Admiral Nelsen

That was my first thought too. One way of gettinga couple of hundred grand in the summer, maybe free with a sell on clause. Doesn't look like he'll ever cut the mustard for a championship club with aspirations, but the boy will be on buttons. Could be a way of turning a small profit.

Not got round to watching this one yet, but if it's as good as Premier Passions, Sunderland's last documentary in the mid 90s, then I'm in for a treat. A particular highlight was one of their coaches, I believe Bobby Saxton, describing at length how he hates short passing. Not aged well that one.

Late entry for top five, Oxford at home is worth mentioning, if just to remind us of the potential we have. Ewood full in the third tier. Sun out. Rovers win. More of a party than a football match. A modern classic.

Great thread. Some are more obvious, so I've tried to think about some of the less obvious ones which have stayed with me. In no particular order: Best 2008 - Everton 2-3 Rovers. Ince's first game, Dunn, Roque and a last minite Ooijer winner. Scenes at the end. 2004 - Fulham 3 - 4 Rovers. Watched the scores come in over Ceefax. Late winner, instrumental in keeping us up. 2008 - Bolton 1 - 2 Rovers. Don't really regard these lot as rivals, really, but Kev Nolan was on record as not liking us. He scores the best goal of his life and celebrated like mad, before a Samba header and a Jason Roberts deflection wiped the smile off his face. bliss. 2007 - Rovers 2 - 0 Man City. FA cup game. Amazing atmosphere at Ewood, they had high expectations and we were a total class above. Collectors item from Mokoena and a jubilant Matt Derbyshire in front of the Blackburn end at the end. One of the great Ewood moments of modern times. 2006 - Rovers 3-2 'Boro. Fairly inconsequential game in the end, but a game for me which signalled that we were back on the way up, after a couple of seasons on the wane. Good 'Boro side, with several UEFA cup finalists in the team. Scabbed their way to 2-2 after Savage's only career red card at club level. Bellamy was still too good for them. Worst 2002 - Celtic - both UEFA cup games, for different reasons but both deserve to be included in the same breath. Horrible feeling. 2007 - Wigan 5 - 3 Rovers. I'm from Wigan, so the indignity of losing to a jumped up non-league team who have only ever had success due to a wealthy Blackburn fan was bad enough. That it should have been a special comeback win, had it not been for a dodgy Emerton red card, made it worse. 2014 - Sheff Wed 3 - 3 Rovers. Looked like Bowyer had timed the play off push to perfection. 3-1 up, last minute equaliser. Gutted. 2009 - Rovers 2 - 2 City. 2-0 up on Sparky's return, with 5 minutes left. Chucked it away. 2007 - Rovers 0 - 0 Leverkusen. That side had a genuine chance of winning a European trophy, and knocking out Leverkusen would've set us well on our way. Still gutted when I think about it now.

Ooijer had a shocking debut too, as I recall. Absolutely roasted by Drogba. Didn't take long for him to show his quality though, what a player. Nice symmetry with Phil Jones a few years later. First league start at home to Chelsea. Difference being he had Drogba in his pocket.

Before my time that one, but the highlights are on youtube

Not in a Rovers shirt, but I remember Nelsen playing against Italy for New Zealand when they drew in the 2010 World Cup. This was at a time when the Sky Sports website used to do individual player ratings, with a 1/2 sentence caption next to each player. 9 ratings were very rare, I literally only ever remember seeing a 10 once, and it was for Nelsen after somehow they kept Italy to one goal from a dodgy penalty. Caption just read, 'Heroic'.

There were a few contenders that day! Personally, I remember Chimbonda being worse, but that could have something to do with him being left on the pitch for the full 90 unlike Goulan, so giving him more opportunity to be awful.

Would need to give this a bit more thought, but some early contenders from recent years are Best: Bellamy against Middlesbrough, King against Stoke, Samba in a 1-1 draw at City. Worst, Pascal Chimbonda in the 7-1 against Man United. Directly responsible for four goals in one game. The only time I ever remember thinking that I could genuinely do less harm to the team if I was plying instead of a professional footballer.

His biggest flaw for me. He's definitely worth persevering with in my view, despite being a bit up or down so far, but if he doesn't get tighter in defending against his man, he'll never make a full back at this level.

Wonder if this could backfire for Norwich. Would be surprised if they get a deduction and the last they need is to give Leeds a siege mentality.

They are. Leyland at 7pm https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17372067.rovers-u23s-face-must-win-game-against-sheffield-united/

Agree, but then again he's also looked better than Rodwell other than the last 2 games, and Lenihan has been top drawer since the new year. Genuinely have no idea how to best accommodate this without a change of system, could finally be the opportunity for Mowbray to go back to three at the back?

That really was a fabulous bit of skill. Unlucky that he didn't get a goal or assist to mark his contribution, but his introduction definitely gave the whole team a lift. Not really a dig at Palmer at all, as they have totally different styles, but it's made me even more certain that it's no great loss if it means more opportunities for Rothwell.

Reports from the North East that Boro aren't playing Downing as if gets one more appearance, it triggers an improvement in his contract and Boro are looking to reduce the wage bill. Looking at the current top 6, I'd say Boro are looking the one with the most potential to drop out of the pack for us to target.

Great post. Agree with pretty much al of it, only caveat would be BB's being the youngest, as well the most expensive but don't want to turn this into another BB thread when the other is over 100 pages! On Nutall, I'm delighted that he's forced his way into the team, and has got hi goals. Having said that I'm still sceptical about his chances of becoming a long term fixture for a side who wants to get promoted, even as an impact sub, but even if that turns out to be true, I'd say we've already got our money's worth from a very low risk signing. Rothwell's second half yesterday has shown that, when on form, he really does have absolutely everything to be a devestating player. Going to be some challenge to turn his cameo appearences into something a bit more consistent, but when it happens for him, I think it could happen all at once. Potential Dack replacement if he leaves over the next 18 months.

Great to see the progression in recent weeks.Hopefully banishing any suggestion that league one is his level. Scoring goals, setting up goals, but increasingly making the right decisions in general play. He's been pretty unlucky with some finishes at Ewood this season too. Just over a million quid is looking like a great bit of business in today's market.

Partial co-incidence, in my view. Quality of the teams we played in December probably had more to do with it. That said, I rate Bennett a lot. The tricky part is getting him in a position where we can make the most of his strengths. The best performance I remember from him this season was I think Brentford at home, where he played at number 10 and his engergy and drive rubbed off on the whole team. Clearly, he isn't going to replace Dack, so he's probably going to be somewhere on the right. Personally, I'd have him on the wing with Nyambe at the back when everyone's fit. Given that Nyambe's had hamstring issues and played big minutes midweek, think the lineup yesterday was right, but going forward I'd rather have Bennett on the wing.

Not enormously different from the better days under Bowyer. Main ones being that I think there's more evidence that Mowbray can be the man to take us further. More importantly, he's clearly taken the time to sort out the structures at the club, in terms of recruitment etc. Would echo others, you can never be sure what's round the corner with Venkys, but we feel like a normal football club, and we have a team and manager to be proud of.

Seeing him breaking out into sprints deep into extra time was an absolute joy. Some engine on him, that boy.

Don't forget this boy

Looked like Dack and Reed were struggling at times during extra time. Small mercy that it was on a Tuesday not a Wednesday. Not as confident as I would've been a few weeks ago, but still expect three points. Mulgrew returning should make a big difference.

Fair. My point is just that if we're saying return of Smallwood = Rovers have lost again, we should at least be losing when he was on the pitch. I thought he did well, but in any case, I think tonight has summed up where we are quite nicely. This team isn't ready yet, but there are signs that several of them could compete given time and a few of the right additions.

True enough, although in his defence the 2 winning goals went in after he was brought off! Richie was a candidate for MoM today, and whilst Travis has easily done enough to keep his jersey, Smallwood has shown that reports of his uselessness have been exaggerated!

Not disputing that we've had too much of a soft underbelly. Newcastle are a poor side at the top level, but we're not at that level. Matt Ritchie is an attacking player which would easily get into any Championship team. Murphy would walk into the vast majority of Championship first XIs. Joselu will be earning comfortably more than any of our team. Also, talking about tonight, we conceded 2 goals in 90 minutes. One of those was enormously unlucky. Pathetic is a massive exaggeration.