Agreed. He got himself out of trouble with great footwork after receiving Carter's hospital pass. Then it all went wrong and was caught in possession when he attempted a dribble when he had options to pass or even Row Z on the halfway line. His big learning from Saturday will be when the analysis boys show him how often his decision making was wrong. If he gets that sorted then I think the "too small, too lightweight" comments will fade away.

Oh and Huddersfield missed three absolute sitters at Plymouth. Colin wouldn't be good company after that.

All 24 Championship sides have played and my for what its worth impressions- Millwall were very good at Boro Stoke clinical and impressive in beating Rotherham 4-1 Southampton terribly pretty up front but pretty terrible at the back Preston were excellent and unfortunate not to win at Bristol City. Nobody terrifying me yet except the QPR defence in the first half at Watford...

Interesting balance for JDT between building match fitness, capitalising on Markanday and Leonard great starts and full rotation. Brittain, Hedges, Scott Wharton, Buckley, Garrett and Batty will start. Might as well get a tombola for who starts and who subs in the other positions.

Dilan was excellent yesterday. I bet his timing of passing goes under the microscope at Brockhall this week though! Has not got the hang of when he should be moving the ball on to avoid being caught in possession. That said he was strong and bullying catching West Brom players dwelling. So chuffed for him getting that goal which was really well taken. Puts big pressure on Dolan Ennis and Sigurddson when all fit for their starting places but potentially could hold his own.

Sigurdsson the obvious absentee.

JDT deserves all the smiles and delight he so obviously got from yesterday's performance. He picked a team for the Girona friendly which played really well and with the exception of the forced keeper change the same eleven played beautiful football and gave their all against West Brom. Subs timing and selection worked perfectly too showing how his whole squad training approach is paying off. A personal and well deserved triumph for JDT as well as the boys.

Agreed. Especially as we didn't even take the kick off!

Has the crowd size been announced yet?

Great thing about Malta, the market is so small the broadcasters can't remotely get the advertising revenue to get rights so I never have the problem of Rovers TV games not being accessible. Except today I probably missed 10 minutes including the Markanday goal through the feed dropping!

The potential is there in this group of players to get so much better quickly. The future is bright The future is blue and white

What a cracking good game. Love the way Rovers can move it around crisply and all players comfortable on the ball. Some immense performances out there especially Hyam, Carter and Pickering plus Brittain when he came on against a real handful in that West Brom attack. Travis superb, Szmodics got better and better as the game went on. Tronstad - a really tough welcome to Championship football and will get to the pace. Absolutely delighted for Markanday and Leonard. This side will also get much better and we showed we can certainly create goal scoring chances. Leonard knows where to get into the right places.

So far so good. Rovers look a real threat when moving the ball crisply in the final third. Baggies have enough going forward to cause worries second half but we have kept that large travelling support quiet.

Same as against Girona

One thing with the new timekeeping rule is stamina and fitness. Halves are typically now going to last 50-55 minutes rather than 45-50 minutes or at least 10% more. That is a significant additional burden on a professional athlete already operating at peak physical demands and mental stress. And of course the intention of the added time is to keep the ball in play- not give rests. Instead of running an average 10km per match, players will be running an average 11km. Fingers crossed the fitness regime introduced by GB and JDT disproportionately benefits Rovers and not goal scoring Coventry keepers..

Southampton brittle at the back if you can successfully resist all the superb stuff further forward.

Both teams in the same boat of new signings missing, players unready through injury and a missing wish list of new signings not made. Two of the best Managers in the Championship head to head. Who wants the three points the most will decide the outcome.

Those Girona kids were greased lightning.

Having read so much about Steve Waggott on this board, I found the BBC interview a very pleasant surprise. I would normally advise CEOs to keep answers shorter and simpler but he threaded complex replies together comprehensively, engagingly and with little repetition. It is remarkable how little of the 30 minutes is being quoted out of context on here given how much talking he did. 100% absolutely right he should have been in Blackburn and nowhere near Birmingham on transfer deadline night. 100% right the buck stops with him and the O'Brien screw up is on his charge sheet.

I fully expect to be surprised when the team is announced.

Daily Mail slagging us off so everything is perfectly fine in the world and the sun will be shining tomorrow. Hope SWAG is right about the 16/17,000 crowd.

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/07/championship-2023-24-season-predictions-opta Opta forecast. Rovers 8.5% chance of automatic promotion.

If you are outside the UK, subscribe to Rovers TV and get the dulcet tones of Neil Yardley, his sidekick and guest expert comment from whichever Rovers player is injured or suspended and can be trusted not to F and blind

BBC coverage of the Championship is abysmal but they have stirred themselves to write this: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66302766 What is striking is unlike Burnley last season, the relegated outfits haven't done a thorough job of sorting out their squads yet. They seem to be relying on the shell shocked relegated players who aren't good enough to get a transfer away. Coady has dramatically fallen apart in 18 months from England International to surplus at Wolves to a loan failure at Everton sidelined by Dyche to being a very expensive buy for Leicester. As for Leicester spending another 9m on Harry Winks, if you want to hear a North London torrent of negative expletives, just say his name to a Spurs supporter.