22 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Of course it does.

But you can’t judge a fanbase by the rantings of a few pissed up imbeciles at away games (many of whom never step foot in ‘shit’ Ewood). However, as a whole, the crowd has been great with him and I was proud of us for that.
 

Think that's completely fair. I think he would have struggled to avoid criticism will be online. It might well be a minority and a bit echo-chambery, but the torrent of abuse and derision underperforming footballers get online is absolutely unreal. Doesn't make Rovers fans any different to any other club of our size, but I'd be surprised if it didn't affect him at times.

Agree that on the whole, fans at Ewood have been very patient with him, and now that patience seems to be paying off. 

10 minutes ago, only2garners said:

No away fans yet, quite probably not all season.

Let's see what the future holds, but I'm hopeful for the back end of the season. Sufficient proportion of the population will be vaccinated by April that football may return to something like normal.

At the very least I hope they'll let us in to Wembley in May.

42 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

We weren't especially decimated against Forest or Cardiff and those are the two results that were particularly poor. Losing away to Watford or B'mouth is not especially unlikely even with a full strength team. Injuries are just an excuse and 13 games is enough to make a judgement on how the team is going to fare. 

v Forest: Rovers: Kaminski, Nyambe, Lenihan (c), Ayala, Bell, Johnson, Buckley (Chapman, 68), Evans, Dolan (Gallagher, 53), Brereton (Brennan, 81), Armstrong.

v Cardiff: Rovers: Kaminski, Nyambe, Ayala, Williams, Bell, Johnson (c), Holtby (Chapman, 78), Rothwell, Dolan (Buckley, 60), Brereton (Gallagher, 58), Armstrong.

I'd argue that missing both our starting number 8s for the Forest game was quite bad, but that's splitting hairs a bit I guess. We should've played better in those games, even if a points return of 1 point was a little less than we deserved. 

Even so, we're not in December yet & we've played multiple games with a third-choice out of position left back, our back up keeper, our fourth choice centre half and without arguably our four first choice centre midfielders in Dack/Travis/Holtby & Rothwell. We'll all have it bad at some point this season, but so far I'd say we've had it a bit worse than most & hopefully it'll have evened out by the end of the season. 

Anyway, all in all I think we're slightly unfortunate not to have a few more points than we do, and I think we've definitely played well enough to not be scared of anyone in this league. In previous years we might be looking at a Brentford/Bristol City/Norwich week as damage limitation. This season I hope we're looking at it as a chance to make a statement. 

Just now, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

They've affected everyone in the league, Norwich and Bristol City have both been badly affected and are above us. And we've got a better squad?

Something's not adding up...

We're still looking at a small-ish sample of results. At this point last season Brentford were only just getting going, but their quality showed as the season went on. All teams have been influenced by injuries and covid, but I'm not sure how many teams have had as many first teamers out for individual games as we had before the international break. Even yesterday we finished the game with a fifth choice centre back, and we're in miles better health than we were a few weeks ago. 

I'm not saying that we do have a better squad than those teams by the way! But if we're judging our league position, selection issues alongside some reasonably unfortunate results earlier in the season could easily have us a bit higher up.

Just now, Stuart said:

If Wharton hadn’t gone off I think we’d have got that clean sheet today.

Carter ain’t ready.

Agree, I was impressed with his debut but the way we play doesn't offer too much in the way of protection for the centre halves. Not fair to ask him to play too much before he's ready to do so consistently.

He's got the perfect example to follow in Scott Wharton. The years he's spent getting nearly 100 appearances in men's football has obviously done them the world of good.

Just now, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Have Tomlinson and Henley played?

Only following it on twitter, but as far as I can tell they're both still on the bench.

Chorley had a penalty saved which would have made it 3-1! Really hope they hang on.

Just now, Mr. E said:

How are Derby with all their resources doing so poorly, actually bottom of the league? Really bizarre. 

Width of a post away from losing at the death to Wycome today.

Start of the season they had plenty of injuries up front, but they've had close to a full team for weeks now. Inexplicable. 

19 minutes ago, Stuart said:

MoM today this lad.

Three points is the main thing, but he deserved the clean sheet today. Actually I thought Lenihan and Wharton did too for their defending, even if it wasn't ideal that they saw so much of the ball.

Compared to what we've had, Kaminski is different gravy.

Not difficult to see how Barnsley are beating plenty of teams this year. Very well drilled team who are making their talent go a long way. All credit to them.

We were way off our best today, but we won. Winning tight games is the thing we needed to improve on, so I'm not going to bag our performance now that we've gone and won one.

Big credit to the keeper and both centre backs, who were under a lot of pressure. Today shows how important Nyambe is to our season too. 

Elliott in for Gally. Otherwise same team

34 minutes ago, danger19_80 said:

Think we'll need to bring in some cover at right back. Would appear to be the most pressing issue.

Was thinking the same earlier, genuinely don't know what we do if Nyambe gets injured whilst JRC/Bennett are out. Pike from the Ressies?

On Arma, suspect that there might be 2 + 2 = 5 going on after they've looked in the Championship recently for Bowen and Benrahma. Having said that, if we take those two as a yardstick, we have to be looking at £20million plus to even start he conversation, and even then only if he's desperate to go and won't sign a new deal. 

Two games against Wycombe and Cov coming up for them next.

Far too early to be saying that they'll decide their season, but lose them both and they'll be in panic stations. 

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Play him in that old " inside right " role and give him some decent service and he'll be a threat. He needs the ball early and he doesn't want to be out on the touch line.

Sure it has already been mentioned on here, but having Douglas at left back should really help get the most out of him in that role. In fact our change in approach generally has made the team a bit more 'Gallagher friendly' this year, even if he hasn't played enough to really show it. 

Think we need to be reconciled to him never fixing his heavy first touch, but a fit and confident Gallagher can be a real asset if we use him properly. 

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Mowbray did specifically say after PNE that “On my board we’ve got 11 fixtures between now and the new year and players like 17-year-old Harvey Elliott can’t be playing all of them."

I dont think there would be any realistic expectation for Elliott to play every single game, and having got a knock I hardly expect that Liverpool would be in any way annoyed should he not start tomorrow, I think obviously its a different matter should he have ever been regularly out of the team and we would have been financially penalised should that have happened.

No doubts from me that Elliott is a better player than Gallagher but I think the latter could feel hard done by should he be dropped tomorrow. No need to make any changes to the starting line up.

Think that's right - I'd expect him to play some point tomorrow but probably from the bench.

On Gallagher, there's a very good chance that we'll never see value for money for him, but if we are then we have to be playing him when he's on form. He's played a very big part in the points we've picked up over the last week, so keeping him there makes perfect sense for now.

The one change I'd be tempted to make would be Johnson for Trybull, just because of his influence in the earlier games of the season. On the fence with that one, but Gally, Wharton should keep their places.

Going off Barsnley's most recent games, looking like we'll have most of the ball once again. Whether it will turn out to be another dominant display or a stodgy draw/ loss by the odd goal remains to be seen. 

24 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Wonderful 

I've always been an optimist when it came to Rovers. Only wanted Ince potted after the third went in at Wigan. Even expected Murphy to show his ability once he got used to the Championship.

Even so, I never in a million years thought it was possible for Ben to improve so much so quickly. A full season like this and nobody will be mentioning his price tag, which is amazing where we were at the start of the season.

Just now, Exiled_Rover said:

Honestly, Kaminski is the difference. 

MoM alongside Rothwell for me. 

Just now, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

We haven't got a striker on the bench...

They haven't got a striker in the starting 11!

Watch it rain goals now

2 hours ago, PerthBlues said:

New to this forum today and I have tried to look to see if this has already been asked/answered but can`t see anything so apologies before hand.

I bought a match pass for the Luton game yesterday and have had confirmation. What do I now do to watch the match? I have been on the Rovers website and Ifollow website but  they seem to send me round in circles. Am I missing something obvious here?

Thanks

On the Rovers home page you should see a stopclock counting down to kick off and button underneath saying Live Match Centre.

Click on that from around an hour before kick off & you should see the live stream on there.

Feeling reasonably confident about this one. Whilst our performances have been feast and famine this season, we've got the better individuals and we should be fresh after a week off.

1-3 Rovers

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

I would have totally agreed... until recently. Now? There’s been a definite move to actual support and gratitude towards them, not just ‘we have to put up with them, we’ve no alternative’

If you haven’t spotted that shift, fair enough, but it’s happened.

Entirely possible that I've just not picked up a shift during the pandemic. It's true that I've seen the odd post on social media which have used words like welcome & forgiveness, but then again these platforms are well known for amplifying minority voices.

I'll take some convincing that the large majority of match-going fans aren't Venkys-sceptics in some form or another, albeit with a large an increasing number with a bit of a pragmatic response.

As you say though, I could be wrong.

On 19/11/2020 at 16:35, Mattyblue said:

Think you are misreading the mood Dreams, like I said on the last page there’s been a real sea change in how they are perceived since League 1.

Away from this board, I seldom hear anything negative towards them. Indeed if I aired my views at Ewood these days I’d probably get rounded upon...

I can't speak for others, but I don't think there's much in the way of a significant number of 'pro-Venkys' Rovers fans. 

The divide as far as I see it is the group who believe (rightly or wrongly) that Venkys are necessary/inevitable/manageable in the short term and those who see getting rid of them as the main priority for the football club. I agree that many more fans would now fit in the first category rather than the second compared to when Coyle was in charge, but I don't think it's fair to characterise this as a sea change in how they are perceived in any meaningful way. 

Take a straw poll of Rovers fans of all persuasions and I'm certain the vast majority will say that Venkys have been a disaster - how could they not? We almost all agree that the decisions that were made under their stewardship have wrecked the club. Where lots of us differ is how we can best move forward from where are now, but I don't think you'll find too many fans in the more pragmatic camp using words like 'welcome' or 'forgiveness'. Completely misses the point, and arguing about that sort of language  serves to exaggerate the percentage of fans who are actively pro-Venkys, of whom I'm convinced there are a pretty derisory number.