Head of Marketing after a year's experience is almost unheard of, especially in a company with multi-million pound turnover. There doesn't seem to be much imagination, mind. A minor price decrease at gunpoint with the deadline bafflingly a few hours after the season finale. So the season we finally released them a bit early had a ridiculous deadline before reverting to last year's extortionate prices. And to add insult to injury, at the end of May there's actually a price rise. Did they hope we'd make the Prem and they could justify it? Living in Cardiff, I am still umming and ahhing. My brother (who I share the ST with) is moving to Manchester, so might miss some of the ludicrously timed games (Sky's fault on that count), reducing justification for a ticket. There's also no Burnley game to worry about getting priority for. The prospect of further price rises isn't exactly swaying me, especially given the very disappointing end to the season and a general bit of 'football fatigue'. By the time I'm excited again I'll be paying a considerable amount more than if I renewed in April. To cap it off, it appears from online posts that V12 (who I've had no issues with previously) are being extra stringent this time, so I might not even be eligible for finance if my experience is similar to others. With an upcoming wedding, forking out over north of £400 in one fell swoop just doesn't appeal. As we've all said, Bolton and Preston have shown the way. Even Burnley were considerably cheaper last year (and presumably this year). You can add Bradford and Huddersfield as other towns with similar demographics that have priced sensibly and reaped the rewards. Fat chance of that here - they'd rather keep reducing the numbers if it means minor increases in revenue, which is an absolutely woeful long-term strategy that will just lead to a bottoming out in renewal numbers, a worse atmosphere and less people engaging with the club. As fans drift off, they often don't come back! It is beyond frustrating. Remember the days of John Williams? Taking back Ewood? Now we prioritise very marginal 'revenue targets' over atmosphere, the overall matchday experience and general enjoyment of going. I'd be much more likely to renew in a lively, sizeably crowded Ewood rather the half empty rafts of empty seats we see now. I'm fully aware I'm ranting now, but how many young fans are going to catch the bug going to Ewood at the moment? There is no long-term thinking at the club at all. I remember as a teenager being stood in the Darwen End, enjoying the atmosphere and having a laugh - there were heaps of young fans there who inevitably caught the bug.

7,000 sold so far according to the official Twitter

It was very strange he came out. He barely even kicked a ball for us

It’s a sore one today. I thought we played well, we just missed that guile in the final third and the lack of striker in January again came back to bite us. Wharton was out of this world. If we win that game we are talking about his performance for years. The team should be built around him next year. A final word for the support. It’s easy in games like this to decry the opposition support but we really did put them to shame. A wall of support, even as the result ebbed away. The inability to hear their lot slightly softened the blow of them celebrating the title.

Whilst I see what you've done there, having claret and blue wine sounds very......Dingley! I'd much rather be at the game supporting the lads.

Sold out a few days ago - my brother left it too late and had to sit in the Riverside.

The whole thing is just nonsense, as Longsiders said above it's just clickbait from Nixon. The squad looked pretty strong to me, and Huddersfield have some gall complaining given their surrender a few years ago which contributed to our relegation. By all accounts, Burnley should have won the game judging from the stats. After Huddersfield's time-wasting and general play-acting vs us, I'd shed no tears if they went down. They've also benefited from points deductions to Wigan and Reading, so they've hardly had it too bad!

Morton out for the season - a shame as he's looked alright in a midfield 3. Stretches our already stretched squad a bit further.

I think he's likely on the wind up - if not, then unbelievably stupid from both him and whoever gave him the ticket.

My main gripe is his decision making. The amount of stupid fouls he gives away that derails our momentum, as well as stupid offsides. He seems to care and run around a lot, but something is totally missing.

Very cheeky of him 😀 I actually like Dolan - sometimes he flatters to deceive, but his energy suits our high press perfectly. Decision making is his only question mark - sometimes his feet are brilliant and think him and Szmodics always work well together.

The second paragraph is about Diaz - the quote has taken two parts and out of context looks totally different to what I said!

I was talking about Diaz's recent form?

Eh? If you mean quarter final, then it's because our front 3 played well, and the last 20 minutes was us trying to shore the game up unsuccessfully. Incidentally, Dolan was absolutely superb in the previous round against Leicester, played well against Sheffield United in the league and was one of our brighter players vs Hull (shocking miss aside). I'm a bit unsure on Dolan generally and his role in the team, but not sure saying he didn't play in a particular game (which we lost) really backs up your point. He's definitely not your man as a number 9 when you've reverted to long, direct football. Against PNE, I'd probably go for 3 of Dolan/Leonard/Thomas/Szmodics. Diaz is clearly lacking something, although JDT might argue he just needs a goal. My concern is his decision making - constant stupid fouls, lazy offsides, lack of composure. He just looks lost. My team: Kaminski, JRC, Hyam, Carter, Pickering, Travis, Wharton, Morton, 3 of the 4 above. Edit - forgot Hedges. Wouldn't be sad to see him play, but feel we need a bit of pace in the front 3.

I've just done some pessimistic predictions and got the following: Team Pts 5 Millwall 70 6 Albion 69 7 Coventry 68 8 Rovers 67 9 Sunderland 67 10 PNE 64 11 Watford 64 12 Swansea 64 13 Norwich 63 This is based on us drawing 3 and losing 1, so it's quite clear that turning one of those into a win puts us bang in the frame. Surely we can't go another 4 without winning? A lot hinges on Milwall's next 2. They play Blackpool and Millwall away, neither of whom are doing a Wigan job of fighting for their lives (bar the odd result). Likewise Coventry - they play Reading and Birmingham at home. If they win both, that puts them on 69, which I have as the magic number (oi oi) for top 6. If we win 2, I think we do it. Although perversely it might depend which 2! Edit - we would drop to 9th on GD based on the above.

I had mine last year and it was about £50, although I renewed late. It's usually about 10% higher than the price of the ST in one fell swoop, split over 8 or 9 payments.

Dreading this one. Losing this one will see Coventry (and probably a couple more) pass us, putting us in a really negative position heading into Preston/Burnley - ironically, dropping out of the top 6 might help us release the shackles a bit (not that I want to of course), as there's something inherent in this team with pressure and turning into shrinking violets more often than not. I can't think of any sensible prediction for this game, but I'm hoping their confidence and need for a win might play into our hands a bit. Keeping that Gyokeres quiet is a paramount if very difficult task. I'd take a scruffy 1-0, but it truly is a game to stand up and be counted. Gally and Diaz will consider themselves very lucky if they start. I have no idea how Coventry play, but wouldn't be averse to going back to 3 in midfield like we saw at Huddersfield. We had so much more fluidity in that game, and it meant that there were constantly options for our defenders with the ball at their feet, rather than the static, subbuteo-like approach we saw vs Hull. Plus, this is the only formation in which he picks Adam Wharton - I love the intelligence in his passing and how he's always looking forward. I love Travis, but he really struggles in the final third and doesn't have the guile of Wharton. Morton is very safe, as well, and now is the time for bravery.

I couldn't even remember last season's offer. I think by then I was totally downtrodden and demoralised!

I do agree it should have been lower, but still thought we'd shift 16,000 home tickets. Then again, the marketing for it has been non-existent. As a comparison, I saw 'South Wales derby' billboards everywhere around Cardiff before their recent game vs Swansea. I know we had other games in the meantime, but it's certainly slipped under the radar. Cardiff marketed it well, priced a bit better (about £25 I think) and subsequently got a gate of 28k. For comparison, their gate the weekend before was 22k - that was a game against Bristol City too with the same away following, so shows what a bit of hype can do.

It's a good point. I didn't know at the time they would discount each individual ticket though to basically render the initial offer null and void. And I thought initially it went on sale before Sky got their grubby mitts on it.

When I mentioned decent crowd, I wasn't referring to a sell out or anything close. I'd even count 15-16,000 home fans as decent enough - there's no reason we shouldn't get similar to 2015, especially given our league position relative to then. Even the 5 for £99 offer I felt should have inflated numbers a touch. I still think it should have been £20-25, but I remember paying £35 to go to Turf Moor nearly 10 years ago, so £30 isn't totally out of the ordinary. I think even the FA Cup game in 2005 was £25, which was 18 years ago now. It might even have been £30. It was only a few weeks ago we had 6,000 (and could have sold 8,000) for Sheffield United away at similar prices - it seems there is a malaise around the derby, which can't have been helped by our performance vs them earlier this season, in addition to the saturation of games recently.

Ticket sales look pretty modest thus far - I'd say the Riverside about 20-30% full, BBE lower will sell out. JW currently on about 40-50%. I know they could have done some more imaginative pricing, but for most clubs £30 for a local derby would guarantee a decent crowd. Maybe more will buy after the Coventry game.

Agree with a lot of this - however, in the second half on Saturday I saw some of the grit and determination we have been missing. We came back from 2-0 down at a time-wasting, gamesmanship-aplenty Warnock side who were sitting in and making life difficult, and the team looked disappointed at the end. We had Dolan pushing ball boys, JDT in the referee's face and JRC covering every blade of grass. I really hope it awakened something, as we've often played like a team of perfect son-in-laws rather than being the nasty bastards you need to get out of this league.

I think Norwich catch us, but I'm pinning my hopes on catching Millwall, who I think can be overhauled. Preston are a worry.

The referee was an absolute disgrace. 5 minutes was a joke anyway and he couldn't wait to blow his whistle. Morton was miles better second half, but I thought JRC and Szmodics stood out. Both work harder than anyone I've seen and were winning 50-50s galore.