StHelensRover

No chance of relegation? 🤔 We already have a rash of injuries and almost every club gets them as well as suspensions throughout the season, the clubs with the weakest, thinnest squads don't deal with it. I would take 21st place if it's offered now. We may end up finishing a bit higher, maybe 17th or 18th but I would still take 21st now. We are average at best, squad much weaker than last season, much thinner, the manager is out of his depth, Rudy Gestede is out of his depth and I don't trust them to bring in reinforcements in January (based on the last few Januarys). This team is nowhere near 'flirting with the playoffs', I think we'll finish about 20 points behind the playoffs if we manage to stay up.

Thought this thread had disappeared after our plucky three wins. But today was back to form, bizarre formation and line-up, permanently clueless manager. Back to 13/2 to go down now. We will probably need another ten wins this season to stay up, so roughly one in every three matches remaining with a few draws thrown in. Doesn't sound too bad, but our home form is really worrying and most teams rely on it to keep them up, we're evidently better away from home. Walking wounded currently with a threadbare weak squad. We have to play so many matches in November and December before the window opens, we need to somehow keep treading water til then. Though we usually botch January windows anyway. I think we're going to be right in this scrap all season. At least one of Norwich and Sheff Utd will improve at some point and skip past us, games against Pompey, Oxford and QPR are going to be six pointers for sure. Strap in. Thanks Rudy, Suhail and Venkys, happy 150th

Exact same thing happened in BBE to me. I asked if I could nip back out through the turnstile to grab one outside but because I had already scanned in I couldn't. So I had to wait and queue for ten minutes after FT for them to open the club shop so I could grab one. I had just assumed they would have them on the concourse. I'm sure they used to?

I remember this account before I stopped using Twitter earlier this year. If he isn't a club plant he is truly brainless. He spends all day every day defending Venkys against other fans and he popped up constantly on my feed til I eventually muted him. Would love to have been a fly on the wall between him and Rudy.

I stand in NO1 and most of the people in there were only interested in singing about Eustace, and booing BBD. There are some proper thickos in there and some of the stuff I hear shouted I wouldn't repeat online as it makes me ashamed to be a Rovers fan sometimes.

The only thing that looked impressive and like any thought had gone in was that some blue and white smoke/fireworks went off as the players walked out onto the pitch. Other than that, nothing memorable. I didn't bother watching the 'legends' game as I think everything about it was a farce. Rubbish opponents, rubbish time to play the game, almost an hour to wait after full time for it to even start. Eustace and Derby team dancing round at the Darwen End celebrating with travelling fans. Felt miserable so walked straight out. It should have been done on a different day, probably in Pre season or during an international break, but that costs money and we don't spend money on anything, it's not in the owner's strategy.

Pears isn't great but I don't really blame him for that defeat today. Even the best keepers are to an extent only as effective as the defence in front of them. Any keeper is going to have their work cut out when their centre halves are wingers.

They won't even know we were playing. I genuinely think that none of them know anything about the football club, in all seriousness. Bet they couldn't point out Blackburn on a map, bet they couldn't name the stadium or a first team player from the current squad. We're a line on a balance sheet that they get from an accountant every so often. They're billionaires living a billionaire lifestyle and we were a play toy for 5 minutes. I loathe them

Not sure about that myself. We conceded from two headers in the box. Not saying Hedges was completely to blame for that, but you'd like to think that would be less likely with proper centre halves playing in those areas rather than makeshift ones.

It's been depleted on his watch and so presumably with his blessing. The last two managers walked out when this was done to them, this donkey has clapped along and acted like everything is fine, even spat his dummy out when asked about it by the press. He's happy to allow them to implement their bargain basement strategy to the football club, so he's a loser.

Beat me to it. The idea that 'Big Val' is even close to being as good a manager as John Eustace is bonkers. And that's not me saying Eustace is incredible either.

Gallops round like a newborn foal, plays football like a newborn foal. He's so awful it's unbearable. He's Chris Brown level

Another huge thanks to the owners from me today. A special moment watching Eustace saluting 3000 Derby fans doing the Poznan in the Darwen End as I trudged out of the ground. That first half was diabolical, that second half was borderline passable, but too late as usual. Overall, nowhere near good enough. Daft line up, daft formation and poor performance. Mugged off on our birthday by a good manager who has a plan. Southampton were a basket case and we were lucky to sneak past them, ditto at Leicester. Hard fought win in a poor game on Tuesday. Today, we played against a well organised team on a roll and got what we deserved. Still anxious to see us get to 50 points.

Derby were 3/1 on Paddy Power before the line-ups and now they're 5/2. I still think that's a very long price and I would have thought it would be too close to call. Ed - for context we're 21/20

Feeling in a good mood about today now. Got a photo and a brief moment to chat with Tony Mowbray and Jordan Rhodes outside the ground today. The only two people I'll likely be able to remember fondly from this last 15 years at our 200th anniversary. COYB

Still can't get my head round how wrong they got the shirts this season. Last season I think they did a good job. I personally like and bought the green away shirt. But they still missed a big trick with that one (imo) in not putting the town crest on, it would have looked great and would have made the choice of colours more obvious, and wouldn't have needed a white rose. The gold shirt I just can't warm to. The railway station, a bridge over the railway and Darwen tower. Not sure what any of that has to do with 150 years of football in the town. Boring and doesn't look brilliant (imo). The home shirt is the biggest clanger for me. The 150 years logo on the neck is something they've slapped on as many things as they can in the shop and looks naff. They couldn't even get the layout of the halves (quarters right) We've been outdone by *checks notes* Port Vale, who also celebrated 150 years and they came out with the best shirt of the year across the divisions (imo). I'd be really interested to know how they and Macron drummed up and finessed the ideas for this season, coz it's clear they engaged with fans then ignored pretty much everything fans said.

Edwards not managing Boro today, decision taken by the club

Hope the fans have learned their lesson about chanting and booing and waving snakes at Eustace. It worked really well last year at Pride Park, 2-0 down after less than 10 mins and we had to take 85 mins of non-stop goading from the Derby fans, we looked like morons. If people think the way to support the club is to boo a manager who walked out because we are run like a pub team then they're a dream for Pasha and the Venks. Everyone needs to ignore Eustace, Weimann, et al today and if anyone has something bad to say aim it at that directors box in the JW.

Someone forgot to press send for Lewis O'Brien Someone forgot to press send on Duncan Maguire Someone forgot we're famous for playing on blue and white halves, not school polo shirts with a blue cross ironed on Someone forgot to check we're legally allowed beer in seats before pressing send Someone seems to have forgotten they told us there would be an anniversary shirt, even though it seems to be a shite looking one that they haven't released on the anniversary. Everything is fine though because we got a video from Alan Shearer. You could release a full-length hard back glossy photo book of all the absolutely stupid shit these idiots have done in the last 15 years just like the one they've released for the 150, it would win a number of prizes for fiction, no one would believe it was real.

Wow, won't be parting with £40 or however much it is for a book with a full page glossy photo of those jokers. They should have just swallowed their pride and omitted themselves from the book.

I prefer to look at his 13-14 year managerial record when deciding on his footballing acumen. He got in to playoffs during the covid season with Barnsley and got into the playoffs in German regional football about 13 years ago. That's all he has achieved. During that time he's had more clubs than Tiger Woods. Edit - sorry. sounds like I'm being an arse with you there when I read it back. Basically, I made my mind up about him before we ever appointed him, I never wanted him, have struggled to warm to him, see him as a journeyman and average at best. I haven't booed or jeered him at Ewood like some parts of the fan base, but I don't think he'll ever get us anywhere. Would love to end up with egg on my face but I won't.

I'm still unconvinced by him. As pleased as I am with 3 wins in a row, they still haven't passed the eye test for the long term. We were very lucky against Southampton and we snuck in front at Leicester and it then got very toxic which really helped us. Tonight was a shite game of football and I'm glad we managed to just about shithouse it. To a neutral who hasn't watched any of our games, it will sound like we're flying, I think we can see we're not. Let's just get to 50 points however we do it.

Just had a quick look on the Rovers site to see how the crowd was shaping up for Saturday by seeing where tickets were available and sadly the £18 tickets don't seem to have put a dent in what will be pretty much a bog-standard attendance for us these days. We're a husk. When we played Wolves in 2000, we were in the same division we're in now, except we were trying to compete to get out of the division and were run by competent people. The argument about it being the Jack Walker era can't be levelled because by that point the great man had passed on. The attendance for that game was 20,400. I'm guessing Wolves at the time would have brought about 2k? What do we think for Saturday? 15,000 'officially' announced but nearer 11 or 12k? Sad

I'd even rather they played in this on Saturday, than an all white Bolton/Derby/Leeds/Tottenham shirt with a cross on it

If the very latest rumours and photos are genuine about this white shirt with a Maltese cross on it, my overall emotion is just one of real sadness. Might be trivial in the grand scheme of things for a grown man to feel sad about what an anniversary football shirt looks like, but I can't help it. It looks rubbish. It looks cheap. It's ridiculously expensive if that is the correct price. It doesn't look or feel like anything familiar or loveable about Rovers. No one other than an anorak of Rovers history is going to have a clue what shirt it is if you were to wear it in public, most people will just think you're dressed like a crank. Infuriating to think they had a fan group willing to engage and guide them on this and instead they've gone their own way and churned out this tat. Please let it be a red herring and there is some blue and white glorious kit waiting to be unveiled.