I wouldn’t be too glad. Whichever way you look at it it’s a failure not a success.

Completely agree. I would definitely have gone to the Burnley game - I went to the final last season. But have been excluded from going by the club due to this ridiculous ko time. There was no trouble at all last season either. The LFA managed segregation in their one-horse stand better than BRFC managed last night in a 30,000 seater stadium!

I too get the impression that Butty doesn’t get on with Chapman. Thought the same after the Boro game. He needs to be careful about that but I hold our coaches responsible for poor recruitment, selection and use of Chapman. It is definitely impacting the U23 camp - especially if you add in Brereton. He is never going to be the type of player Mowbray wants him to be. He’s an artist and Mowbray only wants soldiers. I often wonder what would have happened if Mowbray had been here when Tugay was. I suspect he’d have been shipped out sharpish. Last night, I was impressed with how much Samuel put himself about though - probably because Mowbray was in attendance. As for the police, I was astonished at the numbers for such as small away following. There was a German bloke who was taking selfies sat in the JWL owner seating area then moved down to sit behind the Rovers players in the dugout. Some Rovers fans near us must have spotted it because they were joking about him coming on in the 85th minute. He joked back “no, half time”. We assumed he was part of the Hertha staff until our head steward rocked up and made him climb back over the railing. “You’ve been rumbled”. All very good natured, high fives, hugs and thumbs up. Unfortunately for him he followed through with his ‘joke’ and was frogmarched out of the ground. The Hertha fans were very vocal but from the range we were at it all seemed good natured (see photo below) but looked like it could escalate. By the sounds of things it nearly did. The amount of police outside was a real surprise though. Especially given there was NO police presence in the ground. I imagine the stewards were managing the situation carefully to avoid it getting out of hand but they really should have been segregated given the numbers - which weren’t huge but of a demographic that suggested they were certainly not just families of Hertha players. Always amazes me with the outside stewarding too. There is always a big fuss made about checking the bags of children (even last night) yet how often do we see flares brought in. All very easy to check the family stand but there is never any confrontation with the more stereotypical away football fan. More interested in making sure contraband food and drink isn’t brought in than worrying about pyrotechnics!

Surprised someone.

Have to say, I was surprised that the DE side of the JW wasn’t used for the away fans. Club caught out by so many travelling fans, or another stuff-the-home-fans-cost-saver?

Seems to run our first team like an U23 development side. Meanwhile Damien Johnson ran his U23s like a first team.

Never seen so many police outside Ewood. Must be expecting a LOT of disorder from the away fans. Even more outside the grounds! Great first half, scrappy second. Chapman looks a million miles away from where he needs to be and IMHO him being in the U23s is a bad thing for all concerned. Can’t believe Barr didn’t take him off.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/november/get-your-football-fix-tonight/ Tony Mowbray confirmed earlier this month that he hopes Dominic Samuel and Ben Brereton will manage to get through 90 minutes during tonight's game. “(Ben) Brereton and (Dominic) Samuel are two who we’ll try and get them 90 minutes against Hertha Berlin," said the Rovers boss. “If they can get 90 minutes in that game then they are back in contention for the first team squad selection." No sign of Brezza yet.

Many a true word spoken in jest... Mowbray seems to want players to just be footballers. Good at everything and great at nothing. Stop tinkering and play players where they play best.

No, I got it. Just the whole thing was random - including the reply!

brilliant! We need one of those threads!

#random

Where an organisation has passionate people involved, Stage 2 become an exercise in innovation before they would even dare claim Stage 3 had been reached. Let’s examine the problem: “We are still not getting decent numbers at games despite poor football/results and discretionary price hikes aimed at creating value in STs and bundles.” Investigation 1: “Let’s take another look at pricing and test the £10 ticket for a game of interest, such as local derby.” Investigation 2: “Let’s take a look at the root cause of why we have poor football and results and address that.” Obviously very simplistic but price and quality equal value and right now both are moving further away from each other instead of closer together. How about “use your match ticket to get the next game half price if we lose”? Or “your next season ticket reduced by 10% if we don’t make the top half”? Get a rocket under people down there on easy street where apparently results don’t matter.

This lot? https://m.facebook.com/eastern.fc.9 Looks more like one of those Summer Soccer camps than a football club. Somewhere to send our youngsters from the U15s and below during the Summer break?

I think the negativity attributed to this site is a little unfair and a projection as viewed from the other side of the blue-and-white-tinted spectacles. Many on here would call it realism. It usually reflects and focuses the negativity that we all feel after games and aims it like a spotlight on the root causes. Usually the same root causes game after game. You don’t write after games or in anger but we all frequently do. After a defeat this is a place to avoid, for sure, but only because we are all passionate about our club, and want to see it succeed. The dawn of the mainstream internet and therefore messageboard/forum age coincided with a startling upturn in the fortunes of the club and, despite that success, people still wanted to see us improve and to not fall backwards. Perhaps we all didn’t want the dream to end. Maybe we are crazed perfectionists who will always demand more? For example, Souness was one of my favourite Rovers managers. I didn’t want him to leave, even towards the end. But he did have to go because he has lost what he had and it was impacting the team and results and we were heading back down. There is no shame in that time having come for Mowbray. I don’t want us to be relegated again. I highly doubt it will be as easy to escape next time.

Simon, if I may. I think the bit in bold is the root cause of why you receive a lot of stick. I agree though that it shouldn’t be aimed at you personally and should be about your opinions and only your opinions. You put them out there (as we all do) so they will get shot at. Your style appears to be to find a positive spin on most things and to write pieces which generate a little controversy. But the bit it bold is what grates. We are clearly in straits on the pitch and off it and we have the illusion of normalcy. If you are posting positive stories just to sell newspapers and advertising then at best it is insincere and at worst is patronising. It becomes propaganda, de facto on behalf of the club or incumbent manager, and benefits the LT as it helps them remain in the good books with them: one of their commercial partners. We need something to change on the field - and quickly - yet we are seeing the same mistakes, the same excuses and no sign that any lessons are being learned. We have no clear pattern of play and we seem to be very much on a downward cycle. This surely cannot be used to defend, let alone sustain, Mowbray’s own excuses and blame for certain players. Do you really believe that Mowbray is the right man to take this club forward? If so, why? Because of fear of the unknown alternative? I guess your articles are designed to divide opinion because that is what will spark online discussion and increase site traffic (which is what sells advertising) but by definition you will polarise opinion and end up with a lot of people who take exception. To the man on the street (or the average LT reader) who doesn’t go to Ewood, you represent the thoughts of the “every Rovers fan”. If, like the LT, you don’t even represent the broader fanbase (and even have a pop at the ‘negative’ fans) then this can be taken very personally. Right now our fanbase is very much split - as it has been for many years - the middle ground is narrowing, and right now there is a groundswell of anti-Mowbray feeling building at one side. Articles about Rovers should look to balance this. Yes, stick to your instincts but acknowledge the concerns of those “on the edges of the middle ground”. Beyond that, at one end of the spectrum are the “super fans” (I use the term unapologetically) who won’t hear a bad word about anyone with a Rovers badge on their chest, at the other end are the critical fans who are more demanding and think the badge should be constantly be earned by everyone - including the manager. In the middle there are people who see it as ‘just a game’ and their interest in Rovers begins on Saturday at 2pm and end at 5:30pm. I’d suggest that many of the middle group are the ones who are now losing patience and will go on to lose interest. This should be acknowledged and right now it feels as though you are writing for the super fans. All that said, writing regular articles is a big commitment, and I applaud you for that. I guess in some ways you are a barometer for when things have gone beyond the pale, like Parsonblue or chaddyrover on here. If you were to post something negative about a manager then we would all know the tide had truly turned...

True enough. Trouble is that slimming down would likely see us lose Rothwell and keep Evans.

If you take away the two very odd multi-million pound strikers during the last two seasons and we have spent very little on anyone.

“We are not going to be able to invent 10 games where we can go on an unbeaten run because there are not enough games left.” Try saying that in a Saltburn lilt.

I bet Waggott is gutted that Rooney doesn’t join Derby until after we play them. That would have been a nailed on £40+ game!

From the mouth of Kean himself... “I think they still believe, they keep pushing hard. If we can stick three back-to-back wins together we’ll be right back in the mix and I think that’s what we have to keep believing that we’re not far away. “We need to reverse that and be saying we’ve won six out of eight and then suddenly you’re on the cusp of the play-offs. That’s this league.

The bit missing for me is the part where Mowbray walks after being undermined and then hamstrung. That’s the kind of bloke he is, no?

Looks like the tide is turning... Facebook groups are the safe haven for Rovers managers yet nearly half on this poll feel that Tony’s time is up.

Billy Mowbarr digging out the youngsters while making excuses for the seniors. Players like Brereton and Samuel should be giving these younger, greener lads a lesson not needing protection. Shame on Barr. Those young lads showed what they were made of as soon as Tony’s recruits got out of the way. Three absolute flops out of the first team picture and now making the wrong kind of waves in the development team. “Crest of a crisis” could be right. There may well be an us-and-them culture in both squads very soon. You’re either in “the group” or you’re not. Cliques are a very bad thing for a football club. Management defending fully paid up members will rip it apart.

Someone got Kean to go and replaced him with Eric Black. Then Bowyer stepped in for Berg and Appleton. They have history of employing from within, or at least using them as caretakers. Just hope they don’t throw out the baby with the bath water!