GHR

I don't understand why clubs would post that kind of thing on social media, it just sets themselves up for when it inevitably doesn't go to plan.

The SPL hasn't existed for nearly a decade.

Superb presenter with a genuinely infectious enthusiasm. You can tell he's bang into whatever he's doing. Best sports presenter in the country for me, sadly now also absent from the snooker too.

Pretty much my only recollection of my first night at uni was discussing Accrington and Nori with the lad serving me a kebab. Still to this day have no idea how the conversation came about...! Used the world over I believe, most notably in the Empire State Building or somewhere?

I once walked from Reading station to the Madejski, which felt like a similar distance!

It was one of the strangest games I have ever been to when I went to see Queen's Park whilst they were still at Hampden - by my maths everyone attending that games had just under 100 seats each! I get the impression their new owner has quite a bit of money about him - not ridiculous levels but certainly enough to splash out a bit - they also seem to have a few experienced people behind the scenes. Given the trapdoor at the bottom of League Two in Scotland has now been opened (slightly) I can well understand why they chose to break from tradition and turn professional. It's entertaining I suppose when you're bad but can't be punished for it; it's dangerous when you're bad but can: just ask East Stirling, Berwick, Brechin and now Cowdenbeath...

Anyone booked on the trains tomorrow might want to double check everything first thing. Weekends have been all over the shop for a while now up to Scotland. The 15.08 back from Glasgow to Manchester is already cancelled and there'll likely be more to come. Also, enjoy mixing with the Bolton fans heading up for their friendly at Carlisle 😉

It's honestly heartbreaking to go for a walk around any Scottish town, especially those miles from Glasgow, and see people of all ages wandering around in the colours of that pair. I believe the biggest Rangers Supporters Club (I forget by which measure) is Lewis & Harris in the Hebrides! What hit it home for me was couple of weeks ago. I was up there for a friendly with Ayr United - my Scottish team - played away from their home ground in a town down the road. One of the advertising hoardings - bearing in mind this ground is home to one of the bigger names in what was once Scottish Junior football - was from the local Rangers Supporters Club, advertising their buses to Ibrox...

Click on that and enter your card details. Currently no audio on the stream 😑

Wish this metaverse mob would kindly depart for there and leave me a world where I don't have to listen to them tbh. Can't price a meat and potato pie right but can download the Riverside as an NFT. Aye, righto.

Yes, I always find the blind following of whatever the club does rather strange. The greatest disservice you can give to something - anything - is not to have standards for it. I won't just accept 'the kit's shit but just buy it COYB...', because I expect the club and our manufacturers to put in the effort due to create something worth wearing. I bought all three kits last season as they justified it. Not a chance of that looking at what we know so far. The same goes for the ground, our squad, whatever else: I refuse to accept the potential JDT revolution and whatever BS they come out with as justification for our stadium lacking basic cosmetic and structural upkeep, senior players walking away, having gaping holes in our squad with just weeks to kick off, etc. I expect better. I will be in the trenches with this team for as long as I can stand / afford it, but in the meantime I refuse for myself or swathes of other fans to be called fake or false for expecting the people running our club to put some fucking effort in.

I did see a reply on Twitter to the kit launch video which amounted to 'Get behind the boys; you buy it to support the team, it doesn't have to look good'. Needless to say, such a well-constructed and coherent argument has won me over...

It is a thing for some teams now, isn't it? Brentford for one I think. I can see it becoming more of thing for green / sustainability reasons as years go by. We all know the mass array of attire produced every year (training, preseason, walk out, home, away, thirds (repeat for GK), European...) is for money, not distinction on the pitch. So what if it costs whatever much environmentally or it all ends up in a tip...

Are Rovers the first team they've played since their renaming back to the old club's title?

Aye there's no salvaging anything with that logo. Looking at them pictures, the lettering might honestly be worse than the devil symbol. Kind of thing an edgy ten year old knocks together.

I know it's illegal for a Blackburnian to feel sympathy for that mob, but I hate how the media bang on about Lampard's Everton, Rooney's Derby, Gerrard's Rangers, and now Kompany's Burnley. They don't own them; they've been around for decades long before and hopefully long after whichever hired hand disappears again. Have some respect for the club's heritage, history and fanbase for crying out loud.

Does anybody else look forward to tomorrow more than Christmas?

Out of interest has anything ever been said or implied about whether we'd sell the naming rights to Ewood? Totally Wicked do - or did - sponsor St Helens RFC's ground, which got me thinking! Another point which got me thinking, with all the (very admirable) outreach work the club have been doing amongst the South Asian community, how does having a vaping sponsor sit with our appeal to them? By my understanding, vaping is disapproved of in Islam much in the same way tobacco is. Not having our main piece or merch sit comfortably with a demographic we are trying to capture isn't great.

Where it could be communicated to fans (i.e. at such a level where grounds have screens or electronic scoreboards), 90 minutes to be done away with and replaced by the rugby method of time only advancing (generally) when the ball is in play, say for 2x35 mins. Also, during all instances of penalties, players cannot pause between commencing their run up and placing their grounded leg to strike the ball. Similarly, during shootouts, keepers forbidden from advancing beyond the six yard box between kicks.

Off-topic but that Chorley effort above is something Rovers should have been all over a long time ago - a range of leisure / beach / summer- wear, that is modern, smart and stylish and still conveys the club's identity, without being your traditional 'look at that bloke, at the beach in a football shirt ffs'. Half the stuff we have in at the minute looks like the kind of thing you'd wear to do the gardening, the other half looks like something you knock together in Paint in ten minutes. Why don't we develop a new range playing on the 1875 / Arte Et Labore theme? Team up with relevant part of Blackburn College if there is one (or similar) and spin it as part of our giving community partnership stuff? Why are teams at Tier Six (and below!) doing stuff that appears beyond us?

Yes the UK's expensive, yes there are social problems which we are generations off solving, yes politically we've had better days (IMO), but I am genuinely amazed this country can contain cities like Bath, York and Edinburgh; countryside like the Cotswolds, Lake District and Snowdonia; one of the world's and some of Europe's foremost cities; and more sport, culture and recreational activity than you can shake a stick at all pretty much within a day's drive of each other; an entire continent on your doorstep and the most successful town football team on the planet (probably) and people still think it's a shithole. What seriously do people want?

I won't be there myself - agonisingly I'm in Glasgow the weekend after (hotel for £40 when I booked 😉) and can't really justify it twice in a week - but I thoroughly recommend the Laurieston Bar if any of you are getting the train up to Glasgow Central. No idea what they are like with colours so perhaps cover up, but it is a proper, proper old school boozer if that's your thing. Excellent city in general and certainly good for the ale, have a great day / weekend whoever is going.

Must admit I'm not a fan of the FA Cup Final not bringing the curtain down on the domestic season.

Oh I realise I am definitely being wishful; I just look at the women's national team and see them playing at the likes of Norwich, Middlesborough and Wolves and think what a good idea it is to take it to the people - if you're a kid growing up on Tyneside it's highly unlikely you'll ever get the time or money for a day out a Wembley, but say a qualifier v. Andorra at the Stadium of Light? I accept finals and meaningful England fixtures are a different thing altogether mind. I used to on occasion work in that corner of London; the area around the stadium, as with a lot of major cities, is a very strange mix of expensive new apartments and shops and old, run down equivalents practically right next door. I find the stadium and area a bit soulless myself, it literally just looks like a massive computer generated image with no character or anything. Sorry, I was definitely a massive arsehole with the nature of that reply. The point about automatic promotion is a fair one, but I think it still demonstrates how practically every other team in the 92 has had some form of 'big day out' or similar over the past 15 years. Our single promotion aside, it feels a little bit like we've just existed rather than lived in the same timeframe.

What a bizarre post. I was merely responding the poster who originally brought up the point with an actual list. I would like to think it's an interesting bit of trivia whatever way you want to interpret it. For what it's worth I've been to the new Wembley and I think it's shit. It should have been flogged for housing, England should tour the country to actually take the game to the masses, and finals should be held at vastly the many vastly superior club grounds around England.