arbitro

The under 21's are playing Nottingham Forest tonight at Leyland and the under 18's are playing Leeds tomorrow at Brockhall. It will be interesting to see who is picked to play tonight as quite a few of the under 18's have stepped up recently. Hopefully Hayden Carter and Yuki Ohashi get some game time tonight along with some of the bench warmers from recent games as we can play up to five over age players.

I have it recorded so will have a watch later. I'll take particular interest in the player you mention 😁

It only needs three or four not be at it to have a marked effect on the whole team. The lethargy amongst some players was clear yesterday and after the last two performances was really baffling.

It's almost like watching two separate sports now with how the modern game has evolved. There are some aspects I wish we could go back to such as allowing a higher degree of contact. I do wonder where the game will be in another couple of decades.

Everything the players have been rightly praised for in the last two games was undone in the worst performance of the season today. Devoid of energy, low intensity, slow, insipid and lacking in fight were the main characteristics today for me. What really battles me is that last week was the first time for a while were we haven't had a midweek game so at the very least I expected some intensity in our game. We offered nothing. Too many players looked off the pace today and coupled with the basic errors we made the result was going to be a foregone conclusion. In fact I thought if Swansea kept at it they could have hammered us. There just wasn't anything positive about today and the inconsistency from game to game is really going to cost us I believe. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but my personal play off dreams have been shattered today after seeing the ineptitude and the almost polar opposite performances to the last two games. After the Eustace saga and two subsequent wins today really was a case of After the Lord Mayor's Show.

And the look of the devil too.

Swing Lowe......

Or "absolutely Mr Karaka we will accede to you request to meet near Heathrow at a time to coincide with your flight arrival from Spain." 😂 Start as you mean to go on 😉

I think the Mohammed should come to the mountain. 😂 Personally I would give them a time slot for an interview somewhere local. If they don't want to or are making excuses then scrub them off the list.

Why on earth are we interviewing candidates in London? I assume the three stooges are staying down there in some salubrious hotel, eating fine food and drinking all at the club's expense when we haven't got a pot to pee in. If any of the candidates are that keen they could have travelled to Brockhall or somewhere local.

That would be a real worry for me. As a squad it is generally considered that we are punching above our weight. One of the deal strengths of Eustace was how he handled the players as evidenced by the number of them who publicly praised him. His man management was clearly a big factor which everyone seemed to buy into. A hard line approach with an air of arrogance I believe would be counter productive.

Rovers youngsters lost 2-1 today with the winning goal coming late on. We didn't play particularly well but probably did enough to send the game into a penalty shoot out. The pitch didn't help either team. It was like concrete and with a strong wind it made it really difficult putting the right weight on passes and reading the flight of the ball. After going behind to a sloppy goal we got back into the match through a good Hayden Carter header from a corner, probably the only decent set piece we played all afternoon. The winner from Bolton came about as Pratt switched off and thought the ball was going out of play but credit to the Bolton player who didn't give up on it and created the winner. Overall it was a disappointing display with too many players not getting anywhere near their full capabilities.

Leeds have been really predictable so far and play far too slowly. Sunderland are in the box seat at half time.

Harvey Higgins is in year 11 at a local school.

It could be, who knows. I do know that he has turned down two Championship jobs because he wanted to get back into the Premier League.

My friend said Steve Cooper who it seems would be a popular appointment here. Personally I don't think he will go to Middlesbrough. He wants to get back into management but it has to be right for him.

Winning back to back games has really eased the pressure on the Ewood cohort to make an appointment. If we win at Swansea with Lowe in charge I just get a feeling they might go with him (if he wants it) for the rest of the season. And an important factor to them might just be that he comes on the cheap.

Personally I wouldn't take him. He does seem to have a propensity for Rovers like death spirals but in general he has been well backed by Gibson and ultimately come up short.

He definitely is but it has to be the right job.

I got a call from a friend who is well connected at Middlesbrough and he said they are expecting an announcement today that he Carrick is gone. His replacement has been lined up and is the one who I think the majority of us would favour as our manager.

I think the style that Martin had has been diluted by Williams although I have seen them concede some poor goals this season from over playing. One of the biggest factors for them was losing Matty Crimes who really made them tick. Since he left they have won once and lost three and out of the last six games only won one.

Tail not tale 😂😂

That's a bit of a tall tail. 😃

It would be like swapping Gonorhea for Syphilis. 😂😂

Playing Forshaw might just have been a masterstroke from Lowe yesterday. Whilst Buckley has done well starting Forshaw against a team who effectively tore his contract up a month ago would have been motivational I think. The simplicity of his game was a feature of the win for me yesterday and his goal the icing on his (and our) cake. If Lowe is still in charge next Saturday he certainly has selection problems (of the right kind of course).