The next lines are - " They think it's all over. It is now ! "

Regarding this season - " The fans are on the pitch ". You should know what comes next.

I don't buy into this " squad of great players " story. I think we've got a lot of very inconsistent players who'll always be inconsistent players. 8/10 one week 4/10 next week. We could do with some who are 6/10 every week.

I wasn't impressed with the way we only seemed to play for 30 minutes ( 40 minutes max ) per game in our promotion season. Most of the time we were poor starters then also. That was usually good enough to get a result at that level but obviously it's nowhere near good enough at this level. I've said before that I would have been actively looking for another manager at the end of that season, I've never had much regard for our current manager.

I was texting my youngest son after the game. He usually sends me his opinion after watching our games. His reply tonight was - " I didn't see it, we watched Villa and Palace ". That's a Rovers fan of 30 years and my grandson who's also started out as a fan.

And you'll definitely get a chance, that's for sure.

Anybody watching the " Nostalgia " thread ? Just look at the difference Mike Newall made to the way we were playing.

Nobody has " performed out of their skin " for Rovers this season. That's the problem.

How many do you think would still be turning up to watch this rubbish if it wasn't BCD ? I reckon gates would be down to about 8 or 9,000 by now. Well on the way to the Chicken Chokers end game - shrink the fan base to a point were they can shut up shop without too much of a fuss.

1/6 for me. 1/3 at Old Trafford the first time I went there watching us.

There was a photo in the papers the day after that innings of Close with his shirt off. His torso was a mass of cricket ball shaped bruises. On some of the bruises you could see the seam ! I've seen lots of better innings but I don't think I've seen a braver one. He was only wearing a cap, no helmets then. What the umpires were thinking of I'll never know, somebody could have easily been killed. They were watched as 4 or 5 short pitched balls an over were sent down and did nothing.

Yes.

I remember John Edrich and Brian Close facing up to the most fearsome spell of bowling I've ever seen. Every other ball was a bouncer. The Windies over stepped the line of what cricket is supposed to be all about that day in my opinion. I liked Clive Lloyd but he went down a long way in my opinion with that performance.

The fundamental mistake they made was persisting with the theory that the " Ripper " had a Sunderland accent when after a few months it was pretty obvious that wasn't the case. By that time any man in the age bracket who sounded like that had been interviewed and excluded. A pal of mine was interviewed at the time. He was came from that area of Sunderland but he could prove that was in the RAF in Germany at that time.

I remember him playing for Arsenal against Rovers at Ewood. Fred Pickering took a shot at goal from about 18 yards out, but it was one of those shots were you kick the ground as well. It was bobbling along at no great speed but Jim went down on one knee to gather it. It somehow went right between his legs and came to a stop about a foot over the goal line. I was right behind the goals at the Blackburn End, almost leaning on the boundary wall. I had a perfect view.

Quite right, the first really memorable goal I remember at Ewood, Ian Lawther's 25 yard shot that never went more than 6 inches above the turf all the way into the far corner of the Burnley goal in 1962, gets a yard further out every few years. It really was a peach of a goal.

A drinking buddy of mine was showing me his playing career memorabilia a few years ago. One of the items was a little " Manchester " schoolboys V " Lancashire " schoolboys programme. Lancashire had an F. Pickering ( Blackburn ) playing on the right wing. This would be in the mid 1950's.

The cynic in me thinks that maybe he's signed again because he's no longer confident that he'll be back to his previous standard. After all by all accounts he was on his way this time last year before the injury. Better a bird in the hand than two in the bush.

Mrs Shoelaces says " Money Heist " is the best thing she's watched for a while. Do you like my new font ? My computer obviously does.

I got the impression that Wharton won't play again this season. Or at the beginning of next season. That's if there is a next season.

Keith Hill eh, the first overlapping centre half. What do you think our current team would play like on a pitch like that ? Matt Dickens ! He went on loan to Rochdale and is still reckoned to be the keeper in their worst ever loans team.

That sort of thing happened a lot. I remember going to a Rochdale V Tranmere top of the table game around Christmas time. It was really foggy, you couldn't see much further that half way to the half way line when they kicked off, They gave it about 20 minutes then called it off. Tranmere had scored down the other end allegedly. No refunds of course.

Attendance 28,990. I was a paper lad then and on the morning of the game I remember a cartoon on the back of the " Express " or " Mail " showing a bloke selling cricket style scorecards outside Ewood Park !

Before Covid I was visiting an ex workmate who had been in the Marines in WW2. He just passed 100 this autumn. He was a Bren gunner and he ended up in the English Channel when his landing craft was sunk at Dieppe. He got picked up by a passing destroyer after about an hour of staying afloat. When he got back to the UK they wanted to take the cost of the missing Bren gun out of his pay !

Jim Standen John Bond Peter Burkett Martin Peters Ken Brown Bobby Moore Peter Brabrook Ronnie Boyce Johnny Byrne Geoff Hurst John Sissons They made one change for the game at Ewood, dropping Martin Peters for Eddie Bovington who was an Aaron Moekona type. He followed Bryan Douglas everywhere and nulified our attacking play. The rest of the team played like drains as well, We'd got back into the game on the hour when we were 2-0 down to make it 2-1, We had a good ten minutes after that and we had the Hammers on the run for the first time in the game. Then they scored a sloppy third goal and that was that. I'd gone in the main stand for the first time with a City supporting pal and his older brother.