Regarding Jason Steele, Brighton have the misfortune of having him on their books. He signed for them in June 2018 and, so far, has made just the one appearance in the FA Cup.

Interests me how many accents are unable to pronounce the letter r when it’s in the middle of a word, especially Mancs and Yorkshire folk. Car park becomes cah pahk, Mars Bar becomes Mahs Bah etc. Even the inbreds prounounce Ashley Barnes as Ashlah Bawnes.

Coffee all the way..

Left calf. Northern Goshawk.

Mine mirrors the old Lancashire boundary (it’s still there but that’s another story) that includes Manchester, Liverpool and Barrow in Furness. The darkest area included East Lancs. A smidgin crept into West Yorkshire, I hate to admit. Now living in Northwich, Cheshire, I have yet to pick up any ‘posh twat’ phrases (tee, hee). They do say ‘eh up’ more than us Lancastrians which I found hard to believe.

Will probably suffer a narrow defeat but it is also a game that is winnable.

Good point and something the club should take on board. It’s not totally applicable to football clubs as they have an element of their fan bases that will turn up, come what may. I am one who is fully p!ssed off with the surcharge. I face a one hundred mile round trip when I attend. I am also a season ticket holder at Wigan Warriors. I have a variety of hobbies, interests and commitments and sometimes make a last minute decision to make the trip to Ewood. I can afford the £3 surcharge and do sometimes pay it but it annoys me no end that someone who has bought a ticket a few hours before me gets in £3 cheaper. Get your act together Rovers.

Went to watch Witton Albion today in the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup. They were playing Solihull Moors of the National League, managed by none other than Tim Flowers. Witton have settled in nicely to the Northern Premier League (level 7) since their promotion a couple of seasons back but today was men against boys. Solihull were a big side, not big lumps but big, fit lads and Witton never really had a sniff. Just two or three half-chances and that was it. They held out until part way through the second half but ended up losing 2-0. The attendance was 600 odd which is roughly double the norm. Good to see Tim Flowers, still a big lad and gone grey now, quiet in the first half but barking out instructions constantly in the second.

Great win for Wigan last night and a superb send off for Shaun Wane, our departing Head Coach who is heading over to the ‘dark side’ and a coaching role with Scotland. It was a really tough game with both defences on top but Wigan having the edge on creativity and doing just enough to win it. Also leaving now are John Bateman and Ryan Sutton, both have signed on for Canberra in the NRL together with Sam Tomkins who is heading for Catalan Dragons. Special mention for Shaun Wane who has had his detractors over the last couple of seasons for a ‘less exciting’ brand of football. I have never wavered in my support of him and our trophy cabinet speaks volumes. Three Championships, one Challenge Cup, one League Leaders Shield and one World Club Challenge (winners) under his seven year tutelage. Legend.

I was born eight weeks premature, so I had to be delivered in Queens Park, Darwen North. Otherwise, it would have been Bull Hill, Darwen.

Really good book TS, I have it. Very sad too.

According to Friends of Real Lancashire - see www.forl.co.uk - the government stated, back in 1974, that the new “counties” were administrative areas only and that the original boundaries of counties such as Lancashire were still in place. However, the media tended to refer to Greater Manchester and Merseyside etc as “counties.” Where I worked in Darwen, we used to get customers from far afield and we had a bit of fun with them as to which County they thought they were from. I once said to a guy, ah, Barrow in Furness, Lancashire and he had no idea it is technically still a part of the Red Rose. Generally, those from Liverpool and Widnes etc seemed to embrace Merseyside but those from places like Bolton, Bury and Wigan wanted nothing at all to do with Greater Manchester.

Yes, Leeds is over six times the size of Blackburn. Imagine having Blackburn, then another five Blackburns all surrounding it. Them getting 30-35k each home game is pretty poor if you analyse it closely.

Despite the population of Burnley, if you add on Padiham, Nelson, Brierfield, Colne, split Hyndburn in two, ditto the Ribble Valley, take two thirds of the Rossendale Valley, include Keighley, Silsden, Todmorden, Barnoldswick, Earby and Skipton, you have one hell of a catchment area and one that most clubs would give their right arm for! At Rovers, for example, we go five miles west and we’re in Preston territory, five miles east and we’re in Burnley territory and seven or eight miles south and we’re in Bolton territory. Hemmed in on all sides. Football hotbed and history :- Blackburn Rovers 10 (ten) major trophies Burnley 3 (three) ? major trophies

You need to understand something Barry. There are a lot of fans in the Blackburn End that are aged 40 and over. I am 60. From being aged 12 or so, I stood at the back of the Blackburn End with all the other singers and generally had a good time. I always stayed well clear of Church Birdy mind, folk of a certain vintage will testify that he was a bit of a loose canon. In fact there were a few characters like that. We were all like minded lads who stood in the same spot each home game giving it our all. We all travelled to away games via coach or train and again gave it our all. If you got back to the railway station in one piece back then, you had done well. I’m nothing special, there are loads like me. Been on since 1966 and a life long Rover. All over the country watching the lads and into Europe. Seen all the key games, Plymouth 1975, Derby FA Cup c.1976, West Brom FA Cup, Liverpool League Cup, Port Vale 1975, Bury 1980, Leicester at Wembley, Liverpool 1995, Preston for the promotion game, Spurs 2002 at Cardiff, Doncaster 2018, Ankara 2003, Celtic away and a million games I’ve forgotten. Now, I like a sing song as much as the next man. I like the atmosphere at away matches, I usually stand up and sing at those but, when you’ve been singing/shouting/standing for 50 years or more, sometimes at a relatively mediocre game like Millwall at home, who bring a paltry 851 supporters with them, you like to just sit and watch the game and in silence if need be!

I sat in the Blackburn End yesterday in the section nearest to the Riverside. Not sure if it was because I was concentrating on the match but I never heard the JWL once, nor the drum. I looked over at kick off and thought that the turnout there was an embarrassment to be honest. But that’s modern stadia for you, it’s not just as simple as paying cash at the turnstiles and congregating at the back of the Blackburn End as we used to do in the early 70s.

Same score as when we beat Coventry’s chocolate soldiers, 1-0 to the Rovers.

Haha, that’s brightened my afternoon up! ?

Not sure pal to be honest. I have a few saved in my photos from just surfing the net.

It’s got 1-1 written all over it, so I’ll go for a 1-2 Rovers win ?

Aberdeen one up against the Clarettes.

Colour wrong, collar wrong, sponsor style wrong, washed out blue on wrong side. This but with the current badge.

It would be nice to unearth some real talent from the current youth set ups over the next few years and blend them in to the team. Of the current team, I think only four have stood out, Pickford, Trippier, Maguire and Kane. For me, players like Alli, Lingard, Sterling, Rashford, Stones & Co have to step up to the mark and quickly. It’s ok playing well in the Premier League being surrounded by quality players from abroad, it’s another thing being able to do it whilst playing for England being surrounded by, shall we say, players only at your level. I am hopeful that one or two will both improve and mature over the next year or so. If they do, we should have the basis for a very good team. The next challenge will be to turn that very good team into an excellent one.

The first half went to perfection, other than not taking the extra couple of gilt edged chances we created to give us a bit more of a cushion. Despite the formation, we played like an English team of old, knocking it forward to exploit the pace of Sterling. Croatia sat deep because of this and it was noticeable that Modric, easily man of the match, was less effective. I spoke to a mate at half time and mentioned to him that being 1-0 up, early in a game, isn’t a good position to be in. It is if you are a quality team yourself because you should be able to deal with it but in England’s case, it would only lead to Croatia pressing us and would we have enough to handle that. Come the second half, they did just that. They pressed us by playing further up the field. They started passing it better and crucially started to retain possession. Modric, never out of the game before, suddenly controlled it and must have covered every blade of grass. What a player. One of my ongoing criticisms of English players is that we still can’t play ourselves out of trouble when in tight situations. You always here from fans stuff like, we like to get the ball down and play, or we’re a passing side etc etc. Yes, we’re better at it than previously but when you watched Croatia, they showed us just how to do it. As the second half wore on, when pressed at the back, we resorted to kicking it long to relieve the pressure. We lost possession time and time again because of this and were constantly chasing the game. That’s why Croatia looked fitter than us towards the end and it shouldn’t have been like that as it was their third game on the trot where extra time was involved. Overall, a good tournament from England and some element of national pride restored. We are a young side that can only get better and in Gareth Southgate we have an astute, young manager who seems to have a good relationship with the media.

Yep, I noticed that. There were thousands of Colombia shirts at their last game and other countries have had great support. I think most England fans have been put off by the reputation and actions of the Russian hooligans, knowing that they were possibly in for a good kicking. The good thing is that I don’t think there has been any trouble anywhere. I don’t read newspapers any more, nor do I watch the news on tv, so I may be corrected. Perhaps the Russian government gave out warnings pre tournament to their lot should any shenanigans take place. England’s support has been ok and we could well have many more on for the next game.