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....

On 23/03/2024 at 16:56, miqaayil said:

Gentlemen is there any sign Venky's are relenting and entertain an offer ?

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.

Broughton contradicts Waggott on past transfers and throws him under the bus when he points at "administration error" and Broughton not being a Director of the club and therefore unable to process the deal himself...

The answer about re-investing the transfer income was both non-committal and detailed.

Interesting that we had to fight off Ipswich for Gally in January.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68639682

Investment in Ipswich

Ipswich Burns out with a hamstring (and still Hedges doesn't get a Welsh call up).

And if we hadn't drawn those two. (Not celebrating but surviving)

Millwall 45

Plymouth 43

Stoke 41

QPR 40

Rovers 40

Brum 39

_____________

Huddersfield 39

Wednesday 38

21 hours ago, rovers11 said:

We don't have many goals in us and Ipswich have plenty. They will run out very comfortable winners in this one. 

Our game plan at the moment is about keeping it tight and nicking a goal. That won't work against the better teams (it didn't even work against the lesser teams!). 

How is life in Burnley?

Rowet's temporary appointment at Birmingham is bad news but we really shouldn't be looking to others' misfortune. 

We have a 3 point and slight goal difference headstart over 22nd place and have to make it count.

It appears just about the only legislation being brought forward is the football regulator.

Never mind the content, stylistically the club statement reads like an obituary.

So is this in place of the Broughton interview?

Updating my extrapolations of current form and narrowing it down to Millwall downwards assuming everyone else is safe.

Last 5 games pro rated plus an added 3 points for playing Rotherham.

Millwall 63 points

QPR 54 points

Sheffield Wednesday 53 points

Stoke 51 points

Plymouth 51 points

Rovers 49 points

Huddersfield 47 points

Birmingham 44 points

So compared with the last time I did this we climb one place to safety.

But in the run in, games against fellow strugglers and Rotherham are:

Millwall 3

Rovers 1

Plymouth 4

Stoke 3

QPR 3

Birmingham 3

Huddersfield 3

Sheffield Wednesday 3

And games against the 9 clubs in the play-off and promotion shake down (Preston upwards based on the game in hand)

Millwall 2

Rovers 5

Plymouth 2

Stoke 3

QPR 3 (last 3 games)

Sheffield Wednesday 3

Birmingham 3

Huddersfield 3

Sheffield Wednesday 2

Our next 4 games are

Ipswich h

Sunderland a

Southampton h

Bristol city a

We could easily lose all 4 in a good season. If we do that this season we will be looking at Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday at home and Leeds and Leicester away from a relegation place.

Realistically we need a win at either Bristol or Sunderland.

We certainly can go down this season.

Our run in looks the most challenging on paper.

That is different from expecting us to go down.

In the end,, we will be incredibly grateful for the much derided draws is my expectation.

22 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Rovers will be an attractive proposition to a potential buyer. I’ve always said it 

A relatively good ground. Chances of further investment with the Riverside. Great facilities and academy. Good history and a solid high level English football club

The whole “who will buy us” is based on this £20m a year Venkys are supposedly putting in. The more I think about it, the more I’m doubting that’s true. How can it still require that much give the downscale we’ve had? 

The market for football clubs below Premier League level has radically changed since I wrote there were unlikely to be buyers.

There are undoubtedly potential buyers out there willing to lose substantial sums.

6 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I would agree that Middlesbrough just shaded it but the highlights are misleading. There was an incident close to the end where, from a corner we probably had three shots in a matter of seconds. It wasn't shown on the EFL programme. It was a combination of poor connection with the ball and a couple of blocks which prevented us from taking the lead and probably winning.

We had 5 attempts in that melee.

All season we have been waiting for Ipswich to fall apart and it hasn't happened. They did have a wobble but Russell Martin in the Southampton dug out came true to form at the same time and nobody is taking much notice of the Leicester current form which is w1 d1 l3. Everyone is assuming Leicester have a cake walk to the title but the reality is any 2 from 4 for automatic promotion (Southampton have 2 games in hand on Ipswich) and as the fixture Gods would have it, we have to play all 4 in our last 8 games. So Ipswich are going to be good practice for Rovers attempt to save ourselves by puncturing others' automatic promotion dreams...

This in my view is Eustace first real game- the previous fixtures came so quickly in succession he could only do band aid jobs but now he has a 12 day period of player recuperation and intensive work with his coaches at Brockhall. The only downside is Sigurdsson and Szmodics will probably play twice internationally so the two most knackered looking members of the squad don't get a break.

That said, training ground and international injuries permitting, Rovers will have as close to a full squad to chose from as is normally possible at this time of the season- Barnes, Fleck and Leonard the only certain absentees from the senior group.

The match day squad will see three from yesterday dropping out with the inclusion of McFazdean, Carter and JRC. For once, the kit man won't have to include nappies for the bench in his dressing room supplies...

Ipswich can score from all over the pitch, have real dangers from the bench and have lost fewer games than anyone else in the Championship this season. Travis is only a bit part player for them so will be no loss being ineligible to play against us while Hirst is out with a hamstring injury which required surgery and unlikely to be ready by Good Friday.

This is a MUST WIN for them which means they will be attacking us from the get go backed by a vociferous following from Suffolk. Under JDT, these were the circumstances we tended to thrive under. We conceded early and often at Portman Road but still gave Ipswich a footballing lesson at times, pulled it back to 3-3 and were only undone by a late Pears flap.

At the very least, I am expecting Ipswich to know they have been in a game at Ewood and if Eustace gets us uncharacteristically willing to shoot on sight, we might avoid defeat.

The 5.30pm kick off means we will know how Millwall v West Brom, Huddersfield v Coventry, Norwich v Plymouth, QPR v Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday v Swansea have gone. In the worst case we will be worrying that a thrashing will drop us into the bottom three but hopefully it will be a free hit for getting further from trouble.