They'd have sacked Souness quicker than they 'potted' Big Sam!!

Yes; it was the Daily Mail. I remember laughing with my Dad about it before I went for the Ribble bus from Blackpool to Blackburn. I also remember not laughing on my way home!

I've got blue & white eyes, @superniko ; what else can I say?

I switched the Radio Lancs commentary off at the same point as you left the pub @BankEnd Rover; finished the washing-up; turned off the sound on my phone (so that I wouldn't hear any gloating WhatsApp message from my Burnleh-supporting schoolmate in NZ) and went to bed. Have just woken up for a nocturnal pee and am staggered by the final score. I can't remember on which thread I posted earlier this week about how it took Johnny Carey 4 seasons to get his BRFC team - the first one I can just about remember - promoted from the old Division Two. But in those first four seasons before we won promotion in the last game of the 1957-58 season, we finished 8th, 6th, 6th, and 4th. There was, of course, no social media back in those days - Yuri Gargarin had only just orbited the planet! - and, I'm guessing, more patience. If my Dad was typical - and I like to think he was - he was just pleased that Rovers were getting so close. Obviously he - and I - were ecstatic when we heard final whistle blow on the radio commentary on Rovers' final game of the 1957-58 season. But I'm sure that, if Charlton Athletic had won at home that afternoon and been promoted instead, he and I would have just concentrated on the cricket until the next football season began. So I just guess this is just a plea for patience. When JDT arrived, he spoke about us being "a Project", with the implication that it would take at least a couple of seasons - he spoke of transfer windows - before we'd be back in the Premier League. At present, we seem to be ahead of that schedule; but what worries me is that, if we qualify for the play-offs - surely the only way we'd win promotion this season - and were successful, people will assume that we'll be fine in the Premier League. But if we were to get to the Promised Land that way, I fear we'd have to do at least what That Lot did in the first years of Dyche's management. Viz, get relegated and use the parachute payments to continue strengthening the squad until we can hold our own in the Premier League. Oh; and maximum Respect to all who travelled to Stoke tonight. Ignoring the final score, I wouldn’t have braved the elements to go there on a night like last night (as it is now).

Well that's buggered up my prediction, which was: Stoke City, D; Reading, W; Birmingham City, D; Norwich City, W; Huddersfield Town, W; Hull City, W; Coventry City, W; PNE, L; That Lot, D; Luton Town, W; Millwall, D. For 78 points and 4th place in the table and Play-off games versus a resurgent WBA. If my remaining predictions turn out to be correct, we'll still have enough points for 4th place.

Good job I'm a slow typist!!😉😂

It's at time like this that you (I!) regret having lost touch with the only Soton fan I ever knew!

Can't imagine that a modern stadium like the "365" won't have undersoil heating. The problem may well be getting there; isn't there some fairly high land on the main roads between Blackburn and Stoke? (Asking in ignorance; it's been a lo-o-ong time since I: drove (stopped when I took early retirement); or went to a game at the 365.)

It's surely one of those loopholes that those clever but naïve people who frame rules always think nobody will ever circumvent. Until they do.

Have you tried 'letting go' of either phrase, @roverandout? Does anybody use either of those phrases? Surely they'd use either 'English' or 'British'. Anyway, how about today's opponent? After his initial success in his native country (Scotland), he came south and, since then, has only ever managed in this country.

He has: a grandmother. But, if you've got some - specially in the case of the Irish (see the post from @Blow-in above) - ancestry from another of the nationalities of the UK, you kinda identify with that nationality. [E.g. Looking up my family tree, I've discovered that, so far, I've got 4 great-grandparents out of 8. Even if the missing great-grandparent turns out not to be Irish, that'll be enough for me, so it will😉!]

That rings a very faint bell for me from back in the '70s or '80s. Is there anyone with whom it chimes more clearly?

😂😂

I guess if you're a Championship player, you'd have very little chance of featuring on Southgate's radar. So if you can pick up international caps through your family history, then why not?

Thanks, @Tyrone Shoelaces.

As one who's one generation away from qualifying to get an Irish passport, I love the way the Irish media tell you which is the County connection by which someone qualifies to represent the country! If I remember properly, Sammie qualified for three countries: Ireland; England; and Hungary (presumably through his father's side of the family tree).

You and me both @SBlue ! Both the "gold medallist" on your list and Mr. Smoothe-Parker. Not any more, he isn't; after Benfica put five past Club Brugge on Tuesday night - the 10th game out of 12 since he was appointed that they failed to win - Club Brugge announced that they had terminated his contract. Without, afaik, none of the frequent, "The club thanks him for his efforts and wishes him well for the future."

Beamish, "Dear old" Don Martin (2) and Hickman (2) got the goals against Plymouth; but I'm afraid I can't tell you in what order.

Well, I'm one who won't be going. The game's on Free-to-air TV coming from a ground with I first visited when I saw us lose 5-0 in the 1970-71 season at the end of which we were relegated to Division 3 for the first time. I've seen a few games there ‐ most, if not all, defeats - since. So I don't want to be a Jonah.

The way we turned round that Plymouth game in 1975 left me so fired up that I went home that Saturday teatime via an - unannounced - visit to the home of an older colleague whom I knew to be as dyed-in-the-wool as myself! I had to discuss the game with someone and I knew where Wilf lived!

Good, though, that he reacted quickly enough to complete the pass. Time was, I think, when he wouldn't have.

Thank you, @smiller14. Mind you, she wasn't that pleased when I announced that I was going on my own for a couple of days' holiday in southern Sweden in late September, 1994! 😦😪

And the beautifully cute Assist for Pickering's goal last Saturday. As John Keats wrote years ago, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." (And yes, I knew the phrase; but of course, I had to google who wrote it!)

Depends how you define being "wired-up right", @smiller14. Are there really more important things in life than how your football team’s doing?! 😉 Semi-seriously, I know my mood's lifted when Rovers are doing well, and I've often used away games to catch up with family/friends who live near where that game's being played. (Mind you, the late Mrs R0verb0y and I had no children so I can be more flexible about away games in particular.)

More sense than me then! My Best Man - as diehard a Rover as me - and I always refer to my wedding day as, "The day Bas Rathbone broke his leg.", in a 4-2 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday.