That's the "minus goal difference" wiped out. Come on Blues; Onward and upward!

I was dead lucky with the one I bought from the club shop in (?) 2010 or 2011. It was one that our - then arse-licking - owners decided they wanted the Prince of Wales feathers as the emblem on the shirt and had to obtain permission from Clarence House to show the emblem on the Umbro shirt we were wearing that season. The club shop announced that, if permission was given, people who'd already bought the shirt could have the emblem affixed at no extra charge. As a non-Monarchist, I chose not to exercise that option. My "frugal gene" won't let me buy another replica shirt while I can still - just about! - squeeze into one which "advertises" nothing, other than my loyalty to Lancashire's Most Historic Football Club, as I refer to them in every WhatsApp conversation with my old schoolmate of the Claret & Blue persuasion in NZ.

That's one of those comparisons that, once heard, can never be un-heard, @roverandout

Boom boom!

Fwiw, @Shirley Crabtree Wrestler , I agree with your Heart more than your Head! For some reason, we seem to be able to pull off results that, given the 'strength' of our squad, ought to be beyond us. I don't know if that's because many of the teams in the Division aren't as strong as we think they are. I'm kind-of in agreement with @BournemouthFanGoEasy. I wonder whether, despite JDT's words about us being a medium- to long-term Project, any of us had really thought much about what he meant by that. Now that we're getting closer to the end of the season, maybe getting promoted via the play-offs, then relegated with parachute payments to allow us to "do a Fulham", going up and coming back down using those parachute payments to improve gradually the quality of the squad incrementally in forthcoming close seasons wouldn't be too bad an outcome.

Perhaps he reads this thread and realises how many on here agree with that assessment!

I remember my Dad & I listening to the BBC Light Programme commentary on that game. I was SO-O-O happy; at last we were in the same Division as the team followed by almost all - one or two had moved to the Fylde Coast from Manchestoh and followed family tradition by supporting Man. United - my schoolmates.

Thanks, @wilsdenrover. One of my brightest memories of the early '60s was being on a Ribble bus with my parents one Sunday evening going back home to Blackpool after a weekend in Blackburn. It passed a queue containing Ally McLeod for whatever was on at the Majestic cinema that evening. I couldn't imagine that someone as important - to a 13-year-old Rovers fanatic - would have to take his place in a cinema queue! As regards the photo you've forwarded, it doesn't include Jack Airey, who's a neighbour of mine these days. In those days of not even one substitute and the Central League for Reserve teams, Jack only made a few appearances for the first team and only scored one goal. Mind you, it was on his debut at Ewood against Burnleh in a 4-1 win in 1959 - our first season back in Division One - so I reckon it should count at least double!

Thanks for that, @Tyrone Shoelaces. I doubt I'd have been there if it's the Cup Replay. I'd only have been 13, going on 14, and my schoolteacher Mum would have taken a VERY dim view of event a Cup Replay taking precedence over homework!

Any chance of anybody less technologically-challenged than me - not difficult! - copying the photo taken in the Ewood clubhouse to the Nostalgia thread, please? I've a comment on it that I'd like to offer that's inappropriate to this thread.

Thanks @jim mk2. In my head that's where I live most of my time!!

I've replied on the Nostalgia thread, @wilsdenrover.

I can't be more precise than saying "Almost certainly", @wilsdenrover. I notice that the video was added in 1960 - we played 'Pool over the Christmas season in 1959/60 and the game at Ewood was a midweek game. So the odds are on me and my 'Pool-supporting pals having been at that game. I can't be more exact because, one of the consequences of moving back to Blackburn, was that I had to downsize. One of the results of that was - reluctantly, almost heartbreakingly - passing on my programme collection to a pal who's got more space to incorporate my collection into his. I have got 'visiting rights', though!!😄

What a wonderful video to watch first thing on the morning after!! 😉Thanks very much for posting it, @Sweaty Gussets. I am absolutely buzzing this morning!! There's a real spring in my walking stick-assisted steps! The video took me back sixty-odd years to travelling over from Blackpool with schoolmates to watch our two teams playing in their traditional colours. When we got to Ewood, I went in through the Darwen End turnstiles, while my mates entered the ground through the Blackburn End. We, erm, "exchanged banter" as we crossed on the Riverside at half-time and then travelled home together after the final whistle. As often as not, I was the one wearing the smug grin! As I was when I heard the final score last night; and I know that the only one of those mates with whom I'm still in regular contact will be looking out with a bit of trepidation for a cheery email from me this morning! Icing on the cake was last night's news from Millwall, which allowed an exchange of emails with another former pupil at our school - now resident in New Zealand - who supports our neighbours from east of Accrington! In my emails to him, I paid more than lip service to JDT's oft-repeated comments about our progress being "a process". I could imagine us emulating That Lot as they found their feet in being promoted to, and relegated from, the Premier League a couple of times in successive seasons in the early days of the management of the current Everton manager. But that puts a heavy burden on Gregg's shoulders to come up with more, erm, "inspiring" inward transfers than last close season's choices. And on Waggott's office staff to process those transfers in good time!

The partner of one of my cousins is a QPR fan and reckons that Ainsworth has a lot of arses to give a good kicking there. So am I being too superstitious in worrying about a "New manager bounce" for them on Saturday?

Indeed; it ought to be the best League gate since the famous home game against Oxford United! If Waggott and Co. can't sell tickets for that game and have some package ready for sale for the remaining games, they really should pack up.

Back to the classic days of the Gordon Lee & Howard Kendall eras. Don't concede, and you're sure of at least one point from every game.

I - used to - share your pain, @rigger. Then I moved back into town. I'm not saying ease of getting to Ewood was the main reason for moving back, but it was certainly a factor. Now there are buses/taxis which will get me home from night matches. My problem nowadays is that the football seems different from what I remember from the halcyon days.

Well, as one who's (one of?) this Board's Sandgrown 'Uns, I thought that, as I couldn't motivate myself to take my place in the Riverside this afternoon, I'd prepare this thread ahead of our midweek game against the team from my birthplace. When I looked at the stats over the years and across various competitions including: the F.A. Cup (going back to the 1880s); nearly fifty years before our first meeting in the Football League; one season in the Premier League; and a few meetings in the easily-forgotten Anglo Scottish Cup in the 1970s, I found that there was very little difference between the two clubs. We've won 24 games; 'Pool have won 22; with 17 draws. Many of us will approach next week's game with deep reservations about our abilities to see off a team in the Seasiders' position. Especially when, as today, they've had a "New Manager Bounce" off the bottom place in the Championship, I could imagine Mick McCarthy motivating them to give us a much closer game than our present positions in the Championship table would indicate. So I reckon that we'll do very well to take the three points we need to keep our hopes of a play-off place alive. I'll leave selection of the actual team to those of you who had more 'stamina' than me this afternoon.

Sounds like the smallest of triumphs for the new regime!

Like 3-2 at home v. Sheffield Un-tied this lunchtime. Which adds to the pressure on the team 8th in the Championship table to keep close to the teams ahead of them. And it's t's a bit of a beggar, so whisper it; but the Dingles could do us a favour by winning at Luton this afternoon.

Fwiw, I don't think any of us take any pleasure in our team not doing well. It's more that, these days we seem to be owned and - in the back office - managed by people for whom Rovers matter less than they used to in the halcyon days when Uncle Jack owned us and had a management team led by John Williams who took a similar pride in the club. The freakish sequence of results at the start of this season spoke well for me, at least, of JDT's ability to get more than we might have expected from a lop-sided squad.

I don't know enough about how Swag organises the club's finances; but would imagine that, with limited resources, ...

Showing my age here; but "just £3.50"?!! For me, this has got "0-0 bore draw" written all over it. Saturday 3.00 kick-off it may be; but I'm struggling to convince myself I should make the effort. 🤔

Well, you were the one who started this thread on the Rovers' fans' forum, @chaddyrovers!!