitesse Arnhem on a free and Sigurdsson on loan from CSKA Moscow (using the Ukraine invasion rule). The problem is, Ennis has been criticised publicly by Tomasson for his apparent lack of fitness, Sigurdsson is now out with injury for at least a couple of months and the Indian government has decided to increase its domestic tax take. The strategy now seems to be to hope that someone bids a silly amount for one of our expendable players (Kaminski & Travis are the leading candidates), someone bids a silly amount for David Raya at Brentford (Rovers have a sell-on clause) or that all the players agree to a 98% pay cut. The expectation is that a couple of last-minute loans will be brought in before the window “slams shut” but all the Championship clubs without parachutes will be trying to pull off the same trick. This is high-stakes poker, as Ayala, Dack and Diaz have departed, Morton went back to Liverpool and so the challenge facing JDT is to replace that talent pool with no fees being paid. Tough gig. “I too am something of a pessimist when it comes to Rovers predictions. I think of it as a coping mechanism…if I predict 24th, any finishing spot higher than that is therefore a plus. Last season I was deeply concerned and it all turned out to be fine. This year I am once again deeply concerned but with more justification I feel. We struggled to score last season and the guy who contributed 14 precious goals is now developing his Spanish language skills and teaching locals “Sweet Caroline” in downtown Villarreal. Does any aspirant Championship side really want to go into the new season with a reliance on Sam Gallagher to have to score 22 to plug the Diaz gap ? Hopes were high for Sigurdsson but his injury track record is now increasingly becoming public domain with troubling consequences. As for Ennis, it now appears he was signed injured and is only now starting to train seriously. If we sell Kaminski that places a heavy burden on Pears, who has blown hot and cold in his time at Ewood. “It’s not a stretch to see Rovers conceivably conceding more and scoring fewer than last season - well, not for me anyhow. In that event, remaining in the top half may well be a challenge too far. If JDT walks, that turmoil could tip us into surprise relegation candidates. I’ll go JDT to stay long enough to see us finish 15th.”

It was #FansTakeover day at Ewood Park on Saturday 29th July as Rovers faced Spanish opposition in the form of Girona. Listen as Roger Whiteside & James Marsh take you around Ewood recording chats with all-comers to give you a sense of the occasion. We hear from fans and journalists from all parts of the Globe; plus chats with Harry Leonard and Tyrhys Dolan. Special call out to an old friend of the podcast The One & Only J Henry who plays us out with a very special version of a song familiar to Rovers fans of a certain age. Give him a follow :- https://www.facebook.com/theoneandonlyjhenry/ https://theoneandonlyjhenry.bandcamp.com/track/swans-song LISTENING OPTIONS HERE