Three subs at half time please. Only Pickering could feel hard done to being hauled off. Wharton needed so we can revert to a back 5. Dack needed because he’s good at football.

“Whoever is the manager, they seem to not want to play him centre forward. They see him as some weird right winger. He’s absolutely not.” Cardiff ifollow commentator on Sam Gallagher. Only bit of the game that’s had me smiling.

Always rated him when he was at Millwall and was surprised to see him fall out of favour. Fun fact, his Dad is Responsible for some absolute club-classics as the founder of Soul II Soul.

No idea what to expect here. Not sure we will get away with any points if we play poorly this time, so I’d drop Morton for Wharton as he ran the show in our best performance of the season. Brittain back in for Gallagher. I’d like to see Dack get a decent amount of game time but won’t hold my breath.

Delighted with the points, particularly considering how badly we played. The first half was particularly dreadful. We have to be one of the luckiest teams about in terms of not being punished for kamikaze play in our own box. How we’ve never really been punished for it in the last couple of years I don’t know, but we were extremely fortunate not to gift them an early lead. The Dutch, or should it be Danish disease needs eradicating. Starting to see some patterns with JDT now. He clearly loves Hedges (who has been good on the whole this season) and is happy to accommodate him by playing him out of position. I watched the warm up down at the front of the Riverside today and Dack looked really sulky, and I expect he was at full time too after his 5 minute cameo. JDT clearly doesn’t fancy him for whatever reason. I don’t think anyone shone today. Gallagher grafted but his touch is abysmal. I like how he stayed on his feet for our first, but his ball in was dreadful and the goal was very fortunate. Very surprised not to see Brittain. Pickering is very limited but did ok again today. Most of the rest underwhelmed. I can’t see us getting away with playing that badly and taking maximum points many times this season. The sooner we transition Adam Wharton into the side on a regular basis the better.

We do know that there has been an issue for a number of years with academy graduates being underpaid compared to other players, Rich Sharpe again stated so this week. We also know negotiations were paused for a massive period during Covid and we activated year options - this tactic has become really problematic as we aren’t using it as an added layer of protection but a can kicking exercise. Players wouldn’t just be determined to run their contracts down for the sake of it, nor would they cut off their nose to spite their face. If we have offered the maximum terms we are prepared to, fine, but by all accounts we should’ve got there a damn sight quicker with Lenihan. Clearly there is a realisation we need to do better with regards to contracts. It will come too late for Brereton (year extension in our favour proving to be a double edged sword that enables complacency once again) but I’m just glad there seems to be an acknowledgement from the powers that be, even if not from some of our fans, and more importantly a strategy to prevent it happening going forward. Even if you absolve the club of all blame and it’s all on the players for running down their contracts, then the club are wrong for supposedly building a model around developing and selling on players. It fell at the first hurdle this summer.

You might be happy to shrug your shoulders about the whole situation and absolve anyone currently employed by Rovers of any responsibility for it, but Broughton doesn’t seem to share your view. That’s blindingly evident from his words and actions. They have acknowledged there is an issue with retaining our assets and I’m delighted to see they appear to be learning from their mistakes and prevent a similar situation happening again. You'd never have seen Waggott going back to offer Wharton a new deal less than 6 months after his initial one was signed. Broughton has an entirely different remit. Waggott’s priority is cost cutting, Broughton is concerned with what happens on the pitch. That’s the real positive about this new structure. I had some initial concerns about the whole set up but it looks as though Broughton has been given plenty of autonomy (thankfully!), which was essential to make it work. Another point which is very clear - EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THE PLAYERS REFUSED TO SIGN THE DEALS ON OFFER. ITS PRETTY OBVIOUS CONSIDERING THEY ALL LEFT. What people have an issue with is the manner of negotiations and offers that were made. You can add Tomasson to the list of people not happy with losing these players for nothing too, in case you haven’t listened to him.

Yeah, three years is the minimum allowed until he turns 18. Hopefully there’ll be a new 5 year deal on the table on his next birthday.

He’s signed!! Fair play to Gregg Broughton, he’s obviously addressing the issue we’ve had around rewarding our academy graduates properly and signing them up in a timely manner. This is just the kind of strategic work we’ve needed someone to be implementing.

If we are committing a couple of million on a player he should be in the team contributing when fit. We aren’t in a position financially to be splashing the cash to pad out the squad.

It’s an idea that has been jumped on by UEFA to try and make sure all teams are coached to play in exactly the same way. That way the biggest clubs with the biggest budgets will normally dominate the leagues and all play each other in their competitions. It’s leading to a boring, sterile game.

Few initial thoughts… I’m sick of this pissing about with it relentlessly at the back. We are bad at it and don’t have the players to do it, especially with a keeper whose kicking is really poor. It’s not just us, the whole obsession with it is wrecking the game, but I digress. Everyone got a bit giddy with a stand in fullback again. When will people learn. Brittain is one of our most important players. Despite my long term reservations about him Pickering was ok today, and one of only 2 or 3 of the starting 11 who can hold his head up. Midfield was a joke. We need to speed up the phasing in of Wharton as our main man in there. Travis was in proper headless chicken mode today. Looked like a shite budget Robbie Savage. For all Hedges good points, he poses zero goal threat. Jigsaw man who goes to pieces in the box. We are overly reliant on Brereton and he is the only one who suits the shape of the way we employ our front three. Unfair to call Luton cloggers or suchlike. They comprehensively beat us today and in fairness it should’ve been more. Project equates to the same as journey. I’m becoming slightly worried that JDT seems more concerned with sticking to a vague “philosophy” than winning games.

Glad to see we’ve kept the same lineup. If I’m being really picky I’d have liked to see Mola keep his place on the bench. I’m hopeful we can get a result today. I know they’ve been a bogey team in recent seasons, but we are in a new era now. I’m probably in the minority in thinking Watford wasn’t our best performance of the season, but I was really pleased how solid we were and how professionally we got the job done. Hopefully we are settling a bit now and can find that consistency.

Solid performance, and solid is spectacular! Was a bit worried for Wharton in the first half with a few uncharacteristically iffy moments, but second half he was flawless. Everyone played their part and this formation looks like the way forward. Watford looked like a bunch of strangers. Some big individual talents in their side but on a couple of occasions 2 of their players stopped to have arguments with each other. Two horse race between Edwards and Wilder for the first Championship sacking. Big thing now is finding some consistency. Mind you, if we win half our games and lose the other half we’ll equal last seasons points total. Looking like another season where a playoff place is a realistic possibility for the majority of the league.

Midfield will be a tough battle today with Choudhury in there for them. I have seen quite a bit of him for Leicester and think he will be very strong in the Championship. Sarr is absolutely ridiculous for this level and with our fullbacks being the area of greatest concern at the moment we could be in for a long night. I’m still having nightmares about Davis from when we played Forest last year so not relishing the prospect of seeing him line up against us. Depends which Rovers turn up, but we have struggled against teams that have really gone at us, which I think Watford will. I’d bite your hand off for a point right now.

It certainly won’t have helped the cause when he’s running the club down like this. He’s being petulant once again, but also blowing holes in his salt of the earth image. He outlived his usefulness years ago and should’ve been long gone a lot sooner. The delusional Sunderland fans will lap this up. They love being referred to as a massive club because they are in the shadow of their genuinely big club rivals more than ever these days. Just so they are aware, I remember Mowbray’s whole “This is Blackburn Rovers” spiel during his early days. He was raving about 95 more than anyone when he first joined, and it only became a stick to beat us with once he got all mardy.

I saw them a few years back and they were excellent. There were Video tributes to Moon and Entwistle incorporated into the set which was a really nice touch. Set list was absolutely belting.

If we are being put into an enforced period of national mourning, why is it only social and sporting events that are stopped? We’ll all still be expected to go and work for 8 hours tomorrow. Most people’s idea of mourning will be writing a Facebook post about how sad it is and watching repetitive telly. @WacoRovermade a really excellent point earlier about how the games would actually provide people an opportunity to gather and show their respects.

Wow. If, and it’s a big if, they find that this is the case, it’s another example of the complete and utter sham that is the fit and proper persons test. If there is any doubt whatsoever, and there clearly is considering the investigations are ongoing, it shows that the Premier League have completely failed to perform appropriate checks and due diligence. I hope one day a Trust takes legal action against one of the pathetic governing bodies on behalf of the fanbase.

I think it was 2 seasons ago when he started quite well and played the first couple of games in a more advanced position. He didn’t play as well as Dolan though and Tyrhys took his place. In typical Mowbray fashion, he got shoved in at right back in place of Nyambe, never looking confident despite one of the games being Wycombe when we battered them 5-0. Lo and behold he got injured almost straight away. On reflection this was the last time he showed promise. 2 years is a long time, and he’s 23 now so youth is no excuse. It looks as though his chance has gone here now. Needed a loan move to find his position, build his fitness and ultimately to prove himself. Josh Morris had a similar experience at Rovers (but with more loans and appearances) and has gone on to have a decent career in the football league. JRC could go the same route but I worry for him that he will end up dropping out of the league if he’s considered a fullback.

Apologies if I’ve missed any recent discussion on this topic, but thought it warranted a thread. Recent comments from the manager, sorry head coach, suggest JRC is pretty much done here. I have mixed feelings on this. It’s undeniable he hasn’t got near to realising that early potential yet, but I still think there is a player in there. Where has it all gone wrong? Obviously the injuries haven’t helped, but I strongly believe that being shoehorned in at right back has wrecked him.

Spot on @Riversider28 @oldjamfan1 - Steve Agnew managed the first couple and joins Russell Beardsmore in the 2 appearance club. Another interesting one is Howard Gayle, he made one start and 3 sub appearances that year.

There were 4 players who each made a single league appearance for Rovers during the 1991-92 promotion season. Can you name all 4?

Ah of course! Easy to forget the most obvious ones sometimes. Funnily how Jim Herd was widely considered as being utterly clueless about the wrestling business and completely out of his depth too!

I very much doubt it. It’s only very recently that someone with so little trust from a promoter would’ve been given a title. I can’t see it ever happening in the territory days either, at least not in the long standing reputable ones. If it’s true and the Elite come out unscathed it will really embolden them and make a lot of the existing problems even worse. There really isn’t a positive resolution to any of this.