The PL is rubbish as a spectacle. A self-licking lollipop. It’s a cesspool of crap hair-cuts and wireless-headphones, agent-fed, Pogba-shuffling, self-absorbed, trophy-WAG-adorned, men-children, whoring themselves out at unfashionable foreign-owned Championship-standard clubs, with re-designed badges and fluorescent away shirts, with over-priced, over-engineered, over-marketed, under-protected, corporate-whore-donor boots, in front of soulless, sterile, alcohol-less, prawn-smelling, over-stewarded, company-logo-emblazoned, plastic-bag-hot-dog-stained-rubbish-strewn stadia, (half) filled with plastic, air-sapping, £60-third-kit-wearing, plastic, plastecons who only turn up for 6-games-a-season innit, and the other half, mouth-breathing, barechested, knuckle-dragging, died-in-the-wool-die-hard-deadbeats from deadville who complain that football ain’t like it used to be. And don’t get me started about Bumley.

Minutes silence well observed before the game. Even those training on the adjacent pitch came to a standstill.

Nobody really stood out for me. And despite his standing (as a first teamer) I didn’t really pick out Davenport. It was a good team performance. Mols is always lively and looked good when he came on. It was a good run out for Nyambe - a man amongst boys. Nuttall was similar. He is too good for this level but not going to break into the first team. Needs to go on loan.

That was my point though. People can’t sign up for their own ends and then deflect any criticism by saying “you should sign up if you don’t like what I’m doing”. I already volunteer for two separate organisations and I absolutely feel accountable to thise people I represent. But we have gone well off piste. The comment was that certain folk were agreeing with the club about not lowering ticket prices. This has been refuted. Nothing to see here.

Left before the end so missed the late excitement! Not sure why Nuttall didn’t take the penalty. Probably a fair result in the end. 3–1 might have flattered us slightly. Do Liverpool train their youngsters in the fine are of hounding the referee? Always in his ear and making him book happy. A red card was odd on in the second half.

Nyambe off, Buckley on.

Amazing save onto the bar but the spin looped the ball into the air and headed in. Been coming in fairness.

Liverpool hit the cross bar from an in-swinging free kick just outside the box from right hand side.

Looks like the game will be shown on LFCTV tomorrow at 5:45pm. Not sure if it’ll only be subscription or free. The commentator is trying to make it sound like Liverpool are well in this though! Good first half. Like last season all over again. HT 2-0 (Davenport, Evans)

Last 5-10 minutes Liverpool are seeing more of the ball. Feels like a bit of game management from Rovers, looking to draw Liverpool onto us and hit them on the break.

2-0 Evans

Of course they are accountable. Otherwise it’s just a jolly boys coffee and biscuits session. Don’t these people represent a cross section of fans? That comes with a level of responsibility. No, we don’t get to vote on who represents us. Maybe you’re onto something there though...

1-0 Rovers

Davenport, Nuttall and Nyambe starting tonight.

Davenport, Nuttall and Nyambe starting tonight.

Pleased to hear that. It would be a strange scenario, hence the ‘if’. It’s great that STs will still be the cheaper option. I guess the downside is that means if ST prices continue to increase then walk-ones will become ridiculously expensive. The quality on display isn’t a patch on what it was in Mark Hughes’ day. The calibre of player and opposition worse than even Allardyce’s time. Yet we are close to double the ST prices. Whatever the reasons that’s the way of it. We are seeing commercial opportunities being taken - even the embarrassing vaping ads yet this isn’t being used to subsidise ticket prices. If there is any hope of getting back to 18k+ ST holders, prices have to come down. Only the Oxford deal stands out in recent times of any attempt to encourage fans back. On the back of promotion the fans responded and reminded us all what a full stadium looks like. Since then, nothing.

The benefit I would appreciate as a ST holds is stop lazily putting the price up by £50 every year. Even worse telling me that I’m benefiting in some way if I buy early. If the argument is that lower prices won’t bring many in then, by logical extension, higher prices won’t put many off. So why not just keep squeezing and squeezing until people stop buying then look at reducing them again. That must be in Waggott’s head given the behaviours so far. Fans of THIS club have stuck by it through some very bad times and as soon as we turn a corner - hammer their wallets. Some even think this is the right time to do it!! It’s a two way street, lest some forget. Hugely disappointing if members of the FF are suggesting to, or even agreeing with, the club on not lowering prices. They aren’t going to be innovative if they aren’t put under any pressure. I don’t agree with the “if you don’t like it, step up” statements either. That should not be an excuse to not be held accountable. And if a fans forum aren’t accountable the fellow fans then who are they accountable to? It’s a fan committee not a club committee - or at least that is the perception. Poor show.

FKW is pretty widely known.

Whatever anyone thinks about the politically correct way to say it, lining up a side with no strikers is absolutely a negative set up. It just is. It relies on pace and our midfield getting up and down the pitch to compensate. Dack should not be up against centre backs. The way the game panned out, it brought out the fighting spirit and a siege mentality to hold on to that result. We also got that bit of luck we needed when we were under the kosh and it’s easy to feel huge pride in our boys. It’s fantastic to see as a fan and TM is rightly getting credit for another example of our team spirit and shows that when the chips are down the players will fight. However, yesterday came at a huge cost in terms of goalkeeper and centre defence. We are going to be in real difficulty if we are relying on Leutweiler and a cobbled together defence. Could be Bell - Williams - Smallwood - Travis in the next game if we can’t get Lenihan, Mulgrew and Rodwell back fit. Although more likely Bennett will continue his part time job at right back. We loaded the bench with strikers and had no room for any defensive options. One full back in Bell and a utility player that Travis now seems to have become. Mowbray has taken us a long way in only 18 months. We have a tough mentality and an enviable team spirit. His recruitment needs to improve to address the shortfalls in our squad, because what happened yesterday has been brewing for a while.

Reid!

A word is worth very little in football. Things change, money talks. Pretty sure Mowbray said Rodwell wouldn’t play for some time yet here he is. Not sure why Brereton needs mollycoddling. If he is good enough he is old enough. Right now Mowbray has his men and it’s hard to break into that group. You have to be willing to play anywhere. If it works it’ll be a master stroke. But by what yardstick do we measure it working? Promotion? Play-offs? Avoiding relegation? Brereton scoring or, more likely, providing assists? It’s much more simple, surely. Play the lad as centre forward and see if he has what it takes. Judging him on how well he plays out of position isn’t really fair for a striker.

And yet despite that being the aim the crowds flock to watch the PL brand or at least some of it. Manchesters United and City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs (to an extent). Why do people chuck their cash at clubs just to watch 6 matches per season? Kudos? Enjoyment? The rest of the 14 are hardly draws: Brighton, Bournemouth, Fulham, Burnley, Palace, Wolves, Huddersfield, Cardiff, Watford, Newcastle, even West Ham are all Championship sides with a different badge on their sleeve. Southampton, Leicester, and Everton are the perennial mid table sides. Yet, as you allude to, the Championship has better clubs than more than half of the PL and is more competitive, yet nobody gives ? ?. It’s bobbins, it really is. Football has lost it’s way.

Not the greatest defence!