Just been to a Chinese restaurant with two of them. The banquet cost nearly as much as the admission fee at Ewood but we certainly celebrated the victory in style.

Gave the paper reader at work some verbals today and boy, was it worth the wait!

The report on United games in the Sunday Telegraph is normally a half page job with photo and stats etc. So what happens when the Big City Media Darlings get spanked by the small town outfit? No photograph and a text which is no more than 3-4 inches in length!

For the first time in years I may just watch Match of The day tonight! My lad sneaked out of the house at dinner time, never said 'owt, but he had a ticket. BAAAAAAAAAASTAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!!

I'd say there were more than that Lee. Apart from the first two or three rows of the Darwen End Lower, they filled every seat. Add to that one half of the upper tier (not completely sold out, but quite close to being) and there must have ben 6,000.

Anyone seen our next five away games? Those with a nervous disposition, or subject to suicide attempts, please dont look.

******************************************************************** err scuse me but should you two be even allowed an opinion (rather than a nostagia / homesick fuelled rant on Rovers dwindling support and finances)? I will of course apologise if you are both still season ticket holders and still chucking money into the coffers. 347316[/snapback] Start apologising now then..................I can't remember when I wasn't a season ticket holder. I'm having a placard made for you whilst we speak, to be draped over your back for the Newcastle game....."My name is Gordon and I want us to merge with Burnley." You won't be laughed at, honestly.

Just ask him the thickness of the dust in their trophy cabinet.

Agreed - I would rather stick pins in my eyes than watch Lancashire United. The idea is ludicrous. I am sure the fans of Preston, Blackpool and Burnley would think the same. The day they create Lancashire United (although, of course, it will never happen) is the day I quit football.

Got a summer job at Ewood in 1974 - Met a number of fringe players including the up and coming John Bailey who made his dubut the following season. A couple of years later, John Butcher used to be part of our group, Sat & Sun nights at Blackburn mecca. Services at junction of M1/M62 having a pi55 after an away match, early 90's. In walk Newell and Shearer. 35 of us dressed as Max Wall circa Christmas 1993, gatecrash Flowers' signing night or something in Gibsons, Blackburn Town centre. The look on his face was priceless.

The extract from the United fan is superb. I very rarely watch Rovers away these days mainly due to the cost factor. None of my mates do either. Gone are the days when we used to hire a mini bus or at least get two or three cars together to set off to an away game, pick a pub, have a few beers, pub grub and a few games of snooker. Last season I watched Stanley away at Oldham in the cup and at Northwich in the league. I don't support them in any particular way, just a mate of mine has a connection with them. Cheap tickets, turned up just 15 mins or so before kick off, stood or sat where we wanted, had a bit of banter with the directors/players. Surprisingly good followings from Stanley also, producing a great atmosphere at each game, especially Oldham. Like Rovers of old.

Very true sausage! I couldn't even be arsed watching it on tv, let alone going to the match itself which I've done for donkeys years. Travelled through Darwen & Blackburn half an hour before kick off and there were loads of Rovers fans in shirts all making their way to pubs to watch it for nowt.

Talking to a South Shields based Geordie today who tells me Newcastle have (as yet) failed to sell out for the visit of Man Utd. Probably down to the Souness factor rather than the general trend we are starting to witness, but even so this would have been unthinkable prior to Souness taking charge. Interestingly he tells me Gateshead now has a population similar to Newcastle ie, 280,000 and if you add to that North Shields, South Shields, Wallsend, Blaydon, Ashington, Morpeth, Durham etc etc etc it shows what we are up against. Only competition other than the Mackems is Boro 40 miles to the south and Hearts/Hibs 85 miles to the north.

Wild Rover - Absolutely brilliant - should have been done years ago. 10 out of 10 Rovers

Yesterday I took my 15 years old daughter for the first time in years. As my son and I have been season ticket holders for years, I wasn't sure what the price would be. Well it was £5 and that's excellent value. She enjoyed the game and hopefully I'll get her to come along on Wednesday. If say 5k followed waggy's example that would take home support up to around 22k as a base to work from.

It's about time we packed Betty's bags and got a new right winger. He couldn't beat a chuffing egg. Ok sort of performance but two absolutely cracking goals. Great to see Tugay in the side. We're 10th and I'm having a nose bleed. All is well again.

The other Thursday I went to Crewe to see my favourite Progrock band, they were excellent as usual and were on for 2.5 hours. Cost £10. Same night I bought their latest album, lasts 50 mins and can be played over and over again. Excellent. Cost £10. Two days later I spent the night camping in Borrowdale and had two excellent days in the Lakes. Cost for me £4. Total cost for all 3 - £24 I have followed Rovers the length and breadth of England (first away match 1967) and watched them away in Europe. I am still (for the time being) a comitted season ticket holder but I now flatly refuse to give up any more of my cash for away matches when I can get value for money as stated above which is 100 fold that of any Premiership admission fee. Football is sticking its head up its own arse but unfortunately a good deal of sh1t is still pouring out - and it's falling on the head of the genuine football supporter.

Trouble is, the title of this topic is now c.4k too high.

Good decision and full marks to the ref for changing the card after viewing it on tv. When Jenas tackled the Arsenal fairy from behind it was a foul and warranted nothing more than a yellow at worst. Despite being hit from behind the fairy actually did two rolls to the side whilst on the floor. Commentators never pick up on this sort of thing. Good job it was Jenas and not Chopper Harris or Norman "Bite Yer Legs" Hunter or the poor fairy would have been crying for his mummy.

Wigan on its own is not as big as Blackburn on its own. These days they tend to include the "add on" towns, such as Atherton, Hindley, Orrell etc but even allowing for that, I can't see the figure for Wigan reaching 300k. Rugby League will always be the bigger of the two sports in the Land Of The Pies.

Andy Payton - I'd like to see him run over by a steam roller just for being Andy Payton. That's schadenfreude in a kind of loving way. If I were to be a little nasty I would like to see the steam roller go over him, but then reverse back to ensure the job had been done.

Breaking News - Paddy has gone up to Newcastle to start work on cleaning the dust out of their trophy cabinet. The good news is that he should be gone for some considerable time.

My Rothmans Book from 1971 states 52,000 - For reasons which for the life of me I don't know why, I missed the City cup game, so my biggest attendance pre development is the Bolton game when they got promotion. The Bolton game crowd figure that night was the biggest fiddle I've ever seen in my time watching Rovers. There were 20,000 Bolton fans on - they were everywhere. Packed the Darwen End, took over the Blackburn End and there must have been thousands in the Riverside. There were at least 35k on. I was in the Riverside and we were packed in like sardines.

Why do you say sadly? Unless you are a Vålerenga fan?

In the 70's it was the former capacity of 52,000 which hadn't changed for years. By 1980 they had chipped away at it and when we played Villa in the FA Cup in Feb 1980 the capacity was 30,000 with the attendance just a few hundred short of that figure. When the old Riverside was demolished some time in the 80's, and replaced with the CIS Stand (or whatever you want to call it) the capacity was then reduced again to just over 20k.