Latest / Minnows Football / What if Cod was one of us? One night in Fleetwood, plus Burnley woes while Blackburn grows.

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What if Cod was one of us? One night in Fleetwood, plus Burnley woes while Blackburn grows. · Minnows Football

• Sam: Welcome along to the Minnows Football Show. I'm Sam Martin. It is Thursday, October 29. We have a pack show this week, and there's maybe no other place we could start than in Fleetwood Town, a planned Victorian seaside village on the filed coast in Lancashire, founded by Peter Keskith Fleetwood in the 1830s, the northern terminus of the Blackpool Tramway, home to the Loft House of Fleetwood, the makers of Fisherman's Friend. A major deep sea fishing port in its heyday. And it was to this exotic setting, of course, that English champions, Arsenal, traveled on Tuesday night to face 2nd Division Fleetwood in the fourth round of the Caribot Cup at Fleetwood's own Highbury Stadium, of course, aptly named for this particular battle. In addition to that, both kits, both home kits of these clubs are red and white. But that's about where the similarities end. 84 spots. Separate these two teams currently on the English football pyramid. And of course, by now you already know the result. It was a 1-1 draw at full time with Fleetwood progressing 5-3 on penalties. There are so many interesting things about this story, and so many interesting things about Fleetwood Town. It's tough to know where to start. But what's super compelling to me about Fleetwood is obviously, yes, this is a giant killing moment. This is a massive underdog story. If you go and you read the press over the last few days, they're talking about it perhaps hyperbile hyperbolic in this terms of the biggest upset in English football history. Not quite sure that that's true. But what's interesting about Fleetwood is Fleetwood is a club in a kind of, if you just look at it from a pure literal and linear sense, a kind of a club in decline, from a standing's perspective at least. They've gone through real ups and downs over the last couple of decades, starting twenty-five years ago. When they were purchased by a version of their current owner, the o father of their current owner. We'll get to ownership in a second. but they have come all the way since the early 2000s from the Northern Premier League Premier Division, all the way up to League One, then relegated from League One two years ago. And the last two seasons in League Two have been slightly harrowing for supporters. They've kind of languished near the bottom of the table, flirted with relegation a couple of times. And if you go back even further than that into the 20th century, Fleetwood's a club that's had not one in unto uninterrupted footballing history, but really many different incarnations. This is a club that's in fact died and be been reborn many times. It folded in 1976. The second incarnation of Fleetwood, then that died in 1996-97. And around it all is this core identity of the club, the Cod Army, as we were reminded so many times during the Fantastic broadcast on Tuesday night. that cod army identity is something which has also died as well. The Fleetwood was this deep sea fishing town, fishing village, really caught up in the Cod Wars of the 1960s, 1970s. And it's a town that really reached its peak far before that, but then started to fade away. A story that you hear around a lot of different small English towns. But there's the decline of deep-sea fishing, the last Deep sea trawler in the town departed in 1982. So that's over 40 years ago. And yet this kind of fishing identity remains for the club. And then you've got this additional complicated nature of ownership, which I alluded to before. Andy Pilly, he was the one that purchased the club almost over 20 years ago and started to build that real drive to get the club going in the right direction out of the lower tiers and into the to the EFL pyramid. Something which so many clubs are trying to do now out of the National League. He was the driving force behind that. He was beloved. And then there's this complicated nature. He g undergoes fraud accusation accusations, then a fraud conviction, has to sell the club, passes the club down to his son, Jamie Pilly. And right around that time, a few years ago, that's when you start to see this decline and the the end of this kind of great period of growth for the club. And the this decline back to the second league two in the EFL. And they go through lots of different managers over that time. Some of them are really fancy managers. The manager right now for Fleetwood is this guy, Matt Lawler. And he has a a kind of a a different perspective and different background. He's played a lot of non-league football as a player. He's worked his way through Fleetwood's youth development structure. And so this battle. Fleetwood versus Arsenal, as we get into it on to on Tuesday night. It was really setting up in this great classic David versus Goliath way. And the the David in this case, Fleetwood, has gone through so much change and so many challenging times over its entire evolution as a club. And I think the only way to really do justice to Tuesday night, I went through and watched the game again a second time. And pulled out some of the timestamps of what happened at different times. We're gonna do like an almost I'll keep it keep it brief, but we're gonna do like an almost oral history style retelling minute by minute of this game and just call out some of the the challenges that were happening there for for both sides. So we start at the beginning, teams walk out, there's a ton of hyperbole, like I talked about before, same colors, you know, but very different people, they're very different clubs and and Very different quality of player on both sides. The glitsiest guests this place is ever known, is mentioned in the broadcast. But the Cot Army's in full flight. This this tiny town and tiny stadium up in in the northwest of England. The Arsenal Eleven is a young team, but a strong team. It's it fielded seven players, twenty or younger. But even though it was a s a young team, it was a well known team, to lots of us. It had Ilian Mesley are in goal. Then it had Timber, Salman, Mascara, Piero Hincapi at the back. So a strong back line, but with a lot of youth. Miles Lewis Skelly, Martin Zubamendi in the mid midfield and a holding midfield position. O'Neal from from Northern Ireland in the midfield with Max Dowman and Kai Havitz. And then Victor Gokarez up front. So the big names there. More about him in a second. But you've got Kai Havertzon and Gokarez up front. This is not a squad that's taking it easy on Fleetwood and is taking the game very seriously. The Fleetwood Eleven, just to put some honor on their names and and call them out here, Jay Lynch in goal, Sean Rooney, Connorhoy, Finlay Potter at the back, Reese Bennett, Crispin McLean, Harrison Meal, Mark Helm, and Jake Batty making up a five-man midfield. And then Aaron Lupallaby and Ched Evans up front playing in a 3-5-2 formation. So the game kicks off. Get to the third minute, and straight away we have a drone interruption. The seven minute interruption for the game. The ref gathers the players on the side of the pitch as if this could be a danger to either team. And then straight out of that break in the tenth minute, Arsenal almost scores. There's an Arsenal free kick. Max Dowman has a cross. Ricochet's off bat. He onto hint cap, he goes over the heck crossbar, and you're like, this is a strange start to the game, but it feels like Arsenal's gonna settle in here and have what should be at this stage a simple victory. Nineteenth minute, Arsenal go forward again. Max Dowman scuffs it. And that's his first real mistake of the game, which is going to be a a really interesting experience for Max Dowman. I I have a wonder if this is going to be known going forward as the Max Dowman formative learning opportunity experience game or something like that. He scuffs a shot. It's not quite a shot. It's not quite a cross. It goes in front of Golcares and out for a goal kick. And you get this first sniff at that stage here in the 19th minute. Maybe this isn't Arsenal's night, and maybe this this could be something that is not quite a fate accompli. And then sure enough, two minutes later, the twenty-first minute Fleetwood strike, really poor defending from Arsenal, but great strength from Fleetwood striker, Aaron Lapali. It's a simple ball forward. LaPalibi kind of takes it ten yards out from the box or so, gets down to the box with it, and he's really wrestled with and it was at a point where he could have made a decision to go down and appeal for a penalty. And I think a lot of people would have done that if they're playing with just pure hope. But he backed himself, he stayed upright, he finished strong, he gets the goal. Fleetwood are up one nothing and you get that first sense, that sniff that as a neutral is just so exciting to get in a game like this that something miraculous could happen here. And that's when I loved one of the it wasn't in the the broadcast, but one of the online commentators at the time put up this stat of Fleet would have won all three of their home matches when scoring first in the EFL Cup this season. Okay, that's great. Make it four, but but I'm not sure that that stat's gonna, you know, particularly tell us something when you're up against the champions of England like this. But anyway, later in the first half, forty first minute, Dowman fizzes another cross to Kai Havitz, goes over the bar and Two things about this. One, th this is I I think for Arsenal, this is the Max Dowman game for so many different reasons. But you can really see that games like this teach you the tell you the logic and show the logic of playing such a young side for a club like Arsenal in a game like this, which has a lot of meaning and also not for Arsenal at the same time. Think about the developmental aspects for guys like Dowman and O'Neal to be able to come out and not just play, but be the one in charge in this moment. And what can you learn from that experience? at this point of the game, the 41st minute, Arsenal have scored have completed 175 passes to Fleetwood's 41. But at the same time, the moment doesn't feel too big for Fleetwood. And it there's a sense here going into halftime that that this could be a great upset. Halftime a couple more stats when we get to halftime 0.12 XG for Fleetwood, 0.93 for Arsenal. And so Arsenal rings some changes at the half. Martin Odegaard comes on. Ben White comes on for Timber at the back. And Odegaard, as soon as he's on, starts to really take control of the game, dictates play. And sure enough, in the 50th minute, Victor Gyokares scores a goal. It's an ugly goal, but it's a goal. O'Neal delivers a ball into the box from the left. Potter can't clear it. Giocarez, who I feel like has been much maligned over his time in Arsenal, he's just never really been I in in fr from my perspective, really embraced by Arsenal fans, but he I he knows how to score, knows how to finish, scrambles at home. It's one one. And then five minutes later, and then in the fifty-fifth and the fifty-ninth minute, you have these two quick Kai Havitz misses in succession. And it's starting to feel a little inevitable for Arsenal. And you th start thinking to yourself, how could this possibly get another thirty minutes, thirty five minutes without them scoring? And some subs come on for Arsenal. The 66th minute give SA comes on, Gimmuresh comes on in the last 10. And so we get to that last sort of five minutes of of regulation, and we have these two massive events. I think the two biggest events in the game. At the 85th minute, you have the Dowman fight. So if you haven't seen this, there's this big challenge on Max Dowman by Neil and It's not a it's not a foul. It's the kind of challenge I heard it described somewhere it was described as a forceful league two tackle. It is the kind of challenge I think you get from lower league and and lower tier teams, which is strong. and but it it got the ball, but Dowman didn't appreciate it. And he turns around, Max Dowman turns around and kicks him, not not square in the nether regions, but near them, and he gets a red card. And this is such a massive turning point potentially. Not for this game. I think for the game it was just kind of it was going to penalties anyway. This is a potential turning point and formative experience for Max Dowman. You know, look at take a look at Dowman. He's this really talked about character in English football because he is so young, 16 years old, son of a multimillionaire insurance company CEO, but seemingly a kind of grounded. guy and seeming like seemingly a a good guy, intensely private. it's just described Champions mentality. It's this building a footballer in a box idea that if you wanted to go out and and put a couple of drops from a lab together and and build this football, this great young football, this is what you would create. And you'd probably do it from these same senses. And then he rocks up here to Fleetwood, to Highbury on this kind of cold, windy, night on a Tuesday, midweek, and you play a really good game on the whole, in a game that you're expected to really step up and be this kind of leader at 16 years of age, this leader of this massive club. And then you have sort of a this brain fart experience because you've been subjected to this this tackle that you're not used to. You get sent off and then your team ends up losing in the Carabao Cup to a side three divisions below you. If you ask me, that's the kind of experience that probably makes you And turns you into a man. I'm not sure that he would necessarily see it the same way, at least not at this stage. But I thought that was a really tremendous experience for someone like that, that he wouldn't have necessarily gotten otherwise and might not have gotten if they'd gotten the win. And I think all those pieces are tied together. So you have that happen in the 85th minute, Arsenal goes on five minutes later, in the 90th minute, they look like they're about to win it. They have this Ez crosses it into Ben White at the back post. He's just completely wide open, but then and he shoots it on goal. And Lynch, the Fleetwood goalkeeper, who has the face and and mannerisms of kind of like, and this is not a derogatory term thing at all, but it's like just looks like a a kind of a sales manager or, you know, has this look of someone who would be coming in and be a really jovial, gentle person who's who's here to help you with some kind of utilitarian process. He somehow gets his body full stretch across on the other side, palms it away. Sensational save, keeps Fleetwood in it, and then of course it goes to penalties. And you've probably seen these by now, but basically Fleetwood, the way they take their penalties, they just act as if they have nothing to lose. They belt them home. There's no messing around and stepping up to the ball. They go first. So it's all perfect. Andy Cannon sh scores the fourth penalty for Fleetwood, so it's four three. Then up steps Gimmarech for Arsenal, takes this stutter stutter step that as he was doing it, you just knew that that was not going to fly in this second division stadium on this second division pitch on a night like this. You're just kind of tempting the football guards by being cute with this. And it's of course saved by Lynch, who's probably the star, honestly, for Fleetwood on the night. I don't think he got Man of the Match awards, but probably the star for Fleetwood. And then the centre back hoy hoy steps up, thumps the winner home in the top left corner, and the crowd floods the field and Fleetwood move on to the quarterfinals and the EPL champions, the Premier League champions are out of the Carabao Cup and it's this incredible moment. And I think a lot of the significance came through when listening to what Matt Lawler, the Fleetwood manager, said after the game. And I think it's important to to note, like I was talking about at the top, this is a really different approach for Fleetwood of what they're doing and how they're managing their s their side and their and their club right now. You know, they've gone and chased high managerial appointments, they've gone up to higher leagues, they've had that sort of success. And instead with Lawler, they've kind of zagged a little bit and gone with someone with a different background and and less pedigree. more developmental. But Lawler talked about that his two takeaways from the night, his big takeaways were one, that he looked around the stadium and he found he saw people that he grew up with in the stands, which was just that this really nice moment for him of feeling like this was truly a community moment for for Fleetwood and something that was just incredible. And then the second thing he said, which really you know sort of marked for him how incredible it was Was he went to the tunnel and he saw this is after the game and he saw Mikel Arteta in the tunnel and he talked about how gracious Arteta was. He shook his hand two or three times. And you could even hear in the press conference afterwards that Arteta holds, he talks about, you know, we played really well. We tried our hardest, but you know, we've got to give our portis to the to the team that won, and was incredibly gracious about it. And There was this great guardian piece this week that was previewing the game and it was talking about some of these, some of the unique elements of Fleetwood as a club. They talked about how if you want, you can go down, you can sit in the cafe at Fleetwood at the training grounds and watch them train and even talk to the players afterwards. And it all those pieces together just made me think, you know, what are we truly chasing? What are some of these clubs chasing when they take ownership of these c sides? And they try to turn them into something bigger, better, something else. what more could you want in this world than to be a manager of a team that has a big upset against a great club that you look around in the stands and your friends are there, that you meet this idol, this coaching idol. think Lawler even said he said, I I wish I had more time with Arteta. I'd want to ask him a few questions and and pick his brain. you meet your idols, you have this incredible win. You have this club which is approachable and and a true part of the community. not every club can be a Premier League club. Not every club can even be a championship club. How can we be happy with the lot that we have in this world? And so I think, you know, right now, kudos to the COD Army. If you're there and you've had that experience, you must be just feeling so phenomenal about your space in the world. and and how you've gotten there and and what your club is. So a great night for underdog football midweek. Let's move on now to the championship. And I had two games in particular from last weekend that I wanted to highlight in some greater depth because I think the results and the way the games were played said a lot about those teams and their position and also their long term fate. and where they might be going as clubs. And if you go check out MinnowsFootball.com and check out our belief index on there, you'll see that this is kind of this the kind of things we're going discuss here are borne out in some of the numbers and the and the conversations that we have there. So the first game I wanted to look at, Lincoln City four, Burnley one. Now, to start, it was pouring with rain. every game on Saturday was played seemingly in the middle of a rain squall. And Nikki Hayan on the on the sidelines looked like he might have had a cold. He was sneezing a couple of times. He looked miserable. And I know it's been a tough time for him at Burnley. It became an even tougher time after the game, which we'll get into in a second. But he looked like he wasn't well, might have been under the weather. He'd had Jamie Vardy ruled out with a back injury. He had Broyer, the the substitute, or not the substitute, the the stand-in striker. He was injured in the first 10 or 15 minutes. And then everything went downhill from there. You know, Burnley really looked on the weekend like a club that was completely lost. And on the pitch that manifested at first, they struggled really in the attacking third. They really struggled to get going. They got the first goal, ironically, in this game. But It was an absolute dog's breakfast the first thirty, thirty-five minutes in terms of getting the ball into the any kind of attacking spot where you're truly threatening. And the goal that they that they scored was off a set piece. But as the game went on, they looked even softer at the back. You know, the first goal they conceded off a long throw, was just as as soft as you'll see. And all four goals really came about where you if when you're looking at the replay of the goal. The guys in the middle, the center backs, are standing around as if their feet are stuck in mud. There's just absolutely no movement, no urgency to the ball. It's dire, in terms of what what we're seeing on the pitch. And then to cap it all off, they had a penalty saved, by the great George Wickens in the 84th minute. And it just left with s left us as fans, as neutrals and as I'm sure as the for the the fan base as well with so many questions. you know, one question I had is what what's Kyle Walker doing here exactly? What's his motivation for being in this job? He doesn't look out there, he doesn't look particularly fit, fast, organized. He doesn't look like he's organizing others. You know, the defense has never played po more poorly. You've got all the he came in under the auspices of having played with Scott Parker previously. He wants to get his coaching credentials, I know. Like But why is a guy like that at the club anymore? It's just one of so many questions around this playing group that you just can't begin to sort of pull apart and understand without starting to feel really nervous about the future of the club. And the club felt the same way after the game. And so the result of this, after the four one loss, as you all know by now, Nikki Hay and presumptive cold and all was fired. Unceremoniously after the game, a one sentence statement from the club. And Burnley's without a manager. And so where to now? They they go out and they hire. First of all, I thought they would probably play under an interim manager for a week and maybe get their stuff together, but no, they moved quite quickly to make two hirings, in fact. They hired Diego Lopez as the let's get this this title right chief football officer. And they hired Fabio Celestini as their new manager. So Celestini, he's he turns fifty-one on Saturday on Halloween, born on Halloween, and he's a defensive midfielder by trade, fifteen years playing across France and Spain, managed five clubs across Switzerland, and then most recently CSKA Moscow in Russia, which was controversial at the time with his Swiss background. Some people were saying you shouldn't be going and playing necessarily or taking money from Russia, especially because CSKA Moscow has alleged ties to some of the entities propping up or or supporting the Russian government. He did it anyway. He said football is football. And he did sort of well there for six months and then fell out of favor even though the team was still doing okay. And he left in May of this year. He's got a career win record of 39%. And he is a hire similar to Hayen, kind of out left field. It reminds me, honestly, it reminds me a lot of the Alessandro Dionisi hire. And that's funny because that's how it reminds everyone. When you go and check out forums, here's a few comments from various. Burnley forums that I went and and pulled across here. You guys are on rookie numbers for manager sackings. You're gonna have to up those to even keep dream of keeping pace with Watford. Hiring a manager who's managed in the Swiss League, Russia, and the Italian Fourth Division. Who do you think you are, Burnley? Watford? I'm sure this will go seemingly if you ignore the financial issues in the background, the mounting fan unrest of the ownership, and his mediocre track record. Jesus, reading his wiki is a bit depressing. The Swiss League, Moscow, and the Italian Fourth Division, pedigree stuff, and the Biggest comment that came across all of these forums was Yanks out, Yanks out, Yanks out. So let's just say there's no signs that this guy is the guy to start with. And I say he's like Dionisi because similar to Dionisi, this I feel like there's potentially some echo chambers going on at higher management in some managing some of these clubs where people are Convincing themselves they've found really good options that are diamonds in the rough and unknown. And you've only got to look, and I'll talk in a minute about Blackburn bringing back Tony Mowbray, but that's a a good example, I think, to bring here that there's a lot to be gained from a pure footballing perspective from a proven option that can really galvanize a team. And that's what has to happen right now. And it was really interesting that they went and pulled the trigger, Burnley, on hiring this Diego Lopez as their chief football officer. At the same time, or actually just before hiring Celestini a couple of days later. And the hiring of the chief football officer seems to indicate a much longer view on this hiring than someone who can come in and actually shore up what's happening right now in this season. From the BBC, this this quote was from Alan Pace talking to the BBC, or it could have been just his his press release with the hiring of Diego Lopez. But he said we wanted someone with deep experience in recruitment and player development, a strong knowledge of European markets, and a clear understanding of how those come together to strengthen the club over the long term. Diego has a proven record of exactly that. He's a former sporting director at Genoa. And he introduced himself. I can't wait to just start exploring the great potential of this club. I have a clear understanding of our mission and believe in what Burnley can become in the coming years, provided we all work in the same direction with the utmost determination. And from my first conversations with Alan, it was clear there's clear and genuine ambition backed by a concrete plan to achieve it. This club means everything to the town and its people. I want our fans to see themselves in the way we play, the players we sign, the way we represent the club. So my I have c very conflicting thoughts on this. One is that there's a good chance this has been in the works for a while and Pace was just waiting for when to pull the trigger. I don't think he went out. I don't think he said by Sat on Saturday they had that loss. And then he said, I need to hire a chief football officer. He hired the chief football officer and then they hired Celestini all within four or five days. I'm sure this is something that's been planned. But as we've gone over ad nauseum on this program, you know, pace and ALK, they've shown very few signs of truly under tan understanding what this club means to its town and its people. And I think what right now it it it it the club and its supporters really need is a sign that you're gonna really fight. it's a sign that you're gonna build a way of playing that is around having pride in the way you play and fighting and not being flat footed in defense and not giving up four goals to recently promoted Lincoln City. that's what I think they had to signal with these hires. Not that you're gonna go out and have someone from Serie R who's worked as a sporting director come over and start to pull the strings. That's gonna take a long time. To to build that that way of doing things. And it speaks to, I think, some of the conflicting nature of what Pace and ALK are trying to do at the platform level, having multi-clubs and trying to build this kind of broad entity as opposed to what really would serve the fans of Burnley. You know, we talked about this in our long episode on Burnley, but this is a real higher wire act that Alan Pace is trying to do. That became even more evident this week when Companies House released that they they released a notice to served a notice to ALK Capital and VSP, Velocity Sports Partners, their subsidiary, their arm of of that does sports management, that they have two months to file the overdue financial accounts to do with Burnley or risk being removed and the company ceasing to exist. And Burnley has contacted them and ALK sorry, ALK have contacted them and they're they're working to resolve the matter. But this is this is bad for for many different reasons. And it's something where it's just becoming more and more difficult for Burnley fans to truly believe that this is gonna have a happy ending between the performance on the pitch, the statements and the the signals that are being sent by some of these decisions being made. This week those signals were Fire a manager who's had 14 games in charge, who wasn't didn't seem like they were really well supported or a great choice to begin with. Replace him with someone who looks just like that manager in terms of their experience and their pedigree and their the way that the kind of experience they've had. Bring in a long-term football director to try to build some kind of long-term strategy and then be two years overdue with your financial accounting submissions to companies house so that you can stay a solvent company. these are that's three really bad signals to send in one week for Burnley. And didn't have to be this way. Fans didn't want it to be this way. And yet here we are towards the end of 2026 feeling this way about Burnley. Just to touch on Lincoln for a second, though, I this was really it Burnley gave them a a golden Opportunity here to really have the game. This to me the home game they've been dreaming of having. they don't look unbeatable as a side, but they and they don't sometimes they look quite poor. but they they have an identity and a coherence. They clearly want to push hard and take some risks. They want their wingers to really go and play with some speed and they've got where does that come from? They they clearly have this united front from the boardroom down through the two managers who it was being talked about in the broadcast this weekend. they carpool in together from Nottingham every day. I thought that was so sweet. but also shows some of this this coherence and and togetherness that they have as a club. You know, top down, they have a sense of who they are, how they want to get there, and how they want to do this. And they've got in in goal, I think they've got this kind of star with George Wickens, who plays his hundredth game for Lincoln this week, and was just had another phenomenal game in goal, saved a penalty, made a bunch of other great saves, and they've got enough sort of talent around the pitch. Adam Reached another guy, and they've got they've got enough guys to to r really keep getting some of these wins. And we talked in earlier episodes about how many points they have to score each week to How many points across a month they need to get to stay up? It's it's real they're really staying on pace with that. And they're 15th in the table right now with a win in the draw for the last two, eighth in the belief index. so a really heartwarming story still continuing for Lincoln. And two contrasting identities there between those two clubs. Speaking of contrasting identities, the second game of the week, Blackburn Rovers versus Wrexham, that I really want to dig into. And that was really. Blackburn 2, Rexham Zero at Ewood Park. I think it's probably time that we have to start taking Blackburn Rovers a little bit more seriously for this season at least. And I wanted to try to understand where they stand on their overall arc. If you go and look at the belief index, and in particular on the homepage of Minnow's football, if you look at the tracking of Blackburn's belief over the course of this season, you'll see they've had One of the biggest rises of any club in the championship this year, starting at a significantly negative place and in this last running of the index after match week twelve, being just a couple of points below zero behind that point where you go from negative belief to positive belief. And this was another awesome game this week for Blackburn. And not the first. They are playing as one, they're playing attacking. Attractive football. you think about watching these guys last season, and it was a real slog sometimes as a neutral to get through Blackburn Rovers games because it was there wasn't a lot of joy around the way they play. They played a really attacking and aggressive and and attractive brand of football in the pouring rain this week. They have multiple options going forward. You know, a guy like Fevrier, I thought was really interesting this week. He was completely missing in that first half, not even thinking about him, but he comes out in the second, starts to create chances, putting them in great positions. That we talk a lot about clubs that want to play in a really direct way, but Blackburn also have a number of guys who can pull the trigger and playing in that direct way. They can pull the trigger from just outside the box or just inside the box when they get a little bit of space. And that's exactly what happened in this game. They have, you know, good men in key roles. They have Good Johnson up front who's having a great season scoring a lot of goals. They have Cantwell who's a strong leader. They have multiple creators. They've got some strength at the back. And the key questions for them, I think, are around sort of the sustainability of this, both in the short term and the long term. And then where's it gonna go? And what's changed since last season to get us to this point here? There's a really obvious answer to that, which is that it sort of starts with Tony Mowbray. And if you look at some of the behind the scenes videos that Blackburn have put out over the last few weeks, and I don't think I think those are kind of I know they're from the club, but I think they're genuine reflections of of kind of how people are feeling around the club and players are feeling. You'll see this as a club which really guys really want to play for Tony Mowbray. They really get behind him. And this is something It's not new this season to Tony Mowbray. He's known that for many, many years. But he has the club really, you know, united behind him and and pushing for him. But that's obviously a short-term thing. Even if Mowbray sticks around for a few years, j solidifying around a manager is something that that can work in the short to medium term. But long term, we still have this question of ownership and the Venkies and The long-term pain that they've extracted from this fan base. the last time Ewood Park was sold out was January 4th, 2025, when they played Burnley. And that was the first time in six years. This is a long pain that Blackburn Rovers fans have felt. And, you know, Rovers has this potential to be such a fascinating asset with its history, with its heritage, with its local rivalries. some of the heroes and legends who have played there and and occupied those halls. And that's something that the Venkeys have really not maximized in any way and have actually, you could argue, kind of chipped away at over the a lot of their ownership. And so the question here is, is this Uncle Tony just sort of propping everything up for Blackburn? Or is there something more sustainable that they can build on here in terms of an identity? And then a go forward plan that really takes Blackburn back to being a really relevant part of English football again. And it feels really different from last year. Can it continue? It's a thin squad. We'll see what happens when injuries happen. We'll see what happens when the transfer window happens and see if there's any interest in really investing in this squad to see where it could go. But just imagine they're sitting here on the precipice of the top eight. They played Wrexham this week. And they looked so much better than Wrexham. So it's a really interesting time, I think, to be a Blackburn Rovers fan, at even though most of those I think would be approaching this l this latest run of good form with a fair bit of trepidation. Speaking of feeling different from last year, Wrexham also feel to me remarkably different from last year. Something feels off about this club. They they're so up and down. We've spoken about it in previous weeks, We talked about it back when they played West Ham and got beaten in a resounded victory for for West Ham there. but there's something not quite right about the way they're playing. I had an observation just from this game, which may be completely wrong, but they've got they've got a lot of big guys on this on this squad. And out there in the rain, kind of slogging away, they looked slow and they looked lethargic and They just had no one who was really creating for them and driving the energy for them in a way that seems sustainable. This still really feels when they're attacking, at least in many ways, that this is the Kiefer Moore show. And Kiefer Moore is getting older. Like he's getting into you know close to his mid thirties here. And so we're we're at a point where the the fairy tale is feeling further and further away, potentially. And, you know We've talked a month ago that the honeymoon was over and and that's really re be being reinforced as we come back from the break here. And they've had an up and down start after the international break. So more to come obviously with Wrexham as they such a huge part of the championship story. And we'll see if that becomes a classic championship tale, or if they can get back and find a way back to their winning ways. Okay, a couple of quick hitters before we move on to a look ahead for this week's game. So just a couple of other takeaways from the weekend. Burra thrash Bolton five-one. Burra looked fantastic and they're I think they were beating up on a opponent in Bolton who tried really hard and had a really attacking like Schumacher had them set up to be playing in a really attacking way that opened a lot of opportunity up for Burr through the middle part of that game. But five-one. They're top of the table, looking very strong. Southampton beat West Ham 3-2. It was close, but they were pretty convincing. Again, a wet, super wet game. but a really well played and high quality game. Southampton looked fantastic when they've got it all going and and did really well to beat West Ham at in West Ham at home there. of course after we big noted Birmingham City last week, they went and lost one nil. To Cardiff City, who looked great and maybe turning a corner. we'll see how long that can be sustained. Preston North End one. West Brom won was a great game. West Brom were really lucky there to come back and and even that up. And there might be something brewing there potentially with Preston. We'll we will see and we'll talk about that in a second. Norwich City three, Charlton one away at Charlton. Critical win for Philippe Clermont to just kind of keep the The dogs at bay there. And QPR spanked Swansea 5-1. Just of course, after I talked about QPR potentially not being the real deal, they go out and they take it to who were the the table leaders, Swansea, who've now lost two on the trot. Biggest movers in the belief index this week were Cardiff City and Norwich up, Birmingham City and West Ham down. So that brings us to a look ahead to this week's games. And a couple of key questions. First of all, is Phil Parkinson's job in jeopardy if they lose to Blades away tomorrow, Wrexham away to Sheffield United to Marquee game, high visibility game. I was thinking about who you know, now we've lost two managers. We've lost Nikki Hayen and Hickinbottom from Preston. Who's left on the manager hot seat rankings for the season? you'd think out of this current group, you'd probably probably lose at least five this season. And so I had the rankings. I think Dionysi is gonna struggle to make Christmas. Nikki Hayes obviously already gone. Philippe Clermont looks like a potential, you know, if that doesn't come together. He's got very ambitious owners who said they wanted to finish in the top two. and then it's then it's a group of these guys who you're not sure. Some of them have very stable management and so you think well they're probably gonna stick with them. But it's in that group I think you've got Phil Parkinson, Nathan Jones, who after a s absolutely sparkling August still just cannot get things going for Charlton. They're struggling. Chris Wilder never really feels safe at Sheffield United and also really funky ownership situation. Is Alex Neal safe at Millwall? You'd think yes, but they have underperformed probably to to their expectations. You could look at Derby obviously as well. but there's there's a number of guys there I think, you know, six or seven names that you'd be looking for on in that hot seat. And so if Rexham lose two on the trot to opponents who they would have felt definitely going into the season they could have beaten, Blackburn and and Sheffield United, that'll ramp up the pressure on Phil Parkinson. can John Massinho and Portsmouth keep this momentum going. They're away to Burnley in a great spot. will Burnley get a new manager bounce? I think it's highly unlikely. I don't think you're bringing in someone here who seems like they have this is we know nothing about really about this guy, but he doesn't seem to have the potential to gel a team in two or three days. so Away to Burnley feels like a great spot for Portsmouth. If they win this week, that could vaunt them into the top eight, into a playoff spot. Two clubs. One playing with absolute joy, Portsmouth, right now, one playing with absolute pain, Burnley, head to head. Swansea are on a two game slide, and they are home to Blackburn, which will not be an easy game. And that it feels like they've lost a little bit of that early decisiveness that they had. You know, they conceded. That's how they conceded their goal to West Ham two weeks ago, with being kind of lacking decisive vision against QPR. They went down, just never got into the fight, lost five-nothing. The time to turn it around, if you're a really top team, is now. So that will be a big game for them. And then the pick of the games, just from a quality perspective, are probably Southampton versus QPR. QPR and both those teams coming off great wins last week and West Ham versus West Brom. But give me, the game of the week for me is Stokes City versus Preston. And I think Preston was showing signs of something under Graham Alexander this week. And certainly signs of pride and life and determination. So great games, as always, coming up in the championship and all up and down the EFL and National League. Pyramid. For now, that's all we have time for. Thanks so much for listening, and we will see you next week.