I think you probably mean "re-gained" rather than "lost" don't you?

You may not be doing much boozing on the crossings if the North Sea produces a "drop of roughers" as we used to call it in the Navy.

Either of them!

I saw Eddie Crossan play many,many times for Rovers and I always liked him as a player. He was in my opinion capable of playing in the first division as it was in the 50's. He was a clever goalscoring inside right, and always linked up well with his wingers and CF. He could also drop back and help out the half-backs with winning the ball and distribution. An all round good player who seemed to fit in perfectly with the Rovers and was always appreciated by the fans. He was one of the great Rovers forward line that played together for several seasons in the early 50's: Mooney, Crossan, Briggs, Quigley and Langton. Those were the days! Thanks for the memories Eddie, and rest in peace.

If you really want to know about Xenophobic hype, how's this grab you? This actually happened in about 1984 or '85. I was living in Linlithgow at the time and the local evening paper there ran a story about some guy in China who had won some very obscure, (but obviously important to the locals) tournament in a game I had never heard of and would not know how to spell it or pronounce it now. It was presumably considered of great interest to the inhabitants of West Lothian though, for the winner (although Chinese)was stated to have an ancester who originated in Scotland. When I enquired further into this at the time I was told by a colleague that the game was a sort of souped-up version of tiddly winks, and the Chinese place great store on it as a gambling game. I kid you not!!

Now you can see the difference Lathund. This IS sarcasm and of a very nasty underhand kind; disgusting!!

Just switched on to this at half-time and so far at the 60 min mark there has not been one mention of Lucas Neil; is he playing? Edit: The commentator just said something about Mark Hughes will be interested to see Brett Emerton playing at centre-half!! I am having great difficulty seeing who is playing in the Aussie back four; need a stong telescope with the camera work as it is!!

You are quite right to complain about the sheer ignorance of some people on this board, Lathund. I feel deeply ashamed at the total lack of sensitivity and understanding displayed by some people in regard to the feelings of people of other nationalities when it comes to matters of quite proper national pride. Things like taking the trouble to get the spelling right when writing another nation's name, or respecting their National Anthem and their Flag. Sheer ignorance, which serves mostly to display their own lack of education, or worse still, deliberate intent to offend. What makes it even worse is the fact that a lot of these same people get very hot under the collar if the situation is reversed and any foreigner insults our national sensibilities. Please accept my sincere apologies as an Englishman. Although not one of the guilty ones, I feel very deeply that we as a nation are seen by the rest of the world as guilty in this respect.

Hmmm..... Never thought of it that way. But you're right it could be misconstrued. Perhaps better left to individuals to act independently as they wish.

Yes you're right Eddie; BRISA is the perfect choice for this. So how do we put this suggestion to them?

That is a great suggestion Rover6; the poor guy must be devastated right now wondering if this means the end of his career. How do we make it happen? Should it be sent by and on behalf of BRFCS? Or if not, then how?

Whilst what you say is no doubt true of the innocent fans Blue Phil, you cannot escape from the fact that 20 years or so ago a very large proportion of travelling England fans earned themselves (and the country) an unsavory reputation as hooligans and thugs, and these kind of reputations are very easy to get, and almost impossible to lose. That is what I meant in my previous post. It is a bit like the "fast gun" reputation in the old wild west; everyone wants to be the one to get him. Obviously the people who attack the England fans now are just the same kind of thugs as the original English louts that started it all 20 years ago. Perhaps I should modify my original quotation to read "You reap what your predecessors sowed, whether or not you actually deserve it."

Does this dramatic mini-saga qualify both Manure and Chelski for relegation as in the Italian Serie A situation? Not quite the same, but certainly smacks of large scale corruption and Mafia style intimidation.

OH NO IT ISN'T!......

And why do you think that happens? You reap what you sow!

Dingledome = An alleged football ground where the Dingles (sometimes known as Burnley F.C.) play.

What it means is that even if he went there in his first year of life, he would now be at least 121 years old. You decide!

I love it! Makes me quite envious and if I were 30 years younger I would probably join your expedition. Great stuff; good luck to you all and to the Aussie team.

Defeatist! Where is your Dunkirk spirit, Man?

I have no evidence for this but I just have this intuition that the USA will go a long way; possibly to the semis or even the final. Another surprise could well be the Aussies.

That game has memories for me! It was my first Rovers "away" game and it was played at Elland Road, Leeds. I was just home on leave from the Navy the night before and had no ticket. Luckily Eddie Quigley was a friend of the family and I was able to get him to arrange a complimentary ticket to be collected at the ground. Another friend was going and driving through and I got a lift with him. Then the only thing that spoilt a great day out was the result. No Cup Final for Rovers that year.

Well I definitely can confirm that the BBE had no roof on it until many years later, early 60's (I think). Lost count of the number of times I have gone home soaked after standing on The BBE in the pouring rain! Other things I remember that impressed me on my first visit were the size of the ground and the pitch. Up until then the only Football League ground I had been on was Deepdale and that was far more compact. Also I remember thinking how impressive the Riverside stand looked from my viewpoint on the BBE. Little did I know then that a few years on, I would be a regular in there. But sure enough from about 1955 to 1960 I sat on the front row just to the BBE side of centre; absolutely magnificent view! And although the Rovers were in the old 2nd div at that time, the football that we witnessed week in week out was of the highest quality in the sense that there was always plenty of goals and plenty of very skilfull play from both teams. Not as much emphasis on defence in those days, and I feel that there was in fact very little difference in standard between the 1st and 2nd divs. This was borne out by the fact that I and many hundreds of Blackburn people regularly went to watch Rovers at home one week and PNE at home the intermediate week. My opinion was and still is that you could exchange virtually any of the teams in either div with each other and nobody would notice any difference. This was borne out by the fact that the promoted teams from the 2nd div invariably prospered in the 1st div, and relegated teams from the 1st div could find themselves down there for a very long time indeed; which is exactly what happened to the Rovers after their relegation in 1947. Then In 1960 along came the end of players wage equality and the start of the long road to ruin for lots of clubs and an end to equality for all clubs. Oh please don't get me started on this again!

Are you drunk? :ph34r: