Totally agree flaky pastry on a pie is just plain wrong. Having lived in the midlands, south-west and Wales there is nowhere like the north for decent pies. Whenever I see a pie on a menu my first question is always to ask what pastry it is made with.

£4.85m? In view of the current contract situation I'd say even that was optimistic

The season after Italia 90 he was pretty well unplayable.Spurs played a cup tie - possibly against Blackpool - and he was so much above the level of everyone else it was ridiculous. My dad always reckoned Duncan Edwards was the best player he ever saw play and even he said Gazza came close. Then Gazza's recklessness did his knee and he was never the same again.

I remember a few years ago that Peter Reid (when he was a manager) was interviewed after a match his team had lost by 3 goals. He started having a go at the referee for a mistake that had lead to the 3rd goal. He then stopped, laughed, and said something along the lines of 'maybe I'm having a go at the wrong person here as he only made one mistake - my defenders made loads and that's why we lost!'

Personally think it's the wrong decision in terms of supporting the women's game. But even if you don't think the women's game is worth supporting surely most fans can (should?) see it generates more negative publicity about the club.

Two of my favourite games ever. 3rd Div Vs 1st and really felt like the whole team, fans and club pulling together in the same direction. And don't let anybody tell you a cup run damages league form. 5 FA cup ties plus a replay (roughly) coinciding with, IIRC, 15 wins and a draw in the league. Great days to be a Rover.

Agree on the fact it should be all about cricket by late May. If only Lancashire weren't so crap! Supporting Rovers, LCC and Hornets in my three favourite sports doesn't feel like great choices ATM! But I'm lucky enough to have the great memories from all 3 teams over the last 50+ years. You have to be in it for the long game I guess to get the perspective.

My ex-wife ended up with my Hornets shirt from the Div2 promotion season of the early 90's! She did look v good in it TBF!! Was tempted to ask for it back when we split but didn't. Wish I had as it was pretty much the classic style - mainly blue with the narrow white and wide red hoops.

I bloody well hope not. And if it was, I'd hope he was advised that it shouldn't be!

I'm interested in how he does but it's no more than that. Wish the lad well but ultimately he chose to move. I get that the owners wanted to sell and therefore the pressure was on Wharton but he had a contract and could have stayed. The lad is clearly ambitious and believes in his own talent and (I'm guessing here!) probably realised the move was an opportunity to fast track his development by being exposed to regular first team Prem football. Judging by what has happened since his move hard to say he was wrong. A lot of the arguments at the time from Rovers fans was that he'd have been better to stay and develop with Rovers and then move to one of the big clubs. Might have been better for Rovers but I suspect to that might not have better for Wharton.

Agreed. In Rossendale if you asked for a teacake you'd get a plain one and if you wanted a fruíty version then you had to ask for a currant teacake. My wife never believed me about this (she's originally from the potteries so only knows about oatcakes!) until we visited an old family friend. The friend was originally from Rossendale but had moved away 60 years before. When it came to lunch she asked if we wanted our sandwiches on a teacake and when they arrived the teacake was plain!

Was at that one . Didn't we give him a guard of honour?

Realistically that was the 'bigger' clubs objective all along wasn't it? Big sighs of relief all round at Utd and Spurs this year that the gap is so huge now between the haves' and 'have nots'

And, much as there is a lot about Alex Ferguson I didn't like, he made the point that we deserved to win the league because we had more points than them.

It's funny how your mind - and the situation at the time - plays tricks. I remember the run-in after the QPR game being a total disaster. In reality the only result prior to the Liverpool game that looks really bad was the home defeat to Citeh. The others (away draw at Leeds and away defeats to WH and Liverpool) are not that surprising over a 42 game season and, at any other time of the season, probably wouldn't have caused too much worry.

TBF when he was in charge of the PFA Taylor did come over as very self-important and arrogant. When you're 10 or 11 years old though you only think about players as players.

Him and Gordon Taylor were two of my earliest heroes!

When you look at the likes of Bristol and Plymouth - much bigger than Blackburn and with very little local competition - it makes the achievements of Rovers and (through gritted teeth!!) Burnley, Bolton and even Blackpool all the more impressive. Even though all have had, to a greater or lesser extent, really fallow periods in the last 60 years they have all spent time in the top flight more recently than North End - in the case of Rovers, Burnley and Bolton quite lengthy spells.

I'm by no means a Dolan fan and am very aware of his limitations. But he has 23 league goals and 21 league assists in the last 5 seasons. From what I've seen of Markanday I'd be amazed if he could get anywhere near those numbers. I do get that he hasn't had the opportunities that Dolan has had but 3 managers (Mowbray / JDT / Eustace) seem to have taken the view that Dolan is much the better option.

A good friend of our family was in charge of the turnstiles at Bury. He told us they'd asked their supporters if they would agree to swap into the away sections of the ground and the main stand so Rovers could have the rest of the ground - as Bury desperately needed the money! You're right about the wooden terrace and roof on the Manchester Road end. We were in the main stand at that end and every time the Rovers fans jumped up and down you could see the roof move back and forwards. My dad was generally worried it might collapse!

That's the game that gave me my user name on here! Shame he turned out to be a knob 🙄

Charlton Athletic at home Oct(?) 74. Riverside Stand with my dad. First game of league football for me. The blue and white halves (and the win!) did it for me and never interested in supporting any other football league club from that day on. We still went all over the north-west picking the best games when Rovers were too far away. Always had a soft spot for Bury due to close family friends. Prior to that I'd been taken all over the north-west following the great Rossendale United side of the early 70's. One of my earliest memories of supporting Rossy is of going to Ewood and standing in the Nuttall Street paddock (I think) for a Lancashire Floodlight Cup final against Great Harwood (possibly?). Would love to hear from anyone who knows about that match as tried to look it up online but not found anything.

Seem to remember our 'fans' at the end of the Oxford match (last match of the L1 season) showing huge restraint and obeying all requests not to invade the pitch 😉

I know when I was watching us in the Allardyce years I got the pragmatism but that didn't stop some of the football being fairly dull. My biggest issue was the way he effectively threw games against bigger teams to focus on those he saw as direct competitors. Achieved the result he wanted but took away from the fans the feeling that we could compete and enjoy giving the occasional bloody nose to the bigger teams. Ultimately though most of the blame lies with the Walker family. I think a fall back down was becoming inevitable under them but the big issue was the way they exited and handed us over to the bunch of shysters we've been saddled with ever since.

Our CCTV has probably been switched off to save on the running costs!