I would much rather be spending my cash in the pub tonight too

Shouldn't that be the TSB's cash?

Exactly!

See - he's been corrupted already.

Some wonderfull memories been brought back indeed,

More Rovers supporters than Oldham at Boundry park @ 1987/88 to see 'Don McKays blue 'n' white army'....8k plus on the big open terrace.

Stoke away around the same season to see Rovers finally lose that unbeaten run.....5k and a bit 'o bother at the end of the game.

A bit before my time but one for our Burnley visitors on here to chew on:

Turf moor, Boxing day '77.

Over 10k travelled from Blackburn(Dean Hayes book 'East Lancashire Derbies' describes Rovers as being 'cheered on by a massive following').

By all accounts the away end was packed solid by 1 o'clock and this saw hundreds of Rovers fans being put in the Bee hole end!!

Would love to hear a few more recollections of that day by some old heads on here

Saw a programme about policing footie matches and it showed the chief copper at Oldham briefing his men before a Rovers game.

This is what he said:

'.............Blackburn fans come early,come in numbers and drink a lot.'

Spot on!

Are the bars open or is it like those crappy UEFA games when you have to remember to take a large hip flask?

Lack of information about this could easily depress the gate by several thousand on a Friday night.

BBC have an interesting article on Ticket Prices

HERE

A very interesting article indeed.

A season ticket for the European Champions at £67 ffs !!!!

Another interesting snippet, which would be of particular interest to those looking at ways of increasing our dwindling attendances, is the provision of free public transport to all supporters travelling up to 100km, or 62 miles, to the ground.

A great idea - remove that particular additional cost and do away with the matchday traffic congestion problems all in one fell swoop !

which reminds me, does anyone know whatever happened to the rumoured plans to build an Ewood stop on the passing rail line?

Waste of time.

Went to Preston for friendly in July on a Saturday.

Everyone had decided to go by train.

When staff were asked why they hadn't put extra carriages on, they said they hadn't any!

Some wonderfull memories been brought back indeed,

More Rovers supporters than Oldham at Boundry park @ 1987/88 to see 'Don McKays blue 'n' white army'....8k plus on the big open terrace.

Stoke away around the same season to see Rovers finally lose that unbeaten run.....5k and a bit 'o bother at the end of the game.

A bit before my time but one for our Burnley visitors on here to chew on:

Turf moor, Boxing day '77.

Over 10k travelled from Blackburn(Dean Hayes book 'East Lancashire Derbies' describes Rovers as being 'cheered on by a massive following').

By all accounts the away end was packed solid by 1 o'clock and this saw hundreds of Rovers fans being put in the Bee hole end!!

Would love to hear a few more recollections of that day by some old heads on here

Similar thing happened on Boxing Day 1982.

Longside filled 2pm. Rovers fans then began entering Bee Hole End, before being identified and marched round the touchline in a never ending column to the Longside.

1-0 Garner .........who else!

(Garner on his favourite ground - quote: 'Turf Moor, because I always seem to score there.')

Can anyone recall the song with the chorus that ended:

'....we are the Blackburn Infantry.' ?

808 State live at North Bar, Blackburn, Tonight.

Henning Berg for me as he won the premiership with us, never parted from us under any cloud & has been the player most capped whilst playing for Blackburn Rovers. I know Hendry & England are running away with it, but if a second XI is going to be made of the best runners up the Henning definitely deserves to be in that side.

Can anybody confirm if the advert for Mike England timber that is (was) in the Darwen End, just under the radio Rovers box, is THE Mike England??

Yes.

One of the links above confirms this along with a couple of old folks homes he runs.

Quite often.

Bolton Wanderers

Oldham Athletic

Derby County

Man City

Bristol Rovers

Chesterfield

Sheffield Wednesday

Burnley

Stoke City

Port Vale

Aston Villa

Liverpool

Everton

...are all grounds in addition to Carlisle on which I havee been with more than 6,000 Rovers' supporters. There are probably others I have forgotten about.

In recent times, didn't we take 7,000 to OT for the first leg of the League Cup semi against Man U?

You forgot this one.......

Here's another for all you nostalgia buffs.

Bury, one Tuesday evening, April 1980.

2,000 Bury fans and over 10,000 Rovers fans in a gate of over 12,000.

The Manny Road End, normally occupied by home fans was completely full of Rovers fans. The lower part was a tarmac slope and the upper part was a terrace of railway sleepers which made a great trampoline - beggars belief today!

Think Rovers scored a pen.

The final whistle signalled a pitch invasion - Rovers won to clinch promotion.

The post match warm down by the players was not ice baths, but champagne and fags in the directors' box in front of the delirious hordes from Blackburn.

........My first away game.

Hooked.

Excellent article in The Times (6 October) by Martin Samuel, on the plight of the Premier League:

'Sympathy slow in coming for United now boot is on the other foot'

Can someone please set up a link?

Go to:

thetimesonline

sport

columnists

martinsamuel

Or: 'How to sell tickets' ........

about 6,000 id say, as we didnt fill the bottom quarter we generally get.

my dad said we once took that many to Plymouth when Speedie scored, thought he was lying!

He was! Nearer 3,000 I'd say. BTW 3-0 Speedie hat trick secured 6th place and play-offs.

I remember when we played Everton in the 3rd or 4th round of the FA Cup sometime in the late eighties we took over 10,000.  We filled the terrace and stand behind the goal and spilled over into the paddock at the side.  My dad took a mate of his who was an Evertonian and he said it was the largest away following he'd ever seen at Goodison apart from the derby.

I was there at that game. Great atmosphere and it was the first game I had seen under floodlights.

I think that added to the novelty of the occasion.

I was there.

Tremendous.

All seater has done away with this type of occasion.......great shame for the younger fans that missed these experiences....difficult to convey the buzz of away followings of those sizes (see phillipl's post above).

Paul

BAR THE CLOWN FOR LIBEL!!

When is the squad announced?

Den

Treat each pairing separately depending on the outcome of the vote.

If you don't take Col and Mike, then someone else comes into the reckoning (courtesy of the spotty oiks) then the 3-5-2 debate will start all over again.......and the interest will decline.....

Bazza, we're going 4-4-2 so Mike England looks like getting in as one of the two central defenders. John Coddington might be available.

Now listen guys. I'm in absolute turmoil here. I can't sleep and wont do until we've sorted this problem out. You all should know that we were going to elect one central defender, then from the same squad, minus say Colin Hendry - if he wins, have another vote for the second centre half. It's probably not necessary as the top two C.H's are so far in front, they should probably just both go straight into the side.

However, it is possible, that a second vote, for the second centre half could show an absolute turn round in the voting.

Any comments?

They're streets ahead. Elect them both and lets get on with it before we all start arguing who was left or right footed etc.

Another vote will only result in confusion.

Sorry Alan? You mean we've sold him?!?! I just thought he was injured! Well that's it for me - we can't compete anymore - we should merge with Darwen, Accy Stanley and Gt Harwood and move the ground to Whitebirk. The new ground can be sponsored by Blackburn with Darwen Council / McDonalds and called the Whitebirk McRoundabout McStadium. It's the only way we can compete with Arsenal.

It's taking longer than I expected from you Bob but its nice to see that you are getting there.

Whitebirk has already been ruled out for car parking reasons. The whole project is now on hold until the East Lancs Rapid Transit System is completed (expected approx 2040 ).

Fans are not transferable, as Butcher Bob Lord found out when he closed down Accy Stanley to get their support. They just stopped watching footie and Burnley's gate didn't benefit one jot.

The parking scheme was only put in because of the footie!

Remember the coach 'sneaking' through a police cordon on a 'dry' trip to Huddersfield (after Tory Moynihan tried to scupper ale en tour) only for a massive chorus of 'Roll out the barrel...' let rip, accompanied by three bin <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=bags&v=56">bags</a> of empties being discarded from the emergency exit....East Lancs pale ale tins bouncing around the tyres of the police bike escort...

BEB,

I think there was a similar situation at Boro which involved doing a slalem back onto the M-way to avoid Dibble and get to the boozer before the escort kicked in.

Enjoy tomorrow night:-

"don't be bitten twice, you've gotta suss suss suss suss suss suss suss the suspect device".

One of my highlights (there are so many) was Carlisle (Sunday before one Christmas) using AP Coaches Of Burnley and painted claret and blue. We travelled over Shap Fell on the M6 in a snowstorm with no windscreen wipers. The Asian driver had to stop every mile and clear the screen with a long handled brush. The ale stop was Penrith. Carlisle' average gate of 6,000 was swelled to 12,000 by a 6,000 strong army from Blackburn vindicating Carlisle's decision to switch the game from Saturday to avoid Xmas shopping. There was a huge pitch invasion at half time by Rovers fans who occupied all sides of the ground (the away end only had 3 turnstiles). The trip was even rounded off with a fine victory.

American

Take off the blinkers.

The Russian is clearly a hard nosed businessman. He may choose not to leave the club debt free and mortgage all the assets......

.......the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

They might even need to start a campaign to 'Save the Bridge'!

And ultimately, without the backer, unable to maintain their status.

Yes phillip,

But where will Chelsea be when Roman has laundered his allegedly ill gotten gains from Sibneft, got fed up of his new toy and moved on somewhere else?

In a tight spot!