40 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

Terry Garbett sends his best…as does Mickey Speight…😉

 

Excellent preview…👏🏻👏🏻

Bugger! I was just about to mention that Furphy also took Terry Garbett as well as Dave Bradford (the first £1m player…not) and Tony Field.

I can’t think of a better preview. Excellent work!

First game for a while and, despite the disappointment of letting Coventry back into it, I thought it was an entertaining ninety minutes, especially the latter part of the second half. Both teams went for the winner and it was reminiscent of a cup tie.

We have a squad of very good players and the odd tweak here and there, coupled with a new, young, dynamic manager, could see us going places. If only we had someone of the calibre of Jack Walker around the place. Not from a finance point of view, just someone with the foresight to realise how little could be required to get to the next level.

Very frustrating. 

1 hour ago, rigger said:

Remember that Ernie Hunt, Willie Carr, freekick

Yeah, can see it now, versus Everton at Highfield Road on Match of the Day.

Just seen the clip a few posts back!

On 13/10/2021 at 12:36, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Going for 2-2 here in a hard fought game.

Interesting Coventy fact: A Jimmy Hill led Coventry reached the top flight for the first time in only 1967!

A bit like Leeds. No one had heard of them until the mid 1960s, neither of them having won a trophy of note either.

I went to the game at Ewood in March 1967, not long after I’d started going to watch the Rovers. The Sky Blues won 1-0 and I think there were 26k on. We had just come down from the top flight and Coventry went up at the end of the season with Wolves. For several seasons after they were promoted, Coventry struggled but managed to avoid relegation, each time, by the skin of their teeth.

I had a soft spot for them with relatives on my aunty’s side coming from Coventry. They had a very good side in the early 70s (Bill Glazier, Mick Coop, Dennis Mortimer, Jeff Blockley, Ernie Hunt, Willie Carr, Neil Martin & John O’Rourke amongst others) and they actually beat Bayern Munich 2-1 at Highfield Road, in a European game but were trounced in the away leg. I remember watching Coventry away, around that time, at both Turf Moor and Maine Road. Nice memories.

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I think last season he shown more than glimpses and I said this summer that I thought he would replace Armstrong goals and set up to the plate and score goals. So far he has done this and done excellent so far. 

Well when we signed him I was happy with him cos from what Ive seen of him thought we signed a talent player. 

 

 

With Armstrong gone, he has had to step up to the plate and he’s grown in confidence and done well so far.

For the first couple of seasons, at least, he was utter tripe. Not my description of a talented player. Since then, however, and to his credit, he has turned things round. Not quite ‘made it’ yet Chaddy.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

He has been improving for the past 14 months before this season and will continue to do so. I expected we will received 12 to 15 million pounds for him this summer and I expected we accept the bid and reinvested it in the squad. 

Let’s get a bit of perspective here, Brereton has most certainly not yet ‘made it.’ He showed glimpses last season of what just may be round the corner and this season he has continued to improve. Prior to that, the opinion of most Rovers fans was that it was a damned long time since we had seen such a poor player. Let’s be honest, he was poor with a capital P.

A friend of mine went in corporate, not long after we had signed him from Forest. That game was against Forest and a couple of their fans couldn’t believe the fee they had secured for him, given his abilities, or lack of them. They thought it was their best bit of business for years.

The fact that he has (so far) turned things around is superb. We all want the best for the player, whichever player, and the best for the club. The problem is, it’s only October. He could lose form, suffer a serious injury, get dropped or whatever. In my opinion, if he scores 18-25 in the Championship, two seasons running, we will have a valuable player on our hands and he will have gone some way to ‘making it.’

Unfortunately, I can see his head getting turned. Agents and all that, people on the make. Money, money, money. Should he finish this season with a tally like I’ve mentioned, I can well see him then ending up at a Watford or a Southampton and it all ending in tears.

No, he’s not made it yet but, as we all do, I wish him well.

On 04/10/2021 at 23:59, Sparks Rover said:

I used to go get his pie and bottle of milk from Leavers when the players came back from Pleasy in their mini bus....

Me and a mate did the same when we had a summer job at Ewood in July 1974. We had a great time painting the crush barriers and repainting some of the adverts that had got worn. Didn’t see many of the first team, it was mainly the apprentices and I can remember John Bailey being a right character. Can also remember a decent stash of porn mags. You don’t forget those things when you are sixteen.

I’ve told this story before on some other nostalgia thread but, one day, there was a yellow JCB digger on the pitch near the half way line. The nets had been removed. My mate got in and started it up. It must have been in gear because it shot off heading for the Darwen End. My mate panicked, couldn’t stop it as it weaved its way towards the perimeter wall, behinds where the nets would have been. It left big tyre marks in the turf and finally stopped when it rammed into the wall with its back wheels spinning on the shale track. Under normal circumstances, we would have been sacked on the spot (and probably taken a couple of back handers) but my mate was the son of the then Commercial Manager and we (or at least he) got off lightly. Great memories.

6 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

I guess it depends entirely on his personal situation, but I'm taking that. He'd be gutted if he ended up moving in January, getting injured or reverting to his previous scoring form.

How often do Rovers have a 20 league goal a season striker? Armstrong, Rhodes, Gestede, Jansen....then are we at Shearer?

You’re right. I’d take it as well.

As I mentioned (probably this thread) a couple of weeks ago, my lad had a tenner on at 1000 to 1. He has had his offer of £5000 to cash out…

Just looked at Beunlah’s fixtures for the remainder of October and November and can’t see many points coming their way. Won’t be long.

17 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

Excellent day all round. Clayton Left Boot’s son can already start spending his enormous Diaz jackpot I think. 

Hope so, John. May just get a couple of pints coming my way.

On 30/08/2021 at 23:53, Oldgregg86 said:

it has to be the Darwen end lower for me. Doesn't upset any current season ticket holders and would create a better atmosphere being next to the away fans. 

Wouldn’t create any sort of atmosphere at Ewood. When the singers relocated there, during the last few seasons of our PL days, instead of sitting up next to the fence next to the away fans, to create some atmosphere/banter, they all positioned themselves as far from the away fans as they could get. Under the Radio Rovers studio, you couldn’t make it up, can’t think of any other fans, anywhere, that would have done that. 

26 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

I thought Ben did brilliantly for the goal…

My lad has £10 on him to score 20 goals this season, at 1000 to 1.

17 to go.

I’ve not even mentioned the riches of the vastly improved tv deals that came along only a few seasons after we were sold. TV deals that have meant clubs like Burnley have been able to maintain a presence at the top table with relative ease.

2 hours ago, oldjamfan1 said:

It must bring back memories for yours and @arbitro’s generation of when it was first built eh lads? 😂😂😂

You’re not far behind Andy 😉😆

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

At the moment Mark the Tower is surrounded by scaffolding as it's being renovated. From afar it looks like a rocket about to blast off from Cape Canaveral.

😆 I keep in touch via one or two Facebook sites Tony, so I’ve seen the pictures.

On 14/05/2021 at 07:58, perthblue02 said:

What day in the last 30 years was it clear enough to see Darwen Tower from Blacksnape?  You usually couldn't see anything during the footy season because you eyeballs had frozen. 🙂

If you can’t see Darwen Tower, it’s raining.

If you can see Darwen Tower, it’s about to rain. 😆

12 hours ago, windymiller7 said:

Kept getting a message saying "we'll answer you're call as soon as possible, but we are experiencing a high number of calls" 😅!" 🤣

Corporate speak for, “we know we don’t have enough people answering the phones but we don’t give a feck.” 

As a guide to the level of crowds we may now expect to see at Ewood, I am currently in my twenty first season of following Wigan Warriors. The attendances at Wigan, on the whole have been pretty good, ranging from 10k or so when we play an average to poor team with a small following to a full house of 25k, when we play St Helens on a Good Friday. The last few seasons have seen a gradual decline in numbers, for a variety of reasons but I have never experienced a sub 10k crowd, for a league game, in all that time. Friday night’s game against Wakefield (who brought 25-30 fans) drew an extremely poor crowd of 5,555. 😢

On 14/07/2021 at 02:11, sympatheticclaret said:

I'm getting from that he's mistaken as to " Darrenrovers " true identity, can I have initials then ! " 

NM the goalkeeper..

I’ll keep you in mind pal. I am hoping to sell them as a ‘job lot’ and not individually. Just give it a bit longer and, if I have had no takers, I’ll fire it over to you. 

On 19/06/2021 at 07:45, TheRoversReturn said:

All Ben's touches in the game against Bolivia

Great piece. I’ve slated him (like most Rovers fans on here have) but fair play to the lad. Looks like he had a great game, took his goal well, put himself about and ran himself into the ground. Will have done his confidence a world of good and, not least, his value will have appreciated. Maybe not beyond £7m but who knows?