superniko

Might have to change my avatar to Eustace giving it to the Leeds fans. COYB

Burnley red card - Hannibal misses the game against us

Imagine having Gnonto on your bench in the championship

Watford losing two in a row to Cardiff and WBA. It’s textbook Championship - hopefully we can pull off a shock today and go into the Derby with confidence.

It’s so weird they won’t open that bit up fully. You can walk to the edge of the riverside anyway so what difference does it make having people sat there

XG will likely be a bit dodgy there as we would have had all of it until they scored then they had some big chances since, likely levelled out. Agree on Buckley - he is dreadful - his ‘creativity’ now has just turned into hopeful lofted balls to their CBs. He was our captain for the last 20 mins! Imagine that for inspiration / organisation - mental decision.

The lads enjoy their Turkey dinner

So frustrating - missed sitters and we paid for it. Wrong subs from Eustace (in my opinion). Leonard and JRC should have been the first two - not Ohashi, Weimann and certainly not Buckley who is so far off this standard now it’s alarming. How on earth is he getting the captains armband at the end - that is disgraceful. JRC to start instead of Baker next time. Leonard will probably get his chance against Leeds when we’ll have 5 touches in their box. Got to be beating Hull at home if you’re dreaming of top 6 - almost feels inevitable after all the 3-0 predictions in here pre-match

Poor distribution from Pears and good performance from ACD about all I’ve taken from that. I’d stick on Leonard now - bit of energy upfront

Gives the powers that be something to think about for the home playoff leg that big John Eustace is taking us to. 💪

I hope they’ve got enough crates of Fosters for a full upper tier!

I beg to differ. Gueye is actually a nuisance to defenders, wins almost all the long balls his way and isn’t far off any Gallagher season for goal involvements despite not starting the majority of matches. He actually influences matches and makes it easier for players around him, Gallagher would do that once in every 15 (and I’d admit look amazing in that match eg Leicester away in the cup) Add in the fact he’s made of glass it’s not even a competition for me. Gallagher, built like Thor, plays like Bambi

Very good - so about 22,250 home tickets sold. 250 more still on sale and another 500 or so for pointless segregation. 4k dingles + 1k pointless segregation in the DE bottom tier and an empty DE upper tier, which it seems will not go on sale to either set of fans. So expecting 26.5k total attendance - 4.5k never going on sale for whatever reasons the club blag.

Small block in Riverside and lower tier JW on the Darwen End side. Probably about 500-750 or so tickets maybe at a guess

Happens in derbys all around the country. Not many places where you dedicate a whole stand to only the away team. We also had split Darwen end for a long time until crowds dwindled so much Such a weird response but I guess that is to be expected.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing given the demand, but it would have been good to see a sold out split Darwen End (3.5k each and 1k segregation in the middle) - it’s essentially the same home fans as the upper tier BBE. Then start opening the Upper BBE once that sold (which would be about now as we approach sell out) Or even just split the lower tier Darwen End and then open up the Blackburn End Upper. Always prefer Ewood with home fans in all 4 stands ahead of the upper tiers.

Yeah real head scratcher that one 🙄

You just literally highlighted my point that it’s the correct set-up for ELITE players. Your bog standard championship winger can’t cross very well with their weaker foot, that’s fact, and they’re not good enough to come inside and ping it in the bottom corner on their strong foot like those elite players you listed. Roberts is one of, if not the, best winger in the league Stick Ryan Hedges on the right wing, do you think he performs better? He can just about use his right foot for standing on

Yep - absolutely no need for segregation in JW or Riverside. Darwen End is completely separated.

Robben and Saka spring to mind for wingers who cut inside, playing on their opposite wing. Gakpo and Salah goals tonight both fit that mould - it’s certainly the percentage play at elite level, though I must admit at our level it feels more beneficial to play left on left and right on right due the sheer lack of quality.

Yeah - must have been over 26k Rovers fans at the Oxford game. Cracking weather too - complete opposite to the Wigan one!

Yeah I stupidly ignored Oxford as the overall was still only 27.6k given their small following. Eugh, that Wigan match was a grim night in that crowd.

Would have been the biggest gate since 2011 if we’d used the Darwen End appropriately - and only bettered by those where we gave 8k to United and co. It’s not tracked but I’d be interested to see when we last had a bigger ‘home’ section. It’ll be about 21k-22k home fans Edit: ignore that - more home fans at the Oxford match wasn’t there

Our fixtures look interesting. We get the return Leeds and Burnley fixtures out the way straight away. Then go on a long run of ‘winnable’ fixtures (if there is such a thing in the Championship) until April when we meet Boro, Wednesday, Sunderland, Watford and Sheffield United - all in the battle for Top 6 with us. Hopefully we don’t run out of steam late on like we have in years past!

Real shame Pickering is out for so long as Beck is our best answer for left sided winger. Could do with addressing that in January (we won’t)