If anyone is interested in Progressive Rock, I've just come across a Polish band called Riverside who are excellent. Lead vocals are very good. Can hear bits of Marillion and Pendragon and I've read they are similar to Porcupine Tree (never knowingly heard any of their stuff) but best of all they have their own identity. Two studio albums to date and if you order from an American distributor via Amazon they can be yours for around £7/8 each including delivery. Their name's pretty cool also.

It's a biography by Joachim Forsund rather than an autobiography. Quite good, as opposed to brilliant, especially the Souness chapter which unfortunately only runs to five pages. Clear that they didn't get on (understatement) but not as much vitriol as you would have thought. Only in Norwegian as yet.

Nice report rover6 Matteo was poor against Accy so there wasn't much chance of the dolloper doing anything last night. I'd put an advert in the LET bargain basement ('owt under £100) and see if there are any takers.

We Die Alone by David Howarth - true story set in World War Two with the Germans chasing a Norwegian resistance fighter through the high mountains of Arctic Norway. Jan Baalsrud survived but you would not believe the hardship and suffering he went through. The assistance he received from locals during his escape, at the risk of their own deaths, reinforces ones belief in mankind. Brilliant. Running With Reindeer by Roger Took - a decade of living in the Murmansk area of north west Russia, sometimes with the Saami people (Morten's lot), an adventure spent with the reindeer-herding and hunting community in this extremely remote and beautiful wilderness. The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure by Adam Williams - fiction based on fact in China in the late 1800's. A brothel overlooking an execution ground offering safety from the Boxers massing secretly in the forests and hills. Couldn't put it down. Currently reading Det er greit for meg by Per Petterson - text in Norwegian and as usual Petterson's story revolves around family relationships and life's struggles.

Spot on SG - I bought the same two shirts three years ago, wearing the 1960 cup final one for the first time in Ankara.

My mate who goes to every Stanley home game thought around 900 Stanley fans with the rest Rovers. If they put the roof on the Stanley end and build a stand opposite that is the mirror image of the main stand (as intended) it will be a nice, tidy ground and certainly do them justice.

Agree with what most posters at the game have said including Gally catching the eye. I thought Accy deserved a goal towards the end when they were very lunlucky not to score. That could have had something to do with our central defencive partnership of Mokoena and Matteo in the latter stages! The Coppice End was full of Rovers fans as was the main stand with good numbers of Rovers also in the opposite end behind the goals. I thought it was quality when the whole lot, Accy fans included, sang "stand up if you hate Burnley." Seems no one can stand the neanderthal knuckle draggers. Forgot to mention, and I know it was only Accy, but Tugay jusy oozes quality.

Best looking Rovers away kit I've ever seen. Spot on! I suggested black/red halves on here in 2001 when a similar topic was running but seeing the design illustrated is just superb. Well Done Doc!

I've watched Accy away three times now and never any hint of trouble. There's usually the odd Rovers shirt and the odd Burnley one also. As I understand it, the trouble at York was mainly down to a stag do or two on that weekend and not football related. Ffs if people are starting to wet themselves at going to Accy it's time to start getting involved in bingo or something similar.

Very good signing - well done MH

I sincerely hope Jeffers returns to some sort of form but I don't think he will. Yes, I'm aware Mark Hughes knows far more about football than I do, although this season will be my 41 st watching the lads. Yes, I'm also aware there will still be one, if not two, decent and relatively expensive signings by the club. Folk are entitled to their opinions all the same but if Franny comes good I'll hold my hand up......I'll also show my arse at the Circus as us Darreners say.

Just driven past Ewood - the season ticket queue is unbelievable........................ I want to go on record, here and now, to state that Jeffers will be a complete and utter flop. Sorry, should have typed....will continue to be a complete and utter flop.

Part of the problem for me, and especially where penalties are involved, is the lack of our technical ability when compared with our continental counterparts. It's no conincidence that we invariably lose out in penalty competitions and also no coincidence that Hargreaves, who plies his trade in Germany, was our only scorer. Two of the best penalty takers I've ever seen were Tony Field and Alan Shearer. Field always sent the keeper the wrong way with a body swerve and medium pace penalties, whilst Shearers were hit with both speed and accuracy. The way Field took them meant he had to be very good technically, which he was, but he was an exception. It's a pity that our lot didn't just take a good run up and blast each one - it's a fair chance that if they did, say four out of five would have gone in and we'd have stood a better chance of going through. I normally don't get too worked up about England but I now feel really gutted after having blown a good chance to win the competition with as good a set of players as I've seen since the 1970 lads were who generally regarded as being better than the class of 66.

Just doing some clearing out pending house move - found some old season ticket books. 1976/77 (I was aged 18) £11.00 1977/78 £13.00 1978/79 £15.00 1984/85 £28.00 1985/86 £30.00 1987/88 £36.00 From 1979 to 1984 I had a season ticket at the Turf but I can't remember their prices. Just joking about the Turf

One of the best ever PNE away days was in the 74/75 promotion season. Nil-Nil but the atmosphere was second to none. Thousands of Rovers fans made the short trip. We went on a sort of football special and I was told it was the third train load that morning with the first one leaving Blackburn around 10am. Loads of double deckers were waiting at Preston railway station, to take us to Deepdale, as the police didn't want thousands of Rovers fans in the town centre. We were upstairs on one which was being rocked from side to side by everyone literally diving from one side of the bus to the other. The Town End was packed to the rafters and if I remember correctly, and like at Gigg Lane a few years later, the upper terracing was wooden and with the antics of the Rovers fans, absolutely rocking. We did them 3-0 at Ewood in the return fixture in front of 24,000 plus. Happy days. PS Can't remember much about the game.

My first ever pint was a lager, aged 14, in the Dirty Duck in Blackburn - an eight year old choir boy could have got served in there. Graduated to Thwaites mild but like folk have said, it can now be nigh on impossible to get mild, even in most northern pubs. Haven't had any for ages. If on a sesh tend to stick to bitter, Boddingtons or Tetleys. Had a few years where I drank nowt but Murphys before finding God's own, ie Guinness, pure nectar. There's nothing better. I couldn't get the hang of Guinness at first, preferring it topped with a dash of blackcurrant. Was in a bar in the east end of Glasgow (effing rough with a capital R) watching Celtic. Went to the bar and ordered 6 pints of Guinness and a Guinness & Black (for me ). The barman gave me a look as if to say you effing puff and from that day on I have drunk it on its own.

I'm convinced that Rovers have a very easy way of calculating the attendance each week. They simply take the official figure and subtract 2,000.

Love the photos dillo - you're a star! Were you wearing your Rovers shirt in Dingleland?

The stayaways will want free flight tickets but sod 'em, I'll be trying to arrange summat.

Hmmmmm - I can feel a week in Norway coming on followed by 2 or 3 days wherever we play in the UEFA Cup!

I'd go along with that Hughesy.

Well said Paul - last night I said (about the stayaways) we may need you but we don't want you. They can rot as far as I'm concerned.

Five previously and then last night makes six.

September 2007

The atmosphere last night was superb, especially in the latter stages. If ever there was an example of how the reaction of a football crowd should be spontaneous rather than orchestrated, last night was it. With five or so minutes to go the Blackburn End stood up en masse. Some had been standing for ages but then the whole end got up. There was no signal, it just happened and to a deafening and continuous chant of Barmy Army. Absolutely brilliant. I said 1-0 before the game, should've put a tenner on! Tight bar stewards us Darweners. I've only been to two European games so far but to anyone in doubt or mulling it over.....get saving, it's an experience to savour with the Ankara trip being one of my best ever Rovers highlights. Just hope we can draw an attractive club fairly close to home. Well done Rovers!