bob fleming

I saw this yesterday. I don't know what to say. What a great photograph. The swan bloke is clearly the bigger of the two but old Branta Canadensis clearly has the bigger heart and is just about to rip Cygnus Buccinators neck off - and Gold bless him for it. Needless to say I've ordered 5 of these at 225 bucks each for several rooms at home. That's about 85 quid in normal money if I've got my calculations right. Money well spent if you ask me. They should have one of these in the tunnel at Ewood for when the players come out saying - "THIS IS EWOOD" - just to show that the underdog can win. Great spot American, Thanks.

(Beat me to it cletus....) Then again if you want to stand - go on the Blackburn End. If you want to sit, go elsewhere on the ground - there's plenty of choice. That's the way I see it. Similarly if you want to sing and create some sort of atmosphere go to the BBE lower. This is how the club should be advertising that end of the ground. However, as things stand this won't make any difference whatsoever. As Tom Finn stated "The policy of insisting that spectators remain seated is one that is prescribed by The 1989 Football Spectators Act. We all accept that supporters will stand at times of high drama and for goalmouth incidents but persistent standing is unacceptable. This is reinforced within our Safety Certificate issued and monitored by our local authority." So even if the club wanted to let people stand - they can't. It's simply not up to them. Jim - you're quite correct - these are the rules. It's the way that they've been enforced that has lead to problems. (I reckon you'd make a great steward by the way - tact, diplomacy, understanding). Superstella reported after his meeting with the club "Rules stipulate that if the stand is at more than 25% camber/gradient from the back to the front it is deemed dangerous to stay stood up. The camber/gradient in the stands at Ewood is 28% raising to 32%, dipping in the middle. Licensing authority will grant a safety certificate on condition fans do not persistently stand during the match" - So what are they saying? If the stand has a gradient of less than 25% you can stand? If that's the case then surely we have a solution moving forward. A load of concrete and The Riverside. Just a thought. At least people would then be able to stand in a seated area. It's a long term possible solution.

Newcastle will give us Bellamy and £2 million for Ferguson

Something you're not telling us bob? You're a sick man Radagast - I blame that Mortiis fella.

Yeah - I'd like to see him get a game soon. Same as I'd like to see de Pedro get a game soon. Along with Bothroyd and Jansen as well. Ultimately though we don't get to see these players in training. What's to say that de Pedro has been the better player in training? or perhaps Steven Reid may have done more last week to convince Hughes to play him ahead of them both? Let's just slow things down a bit. Hughes needs a bit of time to find out who his best players are. Give it a few more weeks and he'll have a better idea as to the strengths of weaknesses of the squad. If MGP is good enough I'm sure he'll get a game soon enough. But if he doesn't are we to just presume that Hughes doesn't know what he's doing? Or isn't he allowed to not rate one of the previous Managers signings? I just feel it's a bit off to start talking in terms of "poor management", "defying belief" and "1.5m failures"s.

Yeah! - Boooo!!! Boooo!! Hughes out!! What about de Pedro then rover6? Why shouldn't he be playing as well? Perhaps he needs his confidence boosting? In fact lets play them all - just to get their confidence up. Maybe, just maybe, Hughes doesn't think he / they're up to it just yet? Maybe, MGP picked up a knock in training or when he was playing for Norway? Maybe he's got the flu? But no. Let's just say "what Mark Hughes is doing is counter-productive and totally defies belief".

I notice that they're all stood up. I don't know, one rule for one, one for another.

------------ Brad ------------- --- Neill - Short - Todd - Gray --- Bert - Flitcroft - Ferguson - Reid ---------- Djorkaeff ------------ ---------- Stead ------------- That team on paper will work hard and make us hard to beat. Neill and Gray keep their places as there's no one else to take them (Gresko?!? ffs). Amo and Matteo need "a rest". Reid starts on the left this time - hopefully he can keep running around and cause them a few problems defensively, although with a bit of luck de Pedro and MGP are starting to show in training just why that other fella brought them to the club. Much as I wanted Dickov to do well I just feel that he simply hasn't enough quality, it's not enough just to close defenders / the goalkeeper down and stop them clearing their lines, I thought he'd have a bit more to his game (I'm right naive me), don't get me wrong he'll still have a part to play but I'd also give him "a rest". So Stead comes in - time to stand up and be counted Jon - I've every confidence in you. Youri to hold the ball up for us and bring the likes of Ferguson and Emerton into the attack - an awful lot depends on those two this season. Neill to have their left winger in his back pocket for 90 minutes ( ). So that's my team for what it's worth. The result? 2 - 0 to Chelsea. They'll surely have too much for us. This isn't one of those games where you expect to get anything. We're in a mess and no mistake but despite this I still think we'll stay up this season. We're poor but not as poor as some of the others. 8 points = 14th place in the Premier League. We've been, by and large, hopeless and yet we're not out of it at all. I doubt 40 points will be the target this season. It's time for "Dogs of War", "Fortresses" and "Siege Mentality"'s.

First out the door? The door itself. Then fit a bigger door to avoid the rush. Neill, Amoruso, Matteo, Johannson, Gresko, Tugay, Flitcroft, de Pedro, etc, etc. This squad is so devoid of quality and skill you could make your own list and I'd struggle to mount an arguement supporting any particular player, in fact the chances are I probably couldn't be bothered. This is what Hughes has to contend with.

Does anyone watch that DreamTeam on Sky One? It appears that Souness is also managing Harchester United this season. So if anyone stills cares they can watch his exploits every Sunday night at 8.00. It's totally over the top / far fetched / brain dead television. No doubt he'll get a really bad team together and be two games from the sack only to be saved by a top 6 Premier League club. No, that can't be right, that's too far fetched, even for DreamTeam.

preston blue - I can't even speak about today's game - I'm that disgusted. Your post above poses all sorts of questions, and your post at the bottom of page 9 sums up my feelings. I'll be back when I sort my head out.

Don't think this has been posted... Sky Sports Preview. They reckon we'll win.

Bryan Douglas. Never saw him play, haven't even seen him on the tele, but I know that this guy should walk this. I've read enough about him over the years to know that this fella is one of the Rovers legends. I look forward to hearing some glowing tributes for this guy. I reckon I'll need a lot of convincing not to vote for Douglas. As for the right wingers who I have seen play. Windy Miller - tremendous pace, would knock the ball 10 yards ahead of the full back and his speed would see him through, no problem. That was more or less what his game was all about, but he'd deliver excellent crosses from the by-line. Rippers - I found him an extremely frustrating player, brilliant one week and not so good the next, also erratic with his crossing - had a habit of hitting the ball at the full back a lot. On his day though he was a class act. Neither Windy or Rippers scored enough though for a player in that position, in my own humble, could never do any better, opinion. As for the others I've seen, Irvine, Gillespie and Emerton, no chance. You could also add Craig Skinner, David Byrne and Sir Bastian Perez to that list - but again I wouldn't bother. Noel Brotherston played on both wings apparently (before my time) but I'll always remember him as a left winger. Who can tell us about Bimpson?

and Noel.

Surely it was Noel left wing and Windy Miller right wing? That's how it was for 30 odd years in the 80's? Unless I imagined it all.

No, I made that up. Sorry. (I mean, someone made the point that the chances of a fan having their eye poked out by a fan stood up clapping are greatly increased. What about someone with a ruddy drumstick!! Think of the children someone please!! It's only funny until someone get's hurt (and then it's just hilarious)) However, just 'cause there are 4,000 people in the Darwen End and 2 or 3 drummers stood up in the BBE don't think for a minute that your allowed to stand up as well Capt. As that would be wrong and dangerous. So don't do it.

Don't they stand up? I think you'll find we've seen the last of them.

It's happened before. Oh no - a few of them had "the sniffles" that was it. We'll win. It'll be close. 2-1. Stead and The New Brett Emerton for us. JFK for them with a typical thunderbolt of a strike. 21,101. Cold, wet and windy first half, light drizzle (oh yes) in the second. No standing. No singing. No flags. No bar staff. Standing in the Darwen End compulsory. "One more (bleeding) time" on the tannoy. I'll not be far off with that lot.

No Capt. The idea, I thought, was to put nominations forward for each postition. People could then wax lyrical about their favourite player, we could then all marvel at stories from yester year, about what a great player Clayton was, about how Douglas could turn people inside out, about Bob Crompton and his legacy, how some of our older players were the best of their generation. So on and so forth. We could then sit back, approach the vote with a completely open, unbiased mind, take our time before carefully and painstakingly deciding to vote only for the players we've seen play.

Yeah - fair point neekoy. Let's be honest though you're not telling me that there aren't disclaimers on match tickets / within season tickets that accounts for this sort of thing? e.g. "If the clumsy oaf next to you pokes your eye out during a goal celebration then the Football Club cannot be held responsible" or "Don't come running to us when you fall down all the steep stairs at the back of the Jack Walker Stand because there isn't a hand rail and end up flat on your arse on top of Mark Bowen in the dug out as the club cannot be held responsible". Either way how hard would it be to insert these clauses into the ticket / season tickets? The Blackburn End has been "watered down". It's no longer the "kop" end. No longer is it the place where all the singers go, where all those who want to create an atmosphere go. It's become just another stand in just another modern football stadium (well it's not that bad - but it's not what it was). The club should sell it differently. Our football club isn't alone in having these problems though - as has been well documented. There seems to be a "ground-swell" of opinion that a percentage of fans would like a return or a partial return to terracing. Or at the very least, to be able to stand in your own seated "area". What we have at the moment though, which thankfully Jason brought to more peoples attention, is the heavy handed tactics employed by our club. How can they do this? Some jumped up steward with too much authority takes it upon himself to eject our fans from the stadium. Why not nip down to the Darwen End if you're that keen? Get their fans to sit down. Do the club think we can't see that far and see the opposition fans standing? (or are there too many of them? What if the entire BBE stood? What would happen then?) Double standards don't wash. If these stewards who are so keen to kick people out are that keen to help the club can I suggest that they're better off pulling a few more pints at half time? (Go and help the other two). Anyway I doubt these ideas will be explored. Let's be honest the council by and large don't give two hoots about the club and I'm sure they'll hold the licence that keeps the ground open. Which obviously makes things extremely difficult for the club (as I'm sure John Williams will be telling us in the LET before long in response to Jason's article). Similarly the Government won't do anything about it either. Why bother? Taylor report / lessons from Hillsborough etc - it's all in black and white. Standing = Dangerous / Sitting = Safe. Everyone knows that. Apart from football fans - who (although perhaps in the vast minority) are still prepared to take the risk (risk their own lives by the sounds of things) and stand at games as it creates a better atmosphere. The trick of course is to get these fans to, in effect, sign their lives away so the Football Club isn't liable. Can anyone be bothered developing this legislation? I doubt it.

Reid? Thompson? Emerton? Todd? de Pedro? MGP? Youri? The list is endless Sorry but whilst I agree that it's good that he is keen to play for his country I'm afraid it's well out of order as well at the same time, mainly due to the fact that it's a ruddy hamstring. I said as much last week but I can't for the life of me think of a time when a player has "shrugged off" a hamstring strain. Fair do's though he might be OK for Saturday - we shall see.

Worst ground I've been to was Gay Meadow (beat me to it 1864) - very poor indeed. In fact dangerous. You couldn't stand at the back of the stand without hitting your head on the roof. The front of the away end must have been all of ten yards away as well - so to get a good view you'd stand at the back. Having said that - "it were better back then". Oh - and the old Hull City away end was bobbins and all.

Old Grampa Simpson or Ole Gunner Solskjaer. Not sure to be honest. Own Goal Society?

Just got back (watched it at home and been asleep since but isn't that how you're supposed to start a review?). Stead did very well IMO. He needs a goal there's no doubt about that but some of his approach / link up play was tremendous. He worked tirelessly as well and I'd be surprised if he didn't start the next U21's game next week (especially considering the injury to Cole). The guys commentating on Sky were impressed as well. Like I said, he just needs a goal, then I reckon he'll keep on scoring.

He was! Nearer 3,000 I'd say. BTW 3-0 Speedie hat trick secured 6th place and play-offs. There was a bloke there who couldn't watch the second half of that match. He sat on the terracing with his head in his hands. Even when we were winning I don't think he could bear to watch. Bizarre really considering he'd travelled 200 miles or whatever it is. I also reckon there was 3000 - 3500 there, rather than 6000. I think we sent Argyle down that day as well. One of the best away days I've ever had at any rate.