JHRover

Yeah fair enough I don't mean to class today as one of our usual hanging on to a slender lead games, as you say they hadn't threatened at all up until that point. Nonetheless we seem to have a habit of finding ways to let teams in when they've done little to deserve it and this makes life hard work for ourselves. No doubt that we'd have embarked upon our usual 10-15 minutes of hanging on and running the clock down had they not immediately made it 2-2 and knocked us for six, then we went and applied some more pressure at the other end.

I'm not. Raya's idiocy was no surprise but had he not done that I'm sure we would have found a way to let them back in elsewhere. Winning a game comfortably isn't something we do sadly, at best it is hanging on to a one goal lead.

Just had an hour in the bath to thaw out. Absolutely no surprise to see us drop 2 points there. Once Armstrong's goal went in i was counting down the minutes as I fully expected at least 1 goal to come for them and knew if they got it before 85 minutes the chances were they would get another. Like so many other opposing teams they'll probably be sat on their bus home wondering how they managed to get what they did out of a game that should have been dead and buried. I'm personally sick and fed up with it. Time after time after time we throw points away from winning positions by conceding goals from often ridiculous scenarios. If it isn't one of our players dropping a clanger its some wide open kamikaze defending. The ease with which opposition teams score against us is shocking. We were never, ever, ever going to see that game out at 2-0 or extend our lead. I would have put my life savings on Birmingham scoring at some point. At 2-0 up at home against a poor side and looking comfortable I should be sat in the stands relaxed and enjoying us seeing the game out, yet sadly having experienced it so many times before I cannot feel anything but anxiety and nerves as I know a goal will come and at best we will end up hanging on for dear life camped in our penalty area. We did it more often than not last season in League One, but got away with it against poor sides. This season when you're up against far better players we are getting punished. I'm not convinced it is a personnel issue and I'm not convinced heaping blame on individuals is right. I am convinced that the team is set up or instructed to sit back on what they have when leading in games and we haven't got what it takes either quality wise or tactically to do that effectively. We'll now have a week of feeling sorry for ourselves that we've got 4 tough games coming up but we need to get some points out of those having chucked them away against the likes of Birmingham, Rotherham and Wigan recently.

Spot on. I'm not interested in what Raya did. Focusing on individuals is missing the bigger picture. This backs to the wall hanging on rubbish has been going on for more than a year, only now we aren't getting away with it. It's a mentality and coaching issue and it occurs regardless of personnel.

Do we? Surely if we were that desperate for cash we'd have snapped off WBA's hand when they came calling in the summer, yet all the reports suggest we rebuffed their approach. Since then we've spent millions on a bench player. Also since then Mowbray has gone on record at the Fans Meeting saying he won't be sold in January and that if/when he does go it will be for a hefty fee. Waggott was suggesting astronomical amounts in recent meetings in terms of what would be needed to sell. We all know he could be signed by a Premier League club at some stage or other but I do believe there is an element of mischief making going on which Rovers fans play right into. Certain individuals in the media and elsewhere can't resist it whenever a Rovers player begins to play well.

Who do you think Mowbray would have dropped to accommodate Davenport? Smallwood is one of his favourites and to be fair to him the shirt is/was his to lose after last season. Evans is an experienced Championship player and international regular who has been one of our standout performers since early 2018. I'm not sure how else Davenport could be accommodated and don't think for one minute Mowbray is the sort of manager to throw younger players in at the deep end.

They were talking about extending it around behind the other goal before Mike Ashley took over to increase capacity to 60,000 but don't think they can extend along the other side as there are a number of listed buildings directly behind that stand. I think it is one of the more impressive grounds in the country, certainly more than other big grounds like Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool, but when I've been put upstairs I struggle to properly see what is going on it is so high.

It needs to be easier and more attractive to go to Ewood. When Rovers aren't playing I will often make a late decision to go to Stanley. I can decide at 2:15pm whether I'm going or not, drive up (similar distance as Ewood from home) yet park right across the road, wander across Whalley Road and within 15 minutes of leaving the house be at the turnstile with a ticket in my hand for £15 or 20 and still have time to grab a pint and have a choice of the Crown, the gazebo or sometimes the club house. Whichever one there is a reasonable choice of beer, decent enough price and decent atmosphere. Now if i were applying the same to going to Rovers home games and making a decision on the day I would look at it differently. I couldn't make a decision that late as I would probably miss kick off due to having to park some distance from the ground and having to walk down. When there there is usually a queue at the ticket office which means having to stand waiting for 10 minutes+ which is the last thing I would want to do especially when the weather is like it is A ticket would likely cost the best part of £30 if lucky with the surcharge included. If there is time for a pint the choice is either Blues Bar and having to pay to get in or the Fan Zone where they only sell Fosters, both at a high price and I begrudge paying daft prices for poor quality beer. The Stanley 'experience' in terms of convenience, cost, quality of ale etc. all superior to what is on offer at Rovers. Now that is partly because Stanley is a small scale operation and as such things like parking are much easier and I get that bit, and the football on offer in the Championship is way better than the League below in my opinion, but other elements - like the price of tickets, means of buying tickets on the day, selection and price of beer, bar offerings at the ground - could all be adjusted at Rovers to make the experience a better one. I've said many a time that if Rovers offered a bar which sold decent beer at a reasonable price I'd be in there pre-match every week but I won't spend money at Rovers given the choice and price there is in place there is at present. It all comes down to how much you want it. The little things - like Stanley doing a deal with Bowland Brewery to supply them with 'Accy Ale'. Any reason Rovers couldn't give 3 Bs up Tockholes a ring and get an order on for a few barrels per home game? There's more to it than that but you have to start at the basics and making things better. Get the fans down to Ewood as early as possible and try to keep them there after full time.

Not the best picture but Luton had 7500 there upstairs

Yeah if needed it can go round the bend and into the main stand. Luton had nearly 8000 up there last season or season before.

If they've kicked off with 3000 allocation then they'll definitely be allocated in the gods upstairs. They won't have 3000 away fans pitchside. Infact I think that police/safety bods don't allow it there as that's why away fans are still upstairs when a Premier League rule says away fans should always be pitchside. They're the only club that got special dispensation as everyone else has had to introduce it. If however we don't sell very many e.g. only 1000 and Newcastle only shift 30,000ish then it wouldn't surprise me nearer the time for them to move away fans down to the bottom corner where they can be easily accommodated without needing to open the upper tier. I would however expect us to sell at least 1500 at that price, probably 2000, and Newcastle could well turn up in their droves at that price even though they didn't last time in the cup.

Doesn't need to be an either/or for me. If the owners are deciding to throw £7 million at teenagers that tells me there's plenty of money around for reinforcements whilst keeping the senior players at the club, if they want to do it.

I think that new deal is fair enough. His performances at the end of last season and so far this show that he can be an important player for us and he still has years on his side moving forward. Think they're pushing it a bit with the 'Commitment' line in an attempt to encourage more season ticket sales mind.

When I looked last you could get the train from Manchester to Newcastle direct going at 10am and returning at 10pm for £66 each. Not ideal and you'd have to get a taxi to Piccadilly (£25?).

In both of those cases, and Bradford too, the massive reductions were made following or during periods of success. Bradford did it shortly after promotion from League Two and their run to the League Cup final. Huddersfield did it ahead of Wagner's first full season and did all the promotional stuff with creating a singing section next to the away end. Forest did it following their takeover ahead of Karanka's first full season whilst throwing silly money at transfers so everyone expected them to be pushing for promotion. Not sure how cheap Forest have made their tickets but I know there's good deals there for young adults and students (better than can be found at most clubs). I suppose some could argue that Bradford and Forest have vastly greater catchment areas than we have to tap into but that doesn't explain the Huddersfield one where as you point out their gates were below ours the season before and then almost doubled. That's what good marketing does. I very much doubt Huddersfield limited their promotional material to posters round their town centre, they were pushing it all over the place in all sorts of ways to get as many as possible buying into it. No doubt a full house every week assisted them on the way to promotion and has probably, in conjunction with their time in the Premier League, resulted in a new generation of fans who will be getting into the habit of going every week. Financially they probably did ok out of it with 20,000 paying less for tickets but spending on food, drink and merchandise whilst there. Maybe it is asking a lot for us to go to those prices but the proof it there that it works. Sadly I think that the boat has been missed. The positivity of last season and promotion was the time to do it, yet we had no imaginative pricing, no serious promotion, delayed our sales window and put prices up by 17% whilst closing another stand. All things you wouldn't do if you were serious about significantly increasing crowds. You would have got them on sale as soon as practically possible, at the very least during the promotion run-in, at the latest of the Oxford game, you would have kept prices frozen or at most increased them ever so slightly, embark upon a significant promotional campaign over several months, and don't annoy people by shutting stands. I wasn't a fan of the DE as it was as there weren't enough people in but the result we've got with a cluster in the JW lower and it seems some no longer going to games is a poor outcome. People will respond to periods of success as Oxford showed. If this season pans out as expected and we finish mid-table that will be a success (in my opinion) but it isn't the sort of success that will entice people to flock to the ground. Promotion, play-off campaigns, significant investment and impressive recruitment are what makes people take an interest and bumping up prices rather than trying to fill the place up more appears to be opportunity missed.

Apparently Anderson pays himself £500,000+ a year in 'consultancy fees' from the club. Suppose it takes the biscuit then when the club can't pay staff wages.

https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/early-bird-season-card-deadline-is-today Adults in the North West, North, South and Family stands at Middlesbrough cost £397 for a full season. If I remember correctly our cheapest was £319 but that only applied in the Riverside stand. For the majority who sit in the BBE or JW stands it was £349. So almost £50 cheaper over the season. Not really anything to moan about I agree, but all it does is show we're in a similar ball park to others.

Blackpool have allocated Sunderland 7,800 tickets for their New Years Day fixture after their initial allocation sold out in hours. Rumours also that if they sell those they will make more available. Presumably Lancashire Constabulary will be insisting that the game is moved to 12 noon as that number of away fans at a ground is a safety issue? Or does that only happen at Ewood Park?

Don't think anyone would argue (Dack aside) that Mowbray has done a better job with those players already here than he has at bringing new ones in and integrating them. He has done very well indeed at getting more out of existing players like Bennett, Evans, Graham, Mulgrew and Lenihan than his predecessor(s). This can even be extended to general fitness as all appear to be fitter and more dependable than they were previously. E.g. I believe the run of games we've had out of Graham and Mulgrew has been nothing short of miraculous given their backgrounds and Evans is having a new lease of life and probably his most consistent run since he joined the club more than 5 years ago. Indeed Mowbray has also done very well at developing and progressing a few of the prospects at the club - specifically Raya and Nyambe who have progressed into mainstays of the first XI having been far from that before he arrived. But in terms of recruitment purely from a numbers point of view the judgment has to be at this stage mixed. Clearly the Dack factor skews the graph massively as the returns on him will offset everything else, and obviously the results are the ultimate measure of a manager and nobody will really care if every player signed is a failure as long as the results continue to be good. St Dyche at Burnley has dropped some real clangers in the transfer market for far more money than Mowbray has had yet people still think the sun shines from his backside as he manages to eek out results with what he has.

Going back to the red button issue, I feel the only way that it can continue without massively damaging attendances is if there is a rule introduced that states that when games are available via the red button or otherwise moved for TV then tickets are automatically heavily discounted to try and encourage people to attend. By significant reduction I don't mean a few quid off the price of a ticket, I mean half price tickets. When we are away at Swansea on a Tuesday night and the game is live on Sky then they should not be allowed to charge our fans £30 each to attend. It should be £15. If clubs complain about it then the League needs to remind them of the windfall they receive from Sky tv which covers any losses. The only obstacles to doing this are firstly greed, as clubs won't agree to miss out on extra cash, and secondly how to navigate round the issue of season ticket holders who would probably be upset at numerous games being offered for pro-rata less than they have paid, but I'm sure the brainboxes paid 6 figure salaries could come up with a sensible way round that. Failure to do so, along with continuation of the red button and Ifollow, even if restricted to domestic viewing and not in pubs and clubs, will cause extreme damage to attendances and long term numbers going to games. Are they that bothered? Probably not at this point as they're reaping the benefits of both worlds at present, but it won't take long for people to give up going once they realise how easy it is.

Maybe, but you can't argue that £7 million (IF TRUE) is a huge amount by anyone's standards in this league, and much more than most could afford to pay for a single player. So when people come on bemoaning the spending power of other clubs in this league I think that is disingenuous when most sides haven't been anywhere near a net spend of £10 million.

Yep. Lucky Notlobbers could easily get out of jail again this season with a target way below what we needed to survive. Also managed automatic promotion with a much lower total than we needed last season.

With 1 win in 21 games Ipswich should be virtually down already, but as it stands they are 'only' 8 points from safety, which is still a bridgeable gap given the poor standard of those hovering just above them. Reading and Millwall can't buy wins. If they can get through to January and be less than 10 points from safety whilst a tough ask they could still clamber to safety, though it will be tough and seems unlikely unless they can massively strengthen in January.

I'm 'obsessed' yet it was you who compared us to Sheffield United and Norwich by saying that they were better placed and more likely to get Reed on a permanent than we are. Daft systems like playing midfielders up front when Graham is injured rather than using the natural CF we paid huge money for. If Brereton is indeed a 'long term project' then what is the ultimate purpose of the project?

The bit about Graham is correct, I think we all accept that he is our number 1 and will be when he is fit. That doesn't explain why Brereton doesn't even get a look in when Graham is injured and we're playing all sorts of daft systems to avoid starting Brereton, nor why Brereton doesn't play in his favoured position when he does get his 15-20 minutes. I have considered the fee Southampton might want for Reed. I've said I believe £7 million would be enough to get him. He isn't getting a look in there and has been loaned out to the Championship for the last 2 years. Wages *could* be an issue as I've also said but again I wouldn't expect him to be on mega bucks given his background. The key is to get in there before the summer when others might be interested. Norwich had him last season and didn't take him back this so would they really spend a lot to sign him if promoted? You mention 'sadly' we couldn't match the fees Norwich/Sheffield United could offer. I'll come back to the Brereton deal. If we believe the £7 million figure to be accurate then by my reckoning that is more money spent by us on one player than anyone in the Championship last summer, with the exceptions of Stoke with Afobe and Ince, Middlesbrough with Aden Flint and George Saville, Leeds with Bamford and Forest with Carvalho. So only 4 clubs paid more out on a single player than we did last summer (if £7 million is accurate which it seems Mowbray has confirmed). 2 of those are receiving parachute cash. So if the figure is correct we are now among the big spenders for this league and certainly cannot bemoan a lack of cash or being unable to match fees paid by others. At net £10 million for the summer we blew the likes of Sheffield United and Norwich out of the water, along with many others.