You have to laugh watching Siggy pretending to jump for headers against their centre halves

3 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

Ball throwing cretins you embarrassed yourself - 15 balls and a limp chant - my advice organise it properly or stay away it was laughable from a home supporter point of view and that from those want them out 

Yes, it didn't really work. It had to be big numbers or not at all

Lineker the wet blanket rubbishing the game but that was a pretty good half 

Gallagher is weak and soft as a kitten who'd get hurt by a passing butterfly 

Gallagher's got concrete in his boots as usual. But he's such a gentleman

Danny Murphy talking about Rovers as if he's some sort of expert really grates.

Stole a living at Ewood

Waggott's forgotten to put 10p in the turnstiles meter

8 minutes ago, Mercer said:

It is nice to see 20k+ plus in Ewood, however, some perspective called for.

If I recall correctly, we averaged 25k+ in 5 or 6 seasons when in PL with a highest average of 27k round about 94/95/96

Also, we had 42k on Ewood for the FA Cup match against City back in 1967 when the ground really rocked particularly when Big Jim Fryatt soared to head an equaliser for Rovers.

Biggest Ewood attendance since 1960 was 54k for a cup replay against Burnley in 1960 - unfortunately, my dad thought I was too young for that match.

How times have changed.

City match was in 1969? I woz there

We're all celebrating a 20k plus crowd tonight but it seems a long way from the end of the 2011-12 season when I remember in particular for personal reasons an end of season game against lowly Charlton Athletic in front of about 27k.

14 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

As an American, I’m still somewhat shocked my English cousins cannot integrate crowds. We’ve never had to segregate based on fans support, home/away, etc. 

Have they always been segregated there? 

 You need to do some background reading on the hooligan problems in the 1970s and 1980s

Football is tribal here, and animosities run deep. 

This chimes with an article in the Times recently about conversation overheard among players in dressing rooms around the counties. They want to play where the money is: which is franchise cricket here and abroad. Many aren't interested in playing Test match cricket for England and county cricket is seen as a unrewarding chore.

It's also reinforced by comments such as this on the BBC website today after the fourth India Test:

"Who cares about the result - pro sport is there to entertain and this England team are awesome. As far as this series goes; I'd much rather see England lose an exciting series like this than win a borefest any day".

Read that again, they don't care about England losing: the playstation, Netflix generation only wants instant cricket entertainment.

I'll believe it when I see it. Assuming there are possibly 100s of Newcastle infiltrators spread around the ground it will require a big police and stewarding operation to weed them out and get them out of the ground. Will Waggott pay for that and are they up to the job anyway. My guess is nothing or very little will be done

43 minutes ago, NeilInBristol said:

Just seen the McFadz article in LT too

"We have to relish it, I can't wait. This is what football is all about, the magic times and the FA Cup. The league is the main thing but everything else is a bonus.

"They have everything to lose, not us, they're the big boys. It's a free game for us. We know it will be a tough game but if fans see we are willing to die for the shirt it will help"

 

Love this!! Looks like he may be playing then?

The magic of the Cup

Unlike some fans on here at least the players seem to get it. 

29 minutes ago, sharpysharps86 said:

Would be dangerous to risk Gallagher, McFadzean and Szmodics with 3 huge games coming up in the league. Getting to a quarter final would be brilliant for the 2nd year running, but not if it means our key players are knackered for Swansea on Saturday.

My predicted team, and probably way off. Please don't dislike my post 😂.

                             Pears

             Hyam    Wharton    Pickering

  Brittain     Tronstad    Garrett    Chrisene

                            Moran

                  Dolan     Sigurdsson

Our best XI isn't great but putting out that team would be an insult to Rovers fans and the competition

8 minutes ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

We have lost the series after four tests. We were fortunate to win the one we did. We lost one test by the greatest ever margin in India. In some innings we have not survived 40 overs. India have had at least 3 top players missing every test.

Other than one big score from Pope, Duckett and Root we have often batted very badly / naively. And criminally gifted our wickets. In the last test alone I can think of four terrible dismissals.

It's not gone to plan. Because the plan was flawed. We have not scored enough runs or occupied the crease long enough. Those pointing out we don't have the players with the correct concentration, application, mindset and technique to prosper in India are simply stating the blatantly obvious. Did you know that the Indians didnt score a boundary for 35 overs chasing our total? 

They simply adapted to the immediate match requirements and played proper risk free test cricket with no misconceived, or pre-meditated ideas.

For me, Bazball has looked pretty old, dated and ineffective on this trip. I feel sorry for our bowlers. Not one batsmen comes out of this with any credit for me. 

Thanks for this, a good critique of Bazball and why it is failing or needs adapting and reining in. 

The bit in bold is significant: the Bazball mentality would have seen our lot throw the bat at the ball and tried to get the job done quickly because it's "exciting" and it's "what the crowds want to see". I would say England supporters want to see the team win - however it is achieved.

India is a tough tour but England have let themselves down badly again by not playing proper, percentage Test cricket, which means attacking when you're on top and playing carefully when you're not. 

I still blame the Bazball mentality for the first Test defeat (and with it the Ashes) at Edgbaston last summer. Its defenders will say the Manchester weather ultimately robbed us of  the Ashes but England should never have lost that Test. 

12 minutes ago, roverblue said:

Stick out the reserves, league is more important. Especially some of our stalwarts/injury prone people like Sammy, Gallagher, Pickering, Tronstad shouldn't be risked IMO.

National TV audience watching and a place in the last 8 and one game from Wembley on offer

Great idea

Gary "shame Blackburn went down" Lineker and Newcastle fan Shearer in the studio - I think I'll have the sound turned down

Root cut the silly Bazball shots out and scored a fine century - odd isn't it? 

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Inevitable. We aren’t producing the players with the ” Right Stuff “ at the moment.

There's some good players in the England cricket team but they're being badly managed.

Same with the rugby and football. England should be doing so much better given their resources

Well that was a tremendous few days for English sport. Rugby team capitulates to Scotland followed by a predictable collapse by England’s batsmen and inevitable defeat.

Tremendous effort by all concerned 

7 minutes ago, Old Codger said:

Complete bollox imo - if he'd been given the resources he asked for and was told would be made available, we'd have never been in the sodding position in the first place. If we go down, it will be VENKY RAO DESAI WAGGOTT SUHAIL scum who are to blame, and nobody else  🤨

But he wasn't given the "resources"; he knew the "project" he was sold was a lie; he knew Waggott and Co were useless; he knew the club was dysfunctional; he knew it was never going to work.

He offered to resign by all accounts but stayed on. And here we are in relegation trouble because he oversaw a disastrous sequence of results for which he was responsible.

None of this is new but easy to see.

3 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

All roads lead back to India.

Venky’s the fuck out.

Obviously, but the manager is responsible for results

35 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We’ve got batting collapses off to a fine art. 

Last 7 wickets fell for 35. Anderson out for a duck reverse sweeping. It's that kind of thoughtless cricket which loses matches

India now 37 off 6, with Joe Root opening the bowling and serving up full tosses.

21 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Excellent post.

Think the family bit was huge - moving your family even from one town to another town in the same county can be difficult enough with all that entails (friends, schools, relatives etc) but from one country to another!!!

Sadly, we will never know how good JDT could have been for Rovers.  I salute his refreshing honesty and would trust him far more than, IMO, all the scumbags now associated with our club. 

 

All very true but if we do go down Tomasson will be to blame.

The horrendous run in December and January under him has put us in this precarious position and it's clear now he was not being honest with himself by staying on at the club so long. If he'd resigned sooner we might not be in this mess. 

Regardless of the outcome this is a pretty pathetic showing so far by England. India’s tail enders made 130, the sum total of England’s score now with 8 wickets down 

8 hours ago, yankfan said:

 

 

I recall at the beginning of the season when there was speculation JDT could leave GB mentioning the style we would like to play being the same under a different manager. Didn’t he say we had a list of managers who would continue the “new project”?  Seems like either by design, lack of transfer funds, change in manager or necessity to stay up we’ve certainly changed the style when JDT was shown the door. 

Good post. Big interview with Jim Ratcliffe in the paper. Talked about the importance of having a long term Man United club philosophy, a way of playing that should carry on seamlessly over the years, and appointing managers who fit in with that philosophy, and the dangers of constantly changing managers with a different outlook.