Miller11

Hill and Brittain horror-show down our right hand side.

On it…

For some reason Moran’s normally reliable touch completely deserted him last night. Looked like he couldn’t trap a bag of cement. Real off day but he’ll get over it.

What a strange evening. We were cruising til we gave that silly goal away. The crowd was very sparse tonight and there was absolutely no atmosphere until the ref completely lost the plot for the last 20 minutes or so and gave us all something to shout about! Wahlstedt MOTM tonight. Brittain much better. Our midfield 2 is brilliant, but we need to realise that we can’t play the same way we do with Wharton and Tronstad when they aren’t both on the pitch. Moran had an absolute shocker and should’ve gone off before his error for their goal. I thought we missed Ennis in the second half, a promising performance from him, he’s got something about him. Leonard struggled when he got on. Big 3 points to take us into the Christmas period!

If you’re heading down to Ewood tonight you can help make sure a child who might not otherwise, receives a present this Christmas. Soft toys, footballs, caps, clothing, toys and memorabilia will all be gratefully received. The Community Trust are doing some great work feeding kids who might otherwise be going hungry during the school holidays, hopefully we can put a smile on their faces on Christmas morning.

Brittain is fine when the going is good. When the going gets tough he isn’t one to roll his sleeves up, and he goes missing.

Which stand(s) was the trouble in today Josh? I’m away for the weekend so was watching on the telly? I’ve witnessed several incidents in the Riverside of incredibly poor security/stewarding in the last couple of seasons. Supporters asking for assistance being completely ignored, stewards going off hiding rather than confronting rule breaking, not addressing anything that is unsafe. In fact I can’t remember the last time I saw them do anything within their job description. Fortunately it’s never been anything major, but I said at the Burnley game last season that if any of their lot had got in there would be real trouble because the stewards would be totally incapable and unwilling to deal with it. The one good thing I have seen lately was in the JW upper at one of the league cup games where a steward (young lad of about 18/19) asked some kids to stop running across the back of the stand in a patient and appropriate manner outlining why it was dangerous.

We needed everyone to be at their best today, few were anywhere near it and Leonard and Brittain were woeful. Hill limping off is a major concern as he’s both our best full back and centre back. Thought our midfield two today more than held their own but didn’t have enough quality and sometimes desire around them. Bobby Madley is an abysmal referee. Stone wall penalty missed, massively inconsistent with his cards, I’d suggest getting him a guide dog but I don’t think he’s allowed near them any more.

I’d be tempted to bring in Sigurdsson for Brittain here, and Ennis for Leonard before long.

Broughton stating that we believe him to be the player with the most potential outside the Premier League, so if there is a release clause I’d expect it to reflect that. Very good thing that we are rewarding our youngsters in a timely manner and in a way that is dictated by their importance to the team rather than some arbitrary parameters around age. It’s a welcome change that will better protect our academy graduates.

On the first point, ticket pricing and communications from the club to the fan base are probably the big two. The financial situation and transfer window failings (which in January was more outright criticism than constructive in all honesty) were definitely another. Both touch on the communication issue again and a lot of this comes back to the disconnect between the club and the fans, which we have spoken about it at length for the last couple of years since I’ve been back on the trust board. Rather than keep talking we’ve tried to be more proactive, and things like this consultation and the fans takeover day are actually happening. On the second point, I agree personally and will continue to make that point. We will have to see what the majority of respondents say.

An absolutely incompetent refereeing display. I’m not generally one to slate officials, but not for the first time this season we’ve been the victims of an absolutely shambolic display. I’ve genuinely seen 16 year old kids and old men who can barely get out of the centre circle do better in Sunday leagues. Can’t put it all down to the dire ref though, again we fell short when it came to anything remotely physical. Brittain was the worst culprit and is one of the softest players I’ve ever seen. I’d have hooked him for Garrett at half time. Moran is either very good or very poor, never be a solid 6/7 out of 10, either a 5 or an 8/9. The injury list caught up with us today, but I’d have definitely given Garrett some minutes. Maybe even Montgomery or Duru too, as someone a bit fired up and over-exuberant wouldn’t have been the worst thing today.

Does anybody know is Gilsenan injured? With his cup performances I thought he’d get some chances in the league.

Watford are getting in to the spirit of things too, and the club are offering their fans subsidised coach travel at a tenner! Hopefully plenty of them take them up on this, could be on for a real bumper crowd!

It’s been suggested as a possibility and we’ve been asked to gauge the reaction to it. I’ve made my personal reaction to it pretty clear in my response. Something else I’m also personally pretty keen on is not just converting already occupied seats to safe standing ones. If they are already occupied the only purpose it will serve is to appease the safety advisory group, whereas I’d like to see safe standing used as a way to attract new or lapsed fans too, so finding areas which aren’t overly full currently.

Started really bright but Dolan’s injury caused us to look quite ragged. Travis and/or Brittain really needed subbing off at half time, and JDT got it right. We really clicked for 20 minutes and when we do we are as good as anyone. Wharton and Szmodics combining is lethal.

As a rough guide about £100 per seat

There will be a different one this time. You may have noticed an improvement in the pre-match music at the Preston game…

We Are The Rovers and representatives from the Fans Forum have been in discussions with the club around implementing safe standing at Ewood. As part of this we want to get the opinions of as many supporters as possible, so please take a couple of minutes to complete the survey at the link below: Click here to complete the survey

I’ve been out at half time every game this season. League games in the Riverside, cup games in the Jack Walker.

We’ll be doing something similar again this time. Got a few little freebies for the kids and the grown ups so get down early!

Riverside too

Latest fans forum minutes are up Looks like the blame for the Leeds pricing isn’t at our end.

It’s gone a little bit under the radar that we are almost as averse to draws as we were for the first half of last season. Last year we seemed to gel a bit more after the World Cup break and cut out some silly errors and despite the drop off in points we were more consistent. Now the likes of Tronstad and Hill are integral parts of the team we look better organised. With a bit of overdue luck on the injury front and/or a couple of additions even on loan in January we definitely shouldn’t be seeing the playoffs as beyond us.

Absolutely. He’s got bags of self confidence which has probably been a big factor in his goal return. He also seems really resilient and you can’t really imagine a spell of bad form from him. He’s had some really poor games but doesn’t seem to dwell on it, the Rotherham game earlier this season was a good example - a horrific first half followed up with a brace after half time.