arbitro

£55.10 for me (with a senior railcard) and my 13 year old granddaughter which includes two day travel cards for any TfL journeys which is worth around £18. However this is from Crewe and on West Midlands trains as opposed to the ridiculously expensive Avanti.

There is so much snobbery now in football that managers like Eustace, Allardyce and Pulis wouldn't be popular with lots of fans because of their reputations for not playing the 'right way'. We had it here when we appointed Ince ahead of Allardyce and the story goes that lots of fans objected to the potential appointment of Allardyce. Lots of them changed their tune when he saved us from relegation (as he did at several other clubs) and had us tenth in the Premier League. And sacking him and appointing an upcoming young manager worked out well didn't it.

I thought he got slightly ahead of the ball. Yuki's ball across was excellent but Gueye got a bit excited and misread the weight of the pass for me.

Millwall are in a bit of turmoil right now. Their popular manager left on Saturday, they have an extensive injury list and their is growing disenchantment with their owners. We are in great shape and have a great record down there. Ordinarily these things would point to a Rovers win but this is the Championship. Complacency might be a problem for us but I think Eustace will have the players grounded for Saturday. It's simple for me - another clean sheet and I'm confident of another three points.

I have to question anybody's knowledge of football if they can't see what Tronstad brings to the team. He is fundamental to the way we play and his defensive diligence cannot be understated in the last five games when we haven't conceded a goal. Unless the poster is trying to wind others up.

Another professional performance today when, once again the whole was better than the sum of its parts. Getting the two goal cushion in the first half was great and gave Eustace an opportunity to sit in a bit deeper and play more on the break in the second half as Luton were always going to come out all guns blazing in the second half. It really pleased me that we didn't allow ourselves to be bullied by Luton which has happened too often against them in the recent past. Another pleasing aspect was that we didn't suffer from the changes made to the team which augers well for the future and gives us real competition for places. But to reiterate we have won six games back to back and the last five we have kept clean sheets. Clearly winning is the priority but I get massive satisfaction from the clean sheets. It's not going to last forever but I'm delighted right now with the players and staff.

It was summed up when Waggott did a pre season interview at the Academy when Tomasson was manager. He talked about survival in the Championship for the forthcoming season. He has blighted our club.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/december/13/rovers-stars-spread-christmas-cheer-/ Some excellent work here from Rovers staff and players.

That's fair enough but your earlier posts read like you were trying to justify it.

Some excellent photographs there Ian - they should really appeal to some of the older posters. Thanks for posting.

There have been some great pictures of Rovers supporters queuing outside Ewood (I'm sure it was a Sunday morning) for tickets for the cup match against City. I remember going down with some friends and thinking it would be great if most of these turned up for more home games. I also remember that Rovers put out a plea in the local media for people to go down and help clear the snow off the pitch. I think (although I can't be certain) that there were braziers around the pitch to try and thaw the frost which was well set into the pitch. A local referee came and said the pitch wasn't playable but by way of a thank you to the volunteers the first team had a training session on the pitch which we were allowed to watch. Being in such a big crowd at.Ewood of was exhilarating and Jim Fryatt's goal sparked wild scenes in the Blackburn End. Strangely one abiding memory I have is of one poor Rovers fan who had a heart attack and sadly died. I remember we had to pass the stretcher with his body on over our heads as we were packed into the corner of the Blackburn End (by the Riverside) like sardines in a tin.

It's irrelevant to the shop opening or closing who does the deliveries. Your assumption about numbers of staff picking orders might be right, we don't know but if there are two staff picking orders why not put them behind the counter and serve customers? They still have to heat the place and turn the lights on so there is no energy cost savings. As is usually the case it makes no sense apart from moving to an online ordering service and effectively closing the shop to the general public.

This online nonsense is more labour intensive for the staff. The order has to be received and printed off, picked manually by one of the staff and packaged to a good standard before being cranked ready for despatch. In my world this takes more time than someone walking into the shop, perusing and taking it to the counter to pay for it. There is one job for the shop staff to do when dealing with walk ins. And whilst in the shop the customer might buy something else too. It's a crazy business decision and I'm yet to see the logic behind it.

As with most of the recent games I never really felt under any undue pressure such is the new found resilience and once we scored I was confident of another win. I could copy and paste a lot of what I've been posting for the last few weeks as the performances have been so similar, it's a Rovers Groundhog Day at the moment. No outstanding performers once again but a team who graft, are brave and more importantly are together. This togetherness thing has been a Eustace mantra since he came and to be truthful I got a bit bored with him saying it last season because in quite a few games I didn't see too much evidence of it. Now I believe it's getting us through games. The four successive games we have not conceded in cannot be under estimated and clean sheets are the cornerstone of any successful football club, particularly the Championship. A special mention has to go to Gueye. He has had his critics (I have been one of them) but his smile last night was worth the admission money. It's clear to see what the other players think of him and if he is not careful he could be in danger of becoming a cult hero. Oh and that Tuesday night hoodoo has been smashed too. Right now I couldn't be more chuffed.

It does seem odd particularly that he will still be in charge for their next two games.

I was thinking that too Andy. The press release leaves lots of unanswered questions and there will inevitably be speculation. He is revered down there which adds to the mystery.

Lowe has been shunted to effectively become a scout. I saw him at Ewood the night before Plymouth away and asked him why he wasn't down there. He said he was going to Swansea the following day to do a report on them as we were playing them a week or two later. I understand he does that for every game but although he isn't involved with the team on match days he is still coaching during the week at Brockhall.

We really owe this lot. Aside from their win at Ewood when it was handed to them on a plate by our players (and their fans celebrating like they had won the Champions League) our awful run last season started at Hillsborough when we were in or around the play-off places. Again some poor defending helped them but the turning point was a blatant foul on James Hill not being given which immediately led to their second goal, just after we equalised and were getting on top. The awful run after this led to Tomasson leaving and another real low point in the Punekars tenure. So beating them will be sweeter with this in mind.

Ratcliffe is making a very basic error in trying to implement normal business practice in the world of football. He was involved as a venture capitalist buying several ailing businesses cheaply (the company I worked for was one of them), making radical changes and making profit before selling them on. It's almost the reverse of that at the Theatre of Dreamers. It's a strange relationship between him and his gang and the Glazers. According to this he owns 25% but controls the football side of things. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/13037428/manchester-united-sir-jim-ratcliffes-deal-with-the-glazers-explained-and-what-it-means-for-the-premier-league-club

It wasn't until we came out of the ground after the game that I realised how tough the conditions were. The wind was fierce, swirling and coupled with heavy rain it gave even more context to be delighted at the win. We have played worse and lost or drawn this season but in the final analysis success can sometimes be defined by days like this. Hull didn't really hurt us and their shots from distance were never going to trouble Pears. Aside from the free kick and a couple of blocked shots I wasn't really worried. Perhaps a big part of that belief is how we are defending right now. We look solid and exceptionally well organised right now and that pleases me so much. I didn't think we had any outstanding performers today but the majority of players would get a 7/10 from me. How pleasing too to see Lewis Travis celebrity the players after the match. No Christmas shopping for him, he wanted to support his teammates. I see Eustace talking about team spirit so often but the fact Travis was at Hull today gives me the distinct impression Eustace has built this in his time here. Whilst team spirit won't necessarily win games for it can go a long way to contributing to a win.

I absolutely agree but really we have got off quite lightly. There are three games to be played on Thursday 9th with Sheffield United v Cardiff and Everton v Peterborough included in them. The FA are supposed to be the guardians of the game in this country but have sold their souls to the devil for money. And that wouldn't be so bad if some of that money filtered down to grass roots football but I see no evidence of that. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/32170042/fa-cup-third-round-schedule-thursday/

I remember going to Hull for the rearranged game following the Boxing Day debacle. We were riding high and Hull were floundering but on the night they introduced their new owner to the crowd and that clearly gave them a lift. Predictably we lost (albeit there were a couple of highly questionable refereeing decisions) and only won another four games from then (19th Jan). Hopefully the introduction of a new manager tomorrow doesn't have the same effect. I would put Baker in for Travis as I believe he is the closest we have to Travis in terms of how we play. If Baker does start his lack of game time might hamper him later on so to have two good options on the bench is ideal. As with every away game I would keep us compact and tight out of possession and play on the counter when possible. It is certainly within us to go there and win tomorrow but the Championship doesn't work like that. I have faith in Eustace to come up with a game plan to get us a result.

I don't know of anybody else who wants one to be truthful. What is your minimum order quantity?

Tickets have gone on for the Boxing Day game against Sunderland and surprisingly it only Cat B. Sunderland have been allocated 7343 tickets. https://www.safc.com/news/2024/november/25/ticket-details-for-blackburn-rovers--a-/

There is and they are well represented at most London games. I'll be surprised is many more than 600 will travel down from our area though.