When we are good, we are good. When we are bad we are absolutely woeful, hopeless, toothless, useless and clueless.

We would genuinely be better off sticking Ayala up front a la Hendry or Samba and lumping it long than persisting with Vale or Hirst.

Tonight is completely on the manager. It’s so utterly frustrating because we obviously have some good players and the ability to win games both pretty and ugly. Unfortunately I feel JDT has tried to be too clever for his own good, and then too stubborn to change things. This inverted wingbacks nonsense needs to stop immediately. We got away with it once largely due to Hedges, but it’s an absolute mess. Replacing Vale with Hirst was like swapping a yellow cone for an orange one. It was blindingly obvious we were losing tonight from about the 8th minute. There’s no excuses for a performance like that, and we shouldn’t be shrugging our shoulders and writing this off as a transitional season. Promotion is there for the taking. I’m almost as pissed off with the red card as I am with the manager, team and performance. Wasn’t even a foul, but obviously the powers that be want tackling consigned to the past and every team to make 3,000 pointless passes per game. There’s a good reason I watch barely any professional football that doesn’t involve Rovers.

If that is a red card I give up. Modern football is absolutely shite.

I’m not even that fussed about his missed chance. All he’s been able to offer in an attacking sense is exactly what people moaned about from Nyambe for years. To reiterate its not his fault, he should be playing in his proper position.

Brittain might be quality at right back but as a left back he’s defensively poor and ineffective in attack.

We needed changes at half time, all we’ve done is waste a sub.

He’s looked dreadful to me. Not his fault, he’s clearly out of position, but looks uncomfortable defending from that side and is always naturally coming backwards when on the ball.

Vale, Travis and Scott Wharton off. Pickering, Dack and Garrett on.

Play anything like this against Burnley and we are bang in trouble. They’d be 4 up by now.

Pickering on for Vale. Get Brittain in his proper position and Travis in the middle to hopefully cut out some of those through balls.

Dreadful start. Let’s hope they get the nonsense out of their systems quickly.

I don’t rate Pickering all that highly, but on recent form he can feel very hard done by to not be starting. Must be down to resting.

I’m unusually confident tonight. 11/2 on us to win by more than one goal caught my eye with the bookies. I’ll apologise now for cursing it.

Thing is it was absolutely true about Brereton for at least 2 years. Hirst hasn’t got the luxury of time to become useful.

Yeah, there were certainly some attacking benefits to it. I suppose it’s down to JDTs staff to figure out which opponents it will work best against

Ah yes of course! Like about half a dozen Man Utd managers I completely forgot he existed!

Thanks to Venky’s dumbing down we haven’t been represented at a World Cup since 2010, although Kaminski might buck that trend and make the Belgium squad. It’s worth noting we will have one of our home grown players there for the first time since Duff though, as Raya is likely to go with Spain. There’s probably only a handful of our homegrown talents to have appeared at a World Cup (Clayton, Douglas, Newton?). Genuinely think Wharton could do so one day.

Neither can I unfortunately. Pickering has definitely improved a great deal over the last month or so. Well worthy of his place, but I do really like the idea of Hedges playing left wing back.

It’s been used at Ewood before as well, and I’d wager in hundreds of other grounds around the world at the turn of the millennium by clubs who couldn’t be arsed showing an iota of originality.

Kaminski Hyam Ayala Wharton Brittain Pickering Morton Wharton Szmodics Gallagher Brereton I’d like to see us line up like this pretty consistently. I’d bring Travis or Garrett in for Szmodics against the better teams when we are away. I’d replace Pickering with Hedges when he’s fit again.

One thing you can’t question yesterday was Dack’s attitude, he certainly put in a shift “for the team”. Trust repaid? Maybe the situation isn’t as irreparably damaged as many of us thought.

If they can’t find a venue by noon tomorrow they should be made to play it at Ewood. I do feel for their fans though. Just when it looked like things were getting back on track.

No need for this thread to be descending, particularly after another good away win and with Rovers sitting second. It is also completely out of order to try and belittle what people do to earn a living.