With Hedges or anyone who has been played post injury to the point of serious risk of injury, in general, then obviously dont play them. But not specifically tomorrow because its seen as less of a priority. Agree with your last paragraph completely.

Eustace did mention tired bodies more than once and rotating the squad so I do fear a weaker side.

Very little to no impact on the club and not important. Its a chance to get to an FA Cup quarter final and a chance to go up against a Premier League side full of top players. If all that is not important and has no impact, then whats the point in supporting if any excitement is removed in favour of having to put every last drop into treading water. Also its a chance for a real confidence boost and a real statement of intent from the manager who is yet to win a game. Plus would one game extra really be a terminal blow to our survival chances?

I just cant fathom this attitude, you dont care? I dont fully believe it, youve posted here for a start, will you not be attending or even watching? Its a tie against the side that finished 4th last season in the Premier League for a place in the FA cup quarter finals. An unlikely upset and we are a game from Wembley and would get a huge boost. Whats the point if days like that are just dismissed as an unwanted inconvenience? Taking this serious doesnt have to be a terminal blow to our chances of staying up.

People sharing opinions on a messageboard does not equate to whether they are behind them at the ground.

Makes a mockery of the whole integrity of a league that a team mid season can get 10 points deducted and then 4 points added back within the same season.

Sounds like he would like to make changes but is unsure whether he can.

Eustace at an early stage in his Rovers tenure with people forming an opinion of him could well go down in many peoples estimation if he doesnt respect this game properly and go with a strong side. Koumetio is left footed so is a non starter on the right of a back 3. If McFadzean is not considered (although if he does play, his lack of pace could be embarassed) then I would go to a back 4 with O'Riordan cup tied. Garrett against players like Bruno would equally be a huge risk.

Fans were fully behind Pears when he was playing ahead of Kaminski, regardless of whether many of us thought that the latter was far better.

He will probably have to be good enough in the absence of any money being made available.

The gap between the parachute teams and the rest is becoming bigger and they have players like Zaroury and Twine who excelled at this level to come back, as well as players like Benson, Muric, Ekdal, Al-Dakhil and Cullen who have struggled for game time in the Prem. They have also signed players like Berge and O'Shea who are very good at Championship level but not quite up to it in the Prem. Sadly they will probably be back right at the top when they come down.

I totally take your point and acknowledged it myself about it being early days so I dont doubt that. But I do think in all of the games that we have carried minimal threat and created very few chances per game. There is a lot of direct football up either to Gallagher or directly out to the wings where as you say we look to cross more than we used to. We only really have Gallagher as a threat from that route and indeed 2 of the 3 main chances Gallagher had were good headers saved from crosses. I didnt see much getting in behind apart from the Gallagher chance when he had a one on one saved by Gunn. In general though, we keep looking to get the ball from back to front far too quickly and ultimately we usually just concede possession and it is a frustrating watch. The set pieces have so far only got us the Hyam goal yesterday amidst 3 goals in 4 games but I do forsee that being an area where we now could offer more of a threat as time goes on. On the flip side we dont look as insecure although as the home team I did see a red flag yesterday as I mentioned of the potential to easily get behind our slow defence and especially McFadzean in the middle.

You worry that Pears' incompetence may distract so youd play Wahlstedt instead?! Not to mention Telalovic etc. Totally disagree with the idea of resting everyone too, lets treat this as a bit of excitement in a boring season, theres an FA cup quarter final on the line.

Brittain can often take too long to get into a crossing position. Pickering plays one and two touch whereas Brittain can sometimes take too long and often has his crosses blocked.

The amount of shit that the commentators on Sky (notably Peter Drury, taking over from the even worse Martin Tyler) come out with is obscene.

The problem is with the term is as you say it is seen as derogatory but thats more of a symptom of modern day data driven football where everyone is obsessed with playing it out from the back. It is a subjective term, I only used it as it had already been used, I would probably say direct. Goal kicks lumped forward, the centre backs looking long quickly, usually in the air. IMO and I hope it is a temporary thing, we are too direct at the moment and too one dimensional, there were a few times yesterday where (often McFadzean) a defender would lump it forward nowhere near any of our attackers and just give possession back which caused a few groans. Its not easy on the eye and not overly effective although at a very early stage. I hope once Eustace has more time, the football becomes less predictable when we attack as we havent created many chances across his 4 games and the ball doesnt need to bypass midfield as much as it does. We only have Gallagher with any physicality and height in attack and even then, he isnt a target man and is probably more suited like Szmodics and Dolan on the counter attack running in behind with the ball quickly going through the midfield rather than over it.

Its not proved very effective at the moment as 3 points from 4 games isnt a great return. And only those who had been staunchly against the idea of changing from Tomassons style would now deny we are playing hoofball. Hopefully we become less predictable on the ball as time goes on but id definitely class it as hoofball. Sargent also definitely got in more than a mere couple of times beyond our slow back 3.

Pears wouldnt be a massive loss in normal circumstances. He is decent but a considerable downgrade on Kaminski and he does make mistakes so a club with ambition could improve on him. But that isnt us and he is far better than the clown sitting on the bench and anyone we would likely get on a pittance with Broughton picking. Seems like a lazy link anyway.

I dont get how someone playing such open football can be continiously praised for his style with anyone questioning it shut down. Then when he quits and a man comes in and brings in hoofball, that is also justified. One thing the current style doesnt remind me of is Hughes' football and yesterday we wasnt hard to play against. Just dink it over our 37 year old CB and youll get in numerous times.

Is he? His selections in the last 2 rounds suggest otherwise.

The game shouldnt be viewed with any disdain or inconvenience. The team shouldnt be rotated. Lets give it our best shot as its a bit of excitement in an otherwise drab season.

Pears did well in the main but one major error was a terrible kick that led to the free kick for their goal.

There were also times in the first half when Sargent got in. Once he tried to round Pears and lost his footing, another he had a one on one saved off the top of my head. I felt we were as vulnerable in behind as in any game under Eustace which is perhaps with us being at home and not sitting quite as deep. McFadzean is a conundrum IMO. Undoubtedly a big asset in his experience and he will head balls away all day and read the game. But he is so slow and it can and will be targeted. He is also particularly bad with the ball at his feet and kept giving them the ball back.

No way are a number of those accurate.

Did we look that solid and hard to play against today? They caused us loads of problems repeatedly playing the ball in behind our very slow back 3 and a mixture of inconsistent passing and Sargent being off colour and often not even getting a shot away meant that we somewhat got away with it to an extent.