philipl

Effectively with goal difference, Huddersfield have 6 games to make up 6 points on us and Sheffield Wednesday have to make up 7 points. I will get lynched for this but Sheffield Wednesday home is a MUST NOT LOSE. Draw that and Wednesday only have 5 games to get those 7 points in and that is assuming we lose the other games. After the performances against Newcastle and Ipswich and the tonic of a 5-1 away win, there is no reason at all that we shouldn't be extremely competitive against Southampton Leeds Coventry and Leicester- play the way we can and by the law of averages we will get something breaking our way in one or more of those games. We are not safe but our road to safety is now clearly marked.

Pleased for Eustace as well as all Rovers fans after that Wearside stroll.

Fantastic performance but great to score at all the right psychological moments too. Worth pointing out that was the first game this season we could get all 4 of Gally, Szmodics, Hedges and Dolan on the pitch together and they played superbly as a unit. Dolan was too tricky for the Sunderland defence and simply having the height and physicality of Gally created spaces for the other 3. Rovers press was exceptional thoughout- Sunderland players will be having blue and white halved nightmares tonight.. JRC and Tronstad look a great combination in midfield and the defence was pretty flawless until we lost Dack when we were really slow getting back to the loose ball after Pears' excellent save. Fabulous feeling after any win but 5-1 is extra sweet.

I got corrected. We get 15% of the profit over the 23m which is now looking a certainty to be paid barring a bad injury. The adds on look bankable the way Adam has started. at Palace.

Seems to be showing he can tear a Premier League defence apart so can do it at the highest level which many doubted.

I am worried but giving Eustace benefit of the doubt. The injury situation only eased recently and even then we lost Buckley and Gallagher. A huge difference is JDT had a mini-worldie in the centre of the park in Wharton and Eustace hasn't. Irrespective of the run in fixtures, I would rather be sitting in our position with our squad than where Huddersfield, Birmingham and Wednesday are this morning with their squads. But I would swap Eustace for Rohl in a heartbeat...

Hope we get our breaks at the right moments in the game the way they got their's at Ewood this season.

Which is what I am saying. Unfortunately, we ended without either a play off place or Ash Philips Anyway, the Palace 23m man was man of the match yet again.

Being useless giving press comments is a problem for selling match day tickets. What I miss was JDT's ability to get the ball passed quicker after half time. Get the impression Eustace is too busy telling them how brilliant they are to get them to wind it up. Brittain in particular looks a player who constantly needs shaking out of his comfort zone. JDT got some excellent performances out of him. Eustace hasn't as yet. overall we are too one paced and predictable under Eustace which is why ok performances are not being turned into wins.

The hope is we get back to where we were when we were scoring goals for fun in the run of 4 away wins. The fear is the defence forgets how its confidence has returned because it is too busy shielding an error prone keeper..

Just hope Eustace is a lot better motivating and organising the players than he is communicating with the fans. JDT was a superb communicator so he will sound rubbish in comparison but beginning to conclude he is genuinely rubbish in speaking to the press. The other worries are that players are ponderous on the ball from the middle third forward making us too easy to defend against and nobody is willing or seemingly encouraged to try this sort of shooting which went a huge way to securing QPR's future-

All we can ask for is Keep defending solidly No Pears howler The scrappiest scumiest luckiest goal(s) ever scored by Rovers....

Ipswich looked like a team used to winning and instinctively passed between themselves whereas our passing was all stop and look for someone. We got lucky with the nailed on penalty Ipswich weren't given and they got lucky cumulatively with the three times we got it into their net when the officials could have missed their marginal decisions against us and the Moran volley was an extremely marginal call. That was keeper collision with Wharton without the keeper having control of the ball. But it came down to Pears howler being a goal and their keeper's howler wasn't because he got lucky with where his left arm was when Szmodics struck for goal. In the replay it is obvious his left arm goes out without looking and unlike against Newcastle Szmodics gave it elevation. If he had chipped it against Newcastle we go through, a flatter trajectory yesterday we equalise.

To be exact in the next 7 games For Rovers to go down Two of Birmingham, Huddersfield and Wednesday need to get 4 points more than we do And Plymouth need to get one point more than we do Far from impossible but not the most likely outcome if our defending continues the way it is doing under Eustace not forgetting Carter is now available for the first time in his tenure.

Southampton drawing to Boro really dented them but they still have those games in hand.

The Ipswich subs were no great shakes- I was beginning to think they were going to gift us a draw. As it is Ipswich's promotion push is 4 points to the better thanks to our Ashley...

Waggott is the lowest form of worm. I hope the reason for my posting this isn't coming to pass.

Dolan was high class today

So frustrating to lose to a Pears blunder. Dolan had a Stormer today.

Dream results for Ipswich so they will be fired up. At least we will still be 3 points off a relegation slot and have two clubs between us and 22nd as well. A free hit for both us and Ipswich.

Worth remembering Ipswich last game was a 6-0 todgering of Wednesday. I hope we are more competitive than that. I believe we are more competitive than that. But the butterflies will be going as kick-off approaches.

Nothing at Rovers makes any business or logical sense. So statements like Broughton is a busted flush are entirely logical and because they are logical stand a high chance of being completely wrong. Broughton and team have done an excellent job taking in consideration the circumstances whether by accident (Pune family falling out with each other causing erratic decisions and miscommunication) or design (every conspiracy theory and then some) plus Waggott self serving dirty internal power plays. I am inclined to give him a huge benefit of the doubt.

If I were in the shoes of Phillips and Wharton, I would have done what both of them did. We had the option to block Phillips move by playing him in the first team according to his contract and the club decision was not to and we ended up with the worst of both worlds - no Play off and no Phillips We didn't roll over on the sale of Wharton. The accepted offer was the third bid AFTER Palace had lifted the number from something derisory. We are probably on course for £23m plus 15% of the difference between at least £80m and £23m when Adam moves on from Palace. Again, the sabotage of the O'Brien deal is probably the reason Adam is not still at Ewood. Not that O'Brien is that great a miss but he would have given us that bit extra that would have won an extra point last season. Now putting myself in Finernan's boots, it is a no brainer to stay with Rovers at this point in his development and he would be very badly advised to move now. The big risk of losing him is in two years time if we are not in the Premier League. Ironically if we get relegated he could look forward to being an automatic starter next season....

The Club statement last week was unequivocal in saying they will not sell.

TK made his Belgian debut as an 83rd minute sub against Ireland (just after Sammy was subbed off). That should add a few 100k to the transfer fee from Luton.