After supporting this club for 26 years (yes, first season I started supporting was when we came 4th and as a boy of 10 i felt the kit and emblem was cool and worth supporting a club for), I will finally have a chance to venture to the North of England and visit Ewood Park.  : )

The club offers stadium tours for groups of 6 or more, so for a single traveler like myself what can i expect to see over there? Is Ewood Park completely closed on a non-match day (will be sometime in mid July).

I am guessing there will be a merchandise store open, but what else  should I be able to see if the stadium itself is closed?

Thank you for all replies : )

Before the match I was sure that Alves' suspension was a blessing in disguise for Barca, and I think I was right. Puyol was spectacular, and made sure Rooney never got too much time to make his forward runs. Alves on the other hand would very likely have given away free kicks/penalties as his defensive game is very dodgy....

I don't think we can exactly take the moral high ground on free flowing football at the moment. Chelsea went out with a game plan and executed it perfectly. The diving could be done away with, but not as if it is something you never see Barcelona players doing. They made Barcelona look like a fairly average side and that is quite an achievement. It will hopefully be a good final, but Chelsea were the side that deserved to get through.

Both sides were evenly matched, Chelsea had 1 shot on target in Nou Camp, and Barcelona had one shot on target at Stamford Bridge.....Barcelona with 10 men dominated against Chelsea with 11, at the most, we can say they were evenly matched. Parking the bus in both legs doesnt make a team "deserve" to get through. ......

as for refereeing decisions, when Barcelona complained about Ballack not geing sent off in the 1st leg, or Henry getting a penalty, they were "whinging, moaning, sore losers". Not that the referee screws Chelsea up for a change, they are rightly aggrieved, and Barcelona dont deserve to go through.........

Speaking of great players, how great is Essien? Bloody superb player and IMO the most complete central midfielder in the world.

He is by far the worlds best midfielder, and Chelsea didnt win the league last season only because he was injured, and this season they would have been on top if he hadnt missed 6 months through torn ligaments

The perfect foil for someone like McCarthy is a player like Bellamy, someone fast who would be able to predict McCarthy's flick-ons and backheels.

Thanks Sparky for the 4 years....

What is really getting up my nerves are comments to the tune of "Good move for Hughes, City are a much better team than Blackburn, and are in Europe next season......."

For me, yesterdays defending was diabolical. For thier third, I understand why Brad went upfield, but why were the only two players to get a tackle in Tugay (again) and Savage?

I was quite scared that Martins would be brushed by either of them, and the subsequent fall/dive would earn Tugay or Savage another red card.. It was a blessing he scored instead of earning a red card for either of our central midfield players

So you reckon the Mancs will move for Dunn then 'drogy?

I would have thought he meant Tugay

There were no theatrics on Ghaly's part, his standing leg was wiped out from underneath him, his eyes were on the ball all the time.

I am not quite sure why his facial expression resembled that of someone having his nails plucked out.........

Zurab misses a clean header from 5 yards

Lets look at it this way, of all the teams Man Utd have played over the last 3 seasons, Blackburn is the one they have the worst record against........

so they have a win overdue against us

The best penalty takers generally follow the following technique: hit it hard into one of the top corners, Zidane and Shearer both followed it.

Cheeky chips and hitting it Jeffers style will help in the rare case, but you cant hit every penalty liek that.

Never was this sure about a prediction this season .......WH 2 Rovers 0

And the media to start jumping on how WH are "back", and will finish top 6

Guess who scores for Pool, that too with a header

No , Your absolutely right on that. There are very often Pakistan flags waved around the stadium and Feyenoord players pose in Pakistan shirts just before Feyenoord play ajax

I think thats the Palestinian flag, and not the Pakistani one

2-1!!!!!!!!!!

McCarthy!!!!!!!

Pogatetz clattered into McCarthy , and not even a whistle blown by Poll

Benni limps off the field, Hugh es isnt happy, doesnt look good......

Sheffield Utd. 2 Rovers 1

A dirty game with the Blades being much dirtier than us, Savage to be sent off......

Rovers 1 Chelsea 2

We will miss a hatful of chances while they will score off a penalty or Lampard deflection

Heres my preedictions whilst trying to ignore this weeks results as much as possible,

1. Chelsea

2. Liverpool

3. Man U

4. Arsenal

5. Spurs

6. Newcastle

7. Boro

8. Blackburn

9. Aston Villa

10. Everton

11. West Ham

12. Bolton

13. Portsmouth

14. Man City

15. Charlton

16. Wigan

17. Sheff Utd

18. Fulham

19. Reading

20. Watford

1-0 Mccaaaaaarthyyyyyyyyy

Took it very well just inside the penalty box.

1-1

McCarthy to score

The African teams provided much entertainment in this tournament, but in the final analysis they were crap, and having one extra African nation and making the champions of the world qualify is a joke.

Ivory Coast: Would have qualified from any other group

Ghana: Beat Czech Republic as comfortably as Italy did. Undone by bad refereeing in 2nd round

Tunisia: Were better than Ukraine, again the referee ignored a Ukranian HB and gave a penalty for a Shevchenko dive.

Angola: Held Mexico to a draw and lost only to Portugal (just like England )

Togo: Worst African team here and the results showed, still had plenty of battle in them.

Contrast that with teams like Serbia, Poland, and Ukraine, all of whom qualified comfortably from Europe but were not good at all.

farcical decision. Probably the Zidane worshipping journalists skewed the decision.

He had 2 good games in the whole Cup FFS !

You obviously didn't see Ronaldo swearing at officials several times during this world cup, as for a stamp, it didn't look much like that to me. I think some of the Ronaldo bashing is over the top, but then so is calling Rooney a thuggish chav.

I was being sarcastic. After seeing the one-sided abuse (scumbag, gay, f*****t) being dished out here by some members towards Ronaldo , I just thought of being the Devil's Advocate.