It isn't always played there though. I have refereed several of these over the years at Preston, Blackpool and Burnley.

He still lives in Whalley and intends to do so for the foreseeable future. He will go out to Sweden as and when required and will watch the Swedish players dotted around Europe when he needs to. As someone said his son is an Academy player and I've been told he is waiting to find out if he has earned a scholarship. I'm not totally sure but he might have another son at school nearby.

Praising Eustace for something like that whilst criticising Tomasson for not doing it is beating him with a stick however you dress it up. I find it strange that you use such an example against somebody you clearly held in high esteem and effectively demeaning him to justify your praise of a manager who hasn't won a match yet. And throw into the mix we blew a two goal lead at Preston which balances out your praise of coming back to draw.

Wow that didn't take long. You hardly ever said a word against Tomasson (and defended him to the hilt) and are now using the fact we have come from behind to draw twice at home as a stick to beat him with. And for the record we came from behind to draw against Luton last season.

Eat your hearts out Pickering and Ayari.

The pitch is looking better than it has for years and after tomorrow there isn't a match on it until March 24th. I don't know for sure but I don't think we will need to pay anything to Lancs FA as it's their competition. I know for certain that we were paying £2k for each match we played there.

For anybody who is free on Tuesday night I can recommend an evening in Leyland watching our under 18's in the LFA Professional Youth Cup final. It would have been much better had it been at Ewood or the Breezeblock but nonetheless it's chance to see us win a trophy.

4-1 now. After a shocking first half for West Brom nobody would have seen this coming. The bonus for us is that every goal against damages Huddersfield's goal difference.

I can't remember the exact number but we only gave away a ridiculously low amount of fouls, four comes to mind. Gary Neville couldn't believe that a club and players fighting for their futures and getting run ragged were so tame.

Chalk and cheese springs to mind. A manager earning his money at half time - who would've thought it.

Huddersfield have just gone one up against West Brom. Right now they level on points with us (there are four teams now on 41 points).

Whilst P&S doesn't apply to League One clubs they have a scheme called Salary Cost Management Protocol which reads like a salary cap. What isn't clear is if there is a transitional period for relegated clubs. What is Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP)? Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) is the Financial Fair Play rules for all League One and League Two Clubs. The SCMP requirement is whereby a Club’s Player-Related Expenditure shall not exceed the sum of 60% or 50% of the Club’s Relevant Turnover for League One and League Two Clubs respectively. The Reporting Period in respect of which a Club is assessed for the purpose of the SCMP Requirement is the 12 month period recorded in the Club’s Annual Accounts. The full SCMP regulations can be found here

With relegation arguably a realistic proposition I did a bit of digging and come up with some numbers. These are taken from an article in the Athletic from October last year. Currently Championship clubs get £5.19m in solidarity payments and £3.92m from the EFL. This is over £9m as a Championship club. As a League One club it drops to £780k and £950k for both payments leaving a difference of over £7m. Factor in less season and match day tickets, less income from away supporters at Ewood, less commercial and hospitality income and it could leave a £10m hole. A relegation would be catastrophic and in my view inevitably lead to administration. I really don't know if the people running the club have weighed up the implications. I would like this to be asked at the next Fans Forum and for Waggott to be put on the spot and interrogated as to how we could carry on. https://theathletic.com/4957498/2023/10/16/epl-efl-explained-deal-english-football/

This one seems appropriate today.

I genuinely wished that I shared your optimism and sincerely hope you are right. As I said the last three games have done it for me and I don't see and light at the end of the tunnel.

Carter is by far the biggest miss of the injured players. His pace would have certainly been beneficial yesterday as Plymouth targeted and exploited our sloth like centre halves. I spoke to him outside Deepdale and he said his hamstring had torn and it was a minimum six weeks. I suggested that was his season done and he nodded in agreement.

Of course anything can happen and there 27 points still to play for but right now we are in a rut with so many players lacking confidence and a seemingly one dimensional approach. After the Newcastle match I thought we'd turned a corner and confidence would return. But since then, except for the Swansea second half we have been awful and garnered two points from three winnable games. Looking at the last nine games I honestly don't see more than six points. On paper there might be a few worse teams but I see in them some fight, desire and determination. I simply don't see that in us. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but out of interest where do you think we'll get the points from to stay up?

I don't disagree but he signed a two and a half year contract and I don't believe we can afford to get rid of him or his staff. I think even if we are relegated he will be here next season.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/march/09/red-card-changed-the-game/ We actually predicted that his excuse would be the sending off. He mustn't have been facing the pitch much in the first half as they got in behind us several times. He chose not to change anything at half time so this is entirely on him.

Three games ago I was quite comfortable that we wouldn't to down. That doubt dissipated somewhat after Swansea but after Tuesday and today I'm convinced we will be relegated. The first ten minutes aside Plymouth were streets ahead of us and if I was a fan of theirs I would have been disappointed not to win and win by three or four goals. We started well, scored and Sigurdsson misses an easy chance and for some unfathomable reason the game changed. We must have the slowest three centre halves in living memory so to play a high line against a pacy young team was footballing suicide. Time and time again they got in from either a simple ball over the top, down the sides or in behind. So we get through to half time and expect changes particularly when we see Hedges doing a strenuous warm up at half time. But no, our tactically astute manager doesn't see it the same way as us and that we are once again being overrun in midfield. The second half starts in exactly the same vein and lo and behold a ball over the top of our high line catches us out and McFadzean is off. I honestly don't think that anybody with half a brain cell thought at that point we could win. Then a couple of baffling changes which hindered us even more handed a bigger advantage to Plymouth whose changes we really positive. The inevitable happened and once again was a calamity of errors. I really thought Plymouth would go on to win from there and once again bad finishing and luck saved us. Two players worthy of mention were Szmodics and Ayari. The rest were pretty useless but the biggest criticism from me is for Eustace. I know it's only early in his time here but the omens aren't good, in fact they are poor. He doesn't appear to have and tactical nous or has the ability to change anything. His one dimensional approach is alarming and his touchline demeanour doesn't inspire me. Still he might be happy tonight as, according to him today wasn't a must win game. I'm struggling to get angry right now and my acceptance is almost a fait accompli after the last thirteen years. My disgust is for the owners and their munchkins at Ewood. Hopefully something happens on Tuesday in a court on another continent that hastens their departure. On the bus home me and my granddaughter looked at the likely line up of League One next season and have already planned some trips.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68521098 He made his debut for Chile two years ago and has lived in Spain for six months but still hasn't got the right level of linguistic skills to satisfy the Chilean manager.

Arsenal and Spurs have announced 10 and 6% price hikes in season tickets for 24-25. However Spurs are doing away with their senior season tickets for any fans reaching 65 after that. There is a great quote in the article that says 'Football has a spending oroblem, not an income problem'. https://thefsa.org.uk/news/spurs-and-arsenal-ticket-price-hikes-fan-groups-hit-back/

Rotherham have terminated Daniel Ayala's contract. He has played seven games and was sent off twice.

I'd like to think that his 'not a must win' comment is designed to try and take the pressure off the players. If it isn't then Eustace is really was dull as he sounds.

His formations have always been the same except for Swansea when we played a back four for the second half. I guess this was driven by the fact we were two down. Ironically I think that half was as good as we've been under him. He reverted to his favoured system on Tuesday. If you are saying he has played at least three formations so far which games were they in and what was the system.