arbitro

When I got on the Football League referees list in 1995 an ex professional called Steve Baines got on at the same time. He still thought of himself as a player and was regularly criticised by managers for being too lenient with regard to fouls and misconduct but I take your wider point. Having played the game is definitely an advantage when taking up the whist but as a referee you still have a job to do and sometimes doing that job correctly still leads to criticism.

They are full time, professional referees. That isn't up for debate. As I said in my reply to you they are accountable but not in the way you implied they should be. They have a coach and manager they respond to. Their performances are scrutinised by impartial adjudicators and marked accordingly. A merit list is compiled from these marks and ultimately they can be removed if they are struggling over the course of a couple of seasons. Clubs also report on referees and are allowed to ask for feedback for any particular incident. I have always been an advocate of referees being more accessible to the press post match but the authorities flatly refuse. I can't answer your question on incompetence definitively. I thought the referee at Hull was poor too. On consistency we saw that on Monday at Ewood. The referee cautioned a Middlesbrough player after two minutes and that was his benchmark. All of his cautions were consistent and in my view the players knew exactly where they stood. Do you know for sure that referees are not 'suspended' after poor performances because I don't. I never study the appointments apart from looking who Rovers have got. But I had bad days at work and was never suspended, have you?

They are professional and accountable although it's not an accountability that I think you mean. I prefer the word transparency in the context I think you mean. Select Group One was formed in 2000 and with one exception they were all given contracts as full time employees of the newly former Professional Game Match Officials Ltd. This group operated primarily on the Premier League. Four of five seasons ago Select Group Two came into being and this group are effectively exclusive to the Championship. They also are full time employees of the PGMO. I was only speaking about this at the weekend to a friend still involved in full time refereeing and my gripe is that after two decades of full time referees is the standard any better than it was when refereeing was effectively part time. I believe it's worse now despite millions being thrown at it. I would use the same argument for Select Group Two. So where has it gone wrong is the real question. I don't think the quality has been coming through for a long time now. Too many referees are pretty much fast tracked through the system because they are young but, as has showed many times they can't operate on a big stage. Refereeing standards have always been a big debating point but I believe that the general standard in the Championship is the worst in my lifetime, even the time I had as an active official.

Excellent news on your Dad my friend. Hopefully the best tonic he will get is promotion.

I don't think we have ever had an offer for a player with six months left on his deal who can walk away for nothing. the two who were sold were still contracted to us. I was saying that who knows what the owners will do if they consider the reported £2m a good offer.

You sound so sure about that but I don't share your confidence.

Just imagine if we play Bournemouth in the Playoff Final and Rothwell scores the winner. Unthinkable to consider such lunacy but if, as somebody alluded to the owners make the ultimate decision who knows. Will their advisor sell it to them as some money now and nothing in the Summer or as a chance to get promoted. And therein lies the rub.

Whilst Travis isn't the most elegant of players he is almost Savagesque in his on field play. He is a ratter who closes players down without always making a challenge and often his off the ball work is as important as his work with the ball. I really like his shithousery though. Last night there was a break in play as Edun and Brown (I think) were having treatment. As is normal players came across for a drink and Travis took a bottle and walked fifteen yards on to the pitch with it. Just before the referee was about to start play he threw the bottle deliberately to land equidistant between where he was and the technical area. The referee was about to blow when Mowbray told the fourth official there was a bottle on the pitch. The fourth official, via the communications system told the referee to wait whilst he went to retrieve it. Travis's part was certainly gamesmanship but I don't think it was rehearsed for Mowbray to get involved.

Tonight reminded me why football and Rovers in particular have been a big part of my life. It was football as it should be played in my view. Two absolutely committed teams going hell for leather at each other, thunderous challenges and lots of yellow cards. Not too much of the tippy tappy possession based nonsense that bores me rigid. Row Z did us well tonight when we were under the cosh. This was Blackburn against Middlesbrough, two hard, industrial working class towns with lots of pride and the players and fans of both clubs did their towns proud tonight. If course winning is the icing on the cake but football was the winner tonight in my opinion. Hopefully our blip is over and we get back to a run of clean sheets. I couldn't pick an outstanding player tonight although some were marginally better than others.

That's quite sensible for a 12 year old 😂😂😂😂 I don't want to prolong this debate but from my perspective I have no faith in them going forward based on the last decade. I was wracking my brains earlier to think of one thing that they have done that has tangibly benefited the club. I can't think of one although I appreciate there are some fans who see things differently and credit them for something somewhere in their tenure. But ultimately it's watching and winning what the majority want I hope.

My reason was, as I said at the time was that I didn't believe they are interested nor could anybody influence change. I also said to you that if you do I will shake you warmly by the hand and say extremely well done, I was wrong. And in all honesty Nick I really hope I am wrong but nothing about them gives me any hope. Your second sentence is bang on.

It's your prerogative to vehemently disagree but the facts are there and nothing they have done recently gives me any confidence going forward despite our league position. Out of interest what are they doing in the here and now that brings any optimism?

It doesn't stop me forgetting two relegations, a host of con men made extremely rich, loss of thousands of fans, millions of pounds frittered away, lots of redundancies, local business incomes affected and many other things. And to remind you we were a terrifically well run club before they came. We quickly became the opposite. If they had kept a semblance of normality we could have maintained our PL status. And if we had that would have been around £1b into the club. Stupidity doesn't do it justice so I will focus on that for as long as they are here.

I think you've missed the point. They have already bought the shirt with Recoverite on it. The club are offering to put a Totally Wicked patch over the adults shirts but can't do that with kids shirts. So what is on offer for the kids shirts. Hope this helps.

I wasn't aware of that but my point was also that we are still advertising Recoverite? On a wider point what about anybody who has bought a kids shirt and doesn't want the previous sponsors name on it if they aren't allowed to have a Totally Wicked patch on their shirt. I haven't seen anything from the club which covers this.

I agree entirely. Stephens will be on a far bigger wage than Rothwell and even if he is prepared to take a drop it will still be significantly higher. It's about bringing some money in for Rothwell if this story has any legs. Please don't forget we are still owned by idiots.

Dack will be playing on Monday but for the under 23's at Leyland.

As Isp82 said it was 1-1 and on an adjacent pitch the under 16's won 3-1. Interestingly both teams still had Recoverite on their shirts with the 18's in red and black and the 16's in blue and white.

They simply wanted justice and it's a huge credit to them that they persevered despite the Government, South Yorkshire Police, West Midlands Police and the S** lying. And their perseverance paid off as they exposed the lies. I have huge admiration for them all.

Was it you who had a reservation for your family? I actually mentioned to Waggott that somebody posted on BRFCS that the postponement was too late to cancel a hotel reservation for himself and his family.

We actually chatted about the three big decisions and it's probably the first time I've been in agreement with him. 😆😆 He was actually keen to seek my views as he is aware of my background and also the refereeing standards in general.

I have an update on the postponed game for anybody that is interested. After several emails to the EFL in which they refused to answer my questions they suggested I write to Rovers as they clearly weren't interested. I wrote to Lynsey Talbot who wrote back and said she had forwarded it to the Head of Communications. Within an hour I got a reply from the recently appointed Commercial Manager. To say I was disappointed with his response is an understatement so I wrote again telling him so. Several days later I hadn't had the courtesy of a reply so I wrote directly to Steve Waggott and included the communications I have had with the EFL and Rovers. I sent that email at 11.20 today and got a call from him at 13.45. The gist of the conversation was that there is an on going investigation with the EFL which has now got as far as their Legal Department who are now involved. He said he will keep us updated as and when there is some news. What he did say was that the game wasn't officially called off until 13.45 and his questions he wants answering are essentially the ones I have asked. These are: What time were the Hull players tested? What time the EFL were informed of the results? What time the game was called off?

Definitely Swansea John. I'm guessing the silly o'clock kick off is behind the request for a smaller allocation. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/january/19/ticket-news--swansea-city-v-rovers/

Well it was good while it lasted. I'm talking about Mowbray who dispensed with what has been a trusted system recently to put his square pegs in round holes. Buckley a defensive midfielder - do me a favour. With Travis being out the obvious replacements were Johnson or Davenport. And if anybody can tell me what the formation was after the triple substitution you are a better man than me. Mowbray really pulled a couple from left field with those. It was like last season again when we regularly changed several players at once and confused the life out of everyone Those weren't the only reasons we lost the game though. Frankly we were shite from one to eleven and not one player comes out with any credit. Tonight could be a watershed in our season.

We only have an allocation of 1,034 tickets.