ianofcleveleys

As with every time we've played these the solution lies in start fast, score first. Whole different dynamic in the game if we score in first 15 mins. Start with the walking football and we'll have a difficult, Wigan-esque afternoon.

To be fair, Simpson has said in his interview after the game that they were well beaten by a side that was much better than them

I know of him through his sister, who's a GB international triple jumper (Naomi Metzger). A good friend of mine coaches her and says he's a great lad

Some players gain mystical status in the run up to and during transfer windows, 'why aren't we going for ..', 'we'll regret not getting...', 'he'll do great for them'. Stockton was going to fire us out of this league at one point

Ennis apparently should have been playing for Blackburn u21s tonight but was pulled in order to fulfil medical appointment at ours

And who reckons the CB we're bringing in is Richard Keogh 🙄

His time at Plymouth was productive, could see why he attracted Championship attention, but he's never got going at Blackburn, been injured half the time and, according to my ST holding mate, hardly pulled any trees up when he's got on the pitch. Not sure that us not landing him will be a disaster

That ball forward from Santos wasn't going to be a good one until the defender made a mess of it, was the latest in a series of big diagonals that invited pressure back onto us as they won almost all of them and countered. There was one that found JDC out wide but that was it. While they were waiting to kick off after the goal a delegation of four went to Santos and had what looked to be a pretty frank word. They did not appear to be saying 'great ball Rico, more of that mate'. We've lapsed back into the walking football again over last couple of games. If that's what Evatt's instructing Santos to do, fair enough, he's playing to orders, but I'm far from convinced it adds any value and, if anything it makes us easy to defend against. It's also dull to watch and hardly engages the crowd

Baxter had a solid game again and has that good habit of making blocks or saves at big moments in games. Second half could have been even tougher than it was had he not been in the right place to save just before half time. Reasonable to cut him a bit of slack for the odd kick that drifted into touch, as with corners, both sides unsurprisingly had a couple that went straight out or well beyond the intended targets.

You're not being harsh, he looked like he'd never faced windy conditions, starting positions constantly too high, caught under the ball, forwards getting wrong side of him. They should have made a lot more of such an occasion early 2nd half when he allowed ball to float beyond him and forward drift beyond him. The walking forward, stopping then chipping it forward in the air was painful, taking midfield out of the game and inviting them to win it and put us back under pressure. He holds us back when he persists with it.

I was hopeful after a couple of the wins just before Xmas in bad conditions against alehouse teams that we'd got the hang of both things. Backward step tonight. Too many looked like they'd never seen a bit of wind and had no idea how to adjust. Santos was horrendous. Toal a bit wobbly but did the proper stuff late on. Charles and Vic both worked hard again but looked like they were playing on a cobbled street. Maghoma floated around and did nothing of any consequence. Williams was pretty decent second half. Having gone in at HT 1 up (barely deserved) we shouldn't have let them anywhere near with the wind behind us, we were actually worse second half and were very fortunate to win. Points on board yes, league table good, yes, but we're a mile off it and need reinforcements sharpish. At the minute we look in late Jan like we did last April when we were stumbling through games and limping into the play offs

Bradley had a good game for Liverpool, did his defensive work pretty well, got an assist, nearly scored (should have done better with it really), looked the part as a Prem RB

It is, you're right, position still good on reading the table. Teams with soft underbellies don't tend to win titles or promotions though. Yesterday was second game in a month (Pompey) Evatt couldn't explain and was caught on the hop by.

This comment of Evatt's about not guaranteeing game time is an interesting one, can certainly see why he'd say it, if he feels clubs / players are trying to dictate the terms of deals to him. Does raise a question for me though of whether he sees Jan window activity as just giving us numbers, as he's satisfied with his first picks in all positions, or whether he sees an issue in a position, or more generally with how we're playing, and wants whoever he brings in to be upgrades. Looking back at previous seasons, 2021 and 2022 windows were real game-changing shake ups as we weren't doing as well as hoped / expected and brought in a number of significant signings. Last season's window added little, certainly in the cases of Mbete, Shoretire and (at the time) Nlundulu, and gave a feel of just supplementing what we had rather than taking it up a notch. Not by any means suggesting we suddenly have loads of problem areas to address and another big splurge is needed, we're still in a very good position on paper, but I wonder if yesterday's performance might have prompted a bit of a rethink of plans on the coach home

Not a earth shattering point, I know, but tight games like that are won and lost in and around both boxes, we were way off it in both, passing up big chances, gifting them big chances. Evatt had already indicated after news about Forrester that a change of tack in the transfer window would probably be necessary, I'd imagine efforts to bring in a CB are ongoing. Concern for me across the three games has been reflected in Evatt's post match 'we expected to play at our pace and weren't allowed to'. It was all too slow and ponderous in the half hour v Cheltenham, much quicker and better on Tuesday (in a more open cup game), back to expecting to play walking football today. We need to get our heads back into 'start fast score first' mode this Tuesday

If it is, fair enough, my Blackburn supporting mate has hardly been glowing about his time there but if he arrives fit and stays fit it may do him good and us if he gets back to what he was last season, at our level. I'd have thought so, back three cover now the main priority for sure

Evatt hinted himself the other day that a switch in transfer window priorities will be needed now. So many back to back games to come, more niggles or impact injuries will arise. FWIW I'm not so bothered about the Ennis situation, whatever we might think about each of them we do still have four fit strikers on the books plus CMG as back up from next week. Defensive numbers the big issue for us now

Franny had put a post on his Twitter. I used to live in Royton, stepdaughter used to work in the pub where Franny ran the quiz. Used to see Iain around the area, didn't know him to speak to though was nice to see someone else round there with a BWFC jacket on. All very sad, hope his family draw something from some suitable tributes tomorrow

Terribly sad news 😔

At least, when game is replayed, club could look after those fans that turn up on what will probably be a midweek night with a free food and drink voucher. It won't be a big deal, there'll probably be about 100 based on today's turnout

I was on opposite side of stadium but could see things were very serious. Sterling effort by the blue jacketed member of staff who kept battling on giving CPR for best part of 20 minutes. I hope those efforts weren't in vain, he certainly did his best

Great that, made me laugh 😄

While we might have had some instances down the years where we've arguably been had over, as has been said some of it was down to the individual circumstances and timing. I'm not sure that our current owners would crumple in a heap if tested but we'll no doubt find out over the next few weeks

The Alex Scott move to Bournemouth set a new bar for EFL clubs for me, if £25m for a promising lad from a mid table Championship club is fair game, no reason why L1 clubs should be settling for £1m or £2m. The standard and level of players at our level has improved markedly even since we last went up under Parky. Lads like Charles and Toal have played full international football (yes, I know, for NI), Sheehan getting involved a bit with Wales. Don't blame Posh, we should play similar hardball, we have good assets.

Out of them, Hull and Swansea (those two have actually been watching him), if it was any I'd say Hull have the biggest wallet and seem to be upwardly mobile again, though they've just added Billy Sharp to what they've already got