Academy & U21s

[only2garners]

It could be as simple as Lewis Thompson being established at left back in the team currently?

[rigger]

4 hours ago, only2garners said:

It could be as simple as Lewis Thompson being established at left back in the team currently?

Thompson looked quite good at left-back.

[only2garners]

Just now, rigger said:

Thompson looked quite good at left-back.

Agreed, indeed I made the same point a page or so ago. Also like you I wasn't terribly impressed with Pike.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, rigger said:

Pikes performance was worse in the first half, against 11. He looked lacking in any confidence, which was typified by raising his arm to indicate he wanted the ball, but not actually calling for it.

Young lads. One bad game isn't the end of the world

[only2garners]

Absolutely Joe. I draw no other conclusion from seeing Pike once other than he didn't play well on the day in my amateur view. he has time on his side yet.

[philipl]

Dackless Rovers play Everton in PL2 at 8 tonight.

Cannot see any TV stream for it.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Double injury blow as Rovers pair ruled out for two months | Lancashire Telegraph

Vale out for another 2 months. 

[bazza]

Any result of game v Everton?

[Stuart]

1 minute ago, bazza said:

Any result of game v Everton?

1-1 mate.

Rovers: Eastham, Pike, Barnes, Annesley, Grayson (c), Thompson (Garrett, 90), Whitehall, Lyons, McBride, Burns, Chapman (Durrant, 90).

Unused substitutes: Stergiakis, Saadi, Harlock.

Goal: Lyons, 39.

[Ossydave]

Finished 1-1. Calamitous mix up at the back gifted Everton an equaliser late on.

[Oldgregg86]

Does anyone know why eastham played over the Greek lad. Is he perceived the better of the two ?

[skous18]

Does anyone know what happened to Butterworth? Can the guy still be injured? Jeez how one get back from an injury like this

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

48 minutes ago, skous18 said:

Does anyone know what happened to Butterworth? Can the guy still be injured? Jeez how one get back from an injury like this

Similar timescale to Travis/Dack was the last thing I read, so a few weeks away. 

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, skous18 said:

Does anyone know what happened to Butterworth? Can the guy still be injured? Jeez how one get back from an injury like this

I'd stop worrying yourself about Butterworth. Sadly I suspect he simply isn't going to make it here. Not through any fault of his or lack of talent, just because his injury problems unfortunately seem to be endless.

Best of luck to him and I very much hope I'm wrong, but to have had as many injury woes as he has, at his age, it doesn't look good.

[ben_the_beast]

9 hours ago, bluebruce said:

I'd stop worrying yourself about Butterworth. Sadly I suspect he simply isn't going to make it here. Not through any fault of his or lack of talent, just because his injury problems unfortunately seem to be endless.

Best of luck to him and I very much hope I'm wrong, but to have had as many injury woes as he has, at his age, it doesn't look good.

It's been pretty much the same injury to his back the majority of his time out though hasn't it? Not promising to get a back injury so early in your career but a little harsh to write him off.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, ben_the_beast said:

It's been pretty much the same injury to his back the majority of his time out though hasn't it? Not promising to get a back injury so early in your career but a little harsh to write him off.

If you get a chronic disc problem certain occupations aren't for you. I would have thought playing pro football was one of them. I did my back at work in my early thirties. We used to play 5 a side for an hour once a week after I'd get " better " and after about 45 minutes I was seizing up.

I hope I'm wrong because the lad looked to have a good future.

[bluebruce]

4 hours ago, ben_the_beast said:

It's been pretty much the same injury to his back the majority of his time out though hasn't it? Not promising to get a back injury so early in your career but a little harsh to write him off.

It would be harsh if I was telling him.

I'm not writing him off per se, anyway, I'm just not holding out a great deal of hope he will be able to beat his injury issues. He looks an exciting player, I'm just not going to expect anything as that looks very likely to lead to disappointment. I think he has had something else minor in between (but you will after a long layoff, see Dack), but the fact it's mostly been his back makes it less likely, not more, that he will move past it. Very troublesome area like Tyrone says. Best of luck to him though and it will be great if I'm wrong.

[Guest]

On 24/11/2020 at 11:13, RV Blue said:

Yes I thought the same. Wonder what the reason or for the change is. Wasted as a left back? Not athletic enough? Two left backs in the same squad and you can’t leave either out the 11?

He's playing central for the 23's as Lewis Thompson starts ahead of him in the left-back role

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, bluebruce said:

It would be harsh if I was telling him.

I'm not writing him off per se, anyway, I'm just not holding out a great deal of hope he will be able to beat his injury issues. He looks an exciting player, I'm just not going to expect anything as that looks very likely to lead to disappointment. I think he has had something else minor in between (but you will after a long layoff, see Dack), but the fact it's mostly been his back makes it less likely, not more, that he will move past it. Very troublesome area like Tyrone says. Best of luck to him though and it will be great if I'm wrong.

I know a bit about disc problems having had one for the last 40 years. As my Osteopath said at the time.  " You could have a friend for life ", Well he was right.

I'd play 60 minutes on a Wednesday night in the Gym. I'd go home after the game and I had my own tractioning device that consisting of a board with a harness  that I put on the stairs. I'd hang off the board for about 1/2 hr using the weight of my lower body. Next day I'd be really stiff, getting shoes and socks on was a struggle, Friday was a bit better. By Monday I'd be Ok, ready to do it all again on Wednesday.

You really need your back to be in perfect condition to play football. The guy who looked after me had been consulted by Alan Gilliver when he was at Rovers and he told me Gilliver had a disc fusion. Not as much pain but a real loss of flexibility. That was 50 years ago now but I'm not sure things have improved that much with backs over the years.

I do remember going to our local Infirmary for treatment. The physio at the time was also the physio for Wigan Rugby League club. I sat down and looked around the waiting room and who should be opposite me but Ellery Hanley, the Wigan and GB captain. He'd come for treatment on his back also. Believe it believe it not but this was on the Thursday before he was due to play in the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley the Saturday !

I thought, " He's no chance of playing ".

Of course he turned out on the Saturday and had a brilliant game as usual.

[philipl]

Got a feeling this is going to be a bigger point than many 3 points will be this season. 

Belief must be surging around Ewood after that display.

So much got validated- the strength and depth of the squad and the sheer resilience of every player in it. All the subs were outstanding including the much maligned Bell and Buckley. Delighted for Davenport.

Gallagher was outstanding throughout and how many positions did Elliott play throughout the game?

Brentford's level dropped appreciably when their subs came on which suggests they are not going to have the resilience to come through this most demanding of seasons.

Really sad for Scott Wharton. He rightly got the start but Ayala's performance was really solid in replacing him.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

Got a feeling this is going to be a bigger point than many 3 points will be this season. 

Belief must be surging around Ewood after that display.

So much got validated- the strength and depth of the squad and the sheer resilience of every player in it. All the subs were outstanding including the much maligned Bell and Buckley. Delighted for Davenport.

Gallagher was outstanding throughout and how many positions did Elliott play throughout the game?

Brentford's level dropped appreciably when their subs came on which suggests they are not going to have the resilience to come through this most demanding of seasons.

Really sad for Scott Wharton. He rightly got the start but Ayala's performance was really solid in replacing him.

Wrong thread I think Phillip.

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

Got a feeling this is going to be a bigger point than many 3 points will be this season. 

Belief must be surging around Ewood after that display.

So much got validated- the strength and depth of the squad and the sheer resilience of every player in it. All the subs were outstanding including the much maligned Bell and Buckley. Delighted for Davenport.

Gallagher was outstanding throughout and how many positions did Elliott play throughout the game?

Brentford's level dropped appreciably when their subs came on which suggests they are not going to have the resilience to come through this most demanding of seasons.

Really sad for Scott Wharton. He rightly got the start but Ayala's performance was really solid in replacing him.

Wrong thread Phil but Buckley was terrible. Not his fault, not where he plays and he has none of the attributes for the role, but in no way was he outstanding.

[philipl]

6 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Wrong thread I think Phillip.

Thanks.

Don't know how that happened.

But I will support Buckley.

He was run round for their second (so were others) bit otherwise made several ball winning interceptions and all round contribution was good.

The fact he made me feel nervous seeing him at RB doesn't mean he was poor there.

 

[bluebruce]

13 hours ago, philipl said:

Thanks.

Don't know how that happened.

But I will support Buckley.

He was run round for their second (so were others) bit otherwise made several ball winning interceptions and all round contribution was good.

The fact he made me feel nervous seeing him at RB doesn't mean he was poor there.

 

He made himself feel nervous at RB. You could tell from his body language. He was poor there. He tried but he was very rocky indeed. Even several misplaced passes, which isn't really like him usually. I try to avoid saying this kind of thing normally, but if you think he was outstanding as anything other than a very generous kindness on account of him being out of position, I don't know what game you were watching. Or at the very least you weren't paying him much attention (I'm guilty of this sometimes with some players, as I focus more on the way we are working as a team, but I was specifically watching out for what Buckley did because it had me very worried that he was even tried there). But, opinions, I guess.

The stats say he made one interception and one tackle. Not 'several ball winning interceptions'. His pass completion rate was only 50%, which is terrible considering how tidy he normally is. May he never play there again as far as I'm concerned. Hell for me the jury is out on how good he is in his actual position, but I've seen enough to think he can develop into a fine technical player there. But almost nothing about his game suits him to being a fullback, and it showed.

[philipl]

He made two tackles in rapid succession on the near touchline- won it, passed, receiving player lost it, won it back again. Plus at least one other tackle and some serious shepherding. I spotted the howling on here when he came on as right back so watched him closely.

For their 2nd goal, Buckley, Armstrong and Rothwell were all beaten.