3-0 is absolutely garbage - you can blame missed chances but we seem to have rediscovered our very soft underbelly. 20 odd shots for the home side, 3 goals. I can't see us kicking on this season as we just cannot follow up a good result with another.

It's difficult to sanction though - if they got sanctioned we'd also be on the hook as we made 10 changes. Pretty much every side does it in the cup, and any sanctions would be difficult to enact as the quality of the players replacing the 'first teamers' is extremely subjective.

Got the winner vs Rangers the other week too.

From experience, the ticket website only seems to be 'active' (or tickets are only available) during club ticket office opening times. Presumably something to do with them only keeping a certain percentage online and avoiding 'over selling' tickets. I'm sure there's a cleverer way for them to do it, but never seems to work for me in the evenings.

Yep, definitely a Rovers false flag operation. It was also our lot who trashed Burnley town centre, flew the racist plane banner over Turf Moor during lockdown and lobbed things at City players last week.

The one time I say something nice about that shower and they repay me by looking like a bunch of raffle winners - love to see it 😎 Now, did I tell you about how great those signings were......?

As I get closer to the game, my previous excitement is now turning to trepidation, especially given how threadbare the attack looks. On the positive side, I look forward to frequenting some London alehouses after, they might be well needed! Ignoring the mounting evidence - Watford 2-3 Rovers, Szmodics, Hyam and Carter to score.

Bit unfair to label him a crock, plenty of players get injured. If he spends half the season out with an array of injuries I might be more inclined to agree.

Basing the criteria on one game is absolute madness - as others have said, surely using last season was more sensible? You can still reward this year's loyalty by only opening to ST/club members this year, but without putting the remaining onus on one game. I would advocate some sort of 'loyalty points' approach, but a) no opportunity for an 1875 club swindle b) even that is flawed e.g. how to weight it. I didn't renew this year due to being so far away and couldn't go anyway, but the post above highlights the nonsense of it.

I would argue that the full replay from behind the goal is even more damning than that picture. The Twitter account 'reptracker' posted it and the comments from fans of various clubs are all equally damning of Pears' goalkeeping. As most of the comments aren't Rovers fans, the reaction is mainly one of humour and mockery. Of course he should start over on that side, but this isn't Subbuteo - players can move very easily, and he had bags of time to readjust, make himself big and at least give Connolly a finish to make. Instead he basically showed him exactly where he could easily score - a straight shot which Pears didn't even dive towards. I am not as critical of Pears as some but that piece of goalkeeping was amateur at best. Would Kaminski have saved it? Who knows, but he would have made himself big ,tried to close off the angle and at least forced Connolly into a half decent finish.

I am! The quick pint or 2 is if they serve alcohol at 10am, otherwise it will be a quick breakfast and setting off for the ground shortly after 11. Note - not to sound like an alcoholic, but a Guinness wouldn't go amiss after a 4 hour coach!

There's loads of pubs, just not sure how great they are tbh! I think I'll head to O'Neills just by the station - although got a feeling they don't serve until 11am (some are 10am on a Sunday). So will be just a pint or 2 before the game - imagine most of the better local pubs are closed until kick off. We might get tonked, but after their QPR game I've seen nothing from their Plymouth (0-0) and Stoke (0-1) results to have us any more worried than usual.

Decided to brave a 5am Megabus for this one after Sky kindly moved it to a train-unfriendly time. No idea what to expect as we are so hot and cold. A slow start is a must avoid as teams like Watford (as they showed v QPR) can blow you away on their day.

You'll be shocked to hear I haven't watched it, but remember thinking the same watching the City documentary a few years ago.

100%. Their statement hinted at a duty of care as an 'employee' - I'd be absolutely shocked if they showed the same leniency towards someone working in the club shop if the same evidence was presented to them. I'd also wager that if he was a bench warmer he'd be long gone too.

Legally, he is sadly entitled to come back and is entitled to earn his money. Morally, I would argue that there is no place for him in football and I certainly wouldn't want him wearing our colours. I am sadly not a supremely talented athlete, but I like to think I'd be jobless if my boss found photo/video evidence of my partner battered and bruised, combined with some very difficult to hear voice recordings of him being an abusive wanker (whilst also demonstrating a total lack of respect for consent). United have clearly made their mind up and are prepping his return, which I find to be a great shame and a stain on their name. As an aside, a lot of the nobheads on Twitter (usually from abroad) keep trying to peddle the suggestion the videos might be a forgery - of course that isn't true, as if there was any evidence of forgery or inaccuracy he would have been back long ago. It's almost indisputable the evidence is very, very real (and there is no reason not to believe the victim), and there does not appear to be any hint of remorse.

It's not really based on much empirical evidence, he just seems to conduct himself in a way that strikes me as someone who will do well. And yes, they did have a superior budget (although a lot of that generated by selling players), but he still did what other clubs in similar positions (Watford, Norwich amongst others) failed to do. Games against City won't judge their season. Given Sheffield United's fire sale and Luton being Luton, I only realistically see one spot up for grabs, with Wolves trying their best to fill it. I'm not proclaiming him to be the next Pep Guardiola or anything special, I just think they're in relatively safe hands and think there are 3 worse teams than them. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, and can promise that my assessment of Kompany is not based on BBC/Sky propaganda (I actively avoid anything Dingle related) - just a combination of gut instinct and pretty much everything I've heard of him from former team-mates and players who play under him - as well as second hand (possibly biased) assessments of his work at Anderlecht. I've been unfortunate enough to see some of the nauseating arse licking on social media and the painting their promotion as some sort of miracle - it's obviously some way off that. I hope he does shite and fails.

Sadly I am confident there will be at least 3 teams worse than the Dingles this year. I don't know enough about their squad but Kompany seems to know what he's doing.

You're a legend - exactly the video and website I was after. Thank you very much 🙂

Love to read this sort of stuff. Being born in 1992 I was spoilt growing up, so perhaps didn't appreciate it as much as I should. As I posted earlier in the thread, I'll never forget the tributes before the Norwich game in 2000. Barely a dry eye in the stadium. Your Dad sounds like a great man, as was Uncle Jack - the world was clearly a poorer place that week with their passing. Oh - and a very happy birthday to you!

I've tried searching to no avail and any help appreciated. Someone in here at some point posted a great website where they had hosted a load of old Rovers videos/DVDs - can't for the life of me remember the name of it and lost the bookmark I had. Any help appreciated (it wasn't YouTube). I am specifically looking for the 'time to say goodbye' Jack Walker tribute from 2000 which they showed on the big screen before the Norwich game. Think the famous poem is contained in the same video.

Jota as well who has left Celtic. A cracking player, only 25 I think. He's gone under the radar due to playing in Scotland but I really rate him. He signed a month ago and now due to squad registration issues (i.e. they want bigger names) they might be loaning him out. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up at Newcastle.

They might well be taking the scenic route this year

In that game alone there was that decision and Beckham's free kick being taken as our player was still on his way off the pitch. Then you have the Saha handball before the Smith equaliser in 2004, the potential Scholes handball in the cup semi (not 100% on this one mind), the soft penalty to win them the league in 2011 at Ewood, not sending off their keeper in 2002/2003 (which would have resulted in a player in net).

This sums it up. As ever, the video comments have a few Dingles below rightfully criticising the perpetrators and reassuring everyone it's a minority, but recent visits to Turf Moor show it's a very large 'minority' and is in no way the tiny contingent they like to tell us. Also seen a few of their sadder fans resorting to abusing Sammie Szmodics on Twitter for the crime of posting about a game of football in a league below them with no Burnley involvement. His cutting reply forced a swift deletion of one of the offending tweets.... I really do feel for their more normal fans, they really do have a disproportionate amount of numpties amongst their support.