Steve Waggott

[tomphil]

3 hours ago, Groundhog said:

I just can't believe we didn't offer any incentive for the home fans for this game to counterbalance offering the whole Darwen End to one of our biggest relegation rivals - kids for a quid etc - just proof no one in charge at Ewood prioritises the support.

For all those saying "the crowd doesn't matter" - where you there at Ewood on Saturday? When you have L1 level players like ours who crack at the merest hint of pressure, at home, trying to force the issue in a game against a team fighting for their lives. They literally sucked the ball in to make it 3-1 FFS! 🤣 (sorry trying to see the light side, it's hard)

Comparing 7k away fans to 37k home fans at Leeds away isn't the same thing - it was a magnificent performance but it was a free hit, almost no pressure, no expectation and we grew into the game from a confidence point of view, a backs-against-the-wall performance when no one expects anything is a different kind of approach mentally and tactically compared to trying to force the impetus against a stubborn, determined opponent at home who are willing to scrap.

I don't want to go over old ground, but who's decision was it to limit the Dingles for 2000? Did it come from JDT? I can't remember. If it was, and although it didn't effect the result in our favour (although it was a "better" performance), it just shows what happens when someone with a competitive and ambitious spirit is calling the shots. 

I'm sure it was advised by the police and probably requested by JDT for the dingle game but the only reason it happened was because of the cup run/tv income Waggot had exceeded his income target for the season by some way.

Otherwise it is nailed on he'd have turned over as much as the fuzz would allow for that game.

Edited April 22 by tomphil

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

It’s completely different and you know it.

We set up to defend against Leeds, rode our luck and came away with an excellent win. But to try and do the same against 2nd bottom of the league playing at home with 7k+ fans backing them is just ridiculous.

Compound that with our “senior” players and captain making repeated & basic mistakes yet still being an automatic pick in the first team, it’s football suicide.

Just excuses from yourself in my opinion. No different for me

 

2 hours ago, ABBEY said:

Bollix 

All posted on here, used the search function on the site to find it but you won't cos you know you wrong, so I will do it for you

 

2024/25 Season Tickets - Page 3 - Blackburn Rovers Fans Messageboard - BRFCS.com - By Blackburn Rovers fans, for Blackburn Rovers fans.

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

Its a completely different scenario Chaddy. You can't simply say that because we won an away game that there is no issue in giving away teams vast allocations at Ewood.

You go away to Arsenal, Liverpool, United in the Cup and play infront of 60-70,000 you expect your team to rise to the occasion.

It is completely different to hand over 1/4 of your stadium to the away team, who are in a must-win situation, and have them making all the noise. The Ewood atmosphere is poor at the best of times.

There's an age old concept in football of 'home advantage'. It is why teams since Victorian times have preferred playing on their own ground rather than going away. It is partly, though not wholly, because they prefer being surrounded by their own fans backing them whereas the away team is having to play with a small number of their fans.

Yesterday home advantage went out of the window from where I was sat. It was a decent atmosphere yes, but the Wednesday fans made a huge amount of noise and I am sure that the Pears calamity show in the second half was at least partly brought about by jitters from having their fans right behind him.

Control the controllables. We can't control what goes on at Leeds or Leicester, but we can control what goes on at Ewood and make sure in must not lose games we aren't giving the opposition any advantage whatsoever.

 

just excuses after excuses. There were 7k Sheff Wed fans. That it. How did they ever make it professional if they can't play in front one full stand of away fans. FFS 

 

Edited April 22 by chaddyrovers

[scotchrover]

5 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Just excuses from yourself in my opinion. No different for me

 

All posted on here, used the search function on the site to find it but you won't cos you know you wrong, so I will do it for you

 

2024/25 Season Tickets - Page 3 - Blackburn Rovers Fans Messageboard - BRFCS.com - By Blackburn Rovers fans, for Blackburn Rovers fans.

 

just excuses after excuses. There were 7k Sheff Wed fans. That it. How did they ever make it professional if they can't play in front one full stand of away fans. FFS 

 

On that last point- I sat in the JW stand for the game against Preston, early on in the season. We were slightly closer to the PNE fans, and they drowned out the home fans  I couldn’t hear the Blackburn End, where my season ticket is.

It needs looking at. We simply roll over for any club willing to fill the Darwen End, and let them turn it into a home game, because they’ve fans happy to pay £X. It’s nothing shorting embarrassing if truth be told.

Ewood should be a fortress and because of that, the Darwen End upstairs only should be the only part being used to house away fans. 

 

Edited April 22 by scotchrover

[DeeCee]

Chaddys on one. 👍

[Mattyblue]

So support makes no difference at all to results? 

So across football why do the vast majority of teams do better at home?

Edited April 22 by Mattyblue

[simongarnerisgod]

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

ust excuses after excuses. There were 7k Sheff Wed fans. That it. How did they ever make it professional if they can't play in front one full stand of away fans. FFS 

i have to agree,in the history of the great game,there has never been an example of the away fans influencing the game to such an extent that it changes the game,they don`t make you defend properly or score a goal

[JHRover]

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

just excuses after excuses. There were 7k Sheff Wed fans. That it. How did they ever make it professional if they can't play in front one full stand of away fans. FFS 

 

Playing at home with 7000+ away fans behind one goal filling 25% of the stadium isn't normal. That's the point. Nobody else does it. It's not just a run of the mill situation that players are used to dealing with every week.

So it's likely when we do it is going to have some sort of effect.

We've a young, weak and inexperienced group. Sheffield Wednesday are at the opposite end of that scale. I'd wager the younger ones would struggle more than the experienced ones in such circumstances.

 

[tomphil]

53 minutes ago, scotchrover said:

On that last point- I sat in the JW stand for the game against Preston, early on in the season. We were slightly closer to the PNE fans, and they drowned out the home fans  I couldn’t hear the Blackburn End, were my season ticket is.

It needs looking at. We simply roll over for any club willing to fill the Darwen End, and let them turn into a home game, because they’ve fans happy to pay £X. It’s nothing shorting embarrassing if truth be told.

Ewood should be a fortress and because of that, the Darwen End upstairs only should be the only part being used to house away fans. 

 

Yep but the lazy and the clueless who run the club won't acknowledge the desperate need to reboot the season ticket base and get as many home fans in as possible.

They'll just say if we restrict the 4 or 5 potential huge followings per season ticket prices will have to rise again to cover it.  No interest whatsoever in the cost of points or home fans being pissed off with it.

The DoF should be walking into Waggot and the shadow mans offices and saying 3 times you've filled that end with away fans this season and 3 times we've lost with many of the goals coming at that end and a few resulting from complete howlers.

That's 9 points.

Of course there is the bigger picture but it also needs acknowledging they've created a development team as a first team propped up by a few senior pros so the dynamics are different than they were a few years ago.

A squad of 30% home grown kids, young loanees and average journeymen needs and environment it can thrive in and use every advantage possible in the quest for enough points to tread water.

Restrict the big city teams to 5k filling upstairs first that's more than adequate and food for thought is Sheff Weds if that was a dead rubber would've brought 2.5 to 3.5k tops. So for a few extra quid that will neither make or break the financial mess at Rovers we've rolled over and allowed them double that for their big day out and most important game so far.

Well done.

[Mashed Potatoes]

39 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Playing at home with 7000+ away fans behind one goal filling 25% of the stadium isn't normal. That's the point. Nobody else does it. It's not just a run of the mill situation that players are used to dealing with every week.

So it's likely when we do it is going to have some sort of effect.

We've a young, weak and inexperienced group. Sheffield Wednesday are at the opposite end of that scale. I'd wager the younger ones would struggle more than the experienced ones in such circumstances.

 

Aren't you one of the posters who keeps calling on the club to "Increase Turnover " ? Yet here you call for the club to turn their noses up at the prospect of increased ticket sales ?

[JHRover]

7 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

Aren't you one of the posters who keeps calling on the club to "Increase Turnover " ? Yet here you call for the club to turn their noses up at the prospect of increased ticket sales ?

So often there's a bigger picture to be had. 

Increased turnover only one element of the overall picture. At this stage of the season, with a cataclysmic relegation to the 3rd division still a possibility and a direct rival coming to Ewood, yes I'd turn my nose up at increased ticket sales if I felt it gave us a better chance of avoiding defeat.

Would be different if we were in Sunderland's position and going nowhere, or virtually safe, but that was never going to be the case when we started selling tickets to them,

Short termism again. 

Lets all congratulate the management for saving on wages by loaning people out and getting rid of loads of experience from the squad. Well done. Increased revenue and reduced expenditure. Job done.

But that could directly lead to relegation and a far greater cost.

 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

I really don't understand the complaints about the away fans filling out the darwen end! Fair play to them i say!! 

In my lifetime(admittedly that's just from the very beginning of the Jack walker era onwards) the darwen end has always been the away supporters end🤷‍♂️ apart from occasional periods (mainly under the Vs) where sections have been made available to rovers fans to

It's sad that we no longer get close to filling out the other 3 stands and yes that is mostly down to the Venkys gutting the heart out of the club and waggot continually looking for ways to extort rovers fans

 

One problem i do see at ewood is that rovers fans themselves are very fragmented(not sure that's the right word😅) on matchdays. It's like the blackburn end, JW and riverside supporters are all singing from a different song sheet.

They annoyed me at the time but maybe we should get the drummers back in the blackburn end to get us all in sync 😄 

Edited April 22 by Armchair supporter supremo

[Armchair supporter supremo]

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

Playing at home with 7000+ away fans behind one goal filling 25% of the stadium isn't normal. That's the point. Nobody else does it. It's not just a run of the mill situation that players are used to dealing with every week.

So it's likely when we do it is going to have some sort of effect.

We've a young, weak and inexperienced group. Sheffield Wednesday are at the opposite end of that scale. I'd wager the younger ones would struggle more than the experienced ones in such circumstances.

 

I really have to agree with the chaddertron on this one(😬😬)

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, scotchrover said:

On that last point- I sat in the JW stand for the game against Preston, early on in the season. We were slightly closer to the PNE fans, and they drowned out the home fans  I couldn’t hear the Blackburn End, where my season ticket is.

It needs looking at. We simply roll over for any club willing to fill the Darwen End, and let them turn it into a home game, because they’ve fans happy to pay £X. It’s nothing shorting embarrassing if truth be told.

Ewood should be a fortress and because of that, the Darwen End upstairs only should be the only part being used to house away fans. 

 

I understand your point but surely that is down to the home support to be more vocal but the club should be focusing on filling the home sections by having sensible and cheaper ST and match day prices policies. Have a singing area for fans like NO1 and NO5 area 

I wouldn't put the away fans in Darwen end upper tier. 

2 hours ago, JHRover said:

Playing at home with 7000+ away fans behind one goal filling 25% of the stadium isn't normal. That's the point. Nobody else does it. It's not just a run of the mill situation that players are used to dealing with every week.

So it's likely when we do it is going to have some sort of effect.

We've a young, weak and inexperienced group. Sheffield Wednesday are at the opposite end of that scale. I'd wager the younger ones would struggle more than the experienced ones in such circumstances.

Like I said previously, if Pears can't cope with having full stand of away fans being him then how did he cope against Leeds away or Newcastle at home in the cup. 

Young and inexperience group? really? 

Pears 25, Hyam 28, Wharton 26, Carter 24, Brittain 26, JRC 24 Tronstad 28, Pickering 25, Dolan 22, Szmodics 28 Gallagher 28

That is hardly a young or inexperience group is it. Younger player there is Dolan who has 161 apps for us. 

[ABRAM ROVER]

1 hour ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

I really don't understand the complaints about the away fans filling out the darwen end! Fair play to them i say!! 

In my lifetime(admittedly that's just from the very beginning of the Jack walker era onwards) the darwen end has always been the away supporters end🤷‍♂️ apart from occasional periods (mainly under the Vs) where sections have been made available to rovers fans to

It's sad that we no longer get close to filling out the other 3 stands and yes that is mostly down to the Venkys gutting the heart out of the club and waggot continually looking for ways to extort rovers fans

 

One problem i do see at ewood is that rovers fans themselves are very fragmented(not sure that's the right word😅) on matchdays. It's like the blackburn end, JW and riverside supporters are all singing from a different song sheet.

They annoyed me at the time but maybe we should get the drummers back in the blackburn end to get us all in sync 😄 

Why when we had the singing section in the Darwen end back in the prem days it worked well.

[Miller11]

“We love it when the away team bring a big following. Like Preston and Wrexham. There is really only an atmosphere when the away end is full. We want to play in front of a full house.”

- Aynsley Pears. In that infamous meeting at the start of February.

Gallagher and Hyam were in agreement.

Edited April 22 by Miller11

[Armchair supporter supremo]

58 minutes ago, ABRAM ROVER said:

Why when we had the singing section in the Darwen end back in the prem days it worked well.

When was that, i don't really remember it? I remember the odd game later in the walker trust years where they'd open the darwen end lower tier to rovers fans when they weren't expecting many away fans. Personally didn't like it, just felt wrong to me sitting in what I'd always known as the away end. 

[Mattyblue]

Not sure why people seem to be struggling with this one. Generally, for another plodding mid table season, give Sunderland, Leeds and yes, Sheff Wed, the full end and take their cash, we can’t fill the seats ourselves, so it is what it is.

However, in this very specific instance, how about not giving a relegation rival any kind of advantage at your own bloody ground for a huge six pointer with three games to go.

Take every home advantage possible, don’t pocket a few extra grand but risk losing millions.

[Mattyblue]

4 minutes ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

When was that, i don't really remember it? I remember the odd game later in the walker trust years where they'd open the darwen end lower tier to rovers fans when they weren't expecting many away fans. Personally didn't like it, just felt wrong to me sitting in what I'd always known as the away end. 

The Darwen End had home fans in it every game pretty much (unless moved for Liverpool/Man Utd) for twenty years from 95/96 until c2015.

 

Edited April 22 by Mattyblue

[wilsdenrover]

11 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

“We love it when the away team bring a big following. Like Preston and Wrexham. There is really only an atmosphere when the away end is full. We want to play in front of a full house.”

- Aynsley Pears. In that infamous meeting at the start of February.

Gallagher and Hyam were in agreement.

Did anyone suggest to them that there’s  a link between the team’s performances and the ‘atmosphere’ of the home fans?

Edited April 22 by wilsdenrover

[Ghost7]

10 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Not sure why people seem to be struggling with this one. Generally, for another plodding mid table season, give Sunderland, Leeds and yes, Sheff Wed, the full end and take their cash, we can’t fill the seats ourselves, so it is what it is.

However, in this very specific instance, how about not giving a relegation rival any kind of advantage at your own bloody ground for a huge six pointer with three games to go.

Take every home advantage possible, don’t pocket a few extra grand but risk losing millions.

 

Bonkers isn't it. Absolutely no issue when we're comfortably drifting to mid table finishes which has often been the case, fine take the cash (we're usually major underdogs anyway against teams that bring that size of crowd)... however, it was complete stupidity to give a relegation rival that kind of backing in such a massive fixture and it predictably backfired.

It will haunt Pears a bit more too knowing his error was in front of them. Waggott helped the opposition more than us. Was it even a coincidence the mistake happened down that end? It was a pressure fixture, with an intimidating crowd - the Newcastle game was not this. Wednesday took full advantage of the allocation, they were never going to stop buying because they knew the fixture was huge, (bigger for them than us) and they knew they could impact it.

If anyone thinks differently I can only assume you've never played competitive football at any level.

The crowd at Ewood can be a weakness, largely due to the owners (the CEO must have his head up his arse if he isn't receptive of this) and it was criminal to give them that many tickets. The fixture became neutral. It will have felt like a home game to them and what a feeling to get during a season like they're having.

Confidence is key and when you're in the relegation zone it's low. As an opponent you've got to do everything possible to capitalise on that on and off the pitch in this kind of fixture, yes we didn't do enough on it but giving them a fan backing of that size was one way to level the playing field a bit more.

Most clubs would take any advantage they can to help their players at home, - it should mean everything... but not ours.

I can't wait for the season to end, I'm not renewing - the decision making behind the scenes isn't anything I'd ever want to be part of. Absolutely criminal stuff.

[Armchair supporter supremo]

7 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

The Darwen End had home fans in it every game pretty much (unless moved for Liverpool/Man Utd) for twenty years from 95/96 until c2015.

 

Well my mind seems to have blanked that out 😂 

 

It's still the away end for me though and if the away fans can fill it it, then give it all to them.

The onus is on the home fans to shout them down from every other stand. 

I dont remember tim flowers, Friedel, Robinson ever complaining! If anything i vaguely remember ocasions when they enjoyed the banter with the away fans behind them. It should push the player to raise their game! Not bottle it like an amatures

Edited April 23 by Armchair supporter supremo

[tomphil]

We've got a lilly livered soft centre in the squad again moaning about it instead of appreciating where they are and the support they actually get.

They are flinging out excuses again left right and centre and we are yet again falling for the 'blame the fans' deflection tactics.

Oh just outshout them from the other end ?

Still doesn't make much difference when the opposition are attacking their end repeatedly because their players are set up better and trying harder. They are STILL kicking into a massed bank of seven thousand fans even if there is 20 thousand in the other end !

When you get a big city team coming you have a lower tier full of mainly aled up blokes between the ages of 16-60, when you look in the Blackburn End lower tier you have a real mix of age, gender, kids and family groups it's a different demographic they ain't going to be bouncing round the stand unless the team is having a real go down that end.

It was no different when we were challenging the top of the Prem.

Don't fall for the narrative twisting agenda it's all down to the players to lift the negative vibe this ownership and those running this club have created over the last decade.

[Mercer]

Sadly, Ewood Park has never been renowned as having a hostile atmosphere which is often worth a goal start.

Highbury was once nicknamed The Library' because it was so quiet.

In the main, Rovers fans are a docile lot at Ewood Park, too little passion and too many happy clappers.

[tomphil]

That's because it's always been a small town family club fanbase and a fairly big ground not often full, plenty other clubs have the same type of fanbase.

It's the stadium itself that is the giant white elephant way too big and way too accommodating for visiting fans from much larger areas.  PNE and Burnley, Blackpool and Bolton fans no different whatsoever....their stadiums are though.

As someone who has travelled all over supporting Rovers through various periods of form etc i will die on the hill that most places are the same when their team is shite, their are problems at the club or there is nothing to play for.  The exceptions are very rare but again most don't have a stadium way to big for their core fanbase and town.

Coventry, Sheff Weds, Derby, Stoke, Boro, Sunderland, West Brom, Villa, Brum, to name a few iv'e visited regularly over last decade or so and all shite atmosphere and empty seats all over the gaff when things weren't going well.

Yet again amongst our small minded fans it only ever happens at Ewood !!!

Have some of you lot ever actually been anywhere else apart from when Rovers were on a good run ?

[only2garners]

I remember being at Hillsborough in 2020 when we won 5-0. I was on the Eastbank with my Wednesday supporting mate. There was understandable huge grumbling at half time when they had seen us score 3 in front of them. A lot left and many didn't come back. Then we scored the fourth very early in the second half and I will swear about 3,000 just got up and walked out. For almost the whole of the second half there was a very sparse crowd on that end. No doubt many of those who walked out that day were at Ewood on Sunday proclaiming their undying allegiance to Wednesday.