GHR

Not usually one for the cliched stories of excess and 'banter', but the Undr the Cosh with ex-West Brom midfielder Andy Johnson is brilliant. The bloke is full blown mental in the best possible way.

This could go in any number of forums really but I might as well stick it here. I really don't get the recent spate of pitch invasions. Seems to be the latest go-to fad now that crowds are back in the proper sense. It was a seeming increase in general unruliness to start with, then flares everywhere, now this; with added assault and whatever else for flavour. The way we're going there'll be a night of rioting when someone gets a last minute equaliser chalked off next season. I don't want to sound old - I can just about remember Cardiff in 2002! - but it really puts me off does this kind of thing. I love away days, passionate crowds and whatever else but lately it's seems like there's loads of ****heads on god knows what trying to get a kick or a decent Insta story or whatever by doing random, pointless shit. Edit - I will also say, I dread to think what the potential solutions are if this starts to get properly out of hand...

... and we can also remove Port Vale! We're now one of six, or one of seven depending on who wins the National League play-off... (Thanks for all the Stockport corrections, that had completely passed me by, but in my defence it was a while ago!)

The club that's proof that owners fiddling football clubs for all they're worth is nothing new. I've been to their old ground in Glasgow, it survives as a public park and football pitch, with the terracing still there, lost amongst trees. A haunting but fascinating place.

It will be, they've only had relegation from the fourth division into the leagues below for a decade or so now. It being a play-off, they're only the fourth team from the 'traditional' 42 to go, however none have ever come particularly close to making a return. I completely agree with the names by the way, I was always taken in by the likes of Queen of the South and Albion Rovers.

It's got all the makings of a few years ago when Man City had to beat Brighton away on the final day to win the league. Brighton went 1-0 with about 10 minutes gone, which was then followed by City annihilating from that point onwards to win 4-1...

4,000 Holes listed them all recently. From next season it'll be ourselves, Accy, Colchester, Crawley, Hartlepool, Ipswich and Port Vale (though Vale may get there yet this season). Stockport County I don't think have been there either, plus perhaps whoever wins that play off (it's at West Ham this year). Only team in the top 44, and one of only two teams with any sort of presence and success in the domestic game is quote some going from Rovers!

It is genuinely admirable that we aren't accepting gambling sponsorship. I agree we should make more of a deal of this, but I can understand a reluctance in case we ever need to go back on it (I hope not!).

Received mine this week as well, which was a nice surprise as I had no idea one was due! Superb read again, plenty of laugh out loud comments too.

My skepticism with data is that if you fed Tugay into a Spreadsheet we'd never have touched him in a million years. As it transpires, he was probably the greatest foreign player ever to grace Ewood in spite of all the things he couldn't or wouldn't do. I accept that data can be useful and will doubtless have uncovered some gems to buy or weaknesses to exploit, but at the end of the day, there is only one metric which counts. Two decades from now nobody will look back at a fixture and see 'they had 67% possession, a superior xG and an overwhelming victory in the aerial duels stakes', they'll see we lost 1-0 and subsequently attained zero points that day. It's the same with players - people remember Brad Friedel as one of our finest keepers ever, Craig Short as an absolute unit and whoever else as whatever else. No one will ever say 'Well, that Harry Pickering lad back in the day once successfully completed thirty passes over fifty yards in six matches'...

I can't understand why people do it, I'm very much of the opinion that I'm there for myself, there for the moment, I'm the same with concerts. I get a couple of pictures of the ground if it's a new one for me but other than that my phone stays in my pocket unless I'm checking scores if there's a stoppage or whatever. There's a couple of other things for me too - firstly, it goes nowhere near recreating the atmosphere / circumstances that it takes place in - I've just watched that video sat as my (WFH!) desk, a day later, with no connection to any of the teams involved; to that extent it's utterly meaningless really. Secondly, who actually watches stuff like that back? In all my years following Rovers I have maybe looked back at footage from 1995, Cardiff, and random odds and ends that pop into my head - Andy Todd booting Christophe Duggary for example. I'd go as far as to say I'm not actually interested about watching highlights from inconsequential matches more than a game after they happen. Still, probably got a couple of social media likes, so it's all grand.

Indeed. Andy Todd would have been in the crowd having a scrap with those fans keeping the ball a few minutes ago. Lenihan and Johnson are perhaps the only two of that ilk we have, and even then I'm not sure about Darragh.

Was having a dig through various books and magazines on this and can't find anything more helpful than the map and drawing of Leamington Street already posted, though apparently Leamington Street became Leamington Road in 1900. One thing I didn't know though is that apparently Rovers left Alexandra Meadows in March 1881 and completed the season 'in a temporary home close to Ewood Bridge', before moving back across town to Leamington Road, which was laid out in the summer immediately prior to the 1881/82 season. I was having a look too for any mention of Pleasington Cricket Club, even on old maps, but I can't find a thing.

Not wanting to go off topic but what happened with that FA Cup Final? I have seen a lot of mention of it on here but had never heard about it until I started reading this message board. (In my defence, it was well before my time!)

I honestly feel totally indifferent about the entire job with Newcastle. Much like the Europeam Super League proposals, this is just the next natural stop along the road we've been on for three decades or so. Next it'll be Liverpool v. Man United being played in Florida because money, or flogging actual team names for sponsorship (Amazon Aston Villa v. GSK Fulham anyone?). I fell out of love with elite level football a long time ago for precisely these reasons. I similarly wish I was surprised that people are more concerned with the transfer gossip they can now be involved in, than the truly abhorrent skeletons in the open, let alone the closet, their new owners now have. In this post-Venky world we all like to imagine, I would genuinely rather us be skint and all into obscurity in the North West Counties with not a thing to call our own than have what Newcastle have just landed. You get nothing if you gain the world at the cost of your soul.

Queen's Park, that'll be one of our 1880s FA Cup exploits! (Some great nicknames let alone team names up there - Honest Men, Red Lichties, Doonhamers... One of the things I have always wished Rovers had was a genuinely distinctive nickname. We obviously claim Rovers as our own, but I wish we had one that could be applicable to use and us alone. Something to do with our past industry as a town or glories as a club maybe.)

It's doing my head in. Literally every Twitter post (I don't do any other social media but I'll guess they're similar) is spammed with either #FreeBen or an essay in Spanish by the dozen. Unreadable now, which is a shame as, our Twitter used to be fairly entertaining read.

I fully expect that one day fans will come back for the first home match of a new season and it turns out they've flogged the Darwen End to Tesco, sort of like what happened at Burnden Park right at the end. To be serious though, as a Rovers fan I do live in fear that one day someone will get in the ear of those pulling the strings at Rovers and we'll get rumours of the glorious opportunities that await us by moving to up one of the industrial sites around Whitebirk, and turning Ewood over to the usual 'residential and leisure developments'. If they were willing to have a go at Brockhall, however speculatively, I see no reason why our other major asset is beyond reproach, especially if our finances and prospects on the field keep on as they seem to be.

Did anyone there last night get a good view of our penalty shout right at the death? I thought it was one but didn't have a great angle at all (was in JWU). Annoyed a few fans to say the least!

Aye, some posts on there read like we've flogged prime Puyol. A thoroughly alright player and I wish him well but it's only because of our ongoing defensive shambles that we may initially miss him. Best move for all concerned really.

I wasn't entirely sold on the Rovers relegation front but the combination of the Coventry result on Saturday, our run before the international break and Rotherham's result tonight have got me very worried. If Wednesday get a new manager bounce under Moore (and there are worse mangers they could have got) and the 97th minute winner with ten men gets the Millers' tails up we could be right in the mire come this time next month. It is unthinkable that a few weeks ago we were going "Is this our chance to finally break into the top six?".

iFollow commentators mulling over the possibility of relegation. Goodness me, things are looking bad. (I don't have Sky!)

Prior to last Saturday's fixtures the top 10 or so teams in League Two were all separated by a single point between each. I can't say I have ever seen that before! Both Leagues One and Two are heating up nicely this year, looks to be a proper relegation scrap developing at the bottom of League Two with Grimsby, Barrow and one of Southend and Colchester. Can certainly see a lot of promotion, playoff and relegation places going down to the last day at this rate.

Paul Cook is the new Ipswich Town manager. Will be very interesting to see how their season fares from here.

Has it ever been stated why Hilton's gone all the way to the Highlands? You'd have thought there'd be better options closer to home if all he is to do is be an understudy, and he's hardly got the experience at any decent level you'd imagine Ross would want for a man to slot in when they're fighting off relegation from the top flight.