2 Home, 3 Away first choice. 1 Home, 3 Away second choice. 3 Home, 3 Away third choice. That is the result from the Fife jury. Now back to the studio.

You misunderstand me Scotty. I have not implied anything about Neil's effort or professionalism on the pitch. What I said was that he is no longer interested in remaining a Rovers player after his current contract runs out. In his own words he wants to try elswhere, and feels it is time to move on. I am not accusing him of not playing to his best ability as long as he remains in the Rovers team. In fact it is clearly in his own best interests to do so if he wants to attract offers from top clubs.

Well now then Phil, that really is a big question, and the truth is that nobody outside of Rovers and those with close connections actually know the full story. All I can tell you is that Rovers as one of the teams in the FA Cup Final were presumably allocated approximately 1/3 of the Wembley capacity, which was 100,000 at that time. So let's assume for argument's sake that Rovers allocation was 30,000 ie about the same as Rovers average gate at the time. That SHOULD have been more or less enough to satisfy the demand if they had been sold in a fair and proper manner, and it surely was not beyond the ability of the club to see that this happened, i.e. S/T holders first, one per ticket held, then general sale with max of 2 or 3 per transaction say. Also an allocation to directors, players and staff totalling say 1000 in all would have been generous. Now if something like this distribution had been done there would have been no problem, but judging by the furore that ensued in the town and the local press over the weeks leading up to the Final, that is quite obviously what did NOT happen. The major complaint that seemed to uset most was the allegation that the players and others connected with the club had between them swallowed up at least 1/2 of all the tickets allocated and that the players were making a fortune out of selling tickets to the touts in London. I don't know if that is the full and unblemished truth of it, but there is absolutely no doubt that something happened to make the majority of Rovers allocation become unavailable to "the man on the terraces". I personally was not effected because I could not have gone if I had a ticket and consequently did not try for one, but quite a few of my immediate family anf friends were disappointed and every one of them was a regular pay on the gate attender. The only person I know personally that got a ticket was my brother-in-law who won it in a draw at the club he played for at the time (YMCA, Blackburn). The amount of bad feeling and publicity that it caused in the town was unbelievable. Everyone was talking and complaining about it. So much so that you began to actually get the feeling that NONE of the ordinary fans had got a ticket. This obviously was not so of course, but the anger generated at the time was so widespread and intense that it is quite likely that those that had got tickets dare not admit it. I don't know, and that is mere speculation on my part, but it definitely felt that way. What I DO know is that a lot of regular supporters blamed the club and the players and vowed never to watch Rovers again; and a lot of them have stuck to that vow ever since. Maybe someone who really does know the TRUTH about it will come forward now and tell the full TRUE story.

Reluctantly I have to agree that LN is no longer interested in playing for Rovers and he must go in Jan for the best deal we can get. And for me that does NOT mean Warnock coming in. I have not forgotten what he said as the transfer window slammed shut in August; that he had been dreading the phone ringing all the last day to tell him he was going to Blackburn. I don't want to see ANY player in the blue and white halves that does not want to wear them. End of story. If Rovers can benefit from a bidding war for LN's services then so much the better, and I will put my trust in Sparky to sign the best possible replacement that he can negotiate taking all the circumstances and needs into account.

That's the one for me too Al. That was disaster day for Rovers in many different ways all at once. First, and for me foremost, was the disasterous way in which the Final tickets were distributed. That alone cost Rovers the loss of several thousand regular fans who have never forgiven the club and never been inside Ewood Park since. Then there was the Dougan episode you have referred to above. Next was the loss of Dave Whelan with a broken leg that ended his career and ultimately cost Rovers the game through having to play for most of the match with only ten men. All in all not a day that Rovers fans want to remember, but at the same time one they can never forget. :ph34r: :ph34r: P.S. And just to make matters worse the ****ing Dingles won the 1st Div championship that year as well :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

Now you're talking! I would love that to happen. He is only 19 yrs old and already looks a very good attacking LB. The only snag is we wont be able to afford him, if indeed Feyenoord could be persuaded to sell.

An apology to the person you insulted might be a good start, followed by the realisation that not everyone shares your gutter level definition of humour.

This "freak" as you in your ignorance choose to call him is an Italian Rovers fan who does not have much command of English ( come to think of it he should feel right at home on here). He does not get much chance to watch the Rovers and obviously wants to get a bit closer to the feel of things by becoming a member on here. If that is alright by you?

Bit of a problem there Gaz. If they ban you, how would you know whether Vinjay was on or not?

4/10 correct 1,2,4, and 9

Dunfermline Athletic away.

Hmmmmm.....10/10 for a well worded put-down there Flopsy.

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ste B @ Nov 28 2006, 19:34 ) 463239[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> well what can I say to that ? Sieg Heil! Accompanied by a click of the heels and an extended right arm.

I am not saying that Man.U., Liverpool, Arsenal etc have not been great in recent times. What I am saying is that the 12 clubs I listed as founder members of the Football League have also achieved great things in the past and each of them at some time has done something that made the football world respect them for their achievements, and nothing should be allowed to detract from that. I can't pretend to go into what each and every one has done, but here are a couple of local examples: PNE:..... In season 1888-89 they won the league championship by going the whole season without losing a single match, and in the same season they won the FA Cup without having a single goal scored against them in the entire competition. League and cup double at a time when that was all there was. There was no other competition they could enter. Blackburn Rovers...... besides having won the FA Cup 6 times (which has only in recent years been bettered) they also won the Cup 3 years in succession thus earning the right to keep it for all time. No other club has equaled that as yet. They very generously handed it back to the FA after keeping it for the 3rd year in order to save the FA the expense of buying a new trophy. Yes IHB, all these clubs have achieved something at various times that have earned them the respect of the footballing world, and nobody can take that away from them. They have ALL earned the right to respect from the the media and the public, but do they get it? I leave the answer to you.

It is a strange coincidence that Henderson should write that article this week. Just two days ago, I woke early and lay in my bed idly mulling over in my mind all the recent slurs cast upon my beloved Rovers and the arrogant impression given by the media and the TV football fans that the "big clubs" are Chelsea, Man.U., Arsenal, Liverpool, etc,etc. I got to thinking who REALLY are the true aristocracy of English football, and my findings are as follows. For me the true aristocrats of football are the founder members of the game, without them there would be no game for us or any one else. This means that the above mentioned "big clubs" are in reality "Johnny come lateley" pretenders to the aristocracy. The real aristocrats of football are the clubs that played the game and set the rules and standards way back in the mid-19th century, and the 12 clubs that actually brought the Football League into existence in 1888. In alphebetical order these are: Accrington Stanley Aston Villa Blackburn Rovers Burnley Bolton Wanderers Derby County Everton Notts County Preston North End Stoke City West Bromich Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers Not one of the "big clubs" or indeed any club at all from the south of England. Nor any of the other "pretenders" such as Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Spurs, etc. The 12 clubs named above are the real aristocrats of English football, even though some of them have run into hard times and some are still experiencing these, they have ALL got a proud history to look back on and at different times each of these clubs has achieved something that brought them the respect of the entire footballing fraternity. Yes, each one of these clubs can look the rest of the football world straight in the eye and be very proud of their achievments and history. Poor they may be but they are the TRUE ARISTOCRATS of football, and always will be. Is there any one of those 12 that anybody can truthfully say is not truly a Big Club. Chelsea who??

Somebody said it was because they were playing Rugby on Sunday at Vicarage Rd. Don't know if it's true though.

That is the nearest to my favorite theory for the problem. I would just add to that the reason is because of numbers of sales of their papers. It wont matter too much if you upset the entire support of Blackburn Rovers as long as you dont upset the supporters of..... (whichever big club).

I think that almost sums up my position as well Alan. The only thing I would add is that I think Nonda needs a rest and Jeffers or Gally given a more sustained run in the team with Benni. But also Benni himself needs to look to his laurels; he is obviously a talented player but he needs to show much more fighting spirit for me. He is very clever with flicks and backheels but he needs to track back and do his share of ball winning and pressing of defenders, and he badly needs to watch out for getting caught offside.

Right, now we've got that little misunderstanding out of the way; what I was attempting to do was pose a two way question in the hope of stimulating a bit of genuine mind focusing and discussion. The "something else" was meant to be an open question to get other peoples thoughts on why we seem to be the recipients of so many dodgy decisions this season. It is a valid question and I would love to hear what other people think about it. Ok now?

Got out of bed on the wrong side today Chukie? Or has daddy confiscated your favorite toy?

Sorry, I can't remember who the two players involved were. You may well be right. Anyway, who it was is not the point; exactly the same as the Ooijer incident with opposite interpretation of the ref IS the point!

Whilst agreeing totally with your sentiments LeChuck, I have to disagree with a part of your last sentence. In my book EVERY match that you take the field to play in is a "must NOT lose" match, and if every player always had this mindset burnt into their brains we would not have any problems. I remember many years ago as a young player being told by my coach to get it into my head "that as soon as you go onto the pitch, YOU are the BEST player on it" I did this, and immediately my game improved about 300%. After that I never looked back.

Did anyone else see the Mancs v Chelski match today? And did you notice the Mancs penalty claim where a Utd player slammed the ball hard into one of the Chelski defenders in the area hitting him high up on the chest/shoulder area and 75000 mancs screamed for a pen as one. The ref did not give it; presumably and quite correctly because it was ball to man and doubtful as to whether it hit his shoulder anyway. The point being that this incident was PRECISELY the same as the incident involving Ooijer in the Villa game; except that on that occasion the ref saw it as a penalty. Inconsistency? or something else? what do you think?

Sorry; I can't explain HOW it happened, you would need to ask one of the computer guru's on here for that. It's just that I noticed you had probably used a for your second bullet point, and that funny little icon that you got has a software code of . The rest as they say is magic! EDIT: Oh dear; can you believe it? It has just happened to me as well!!! What is going on? I typed a capital b in a closing bracket, and each time I did it, the darned thing produced a

Absolutely right Tony; except that the highlighted bit is perhaps going a little too far. IMO what these kind of public transport yobs really require is somebody on the train or bus to stand up to them and tell them what's what. I do know it works as I have done it myself on many occasions. Unfortunately I am past doing this sort of thing and the sometimes necessary follow-up now. But take my word for it, it DOES work; you just have to go for it. I could tell you some tales of my adventures in this direction, but I wont bother. 'Twill only cause controversy and is best left in the past.