All the jobs with crap working conditions simply state "competitive salary". At Rovers they probably then reveal that that means competitive with the kit person at the interview stage

I think he already had in his head that the shot was going past him and wasn't expecting it to be particularly saveable. This is obviously not the mindset you want from a keeper saving from close range. But then, when the shot trickled towards him he was caught having to react from a position of helplessness, panicking and kicking out at the ball. Looks bad and is bad

In fairness, goalkeeping is a completely different role to what it used to be. Agility and distribution are far more important than previously and the modern day football/precision of the strikers/fitness of the players to reach a rebound does make it a lot harder to shot stop more generally. This is not a reference to Pears, just an observation the difference between goalkeepers of the past and the present

As a friend pointed out to me, Hyam is a very suss LCB and a very decent RCB. Batth playing that LCB role naturally allows Hyam to settle into his natural position and puts less pressure on his distribution. It's why the Hyam and Carter pairing wasn't as imperious as we would have imagined

We had a week after success. Hopefully a week of back to basics will help

Just did the player ratings and saw that Pears had 16 out of 32 pass completion rate. So 16 out of 32 misplaced passes or kick outs (I presume). And that's before considering the first goal. Hope his confidence doesn't go through the floor as he has picked up compared to last season. As a team, worst performance of the season. Glad we have a week on the training pitch to try to set things straight

Thought it could be good to have a place to share interesting football podcasts, especially given Rovers might be getting more coverage than usual at the moment. A recent episode of Pro Revolution Soccer had a mention of both Allardyce and Bentley at different points and aside from that was a really insightful discussion on the modern game tactics and data focus: Anyone else have some podcast episodes that cover Rovers to some degree that they have enjoyed? Or just some other football podcasts they recommend?

Purely for the fact that I could see them being harder to get past over two legs, have them in the final

A draw it was

Given Millwall still have all of the top four to play it could be worth them winning this one out of the two, rivalries aside

I'm not saying they haven't changed, I'm saying there's still a way to go and that downplaying that normalises things and provides an excuse for it. I'm late thirties so evidently missed the pre-prem days

It will all be relative and not feel that way to the person on the receiving end. Young players jeered by their own fans has an impact. Nobody believes it can be solved overnight but being so blasé and providing other examples of worse experiences only serves to normalise the current stuff. It would be far more useful to create some form of pushback to that behaviour (ideally in the stadium) as at some point it will hopefully change.

Surely it can take them by surprise because of their incompetence or because they had convinced themselves that our league position meant that he would see out the rest of the season, thus not having someone lined up right away. You could have an idea three months ago and a contingency plan (not saying they did) but all of a sudden it is a different set of circumstances when it comes to availability. I personally think it's a combination of the two, mainly the incompetence. But these constant declarations of where we should be are akin to a kid in the back asking "are we there yet?", which would perhaps make more sense if we were losing but maybe take a little time to chill and appreciate the wins and wait for the process to play out

Oh wow, that long ago! In that case I presume he's not interested in trying it elsewhere given that didn't push to him pursuing it. An organic transition to lead a side he's already coached could be the only route that makes sense to him

I'm simply saying I have no issue with the process having taken this long given what it has given us. We can all say things should be at a specific point but nobody here is involved in the process or knows the reasons why beyond speculation. It might be easier on a few tickers if people try not to get wound up about something people don't know about when the delay has led us to a higher position compared to when the manager left. I'm sure it's not being handled in the most efficient way given our owners but try and enjoy fifth place instead of making demands as to what exactly should be happening right about now

And we might have lost the last two games. I will take what's happened thus far

I only know if the Keith Andrews stuff but that was grim. The "well that's what it's like it could be worse" normalisation is pathetic tbh. Nobody wants to take any responsibility for creating a negative atmosphere even though people pretend it's about supporting the team despite the ownership. "That's just the way it is" is regressive

If this was a win, whilst Lowe wouldn't be my choice as full time manager, what a sensational start to his first attempt in the job. I wonder if it would spur him on to consider the role somewhere else, lower down in the pyramid

That's something I hadn't considered

Do you mean bland as a person or bland with his football? I'd rather bland than eccentric. I'm not too bothered if he can inspire the fans as results will do that. As for the players, there's different ways to inspire them.

I reckon it'll be around the 75 point mark given the amount of teams in for it. Only takes a few to get a run going

And unselfish too. A player like that, cutting inside and not being closed down, trying to make a name for himself. Perfect team play

I personally think it's because he's a proper professional. He carried on doing his job well despite the behind the scenes stuff. Wasn't throwing his toys out the pram in public and didn't let it affect his management of the team. JDT took a different approach (which he was welcome to) and leant on them more in public. That didn't work either

I hope he fulfills the early promise. Always a chance he plays in bursts and gets a bit lost as a game goes on with players like this but everything I've seen looks good so far. Confidence, pace and a bit of fire

Worst case scenario is we draw with Sheff U last game of the season and drop out of the playoffs whilst Burnley leapfrog Sheff into the automatics. Really hope Sheff just keep winning. And Leeds too