5 games - 5 conceded - 6 scored - 6 points from 15 - 1.2 points per game. We have won one, drawn three and lost one under Eustace. We have stopped conceding 2+ goals a game, are unbeaten at Ewood, have rationalised our approach, are now playing the percentages, have a head start on others, have made life simpler and some of our better players have returned from injury. Plus I do.not rate some of our peers.

We wont go down. There's loads of dross in our division and we have a head start on many of them. Meanwhile we are Blackburn Rovers Football Club, founder members of the football league, six times winners of this competition, playing at Ewood Park, in the famous blue and white, with a chance of getting through to the quarter finals. Televised. Our best players will want to be in the shop window. Our manager can help his standing going forward. They owe it to the fans to try and win. Once upon a time our biggest game was a Full Members Cup final. Uncle Jack taught us all it was ok to dream.

I'm just talking about India and its been disappointing. As much throigh the lack of intelligence and discipline as anything else. Averages in India Crawley - 41 Duckett - 39 Pope - 35 Root - 30 Robinson - 29 Stokes - 24 Foakes - 21 Bairstow - 21 Hartley - 19 Wood - 16 Ahmed - 12 Bashir - 4 Anderson - 3 Crawley normally averages 32. Duckett averages 42. Pope averages 34. Root averages 49. Stokes averages 35. Bairstow averages 36. Foakes averages 29. So Crawley has outperformed.his normal mediocrity and Pope is marginally better than his uninspiring 34. All.else are below, or considerably below their normal average. Yet you describe this as trenendous. The middle order has been pish. Total dog dirt. The top four not much better. We were clearly never going to win this series with those performances. We lost 7 wickets for 35 runs in 26 overs in our 2nd innings. Absolutely pathetic.

We have lost the series after four tests. We were fortunate to win the one we did. We lost one test by the greatest ever margin in India. In some innings we have not survived 40 overs. India have had at least 3 top players missing every test. Other than one big score from Pope, Duckett and Root we have often batted very badly / naively. And criminally gifted our wickets. In the last test alone I can think of four terrible dismissals. It's not gone to plan. Because the plan was flawed. We have not scored enough runs or occupied the crease long enough. Those pointing out we don't have the players with the correct concentration, application, mindset and technique to prosper in India are simply stating the blatantly obvious. Did you know that the Indians didnt score a boundary for 35 overs chasing our total? They simply adapted to the immediate match requirements and played proper risk free test cricket with no misconceived, or pre-meditated ideas. For me, Bazball has looked pretty old, dated and ineffective on this trip. I feel sorry for our bowlers. Not one batsmen comes out of this with any credit for me.

Yes they have been easily the better side. Too many of our players have not contributed consistently. Pleasing to see how our young spinners have developed. Wow that venue looks amazing!

Disappointing to lose the series and this match so easily after getting into a good first innings position. A lack of runs, and two good innings by the Indian middle order under fierce pressure saw them home.

I understood. Hence quoting his runs this series for England. Do you think he will be happy with his series? Or describe it as tremendous? I don't.

Precisely. Fecking rubbish. Very disappointing.

Crawley looked great whilst it lasted. Played straight, looked solid in defence and used his size well to turn a good length into a half volley. Until that is he tried to play a ball hitting middle stump to square leg and played all round it. So annoying!!! He has scored 20, 31, 76, 73, 15, 11, 42 and 60 this series. He keeps getting in, then getting out. Tremendous series? Not sure about that. 51 runs in the first test and 26 in the 3rd test is neither use nor ornament. Jaiswal has over 600 runs at 71 including a 171, 209 and 214. That's tremendous. But he is at least averaging over 40 which is a big improvememt. Plus he's fronting everything and batting when the ball is new and the bowlers are full of energy. Maybe I'm too harsh on him, but its only because I think he could cause chaos batting at 4 or 5.

RIP Paul Bradshaw. The first goalkeeper I watched at the Rovers.

19 for 2.

Cool. Give that one to JDT.

Of course. But there were a lot more apples and oranges flying into our net previously. I keep reading 3 out of 12, but the stats will ultimately show JE was in charge against Stoke.

QPR lost 2-1 Huddersfield 1-1 West Brom lost 4-1 Rotherham 2-2 Hull lost 3-2 Huddersfield lost 3-0 Watford lost 2-1 Southampton lost 4-0 Bristol won 2-1 Leeds lost 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday lost 3-1 11 games - 27 conceded - 11 scored - 5 points from 33 - 0.45 points per game Stoke won 3-1 Birmingham lost 1-0 Preston 2-2 Cardiff - 0-0 Norwich - 1-1 5 games - 5 conceded - 6 scored - 6 points from 15 - 1.2 points per game We would now be level on points with Huddersfield in 19th if we hadn't made a change. And conceded 12 more goals. Should all have stayed the same of course. I am pleased with the players for the effort and commitment displayed. At least we are not a soft touch any longer. It's nice to be 5 points clear of the dead legs. It's also nice not to concede an avalanche of goals each weekend. I am however very suprised we can't string 3 passes together, after 18 months of practice. It can only mean that the manager does not wish to take any chances at all, at anytime and will simply trust in the percentages. Can't say I blame him with 5 points from 33 and relegation looming. I'm not sure he had any choice. For balance, JDT did win fixtures 12 and 13. Plus 2 resounding Cup wins in the last 15 played. I still thought 11 games was a good enough sample. After 8 games we had 2 from 24 for example.

Yes Jim. Kept the sweeping and reverse sweeping to a minimum. Brilliant square drives, straight drives, back foot drives, late cuts and leg side shots with the spin. Hes a brilliant batsmen playing to his strengths.

112 for 5......300 for 7!! Woop, woop. Well done Root, Foakes and Robinson. Root and Foakes the slowest 100 partnership in the last two years. Afternoon session the slowest scoring session in the last two years. Roots hundred the slowest 100 under Stokes reign. Roots first four in front of square was his 126th bowl faced. Roots tenth ton against India. They played like they were representing England. Crawley was bowled twice through the gate getting to 40, Bairstow and Pope were out playing across the line and 112 for 5 could have easily been 170 all out. Crawley isn't an opener for me. Root has literally given us a chance to save the series. I hope he bats in the same manner tomorrow, doesn't gift his wicket chasing runs and remains not out. Send a message for the 2nd innings and last test. Root plays sensible cricket and gets a ton. Who would have thought? I'm even more frustrated with his previous dismissals earlier this series. Felt sorry for Stokes. Test pitches shouldn't produce pea rollers off a good length.

We were terrible in the West Indies. We have also been terrible for much of my cricket watching life. We are much improved in many ways. We have won 14 of the last 20 tests. 6 of which were nail biters. One of which was the first test in India. The recent record could easily look a lot different. I love the positive mental attitude and aggression. But for example look at Duckett running himself out going for a crazy single when we need 500+!!! The height of stupidity. Root has 77 runs from 6 innings. It's costing us badly. I don't care how good you are you need to get 'in' before going for your shots. On that subject pre-meditated shots rely on more luck than skill. Evening Gav and thanks.

Bazball is often unintelligent and one-dimensional and pro-sport is supposedly anything but. But the cultists can't see that more flexibility is required, or ever agree there is room for improvement. Entertaining? Yes. 2 billion Indians are having a riot today. Record breaking? Yup. India's largest ever test victory.

We lost this match at 89 for 0 with Crawley or 240 for 2 with Root in the first innings. We have lost the last 18 wickets for 200 or so. The shot selection and lack of personal responsibility is very disappointing. This is one of the most painful test defeats i can ever remember. Even worse than Haynes and Greenidge scoring 300+ at Lords way back when. Self inflicted, irresponsible, unprofessional, child-like and unacceptable. I've no idea where we go from here. It doesn't hurt the players enough when they get out. How can that be?

Yes but there's more to football than pretty little triangles as JDT demonstrated recently. We won't go down. We are still scoring goals and are now giving some thought to percentage play, defence, and not gifting the opposition frequent chances / goals. We could well have gone down under JDT as much as I liked his determination to play total football. Edit: sp

Yesterday we were 89 for no wicket, Duckett had 50 off 39 and was flying, we were chasing 450 and had made a great start. Ashwin hadn't bowled up to that point, but was then brought on to slow our momentum. Bowling around the wicket off spin. Seven balls later the brain dead Crawley is out sweeping on 15 to a ball pitching 18 inches outside leg stump, that bounced and turned. A ball he could just kick away. Chips it to short fine leg placed waiting in a catching position. His sole responsibility at that stage was to support and play 2nd fiddle to Duckett, control his ego, play for the team, but again he squandered his wicket with scant regard for the match situation. This morning, 10 minutes into the days play, Root is out for 18, caught at 2nd slip trying to reverse scoop a medium fast bowler. I am all for playing positively, but irresponsible stupidity like that is completely unacceptable. The captain Stokes defended with a straight bat and played patiently. As the match required. So why is Root batting like he is on meths? Crawley isn't an opener. I don't care how many he carts through mid-wicket. He would be far better at 4, 5 or 6. Root is pissing me off regularly throwing his wicket away when we are relying on him. Bairstow has always been susceptible to anything nipping back. I'd swap Root for Crawley. Tell Root to play properly, leave balls outside off stump, play straight, protect his castle and open the innings. No scooping until he is well past 50. Bairstow either bats and wicket keeps, or his place has to be under threat. If Root wasn't bowling, I wouldn't be unhappy to see him get a wake up call either. Our bowlers are toiling in unfavourable conditions and the frontline batsmen ie Crawley, Duckett and Root have ultimately thrown their wickets away. It could have been even worse. No one could pick the leg spinner and his googly fooled them all. He went through bat and pad of Stokes 4 or 5 times. I don't understand Bazball if our most technically gifted batsmen in Root is encouraged to play 20 over cricket away in fecking India chasing 450.

Scored two. One each for our strikers. Worked our socks off. Battled and fought. Played for each other. Matched them physically. Kept our focus and composure. Good away point. We have been terrible in recent derbies. We all expected to concede in the 2nd half after two late goals in the first half. Not pretty to watch, but we didn't collapse. Well done to all involved including the thousands of away fans who went in hope rather than expectation.

Best of luck to JDT. However his departure felt somewhat inevitable as we plummeted down the table. Regardless of who is to blame, we need to start performing and picking up some points.

We won a lot of games last year by the odd goal. We rarely conceeded more than two, although many wins still felt a tad fortuitous. Regardless of a bit of luck, we often showed steel, grit and determination that got us over the line. With that desire to win, plus ongoing refinement and practice I thought we would see further improvement. I was excited for this season. But I misjudged things very badly. We have totally collapsed since we fought our way to 7th. We now look like kids playing against men. We are the softest team in the league and way too easy to play against. There is zero aggression in our play, zero passion from the sidelines, zero belief in the team, zero urgency in our work. and zero will to win. There is a ready acceptance of losing matches and it's disgusting how happy we are getting hammered. We don't win individual battles, we don't go in hard, we don't make bad tackles, we don't berate each other, we don't niggle the opponents, we don't harass the referee, we don't defend our six yard box, we don't win our headers, we don't get booked, black eyes, bust noses, bruised knees and are just a bunch of pathetic snowflakes who have totally lost our way. We don't give 100% with a fierce determination to win. We don't do anything that displays a fierce hunger to compete. The general malaise and culture of any club stems from the top. But that's a very easy kop out for the manager and players at this time. And im looking no further than them. Just because your young doesn't mean you have to be soft as ........ Keeley, Moran, Hendry, Fazackerley, Nelsen, Kendall, Samba, Rathbone, Speight, Batty, Shearer, Sutton....irrespective of talent, these were hard as nails. Even our softer players from the past like Sellars, Wilcox and Millar were still hugely courageous compared to this bunch of pathetic little nobody's. Time for the manager to immediately grow up and our players to act like men. If the manager is that thick he hasn't worked out you have to attack one goal, whilst defending the other, he should be removed. Hard to predict a win just now. But other than Leeds, Leicester, Ipswich and perhaps West Brom it's all much a muchness. 1-1.

Great to be above Septembers champions PNE.