Sigurdsson and Moran were class tonight. Good displays from JRC and Hill too. Tronstad not so much, and Telalovic looks very raw. Markanday had some very exciting moments, but some equally poor ones when it came to his final ball. Nice goal though. Difficult to judge the keeper, he wasn’t overly tested. He looked furious with himself for their first but it looked a good hit on a difficult surface. Certainly not in the recent Pears levels of clangers. Sigurdsson will be a class above once he’s up to speed. I was distraught when he insisted on taking the penalty as he won the argument with JRC… Ewood was an absolute ghost town before and after the game. I’d be interested to see what percentage of tickets were £2 kids ones as there seemed a lot of groups of youngsters on.

31st October, which while not as soon as I’d like does give us plenty of time to prepare, and canvas member opinions. I think the highlighted point is becoming more pertinent by the day and we will endeavour to get full and open answers, even if they aren’t necessarily what anyone wants to hear.

Completely agree and apologise. Please could you send me a DM on here (same @Mattyblue) and I’ll ensure you get them in the interim while we are sorting out our IT infrastructure and database. We’ve got a newsletter going out in the next couple of days.

Mike Graham will be acting as interim chair until we have the chance to elect a replacement. This will either be at an EGM or our next AGM and the usual election process will apply. It’s not a partnership, but our recent Memorandum of Understanding states that we will have regular dialogue. A link to the document is below to give you an idea of the scope of it. https://mcusercontent.com/f646174da39488e19ed1200d3/files/59d9f2c7-e9a3-1c28-afc4-cc20fef81840/Rovers_Trust_Memorandum_of_Understanding.pdf We will be canvassing members for their ideas/opinions/questions for our next meeting over the coming weeks. Some areas definitely in the agenda will be: - Ticketing It won’t be long until season tickets planning starts happening internally, so this is high on our agenda. We have of course discussed this previously but recent events (the looming disastrous attendance v Cardiff, our efforts for the Girona friendly, feedback from lapsed season ticket holders, comparisons with other clubs) will all allow us to approach it in a structured and evidenced way. - The current state of play regarding finances Articles 2.d and 2.f of the MOU outline we can discuss current finances and ask questions regarding the ownership of Rovers. There is scope for us to push for answers beyond “The owners are fully committed”, and while we won’t necessarily get a picture of what is happening in India, we will be able to discuss the impact any issues are having on the financing of the club and highlight any concerns with the way we are being run. We are awaiting and preparing for our first meeting since the MOU was signed, so it’s difficult to pre-empt any outcomes at the moment, but it should be the start of better dialogue.

Hi Mike, I’ll try and address all your points. Firstly, yes, John Murray has stepped down as chair of the Trust and leaves with everyone’s thanks for his work over the last 5 years. This change hadn’t been publicly announced yet and the intention was to send an appropriate email to the membership advising them of this and the necessary restructuring that goes with it. Neither I or anyone else currently on the board were aware of your desire to remain involved. We understood you were standing down due to very understandable constraints on your time due to a growing family. For clarity, being a co-opted board member is not much different to being an elected one. There’d still be an expectation to attend meetings and the same sanctions around not doing so would apply as outlined in our rules. We currently have no need for any co-opted members as our board is not at capacity. Co-option is a way to bring expertise to the board outside an election period rather than a watered down version of a board member. You were removed from the WhatsApp group after the AGM along with others who were standing down. It’s not really an approved comms channel for discussing important matters, it’s a WhatsApp group. This seemed logical. I’m sorry if you feel it was bitchy. All members who stood down were thanked for their efforts at the AGM by our then chair. Any conversations you had with him regarding heritage and remaining involved were not relayed to anyone else. You’ve highlighted one of our biggest recent issues. Evidently our internal and external communications need improving. The situation @Mattybluedescribes is obviously unacceptable and we’re investing in our infrastructure to eliminate issue like his going forward. There’s a number of issues we need to get right to ensure we continue with the progress made in the last 12 months. Hope that clears things up a bit?

That’s why JRC is so important. No coincidence we’ve shipped goals for fun since he’s stopped playing.

We miss Rankin-Costello massively. He offers a lot of protection to the midfield when he drifts inside and Travis goes wandering. Don’t get that with Brittain and we look far shakier down the right hand side. Brittain is at his best putting crosses in. The Wharton criticism is well over the top. He has a very specific role which he generally does extremely well. Expecting every pass to split the opposition is unrealistic. He’s the one player who can pick up the ball under pressure and generally keeps us in possession. Wahlstedt wasn’t signed to sit on the bench and there is absolutely no excuse for him not taking his place as number one now. It’s overdue.

Brittain is a disaster defensively and doesn’t offer anywhere near the defensive support when he drifts inside. Great delivery in the final third though.

Brittain diabolical. Hyam and Carter incapable of organising. Szmodics having a nightmare. Travis rubbish. Pears a joke.

We had quite a big discussion around how different people prefer a different experience of going to Ewood, and this “solution” pleases no one. He acknowledged everything we said and I’m certain he knows how unpopular the decision is. He’s received a lot of emails about it as well as us making it clear. Evidently though the short term savings won out. We were never going to get him to change his mind at this stage, particularly with the sales as they are, but it gives us something to base a very strong case around with our upcoming wider discussions around ticketing and attendances.

Sorry, I should’ve been clearer on a few points… The crowds in previous rounds of around 6k were a driver behind the decision. It’s a figure that can be accommodated purely in the Jack Walker stand. The 2,000 is based on current sales which have evidently gone terribly as you can see if you go on the map to buy a ticket right now. We highlighted how the decision will annoy those who always sit in the Blackburn End, and the influx of Blackburn Enders into the JW might annoy the regulars in there (although any influx looks unlikely). We certainly suggested that the decision to close the Blackburn End will likely be contributing to the dismal sales.

We Are The Rovers met with Steve Waggott yesterday. Obviously the issue of closing the Blackburn End for the Cardiff game was high on the agenda. Firstly we conveyed our disappointment with the decision and the strength of feeling within the fanbase. The response was that uptake for the game was expected to be extremely low. At present it looks like a crowd of around 2,000 with less than 1,500 tickets sold. Whether this is a cause or a symptom of the closure of the Blackburn End is another question, but it’s pretty horrifying. It’s a financial decision based on numbers. We asked if it would’ve been possible to house the visiting supporters in an area of the Jack Walker stand and open the Blackburn End instead of the Darwen End. This would’ve meant that a police presence would be required which would have had an additional cost higher than opening an extra stand. There was an acknowledgement that the communication needed to be better around the whole decision.

Pissed off with Venky’s I should imagine.

I’m really pissed off tonight. Primarily with people who weren’t on the pitch/at Ewood. We were absolutely battering Sunderland for the first half hour or so and should’ve been 3 up. Like Plymouth all over again. Creating plenty but woefully lacking in front of goal. It’s obvious the plan in the summer was to buy another centre forward until Venky’s pulled the rug out from under everyone. We’d be comfortably near the top of the table if we’d have spent modestly on a remotely competent striker, and they’d be approaching double figures already. They always find new ways to sabotage us. I’m also sick to death of Sam Gallagher. Doesn’t use his pace, crap in the air despite being 6’4, a reluctant centre forward despite being practically a blueprint one, absolute sick note, a soft arse. I’m more pissed off that we are reliant on somebody so unreliable and underwhelming. Lots of harsh criticism tonight for some of our players. Wharton receives the ball in tight situations with his back to goal dozens of times a game, obviously he’ll lose the ball occasionally but people expect perfection. He’s absolutely key to what we do well. None of the subs shone, all disappointed to varying degrees but that is hardly surprising given the circumstances when they came on - we’d become totally ragged and incoherent by then. Some strange/desperate decisions with the changes. We need Ennis and Sigurdsson to get and remain fit very quickly or a promising season will peter out quickly.

At this point last season it was all about kamikaze defending giving goals away. The emerging pattern so far this season is missing good chances at the other end. If we can overcome that we’ll do very well this season.

No idea how that finished 2-1, relieved it did in the end. Pears very lucky to keep his place but he did very well today. Brittain was flawless for 70 minutes and very positive in his play. Faded badly and went walkabout late on. Pickering reasonably steady, done for pace once and one really poor cut back. Carter is our best defender. Hyam mostly steady, couple of times he came charging out to the halfway line, didn’t deal with it and left us exposed. He’s done that a few times this season. We lack leadership at the back and some very poor decisions were made late on adding to the nervy finish, Hyam seems to lead by example rather than being an organiser. Travis wasn’t great. If he’d run in a straight line when he made the tackle that injured him the ball was his all day. People expect Wharton to be flawless, which is ridiculous. He was very good today despite their number 25 clearly being asked to do a man marking job on him. Hedges was very good defensively. Dolan is doing himself no favours with his detractors, dreadfully out of form, two bad misses and a terrible decision for the penalty incident. Gallagher was pretty hopeless, and that header was criminal. Szmodics was superb and will be disappointed it wasn’t a hat trick. New striker looks like he needs a lot of time on the training pitch. Wonder if his arse will come under as much scrutiny as Ennis’s has on here, cos it looked on the big side! JRC is far too good and important to be on the bench. Moran surprisingly and worryingly ineffective.

Completely agree Glen. The issue has already been raised by one of our board members that any price should not have gone out in the newsletter. Given that we still need to finalise details with SW/GB it is very premature. It certainly hasn’t been agreed by the trust board, and is therefore an error. Personally I agree we ought to be making it free, though we might have to have some sort of ticketing system as we don’t want to be either turning people away, or even worse ending up with an empty room. I think the consultation meetings are a slightly different issue in that the club believe that they are now meeting their EFL obligations via the fans forum (I’m not sure I’d agree). We have previously requested they be re-instated. Although the output will likely be similar to a consultation meeting, this idea would be a Trust initiative rather than a club one though.

That people at the club are as in the dark as the supporters… or they are being instructed to give absolutely no detail.

I suppose there will be some answers to wider questions around the window coming soon from Broughton. Not sure it’ll answer everything. Perhaps we can look into doing a Q&A with Waggott and/or Broughton for Trust members, now that the consultation meetings are no more.

The bus quotes are quite funny, but the bigger issue is Hyam. If he’s come off because he’s feeling a little bit unspecified poorly then he’s a soft bastard.

Garrett will take his chance when he gets it. I think he’ll be a regular by the end of the season.

What a load of rubbish. He isn’t tasked with charging around the pitch like a lunatic, his job is to sit deep, pick the ball up off the centre backs and play the ball. The players in front of him were dire today.

Shit day. Hedges reverting to type being absolutely useless in the opposition box. Gallagher reverting to type being the most fragile 6’4 athlete in the world. Travis reverting to type being a headless chicken with a horrible touch. Pears reverting to type being a hopeless goalkeeper. Average Pickering and decent Szmodics have poor games and Hyam gets injured. Adam Wharton is not lazy, he had an off day but was surrounded by rubbish performers. Why leave it til the game is over to make the last subs? Get Ben Benson away from set pieces, is Pedersen still looking for work?

Ridiculous day at the office.

Three players currently sat on our bench showed they could finish on Wednesday. Get 2 of them on.