only2garners

I'm in that situation Gav. These days I take a friend of mine in his late 70s who has been coming to Ewood since the late 50s but is now almost blind - he gets headphones from the club to listen to the game. He loves to come but has not been able to come since I think the first Ipswich game this season for sometimes his health and then his wife's. He's coming today. If there is a call to boycott the Watford game in January I will have difficulty complying if he wants to go.

He is indeed excellent. I’ve seen him a few times, the last at Lytham Festival a couple of years ago. I know Joe Cocker’s brother Vic, who somewhat bizarrely was Chief Executive at Severn Trent Water for a number of years. I could never get him to talk about Joe though. All he would say is that “he’s his own man”.

To cheer everyone up Clitheroe beat York City in the FA Trophy today. They are mid table in tier 8, with York 4th in the National League. It's the equivalent of Fleetwood beating Chelsea.

He chose to represent his parents’ country Nigeria.

According to an Oxford Messageboard about 10 minutes ago, the stewards on the coaches have been told the game is on.

Their coaches are scheduled to leave at 2pm.

Edmondson has just scored an absolute stunner to put Macclesfield 2-1 up in extra time.

Don’t wish your life away. Next May will only be 98 years since our last FA Cup win.

If called up he must also be a doubt for the Wrexham game on New Year’s Day. His last group game is 4pm on 30/12 and the Wrexham game is at 12.30. Should Nigeria go all the way he would also miss games against Charlton and Ipswich and the FA Cup 3rd round. Looking at betting odds Nigeria are odds on to win their group and 7/4 to make the semi finals.

As well as the club there is a purchase necessary to buy the stadium, which is also owned by Chansiri but is a separate company. That's on top of the £30m or so.

I don’t know but in our 4 away wins this season the opposition have managed a total of 4 shots on target and no goals.

Do you know what year that was Gav? I know it was before I went to Sheffield in October 1971 as Hendrix was already dead by then (I did see him live in Liverpool though!. I also remember visiting the Wilson Peck shop many times, often when I should have been in lectures….

United have actually won all 7 of their games this season. They had a centre back sent off for two yellows when the game was at 0-1.

The White Swan is one of our very favourite places to eat K-Hod, in a competitive market these days. Fabulous cooking and a very relaxed atmosphere.

Under 21s won 2-0, penalty from Tyson and Powell. Interesting to see that Emile Heskey's two sons Jayden and Reigan both played for City. Matty Warhurst doesn't seem to be any relative of Paul though!

Tomorrow night.

I've not enough thought about setting off yet, from Penwortham. I'll be there.

The Darwen flows into the Ribble at Walton-le-Dale, downstream of Samlesbury. In any event the water isn't going to back up the river as far as Ewood. The issue is the other way, how much water comes down the valley into Darwen and the river. The Met Office had a yellow warning for rain for today yesterday but that has gone now. I would have thought that the wind is a bigger risk of the game being postponed right now.

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.