Miller11

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.

Dolan good so far. He’s not the problem here.

Profligate in front of goal. It’s purely that. Give Bloxham and Gilsenan a go.

Sounds like a broken nose or concussion for Hyam

Travis and Hedges off for Garrett and Gilsenan please!

Our corners are more of a threat than an opportunity

Yeah, I will be amazed if Markanday doesn’t leave in January. Well down the pecking order. While he scored a goal against Harrogate I think he was certainly our least effective player, quite a few attacks broke down with him.

That lineup picks itself today. Interesting choices on the bench. Happy to see Gilsenan there as I think he’s a better option than Markanday.

We sabotaged ourselves with a dreadful first half against Rotherham and a moment of madness by Pickering against Hull, but it’s been a good start to the season and with a little more of the discipline we showed against Watford we could’ve been on for a perfect start. A few players will have given the manager something to think about last night and Moran should start. I think @sharpysharps86has got the line up spot on. Garrett is really knocking at the door, but Wharton and Travis remain in on merit. I’m going to be optimistic and predict a win. Not quite sure where the goals come from, perhaps our new superstar striker who will be joining tomorrow (told you I’m being optimistic) continues the debut goal off the bench trend.

Here’s my take… Wahlstedt - had so little to do, but made one smart save. Distribution looks good. Seems a bit of a character and enjoyed the “Leo Leo” chants at the end. Gamble - clearly tasked with keeping it simple, did fine but not knocking on the first team door. Hyam/Carter - both ruthlessly efficient, Hyam beaten just once, Carter great on the ball. Wharton - much more like it. Seemed to relish the leadership role. Rock solid. Pickering - spent most of the game in central areas. Did it well. Trostad - great vision, played some lovely stuff, breaks play up very nicely too. Couple of misplaced passes but no big deal. Doesn’t have the energy of some of other midfield options but clearly a clever player. Buckley - on that showing he certainly has a future with us! Fantastic. Played some incredible balls, busier than normal. They will be having nightmares about our midfield for years. Garrett - phenomenal. Was absolutely all over the park, never gave the ball away. Really excited by his development, he’s come on leaps and bounds. Used the ball incredibly well and won it back often. Looks a proper box to box midfielder, and he took up a lot of very advanced positions at times. Bossed the game right up until the end. Blotted his copybook with one daft lunge that saw him booked. Markanday - a few of our attacks broke down with him early on, overplayed a bit. Goal settled him down. Doesn’t fit the slick quick passing game as well as others though. Gallagher - led the line well, never gave them a moments peace. Better with his back to goal last night. Put a very presentable chance about 3 streets away though. Still think he’s happiest out wide. Moran - wow! Clearly an incredibly talented player and you can see why we were so keen on him. Fantastic touch and feet. I thought he had a first 10 minutes to forget against Watford, but showed his ability once he’d settled. Clearly he wasn’t completely up to speed on how we play, but he’s picked it up in under a week! I’ve no doubt he will start on Saturday, prototype JDT ball player. Gilsenan - there was no doubt in my mind that freekick was hitting the back of the net the second he picked the ball up, you could see the confidence and you could just tell. He wanted the penalty too! Had a bit of a quiet spell before the end but that was down to all the changes and us becoming a bit less structured. Must be getting close to a league debut. Bloxham - rapid. Chased everything down. Lovely goal. By the time he was on the game was a bit different, but he can contribute this season I think. Edmondson - seems to have quite an old head on young shoulders. Very sensible. Nice to see him get a goal and he’ll be among our youngest ever scorers. Like Bloxham it’s incredibly difficult to judge with the game being almost farcical by the time they got on. Overall a brilliant night. It’s obvious we have a playing style under JDT that people will have to be able to deal with. Our midfield was frighteningly good and Harrogate were completely shellshocked after about 15 minutes. We terrorised them. One bugbear - Corners! Scott Wharton went up for every single one. Every single one went short. The second pass always went back to a defender in the half way line. They were rubbish! (I needed a Wharton goal for a bet where I’d have won £500, so surely a single cross wasn’t too much to ask!) Nice to see us breaking positive records nowadays! Things are infinitely better under JDT than Mowbray. Promotion under JDT is inevitable, so we need to pray Venky’s don’t sabotage it.

Yes, Hyam on the bench.

I’d go with that. Potentially some very interesting options on the bench. I’d expect Bloxham to get some minutes. Hilton, Hyam, Davies, Montgomery, Travis, Dolan, Bloxham, Nsangou, Leonard. Presuming there is something occurring with Buckley .

It was definitely had a big occasion feel to it. I’d always said I wasn’t going to the new Wembley til Rovers got there, but my brother evidently got sick of waiting and really wanted to go to AEW. My immediate realisation was it’s not that new any more, and unsurprisingly, being up in the nosebleed seats isn’t great for actually watching wrestling (or football I imagine). It was busy but not anywhere near full, strangely there was barely anyone under 18 in the entire stadium. Crowd had its moments but wasn’t nearly as lively as I expected. Perhaps this was due to the length of the show. The set and production values were fantastic. The music rights and pyro costs will have been into the millions. I’ve been to WWE, TNA and WCW events before, obviously not on this scale, but this was on recent WWE level. I was reliant on the big screens to see what was going on and the camera work was largely ok, missed a few bits but not bad. The in ring highlight was the CM Punk v Samoa Joe match. The Stadium Stampede was dreadful and the crowd were bored throughout it. Saraya winning and celebrating with the family was cool. There were way too many false finishes in every match for my liking with everyone kicking out of everything over and over again which makes it all seem a bit formulaic. I also wish they’d enforce rules. This really hurt the FTR v Bucks match. I’m glad they kept the daftness to a level lower than I expected (Jack Perry and Moxley aside) and I’m glad they resisted the temptation to do anything too ludicrous. However, far too many hardcore matches/spots. Jericho wasn’t as insufferable as I was expecting, Sting was a great bit of nostalgia (especially with the entrance), I don’t get the hype with Ospreay and found Omega’s match boring. The acclaimed were great fun. MJF loses so much of what makes him great as a baby face, but he’s come a long way since I last saw him on these shores and bought him a pint of dark fruits in the Stanley Arms in Preston! Overall it was a great occasion and the in ring action was a mixed bag but leaning towards decent overall. This was special due to a 30 year hiatus, doing another in 12 months is not a smart move.

Around 1,030 I think