Some weird officiating today in the Spurs game. Thought the original decision of a yellow for Robertson was correct. Kane's challenge was way worse imo and merited a red. Not sure how the Dele Ali incident wasn't a penalty either. He went over easily but the defender had no chance whatsoever of getting the ball and pushed Ali full square in the back with the intention of fouling him or putting him off.

Completely agree, these sort of comments are absolutely disgraceful from Mowbray - just at a time when if it wasn't for nonsense like this you might be able to warm to him a little due to the improved performances and results. He should be saying something like: "Whilst I don't know at this stage whether I'll be here beyond the end of the season, I'll be moving heaven and earth to gain promotion and to that end we have a very talented bunch of young players with a terrific attitude. For me under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to leave in January and break this squad up but unfortunately it isn't my decision to make". That then puts the ball right back into Venky's Court and places pressure on them to add to the squad rather than break it up. I wonder if he would be a bit more enthusiastic and a little less defeatist if his contract wasn't up at the end of the season? Not saying he should get a new deal mind.

I thought Butterworth looked absolutely sensational yesterday, hope his injury isn't too serious. How good would he be with regular game time? Potentially a ready made Rothwell replacement from within the ranks and in the short term would be a cracking impact sub for the remainder of this season in that sort of form.

Thought Nyambe was absolutely exceptional yesterday, for me he'd be the most difficult of the 3 to replace within our budget with the same quality. Surely there must be some good news due soon with at least a couple of them? Yesterday's performance result and League position shows it would be absolute lunacy to consider letting anyone go in January.

What a great win. What a ball from Wharton to Nyambe for the first. Well done to everyone who refused to be beaten by the virus and risked their Christmas plans to turn out and support the team. Heroes all.

Their decision then as to whether they definitely want to miss today's game as opposed to running a risk of possibly having to scrap Christmas plans because of a virus that theoretically they are vaccinated against. I really don't know why you felt the need to comment on it but I hope that you are not too unwell as a result of testing positive. On the bright side it's not something you will have to be worried about, will I won't I catch it, once your period of self isolation ends.

You may think the slogan is stupid, but it's nonetheless true, hiding away again at any point isn't going to bring any of those people back. The only way they wouldn't have died is if the virus hadn't existed in the first place. Unfortunately the virus did come into existence and you have to deal with the reality of the situation as it is now as best you can. Not on a theoretical basis that you wish the virus had never happened and become all offended by a quite innocent turn of phrase with no offence intended.

I respect you greatly Paul, but you seem to have completely lost the plot on this issue now and have imo always lacked any sense of balance or perceptive regarding Covid. (You would probably say the same about me from the opposite angle I'm sure). Vaccines did get us back in grounds (see the entry criteria for tomorrow). Are you actually going to call chaddy out because it wasn't quite as quickly as anticipated? There's also an intensely boring discussion on the matchday thread about how you allegedly pass on less virus if you've been vaccinated so if that is correct, in that respect it is helping "save" us or to keep us safe as well isn't it? Merry Christmas to you and your family. Hope you are all well.

Do Premier League teams still not have to nominate and choose from a squad of 25 though like in the Championship or are the rules different there?

Lockdown or severe restrictions would also cause huge disruption to the economy and people's lives and livelihoods. I know not everyone will agree but the best thinhg that could happen for me is if this new strain does have less serious symptoms and sweeps rapidly through the population eradicating the nastier strains. A bit of herd immunity at last. Apologies if we're taking the thread off topic. As regards the Championship season if the current variant is particularly infectious I suppose we will have to expect some inevitable disruption but I'd say incidents should be dealt with on a case by case basis rather than by means of an enforced break again.

Me neither.

Quite right.

Never have the words "might" and "could" received so much overuse. Can't believe some fans seem to be encouraging others not to attend matches. Thought these young lads needed all our support?

However, it's up to chaddy to do what he wants, as long as remains within the regulations at any particular time. It's absolutely nothing to do with anyone else and people should stop picking on him for exercising that choice. If people aren't comfortable with the situation they're quite at liberty to exercise their own choice and stay at home quite frankly.

It's pretty obvious that when organisations like the WHO say "they cannot conclude" whether or not the new variant is more or less serious than the existing variants it's actually less serious as if there was the slightest possibility the opposite were the case they'd be predicting the end of times.

What, made him even worse? 🤔

Have to echo that. He was absolute shite! Hopefully "3 Club rule!".

Ulrich may be putting it a trifle bluntly, but given the overall state of Scottish football this should be viewed as a positive because?

Correct but I understand he has been tasked with specific duties from Jan 1st.

Hope so, otherwise it'll be carnage trying to get in. Have to say that the vaccine passports are extremely unfair and discriminatory against the elderly who may not be computer savvy and/or those who don't possess a smartphone (not Rovers fault). I also don't feel the need for a vaccine passport for Saturday has been particularly well publicised. When I was looking for prices of Birmingham tickets the other morning I thought I would check the Rovers website to see what the requirements or potential requirements would be and there wasn't the first mention of it. Whether it's on there now I don't know.

Well said chaddy. What's the point in being vaccinated if it doesn't allow you to carry on leading your life as normal?

From 1st of Jan.

It's absolutely nothing to do with being "positive" or "negative" and it's a bit naughty to paint it that way. It's fans understandably voting with their feet after eleven generally dire seasons under the current ownership, some shocking pricing policy by Waggott over the last couple of years and (prior to this season) a pretty dire level of performance under Mowbray since returning to the Championship. That said, I agree with you that these young players deserve our support. It HAS to be a two way street though and before the missing fans flock back in massive numbers there will have to be a radical overhaul of pricing policy - I am very hopeful this will happen in the New Year. It will also require us to hold firm and the owners to say that none of our key players are leaving in January and actually add a couple of net bodies to give one or two extra options and cover in event of injuries. I have no idea at this stage if that will happen in January. However for me personally it's the litmus test of whether the owner's commitment to improvement moving forward is as strong as certain parties have been led to believe behind the scenes. Mowbray's defeatist comments the other day were far from encouraging in that respect. One can only hope he is somewhat out of the loop and completely wide of the mark.

Went into the Club Shop today for the first time in quite a while to get an extra ticket for a mate up from London forthe Brum game and had a quick look around. Seemingly no medium home kits left. About 10 medium away kits left. Now it's one thing running out of kit in March but to me running out of kit prior to one of your main selling windows at Christmas is just gross incompetence to me no matter how you try and dress it up. Neither Covid nor supply chain issues from overseas are brand new phenomenon and I wonder if Liverpool or Manchester United have these "supply" problems and you can't get one of their shirts? Some of the leisurewear was quite nice but the prices were frightening. Most of the stuff was min £50 going up to £65 and I put my hand on a bench jacket which was admittedly exceptionally nice but it weighed in at a whopping £150!!! How do we expect to sell anything at those prices? We really haven't got a clue.

No doubting Aguero was a great player but you could also flip that argument on it's head and say that if Shearer had spent his career playing with the players Aguero played with for an all conquering City side, he'd have scored a lot more than he did as well.