Give us an "R", give us an "E"

but the club say they haven't thrown anyone out for standing up.

You thought we'd all forgot, didn't you!

A.S and Ricky delighted at the first delivery of four tons of chocolates.

I suppose I'm entitled to give my take on this one. To be frank, I am surprised how many votes Ripley has actually got in this debate. That's not to take anything away from either Rippers or the people who voted for him. It really just goes to show how times and people move on. I honestly didn't really believe that any rovers supporter would put Ripley ahead of Bryan Douglas. How naive is that? Out of the eleven positions to be selected, to me the ONE that simply HAD to be in there was Douglas. He was my boyhood hero, like no-one before or after. I read somewhere that he won the Blackburn Citizen greatest ever player poll. Not just best right winger, but best ever player. So if he doesn't make it into this team, boy will that be a shock to me and I suspect, everyone who saw him play. Ripley - Douglas, chalk and cheese. You couldn't have two players so different in their styles. Ripley, the strong, fast, direct modern day winger. Certainly one of Dalglishs' best buys. For three/four seasons he was excellent. Had a big contribution to the championship success. However, he did fall away fairly quickly after that. Quite a few fans made him their scapegoat, unfairly in my view, for the fall from being the top club in England. Duggie, completely the opposite of rippers. Small frame, supreme dribbler and was a player known in those days as a schemer! That means he used to be the supplier of goals and certainly had a lot to do with the prolific goalscoring of people such as McEvoy, Byrom and Pickering. To some extent, he made those players. Rippers made one appearance for England, but in all honesty, he was not quite good enough to hold down a regular place. Duggie, on the other hand was someone who gained 30 caps when it wasn't easy to get a cap. There was no changing half the team at half time, the best players played the majority of the games. Not only did he play for England, he was a star for England. Finney, Matthews, Douglas - three terrific wingers. Add to that, as others have said, he was and still is, a one club man. One game in particular stands out from Duggie's career [for me] - rovers beating spurs 7-2 at ewood. A top spurs side too. They had just won the inter city fairs cup [ the equivalent of the UEFA cup]. They had players such as Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Greaves playing for them. That day Douglas was at his absolute best. He tore the unfortunate Danny Blanchflower to shreds. He set up Andy McEvoy with four goals on McEvoy's first game as a converted half back. A game and performance that for anyone priviliged to see it, will stick in the memory. That same season, rovers went to west ham and beat them 8-2, again Duggie the architect. I also remember going to west ham for a F.A. cup game in the early sixties [63, I think]. West ham had a great team. Brooking, Byrne, Sissons and the great Bobby Moore. At Upton park rovers drew 3-3 in the first game. Moore was marking John Byrom then. Duggie was fantastic, setting Byrom up for a hat trick. The replay at Ewood saw rovers win 4-1, Moore marking McEvoy. Duggie set up McEvoy for his hat trick. Now then, good as Rippers was in the modern day game, can anyone recall him tearing sides to pieces, virtually on his own? If you think it's all a bit over the top, see one of the previous posts recalling Duggie taking Scotland apart at Hampden. Possibly the greatest rover ever. [iMO] [of course, when I said "how naive is that", I was referring to myself]

A fuller statement on the Official site?

Thanks Big A.

Stuart Ripley.....you're having a laugh! btw nobody rem boy wonder Mekky playing rw? Personally speaking he'd be my 3rd choice. Yeah I do now! Why didn't you mention it at the start?

Thanks for all of your contributions. Very interesting and a lot of memories, not all of them verified , but with out doubt - the best yet. It just remains to vote.

First of all, I have to apologise that we haven't as yet, got a preview. That's my fault, as I usually send out a reminder to the person who volunteered, but I forgot! If anything crops up, it will be posted on here later. It's a daunting game coming immediately after the 'brough result, but one thing is for sure, what happened last Saturday, will have no bearing on what will happen next Saturday - so everything to play for. Incidentally, I saw on the board outside the Horden rake, that the game is being shown live on the big screen.

This is the third time I've asked the question. WHY were the rovers fans being thrown out? Was it merely for standing, or was it because of some kind of ill-disciplined, aggressive reaction to the boro fans. Was there an ugly situation brewing that might have become a real problem. If rovers use this scenario to defend the actions of the stewards, then the simple "we were thrown out for standing - they weren't" argument, will be hard to substantiate.

Right wing?

Can't imagine Brown wanting to join, if we're in the bottom three come the opening of the transfer window.

I might have missed this somewhere, but exactly why were the fans being ejected? Was it simply because they were standing or had there been some aggressive reaction to the boro fans in the boxes?

Because we've seen him play.

Rover6, Pedersen has been distinctly poor when he's had the opportunity. What would you have the manager do, play all the poorest players hoping they might turn out to be better than what they have shown. Can't see how that's gonna help. At the moment, Morten Gamst Pedersen looks like he wont hack it in the Premiership. He will however still get the odd appearance, when he does he'll have to show that he's worth his place. Up to now, he isn't.

One further question Glenn - what caused the stewards to eject the rovers fans?

What we need is for someone to put forward a "real" case for Stuart Ripley. Looks like you could be the one roversismylife. To be fair in all this, there have been many glowing testimonials for Douglas, but I don't really see any for Rippers. Why don't you give it a go?

Ronnie Clayton was born in Preston but only ever played for rovers. His brother Ken was also a footballer, but I'm not sure whether he was on rovers books.

This just has to worthy of it's own topic. Firstly, all fans should obey the law and sit down. HOWEVER, where else in the country will you see the away fans being allowed to stand and the home fans being hustled and thrown out? Old Trafford? St James' Park? I really fear a real backlash at Ewood. Rovers, of all clubs, can't be throwing their own fans out of the stadium, while at the same time tolerating the same behaviour in the away end. I'm concerned that if rovers continue this approach, there is going to be a serious backlash from the rovers supporters. It was very close to it today. John Williams - you need to clarify the situation and quickly.

It's a great post Billy. Looking forward to the next one.

I think that might be going a bit too far Billy!

In one of the earlier discussions, I suggested we pick a side to play in a 3-5-2 formation, simply because of that problem. It was a formation that would have covered the modern day player and the players from yesteryear. The inside forwards such as Dobing, Vernon etc wont really have a chance in this poll, but there you go. No-one spoke out in favour of that, so we have gone 4-4-2. So really, Douglas is either going to be selected to play right wing in this team, or nowhere. If he were to fail at R.W. - could he be nominated at central midfield? Well, yes he could, BUT it would be much more difficult to make out a case for his inclusion in a two man midfield.

If you knew your history of Blackburn Rovers, the club you are supposed to support, you would not write that. Jim, you're an intelligent guy. Just explain your reasons. The younger folks on here only have the word of such as yourself, to go off. If you don't tell them why you think Douglas was better than Rippley, they might never know.

Very impressed with the contributions up to now. I'm trying to pick out the fuller versions to highlight in red. I'm also trying not to be biased, so if there's a post that you think stands out and isn't highlighted, let me know. Keep your memories/recollections/presentations coming.