Not long ago their gates were similar to ours but i think they also did some good ST deals etc. That is the key to most clubs crowds in this league and until the useless overpaid suits at Ewood realise this and come up with something that brings those back who've dropped off- OVER THE LAST 3 YEARS - or so under Waggots watch ! Then we'll never move forward in the stands. Although in the case of the likes of Hull and its size it's much easier to double your gates overnight than it is in Blackburn.

Well he got off it in Hull.

That'll be one of their Prem years overspill talking. Who now make up at least two thirds of their regular fanbase.

We vary the formations at times and the front 3 have in certain games been told to be fluid and interchangeable. Other times it's two wide forwards with a deeper sitting mid or false 9 or whatever and Gallagher is given license to roam in.

Yes lets hold it against him for life and only bring it up again because he's unhappy he isn't in the team.

That was a fair few years ago to be fair, show me someone who's perfect and i'll show you a hens tooth. He's seemed a fairly settled character since he sorted out his love life and settled down up north. Even if not it was the sensible older so called bastion of integrity who chose to spew forth as much as he could.

You think he ran up to Mowbray and said hey former gaffer i can't believe i'm not in this team i'm the fittest iv'e been in years, please can you broadcast it to everyone ? End of the day Mowbray should have kept his mouth shut but in typical fashion him trying to be the font of all knowledge who knows better than everyone else had to let his waffle run away with itself. Just why is anyone's guess but par for the course it's Dacks fault !

The stuff about the Rhodes money was common knowledge in the Rovers corridors of power at the time that's why Lambert came here. That's why he bailed out as well.

Yes this narrative around our style of play (which changes game to game anyway quite often) and Dacks so called lack of fitting in it or overall fitness has taken on a life of it's own. One somewhat detached from the reality we see in games. 3 great wins on the bounce but hanging on for dear life for 45 mins in two of them seem to have set the tone 'we don't need Dack now' . It's a long old season, we need quality on the pitch at times and we can't buy it but we do already have one on the books. Nearly as daft as those wanting to sell Rothwell or BBD when in the promotion spots then crowing from hindsight afterwards when we don't get in the play offs.

Imagine the wage bill reduction next summer if BBD, Dack and Ayala are all gone. Waggot will have wood you can see from the moon.

Ayala brings some vital experience around the place and there isn't much of that around at the min. You can see the calmness he brings to the pitch although mobility will be an increasing issue we do drop very deep very easily when he's playing. I wouldn't be so quick to let him go though operating the way we do now developing players. All depends on what happens between now and the end of the season of course and how he copes.

Good you've mentioned those two actually because we've come a long way since them thank god. We are debating back up forwards now one who has come up from the youth only recently and another who is at least only on loan and can be sent back. I'd rather be trying these two than carrying the likes of Samuel and Nuttall on thousands of pounds per week. Broughton and JDT better pull their fingers out in summer though when we lose BBD and Dack, that is the real acid test.

Wonder if it's on the back of his mind what happened to his dad ? Or he's just here to stay fit as he thinks he's off somewhere else in summer, either way not getting stuck in isn't go to lead itself to much of a career. We don't know what he's like as a finisher though because we've never seen him getting on the end of things, apart from that dire penalty.

Here we go the old 'we did it the had way dingle spiel' 🤣 You wouldn't have got where you were in the first instance if it wasn't for Kilby and those others putting a few quid in and giving you a helping hand. So it's not like you were built up with shirt buttons and i know it wasn't on Jacks level but i remember reading Ternants book and him talking about all of a sudden having 700k to spend on Steve Davis (i think it was). That was significant money at the time. Ok they might have pilfered it back at some point but in the initial phases you had a helping hand with outside investment, everybody needs it.

Breretons improvements were as much down to him getting his strength up as anything else. Alongside being used more by the manager instead of ten mins here and there often when the team was struggling. That happened to coincide with games in lockdown as well.

Burnley have never spent their way out of this league, or rather that's another myth they like to peddle.

How many does Bloomfield hold though ? Said this a thousand times but Ewood the size and set up of it goes against creating the types of atmospheres a small crowd can create in a smaller more closed in ground. That crowd v Brum would have two thirds filled Blackpool, Preston or Bumley yet at Ewood it's still two thirds empty. It's a big problem.

I expect a pasting so any result is a bonus. I just have a feeling the youth of our team and the naivety shown by some of them and the new coaching staff will come home to roost in this one. However there is a possibility it could work the other way and it all comes together in a 'something to prove' type performance. If we did win i'd say it would rank as our biggest victory there in a long long time.

It's crazy if that is the case because there is probably a limit to what he can achieve fitness wise now. After two such serious to both knees it's beyond the pale to expect him to be doing more now than hes ever done. He certainly looked fit enough earlier in the season and it all seems to stem from the one bad game he had after making the starting 11. I'll cut JDT some slack and say in his mind it probably started out as more about formations and him wanting a water carrier in there. However not utilising Dacks talents later in games and even more so when we are chasing games is bad management imo. Sorry but that's the way it is and if team comes first that means you put all the other shit aside in order to maximise your chances of getting a result.

Yep 7k of them coming would mean they are swarming all over Accy, Rishton, Ossy, Darwen etc so the boys and girls in blue will be stretched to the limit.

Return of the A+ i reckon, he's already u turned once for the televised Sunderland fixture once he got wind more than 2k was likely to come.

I know the cost of living crisis is biting now but we are struggling to get 12k home fans on a Saturday afternoon whilst sitting top of the league with a new manager, some new players and at standard matchday prices. There is a fundamental failure there somewhere, we are getting less now than the first few games.

Mowbray seemed allergic to having a central striker or target man anywhere in his squad once Grahams time was done.So hopefully this regime sees the need for one in this division. I think we've seen from one or two other teams how these types of players can still be important, they give an outlet up top and give opposition something else to think about.

The singing section thing never works at Ewood it's very much an organic thing with Rovers fans. They don't really last elsewhere either, Huddersfield did it and got a good response in the section next to away fans. That was though built on the back of cheap STs and a bit of success on the pitch - note the correlation there. Reading are doing similar now although iv'e no idea on their ticket prices but unless they keep it cheaper in there it won't last they are just fads that die out. If Rovers were going to do it it should have been built upon the DE home section when it was open but that was another trick missed by Waggot. All he wanted to do was close it.

Certainly not writing him off and the fact he works hard is good but Vale should never be anywhere near it before Dack. I think he needs a loan again to get back amongst the goals and work on that side of things at a lower level. I'm not a fan of what seems to be becoming the go to routine of chucking him on with Dolan for BBD/SG after 80 mins every game. Ok if we are 3 or 4 up but JDT needs to start thinking a little bit more creatively than that long term we won't be hanging onto leads till 95 mins every week.