Rich Sharpe was watching the game (and presumably planning out his match report) whilst live blogging on the LT website AND co-commentating on Radio Lancs.

No wonder his ratings are all over the place.

I imagine Northampton will sell out...

17 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Received my ticket today and am seriously dischuffed about this match.

Last time I was there about 3 years ago (we won 4-1 includiing a Rhodes hat-trick - Berg's only win as manager) we were behind the goal standing on an old fashioned terrace with crash barriers and a low tin roof - just like the Darwen End 40 years ago. It was brillilant.

Now we're stuck in the seated North Stand, on the upper tier in the extreme left-hand corner.

Shame as I was really looking forward to this game

Unfortunately they've knocked the away terrace down and replaced it with your standard seated stand.

Don't watch it, however I did catch her first audition, thought she's quite 'posh' for a Blackburner, or 'well spoken' as me Grandma would say... oh she lives in Langho, fair enough!

Watched it again on Saturday just to see the Catherdal Quarter in all its glory beamed across the nation, all of a sudden it was

'Who wants to go t'pub?'

'Areight Black-b'n!'

I was in Brisbane for the first test and what really struck is how into their sport the vast majority of the populace seems to be.

Various reasons for this, but what I did notice is that nearly all their top sports are found on free to air televison.

Football is our national game and can survive behind a paywall - plus there are some live matches on free TV, plus Match of the Day each week. The ECB threw away a golden opportunity after the 2005 Ashes and the fact you can't even find Ashes highlights on free to air just shows how low profile cricket has become.

Noticed that a fella called Ryan Grant is now writing the articles on the official website. Quick look on Twitter says he's our new 'Comms & Media Manager'.

He's come from Man Utd, so let's see if anything improves...

Two loanees in the starting 11 on Tuesday (0 at Shrewsbury), probably a lower number than a lot of other clubs outside the PL.

This summer we actually looked to do permanent deals instead of filling the squad with borrowed players.

Is Chapman the finished article? Not by a long stretch, but at the end of the day we are in the third division and there are enough bang average full backs that he can terrorise.

I can understand perhaps playing more of an all rounder away from home - i.e. a Bennett or Conway type that will do their fair share of defensive duties. But at home, when the emphasis is on us to take the game to teams who are often happy with a point, he MUST start.

Just thought I'd chuck this thread in here:

http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=72835&start=1

There was a Dundee FC fan our train yesterday bemoaning the Old Firm.

Cue a load of Rovers fans with strong Lancashire accents state how they are 'big Rangers fans' 

The LT isn't much different, it is basically now just re-hashes stories from rovers.co.uk

It doesn't even try and inform when it has the chance. For example there was an article about Leutwiler being called up for Canada, stating that he will 'miss the Blackpool game', will he? Surely any journo worth his salt would add a quick caveat stating that said game is now likely to be called off?

Technology isn't devouring everything equally, so how soon is in the 'very close future'?

Apps are seeing off banks from the high street, but physical book sales are booming again. I noticed on my holidays this year just how few kindles were being used - they were everywhere 5 years ago.

Probably.

Got chatting to one of CREATV former employees on the train back from Bradford (he'd been let go in the summer). Sounds pretty much like Neil Yardley does the lot media wise now, with the Football League picking up the slack through ifollow.

Who actually puts it together now?

The infamous Paul Agnew having long departed, plus Alan Yardley's CREATV had to lay off most of their staff this summer with the end of Radio Rovers and big screen coverage.

On 14/08/2017 at 13:43, bob fleming said:

that one at Junction 4 with that sculpture of the bloke with his arse hanging out

Bingo!

I enjoyed it. 

Season 1 is an adaption of the book of the same name. Season 2 and 3 is original material.

It's from the creators of Lost, so as you can imagine it gets fairly surreal at times...

Seems bizarre to keep Cat 1 status and then not be actively looking to blood the one's that are good enough.

The likes of Lenihan and Nyambe were only given a chance through injury and are now pivotal members of the first team squad.. indeed Lenihan now has a decent price on his head - Venky's whole raison d'etre for keeping Cat 1 is surely for selling on for a tidy sum.

Is it down to Mowbray (and generally today's managers) who know they are one bad run away from the sack? And in Mowbray's case, possibly one bad run away from ever managing at a decent level again - ergo no trust in youth players.

Gabba, my mate has family in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, so we get digs for free, result!

For years we've said 'we'll definitely do the next Ashes tour'... and we don't, so we've finally bit the bullet!

Big England fan, off to t'Ashes in November

However, there are only a limited number of Test playing nations and seeing that Windies performance at Edgbaston, following on from Sri Lanka's rapid decline worried me about the future of this great format.

So yesterday was a great day for Test cricket, now lets win the series at Lord's. 

A good idea to try it for this series, the present Windies side aren't exactly box office, so the first day/nighter in England will have helped flog tickets - plus there's an Ashes day/nighter at Adelaide coming up.

The main summer series against Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan generally sell well anyway, so there's not much point in day/nighters, however the early summer Tests against Sri Lanka etc. are a tougher sell, though wrong time of the summer for floodlit cricket. 

It's not an easy issue for the ECB to get right...

Ice Arena.

The format was poor the past few years, again the club's choice to run it down.

Then when cancelled you'll get little backlash from fans 'well, it was @#/? anyway'.

Just now, arbitro said:

I don't doubt his passion but when it came to hard hitting and searching questions of managers I thought he was very weak. Too many managers got off lightly in my opinion.

Don't disagree with that, used to tear my hair out with Coyle and Kean, but generally thought he was a decent broadcaster, hope he gets a gig somewhere.

25 years of the first football club radio station and it's gone with a days notice.

How was it announced? As a bulletpoint on a website article next to the Blues Bar opening hours and a reminder that a load of car parks have been closed, no warning given to visually impaired fans either.

Poor do.

I thought Neil Yardley was very good, passionate about the club and considering it was an in house station he could be critical.

Also saw on that article that council owned car parks around Ewood won't be open this season.

The whole operation seems to be downsizing rapidly. To be expected, I suppose, but sad all the same.