So the build up to the big televised game had started, and if you think that Rovers don't get much press these days, then you should have tried reading anything on us back then. So to find two pieces in the national press that were not match reports was a sign of the country starting to notice what was going on down at Ewood. Two pieces here from I think The Express or Mail, and a great photo of the old Blackburn End in the background.

Me circled!

Some of my Utd supporting mates had those Chorley Reds flag, Cotty from Brinscall. I remember the comment too, it was Channel 442 on Sky last year ESPN channel, I taped it (Soz Claire still not been back for the videos yet!).

Look under the vidoe bit Den. "Hi Alex This is Arch answering, my 10 year old son Elliot has just shown me the video and you comments, and you were right I was puffed out as I had just ran the length of the pitch, but it was worth it. Seeing the video and your comments has brought it all back, great times and brillian people in Blackburn, Don Mackay and the club really looked after me and I enjoyed a great experience, you included. Kind regards Steve Archibald"

Whittle Blues superb uploads of old Rovers footage to Youtube are wonderful, and his clip here of that superb game against Villa, when Steve Archibald got two has even attracted comments from Arch himself!

Rovers line up for the Fulham game- Gennoe Branagan Keeley Faz Rathbone Brotherston Barker Randell Miller Thompson Quinn The Fulham line up had ex Blackpool keeper Ian Hesford, Leroy Roseniorand Ray Lewington, and were managed by Ray Harford. Young Simon Barker watches Quinny notch the first here... Chris Thompson manages to steer this one into the Darwen End goal, from two yards out, much to the anguish of the Fulham defender, and the delight of a thinning Riverside crowd! Sunday morning saw a large crowd at Ewood Park, as the tickets for United went on sale, and the queues snaked all along Kidder Street, as the faithful waited patiently for the precious green bits of paper. Once you purchased the ticket, the ground was unlocked, and many people took the chance to wander onto the terraces and of course the pitch, which I did and dreamt of taking a penalty into the Blackburn End to win the match the next Friday! And it was truly and absolutely freezing cold!

Does or did anyone know the fella from popular music group Blancmange, who supported Rovers-he listed Noel Brotherston as a hero in an interview on a copy of Smash Hits once. From Darwen I remember.

Here's the Legend Noel Brotherston taking on the Fulham full back, watched by our own Mick Basil Rathbone.

Next up Fulham at home, on February 9th 1985. The Cottagers were lying in 8th coming into the game on 38 points. We were second, on 49 points. The upcoming fixture at home in the FA cup against Manchester United was creating some excitement now. We were to play them on the Friday night , live on BBC-1. So as an appetiser, ITV came to Ewood and we were on the Big Match highlights show this weekend. The crowd at the Fulham game was higher than would normally been expected, this was due to the vouchers being issued at the turnstiles-the voucher guaranteed you priority for a ticket for the United match, which I think was an all ticket game, very rare back then. I think around 12,000 was the official attendance for the Fulham game. My main memories of the win (2-1) were firstly how cold it was-a dry, but bone chilling spell had been around after some heavy snow earlier in the year, causing the pitch to be rock hard. Secondly our first goal, a Jimmy Quinn header-he seemed to jump about 10 feet in the air and bulletted a header in to the net. Chris Thompson scored a tap in for the winner, following a dreadful mix up in the Fulham defence. Here he is celebrating the winning goal. The win put us back on top of the league again, and in a good mood to meet the Aristocrats from Old Trafford next week.

Get Ince to 'em-bu bum bu bum. To the tune of Gerrin to em. Do I win £5?

I know the Walton Le Dale one, but don't think the two were connected. Not even sure the subterranean Preston one was called Pinocchio's either. I think it began with a P though. Between Jeans Junction and Yum Yums.

I think that this is what used to be an Italian, Pinocchios? downstairs near the Stanley Arms. Was closed for a few years, but the reviews are excellent.

Never heard of it, but I can guess what the main course is.

Yes. Agreed. A tour de force of genres, moods, ideas and sounds. 9/10. For quality SKA, try Prince Buster, Toots and so on. Original is best.

As mentioned in the now invisible Holiday Reading thread, I enjoyed the David Peace book on Cloughies 44 days at Leeds. It is now being made into a movie also, link here.

The second day of February 1985 brought an away trip to Plough Lane. Not only does Plough Lane no longer exist (as a football stadium, and I use the term stadium, and indeed football loosely) but neither do the team we played that day, Wimbledon. The ground was designed as a non league ground to be fair, as Wimbledon's remarkable rise through the English leagues meant they rapidly out grew their humble surroundings. It closed in 1991, with a home defeat to London neighbours Crystal Palace. If you have a spare minute or two away from the rumblings of Nicko you may find This an interesting read on the ground. The game in South London was not attended by me I'm afraid, cash flow had been drained with the trips to Grimsby and Barnsley so it was just me, Jack Holden and a packet of Salt'N'Shake crisps for the afternoon. The flourishing Quinn notched another header for Rovers, no idea who scored for the Dons, and remember clearly Simon Barkers indirect free kick being chalked off for not touching anyone before hitting the net (the ball, not Simon). The draw, in front of less than 4,000 people meant we lost top spot for the first time since early December. Our form was poor, and the pressure appeared to beginning to show. Interestingly the report makes a point of how physical the game was! Wimbledon went on to win the FA cup just three years later.

Well Warren with such overwhelming encouragement how can I not?... So the win at Oxford meant a home time against Big Ron from Old Swans outfit, Man Utd. Ex Rovers supremo Bill Fox was rubbing his hands at the prospect of a £70K windfall. Without Bills shrewd stewardship during the poverty stricken times at Ewood in the 80s it is highly possible we could have gone out of business I'm sure. RIP Bill.

Nah-nowt against Hughes of course, but we're too far down this road now. In the end, we were 3 points shy of a Euro spot this season, so a win at Brum on the last day looks like the straw that broke the camels back IMO. If we had got that spot, I reckon MH would have stuck to his original guns of knocking City back like last round. Thin line this game...I blame Brad!

Of course with all the replays postponementing, it was not very long before we were playing the 4th round. It was four days in fact. It was back to Oxford again, for a midweek showdown with Jim Smiths outfit (his team, Oxford United, not a polyester suit, bri-nylon shirt and patent leather loafers). Oxford had not lost at home for about 8 years at this point in their history, and it looked like a toughie to most of us. But the motivation was a fifth round tie at home to Manchester United, Big Rons outfit (more polyester, bri-nylon and even more gold jewellery...). Last season we had played Southampton at home in the 5th round, live on TV ( it may have actually a first for the BBC in some way, cannot remember what it was though, anyone?) and lost to a David Armstrong goal. That was after we had beaten Nottingham Forest in a replay I think, a couple of games worthy of their own thread on here too! (Forest away was an adventure I can tell you...British Rail...Vimto, vodka and porno mags at Crewe Station). So yea anyway, Oxford away on a Wednesday night. How does one get to Oxford and back for a night game with no car? Well, let me remind you of the football special! Basically a whole train gets taken over by bevvied up football fans, no other passengers on, cheap as chips, no stopping at any stations, just get on at the Bouley and get off at the opponents station several hours later. From Accrington to Oxford return, total cost £10. The journey down on the special was bizarre. I went with a mate from Runshaw, Ricky Johnson. Good little footballer was Ricky, didn't support Rovers but was up for a laugh and so was I. About an hour into the journey, some Rovers fan went totally beserk on the train. I think he just flipped, and started lashing out at anyone and everyone he could, seriously attempting to do some GBH on his co-travellers. Was it the drink? Was it a case of train-based Stir Crazy? It took about five men to restrain him, and they literally had to sit on him for the rest of the journey to Oxford to stop any further madness. I think he got to the match though! The Manor ground would never win "Sporting Arenas Of Year" award, if such a thing existed. It looked like it was designed by 10 different people, each one putting their own little bit on and then sticking them all together-like that party game were you fold a piece of paper in three, someone does the head, then you fold it up, someone does the body, fold it up then someone does the legs, then you unfold it and you get a picture of a human with a deep sea divers helmet on, wearing a Tutu and legs of a rugby player. And a cats tail protruding from the arse. Imagine Watfords ground now, but worse. The away end was, once again open terrace, crumbling concrete, caged in on all sides. Images Can Be Found Here. The game it self was quite eventful, Billy Hamilton missing the game after doing his leg minutes before the match warming up, then Jimmy Quinn notched a typical header to put us ahead. In the second half, McDonalds penalty was brilliantly saved by Geno, and despite a bit of a battering we hung on to put us in the fifth round to play United. As I walked back towards the station, I was verbally abused by a Rovers fan who though I was a home supporter-"Cannot win every week can ya you Southern @#/?s!". Didn't bother to put him right, just smiled a bit. It was a rare match in which we played in all red shirts too, a picture, all be it in mono to follow of Quinn in action wearing the red top.

This is the Craig Short Story. Sounds like a crap film! Or should that be carp. Either way I'm happy.

The above photo of the Riverside is great. Got more of these to come towards the end of the season, against the two Manchester teams. If you click on the top bar of the image it will come up full size, and looks sharper.

After the three postponed attempts at playing the FA cup 3rd round replay, we finally got to play the Portsmouth Tag Wrestling team at Ewood on a Saturday, when the 4th round was being played. I had a season ticket this year, it was actually a junior one (under 16) and I was now 18. Was a bit tight some weeks, as there was a separate turnstile at the Blackburn End for juniors (see Bob's Signature photo) , and most weeks I got grilled on my age, or at least a squint-eyed close examination. Anyway I got to the ground with my season ticket, and didn't know it was only for league matches and would not allow me entrance to FA cup games, and had no money to pay to get in (was probably only £1.60 but was a student at Runshaw at the time.) I bought the season ticket off a mate, who by the way was under 16 after about three games in the season. It resembled a small book of old school raffle ticket books. So I am at the ground, with no way of getting in to Ewood to see the match. So for the first and not the last time, I made my way up the hill to see 28% of the pitch and about 5% of the game from the behind the Riverside! I remember trying to work out what was happening in the game based on the level of crowd noise , which was pretty hard really due to the lack of acoustics and numbers involved. Vaguely remember seeing Quinns first goal hitting the back of the Blackburn End net. I cannot really offer any opinion on the match , as I only saw a fraction of it. But Noel Wilds report below from the Sunday mirror Edition of January 27th 1985 makes me chuckle. The highlights include the classic line... "Giant West Indian defender Noel Blake was badly at fault with the first, with the most feeble back -pass I have seen for many a year" Sounds like one of AESFs reports! And... "Portsmouths defence was all at sea and left me alone, and I just whopped the ball hard" ..he quotes of Jimmy Quinn.