bob fleming

Yeah I know, hopefully you're wrong. Ultimately what's going to be more rewarding for him though? Making Rovers European Champions or Manchester United? Besides I think it's only fair that they give Sir Alex another 20-30 years to get it right again.

Best shirt for me was the home 1992-93 / 1993-94. Closely followed by the Championship winning one that we had in 94-95 and 95-96. "Argentina Blue"? You on about the Speedie era McEwans promotion shirt? Very nice.

1. Chelsea 2. Liverpool 3. Arsenal 4. Man Utd 5. Blackburn Rovers 6. Spurs 7. West Ham 8. Newcastle 9. Everton 10. Portsmouth 11. Aston Villa 12. Reading 13. Middlesbrough 14. Man City 15. Bolton 16. Wigan 17. Charlton 18. Fulham 19. Watford 20. Sheff Utd

2-0 Rovers.

Well here we are again Roar and Roarinas, another season upon us. Once again Ewood will soon be echoing to the sound of willow on leather as our first home pre-season game takes place on Saturday against the mighty New Zealand. The anticipation of seeing all your old favourites running around at half speed! The new signings! Are they any good? (I’ll never forget seeing Grabbi’s first game for Rovers on a pre-season tour in Germany, “Here we go!” I thought “Seven million pounds worth of striker here, he’ll rip this German pub team to pieces!” He had no pace, he constantly drifted out to the left wing and had very little of that unquantifiable thing called a “presence” about him, still I’m no judge.) I think we’ve done pretty well this close season in the transfer market. Jason Roberts is more than a handful for any centre half, he posed us problems last season at any rate. Franny Jeffers? Who knows, the potential is there. I’ll not hold my breath though, anything from him will be a bonus. We also bought a keeper who I know nothing about, Jason Brown. We also brought in McCarthy more on “him” later. Downside was obviously losing the occasionally hamstrung Welsh Weasel, but by bringing in two players in the shape of Roberts & McCarthy I can’t see how that area has been weakened. Of course Neill and Bert refusing to sign new contracts, isn’t the best of news (I’m joking about Bert by the way). Some still believe and prattle on about Nelsen going to Portsmouth, this despite; Rovers turning down the initial £4.3m bid (they’ve since upped it to £5m according to reports- wooooooooo!), the player making the right noises about wanting to be fit and back in the team to face Portsmouth, Rovers playing European football next season and finally Portsmouth buying a new centre half in the shape of a wardrobe in Sol Campbell. We shall see. Anyway, the pitch? How will it look? All yellow and burnt like my lawn? Will the same people be sat round you as last year making the same rubbish jokes? Has the price of a pint gone up on the Blackburn End? Has it gone down?! Will the bar staff be as inefficient as in recent seasons? I’d just like to clear something up. There was talk at the back end of last season on BRFCS.com of my leaving for www.rovers.co.uk in the summer. I’m pleased to say that it never happened, they said they wouldn't get the money together but mainly it was because they didn’t want me in the first place, but if they had made an approach I’d have turned it down flat. I love this place, the town, the people, even the endless, boring, Transfer Rumour threads. Everything. In fact I hope to do all my monthly reviews on BRFCS.com for the rest of my career unless of course something better turns up. And they say there’s no loyalty in football anymore? Moving on, we beat near neighbours Accrington Stanley 3-0 pre season on July 19th. Goals from two of our new players Jason Roberts and Francis Jeffers. Matt Derbyshire with the third. Good luck to Stanley next season, their first back in the league since 1962. Older viewers will recall the events that surrounded their demise, but just in case here’s a reminder. Basically Stanley were forced to resign from the Football League. Apparently, so I’ve been told, there was a meat shortage in the burnley area. burnley’s then Chairman, Bob “The Butcher” Lord, wielding his financial strength like a rusty meat cleaver, actually bought Stanley’s first team squad, management team and board of directors and used them to make pies, which he then sold at turf moor on match days. Some in Accrington will never forgive burnley for what happened. Who can blame them? July 22 - saw us take on Hamburg somewhere in Europe. We drew one each, Morten Gamst Pedersen (as he now likes to be known – and that name will appear on the back of his shirt next season) scored with a trademark spectacular goal from 25 yards smacked high into the top… blah de blah – you know what he does. July 28 - Rovers watched Greek champions Olympiakos. August 5 - Rovers beat Ale Mania Aachen 3-2 somewhere in Europe. Sounds like a good place to visit. McCarthy opening “his” account, Jason Roberts with the second and Morten Gamst Pedersen with the third, which was probably a volley or something from an acute angle that he had no right to score from etc etc. August 9 – Sparta Rotherham beat Rovers 1-0 in a game played in Holland, Nr Belgium. Which brings us to Saturdays match against the New Zealand national team. A strange choice for our last friendly before the season starts. In fact a bloody stupid choice. Have you seen the size of those lads? They’re huge! Their pack will simply be too strong for us and we’ve too many light weights in our scrum. I can only see this going one way I’m afraid. I just hope there aren’t many injuries. I know the Welsh like their Rugby but this is taking things too far as far as I’m concerned. But how can I finish this review thingy / nonsense without recounting the tale, no make that the saga, of our attempts to sign a third new striker. I’ve done a little search on the internet on two of the main characters via top internet search engine googel, I was surprised by the results… Mido: Overtired First of all Hughesy went after Mido, the big burly purple Egyptian with stupid hair. Last year he was on loan at one of the biggest clubs in the world (up there with Birmingham City), London mega club and the second biggest club in North London, Tottenham Hotspurs. Mido is known to many within football, bizarrely, as “the fourth choice Tweenie”. Basically, as I understand it, and I still don’t, he just messed us about for a month whilst looking for a better offer from Children’s ITV. Probably. Oh well, whatever, nevermind. So Hughes looked elsewhere and did we get lucky or what? Benni McCarthy: Nice Eyes Our glorious Welsh leader turned his attentions to South African Benni McCarthy. Well, what can you say? I’ve gone on record before (“Nothing Surprises Me Anymore (In Football)” EMI Cat. No. 79573220. Released Feb 12 1987 – Deleted Feb 13 1987. No one bought it) to say that nothing surprises me in football anymore. And now this! Good Heavens! What a good looking lad! This could be the signing that puts a few more bums on seats. Hughes is said to have been chasing Benni for well over 12 months now, it’s not hard to see why. The new third kit will not sell well though. Mark my words on this. Red “shirt”, blue shorts and no socks is not going to catch on. There are already doubts in some quarters about Benni’s strength though. On signing “he” said “I’ve had so many opportunities for me to come to England but always something seemed to go wrong, the wind always blew me to Portugal, to Spain or Holland but never to England.” That doesn’t sound good to me. Last thing we need on a wet and windy day in December is for our star centre forward to go up for a high cross at the Blackburn End only to be caught by a gust of wind and end up in the middle of Amsterdam, Barcelona, or as above, Las bleeding Vegas. Franny Jeffers could well suffer a similar fate. Still, Hughesy know’s best and he hasn’t let us down yet has he? So, there you have it, they’ll be more of the same weak gags as last season coming up over the next few months, hopefully you’ve forgotten most of them by now. Another new season! European football as well! Bring it on!

Yep - Radagast is right - that's Mikkey D that AS and a damned fine drummer he is too and no mistake, he still doesn't play Overkill as well as Phil Taylor though. The Animal left Motorhead (for the second time) around about 1991 - since then it's been Mikkey. Phil has since cut hs hair and is world darts champion. Who'd have throught? Can I recommend Ace of Spades from the Classic Albums DVD series? Very good and very funny in places. Also for a more up to date "live" experience catch the Stage Fright DVD. The 'head also have a new album out at the end of August, I've heard four tracks from it already, the usual quality stuff. They won't / can't / shouldn't change.

More's the point, Is Lucas Neill?

Still got it. It's by Frenzy. They should play it, just the once. It's just a shame I don't have a record player anymore. ribblesdale - Wrote for Luck would be a better choice.

The theme tune to Rhubarb and Custard.

Blackburn End. Just to the right of the goal and six rows from the back, just down from Alan75 and in front of Capt Kayos.

Grabbi is at Genoa in Serie C/1A according to wikipedia, or he was last season apparently. That site reckons they got promoted to Serie B though although he was thinking of retiring due to his "physical condition" (the mind boggles, he's not lost his pace has he?) However, looking at his record at Lucchese it's easy to see why we paid all that money for him!

Because he's not good enough.

Foo Fighters & Lemmy - Live at Hyde Park. Nice.... For best results turn it right up

And I'll tell you now for nothing, this motherhood thing is bloody hard work, I haven't stopped. I don't know where the day goes. I'll be having a go but nearer the time, need to wait for more transfers to go through yet, assess the merits of each squad, the managers, which teams had players at the world cup who may be overtired now, the coaching set ups, the new kits so on and so forth - then I'll just have a wild guess.

Thanks for the reply Lee. I'm going to be making a sandwich board a little later this afternoon that says "Bring Back The Mini Kit Thingy's For The Car" and will be marching up and down protesting outside SportsWorld / The Blackburn End from 9.00am tomorrow morning until I get some sensible answers from either Chairman Williams or Mr Anonymous SportWorld Inc. - whoever is the more important. I shall continue protesting until the start of the new season or until the Bet24 logo falls off my new away shirt - whichever is sooner. I bet Lancashire United would have mini kits. Not that I'd buy theirs.

Is that because there is very little choice of merchandise or that the merchandise costs very little? I'd buy those little mini kit things for the car at £3.50 a shot if that's any help? Will they be selling them again this season Lee? Or is it too much hassle for Sportsworld?* As for Nike and Stanley. Nike supply their kit as the shirts are sold all over the world. Well as far as Darwen anyway, I've seen one over there. (* I fully appreciate that this has absolutely nowt to do with you Lee )

For what it's worth I have... The Beatles - Sgt Peppers - 1967 The Clash - London Calling - 1979 Stone Roses - Stone Roses - 1989 Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - 1970 The Ramones - The Ramones - 1976 Massive Attack - Blue Lines - 1991 Radiohead - The Bends - 1995 Primal Scream - Screamadelica - 1991 Nirvana - Nevermind - 1991 The Strokes - Is This It? - 2001 De La Soul - 3Ft High & Rising - 1989 Reminded me that I need to sort my life out and get The Stooges Raw Power.

Missed that one Paul. So that's three memorable moments for you, one of which didn't happen! It wasn't a classic World Cup, some good play but all in all it'll probably be remembered for the various acts of "simulation" and ZZ sticking the nut in. Oh and England underperforming yet again which was mainly down to the fraud that was Sven.

Accy have Nike? Aye alright, I believe you. I suppose they sell those mini kit things for the car as well? What about adidias? Made just down the road in Stockport, surely it's only a matter of time before we're selling Rovers adidas replica kits in the Ticket Office? And why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why don't the club produce a DVD? - maybe a Series Review (rather than a psychological thriller or a film about gay cowboys) - they could sell it in the Blues Bar.

Same here SAS. Dan must think that Dunny designed it or something.

You're quite right, Kuqi equalised with a 25 yard screamer, I remember now. I still think that Roberts is a good signing though.

It’s a good job you’re in Australia SAR otherwise we’d have to have a kick about. I’d turn you inside out that often you’d end up with twisted blood. Well maybe not. Anyway as for lacing your boots, I bet you don’t even wear boots, probably ‘pumps’ or ballet shoes. You big girl.

July 2006 - "Good afternoon everyone, we've just signed Craig Bellamy, we got him on the cheap. However we'd just like to take this opportunity to point out that if he plays a blinder this season a Champions League club can buy him for a paltry £6 million quid. We're not happy about it but his agent insisted on the clause. We just thought we'd better bring it to your attention." Happier now Blueboy? You missed out James Beattie, joey_big_nose and USABlue. Other than that I can't think of any others. Jim Bowen? (probably too old now, he's catching Tugay up) I hope you asked him how many of their prolific strikers scored 14 goals last season? Still so long as he's happy. There's a lot to look forward to in the Championship. (try and keep a straight face here) For what it's worth I'm very happy with the signing. As others have said he caused us and others problems last season. Thought he looked strong and held the ball up well. He scored the equaliser for the piemen against us back in April.

I doubt Ronaldo has any. BTW your contribution to this thread has done my blood pressure no good whatsover.