It’s not about away fans being down there per se. If it was up to me, I’d be creating a singing section in that stand akin to Huddersfield, with flags, banners and the rest of it. That would do more for the atmosphere than anything else... oh and that way we can keep those marginal gains too.

Looking on their forum, their fans still seem to be fairly behind him and ‘his project’ I doubt they would if their manager was say, Tony Mowbray. Amazing what a big foreign name can do.

Ok. Sorry, my mistake.

It’s not an either/or. I’d have us playing on a dog shit infested pitch at Pleasy if it guaranteed promotion, of course that’s the priority.. But a full looking Ewood can only help in giving an impression of a big Championship football club. A club aspiring players, managers, potential academy sign ups and sponsors want to be part of.

Work it out.

I’ve just explained why. If you don’t get it, fine.

Well obviously it’s about the win chaddy! But I would prefer away fans in the bottom tier as a full looking ground is good PR for the club, if that’s ok with you?

I’m very dubious about these supposed ‘marginal gains’, Stuart. Some of our best performances come when the ground has some atmosphere in all sides of the ground, Leeds last season springs to mind. Difference being, the bottom tiers at places like Millwall, Sheff Wed that are usually kept empty only hold 1500 or so. The Darwen End lower is a vast bank of 5,000, so even on a night like tonight in which we’ll be pushing 20,000 it gives the impression of a poorly supported, struggling club playing in an empty ground. You may not care about the aesthetics of that, but many do.

There isn’t a lack of interest and it has drawn a good few. For a league game it will be our biggest take up of match tickets since 2012 (Oxford aside), it is the decline of ST holders that will subdue the crowd figure.

I don’t think it’s poor at all, we’ve only 8,500 ST holders, which means 8,000 or so will have bought match tickets, treble our usual number and Oxford aside comfortably the most match day sales for a near decade. As I’ve said time and again, we didn’t sell enough season tickets last summer, which is why even with big match day ticket sales we won’t see 20,000.

Yep. You put Wigan’s 2k down there and it makes Ewood actually look alive for once. But no, those watching on Sky will just see a vast empty stand.

24,500?! Behave! That would mean around 13/14,000 home fan walk ons at £27-£33, up to £36 on the day! No chance. We never saw close to that walk on figure when riding high in the PL, never mind when 9th in the second division. Many floating fans and their families will be getting their Rovers Festive fix tonight. They won’t be shelling out £100+ on Boxing Day. We’ll do well to attract 15-17,000.

I thought 2000/01 was compulsory, the 2005 cup tie and replay wasn’t, from memory. Nothing at all occurred in those cup games, well apart from that daft Dingle that ran on the pitch, yet every other game since has been bubble bused.

Wasn’t that in about March? The 2000 fixture at Turf Moor was this time of year though, 17 years since our last meeting, it was absolutely febrile in the pubs round Ewood waiting for the coaches and then on the ground.

8,000 a piece the Darwen and Blackburn Ends - 5000 lower/3000 upper.

Every capacity is incorrect there. The Jack Walker holds around 11,000. Only the Blackburn End lower is in use which has a 5,000 capacity. Riverside holds around 4,000.

Was Chapman brought in for the development squad considering he’s 22, not 18/19 and was playing first team football for us two years ago? More likely he’s been banished there due to poor form and attitude.

So why mention it then?

The 2,000 Wigan fans have been put in the upper tier, so the Darwen End of the ground will look as barren as usual, the Blackburn End lower and Jack Walker will be pretty much full though...

So? Just because Birmingham was announced as Category A in the summer doesn’t mean it’s a good decision. It’s Cat A because usually you get a couple of thousand extra through the gate on Boxing Day. So instead of thinking, ‘traditional football day so how do we make that extra 2k, an extra 5/6/7k?’, the club just decides to milk that 2k at £27-£33. I’m not getting particularly annoyed about it, as it was always going to be Cat A and Wigan looks to be selling well, so we will see a bumper Xmas crowd at least once this year.

Like a few of us said at the time, O’Neill, like Chris Coleman, whose reputation had soared with Wales took the Sunderland gig, was mad to take this job. Clubs in these tailspins, with overpaid, demotivated mercenaries stinking out the place are almost impossible to turn around in the short term. Still, suppose it pays well...

I was in the Riverside in that era and I’m sure there used to be a lady with a tea trolly and urn at the corner with the Darwen End. I distinctly remember queueing up for a brew/wagon wheel in the 91/92 promotion season as I had a close up view of Brighton’s away kit that was a pink and white patterned number. All very early 90s Also, remember when you had pie sellers wandering around the stands with that blue pie box fastened to them (or have I dreamt that too?).

Definitely no Hudds sell out then...

Some interesting tidbits. We’ve sold 200 half STs so far. Usually sell 500 by the time they go off sale. In a way, this good run has started slightly late as you imagine a lot of folk would buy for Xmas presents in November. Be interesting if they spike if we win on Monday. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18107472.rovers-hope-optimism-cut-price-tickets-can-boost-attendance/

I would’ve seen us sell Hudds out at £20ish, at £30 I doubt it unfortunately.