only2garners

Whilst it is forecast to be very windy on Saturday the main rain will be tomorrow evening into the early hours. We should be fine - well to finish the game anyway.

The current forward line was on the way to two wins in a row before last week’s abandonment.

That's true of the top 4 divisions but there were two local games in the National league North abandoned, at AFC Fylde and Southport. Curiously on their websites, to date, Southport have said that their game will be replayed and there is no decision from Fylde yet as far as I can see. A replay for Fylde would be particularly harsh as they were 4-0 up although the game was abandoned when a pass across the penalty area stopped in the water and allowed a tap in.

I heard Radio Lancs on Saturday and what I understood was that the two managers had agreed not to comment on the game in case it prejudiced the EFL decision. Whether they had or not and whether it was just comments about the abandonment that they were not going to comment on I don't know. What one of the reporters said was that it was frustrating in that they could not ask VI about the late withdrawal of Tavares, which clearly had nowt to do with the abandonment. What is clear is that VI does not seem to have made any public comment on anything to do with the game. I've no idea what McKenna said.

Simon - I didn't think I was defending anybody, just pointing out the challenge that Ewood Park's location brings. Of course an owner willing to pay for a proper solution would be great but they would still have practical issues in doing anything quickly. you're right that the pitch has not had a full renovation for 30 years. As others have said there was a compromise and a stitched pitch was laid instead. But the drainage system we have now is essentially no different to what it was then and the critical point is that it's all predicated on draining into the river. Whilst there may well be ways of mitigating the severity I can't see any real solution being possible without building some sort of holding system which will require major engineering and will need EA approval.

What if Tronstad or anyone else had picked up that injury in the last 10 minutes of yesterday's game, which would have been a significant possibility.

There are no rivers anywhere near Victory Park, so a completely different situation. There were two other similar incidents in the region yesterday. AFC Fylde's game at home to Leamington was abandoned as was Southport's game against Peterborough Sports. I don't know at what time the games were abandoned but at Fylde they went 4-0 up in the 59th minute and Peterborough pulled the score back to 2-1 in the 62nd. Neither ground has any issues with nearby rivers and Haig Avenue is pretty much literally built on sand. Southport's website says that the game will be rearranged but Fylde's has a similar message to Rovers. Of course the National League is a different jurisdiction. Parsonblue is right that there can be no major works to alleviate the drainage situation done at Ewood without the approval of the Environment Agency and any agreed solution would I imagine cost in the millions and take a long time.

There is a delay as must be obvious. I'd rather not comment at this stage otherwise.

6pm UK time.

The issue for a couple of years now is that the staff that process you at the airport (usually they are not airline staff) don't understand the rules themselves.

That would never have happened Tyrone. Coming back into the UK all you need is a UK passport that hasn't expired. Being more than 10 years old would be irrelevant.

The internet is littered with travel professionals who have got this wrong and denied boarding to people like yourself Tyrone. Simon Calder has been banging on about this ever since Brexit brought it in. You had no need to renew for this trip and could have got compensation for not being allowed to fly if you had. Although you might well not have wanted that!

Come on Simon. There's a world of difference between opinions on a shirt design and opinions on how the club has been run for the last 15 years. I find the idea that K-Hod has somehow become an apologist for the club since he joined the Forum to be completely ridiculous - I've heard him expressing his opinions strongly in meetings. That he might post what someone from the club said at a Forum doesn't mean that he agreed with it, any more than if I was doing it. As far as shirts go I have never owned or desired to own a Rovers shirt, so am pretty agnostic on the designs. But I realise that lots of people want to buy one or more every year and wear it often and that's fine. From time to time we have had input on potential designs but have never been directly involved in any final decisions. Given the lead times I imagine we are already too late now to affect the 2026-27 designs. I bought a few shirts for my sons when they were young and I asked for a 125th anniversary shirt as a present when they came out but my wife ignored my entreaties to buy one when they came out and missed them. So I will be getting a 150th shirt when they are launched. I'm guessing that it might be blue and white.

I'm expecting early next week.

It seems to me that it's an arrangement that suits both parties - Everton have what they want and it's a perfect marketing opportunity for Rovers to play a game in the kit we will have launched 24 hours before. Of course it wouldn't be acceptable if it was a competitive game but for an early pre-season kickabout? Although I'm somewhat confused by the Everton post above in that case.

I thought when I posted above that it was non-controversial as I said but clearly that's a rare thing on here. I thought it made sense too. The post above about Everton's shirt seems to contradict what we were told though.

I think I can allow myself a small non-controversial leak from Monday's Fans Forum. The away shirt is planned to be launched on Friday. Rovers will wear it in Saturday's game as Everton have asked if they can use their home shirt, as it's so far the only one they have launched.

Have a look at my post above. The final minutes are agreed between us. At the end of the day I guess that they could insist that something should not be published. I have been secretary of the Forum since 2009 and it hasn't happened yet.

As the person who has been writing up the Forum minutes for a long time I would be interested in knowing where it has been reported that the minutes are not an accurate account? This is what happens - I come home and write the minutes as best I can. Then they go to the club and some changes are made. Often these are very minor changes, sometimes more information might be added. Whilst occasionally I and the Chair might go back regarding these changes nearly always we are happy with the end result. It's important to note here that we may very well not be happy with what was said, but we are happy with the factual accuracy of what we were told. What the minutes can never be is a verbatim record of everything that everyone says during the meetings. That would be unreadable and provide no more clarity. What I think does happen is that the words on the minutes do not and I don't think can ever convey the full understanding of the level of debate. They are minutes, not a drama. Finally in the past we have sometimes been told some confidential things that I am not allowed to minute. John Williams in particular did it all the time. There was none of that last night.

I have just sat down at my screen to start writing the minutes up. I would hope to have them done inside 24 hours and they will then be passed to the club. How long that takes can be very variable depending on when everyone is oil and can get chance to review them. Then I like to give Forum members 24 hours to review them before they go up on the club website in case I have misrepresented anything. Ishmael was not there. in fact in all the years I have been on the Forum there has only ever been one manager who has attended - Gary Bowyer. In fact, in John Williams' day, any discussion of team matters was banned. The minutes are not sent to the EFL. They are of course published on the club website so are freely available for anyone to read.

Edit - the 24 games should of course be 14 games.

More than a bit of controversy here Den. Whilst Lancs have only offered 3 options for the future of the County Championship other counties have offered 5 options, including a 24 game one, essentially leaving things as they currently are. One thing that around 92% of county members across the country want but hasn’t been offered as an option is to play two Championship games in August alongside the Hundred.

I regard the 3 forms of the game now as different games and can enjoy them all in their different ways. The Roses games are frankly less interesting than games against the other teams. Around 20K at Old Trafford on Friday but about 15K were just there to drink and arse about. They don’t turn up to any other games, although some will no doubt be there for a quarter final if we get a home game. The Sky branding also ruined things a bit with me as for some reason one of the screens had a terrible score card on it and there had to be diff people on the commentary. This afternoon’s game was better. It obviously helped that Lancashire won but it seemed that the crowd were actually interested in the cricket as well. And a bigger crowd than there has been for the other home games.

As I said above I am expecting him, but there are no absolute guarantees.

We are never sure who will be turning up from the club for any Forum. Normally Lynsey Talbot and Christina Haines would be there and I am expecting that Suhail will be there too. At the last meeting there were a lot of the management team there as well so I would expect a good turnout. A number of years ago we used to hold pre-meets for FF members to set the agenda but they fell away and completely went with covid. There was a pre-meet for this meet though, although I couldn't attend.