Andy

Yeah, good football management is about making the most of the squad at your disposal. It'd be arrogant to enforce your preferred style of play where it's not a good fit. Big Sam is a good example of the former, whatever you may think of him. I'd love nothing more than seeing a physically tough, direct 4-4-2 with wingers and a big man/little man front pairing. Fullbacks being fullbacks and 2 central midfielders who cover the whole central area between them. It'll come back around one day, I'm sure of it.

What's a 'barm cake' and why would you want to eat chips with any kind of cake? But yes, the John Bulls from Hollytree are ace. Manxman chippy used to do a good one, many years ago - I think Hollytree is the only place you can get one now.

Yeah, 100% that game - I remember it vividly. Ian's article gives the specifics also. I grew up very locally and remember - JW stand construction was continued/completed over that summer (1994), being officially opened in 1996 at home to Forest.

It was the 3rd of January 1994. I was there (as a 10 year old), watching Jones and co doing Klinsmanns on the pitch through the gates.

That was actually in the Prem era - around 1993/4.

I don't think it's happened in my lifetime (Prem era onwards).

I saw that, what an absolute penis.

I dunno - I live half a mile up the road and it's pretty biblical.

With 11 minutes left to play, surely we just get the win?

Based solely on the game and a bit we've seen of him, I don't think Taylor-Gardner is a downgrade on Travis at all. In fact, a couple of progressive passes today that Trav wouldn't have made. Long season ahead, of course, but £3m in the bank and no downgrade, for someone in the final year of their contract 🤷‍♂️

Cantwell is ace. I liked him last season when he was inconsistent, but he's been excellent so far this season. No excuse not to win this one now.

Fair decision, last man. Thing is, it spoils games and they have players to hurt us on the counter still.

Just looked at the lineups and he's facing Mbappe, Vini Jr and the full Madrid lot today. Good on him, glad he's made a good start there.

Decent first half, couple of half chances. Grateful we have Toth though, we're 0-2 down at HT with Calamity between the sticks there. Gudjohnson and Kargbo on in the second half and let's see if we can win this one.

If not, I'd be happy to take them off you - me and my little lad were planning on going, but not sorted tickets yet - cheers!

Yeah, thought the same myself. It's generally a decent listen, if you can get past the 'fought' (thought) and 'fink' (think) from the LET lad. The second guy, with the southern accent, is a bit annoying though. He tries to use words and phrases that he doesn't actually understand and he'll flip-flop entirely at the slightest challenge of his opinion. And his pronunciation of Ismael is disproportionately maddening (Ish-May-Ull). The Blackburn End pod is slightly better, though one of them constantly refers to Birmingham as 'the blues'. As a Rovers podcast, you'd expect 'the blues' to be in reference to Rovers. I'm a petty, petty man.

We've got a yellow weather warning in the Ewood area, for this coming weekend - whatever a 'yellow weather warning' entails.

Yeah, JDT's 'flaw' was not having the quality of players to work with, who could execute his style of play. That said, a few players developed hugely under him. And a few others spoke very highly of his coaching ability and tactics (Szmodics, Wharton, etc). Had he been backed in the transfer window (Undav / O'Brien), we'd have returned to the Prem.

I only watched the 2nd half, but the main thing I took from our attacking prospects (ie Tyjon, Dunn, etc) is how lightweight they are. Technically good, of course, but if you can't handle the physical side, you'll never play at a high level. The 2 x CBs impressed me though, both comfortable on the ball, good distribution and some nice anticipation - especially from the lighter-haired lad.

Yeah, you're asking too much of Tronstad there, we'd be overrun. If Gudjohnsen becomes as good as we hope, I could see Ohashi playing on the left, as an inside forward. Or even behind the striker, with Cantwell wide. You then have Mori on the right, with Kargbo as an impact sub. From an attacking perspective, it's a definite upgrade on last season.

Yep, either Babb or Scales (or either). It's an absolute lazy opinion and does the amazing work done by Kenny/Ray/Tony a massive disservice.

Spending lots of money absolutely does not equate to success. We've seen time and time again; you can't just throw a load of expensive signings together and expect them to gel/work. Look at the side Kenny built. Alongside the likes of Flowers, Shearer and Sutton we had the likes of Gale, Wilcox, Slater, Hendry and Sherwood (all either free, or small value signings). Wrexham and Birmingham will both finish in the bottom half of the table this season for this very reason.

3 points off the play off spots...👀

Tell you something, that's a good win. Carter and Wharton were excellent today - we've missed that combination of aggression and quality on the ball. Keeping them fit is the challenge, of course. Having a proper GK behind them makes all the difference as well. Pleased to see Morishita score on his full debut and impressed with Gudjohnsen's cameo also.

Tavares is such a strange one - he's very languid, which means that he should have more time on the ball. But he seems very poor in his passing, decisions, anticipation...pretty much every aspect of the role. I know it took Sondre a while to adapt, but I'm not sure he was this bad, this early.