Cantwell is the only player who can loft the ball in behind and drop it on a dime for the onrushing forward, or play a 35 yard crossfield pass first time. Those are things that should be a given for a footballer, the default, we've been spoilt with them in the past. He's working with little around him.

I wonder if we are even identifying these players, anyone with half a football brain could see his potential. Is he on our "A" list and we just can't afford him or organise ourselves to make the approach, and therefore we end up with an unproven keeper in Toth. Or is he even on the list at all?

I'll never be able to get that Ashely Ward lob toward an empty net out of my head, when the 0-0 against Utd sent us down. Although imagine if we had VAR back then, that penalty that should have been against Charlton... Gueye has a way to go yet but I'm getting Kevin Davies vibes.

Double post

I totally agree with you - it hurts tonight and there's a lot of understandable knee jerk reactions. We did everything we could - I normally criticise us for not getting enough men forward, but we created a host of chances. We seemed to want to play with energy, enthusiasm and actually cause some trouble in the final third - there's a lot you can land at Eustace's door about our front line being more taken with pressing than scoring, and also having two very slow, defensive midfielders, but tonight we did actually create chances. We're just not scary enough, there's nothing in the final third to get opposition defenders worried. What we are seeing is the fine margins of the Championship and the dumbing down of the squad by the Venky's writ large on the pitch, causing mistakes at both ends. It's like Stockholm Syndrome, death by a 1000 cuts so we don't notice the gradual decline. We can't compete with the likes of Stoke to get the signature of a player like Cannon, so have to take a punt on Big Mak. We're expecting hard working but bang average players to become clinical. We're relying on a 34 year old defender to play 3 games in a week with zero cover, that's going to create a problem at some point and lead to a mistake. We've got an unproven lad up front who's played a season already and we replace him after 60mins with someone who can't strike or head a ball, also unproven. The other options are Dolan and Leonard, we just don't have the goalscoring ability to turn slim chances into goals. Those are players that would support a forward line, not be relied upon to make a difference. We need a player to match Cantwell's ability, he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Why do we play Cantwell on the left? He seems to rome, and him and Dolan often trade places, but not often, probably by circumstance rather than design. All I can think is that it's a "modern football thing" and that having Dolan central allows him to press their back line and harry?

No wonder it was 0-0 last night 🤣:

Cantwell stood out by a mile last night, can tell he's done it a level above. We just need one more player of that quality to pair him up with.

Feel like I'm in the minority but I really enjoyed last night. I quite enjoy seeing two evenly matched teams try and outwit each other and enjoyed the battles all over the pitch. I prefer this pragmatic approach by Eustace, he'd done his homework, I like seeing us match up to the opposition, rather than gallantly losing 1-3, totally fine by me. Yes, they had chances, but so did we. We kept Maja quiet until we tired, a player who was once courted by us - if he was in a Rovers shirt last night we'd be moaning about his performance. West Brom are a top 6 side, some say top 4, and that fact we matched them for 80mins is to be commended, only their better squad depth was the difference towards the end. If anything it just makes me more frustrated by the results at Plymouth and especially the Coventry game, and more frustrated again by the ownership, but that's a given... I wasn't even bothered by the passing out from the back, I can see why we do it - the margins are so tight nowadays with the way opposition teams press, and it does work. What doesn't work was the constant hoof up to Dolan in the second half, that was driving me crackers, but who else can we aim at once Hedges has gone off and Gueye on the bench? I wish we had another option up front with height and strength, and not just the pace of Amari CD to look forward to. January? Oh yeah, sorry... My main concern is that we don't have anyone who can run beyond against the well set up sides, I think it's due to the lack of pace, our build up play is slow, when we quicken it we look the real thing, but 80% of the time we are playing safe and not going for the first time pass out of midfield, mainly down to the abilities of the squad. It takes confidence to ping a 30 yard diagonal on your second touch. We can't get in behind as we allow teams to drop back into position and set themselves on every attack. I thought bringing on Brittain to help JRC was a good move, but did wonder whether there was a little bit attacking intent in it too, hoping he'd cross it to Maktar, but we never got a chance, both on too late. I'd love to see us try 15 mins of sustained crossing to Gueye just to see what he could do. I thought the Blackburn End were fantastic in the second half for the good 25 min spell, and I feel the fans do appreciate the grit and effort the team are putting in. Whoever booed in the Riverside at the full time whistle and at every square pass needs to give their head a wobble - we've been in the championship long enough to know it's an attritional slog and not every game can be full of wondrous attacking play, the good teams behave the same. At least the team are fighting and scrapping for every ball, we are annoying to play against, and I like that. I do get a feeling that Eustace and his team are seeing the season as a whole and managing our limited resources well, there will be bumps and we're not always going to get it right with our lack of depth, but I trust him.

Worrying statements from Palace. Get the lad the surgery he needs. https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/crystal-palace-adam-wharton-injury-surgery-glasner-b1188794.html

Famously Ranieri set Leicester 50 points in 15/16. Nothing wrong with that approach. I think it's healthy to break the season down into sections, get to the first international break, cling on through winter and then try and avoid the new year slump for once.

If only he'd put away a similar header against Brum last season.

I'm a bit confused about these stats, the "big chances" and "big chances missed" - did we not have at least a couple, Travis and Dolan? Meanwhile, the levels of bitterness and disillusionment are strong in this video, sheeesh: To save anyone the chore of watching it, I lasted 10 mins: “An opportunity missed for them - there best chance of beating us in the last 15 years, and they didn’t even try to do it. It shows a lot where the two clubs are.” “They didn’t come with a proactive plan to try and win the game.” "To show such a level of dominance against them I feel they’re going to behind us for a very long time.” “We were totally dominant” then “but we didn’t threaten the keeper too much.” “Gueye didn’t look a coordinated footballer.” “I can’t give them credit for their goal as there was some sloppiness from our defence.” “He could have sent the entire Blackburn team off for time-wasting.” Funnily no mention of the offside goal, again. Drinking the koolaid in BB10 clearly. There's definitely a theme developing that others have mentioned, forgetting their Lord Dyche roots, that we somehow are awful and backward because we chose to defend with 10 men. Odd. I'm sorry we ruined their usual 3 points in the fixture, apologies for not rolling over. I need to leave it, can we not just all agree it was great to have a competitive derby again?

Great interview with Sonny. But am I hearing this right, Tronstadt says he got a yellow for also showing a yellow card? He didn't get booked if I remember correctly. Fast becoming my favourite player. Get the feeling he seems to care about the club and loves being here.

The more I see that little shove on Beck from the petulant Koleosho off the ball at around 14 minutes, the more it winds me up, and they call us for shithousery. Thanks for spurring us on ya little shite.