Sorting out some of the shee-ite in our loft and found some photos from Celtic 3 Dundee 0, April 23rd 1988 when Celtic clinched the title. Attendance estimated at 75k, you just paid your cash and they let you in 😆

Just watching MK Dons thrashing Plymouth 5-0 at Home Park. Look a very assured outfit and, the young lad up front, Scott Twine has bagged four of them. A very good player on this showing.

When we were, briefly, in second place, the general census of opinion was that it would be a good tussle with Bournemouth to get the second automatic spot by the end of the season. If that were not possible, finishing anywhere between third and sixth was almost guaranteed. Shows what we have thrown away.

Yeah, you’re right mate. My mistake. JHRover’s figures (for the whole stadium) are correct.

Blackburn End Lower - 5k, Jack Walker Stand - 9k, Riverside - 6k Those are the capacities. Your figures seem out by a bit. By my reckoning, we’ve currently sold 17,950. That includes Bournemouth’s 1.5k.

This doesn’t need any introduction. Bought from the Evening Telegraph, nice glossy, big photograph, when Blackburn still had a decent newspaper. Mike Newell, one of my all time favourite Rovers. (I’m clearing our loft out, by the way, so there could be a few more appearing) 😆

Rovers 1 Coventry 0 26 Jan 1980 and Rovers knock first division Sky Blues out of the FA Cup.

Millwall seemed to fill that away section last Saturday and had around 1900 there.

Bolton 0 Rovers 1 28 March 1973 A great night on the Embankment. No segregation and as usual at Burnden, the police couldn’t give a monkeys. Let’s just say you needed your wits about you.

There are seven areas to look at there, namely :- - All aspects of football operations, as a priority, the fans - Commercial - Ticket fiascos - The academy - The pitches - Rumour and speculation - The finances With all due respect 1864, it all sounds rather vague. There are no specifics. I know I sent you a personal message a few weeks ago and I was grateful for the time you took to reply. However, I didn’t learn anything as, your reply to me was in the same format as this, ie. all rather vague. I suppose, in addition to the areas above, you could also add in the stadium and, not least of all, the position of the manager. That would increase the seven areas to nine, without thinking of a few more. How about a few specifics. Perhaps choose just two of the above nine areas and let us know how you have been left with such optimism that leads you to believe that ‘there is a better future ahead for the club.’

I’ll listen Ian 🙂 In fact, put it on here if you get time 👍

Clubs like Burnley have a shelf life in the top flight and it’s not a long one. Most of the Premier League clubs are now owned by multi billionaires with the cash to splash on top quality (usually foreign) players. Liverpool and Man City have set the bench mark in the style of continental type football that has become the norm. Burnley have never had the financial clout to try and do this, hence Sean Dyche and his very fit, very organised, very energetic, very good-at-set-pieces but very ordinary players. This brand of football doesn’t last forever, so clubs like Norwich, Burnley, Brentford, Bournemouth (they’ll be down again), Watford etc. know they have to enjoy it while it lasts. The hierarchy in the Premier League is set, now, largely on wealth. Very sad but very sweet that the trapdoors are now opening for the Clarettes.

A rebuild from the ground up would have been difficult enough with Kenny as manager and Uncle Jack still providing the bulk of the finance. Instead, we have absentee owners who know absolutely feck all about football and who, rather than putting in place a proper, functioning, internal structure at the club, have installed a muppet who would struggle running a corner shop. There’s only one way this football club is going and it ain’t up. Venky’s Out. Mowbray Out.

I would have Dyche here over Mowbray all day long. Dyche, however, is savvy enough to know that working with Venky’s would be a no, no and it would never happen. Not only do we have a desperately poor manager, we have by far the worst owners in football. And then some.

Mark Brennan, in that Boro side, was born in Rawtenstall and went to St Mary’s College, Blackburn. Made his name at Ipswich and forged out a reasonably decent career.

First and only visit to Peterborough was in November 1974 when we lost 1-0. In fact, they did the double over us in that promotion year. We had a big following, as we did everywhere that season, and I travelled down on the League Liner, or was it the Ewood Express? Can’t remember which. I wish I still had the enthusiasm that I did as a sixteen year old back in 1974 but I haven’t. Venky’s, Mowbray and the way the Rovers build up your hopes, before kicking you in the nads, have completely worn me out. Whilst I obviously want us to win, I have little, or no, interest in the game and I won’t be either tuning in or keeping a tab on the scores. That’s a one nil win to Rovers then. It would be just like us.

Too right Matty, we bossed the game from start to finish. We were being bought breakfast whiskies by Irish Celtic fans in the hotel the next morning and they acknowledged that as well. Celtic were a top notch team then and, of course, reached the final. How far we’ve fallen.

Yeah, a bit of a balancing act Tyrone. My mrs managed to somehow get two tickets for the Celtic game without me knowing, so off we went there! Still a season ticket holder at the DW and yes, Jai Field is a quick lad and a damn good player.

Decided to have a stress free Saturday, this weekend. No thinking about Venky’s, no thinking about Tony Mowbray, no analysis of our current death spiral, no pondering of square pegs in round holes and so on. First time on Celtic Park since 2003 and, strangely, I was sat in the same seats/section as when we lost the first leg of our UEFA Cup tie that night, Henrik Larsson scoring with ten or so minutes to go. Drove into the Parkhead district of Glasgow at 1pm, no traffic queues whatsoever, plenty of free parking on nearby side streets, we actually parked up on a retail park, five minutes from the ground and sampled a pint of the black stuff in one of the many pubs on the Gallowgate. No hassle, queues or problems despite a 60k crowd, plenty of time for photos and showing my mate around the outside of the stadium. Decent seats and view, with a great atmosphere as you would expect with a 7-0 win. New manager Ange Postecoglou is doing a great job up there. He’s managed in the Japanese J League and obviously has connections because of that. Three of the current four Japanese players at Celtic are generally making the starting eleven and it shows that some real, relatively cheap, talent can be picked up if you think outside the box. Rovers take note.

Finally, another of Ewood Mill. You can just see the Blackburn End turnstiles, in the bottom left hand corner of the photo, and the first few steps of the Blackburn End terracing. Photo undated, probably 1950.

Albion Mill, near the canal, photo undated but possibly 1950. Ewood Park, in the top right of the photo, has yet to have its Blackburn End cantilever roof, so definitely pre 1960/61.

Ewood Mill, which used to be on the other side of Bolton Road, once you exit Ewood from the Blackburn End and where McDonald’s now is. You can also see the top of the ‘triangle’ where the old Blue & White Supporters Club used to be. Dated 1950. Also, the Fox & Hounds pub, bottom right.

Ewood Park, 1928. Photo taken from the Historic England website.

It certainly is Tyrone 👍