arbitro

What about a neutral who has paid to watch live games but two are on simultaneously? Advertising a minimum of 215 live matches but you can't watch them all because some are televised at the same time. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/13019562/sky-sports-to-show-215-premier-league-games-a-season-from-2025-26

If I remember correctly one of the games that were shown simultaneously in recent times was on the red button. Yesterday there were two full teams of outside broadcast crew, producers and all the other associated staff plus two commentators, co commentators and studio experts. No wonder Sky subscriptions are going up.

Yesterday and for the next few weeks Sky are simultaneously showing two Premier League matches at 2 pm on Sunday afternoons. I haven't looked further afield but I did wonder when, all summer they have boasted about covering more games when they would be shown. Similarly on Friday evening they are showing a Premier League and Championship game at the same time. It appears that boast was misleading unless some have the capability to watch two games at once.

The Brentford owner will be pointing soon - to the exit door. 😂

Keith Andrews Brentford are three down at half time against Forest. It seemed a really strange appointment and although it's early days it could backfire massively.

With an under 21 game tomorrow I would like to see some of the fringe players or the ones that need game time playing some part. However based on previous managers I don't expect it to happen.

I saw a comment yesterday about the team news being out early. I spoke to a friend and he told me that from this season the exchange of team sheets has changed to one and a quarter hours before kick off.

I agree completely but would add that I thought Tavares was decent yesterday.

I would have gone and I guess many others too but the 1 pm put me off. Lots of supporters have their own pre match routine and I guess getting to the ground two hours before kick off isn't included.

I noticed Alebiosu was on the pitch at full time which was a good sign. I saw they sent the spinal board with the neck brace back so hopefully the injury isn't too serious. In the two league games so far I like the look of him.

Good point. In truth Birminghams substitutes were more impactful than ours. As for being tired I agree but I would argue that several of their players looked like they too were fatigued. It was a high energy game on a hot day and we have a couple of players still off the pace in terms of general fitness.

Going to West Brom last week we spoke about the lack of creativity and as a consequence the lack of goals in the squad. And in the three games so far it is glaringly obvious that this is an area which will see us at best in mid table. I have been reasonably content with us defensively in the two league games so far. Yesterday we started the game well and it looked like the plan was to out number Birmingham in midfield with Ohashi and Cantwell playing quite deep when Birmingham had the ball. This slowed down the intensity they like to play at. Cantwell's goal was excellent, a skill which not many other Championship players could execute. We knew that soon after going ahead Ismael would go to a five at the back and play on the break. Some poor defending allowed Laird to beat three of our players and win a penalty. I haven't seen it back yet but from my seat in the JW Upper it looked so similar to the challenge on Ohashi last week when we didn't get a penalty. Toth guessed the right way but was beaten by the well struck shot. The winning goal was calamitous from our point of view. There were so many things wrong with it I don't know where to start but sometimes players have to take responsibilities. It's not like we were chasing the game or anything. My point about responsibility was hit home earlier when we had a throw in over by the Riverside. Despite the prodigious throw of Miller (which he did use most of the time) Tronstad went over for a short one perhaps I thought to pull a player out. Miller actually gave it him and then tried to dribble last an opponent and was extremely lucky to get another throw in. Silly in game decisions are sometimes on the players. Overall I thought we were worth a draw and the players worked really hard as they did at West Brom. But hard work, whilst being an assett will not win games on its own. We need some quality and that comes at a price. Over to you Venky's..................

Cantwell skippers the team.

Hyam looking fit and ready to play to squash the conspiracy theory that he was injured.

To be fair Duru was at Barrow then injured after Ismael came in February. I think he was still doing some rehab for the early part of pre season. In my opinion Duru is an infinitely better right back than Montgomery.

Hopefully he is.

Harvey Higgins isn't involved.

I was looking for a game to go to next Tuesday and saw Southport are playing Macclesfield so decided to get a ticket. Out of curiosity I had a quick look at the Southport squad and saw a number of ex Rovers. Their manager is Neil Danns and amongst their squad they have Dan Pike, Jordan Slew and Paul Murphy-Worrell.

With so many variables that could affect a result I never really do predictions but I'm quite fearful for today's game. On the evidence of our first two games and based on what Gestede and Ismael said I was expecting a high tempo pressing game but I haven't seen much evidence of that. In truth at times we have looked far too ponderous in possession and the lack of forward movement alarming. In fact the slow starts in both games have been almost the opposite of what they promised. After going behind in those games we did increase our intensity but we created very little, something of a recurring theme under Ismael. He is going to have to earn his wages today for sure and come up with a game plan to hinder Birmingham's intensity. Compare that to the start Birmingham have made in both of their games. High intensity, high energy and pressing all over the pitch. They will surely fly out of the traps and try to exploit our propensity to start slowly. With that in mind we have to score first if we are going to win and at least give us something to defend.

I get he did an Irish jig. 😂

Thanks for taking the fight to them Kenny and on a personal note thanks for asking questions on my behalf. I fully understand your rationale and doing what your conscience and heart tell you.

I'm not unduly concerned about replacing Travis as a player but his presence as a captain and leader will be sorely missed. Quite simply I can't see anyone (maybe over time Miller) from the current squad who will be able to replace him in that respect. It sounds like he wants to go and has made it public but this has been coming for some time now so it doesn't surprise me. It boils down to the awful management and poor handling of players new deals and our anger should be directed towards those people.

On Saturday and again last night we started really slowly. I don't know if it's a mindset but it's going to cost us dearly if we don't correct it. We have been outdone by the tempo management of both West Brom and Bradford. Having seen Birmingham on Friday their main asset was the intensity in which they played. If we don't at the very least match that from the first whistle it will be a long afternoon.

The last I heard was that the trial evenings they had recently for recruitment of new players were a disaster with very few potential players turning up. The season kicks off for them this Sunday.

Last night was disappointing from Ismael. I really thought we should have made changes at half time (despite scoring just before) along with a change of shape. I felt we should have gone to a back three and got our wing backs really pushing forward as we just didn't hurt them from wide positions. Pickering and Montgomery hardly got forward at all. The disappointment for me was that Ismael didn't do anything and when he did later on we looked all over the place with too many square pegs in round holes. Last season when we went a goal in front his changes invariably were to make us more solid defensively to hold on for the win. Going behind presents him with a situation I really think he struggles with. At 2-0 down yesterday he was bringing everyone back for Bradford's corners and set pieces. I found that infuriating but in fairness the last four Rovers managers have done this. It's almost like he is conditioned and finds a reluctance to do something different during the actual game.