I asked a Rangers fan on a football Facebook site as to why we couldn’t have been given a few more tickets. The reply was that it was on police advice. Not that Rovers fans are expected to cause any trouble, just that the police tend to set the limit. I have seen photos from Rangers’ recent home game against Oxford, who sold around 1000 tickets. The Oxford fans had the usual corner and a couple of rows of the Broomloan Stand which is the stand behind the nets. The Broomloan Stand was sparsely populated, so if any Rovers fans were to buy tickets for this stand, on the day, I’m sure they would just be able to tag on to the main Rovers allocation.

Never fulfilled his potential and only ended up playing 107 games throughout his senior career. Was best remembered at Swansea where he made 50 odd appearances. Suffered a knee injury in his late 20s which more or less finished him. Whilst playing for our youth team, however, he was a very good player. Beattie had the edge on him but not by much.

Excluding the blurb and chapters at the beginning together with the index at the back, there are around 58 pages of regulations re what is allowed/not allowed with the various kits. Unbelievable!!

I don’t wish to rain on your parade pal but Toffs were founded in 1990 and that certainly looks like a Toffs label. Mr Trump would be calling that a fake shirt..

You sure about that? It appears to have a Toffs label in the neck and that’s who I bought my two off...

Certainly do, it’s a beaut!

Very well deserved. Always liked him. Used to watch him down at Brockhall in the Youth Team. In a 442, Johnson wide right, Duffer wide left with Beattie and Thomas up front. Virtually unbeatable.

To be nitpicking, it’s not quite Royal Blue but it’s as near as dammit. I think it’s a pretty good effort and I may just get round to buying it. Anything to counteract the plastics wearing the red of either United or Liverpool around Northwich. It’ll be this shirt or the 1960 FA Cup Final one for me. I’ve already had two of the latter (best shirt ever) but the ferking things have both run.

There were a fair few of those ‘third division’ lads that would walk straight in to our current team, Jones, Herd, Fazackerley, Metcalfe, Field to name but five.

Love the League Liner footage Tony. The best bit definitely, ‘Burnley’s teeny boppers.’

The mid 70s were a great time following the Rovers with both the League Liner and the Ewood Express, each holding around six hundred. I went to York, possibly 1974, on a Blackburn Corporation single decker in green, cream and red. Loads of coaches went that day and there was no restriction on the arrival time in those days. We had several hours to kill before kick off and a few coach loads went up to the railway station to await the arrival of the Ewood Express. As it pulled in, all the doors opened before it stopped and hundreds of lads were running along the platform to a cacophony of noise as all the coaches lot joined in as well. Happy days, didn’t matter we were in the 3rd Division, everyone seemed to get behind the lads at a time when Blackburn had a thriving night life. It really was ‘Our Town, Our Team’ and that’s coming from a Darrener!

Once he started playing again, after the accident, he was regularly having physio sessions. A friend of mine, a long time back sufferer, was also at the same physiotherapist. Apparently, when a ball was played across Matt, he was ok on the vision side of things but, when a ball was played directly up to him, he used to see two balls. I knew this at the time and told one or two people. If I remember correctly, he struggled a fair bit at first but then scored twice in one game. Obviously, every one was willing him to return to how he was pre accident and after those two goals, a lot must have thought he was back. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

On one of the football Facebook sites I follow, some bloke was defending the choice of venue for last night’s game. Baku is in Europe, he stated and it’s a fine stadium. He was correct on the Europe side of things. Whilst Baku is, indeed, in Europe (by the skin of its teeth admittedly), it is still further east than a sizeable portion of Iran and the next country east of Iran is Afghanistan! The logistics of actually getting there were mind boggling. Little wonder that both Arsenal and Chelsea returned ‘thousands’ of tickets from their allocations. Someone must have been given a more than generous backhander.

She lived in Carmel by the Sea in California and owned a hotel there. We went in the restaurant part of it when we were in Carmel last June. Very nice it was too. Clint Eastwood also has a hotel and restaurant in the same town where we also dined one evening. We were told to go in relatively early in the evening and we may stand a chance of seeing him. Sure enough, he was stood at the bar!

Well, I was going to say just the club cat but all five of those in the squad of 24 are Catalan (I couldn’t be bothered checking the players out on loan ?).

Bayern’s Wiki page also lists a squad of 24 players of which 11 are Germans.

Looking at Barca’s Wiki page, a squad of 24 players is listed of which 5 are Spaniards. There are a further 15 players out on loan, of which 7 are Spanish.

Did she say ‘yes’ the first time John or did you have to try again up at Darwen Tower? ?

I read that earlier today OEB. Imagine Bolton being due to play a team needing three points to either get promoted or qualify for the play offs, and Bolton’s team are full of U-18s. That team’s rivals would be claiming an unfair advantage and rightly so. An absolute farce.

Yeah, think it’s Bury 1966-67 season. The Gigg Lane fixture that season was my first ever Rovers away game.

If I could turn back time for just one day, it would be a game day spent on Ewood as in this photo. One where we’ve given the Dingles a right good hiding.

Sad indeed Andy. During the 1980s I watched Celtic many, many times (only once did I miss a Rovers game when I managed to get tickets for an Old Firm game!) and plenty when Billy was manager. RIP Billy.

Without doubt our best kit ever. Worn with white shorts and white socks that have two blue rings at the top.

Quite correct John. I’ve never experienced any problems outside the Turd and never missed a Derby game from my first in 1970 right up until a few years ago when I lost interest. I’ve travelled by train (many times), car and coach. Bolton, on the other hand, was a different matter. I always used to plan ahead and work out where to park or where to go for a pint. Always felt uneasy whereas going to the Turd was just a good day out. The 70s and 80s were the worst at Bolton although, to be fair, in the Premier League era there were no real issues at either Burnden or the Breezeblock.

The night they secured promotion to the Top Flight at Ewood was the biggest away following I’ve ever seen at the Rovers. I was on the Riverside that night and we were packed in like sardines. The attendance of 27k was way off the mark and I bet there were easily 35k on, probably split 20k to Bolton and 15k Rovers. They had the Darwen End, about half the Blackburn End and there were a fair few in the Nuttall Street and Riverside as well. Neanderthal bar stuards, I find them worse than Burnley but coming from Darwen, there’s always been a bit of ‘history’ between the two towns. I was also at the Faz game, dodging bricks, darts and whatever else came our way (the police never gave a sh1t at Bolton) and I’ve got to say there were thousands of Rovers fans there that night too.