It would appear Newcastle have done to Burnley what we did to Swindon with Duncan shearer all those years ago. £20 million is clearly nuts but unlike our scenario it’s not a stupid signing for Newcastle to be honest. He’s better than what they have, he’s got a release clause and it weakens Burnley.

I’ll take Stoke v Wigan. A thoroughly unglamorous tie that we could easily lose.

Always had them for away games in a 30 miles radius. Those types seem to be priced out or disinterested once get matches out of the north west.

Newton's third law : For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Could that be applied to Mowbray with a vastly better run of good form than anyone was expecting could it also mean the eventual and inevitable death spiral will be worse than ever seen before.

Back to the 90s treating draws like wins. 😂. Tense last hour. No result but after 5 days more entertainment in the dying embers than the could squeeze into a fireworks laden t20/16.4. ps. Absolutely shamefully attended by the convicts. Pathetic numbers covid or otherwise.

Burnley’s 5,000 are packed in Turf Moor, They’ll still tell you they had 10,000 more. And it’s no nay never… Burnley’s 5,000 are slumped in the turf, They’ll still tell you they’re the best fans on earth. And it’s no nay never… Can’t remember the bits around that but you get the gist.

Putting an optimistic slant on it you learn more in defeats than victories. So what did moggadon hopefully learn: Dolan cannot play right wing back, neither Johnson nor Van Hecke can't play the Wharton role, Pears simply cannot play again, I’d like to say before he went off Gallagher showed what he usually shows out wide i.e. simply not up to it. But the manager just won’t accept that one. Hopefully mistakes that he might have made in more crucial games can now be avoided.

Quite possibly. Plus it’s his mates son so who knows.

The co-commentator on the BBC said Pears was the worse performance he’d seen in nearly 50 years watching football. Have to agree. I’ve never seen anything as bad as that. It’s a career ending George Weah’s cousin never again type performance.

4th consecutive year of 3rd round knockouts. I just hope that’s where our season traditions end and there’s no new year death spiral.

I think an average keeper tips it over the bar and a good one jumps higher than an inch and catches it.

I said before the draw the two worst teams to get are Wigan or Preston away. Uninspiring semi regular local game which means far more to them/their fans and a shithouse style of play to boot. Fears coming true so far and we’re getting dragged into it.

Todays game is on super sports variety 1 (no idea what country that is) if anyone has access to that.

Strange that isn’t it.

I think so. But might be misremembering. Might have been the later one as well. 🤷‍♂️ Reid 1:03

A good few in the prem. There was the 3-0 win New Year’s Eve (Reid). Following season another 3-0 heskey og and must have been one of the few games that lummox didn’t bag vs rovers. Since then played 11 LLDLDLDLDLL. The strange thing about that is even though finished above us (league one) I don’t think in any of those seasons they’ve been the better team. Certainly not to go 11 undefeated at home. Hardly a partisan place to go either.

Steven Reid had thunderbolt at wigan on New Year’s Eve 05. Played them 12 times at the jjb since but not won in the last 11 meetings. Seems unlikely given how comparatively shit Wigan are

Not managed to see a much of this game but hopefully with rain forecast will somehow scrape a draw. What little I did see was Buttler’s 8 deliveries yesterday. Painful viewing. Thought he looked ok in first innings of series for an uninspiring 30 odd, since then he’s just looked so terrible. Can’t say it’s any surprise. He was rightly dropped from test cricket. Farcically given a test recall based purely on his white ball prowess, not played one county game since and has done exactly what he did to warrant getting dropped in the first place.

There are exceptions but Mitrovic is a good example of what it takes to make it in the premier league. Couldn’t hit a barn door in the prem with Newcastle. Went to Fulham in the championship going at a goal a game. Back into the prem nothing, back into the championship mid 20s, back into the prem 3 goals last season and back into the championship going at 22/22. Pukki went at about 30 a season in the championship probably 10 a season in the prem. It’s a big gulf. If either Armstrong or Brereton get into double figures it would be surprising so £30 million is a lot to ask and I’d be equally surprised if a club took the punt with that price tag.

After 39 games we were level on points with the mighty Shrewsbury. Whilst it might not have been a limp per se it certainly felt as though it was a struggle. At that point they more or less pressed the panic button and it was plain sailing in the last few games. Theres some teams like sheff wed/ Sunderland with big budgets who are failing but their failures aren’t our success in the same way wolves going straight through the divisions aren’t our failure. But getting that rovers squad promoted from league one was the bare minimum and considering the other teams there finishing 2nd was below par.

Kp piling in now as well. Don’t think there’s ever been so much swell of opinion to prioritise white ball cricket as now in the media/ex-pros.

Someone was telling me today that there’s a charity page set up to fly out those 3 that made up that daft Brereton song. If it happens I can only imagine the hoopla the club will put on for them. I find the whole thing a bit tin pot but when people are applauding a 14k Xmas attendance tin pot is sadly right in our wheelhouse.

Yeah who’s to say what any one else may or may not have done. Personally I’d have sacked Mowbray after the league one defeat vs Oldham which represented 3 defeats in 10 or something. Mercifully we limped to automatic promotion but have had 3 more mediocre finishes since, would that have been wrong to sack him after Oldham, it’s simply impossible to say. Although in terms of every league finish under Mowbray so far I’d expect any average manager to have achieved the same. At the start of this season whoever was in charge - automatic promotion unfathomably brilliant season, play offs great season, 7th-10th good season, 10th-15th average season, 16th-21st bad season, relegation terrible season. Personally I expected an average to bad season (because of Mowbray) with an outside chance of relegation. So if he’s able to do top 10 I’d say he’s overachieved in a season and it’ll be the first one he has.

Blurry that pic. But bottom of that league with 0.87 points per game. I think it’s the only league that should count.