Could be the picture then. To be honest I couldn’t visualise it being at Ewood because I’d have thought The Nuttall Street Stand as we remember it, would have been built by then I would have thought and I couldn’t visualise the arrangement in the corner. I reckon you could have cracked it that the photo was at Meadow Lane. Great this thread. Thanks Renrag.

See my earlier I post, I don’t think the keepers in the picture.

Great point rigger, I hadn't noticed that either. Just had a quick look at Jackman and Crabtree was in goal that day and he doesn't appear in the list of players written on the back of the photo. Presumably he was still in the pub!

I’d never noticed that Previously Bazza but you’re right. Must have got changed in a hurry to ensure he could stand on the end of the row! Probably just got off the tram, nipped into The Aqueduct for a quick couple of pints, a fag and game of darts, before jogging down to Ewood.

Having been an avid follower and occasional contributor to this thread, thoroughly enjoying it and being able to both share and relate to much of its' content, I decided to delve into my own personal treasure trove of Rovers related family heirlooms and share some of the history with you. I've decided that rather than rush it and potentially bore everyone to death, I'll do it in several component parts over a period of time. It is a part of my family heritage (part of the family really) and something of which I am exceedingly proud. I'll also include as attachments at the end of each piece, photos of the items amongst my collection, that illustrate and support the history. Here goes:- By actual word of mouth, I can definitely state that my Grandad's first game was against Burnley at Ewood in 1919 when he was 9 years old. We lost 3-1. I'm assuming that his father Henry darrenrover (my Great Grandfather) had taken him, because in amongst the heirlooms betrothed to me was a photograph (copy below). Handwritten on the back (endorsed Henry 'darrenrover'), is written 2 inscriptions: 1. "Blackburn Rovers 1905/06, Left to right:- Chadwick, Whittaker, Crompton, McClure, Bowman, McIvor, Davies, Pentland, Wolstenholme, Bradshaw, Cowell" 2. "Roll along Blackburn Rovers, roll along!" First Division Champions of England 1913-1914. I was there!!" I've no real idea as to the connection between the differences between the dates of the inscriptions and the picture, or even if the team photograph was from 1906 or 1914. Perhaps someone could possibly confirm which? Having served with the East Lancs Regiment, 9th Service Battalion, during the Boer War (1899-1902), Henry re-signed up to the East Lancs in September 1914 because he was still a reservist. During WW1, from October 1914 until September 1915 he served in France, making up to the position of Regimental Sergeant Major; my wife says that's where I must have bloody well 'got it from'! cheeky Mare!😉 In September 1915 they entrained, destined for Marseille. From here they sailed to Salonika (Macedonia) and at the tale end of 1915 was involved in the battle of Thessalonika and the fallback and retreat from Serbia. In 1916 their campaigns were The Battle of Horse Shoe Hill, West of Dorjan and Machukovo. In 1917 Henry featured at the Battle of Stretenovo -Jumeaux Ravine and ended with a final battle of Nov Dojran, Pip Ridge on 18th September 1918. Shortly afterwards he was admitted to Military Hospital suffering from Gastralgia and demobbed in December 1918 just in time for Christmas. (image of Henrys' medals from both Boer War and WW1). What's the relevance from all of this to Rovers you may ask? Well I've referred to Mick Jackman and the game my Grandad attended against The Dingles, was on 13th September 1919, our second home game of the 1919-20 season in Division 1, the first season back following WW1. I'd like to assume that it was the first opportunity my Great Grandfather had to take his son to a match, having left for 4 years active service when he was only 5 years old and probably considered too young to be taken. Next up will be My knowledge of The 1928 Cup Final and my Grandad's brief desertion to 'the other side' when he followed his home town club to Highbury to witness what is still Arsenal's record score as they hammered Darwen 11-1..... Henry darrenrover.pages

A great day that, if not a tiring one, driving the round trip in the day. Went with my Dad and eldest son and were in Plymouth for 7.30am that morning! Went to a garden centre just outside the city to pass some time and bought a small Camellia Bush. It’s beautiful every Spring having flourished in our back garden; large pink flowers and I always refer to it as ‘our Speedie’! we also did the same trip a few years earlier when we got trounced and Nicky Marker ‘did’ Ardiles.

Please see my later post EIT, includes a picture of my first season ticket for 1974/75: cost for the season £4.00!

Just logged on having watched on iFollow. No point scrolling past prior posts, I'll just briefly vent my spleen being apoplectic. It's the same old 'dog shit' we've witnessed for years. Don't anybody come on here trying to preach any of this 'slow build' bull shit, I'm not in the mood. We should have taken Wednesday to the fecking cleaners, they were crap. One crap team after another can sniff out and exploit our weaknesses, we can see it too. Are our management and coaches bloody blind, deaf and stupid? ( Apologies, I don't intend to offend but you never know these days) We should have absolutely bloody murdered Wednesday, as it is we were fortunate not to concede a second. Only positives, great to see Dacky and Brero back playing, fecking pity neither can play centre half or left back! Oh wait a minute.......... Cheers Tony for your efforts but there's a taxi outside, fair paid to Teeside. Off you pop! Fecking fuming!!

Kaminski's playing at centre half, so no worries! 🤨

"Hark now hear The Rovers sing, The Burnley ran away And we will fight(*) For Ever More Because of Boxing Day" (* insert sing if more PC these days!) COYB!!!

Brilliant. I've lost mi job! I wonder if 'Tango Man' still watches The Owls? 3-1 Rovers and Mercer, hopefully you'll have too much Chateau Neuf Du Pap today to contemplate a prediction for Boxing Day! COYB!!

We all may have differing opinions but that's life. The one thing that we all have in common is our love for Blackburn Rovers Football Club. Keep the faith, keep safe. Folk sometimes consider the following phrases as clichés but they're not to most of us!: WE ARE The Rovers!! Rovers Till I Die!! Come on You Blues!! Merry Christmas to all fellow Roverites, wherever you are.

Feck me, that's embarrassing! in mitigation, it was early in the day, I was up and about at 4.30am and posted that over a brew before I got cracking for the day. Cheers OJF, all the best to you and yours.

Could I recommend either of these photos for your avatar instead of Big Col'?

You're right Matty, I fecking bit! Have folk nothing better to do? Twohat!

Memories not what it was regarding the lyrics but you got my drift! I was one of the 'lucky few' jammed into the Longside: couldn't move to dodge the flying pints, darts and even excrement in a beer glass that were hurled back and forth over the fence! Same fence that Celtic fans ripped up a few years later and hurled it at the fleeing Dingles running into The Bee-Hole End! Great days, if not a little scary at times, hard to believe that day was 43 years ago! If only Keith Fear and notched with the penalty just after half time, it could have been a rout. Young 'uns these days haven't a clue what it was like back then; utter carnage on occasions.

There are several Rovers daft supporters that I know, more than amply qualified and suitably experienced in high end 'blue- chip' Directorships, to carry out any of the Board Roles with absolute distinction. They keep themselves 'under the radar', aren't members of 'the prawn sandwich brigade', prefer to sit with the lads and are all 'just one of the lads', no airs and graces but love Blackburn Rovers vehemently. Most are retired now, cost wouldn't be an issue, I'm pretty sure any of them would do it for love and for free but why should they?!

Absolute nonsense. Conspiracy theories? You're having a laugh, there was nothing theoretical about anything; it was just nobody had deep enough pockets to take the bastards on! Was Paul Hunt's letter theoretical? Was Steve Kean's contract theoretical? etc.... Don't be deluded: These people had the 'keys to the safe', that was a bottomless pit of money at that time and trust me, they did take full advantage. If you want to carry on kidding yourself and/or make pathetic attempts to wind people up, then cart on.

Anybody remember this fella' playing up front with Stevie Kindon for t'clarettes?! "It's hard to smile when you're 3-0 down The Rovers giving you the run around It's hard enough when We're away But not at Burnley on a Boxing Day"! -Where were you on 26th December 1977? Longside, Bee-Hole End, Cricket Field Stand or Bob Lord Stand? What a bloody good day that was, if not a bit of a nail biter towards the end! "Rovers here, Rovers there, Rovers every f*cking where, na, na, nana, nana, na, nah!!!!"

👏 100% Spot on. I spoke to a couple of pals yesterday, that I go to most Rovers' games with, home & away (or should I say did amidst this terrible Covid shit storm). We've been going together since we were first years at secondary school in 1972! They were amongst the patient bunch and signed up to the "slow build" brigade, even they have had enough now! They totally concur that if our back 4 was Hird, Faz, Keeley & Bailey, we'd be top of the League now and by some margin. Main issues discussed and agreed: - Why has our defence not been sorted in 4 years? In fact it's probably regressed if anything. You can date this back to the sale of Hanley and Duffy, when Coyle was allegedly promised half of the sum received to re-invest but got nowt! - Why all the 'Boro transfers, all in our direction and on decent money/contracts? Bar Downing, they're all duffers in one way or other? (Chapman, Pears, Ayala). Further, Douglas is a hopeless case defensively, worse than Ding Dong and has clearly lost his attacking and set-piece ability. Sadly you can only second guess the reasons as to why! - Amongst many odd team selections, strange substitutions, tactics, one sticks out: who substitutes all 4 midfield players during the course of a match with 30 minutes to play? Ludicrous decision! - Why all the public dumbing down of ambitions for the Club? We as supporters want to be successful, as we did in the seventies and eighties, a time that we didn't have a pot to piss in, football's all about ambition. Even during that 20 year dark period, we still managed a couple of promotions and flirted with it 3 times but failed on each occasion. I feel that if you have no great desire to improve, be successful, aim for the top, then what's the point? You may as well jack it in and watch the kids kick a bundle of rags about in the back garden. It's not entitlement, as has been said by some, it's what supporting a football club is all about! Last but by no means least, there are strong rumours round Brockhall that Waggott is retiring next summer! Hurray, I heard but then this snippet was followed up by "Ah, but Bob Lord's Grandson is being lined up as his successor"! (The last parts a lie but knowing our lot, it could be true!) The unanimous decision was cheers Tony but there's a taxi waiting outside! Merry Christmas to one and all, keep safe and remember, deep down, WE ARE The Rovers!! COYB!!

I was just sat having a brew and sausage sandwich and my wife informed me that tomorrow is the third anniversary of her dad passing away aged 92. He was a 'hybrid' football supporter, following both Rovers and The Dingles when they were at home on alternate weeks from just before the outbreak of WW2 to his last full season in 1975. He claims he was probably the only person inside Turf Moor in 1960 to cheer all six goals as Rovers clawed back a 3 goal deficit in the last 15 minutes to earn a replay at Ewood which we won of course. He went to odd games afterwards with us, most notably at Goodison Park in 1995 sat in The Gladys Street End amongst the scousers (what a fun day that was when my eldest lad took his coat off to reveal a Rovers shirt underneath!) and at Old Trafford when we beat the red rats (I think Pederson scored the winner?). On his 90th birthday in 2015 I managed to arrange a day at Brockhall for us both, which we spent with the First Team squad. Rovers were absolutely brilliant that day and made such a fuss of him. He was a Royal Marine Commando in WW2 and drove a landing craft onto Sword Beach on D-Day, he never ever spoke of his experiences until that day at Rovers. All the players, coaching staff and Gary Bowyer crowded round him for up to an hour whilst he told his captivating story. He and I couldn't thank everybody connected with BRFC enough, it really was a brill. day. Here's a trio of snaps of Ken (RIP) that I took of him on the day; one proudly stood on the touchline ball in hand, one sat in the gaffers chair and finally a couple of a Marine. Anyway, I've just been reminded that I've got 'pots to wash' so toodle pip.

I have this hanging on my office wall at home. I never fail to get a tear in my eye or a lump in my throat whenever I read it. So much truth and emotion in it's wording. Give it a try, I defy you not to well up!

Just spoke with my Dad Tyrone. He agrees with you: Both he and my Grandad were stood on The Darwen End, in fact my dad says he had to climb into the roof rafters so he could get his hands out of his pocket to have a fag! Ronnie and my dad were best buddies until he sadly passed away. In fact, pre-Covid, my Mother, Ronnie's wife Val and their last remaining circle of friends, went out religiously for lunch once every month and have done for donkeys years. @ClaytonsLeftBoot's mother was also in the same circle of friends too until she sadly passed several years ago. Mum says she really misses them but my eldest lad is pulling hens teeth trying to introduce them to Zoom to compensate. I'm really loving this particular thread because it refreshes so many happy memories that many of us have been fortunate enough to enjoy following Rovers through thick and thin over so many years. Long may it continue.

If mi aunty had balls she'd bi mi uncle!😉