philipl

Luton v Dingles on Tuesday. Time for a TK blinder of a game.

Burnley are totally unrecognisable from the squad that came up with 15 new signings. I am far from convinced this lot are any better than last season's. Sheffield United had serious debts hanging over them which is presumably where 50m+ of the money has gone. Net spend of 20m and losing their best players is suicide. Luton Town's major objective is to use the PL money to build a new stadium. So the same three coming down as went up is more than possible and I don't think it necessarily reflects that badly on the Championship in the circumstances.

I appreciate you are going to have to watch from the grassy bank behind the Riverside but those of us with a Rovers TV subscription will be using telekinesis in the absence of TV and Radio.. Gee thanks Swag. This is a different proposition from what it appeared when drawn just after we had scored 8 with one shot against. Remember those days? Cardiff late late show at Sunderland means they travel to Ewood with 3 wins on the run. I expect we will see Wahlstedt JRC Hall S Wharton Batty Tronstad Garrett Markanday Gilsenan Dolan Lucky dip consolation prize winner Most important for me- apart from penalties preparation- is that Wahlstedt unambiguously states his claim for a start against Leicester. COYB.

Yes both of you are correct. He went to Arsenal in '79.

Back to that previous 4-3 defeat at Ipswich. Garner scored twice roasting their defence to put us 0-2 at half time. They got back to 2-2, we went 2-3 then ended 4-3 to them Muhren scored early second half before going off injured. John Wark got a brace- the second a tremendous drive from the edge of the area into the top right corner. Paul Mariner the winner in the 85th minute cutting in from their left.

Incidentally same 4-3 defeat scoreline as in the League Cup in the '80s when Ipswich were a top First Division side. A full strength Ipswich couldn't cope with Simon Garner that night who tore the then England central defence of Butcher and Osman to shreds and beat Cooper in the Ipswich goal twice, struck for a third and rolled the rebound off Cooper for Windy Miller to score into an empty net. Pretty certain Colin Talbot was playing for Ipswich that night but Arnold Muhren might not have been. Paul Mariner got the winner against a tiring Rovers late on.

I will repeat my post Plymouth comment. If Wahlstedt isn't better than Pears we have a serious problem. First time we have spent a half getting beaten by a better team but what a come back only to be undone by (another) keeping misjudgement. Sigurddson looks a talent. Lest we forget, Dolan failed to score when clean through on the keeper Again And Travis had a clear shooting chance on the edge of the area and passed sideways Again. Both at 3-3...

I fell asleep early in the second half of that Man U game. £110m spent on a sleeping tablet.

I will stick it here. Arteta has decided Raya is his first choice 'keeper.

Crazy having the same ko times

Unlucky with kissing the post on the wrong side last night.

No idea who will be selected but for all their good start and cohesion, I am not expecting Ipswich to knock us out of playing JDT ball. Then it will be a matter of whether the lucky dip gives a goal or two when the inevitable chances are created.

That Leicester win at Norwich looks very ominous.

The $64k question. We can't continue failing to score such easy chances or can we? Even with the current injury situation.

From what I have seen so far, the Leeds attack could do serious damage now 40m Rutter is at his level while Leicester are the only set-up who might run away with it. If Southampton changed their Manager and defence in January, they would have a very strong second half to the season. Hopefully not. Hull play decent football as we have seen at Ewood while Birmingham have impressed with their play if not their results. Sticking my neck out but I haven't seen any other Championship outfit play the way JDT is setting up Rovers. We are exceptional at missing easy chances... (even if we have netted 20 in 8 games this season)

Until the Southampton and ten man QPR games, Sunderland results were nothing to write home about. Hoping for the win but no idea what JDT will do with the front line nor what the result will be. Should be a cracker of a game though. Swag's woven grass pitch is supposed to drain better and be far more resilient in heavy rain than conventional pitches so I would beyond stunned if there is a serious doubt about the game going ahead. Would probably need the Swag bus doing hand-break turns at Ewood to get it postponed.

Ipswich did absolutely nothing to win that game as Southampton gift wrapped the 3 points for them. Southampton offered no sustained pressure in the second half and a better team than Ipswich would have murdered them - like Sunderland did. Southampton giving the ball away and playing into trouble caught the eye but Ipswich are a bit sloppy as well. What needs to be noted is Ipswich are a team of giants.

Watching Southampton v Ipswich. Ipswich should be at least 3 ahead on Southampton gifts (Hirst badly missed one). My worry about this one is it has less venom that a walking football pre-season friendly. I fancy our Sunderland game will be a full bloodied affair yet Ipswich not only have an extra day's recovery, I doubt there is so much as a bruise or a graze on their players at half time and nobody will be anywhere near being out of breath. For a so-called passing team, Southampton are statues making it easy for Ipswich to pick up the mistakes off the player on the ball. Southampton being so woeful makes it difficult to assess Ipswich but I have seen nothing to worry or scare us.

The answers to the ? are the litmus test of the skills of Gregg Broughton and team and of JDT. PLUS of the 7 individuals to work hard building physical strength and adapting to JDT ball and Championship opposition. I think both Moran and Telalovic were a bit shell shocked from fleeting Rovers TV glimpses of them at the end. Compared with the other 5, Tronstad and Sigurddson have regular football at higher levels behind them but the Championship poses its own challenges. If we get all 7 up to standard, it's going to be a very competitive squad.

If Swag policy is to alienate the fans, he couldn't be doing a better job. If he is sending a visual and aural message to Pune, he couldn't be doing a better job. If he is undermining his own position with the two sets of people he depends on, he couldn't be doing a better job.

Burnley v Man U on Saturday. Shame both can't lose.

Will we be over 20,000 on Wednesday night? Only 15 years ago we would goa complete season without a league crowd of under 20,000

Watched extended highlights of the last two Sunderland games and they come to Ewood on a 4 game unbeaten run. They will be the best side we have played to date this season. Players are above average for the Championship and their two new central defenders could turn out to be a bit special. They punish weaknesses. A Russell Martin defence and 70 minutes of 10 man QPR had 8 put past them combined. So long as we cut out the errors and misses which have cost us dropped points, JDT ball should prevail. They look vulnerable to recycling attacks. We will be a bit different from what they have faced so far.

Just reflecting and we haven't yet played any team that was better than us and all the points dropped have been self-inflicted. If I can repeat this refrain after the QPR game before the next international break, we might be on to something this season irrespective of shopping in the remnants bin...