On 10/08/2023 at 12:52, den said:

The new ground will only be about two miles from me 47er, so personally that’s great. It’s a few miles outside Preston.

For people not living in the area it’s not easily accessible though. Lostock hall station is fairly close but it’s on the east Lancs line, not the main line. There’s Leyland station which is a fair walk especially for the elderly who make up the majority of county championship fans. There are buses but not an ideal way to get from Leyland station to Farington for a cricket match.

On the plus side there is motorway access. There will need to be enough on site parking Though. 

Firstly Farington is much much nearer the centre of Lancashire than Old Trafford, especially if you’re considering the old county boundaries that the county game is based on. In fact for quite a bit of old Lancashire Sedbergh is closer than Old Trafford.

Secondly Farington won’t be much less convenient than Old Trafford for many in Lancashire to get to by public transport. The 111 bus runs from Preston to Leyland every 12 minutes passing Preston, Lostock and Leyland stations. I’m off to Old Trafford tomorrow for the Hampshire game and I will need a bus to Preston, train to Manchester and tram to Old Trafford to get there.

I’m also about 2 miles from the new ground, on the 111 bus route!

I think Coventry will give an away club up to 3,000 tickets. If that's true, you should be fine as we will not sell that many so they should go onto open sale. They will go on sale to ST holders first as Watford tickets are but will almost certainly be opened up later to anyone. 

Have you been to Ewood before? Are you on the club's database?

Not a great start for the Yorkshire clubs in the Championship - 5 out of 6 in the bottom 6 with 2 points between them. And Sunderland are the other team down there.

43 minutes ago, Gav said:

I've not looked, but I seem to recall us losing 3-0 away at Reading this time last season,

It was the 4th league game in. We won the first 3 then lost 3 and Reading was the first of those. Sadly, I was there on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.

10 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

In the league

Are the goals a different size in the league then? And they were against a Premier League goalkeeper.

4 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Is it just me or do we miss more penalties than we score?

We scored 10 at West Ham last season.

There are main deliveries of all three shirts to come after the initial 1,000 of each. I'm not sure exactly when but it should be soon.

1 hour ago, Colt Seavers said:

@Tyrone Shoelaces has talked a couple of times about Bryan Douglas hurting Spurs in spectacular fashion about sixty years ago. I always enjoy that tale. Jimmy Greaves played in that game I believe. He raved about Duggie in his autobiography. 

Perhaps @only2garners  @Rover Boy and one or two others of our distinguished long time supporters were also at the game?

Before my time as a game attending fan I'm afraid. At that time I was at home on the farm near Rufford and too young to be getting to games by myself. So I only ever went a couple of times when my uncle could take me and didn't start regularly attending until 1967 when I was old enough to get there myself.

I thought he had a perfectly decent game but many others disagreed.

2 hours ago, 47er said:

Well that's the crux of it! My point was that many people might find it difficult to make it to Ewood Park mid-week with the current timing. Its not an answer to say it doesn't worry me!

I thought I had made it clear that there is a balance between a kick-off time that most fans can get to and a final whistle that isn't too late for others. You are clearly in the latter category in that you don't want a game to finish too late but when I was working I was very much in the former as it was very difficult for me to get to Ewood for 7.45. The fact that right now it doesn't bother me personally is nice for me but still doesn't solve the issue for many other fans. Kicking off earlier will upset as many fans as it will please, in my view.

5 minutes ago, 47er said:

No, I need a new memory.2 nd half started earlier than I said. But that doesn't detract from my principle point. Penalties and you wouldn't have been home as early would you? 

Also depends how close to Ewood you park. Took me 20 mins to walk back to the car up and off Livesey Branch Rd and set off. And this is with a small crowd remember.

But if you don't think night games should start earlier then you don't, its just my opinion.

Well obviously not, but that wasn't my point.

Normally I bring a friend who is nearly blind and we park behind the Blackburn End. Very close, for him, but it means sitting round after the game. By the time we are let out and I've taken him home to Longton it's usually close to 11pm by the time I get home - probably be later this season.. Last night I reverted to the place in Mill Hill I've parked since the 70s, which is a 10 minute walk. The good news is that my friend had an operation on his eye yesterday so hopefully hindsight will improve a bit.

In truth it doesn't make a lot of difference to me what time the evening kick-offs are, being retired. I know it always used to be a rush to get to a night game after work and that is the balance that has to be found between those like you who don't want a late night and those that struggle to make it for 7.45 or 8.

1 hour ago, 47er said:

Game starts 7-45pm. 2nd half starts 9.05pm after 5 mins extra time. Game finishes pretty much on 10pm after 9 minutes of extra time.

Anyone taking half an hour to get home from there, and many would take more, and you're home for 10-30pm.

Its a bit late for mid-week isn't? 

I know it wasn't a school week but regular Championship games and possibly FA Cup games will be.

 And---suppose they'd equalised and we had penaltiy shoot-out? That's the rule in the League Cup isn't it?

But FA Cup is extra-time and pens isn't it?

Not sure of the rules but I am sure those responsible need to look at earlier kick-offs midweek or attendances will be way down.

 

You need a new watch 47er. The game finished at 9.45 - I was back in my car in Mill Hill at 9.55 and home in Penwortham by 10.20.

I thought the first half 5 minutes was if anything not enough. There were 4 goals, a short injury break for Gilsenan and some time wasting by Walsall. And the second half was 8 minutes, not 9 and that was with 3 goals and 9 substitutions.

Incidentally I see the clock was left running at the end of each half, which didn't used to be allowed. I assume that the rule has changed and that's for the better for me as everyone can see how long is left.

4 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

 did adam wharton play well

Not especially. He played a couple of fine passes but also lost possession 2 or 3 times leading to Walsall attacks that a better team would have punished us for.

Zak Gilsenan was excellent and deserved his man of the match. He did a fair impersonation of Roy Wegerle.

The small crowd allowed me some phone signal at half time and I had a brief look at this thread then. Buckley got some stick then but I thought he had a decent game - he played one of the passes of the game early on and made the best tackle of the night too. He was far from perfect but for me I thought he was fine. I can’t agree about passing to Ennis - if you’re in a scoring position put it away, don’t over elaborate. Maybe if we were 3 or 4 up yes, but not at 3-2.

Garrett had another excellent game - the standard view on here is that he is not ready and needs a loan out but most times I have seen him I have been impressed. He doesn’t stand out for defence splitting passes like Buckley and Adam W but he’s always available, always involved and took his goal really well.

Brittain seemed to play the same way as JRC, we’ll forward and leaving Barnes exposed, which didn’t help the defence.

I think there were a few Derby fans who might have thought so.

A fine preview of the game from Up the Saddlers - https://upthesaddlers.com/t/blackburn-rovers-a-league-cup-tue-8th-august-7-45pm/10291

10 hours ago, R0verb0y said:

Well, in that case, @bazza, make it 16,742; because, although paid for on my season ticket, I couldn't occupy my new seat in JWU yesterday. And won't be able to until, hopefully, no later than after the international break early next month.🤞

If you’ve bought a season ticket Roverboy, you’re in the official attendance whether you turn up or not. I wasn’t there either, having bought tickets for the World Cycling Championships in Glasgow in February well before the fixtures were out. Currently in place for the men’s road race.

I’ll be back for the Walsall game!

3 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

Our trip to Watford is now a Sunday noon kick off (thanks Sky).

It is at least the Bank Holiday weekend.

10 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

@only2garners just on the contracts renewals briefly mentioned in the meeting notes, who do they relate to? Were any names mentioned (besides Dolan) ?

No names were mentioned, just that there were a number.

12 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Sorry I know you are probably tired of answering questions but did Waggott give any indication if the Ash Phillips money would be used to bring a player/s in?

He said it was one out, one in. I then asked him, after he had spoken about Ash Phillips, if we received a sizeable sum would we be restricted to just one in or could it be more f they kept to the total received and he said yes. So he did not absolutely say we can spend all we get in but it was clear one sale might lead to more than one buy. I presume the reverse is also true - that we could sell two to buy one if that was deemed to be best.

31 minutes ago, rigger said:

From reading the minutes, I cannot work out what had to be kept secret. Or do the minutes not reflect everything that was said at  the meeting ?

Obviously nothing in the minutes needs to be kept secret or it wouldn't be published. As I have explained several times there is a convention that no one on the Forum chats publicly about what was said until the minutes are issued. We have had one or two instances of members talking to their mates about what was discussed and either not reporting correctly or friends not picking it up, but messages have appeared on this site and others with a completely fabricated story - Chinese whispers in action.

There are usually one or two things that are mentioned at the meeting that I am asked not to minute. As it happens I can probably give you an example from this week as the item is pretty common knowledge now but wasn't on Tuesday evening - Ash Phillips. The name wasn't mentioned but pretty much everyone there knew who Steve was talking about. At that time the existence (or not) of a buy-out clause wasn't public knowledge though.

I understand that Tuesday's Forum minutes are now available on the website.

"Are people going to listen to 'audio commentary' whilst sat in the crowd on the BBE?"

I assume just about nobody does that at the moment - presumably getting enough signal to make it work will be an issue.

As it happens I take a friend to games who is getting close to losing all his sight. He is registered blind and the club provide him with a free headset to listen to the club commentary on match days. He obviously really values this but I doubt it's something that could be offered widely.

6 minutes ago, goozburger said:

So around 8,500? That makes me feel slightly better about my estimate. 😄The press releases saying "around 8,000" must be out of date. Strange.

The figure that Fraser Read gave us as at Tuesday evening was 8,227.

3 minutes ago, rigger said:

Is the £20 off the Leeds price, officially stated anywhere ?

No, mainly because there is no confirmation that Leeds will charge us £45. The discount will I assume be the gap between that number and £25. The club might not know that for a good while.

Whilst Wednesday have some categories over £50 they have a lot of lower categories as well so the gap is likely to be smaller for us.

3 minutes ago, rigger said:

That was not in the advert for the 1875 membership.

I don’t think I recorded it in the minutes (which should be out tomorrow), but Steve Waggott did say as much on Tuesday and obviously he has told Ben the same.