If people say they couldn't be bothered then there are some underlying reasons behind that. My own circumstances last night were that I would have had to leave work early, spend around an hour and a half on the road to get to Ewood, spend about £30-£35 on a ticket, petrol, beer, food, and then not get home until after 11 (or even later if it went to ET). I decided that the enjoyment I would get out of the match wasn't worth the effort and cost I had to put in to go to it. In other words, I couldn't be bothered. Now, I don't care if people agree or disagree with the decision I made. I really don't care if people made a much larger commitment to attend than the one I've outlined above - good on them. What does annoy me though is when other fans question my loyalty to the club, or tell me what I should or shouldn't do.

He can make as many comments as he likes (are you his mum btw?), just like I can disagree with his comments. However, I don't believe he has the right to tell anyone what they should and shouldn't do - whether he's a student making a 200 mile round trip or not. It's down to everyone's personal choice.

I'm planning to go to the same pub as last year - The Knott Bar near Deansgate station.

At this moment in time maybe, but that wasn't the point I was making - as I suspect you know. The point was that I think I've proved my loyalty to the club over the years and could hold my end up in a loyalty argument with most Rovers fans. So I get a tad annoyed when people question that loyalty when I decide to miss a game. And I haven't ever assumed all Rovers supporters are equal. What I do think though is that the people deciding not to go to this, or any other game, have their reasons for not doing so. As I said before, the club and football in general need to look at those reasons and try to address them. Simply slagging them off, questioning their loyalty, or trying to present yourself as a better fan than they are is only going to antagonise them further - which will probably lead to them attending less games in the future.

I'll post what I like thanks.

Of course "I can't be bothered" is an excuse. There are reasons why people can't be bothered and until the club, and football in general, address those reasons then attendances will continue to fall. And what gives people like you the right to tell any of us what we should and shouldn't do?

I wish I hadn't seen you. Unfortunately you seem to keep turning up in the pubs I drink in. Stalker.

I'm afraid so Alan. Soz.

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?

Total @#/?. If people don't want to go to the game, whatever their reason, then they have that right and it doesn't make them any worse a supporter than those that do.

Is she going out with him?! I hate him even more now.

"Souness hater"? I've never hated the man, in fact I quite like him, I just thought his time was up. I think the job Hughes did last season proved me right as well but I guess you'd never admit that. The reason I thought Souness's time was up was that I didn't think he had the capability to turn the team's fortunes around. I'm still optimistic that Hughes can. Six games into a season, especially following a season where, imo, Hughes did brilliantly, is far, far too early to judge anything.

Jeez, some of the over-reactions on here are frightening.

What really bugs me is when fellow supporters start judging others and suggesting they aren't as big a fan if they don't go to the games. The quicker people get away from this ridiculous idea that supporters should attend Ewood out of some sense of loyalty the better. Football is an entertainment business and is competing with a lot of other entertainment businesses. At the moment football at Ewood isn't very entertaining. Therefore, anyone has the right to take their hard-earned money elsewhere. As for John Williams, he's paid an exceptional amount of money to "keep the club afloat". He's doing his job - and it could be argued that he's not doing it that well at the moment. What we should be doing is thinking of ways that we can attract fans to Ewood, not telling them "bye bye, mind the door____" if they decide not to go to a game.

"People like me"? I've hardly ever referred to Souness since he left, and I think you're the one that's brought his name up repeatedly tonight and referred back to his tenure here. But I agree with you about the lack of emotion regarding the Rovers at the moment. However, I'd extend it to say I feel the same about all football. We were chatting about this in the pub before the game and it became apparent just how little football we've all watched this season. In season's gone by I'd rarely miss a weekend live match on tv and I'd usually watch at least one midweek game. The games just don't interest me anymore though and now I hardly watch any of them..

We were regularly this crap to watch during Souness's last full season. In fact we were probably worse at times. We definately have problems but it's far too early to get as worked up as you seem to be doing. I suspect most of your posts tonight have been an attempt to justify your support for Souness in his latter months rather than anything else. That said, Hughes has yet to prove than he can play attacking football. Last season I thought Hughes did briliiantly to keep us up given the squad and general lack of professionalism he was left with. This season he's got to improve the team and he's not done it so far. However, he's only had his star striker available for two of the six games so far - and I don't think he was fully fit in either of them. I'm still optimistic that Hughes will eventually work out his best team and that, once he does, we'll see an improvement in the team.

Hughes picked the wrong team and the worrying thing is that I'm not sure he knows what his best team is. There's nothing wrong with 4-5-1 providing we play the right players in the right positions - it can be an extremely attacking formation when played right. However, we played it all wrong today. For an hour not much happened. Two bad teams scrapped about in midfield, mis-placing passes all over the place, and creating little or nothing in front of goal. We had a couple of free-kicks that went close-ish, they didn't even have that. Then Newcastle scored. I haven't seen the incident on TV yet, but it looked a harsh call to give Newcastle a free-kick on the edge of the area. Once it was given though the whole ground knew what was coming - a Shearer piledriver. No-one blocked it and in it went. One-nil to Newcastle with what was probably their first shot on goal. Five minutes later they scored again. A cross from their left was met by a totally unmarked Owen who doesn't miss those. Terrible defending by us - Christmas Day for the Toon Army. To be fair to us we showed a bit of character and tried to get back in the game, but it wasn't to be. Kuqi and Tuigay, shortly followed by Jansen, came off the bench and we created a couple of chances, notably one awful miss by Kuqi, but we didn't do enough. Even after Newcastle had a man sent off they managed to extend their lead on the break when N'Zogbia beat Friedel cleverly. A thoroughly miserable afternoon all round really. It's a daft thing to say when we've been beaten 3-0 but we defended quite well really. Shearer and Owen hardly had a kick all game but, like the quality strikers they are, they took their one chance expertly. I think it was Zurab who lost Owen for his goal, and Neill managed to get booked within two minutes for a daft challenge but, other than that, they didn't do badly at all. All our problems were at the other end. Reid isn't a right winger. Emerton is better. Yes, I said Emerton is better. Emerton is far from great, but he offers a much bigger threat than Reid will ever do. Pedersen didn't do enough and we really need him to step up to the plate this season. He's got the talent but he fails to show it too often for me. Savage played well in midfield, as did Mokoena, but neither contributed much going forward. Bentley was disappointing. He impressed me with his cameo at Bolton and I was expecting more today, but he didn't seem to have the confidence on the ball today that he showed at Bolton. I think he can play that position he played today (attacking midfielder playing off the front man), but it might also be worth trying him wide-right. The biggest problem the team had today though was Bellamy. He's just not a lone striker. He can't hold the ball well enough and he doesn't battle with defenders. Obviously he's not going to win things in the air either, all of which meant that any ball played forward just came straight back. He's a willing runner and will run the channels all day, but he needs someone to play off. It was a poor home performance today and I believe Hughes got his team wrong. We're in trouble now. Hughes needs to sort out his best team soon and hope that it performs, otherwise it's going to be a long hard season again.

Why "Lancashire United" wouldn't work. The Mechanics Let's keep things simple and say that only two clubs want to merge, say Preston and Blackburn. How could they go about doing it? Well, the "easiest" option that I can see is that they both disband, resign from the league, and form a new club - Lancashire United (for want of a better name). The problem is though that they would surely then have to start from the bottom of the football league pyramid - just like new clubs AFC Wimbledon and FC United have done. And as Theno's suggestion is aimed at maintaining a successful team in our area what does starting at the bottom achieve? Another far more complicated option is that one club disbands and then merges with the other. As Blackburn are the higher-placed club, it would make sense (as much as any of this is sensible) for PNE to disband and merge with Blackburn. The problem then is that Preston fans won't want to come to Blackburn to watch their football. I suspect most would rather cut their own throats to be honest! However, I guess that, in an attempt to reduce the feeling amongst Preston fans that they are simply watching a strengthened Blackburn team, Rovers could change their name to Lancashire United and play in a different kit. This would give the impression that Lancashire United is really a new club when, in fact, it's just Rovers with knobs on. But I think this would just alienate both sets of supporters and, rather than attracting bigger grounds and becoming more successful, we'd see far smaller crowds. You could argue that maybe, in a generation or two, these feelings of resentment within the fans would pass, but where would the "new" club be then? Certainly not in the top division - in fact I suspect they'd go bust long before then. Another problem with the above is that we are getting close to franchise territory. I'm pretty sure that after the Wimbledon/MK Dons fiasco league rules have been tightened up to prevent franchises being set up and to basically stop clubs moving to another geographical area. So there may be rules in place that simply don't allow Preston to merge with Rovers. The only way I could see Lancashire United possibly working is if the whole Premiership and Football League structure was changed. In effect, all the existing clubs would have to resign from their respective leagues (or enough to bring about the change) and new leagues would be set up in their place. Lancashire United could then apply to be in the new league, preferably in the top division. However, there would still be huge problems. The Ground The new club could presumably use one of the existing two grounds to play their football on, I guess Ewood would make more sense as it's bigger, but then how many Preston fans would travel over to Ewood to watch their footy? Not many I suspect. So I suppose the sensible option would be to build a new ground somewhere between Blackburn and Preston e.g. BAe Samlesbury. But who pays for this new ground? Neither club has enough money to compete as it is so where are they going to find the extra millions needed to build a new ground? The sales of Deepdale and Ewood would help, but I suspect that the new club would still be well short of the money they needed. The Fans As I've said before, if the new club has too close a tie to one of the existing clubs (e.g. plays at Ewood) then the fans of the other club won't watch them. Football fans are too loyal and tribal for that to happen. They would rather not watch football at all, or follow a smaller local team, than support their rivals. So the new club would have to be as neutral as possible. But even if you made the assumption that a new club (Lancashire United) playing on a new ground (Samlesbury) then had the combined fanbase of PNE and Rovers - a huge assumption to make imo - there would still be all the other problems currently affecting football attendances. There'd still be too much footy on TV, there'd still be the likes of Chelsea and Man U way ahead of the rest, the new club would still probably charge too much to watch the team, the players would still be paid too much and act like cocks half the time. Merging PNE and Rovers won't solve any of those problems. The whole infrastructure of the current domestic and European game would have to be changed to solve all the current problems in football. There's no easy fix. The Community The biggest objection I have with a Lancashire United is the loss of Blackburn Rovers to the community of Blackburn. The demographics of the town have changed over the years and there's no doubt that the Asian community in Blackburn don't support Rovers as much as we'd like. However, for tens of thousands of people that live in Blackburn, Blackburn Rovers generate a huge sense of pride. The town doesn't have a lot to shout about, but what it does have is a famous old football club that has achieved great things in the game. If Blackburn lost this what else would it's residents take pride in? The same would be true for Preston as well. Lancashire United, with its neutrality and faceless name and ground, would not generate that same sense of pride and community spirit.

As I keep saying, if you're not confident on our running of BRISA then get involved yourself Theno. Otherwise, you shut the ### up.

It's a bloody stupid idea and you just look stupid bringing it up again and again. If anyone isn't thinking on here it's you. Why don't you just face the fact that no-one agrees with you and that it wouldn't work?

I probably go to more matches than you and I think you're talking crap. As I've pointed out on many occasions.

We were getting overrun in midfield and had to change. I think we took the wrong player off but we did have to change.

That's just not true American. We changed to 4-5-1 because we were getting pi55ed on.

Derbyshire set the goal up.

I think by "more humble civilised country" you meant losers.