Stoke had, and have had nothing to play for for ages and brought over 1500 seventy miles last week for a nothing game for them, Ten miles down the road, I think it's a no brainer to go to a local derby and sing for the bragging rights if nothing else.

Got my ticket yesterday tea time and the lad in the shop said we'd sold just over 3 thousand at that time.

On a serious note I'm predicting 2 nil Rovers with a crowd of about 13500. (sold 10877 in home areas as of about an hour ago).

Bloody hell, just trying to bring a bit o light heartedness into the forum. We had our best run of form of the season after the lowest point in the season. How many of the "realists" aka doom mongers on here would have thought after 5 mins of the Sheff U home game that we'd be second a couple of months later. 'Obviously we are out of form, but mentally chucking in the towel and saying we've no chance of making the play offs like some have suggested is plain silly to me. Whether we do or don't, don't be so miserable, we are having a better season than anyone thought so lets treat tomorrow as what it is, the first game of the rest of the season. COYB BOYS!!!!!!!

Five nil Rovers, Gallagher hat trick and 27,000 on. Just thought I'd inject a bit of optimism into a slit your own wrist thread.

It's not difficult to count ticket sales in the e ticket part of the website if you know the capacity of each section. As of about an hour ago we had sold 634 in the Darwen end and 10840 in total in all the home ends.

Lose one game in terrific season and people are talking about death spirals and getting on Mowbrays back already. I'm embarrassed to be a Rovers fan, absolutely pathetic doom mongers. Grumble on.

Great effort Devon Rover, hope your health and the clubs health is on the up and up.

I remember Rovers thrashing Barnsley 5 nil in the 89/90 season, Scott Sellars was unplayable and it could've been 10, I'll settle for the same tonight.

Think the BBE will be a sellout, at last count there were around 400 tickets left. Bottom Tier obv.

If I can stand and the atmosphere around me is good, that's all I want really. I've been reliably informed by some old time Rovers mates that the back corner in the BB end is pretty much stand up anyway, that's where my ticket is and I'll see what it's like. If I do get the bug again I want to get in to the away games again.

Thanks Simon Garner, my all time favourite Rovers player.

Thanks Chaddy, people seem to have gone on the defensive pretty quick, maybe I worded my posts wrong and they came off as lecturing. Growing up as a Rovers fan I dreamt about them getting into the 1st division and suffered the play off heartbreak at the grounds of Chelsea, Swindon and Palace, and cried like a baby after that last one. But from that and never missing a game for going on 15 years, I've missed 20 odd years. I was only trying to explain my reasons as they are different from any that had been mentioned. Bottom line, Rovers are my team, always have been and always will be, just like everyone else on the forum. If you started going in 93/94 you missed the terrace days, atmosphere building up an hour before the game at the big matches, being packed in and the noise was something different to what you get now, I experienced both and as I say I miss those days. I also know they're not coming back but I can't apologise for the way I feel.

.......and there were other people sat around me but I was the only one singing Mike, and getting some fairly funny looks as well, like I was doing something wrong. The Walkers steel is the Riverside.

I'm not lecturing anyone, this whole thread is about attendances at Ewood, I've been a missing fan for years but it had nothing to do with any reason given on the thread. Nothing to do with ticket prices, owners, managers, how good or bad the team was doing, free live streaming etc. If people think I'm alone in not going because they miss the old terrace days and atmosphere that came with it, then they're way off the mark. So what can the club do to encourage some of these back to Ewood? As for me stopping going because "I couldn't be arsed any more", that's bollocks, it was the hardest thing I ever did, it took about 3 or 4 years to feel anything like normal not being there when the Rovers played.

I'm sorry Atko but asking someone to be considerate with regards to swearing in a football ground is something we'd never agree on, sorry. I never heard my dad swear in front of me, except at the football and I don't judge him 1 bit for that. I suppose this is the crux of the argument and why I stopped going. In the old days, the nuttier vociferous types could stand on the terraces and enjoy their day. which I did. and the more sedate fans could sit in the posh seats 🙂 When the all seater came in, they still get to sit down and watch the way they always have, but what happens to the fans like me? So I would say this, you be considerate to me and let me stand up swear and sing my lungs out, I wouldn't dream of doing it on a bus or in a library. but we're on a football ground. I'm not being confrontational, I'm just trying to explain, you have one way you want to act at the ground, I have another, but my way was badly affected when the grounds changed. I also take your point that being in the Riverside is maybe not the best indicator of the Ewood of today's atmosphere, that's why I'm in the Blackburn End on Wednesday. As for the person asking why I've started going again after 20 years, I couldn't tell you, I've always missed going, but missing the old days and knowing deep down that those days are well gone. I always felt I'd end up going back one day, I'm later in life now and am just seeing if it's something that will excite me like the old days, maybe it's a mid life crisis!

In fairness I was specifically talking about the home fans, we've always had terrific away support. I'm not too big to admit that I may have gone OTT, I've probably still got a chip on my shoulder from the way I went from going every week to not going at all, cold turkey. I still stand by my comments about the vast majority of the fans that attached itself to the club for the glory years. The bottom line is, football in nothing without an atmosphere, I can't stand to be in a quiet stadium, as I said I love my town and I love the Rovers but I've denied myself going for over 20 years. I'm in the Blackburn End for the Barnsley game and I stand to be corrected about the atmosphere, I'll be singing loud and proud anyway. There's nothing I'd like to see more than Ewood full every week, I know it's a pipedream, but it would be nice if they were all hardcore.

I'm a first time visitor to this site and whilst I've read a few of the posts, I've certainly not read through the whole thread. To give you a background of my history with the Rovers. My early memories are going to Ewood with my dad in the early 80's and to the odd away game he'd take me to - Leeds, Man City, Oldham and strangely a night game at Sunderland - especially stick in my mind. Over the next 10 years or so I became what you could call a fanatic, to the extent that I rarely, if ever, missed a game home or away, in any competition, Saturday or midweek. I would say I was a "superfan", truly fanatical about my club and I suppose that's why I have a slightly different take on this subject. Before I go on I want to make one thing clear, I'm not a hooligan, not a trouble maker and have never been in trouble with the Police, I'm saying this because when I go in to more detail about my views on the subject, I'm sure that's what some will label me as. My passion for the Rovers was still there when the good times came and we obviously had the heady days of the Premiership, BUT, somehow I slowly found that I was enjoying going to the games, especially at Ewood, less and less. The main reason for this was the type of supporter that the success inevitably attracted, the fair weather or plastic fans that are conspicuous at all the successful clubs. From standing on an open end at Brighton or Portsmouth with 3 or 400 hundred Rovers fans, knowing that they were there for one reason, because they were passionate about the club, I was now sat in a stadium with 20 odd thousand "fans" that were there for less noble reasons. To cut a long story short, I slowly became disillusioned with being asked to sit down, stop swearing etc or the constant whining of people around me when everything wasn't going perfect. The last straw came when I had an altercation with one of these so called fans, was ejected from the ground and had my season ticket taken off me. That was in 1999 and apart from the odd Burnley game, I've not been back since until a couple of games in the last month or so. So having said all that, this is my take on the attendances and in general the Rovers support. Going to a football match is not just about buying your ticket and turning up. The team's fortunes on the pitch will wax and wane over time, there's generally not much the average fan can really do to affect this, what we do have control over is how our club, our ground, our town is backed by us, the fans in the stands and my experience over the years has taught me that the Rovers have some of, if not THE worst home fans in the country. I realise this is slightly off topic and the we're being asked how we can improve attendance now today, but I can assure you that there are many many more like myself that stopped going, not because of anything happening on the pitch, but because they became sick of the lack of passion in the stands. I went to the Preston game, I sat at the back of the Walkers steel stand, on my own and sung like the old days - on my own - some looked at me like I had 2 heads, a few moved seats to somewhere quieter! It beggers belief that vocally supporting your club, singing, screaming AT A FOOTBALL MATCH is seen as something odd. I understand not everyone will be a fanatic, all clubs have there fair share of apathetic fans, but at Ewood it seems the bores have taken over over the past 30 years or so. Bring in singing sections, let people stand up, have flag days, in short lets liven the fcuking place up. I for one would be back like a shot, regardless of ticket prices, team performance, live streaming or anything else. SING UP FOR THE BOYS.