So was Tommy Briggs!

Catholics ARE Christians! Until the reformation the only Christians in the world were what are now called Catholics. EDIT: Whoops! Sorry and no offence intended; I have just realised I should have said in the Western World - completely forgot about the Eastern Authodox Christians. Purely due to not thinking things out properly before committing to paper or speech. There is a lesson to us all!

Yes Jim I certainly remember the big man, although he was (if memory serves me right) only with us for a very short stay. My abiding impression of him was of one of the best headers of a football I have ever seen, but unfortunately that was literally all he could do; completely useless as a footballer. I also have memory (which I have not been able to confirm) of Fryatt scoring what must have been the quickest goal on record for Rovers. Something in the order of 7 seconds from kick-off to the ball in the net with another bullet header. Sorry I cant be more explicit although I was there to see it, and I may just be getting mixed up with some other Rovers player; comes with age! Perhaps someone else could shed some light on this for us please.

Alan 75: Absolutely! Said with feeling.

When I lived in Darwen I had a s/t every year including the third division years. I would have one now if I could afford the rail fare from Fife every home match!

Having read all the above I am forced to the conclusion that Abbey is actually a Dingle. Why? who else but a dingle could possibly be so ignorant and bigoted? Wait one. There are some candidates for that dubious title: they are Rangers and Celtic fans.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "Big Jim" Fryatt. How on earth he ever became any kind of footballer, let alone a professional I will never understand. His legs and feet were strictly for standing/running on. He had no ball control at all in either foot, but his one and only asset as a footballer was his heading ability, and that was phenomenal. he could head a ball further and faster than any player I have ever seen before or since and he was fairly accurate in getting his headers on target too. But that was all he could do. I seem to remember his one claim to fame as a Rovers player was scoring a goal (cant remember who against) in something like 7 seconds from the kick-off. A Rovers record?

If I may be allowed to refer back to page 33 of this thread. It was very refreshing and even 'hope inspiring' to see so much common sense being spoken by various posters who all emphasised the need to keep a sense of proportion in our relationship with supporters of other clubs and with Burnley fans in particular. It is after all only a game, not WW3, and whilst there is nothing at all wrong in having friendly exchanges of banter between two very old football rivals, it is absolutely wrong and unacceptable to have real hatred thrown back and forth between rival fans either on this board or at the match (before, during or after). I have been watching matches between Rovers and Burnley since 1949 and I have to say that during the 50's & 60's the atmosphere and banter was much more friendly. Then in the 70's it became very bad; poisonous even, although there was to me no apparent reason other than the change in peoples attitudes to each other in general. Since the 90's however there has been a noticeable improvement at Ewood in attitudes to supporters of other teams, but sadly IMHO still not back to the old standards. Still I live in hope.

Sorry if I am a bit late with this, but just to encourage any waverers who are havering over whether or not to go for a ticket I decided to make the long trip down from Fife if I could get a ticket at about 1-30pm yesterday (Saturday). I rang the Ewood booking office number at 1-35pm and I had my ticket for the CIS stand by 1-50pm. By 3pm I was back home with my train tickets and reservations and my overnight accomodation all sorted. Cant wait for Tuesday to come; COME ON THE ROVERS!!! GET INTO THEM DINGLES AND GIVE 'EM HELL!!

1) ROVERS:- Lived in Blackburn/Darwen 1949 to 1979. 2) Preston N.E.:- Born in Preston and watched my first ever Football League match at Deepdale. 1946 to 1949. 3) Dunfermline Athletic:- Season ticket holder. Lived in or around Fife since 1980 to present. 4) Cowdenbeath:- Little local 3rd Div team of part-time triers with average home gate of around 200. They NEED me. 5) Accrington Stanley:- Nice to see them making a real bid to regain F.L. status.

I may be in a minority of one here BUT; I really fancy seeing Amo come on for the last few minutes of a match when we need a goal to see what he can do with his heading ability and MGP's corners.

What a great effort from ALL the boys! What other team in the Premiership has given Chelsea such a fright? And also IMO we might just have won it in the last few minutes if Sparky had just had the vision and courage to risk throwing Amo on as a target man for the last five minutes. We had nothing to lose by then and Chelsea were well rattled at that stage.

With regard to the rumour about Michael Ball being offered as a makeweight in Rangers offer for Ferguson. PLEASE GOD!! DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN ! Even if Ferguson goes (and I personally do not want him to) we MUST NOT AT ANY PRICE accept that useless piece of apology for a footballer into our Football Club. My reasons for this opinion? I live in Scotland and see Rangers on the TV every week. I dont know how long exactly Ball has been a Rangers player, but it is quite a few years now and in all that time I cant recall seeing him in the Rangers side more than a handful of times. This is mainly due to his being unavailable by injury for at least 90% of the time he has spent at Rangers, but in the very few games he has played he has been absolute crap as a left back. Rovers simply have not got a player on their books at the moment that could rival him for the title of "worst left back ever seen". I may also add that Rangers have been trying for the last 3 years to off-load him onto any unwary club they could find using the fact that when he was an Everton player he was being talked of as a possible England player. That was BEFORE he was injured!

Here's a revolutionary idea. Why not try Amoruso as a target man? I have seen him score quite a number of good goals for Rangers when he was occasionally used as a striker and he can also lay the ball off quite well. We all know about his bullet headers and his ability to out-muscle the opposition defenders, so why not give it a try?

Absolutely spot-on Philipl. Nobody more delighted than I am that MGP had a really good game and showed several times in the match what a really good player he can be for us. I am sure that most Rovers supporters also feel the same and can see that the boy has real talent. I am also sure that Mark Hughes has seen it too, but as Philipl pointed out it was not the right time to throw MGP into the arena at a time when Rovers were struggling and battling for survival. Perhaps now that there is a little breathing space the time is right to reward MGP for his patience and to use his undoubted talents more often and to the mutual benefit of us all. Whilst it is true that the player is still rather lightweight, I personally have never thought that to be a problem; having many fond memories of seeing the geat Tom Finney in action throughout his entire career I well remember that when he was first offered to P.N.E. as a youth he was rejected by them as "too lightweight, and never likely to succeed as a professional footballer". Bearing in mind that he subsequently went on to become arguably the world's greatest player and never in his entire playing career weighed more than about 9 stones. Nuff said!

Having followed the discussion on the merits or otherwise of Hartson, may I just point out a few thoughts that occur to me as one of the older generation of Rovers supporters (1946 to present; unbroken except for National Service). Rovers NEED a goalscorer. Hartson is a proven goalscorer. OK I accept that he is not and never will be a Footballer, but for those who can remember a certain Tommy Briggs playing for the Rovers as I certainly can, perhaps you will also remember that at the time Briggs was around, Rovers average home gate was about 35000 and about 30000 of those always referred to him as "the carthorse". Why? simply because he also was not a Footballer, but did he know where the net was!! 7 in one game against Middlesborough! and 30 to 40 goals almost every season that he played for us. Rovers use to get over 100 goals per season in those days. All that big Tommy needed was a ball played in to him from any angle or height (within reach of course) and he would at least force the keeper to save. Hartson is a similar kind of player and given the same service that Briggs got and that he presently gets from his team mates at Celtic he will score goals for us. Having said that, therin lies the rub; can Rovers present side provide that kind of service to any striker? Ask Andy Cole what he thinks about that one.