JPTSwindon

Apologies if the wrong section, but this is driving me mad!... My first match watching Rovers was when Rovers beat WBA at the Hawthorns 1-0. It was either 21 March 1987 (86/87 season) or 12 December 1987 (87/88 season). I know Alan Ainscow scored the winner and Simon Barker missed a penalty. I can’t find a line up online for either game. Anyone able to help?!

Wonder if the ifollow payments will drop off after Wigan? As ever TM will baffle us by shoe horning random players into random positions.

Ahh yes, fair points!

Yes, a goal will come and you can’t fault his work rate to try and get it. He should shave his head and beard, and go grab that goal on Tuesday.

Positive - controlled good parts of the game, and some nice football. Had we taken one of the chances, we’d have deserved 3 points, but fine margins... Travis, Rothwell, Bereton and Nyambe all tried. Negative - Walton again soft hands, but this time cost us, he has gone backwards this season. Countless strikers (Armstrong aside), including big wage Graham and Gallagher who simply aren’t cut out for this level - Samual is probably League Two. Bennett hopeless and Davenport needs to find his passing range, which is hard without game time. Decent keeper and off-load lots of our ‘strikers’ to get one or two who can shoot and we will be ok next season.

Well after the Liverpool friendly I feared the worst, but what a cracking performance and suddenly we are in the mix! iFellow worked first time, commentary team were good and it even deployed replays of the key moments. Lots of decent match reports / comments already, but: Bereton was good value (goals will come if he keeps up that work rate). Pleased for Evans who stepped up. Walton, soft hands - put it down to rusty. Gutted for JRC as a goal would have been great for confidence. Armstrong continues his goal scoring run, that’s what you need at this stage of the season. Travis clearly fancies a stint in Game of Thrones with that hair style! Burnley on tomorrow night, only club expecting a higher than normal attendance despite the lockdown restrictions.

By which point Mowbry will be deploying Gallagher in goal...

Sub-optimal result that. Yes only a friendly, but doubt that will have been a confidence builder. As ever why spent so much on a striker, a target man and then play him on the wing?

So no red button on Sky for any of the matches?

Yeah I remember there was a lot of excitement about him, but apart from a man of the match performance against Blythe Spartans in the FA Cup was never really given a chance. Matt Derbyshire, seemed he’d finally get a chance on merit, then didn’t he get sent off pre-season (Plymouth) and was back to bit part and off away to Greece?

I went to quite a few games that stood out during this rapid downward trajectory. Firstly the 2nd half of the 97/98 as we were tumbling down the table, I remember the 3-0 home defeat to a dreadful (Christian Gross) Spurs. I’d travelled up with my Spurs mate who phoned 606 on the way home to explain how shocked we were. I went with the same mate to the Wimbledon (Selhurst Park) match in Sep/Oct? We’d just signed Blake for £4m (I am sure he was a panic buy as we’d missed out on someone else) and he gave it all, but was woeful. We drew 1-1. Absolutely tipped it down, my mate was drenched and had to meet his new girlfriends parents for the first time in some swanky holiday - they were appalled. Finally the fateful Southampton 3-3 game with a few matches to go. Not only had we thrown away a 3-1 lead but were clinging on to the point in the end. Walking back after the match, it was the first time I (and seemingly many others around me) realised relegation was not just possible, but a very real threat. Thank God we still had Forest to play. I agree with many of the comments already made. We spent heavily, but mostly dross (panic buys), we had too many players, no leaders and no-one seemed to have twigged that Ashley Ward relegated everyone he played for. But for Filan it could have been much, much worse.

Football, Rovers, decent back story - highly recommend watching it ?? Also good to see that even then our facilities were more modern than Turf Moor.

Wasn’t it also because of all the clubs interested, Don was the only manager to personally fly out to Barcelona to speak to him?

Agreed. TM chops and changes, chops and changes. At the very least he needs to play players in the correct positions. No wonder our strikers can’t hit a barn door, they don’t get chance to settle and invariably are sent out to graze on the wing.

Yep, has to play centrally. Deserves some more game time.

Agreed. Playing time will polish the final ball / decisions, but he has the potential to be key.

It is a shame we missed out on Danny Cowley, he has turned Huddersfield around.

Shame! 4 games are, but not ours. Perhaps viewers can only handle so much excitement after Monday’s 0-0 ?

Head in hands moments... Losing 3-0 at home to Spurs under Christian Gross, then travelling back having to listen to my Spurs supporting mate get through to 606 to say how bad we must be to lose to them. Watching Ashley Ward, Paul Dickov and Nathan Blake so soon after Shearer. Forest fans enjoying the prospect of us bringing on Darren Peacock.

Yes, isn’t it depressing that we missed out on Cowley ?

On current ‘form’ Joey Barton and Mark Robins

Hmm, Houghton, the football wasn’t great at Brighton and signings etc were hit and miss.

Grim. With the money that has been made available (and spent!), with the quality in the squad, with the academy prospects... this is miserable. Yes he got us promoted but with our squad and budget that was a par expectation, not an achievement. Gutted Huddersfield beat us to the Cowley brothers.

My comments still stand. We could name 2 or 3 players we could live without in the squad with the money used to bring the gate prices down.

Decent performance considering Cardiff have just come down from the Premiership. Defence looking more solid and we know we have goals in the team. Dack working his socks off and the goals will come.