IT needs saying that the ire directed towards Owen Coyle on Saturday escalated as a result of another uninspiring replacement, not through Marvin Emnes’ blameless injury.
There is a school of thought that says throwing a kid into a relegation battle can ruin their career. I don’t altogether agree.
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Stifling a kid’s progress; leading him to stagnate on the bench, pondering how bad he must be that lacklustre players are preferred to him merely because they have 200 lacklustre games to their credit; being farmed out to struggling teams in League Two with his confidence demoralised: that’s more the truth.
Many of those players released from the club without a run of games drew on strength that they could have shown in a relegation battle. Some got back to the same level and beyond.
We will never know if the likes of Josh Morris, Jonathan Walters, Nick Blackman and Alan Judge would have thrived in a Rovers shirt, or sank because they were too immature as they never got a real chance.
For all our Lancastrian grumbling, Rovers fans are pretty forgiving of young talent. And even when some weren’t, look at how Jason Wilcox overcame a tough start to become an England international and Premier League winner.
Recall how David Dunn survived 1999’s relegation to become a Rovers legend once he was given a chance to play a run of games again.
If we are going to throw on a late sub in search of a point why is the skill of Martin Samuelsen left on the bench?
I’m not advocating filling the side with kids. What I am saying is that if we are flailing – and we are – then I would rather see us do so with the likes of Ryan Nyambe, Darragh Lenihan, Samuelsen and Willem Tomlinson playing rather than some experienced journeyman who is only playing because the manager needs to justify paying his bigger wages.
Darragh Lenihan may have had a ‘Jarvis Cocker’ on Saturday but he wasn’t the only one to underperform. He is young and will learn from it.
Some are too set in their mediocrity to change their spots now.
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