I must be older than you, then @booth. "De mortuiis nil nisi bonum"; may he rest in peace; and all that, but John Barton could well have been the Aynsley Pears of his day.

A pun it will; happen it won't!😉

Ah, right; thanks @tomphil. I must confess I don't peruse the books as closely as I perhaps ought to. Besides, I thought a fair bit of the profit on the Armstrong deal found its way back to NE4, due to the terms on which Newcastl United had sold him to us.

With respect, @tomphil, surely another question that hasn't been properly answered is why on earth that money raised on Raya, Armstrong & Brereton Diaz wasn't re-invested in younger players to replace them? I'm not being naïve if I believe our scouts can identify them, am I? Hopefully, the Director of Football set-up will prevent that in future. And equally hopefully, our owners won't tamper with it.

One of the things about Message Boards is that they don't have "Irony filters". And while I don't know @ItsRoverZ , I wouldn't be surprised if his comment was an ironic one. After all, Pears is very much of a "Marmite character", isn't he? You know, "I may never have knowingly eaten anything with Marmite on it but that doesn't stop me 'knowing' I wouldn't like it. My initial feeling when reading this thread was that I don't remember reading a preview thread with such low expectations of the game. So I'll play the odd one out, and expect a Rovers win. Maybe with a penalty awarded by a benevolent referee; but "a win is a win", isn't it?

Brilliant analogy, @Tyrone Shoelaces !!

The "lapsed fans" started bailing out soon after the Walker Trust sold us. We're down to the hard core of loyal fans now. Another effect of that is on local industries. You may not think of The Manxman - and other pubs - as "industries"; but people earn their livings selling beer, as much as (say) building houses. I remember, even in the glory days, the Landlord of The Manxman telling me and my mates that it was the Saturdays of home games that balanced his books.

It's seedcorn work; even if only 10% of the recipients of such an offer kept coming back, we'd soon be at healthy attendance figures.

Well, Amen to that acknowledgement!! Although I must say I'm not holding my breath that any future decision emanating from the office of the club's CEO will be any better communicated. More likely, I think, that sw4gg0tt - how puerile! - will think that he's got away with that one and look for other "balancing the books" ruses. In fact, he's already trying one on. Last season - even though my season ticket was for the comparatively plebean Riverside - I bought three seats for the Nottingham Forest League Cup game in the Premier Suite for myself, a very dear friend of the Forest persuasion - nobody's perfect! - whom I first met at church 60+ years ago, and her daughter. During the close season, due to age and increasing infirmity - those of you on here who know me not just as a nickname will know I've had mobility difficulties all my life - I decided to upgrade my season ticket to the JWU, as much for the lift to get me and my walking sticks to the level of my seat as anything else. If I'd thought properly about the consequences of what I'd done when I bought the Forest tickets, I would have realised that, in so doing, I'd probably had my name entered on a database in sw4gg0tt's office probably headed "Mug who could be milked." Sure enough, at 3.01 pm yesterday afternoon, an email pinged into my Inbox invitation to purchase a seat - either in the Premier Suite (£150) or Jack's Kitchen (£80) - with a discount of 20% for the Leicester City game because I'm a season ticket holder. You - I! - can't reply by email because the email one of sw4gg0tt's staff had sent was one of those from an unmonitored source. It was in fact the second similar email I've had in recent days. I replied to the first one by contacting the ticket office, telling them that I haven't yet been able to use my current season because of my state of health and I wasn't sure when I'd be able to get to Ewood again. I hoped they would be able to read between the lines, so I didn't actually add, "So there isn't actually any point in sending those emails to me". Got that one badly wrong, didn't I?!

Some of my best mates are Geordies; would absolutely love it if we beat them! 😉😄

Yeah, it's the sort of poster that would appeal to a man whose email address includes w4ggOtt.

He was one of the panellists on 'Monday Night Club' on Radio 5 this week, pretty well putting himself in the shop window for any club where his child(ren) would still be within travelling distance of their school(s?). No real mention of any footballing abilities to attract any Rovers fan who: i) may have been listening; and: ii) couldn't properly recall him.

You can tell I've failed yet another late fitness test for tonight, can't you?! But, "Aaghh!! Is NOTHING sacred?!!?" 😯

Typical!! They didn't even offer you a Riverside one?? It's like they want the game played behind closed doors!

For a split second, I worried that Waggott had infiltrated us, reporting on a success. Then I saw it was from "one of our own".

... and a very weak reply from Christina Haynes - who she? - imo. If that's all it said, it surely opens itself to a reply asking - for starters - some figures itemising the savings made.

Now they would be chants worthy of listening to and singing along with! And don't forget that the match may not be on ITV until just after midnight Wednesday/Thursday; but if they're clear enough to be heard, they'll hopefully provoke comments from the TV company 😁😄😅😂🤣

But he probably doesn't like it, because it takes one to know one, @arbitro ! 😉

Pity we don't have our owners' email addresses for the "cc"!😉

If we're lucky.

Wow, that's one helluva preview! Interesting Board, too; but seem to have a lot of adverts. Visitors - even those who register - get hit by adverts - makes you (me!) appreciate Premium membership of Brfcs! Interesting, also, they feel the need to remind members about the need not to be offensive in their comments; must be quite a sparky place.

So, if we smother them, then?

I'm not sure @SIMON GARNERS 194; he and his wife are on holiday at present, but I'll check and PM you when they're back. It certainly sounds like him; you couldn't meet a more affable man, imo.

Funnily enough, this wouldn't surprise me. Like I said above, it could be a rewarding result for those who are able to go.

... JDT will "do an Arteta" (= substitute the goalkeeper) and Waldstedt will - finally - start his Rovers' career.