They are brilliant. Dillo, if you go back to Manchester go to to Rusholme & the "Curry Mile," preferably at night time. You'll get some fantastic photos.

Ha! Dickov might as well have been playing on his own when Bellamy was playing too. Not that I blame either of them. Kuqi changed the game in that he was a threat to the Wigan back four who were comfortable with the inexplicable and constant stream of high balls before he came on. His height and presence gave a bit more punch to the Rovers' attack, we certainly posed more of a threat after he came on. Overall, only the back four seemed to have come out of this with any credit, the midfield & strikers all had an off-day. But look at our recent record. 17 games since 10th December we've won 11, drawn 2 & lost 4. This time last year we were 16th with 33 points. We finished the season with 42 points. Tonight we have 53 points. Cheer up. It just didn't happen tonight. We were rubbish.

Well Wily, I'll agree with you on that point. As neither Blackburn nor Accrington are "cities" then I think you'll need to tighten up the wording in your original statement, then we can have another look at it.

Old Trafford & The City Of Manchester Stadium are less than five miles apart. The former is in Trafford MBC & the latter is in The City Of Manchester. Does this count?

Sebastian Faulks? It's not often I don't finish a book but "On Green Dolphin Steet" has me bored to tears. But then you're not me.

"The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time" by Mark Haddon is rather an eye-opener. It sort of drags you along in a morbid/intersting/ let's see what happens next way due to the fact that it is written from the point of view of someone who is autistic. Having lived next door to an autistic bloke for a number of years it really rang a few bells. I don't think you have to know anyone autistic to be enthralled by it. I was given a compendium of Michael Palin's books for Chrimbo. Better than underpants though. Sometimes I'm reading it and thinking "the photographers are the stars of this one Michael, you're just putting the words inbetween the pictures."

That's Rovers well and truely screwed because at least 50% of the goals we have ever scored have been while I have been rolling one. It's mine & Rovers' lucky action. Amber Leaf and Rizla up in the air. All over the place. Whooo-hoo. It happened right on cue when Bellamy scored the winner against Boro. You regret this Mr Williams. When we are propping up division 1 you'll be begging me to spliff up in the boardroom. Don't say you haven't been warned.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm any kind of expert on sports psychology or *ahem* "man management," but I think that a lot of Craig Bellamy's re-birth (if you c call it that) lies with the difference between Souness and Hughes. We all know about he formers attitude to players being "if you don't agree with me then go away." When Hughes signed Bellamy I know there were a lot on here who were quite concerned that the latter was a sulky, bad-tempered and indiscipined player who could turn out to be more of a liability than an asset. I was one of them. Perhaps Craig has matured a bit over the past year or so, but I'd like to think that MH has guided and helped him toward his new personality, both on and on the pitch. Just a couple of examples: (i) When Pederson scored that free kick against Boro it was Bellamy who ran long and hard for a seemingly lost ball which we all thought was going out. It wasn't a strikers ball to chase, it was going out near the corner flag, but he got it, brought it back into play and won the free kick. MGP did the rest. (ii) His interview on MOTD after he's scored the winner against Boro was the epitome of modesty and seasoned with a good dash of humour. I may be paraphrasing here "Craig, after you scored that goal, you collapsed near the corner flag." "Yeah, I was knackered." Followed by a big smile. Let's hope he carries on in the same vein for a long time and we keep him at Ewood

Well done Bob, another ripping yarn. Not too sure about but I'll take your word for it.

Very funny, you do it Cheers Colin

But, I think, far too clever for the rest of us. Keep posting

The average distance from the earth to the Moon is 385,000 km. It varies slightly nasa There are 1000 metres in a kilometre so that's 3,850,000,000 metres (1000 metres to a kilometre) or 385,000,000,000 centimetres (100 centimetres to a metre) Now your average baked bean can is 11cm tall, so that's 35,000,000,000 (or 35 billion) tins to reach to the moon Heinz turn out 1.34 billion tins a year so that's enough to stretch about 4.4 % of the way to the moon. A mere 147,400 km. But enough to go over three times around the Equator. Wow! Isn't that amazing? Thanks AS, just about to go and get some more. And seriously. Thanks for the compliments. It makes it worthwhile. *blushes* in a demure kind of way

Dropped.

Monday 3rd April KO 20:00 hours Nah then, you younger readers may need to bear with me while I have a ramble. I’ve got me pipe and slippers on so sit down with a cuppa and pin your ears back. Have a Werthers Original from that pack, and later on you can trim me corns. The relegation and promotion battle is a pretty slow process. Three go up and three go down, the clubs ooze through the divisions slowly like slugs through the garden shed floor so in reality nothing changes too fast. Look at clubs like Sunderland or Crystal Palace. Up and down like a fiddler’s elbow. But generally, they just about find their level. There are few oddities to this rule. The best one was way back in the 1960s when Northampton Town managed, between 1961 and 1969, to get promoted from division 4 all the way up to division 1 and then get themselves relegated all the way back down again. Some will also remember Wimbledon going the same route. The club rose up from obscurity to win an FA Cup final, but they are now propping up League One as Milton Keynes Dons So, onto a brief history of Wigan Athletic FC, a club which has seemingly bucked this trend. For the sake of clarity in the following: The Premiership = division 1 The Championship = division 2 Division 1 = division 3 Division 2 = division 4 Up to the mid 1970’s there was no automatic promotion between the old division 4 and the lower leagues. It was organised by a poll from a Football League committee which, if memory serves me correct, kept Hartlepool in the fourth division despite them finishing bottom for season after season. Basically a self-serving, old-boys club which hardly ever sent anyone down, because they could be on the receiving end the next season. The system was eventually automated in 1977 & Wigan were promoted from the Northern Premier League to the 4th division with Southport going the other way. The club then alternated between divisions 3 and 4 for 20 years. In 1996/1997 they won Division 4 and were promoted to division 3 and got beaten in three play-offs (hey, we can empathise with that.) At the end of the 2002/2003 season the club got promoted from division 3, after coming top and amassing an incredible 100 points, and just two years later they came second to Sunderland and were promoted to Division 1. It’s quite a remarkable story. Four years ago the club had never been higher than the third division, yet on 31st October 2005 Wigan were 2nd in division 1. The transformation is mainly down to two people. Number one is Dave Whelan who took over the club in 1995. Whelan made his money from the JJB sports goods empire and, in an Uncle Jack-like move, ploughed some of his money into Wigan AFC. It enabled the club to move to a brand new stadium, leaving behind the Springfield Park site that various Wigan clubs had occupied since 1897, to the JJB Stadium in Robin Park. They should have kept the old name though. Number two is the current manager Paul Jewel who took over when the club was at the bottom of the division 2. An ex Bradford City & Sheffield Wednesday manager, Jewel is that rare beast in that he is a manager that no-one dislikes. He has the honesty & integrity to admit that his side is outplayed when it is, and avoids becoming a moaning rhino when his team loses. Not only that but he gets by without spending silly amounts of money on useless players. Now, down to previous meetings between the teams……pretty thin on the ground actually. Wigan have never played a league match at Ewood, so this will be their (and our) first time. They did however play us in the FA Cup on 4th January 1998 when we beat them 4-2 courtesy of an own goal, a couple from Kevin Gallacher and one from Tim Sherwood. We also played them at the JJB on 17th December 2002 in the Worthington Cup and won 2-0 with goals Andy Cole. More recently we beat Wigan in the league at the JJB on New Years Eve 3-0. Pederson scored one and Bellamy scored one but everything was outclassed by Stephen Reid’s 25 yard screamer which won MOTD’s goal of the month. Rovers don’t seem to have any ex Wigan players in the squad but the reverse is full of them. Stephan Henchoz joined them via Liverpool and recent direct transfers include John Filan, Alan Mahon* & David Thompson. *Late edit, now flushed his career down the pan by moving to the Dingledome. Perhaps the most significant connection is the aforementioned Dave Whelan. He was a Rovers’ player who joined us in 1953 from Wigan Boys Club and left to join Crewe in 1963, after putting in 87 appearances. In 1960 he played in the F A Cup Final which we lost to Wolves. Apart from him breaking a leg in the match, the game was marred by Derek Dougan putting in a transfer request to Wolves on the eve of the match and some shenanigans over black market tickets. The story is told here on the official Rovers’ site here And if you really want, you can buy it all on DVD from here It’s probably narrated by Mr Cholmondeley-Warner and will feature lots of men in flat caps waving rattles. But I digress, Wigan’s away games read won 8 lost 5 drawn 2. Roberts, Camara & Johansson will the men to watch as they have scored 28 goals between them this season. At the time of writing they are on 46 points in 8th place It should be an entertaining game. And to finish: Some fascinating facts about Wigan Heinz baked beans, along with soups and pasta, are canned at their 55 acre site in Wigan. It churns out 1.34 billion cans of food a year. Joined end to end these cans would possibly go to the moon and back. Then again they might not. Marks & Spencers started out in Wigan in 1894 when Michael Marks met Thomas Spencer. Their first shop lasted for three years before they expanded elsewhere. Wallace & Gromit live in Wigan proof Wigan was once the centre of the Lancashire coalfield - in the late 1800s there were 1,000 pit shafts within five miles of the town centre - Wigan no longer has any collieries. The last pit, Bickershaw, closed in 1992. And we know which vindictive witch put the boot into that one George Formby was born in Wigan. Uncle Joe's Mint Balls, have been manufacture in Wigan since 1898. They keep you “All Aglow!” minty balls Wiganers are sometimes known as ‘Pie Eaters’ but, contrary to popular belief, this has nothing to do with their love of pies. It dates back to a miners’ strike in the 1920’s when Wigan miners were forced back to work before the strike was over. As a result, they were said to have ‘eaten humble pie’ - hence the expression ‘pie eaters

Although Sunderland haven't won at home this season they don't actually ship too many goals. Played 15 conceded 28. So the 0-7 hopefuls may be on the happy pills. They are still utterly rubbish though. Let's hope we're not the team that they manage to nick 3 points from.

Me neither. I woudn't be surprised if he slept on it and decided to go. A really shocking score.

I don't like to get over confident about results, but I've got to agree with GreggyK. If Bellamy is half as good as he was against Boro he'll score three. The Makkems are dire at home, they now know that they are going down, they haven't won at the Stadium Of Light (cue rhyming slang everybody) all season, and, well, that's it. We should win this one shouldn't we? Good to see Flopsy putting the Black Hand Of Gloom on this, it's worked quite well recently.

I don't know if this will be of any consolation to anyone here The Guardian Football & Juventus The day we get 237 is the day the club dies. It's an interesting read

The Guardian: Football365 BBC: Not just those of us with Blue & White specs, even Lawro on MOTD said it was a harsh decision.

The Guardian 4th May 1992 Plymouth Argyle 1, Blackburn Rovers3 Shilton’s sleeping giant suffers Speedie exit Jeremy Alexander AS THINGS turned out elsewhere the result at Home Park was needlessly beastly, If Blackburn had lost they would still have gained the last play-off place. If. Plymouth had- won they would still he in the Second Division. In the programme Peter Shilton wrote that, after two months there as manager, he and his assistant John McGovern “realised in which direction we need to go”. Down was not what they had in mind. He believed Plymouth are “essentially a First Division club”. On his arrival he described them as “a sleeping giant”. The crowd was 17,459, three times the average before he started. Instead of sleeping at home they slept at Home Park. The sun was too comfortable. So, strangely, was the ease of Plymouth’s first-half superiority. Guided by Smith’s left foot on the right, they edged forward like children at grand- mother’s footsteps. Blackburn, expensively assembled by Kenny Dalglish, saw only the shadows. After 10 minutes Mimms, diving like a granny, was too late even for the ball’s shadow and Smith’s half-hit cross-shot rolled under him. It would have been a fitting epitaph to Blackburn’s bungled season. In fact another point was cruelly made. Plymouth had not the firepower to -press home their advantage. Blackburn, meanwhile, had no place even on the bench for Wegerle or Shearer, more than £1.5 million worth of newly signed strike force, They did, however, have Speedle. For half an hour Plymouth held their lead without anxiety. It hardly seemed that destinies were at stake, Blackburn’s objets d’arts were a jumble without harmony. Then the little Scot struck thrice in 25 minutes overall—a simple nod between two blinding flashes beyond the last, faulty defender. As with Manchester United, there has been something greedy about Blackburn’s spending this season. When they led the table by seven points it could at least be justified. Lately, after six successive defeats, it has looked gross. Financially, Blackburn are ostentatiously a Premier League club, but promotion, which might always have been seen as ill-gotten, would now be ill-deserved escape for a manager who has woven himself another cocoon- Dalglish is still unproved. Comparative reactions after Saturday suggest that, given a fair chance, the real First Division manager is now in the Third. SCORERS1 Plymouth, Smith (12mb). Blackhurrn Speedie (45, 45, 67). Plvmouifl AraviOs Sillon Cross, Morgan, Morrison, Marker. Lee. Garner, Mccall, Evans (Nugent, 80), Marshall (Flare. 69), Smllh, Blackburn Rovers Mimms Brown, Wright, Cowens, Moran. t’tendry. Witcok (Price, 2$, Atkins, Speedbe (Richardson, 70), Newell. Sellers. Referee, K Barge (Tonypandy),

The Guardian: 11th May League play-offs, Second Division: Blackburn Rovers 4, Derby 2 Rovers’ Speedie recovery Stephen Bierley WHICH set of supporters will on Wednesday night pop their corks at the Baseball Ground remains open to question. Yesterday Blackburn Rovers, 2-0 down within 15 minutes, won a splendidly unpredictable match, and they must resume as marginal favourites. Derby, who have lost eight home matches this season, will be committed to attack but on the evidence of the dreadful vulnerability of Coleman and Comyn in defence they will be terribly open to counterattack. Arthur Cox’s team could not have had a better start. A clumsy challenge by Hendry on Kitson saw Simpson whip in a curling left-foot free-kick which Gabbiadini dived to head past Mimms. Speedie should have equalised and Sellars thudded a cross-shot against the base of a post before Johnson put Derby further ahead. McMinn and Williams instigated the move, although it was their inability later to control midfield that cost Derby dear; Simpson’s deft chip left Johnson in the clear and Hendry and Moran arguing with each other. At that point there were few doubts that Blackburn’s season was as good as over and that Derby would go on to Wembley at a restrained canter ready to unleash one final, drumming gallop. Then everything began to go wrong. A Simpson challenge of small intent on the histrionic Speedle saw Sellars strike a free-kick which took the most insidious of deflections. Daiglish, unlike Cox, bought largely for the moment: old heads to he sacrificed once the Premier League was reached. The policy has often seemed dubious but on this occasion experience told, if Derby had held on to 2—I at half time things might have been different, but Newell’s shot in the 44th minute levelled the match and saw Rovers emerge after the interval with buoyant optimism, their horrid opening forgotten. The width in Blackburn’s play so stretched Derby that huge holes opened. McMinn and Williams were overrun or bypassed and Simpson and Johnson became bystanders as Speedie wreaked havoc. Sutton had made a fine save ‘from the former Liverpool player before an elementary mistake by Comyn saw the Scot race in to put Blackburn ahead. Then, with Derby chaffing to make a double substitution to plug the gaps, Speedie increased Blackburn’s lead. All is not lost for Derby. Kitson, Simpson and Johnson have the pace to cause mayhem in the Blackburn defence, where Mimms inspires little confidence and Hendry is capable of the most rudimentary mistakes. It is Rovers’ fourth play-• off in five years. Nobody can say they have not had practice. Blactcbatn, Reverts Mimes; May, Wright, Cowans. Moran (Richardson, 56mm), Hendry, Price, Atkins, Speedle (Shearer, 71), Newell, Sellers Deity county, Sutton; Kavanah, Forsyth, McMmnn (Ramage, 71), coleman, Comyn, Johnson, iCison. Gabbiadlni (Mlcklowhite, 11), Williams, Simpson. Referee, K Hackett (shefileld).

Possibly a mirror image photo? Anyhoo, Cletus posted this some time ago football kits The mnemonic is "since 1938 the white has been on the right"

After being barracked by Villa fans for 89 minutes as a Birmingham reject, Lilly Savage finally breaks his Rovers' duck with a free kick to win the game. Rushing to share his joy with the Villa supporter, he trips and falls over the hoardings into the Darwen End and is never seen again Leery O'David's post-match interview on MOTD causes a sudden influx of rib-related injuries at Blackburn Infirmary. Good post Shillito.

Go the whole hog and have a look at Grasshoppers in Switzerland too. You might as well sleep on the sofa for four shirts as five

Drifty, Have a look at The Old Fashioned Football Shirt company I can vouch for the quality, they are really good, and if it's as hot in Texas as I am lead to beleive, these cotton shirts will be a lot more comfortable than the rayon/nylon replicas.