StHelensRover

Well that win for Oxford was not a good result for us, but it gives a glimmer of hope that maybe we will be able to get at Ipswich again.

None of us there to blame. I'd love to know what figure they'll pluck out the air for tonight's attendance. We know the stadium has 31,000 seats. It was barely a quarter full, they'll still announce it as 13000 or something mental.

Sidney Tavares is so bad that I'm expecting a TV crew to run on the pitch at some point and tell us all we've been pranked in signing him. Like that fella at Southampton who claimed to be related to George Weah. Montgomery also sadly just not good enough.

Another absolutely stinking home performance. It was poor throughout and then the substitutions completely finished us off. After the triple substitution the players looked like they had only just met each other. Looked totally disjointed and created nothing.

Really enjoyed both sections of this episode. Thanks to all involved.

"Who would want to buy a football club that loses tens of millions a year?" Turns out people are queuing up to do it. That's not what we're usually told. Same as with Coventry and Derby in the last few years. They got new owners and didn't end up with Bury in NW Counties equivalent. Crowds way up at both clubs and both above us in the table. Oh well

I remember seeing something in Blackburn Museum about Blackburn being the 'Beeriest town in England" at one point, with the most pubs per capita of any major town or city. In more recent years I think it was reported in the Guardian that we have the most takeaways per capita and that people in Blackburn had better access to takeaways than GPs per capita. Interesting reasons to be on the map, or not(?). I'd rather we were back on the map for footballing reasons but appreciate that could be many years away.

I don't disagree with any of that. But then it just makes me question why the manager allowed the club to sell Dominic Hyam right at the very last second of the transfer window? He was by far our most experienced and least injury-prone central defender, we didn't need to sell him for any reason. We should actually have been doubling down by giving him a small pay rise and a new contract. VI should have been arguing for this. But we 'cashed in'. If I was VI I would have blocked/vetoed that sale and made it a red line. It was a crazy decision, but he allowed it. Knowing how injury prone our other defenders are and not knowing whether youngsters like Pratt would be ready to step-up made it a massive gamble. Yes we've had bad luck with injuries and suspensions, but that's why you keep the squad as strong as you can and retain as much experience as you can. We didn't do any of that this summer. On his watch. I don't understand what his ambition is for Blackburn Rovers. I know I come across as really negative about him, I would genuinely like nothing better than to be eventually proved wrong, looking a fool and have people saying "cannot believe you wrote him off, you're an idiot". However I cannot see us making any progress as a football club under him. To me, he's part of the cheap, cheerful, mediocre approach which is endemic throughout the club.

That's not the whole story is it? If I was being interviewed for a job and I was told that the strategy was to let all the most experience staff leave and replace them with much less experienced staff on lower wages, where we have no idea how long it will take them to become competent, or whether they would ever become competent at all, that would be a massive red flag. Ismael presumably knew this would be the case when he took over, they must have discussed long term strategy with regards to current playing staff and future recruitment. So he doesn't get to use it as an excuse, he doesn't get a pass as he took the job on those terms. If he had no idea any of that would happen, then you would expect him to be extremely disgruntled about it, in the same way that Eustace and JDT evidently were. Instead he has indicated that everything is fine, fans and journalists are wrong and he, Rudy and whoever else are correct. He slapped down the suggestion that the squad is weaker than last season's when we can all see that it is. Not 'tosh' is it?

This is the first game this season (and we're at the end of November) that I'm expecting we will win. QPR are very inconsistent, they won't bring many fans up to East Lancashire on a miserable cold November mid-week. It won't be a classic but I think we'll win this 1-0.

I still think he's shite. We're 18th in the league, we've won one home game and got knocked out the cup by a lower league team. If I was appointed instead of him last year I think I could have made a better fist of getting us into the playoffs than he did. Anyone being smarmy about him because we won a local derby can jog on for me. I never wanted him appointed and my jaw will go through the floor if he ever musters anything measurable as 'success', which would be qualifying for the playoffs, he won't. Edit - I don't want to see anyone using transfer policy as an excuse for him. When he interviewed for the job, that was his chance to interview the club about it's plans to progress. If he didn't ask, didn't listen, or simply waved through their shambolic, tinpot, unambitious plans then he doesn't get the excuse of "doing well with a poor squad".

9 points of breathing space now, hopefully that is a big mental boost for the squad. We just need to keep chipping away and maintaining that gap and we can do it with the big six pointers we have coming in December 🤞 I think we all acknowledge that at least one of Sheff Utd and Norwich, if not both, will eventually begin to climb out. Another 10 wins needed this season to stay up, hopefully we can get 3 or 4 of those before end of December.

I don't think he's that arsed about us, he has no connection beyond managing us for almost a year, I don't think it's that deep for him. Like many he probably saw us as a stepping stone, it's just that on this occasion he made a sideways (at the time a step down) away from us which was galling for us, I don't think it keeps him awake at night. Out moronic owners keep me awake though. It's probably the satisfaction that came from the performance. They completely mugged us off in that game, it was the perfect away performance. Any manager would want to hang their hat on it. They've barely won any matches, so not surprising it stood out.

Great performance that I didn't see coming. We do seem to be a completely different outfit away from home. Maybe playing with less pressure and not expected to take games by the scruff of the neck. Regardless, we were definitely the better team last night. Apart from the crazy 15 seconds which led to the Preston goal, that back 3/5 looked okay. Very pleased for Pratt to see him step up and deliver. I couldn't really fault the performance of any of the starting 11 who all worked their socks off. The subs all did well when they came on. One exception was Maktar Gueye, who honestly. I give up with. I know he has put the ball in the net on a couple of occasions, but he might be the least gifted striker we've ever signed and his attitude stinks to boot. The poor man's Grabbi

I'm down at the ground by the turnstiles and is a lot of younger Rovers fans (can't be older than 18/19) singing absolutely disgusting songs about Tom Finney. Tried to call them out on it and basically got told to F/O. Hope others will call it out when they hear it as well. Cannot believe anyone would sing about anyone dying at football matches, let alone someone like Finney. Disgraceful.