Easily the greatest ever football occasion I have attended. And that includes all the Dingle bashings I have witnessed.

I really hope we win this one as I couldn't bare it if Newcastle beat us to Europe.

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What exactly is the 'it' that you are planning to bare?

***GAV`s £50 BET UPDATE***

A crowd of 17330 watched Wigan & Villa in their penultimate home game of the season. It`s affected Gav`s £50 bet like thus:-

Rovers   average home league gate is 20783 after 17 homes

Wigan`s average home league gate is now 20581 after 18 homes (down 191)

(Rovers are now 202 ahead)

Rovers   total home league gates stand at 353314

Wigan`s total home league gates stand at 370461

(Rovers are 17147 behind...with a game in hand)

Rovers   have Chelsea & Man City to play

Wigan have Portsmouth.

In all likeliness Pompey will bring a huge following to Wigan, as it looks like they`ll still be in with a good chance of premiership survival. It is also Wigan`s last home game of a tremendous 1st season in the big time. I expect a near to full house (23k-25k) at the JJB.

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So by my calcs even if Wigan get a full house of 25000 for their last game (unlikely), Rovers would only have to average 21074 over their final two games to clinch Gav's bet.

I had a works do at Cathedral last week!

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Are you a member of the clergy?

Why don't Rovers show live away games in the bar at Ewood like Newcastle do in Shearers Bar, the pubs up there are complaining about lost trade when a match is on!

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Newcastle are permitted to stage 'beam backs' because they sell out all their away allocations.

Talking of good away followings I was amazed with the West Ham following at Citeh last night. All the bottom tier and a good proportion of the top tier for a Monday night game 'up norff' shown live on terrestrial tv! I suppose the difference between us and them is that the Hammers draw their support from the whole of Essex .... the challange to us is to become the recognised team of Lancashire (and no silly discussions about mergers please! We shouldn't be seeking compromise with our competitors ... we should be seeking to destroy them!)

Please explain.

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It's just that felt a bit like that cop in the series 'Life on Mars' ... you know ... the one who has been transported back to the early '70s. There I was sitting in a decrepit wooden stand watching crap football with a group of neanderthals who seemed to have an obsession with the word 'paki'.

I don't know whether I'm more depressed about the performance of the team on the pitch or some of the racist scum who follow us off it.

I notice that the upper tier of the East stand is divided into 6 blocks E331-E336. Rovers have been given an initial allocation of 6000 tickets .... so if we assume that each block holds a thousand and that they are being sold block by block (which so far seems to be the case) then with people reporting holding tickets for block E334 ... over 3000 must have been sold so far.

Woke up this morning with this little ditty in my head .... just thought I'd share it with you.

You need hands

To hold someone you care for

You need hands

To show that you're sincere

But the sweetest hands of all

are the hands that scored the goal

That left Geordies once again

crying in their beer

All together now .....

Peter Cucumber eat your heart out!

Now thats what I call a result.  Dodgy handball, away win at Newcastle. Absolutely super.

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Didn't our last win at Newcastle also involve a dodgey handball, from Gally?

Yesterday's gate wasn't brilliant ... but let's not forget nearly 74,000 people have trooped through the turnstiles at Ewood in less than two weeks

What was highly amusing was that just as the notlob fans where serenading us with a ditty suggesting we were of inbreed stock .. as if on cue, a troop of boneheads looking like extras from 'Deliverence' and sporting a BWFC flag demonstrated to us in the Riverside how an inbred should behave.

They would be.

If the words werent  "DINGLE BASHING"

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It was 'Dingle Bashing' at Boro..... but I'm afraid it was the racist version at Wigan.....Bloody Morons.

There is no way on earth Rovers will shift 23000 home tickets for the home leg ... so how about doing somthing radical... lets give the Mancs the Jack Walker Stand and put Rovers fans in the Darwen End. We would then only have to sell 21000 and having fans behind both goals may have a beneficial effect on the atmosphere. Just a thought.

Is my memory playing tricks on me or did I see Best at Ewood with Fulham in the mid-seventies. I certainly remember seeing Bobby Moore with Fulham (his last proffesional game) but can't remember if Best was playing or not.

25,000+ at Carrow Road for the visit of Luton

30,000+ at St Marys for the local derby with Leeds

Whats going on?

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For a more realistic way of looking at these stats consider how many of Southmpton's (big city population) and Norwich's (the whole of Norfolk) potential support did not bother to attend.

Blackburn Rovers FC 2

Big Club FC 0

I've still not seen an explanation for the higher than average numbers in the Rovers section of the Darwen end on Saturday .... the 100 or so extra schoolkids hardly explains it.

Paul: I assume the 'scan out' part nulls the card or something to stop them working again that day. The guy at my guesthouse was reprogramming the cards when I was at reception one day.

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More likely to ensure nobody had been left in overnight with the wolves!

I'm not going to the game - yet I've been to every game so far this season, I went to 75% (at least) of the games (home & away) last season, and the season before, etc.  I've been a season ticket holder for years and I've been going to watch Rovers for more than 25 years.

Am I a lesser supporter than someone going tomorrow?

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Yes since you asked. At this moment in time your certainly a lesser fan than myself....it didn't even occur to me to miss the game tonight..... but in the same way I don't consider myself as loyal as the lads I know who go to all the reserve games home and away. It's wrong to assume all supporters are equal ... just another example of the cultural relativism that is pervaiding society at the moment.

From a financial perspective lets hope the Geordie surrender monkeys snap up their ticket allocation before it dawns on them that they might not have enough fuel in their trany-vans to make the journey.

Oh yeah - and global warming, my a$$.  Even global warming enthusiasts can't come up with a good explanation as to why CO2 would intensify a storm,  there are plenty of worse storms on record through the centuries, and the only "rising sea level" effects recorded are from local levee subsidence, not melting icebergs.

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Increased C02 levels can have an indirect effect on the intensity of a storm. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and acts in a similar way to glass in that it is transparent to short wavelength radiation (ie light) but acts as a barrier to long wavelength radiation (ie heat). The net result is that the planet is warming up. Storms are fueled by the heat of the oceans they form over. The warmer the sea the more energetic the storm. Measurements of ocean temperature taken a few months ago showed the Atlantic off the coast of Africa being 2degrees above average for the time of year, leading climatoligists to predict a particularly bad storm season for the Gulf region. There are still around eight weeks of the storm season left.

........this is probably contentious but what about allocating extra votes depending on individual circumstance?  eg How about one basic vote for absolutely everybody convicts, asylum seekers, illegals, those people 'enjoying' the benefit system for over 12 months etc and with extra votes for people depending on circumstance? 1 extra vote for 18-30's, 2 votes for 30-40's, 3 votes for 40-50's, 4 votes for 50-60's and then reducing similarly every decade on. Another extra vote for homeowners (max 1).  An extra .5 vote for married people with dependent children under 18 (allows kids some token representation, but also gives extra votes to people who care about the future legacy to their descendants).  Double the total number of previous votes allocated  for all workers and nett taxpayers.

Theno, after denouncing Democracy you then go on to concoct yet another flavour!!!! Your idea is not without merit though and it would be an interesting debate on how the extra votes could be earned.

ps where did you disappear to after half time last week? I'm sure I spotted you on the front row before the rain set in.

Democracy is a lovely ideal but I'm beginning to think that its not always or necessarily the best system for the future good of the country.

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So which non-democratic model do you suggest we follow Theno .... a Taliban-style theocracy or a military junta?

Is anyone going by car? If so...any tips on car parking around the ground?

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I've always used street parking on side streets about a mile east of the ground and never had a problem so I'll be doing the same on Saturday.