Miller11

Nothing wrong with that goal.

He’s put in a typically disciplined first half performance, allowed us to play out from the back and helped us retain possession. He’s sat deep, always shown for it and never given the ball away. He’s playing exactly to instruction I should imagine and doing what the manager wants him to do to perfection. It might get harder as the game goes on and players in front of him are marked. That’s what normally happens.

Keeping us ticking and massively important. Seen plenty of the ball in tight areas and made sure we’ve retained possession. He’s so important in turning defence quickly into attack.

Thank god JRC is back in. Hill deserves a start. Plenty have been shouting for a change of keeper. Not sure why there is so much negativity around the changes, I know Dolan isn’t flavour of the month at the moment be has been in rotten form, but Ireland he’s a better bet than Markanday. We’ll see the best of Sigurdsson when he’s up to speed, probably needs a rest just now.

In our last 5 league games we have conceded 15 goals, lost 4 and won 1. This coincides with Rankin-Costello’s injury and subsequent loss of starting 11 place.

Mowbray wouldn’t dream of rocking the boat, at least until A week or so before his contract was up. If JDT turns the subtle digs into outright complaints he’ll go the same way as everyone else who has dared question the owners.

Defensive horror show for the entire game. Absolutely toothless up the other end too. Adam Wharton was our best player by some distance for the first 60 or so minutes. He’s expected to pick the ball up in tight positions, turn and get us playing, and start creating things from just in front of the back 4. He was doing it well today until every player in front of him started tiring/getting marked out of the game/lost interest. He is also left ridiculously exposed in this current system. We need personnel changes in the defence. JRC has to play. The number of goals we have shipped since he has been out of the team is horrifying. One or both of Carter or Hyam deserves dropping now. Carter is taking a lot of stick today (deservedly), but seeing Hyam chasing strikers to the halfway line and being taken out of the game with a simple pass is far too regular an occurrence. We badly need someone who can organise in there, Hill has shown this in brief glimpses. We basically played 5 attacking midfielders and no striker today. Only Moran (clear MOTM) really did anything. Sigurdsson still getting up to speed, Szmodics had a real off day. Markanday was back to slowing down play, causing attacks to stall, and making bad decisions. Dolan did pretty well when he came on. Annoyed with most of the players, the manager, the sick notes (Gallagher and Ennis), the board, and especially the owners today.

Worrying that this is the final word on the interview. Perhaps I’m overanalysing, but is JDT proving a point here by picking players to develop over players to win games? Maybe to prove a point?

We’ve had some people not receiving emails. Our new system will prevent this occurring in the future. The majority of members receive them fine, a few have raised the issue on here and I’ve took their details to make sure they get added rather than ask them to go through the contact us page of the website.

Yes. For the better part of a year JRC has controlled a lot of games from a fullback position. Brittain’s strengths for me seem to be traditional wing play, he’s very good at crossing. Subbing him on to see out games cost us several times last season and since he’s come in for JRC we have shipped a frightening number of goals, primarily due to our midfield being left exposed.

Wharton had a break midweek. He’s the first name on the team sheet as he’s absolutely integral to the way JDT wants us playing. Unfortunately JRC didn’t get a break on Wednesday so I can’t see him starting. This is a mistake for me as he’s by far our best fullback and his ability to come inside and help out the midfield has been central to everything good we’ve done since last Christmas. I’d like to see… Wahlstedt JRC Carter Hill Brittain Garrett Wharton Markanday Moran Sigurdsson Szmodics

Yeah, we probably should’ve realised there was a potential clash… the club definitely should have. If you can DM me your details I’ll get it sorted.

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.