I mentioned that at the end yesterday. He was hurting - the rest of them looked like they wanted to get back to their designer wash have and coming over to the fans was an inconvenience.

I praised Hyam last week but yesterday him and Ayala were fine exponents of walking football. At times it was embarrassing as they played their own little passing game between themselves.

And they spell Lowe as Low (unless they are referring to the bar set by Swag and his cohorts).

I looked at half time and we hadn't even fouled an opponent and I mentioned this to several people who were aghast. I always found as a referee that when a team is losing, not playing well and being out fought I needed to heighten my awareness because invariably the players would be angth and want to kick their opponents. Our lot just melted and to me it speaks volumes about the players and management. I remember the infamous Spurs game under Kean when we committed an extremely low number of fouls and Gary Neville couldn't believe it.

Five of our last seven games league games have been 12 or 12.30 kick off times and the four defeats we have suffered in these five games have been riddled with lethargy, ineptitude and a general lack of intensity which in turn resulted in defeats, some embarrassingly so. I honestly don't know what to read into this but surely it's more than coincidence when the commonality of the defeats appears in them all.

Aside from the elementary getting out fought yesterday how many crosses did we put in that were over hit? I don't expect us to score from every cross but yesterday the lack of quality in such a basic part of the game was worrying. I'm still angry about the lack of fight which says a lot about the lack of character in the squad. Too many shoulder shruggers to whom losing doesn't hurt enough. By the way Rotherham had two debutants in their defence yesterday. They didn't give us a sniff and will now give Rotherham a good chance of staying up. That's what new signings can do, they give the club a fillip and give us some encouragement. But we will prevaricate until the very last day of the window and then bring in some cross that nobody else wants. But never mind we are only at the beginning of the project so let's not be too dissenting 😠😠

This project talk is nonsense, it's like all of a sudden football has become an exact science and the likes of Phillips and Wharton will fulfil their potential, be sold for zillions and fund our promotion to the Premier League. What if they crash and burn (as has happened many times before)? Do we wait for the next cab off the Academy rank and pin our hopes on him? Football is riddled with far too many variables and you simply cannot apply normal business practices to it, it simply won't work. It's about the here and now, Rotherham today and Brstol next week. This project nonsense used as an excuse for a shocking defeat and performance today by some. Win games, get points and get promoted. This mealy mouthed bullshit from Tomasson and Broughton is driving me to despair.

I'd read him comments but I meant he should, in my opinion have come towards the supporters in some apologetic gesture. The players did and I would have liked some acknowledgement of it from him rather than an interview in an empty stadium. I really do think he has a massive ego with arrogance to match.

Fuck me Remy we've sold this project to these mugs, another three years of this lark.

That would make a great caption competition.

There were boos from the one that were left. I spoke to a few long standing supporters coming out who were critical of the style of play he is imposing on us. Tomasson shook hands with his Rotherham counterpart and promptly disappeared down the tunnel with not even a glance towards the fans he wants to apologise to.

I can lose graciously, I really can but what I can't accept is the other team wanting it more than my team. One of the most important aspects in professional sport is competing, not allowing your opponent any advantage by simply being aggressive in and out of possession. Not for the first time this season we were found wanting in the arm wrestle with opponents who, in truth are a team of journeymen. I looked at the half time stats and we didn't even commit a foul, not one. In fact aside from young Garratt I can't recall a challenge of note in the whole game. The inane passing was back with a bang as our 474 passes contained 297 in our own half. But never mind we had over 77% possession so the purists can defend a gutless, spineless, lily livered performance from our team by pointing to that. In every defeat this season we have deserved to lose as Tomasson just doesn't seem to have a plan when the opponents are putting us on the back foot by pressing high up the pitch. Still only another three summer transfer windows to come up with a solution as we grow weary of his one dimensional style of playing. My nephew sent me a text saying Tomasson was caught laughing in the technical area when we were two down. Was there some context to this? And to cap an awful day some of the morons who purport to follow Rovers were out in force embarrassing themselves and the club.

Before the cup game at Norwich I would have agreed but I saw a couple of occasions there where he moved forward into midfield with the ball, something he hadn't done before. Pretty much everything he does is safe, understandable given his age and position he plays.

That would make sense as Sky have an SPL game at that time but they don't seem to bother about EFL and SPL games clashing.

And the real irony if that did happen would be that both us and Wigan wouldn't be playing on Saturday 4th.

Good point. The same applies with Wigan who have a home tie with Grimsby should they beat Luton in their third round replay.

It's not just about the football. Planning for a game with potentially a couple of thousand Brummies doesn't happen overnight. Police, stewards, catering etc has to be planned in advance. If it's Forest Green with a few hundred that will make a difference to the planning. Either teams supporters intending to travel won't be able to buy tickets until a few days before the game.

The potential cup replay would take priority over a league game.

I noticed that the Forest Green v Birmingham game isn't being played until Tuesday 17th January with a potential replay not being until 24th or 25th which means that potentially we won't know who we playing until a few days before. And looking further ahead the fifth round is scheduled for a midweek.

Another good effort by the fans. In fairness Rotherham are sensible with their pricing which encourages more to travel.

Waggott has essentially confirmed what many have been saying about season ticket sales and his reluctance to offer cheaper deals. He said he has to meet the budgets set by the owners and stated that although Preston sold more season tickets than us he wasn't sure if they brought in as much money as us. In other words he is screwing and abusing the loyalty of our hard core of support and can't be arsed trying to sell more using different initiatives. He also pretty much said the Dingles would get a full allocation for the game in March. The sooner this bloke leaves our club the better.

No complaints on the night as the under 21's were well beaten by a superior Valencia team. The Spaniards could have been three up early on as a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping kept the score to one. Rovers rallied a bit towards half time and created a couple of chances as we counter attacked quickly. The second half saw Valencia comfortably defend their lead and double it towards the end. In fairness it was an extremely young Rovers team with only James Brown having any first team (one game) experience.

The eagerly awaited third series of Happy Valley started on New Years Day and so far it hasn't disappointed. The acting and writing is as good as it gets but sadly the excellent Sarah Lancashire has already said this is her last series. Without her it wouldn't be the same.

I keep seeing FFP mentioned as a reason we can't sign players. Does it mean Fuckwits From Pune?

If that's true then hopefully they play him on Saturday. Job done 😂😂