So what if the fanbase would have been up in arms? That shouldn’t remotely come into it. If the club needed the cash, and if he had refused to sign a new deal, then off he goes.

The lack of basic knowledge down there of how football fans tick never fails to amaze me. ’The Jack Walker will be able to accommodate all home fans’. So if we expect a crowd of under 10k we now only open one stand? We won’t see it open again then for the vast majority of cup ties going forward in that case. And so what if all fans could fit in one stand? How about offering a service to your supporters, how about recognising the decades folk have sat in there, how about encouraging a bit of atmosphere behind the goal for the players. Pathetic the lot of them.

This current incarnation of an Accrington based club has only had 15 years or so as a league club.

Anything that drills home to everybody (that includes a lot of our own fans, never mind opposing) that Blackburn Rovers is a historic club, a founder member, full of heritage is fine by me. This club will thrive again if given a chance.

‘Mr Blackburn’ is *checks notes*, err, Rob Coar. Everything sounds rosy, by the way, some little snag about slashing the wage bill overnight, but we’ll gloss over that.

It was a Gazza toe away from in all likelihood winning the tournament, of course it was a top side.

I said it was a superb team, it was.

The fact founder members Everton and Villa aren’t on that list I take it they mean 5000th ‘EFL’ fixture, not ‘league’ fixture. As obviously there was a certain breakaway in 1992…

Also Seaman, Adams, Neville, Pearce, Ince, Gascoigne, Shearer, Sheringham. Superb team with a very good manager who could’ve won a World Cup if he and the FA had got on.

That Euro 96 team was pretty bloody good, had about 6 captains in it.

‘Sad for him’? It’s Phillips’ choice to take home wheelbarrows full of cash for 10 minutes a month on the pitch.

So in recent years we've seen Blackburn End Upper - closed, Darwen End for Rovers fans - closed. Radio Rovers - closed, RoverVision - closed, town centre shop - closed, matchday programme - closed, Brockhall - almost flattened, and now the cherry on the cake, the entire Blackburn End - closed. 'We will absolutely respect the Jack Walker legacy'.

They were under 3,500 sales as of dinner time today, very optimistic if they reckon they’ll need the upper tier too by weekend.

Nobody ‘disliked’ the pre Jack custodians, honourable local businessmen doing the best they could that their limited means allowed - were there grumbles? Of course, that’s football fans, but on the whole we knew they were doing a good job. Very poor to even mention them in the same sentence as the post Jack custodians.

A competitive game with only one stand open for Rovers fans. Imagine thinking that would be remotely possible before this lot darkened our doors.

Indeed, only the plonkers down there could choose a random March midweek red button game against Reading as the tenner offer and seem surprised when it’s not a packed house…

JDT is burning with ambition, no comparison to TM.

He was an interior decorator!

Interesting bit in the newsletter (cheers for the email, @Mhead2 ) about the 23rd December being the next Trust takeover day and hoping for a 20k crowd. Obviously Watford won’t fetch too many, so to get close to that kind of crowd I presume it’s been agreed with Swag that it will be a tenner? Good choice of game, as it will presumably still be an afternoon KO and there will be plenty of exiled fans arriving back for Christmas, families getting together and taking in a game, more enticing than our other festive fixture (NYD) etc.

So we beat Harrogate in round one… the Walsall game was a friendly then? Papa John’s maybe? They pretty much can’t do a media post without it being full of of basic factual errors. I was going to say something about it being ‘amateur’, but non league clubs have far more pride in what they are doing than the shambles down there.

Recent crowds at early round cup ties have been at their highest level for years since we’ve stumbled across a manager that takes them seriously, so now they choose to close the home end for them?! Swag would be delighted to only operate the JW, just think of the cost savings - surprised they haven’t put the Cardiff fans in there too.

I know he can, I’m just outlining why he’s getting grief. He can pick who he likes, they are strolling through qualification, so obviously it’s working for him currently.

Think back to the Coyle season, the owners were still getting plenty then. It’s only post a wholly avoidable one off season in L1 (where we largely strolled back up from) and a totally non-comparable club in Bury going bust, that large chunks of the fanbase now see these owners as our saviours, the only thing stopping 150 years of history going kaput. Whereas I would say these characters getting hold of our club will be the very thing that does lead us to the knackers yard…

Which is fair enough, but does completely contradict his very public pronouncements over time that if you aren’t playing for your club, you won’t be playing for England. Like all things in public life, don’t make daft claims that will only make you a hostage to fortune.