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.

Also in the case of Coventry, you have to remember that they were in all kinds of trouble less than 12 months leading to a fire sale of one Don Hyam. They are now in the fortunate position of having a season where they had a negative transfer balance counting into their three year FFP average. Rovers showed competent management in getting Hyam how and when we did.

1 - Middlesbrough 2- Sunderland 3- Sheffield Wednesday 4- 4th 5- 63 6- Adam Wharton

My forecast four weeks ago was second. I was being bullish and taking the GB and JDT project of achieving a sustainable premier league position literally, simply deduced that meant promotion this year. JDT has now said that "the project" has changed. What does this mean practically absent any solid information? I had assumed that like last summer, 4 million pounds would have been found for recruitment. Now at best that figure will be net nil and probably a negative 4 million pounds. I had also assumed that we would do (including the paperwork this time) a Lewis O'Brien type of deal in the January '24 window. There are still strong fundamentals to expect this season to be better than last. - the entire Club is now attuned to JDT's thinking and way of playing so the win one lose one first half of last season erratic performances should be improved on. - we are a young squad so another year's experience should mean that on average every player should be improved. JRC and Carter are dramatic and unexpected bonuses compared with expectations twelve months ago and we should be able to get full seasons out of them this time. - irrespective of results, we did play very well at the end of last season and that improvement in play seems to have been continued through the pre-season. The Girona game was very reassuring irrespective of the result. Let's look at where there are changes in personnel Goalkeeper- TK's save at Middlesbrough is one of the great saves of Rovers history and nobody's going to forget that. But let's not overlook TK making a number of mistakes when he was in goal and his distribution causing a lot of hearts in mouths moments we got away with. Pears surprised everybody by being an able deputy and if we get Leopold, it will appear we will have two top keepers vying for the number one shirt again. Central Defense- were either Ash Phillips or Daniel Ayala going to be starting ahead of Carter and Hyam? Sam Barnes thankfully has recovered and he is very highly regarded while it has been commented that the one thing we're not short of is extremely talented promising central defenders coming through the Academy. Midfield- I have seen enough to be completely convinced that Tronstad is a significant improvement over Tyler Morton of last season. Tronstad instinctively moves the ball quicker, is a more accurate passer, has a fearsome shot and is unlikely to have the sort of total brain farts Morton had at Wigan and Bramall Lane in the Cup. Up front- we hardly saw Dack last season and whilst his four goals were extremely helpful, he was overshadowed by Sammy Szmodics. Ben Brereton Diaz gave us half a season of Chilean International and half a season of clueless youngster signed from Forest Redux. We simply don't know what Sigurddson and Ennis bring to the party but would it be fanciful to suggest they could chip in with 15 goals and assists between them? Markanday could be better than Dolan while Harry Leonard could be good enough to continue his prolific form shown throughout the age groups into the first team. Adam Wharton could be good enough to win Rovers promotion on his own. We are extremely fortunate with our August fixtures to see us through until last week loan deals are done. And let me ask you this- if you are a young potential Premier League hot shot, are you going to opt for a club with no recognised forwards or go to one where there are strikers already well established? My revised forecast is fourth.

Watching it on Portuguese TV. Half time analysis included a coat rack of Portuguese players' shirts from the PL. Of course they chose Nuno Gomes' Rovers shirt.😍

JDT miracle worker!

Great opportunity for the second string to continue their strong pre-season showing.

The August fixtures are very kind to us. West Brom also a club in crisis. Expecting Rovers to move the ball as sharply as we did against Girona and West Brom not to be good as Girona.

Talking of shrinking, Cadbury's products are only 85% of the size they used to be.

Having helped Ukrainian refugee families escape from Z, yes I am sensitive. We have just signed a player because of the Ruzzian War. Were we to try to sign anyone of Ukrainian heritage, they would have a very big issue with that shirt. It is beyond stupid crazy to have that design feature.

Sorry but that Z motif on the 3rd shirt is off the scale stupid and insensitive. Might as well use a swastika.

Yes, the pies can be exceptional- they have enough practice baking them! I doubt Timpana would have rabbit because rabbit doesn't have a strong enough flavour to go in a bolognaise type sauce successfully.