Me and @PeteJD13mentioned to Waggott that it was stupid to have cut off points for Season tickets and half season tickets. They should be available at any point at a pro-rata price. Rather than dressing this up as a 5 game bundle, push for sales of season tickets to help with the promotion push, and give them the other minimal season ticket holder benefits too. Priority on playoff tickets would be an incentive surely. Far better chance of people who buy them renewing next year too. We actually discussed the possibility of us being in a position where the last 6 games of actually meant something and suggested making sure there was a deal available in that scenario, but this seems to fall into the nearly but not quite right category. Also messes up any chance of cheap tickets for a potential must win game/promotion party.

I don’t think either of those games should be used as a benchmark of acceptable pitch quality. We struggled in both games due to the surface. It cost us points against Huddersfield in my opinion.

I think there is some good debate around the state of the pitch and the reasons for the cancellation. I also think this thread is being spoiled by some rambling opinions being stated as fact over and over and over again, and people being bombarded with questions by someone who isn’t the least bit interested in any answers anyone they may have.

FullSizeRender.MOV Ref checking the bounce and doing his inspection just before calling it off. Make of it what you will, could only upload a short file

The weather today was freaky. I’m about 3 miles away from Ewood on slightly higher ground and at half 11 I thought there was no chance the game would be on. The announcement at 12:30ish was premature and very optimistic. I’d have to question how thorough an inspection the ref carried out at that point. A mate of mine sent me a video of the ref testing the bounce of the ball just before 2. The surface looked pretty far from ideal at that point. I’ve no real issues with the game being called off, but the communication was poor and the timing ludicrous. Easy enough for me to shrug it off I suppose, I haven’t travelled from London… or Chile.

Anyone got an orange ball?

Terrible take

Was it that season or the year after when we were heavily linked with Trevor Sinclair? I seem to remember Jack not being keen, possibly out of loyalty to Wilcox if I remember correctly. He’d have been a lot better bet than Matty Holmes for sure. I’d go for him along with Zidane who I would happily pay the same as Shearer. I’m sure we signed Chris Coleman that year too. With the benefit of hindsight Southgate would’ve been the much better buy from Palace. I’d go with that. Super Atko goes nowhere. I’m not sure how reliable my memory is, but I recall Chris Armstrong always doing well and scoring against us. While there are better value deals to be had, I hate Dennis Bergkamp and he’s too scared to get on planes, and I reckon we’d give the Champions League a much better crack with my updated squad!

Don’t think I’d fancy sitting in the Darwen End with all the Millwall fans directly overhead!

We never looked like conceding tonight - the back three were awesome. Few people owe Nyambe an apology. We need to find a way to score though, particularly if Brereton is going to miss any games. The positioning of our forwards is far more of an issue than the service they get, that’s been evident over the last 3 games. Dack could be the answer.

Very possibly. I’ll try and find out later. Regardless of any stats we were visibly so much more solid with that settled back five. Moving away from it by choice seems negligent.

Don’t worry everybody, Chaddy has reported three Forest players to the police (and Steve Waggott). I wish I was joking.

. Kaminski Van Hecke Ayala Wharton Nyambe Giles Travis Buckley Dolan Gallagher Brereton Pears, Zeefuik, Phillips, Rothwell, Khadra, Dack, Hedges Thats presuming Pickering is not yet fit.

One for the stattos here: This seasons points per game WITH Nyambe: 2 This seasons points per game WITHOUT Nyambe: 0.88 Still waiting for someone to give me one logical reason for dropping him.

Nyambe and Lenihan seem very pally on the pitch, over the last few months they’ve built up a phenomenal understanding. There is frequent communication and acknowledgement between the two. Lenihan was visibly furious with Zeefuik last night when something else didn’t come off a few minutes after Zeefuik got in the way of his attempted ball into the box. That’s not all on Zeefuik, he’s not completely drilled to the way we play like Nyambe is.

Any of our out of contract players would be utterly stupid to sign a new deal at this point. It’s dragged on too long and we need to see where we are playing next season. All contract talks should be shelved for now so we can concentrate on the job in hand. Why aren’t Lenihan and Rothwell, the player who actually requested to talk to other clubs a few days ago, not subject to the same treatment from Mowbray… who himself is out of contract before Nyambe’s is up.

Not surprised Mowbray dropped Nyambe, called it. Not surprised it cost us either. Lenihan completely lost his head long before he picked up that stupid second yellow. At one point he was screaming at Zeefuik in front of the Jack Walker stand and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him leather him if he’d been stood closer. Travis was decent until he decided to basically give up on anything to do with the ball and focus all his efforts in trying to get their players sent off and commit sneaky fouls. That miss from Buckley is a fucking disgrace. Really pissed off with that tonight. For the second game in a row, Mowbray has hamstrung us by making unenforced changes. Hoping Dack can come back and rescue our season at this point.

I’ve got a horrible feeling Nyambe will be dropped tonight for Zeefuik. Mowbray has tried to accommodate him for the last couple of games, and it’s not worked, but I’m pretty sure he’s not finished trying him out yet. I really hope I’m wrong as it will, in my opinion, significantly weaken us defensively.

I think 10 of the 11 pick themselves: . Kaminski Lenihan Van Hecke Wharton Nyambe Giles Travis Rothwell Buckley ???????????? Brereton If Gallagher is fit, I’d go with him. Coming off the right he should be getting on the end of Giles’s deliveries. No need to disrupt a successful formula unless necessary. It would be harsh to drop Buckley off the back of an admittedly poor performance on Saturday. No need for Johnson and Davenport both to be on the bench, I’d have Vale or Dack (or both) amongst the subs instead.

Kaminski - Fine Nyambe - Very good. People complaining that he doesn’t cross enough, see Giles Lenihan - Defensively fine, busy performance, lacked composure but as a centre back hardly surprising. Should’ve done better with the chances he had. Van Hecke - Decent without being troubled. Wharton - Decent. Though our left side was where we were vulnerable. Zeefuik - poor. Seems to have better attacking instincts than defensive ones. Rubbish for the goal. Not a left back, should be cover for Nyambe or to come on late in games Travis - Very good. Held the midfield together, covered a lot of ground, did the simple things well. Rothwell - few flashes. Not the statement of intent I was hoping for. Couple of trademark runs that didn’t come off. Get him off set pieces. Buckley - very poor game. Nullified himself with a daft booking for a dive. Should’ve scored. Hedges - couple of moments but largely anonymous. Shouldn’t have started. Giles - looked superb at wing back and possesses bags of quality. Must have been really frustrating for him putting in quality crosses, unfortunately the only time anyone thought about getting on the end of them was when we hit desperation stakes with big defenders up top. Brereton - needed to start. Bringing him on when they were down to 10 meant he saw basically nothing of the ball. Frustrating when our only instinctive goalscorer is deeper and wider than 6 or 7 other outfield players instead of being in a position to score Khadra - we know what his strengths are, but it doesn’t always come off for him. Difficult again for him coming on when they had shut up shop. JRC - coming to crunch time with him. Needs to kick on. Was mostly anonymous apart from a stupid shove on his former teammate. A bit of a nothing sub in the circumstances, and we’d be better off with Vale in the bench instead of Davenport. He’d have been a much better option today. Moving away from our tried and tested eleven will be our downfall. Hopefully there is a lesson learned today by Tony and this isn’t the return of the tombola.

Zeefuik was 33/1 to score first last time out. Loads of people backed him when they saw where he was playing and his odds rapidly shortened.

Expect something to be announced in the not too distant future

Members of the Walker family should fund this. I’m sure it’s what Jack would’ve wanted. No chance with that lot though. Would be a good gesture for Venky’s to donate.

Bournemouth blowing everyone out of the water with wages will be how they got Dembele. You can’t just absolve the club of any blame for apparent offers not being accepted. The first thing you have to do in any transfer scenario is make it financially attractive enough for the selling club to consider. Whether we didn’t offer enough, or went for players out of our financial reach, not having further achievable targets is a failing at our end. Why didn’t we sign at least one of the two players Mowbray mentioned as Rothwell replacements, if he had money burning a hole in his pocket?