Link didn’t embed Friends of Real Lancashire

Fully agree. These places were created for “administrative purposes” but nobody seems to want to talk about it. I know Bolton folk who very much see themselves as Lancastrians but the Manchester based broadcast media and Liverpool print media will happily give these places an identity that centres around them so they can given them that ‘wider local’ identity and ultimately make money out of them. We are the paupers on that front which is just how they like it. For anyone interested.... http://www.forl.co.uk

I think for most people, and certainly for 100% of Rovers fans on this mb, it would be like giving up your identity. If Rovers were to ever fold nobody would dream of supporting Preston or Blackpool, and of course not Bumley. Possibly Stanley may see an uptake but there would be more chance of a startup “AFC Rovers” than a more holistic Lancashire side. Which simply highlights the folly of it all. Lancashire has grown up as a county of rival towns rather than any united front. We tolerate each other of course but could you imagine even Darwen becoming part of the Blackburn boundary rather than having its own identity? And that’s just a housing estate in the road to Bolton!! We have the situation we deserve because of parochial thinking. People call it heritage but really it’s just holding us back and keeping us as ‘small towns’. Strange though that it can be done with cricket. Although it could be argued based on location that it is more of a Greater Manchester CC with wider based folk just making it a day or evening trip.

Let’s not be speaking ill of the departed (who are not here to defend themselves). Surely the point there is a cautionary one. Owners CAN do whatever they like with a club. The most famous example being Wimbledon who literally had their club taken away from them. Btw, Lancashire County (as was settled on) is the most financially viable long term proposition in this area. Of course it would take a couple of generations for the OMDB types to be a minority but could you imagine if - like BwD is separate from LCC - there WAS a Lancashire County and we weren’t in it? Even excluding Bumley (now that they have struck lucky and took our PL spot gifted to them by Venkys), a combination of Preston, Blackpool, Bolton, Bury, Wigan plus Stanley, Fleetwood, Southport, Morecambe, and Fylde could produce a very healthy catchment all within a 30 minute drive to a - probably centrally located - new ground in Leyland. Once Bumley fall back down to earth, you could even have two Lancs clubs and still have reasonable catchments. Lancashire Coast (the Seasiders) consisting of Blackpool, Morecambe, Fleetwood, Fylde and Southport. Then County could be Bumley, Preston, Bolton, Bury, Wigan and Stanley. Wonder how our BwD Rovers would fare in a triumvirate Lancs Cup? My preference would still be a North West League but I can see the commercial and financial merits of combining Lancashire clubs. It’s just that fans would rather their clubs were run on peanuts into the ground than accept such a proposition.

How does this bloke keep getting gigs? This might be the straw that breaks the final staunch fans. Surely it’s time for AFC Blackpool? I’d suggest jumping ship to Fylde but this really isn’t right.

You hum it, I’ll play it.

#chadmod

Too right Chaddy. Great start!

Different times. It was 30 years between Pickering and Shearer. 2018 marks 22 years since Big Al left Rovers for Newcastle (wow - I suddenly feel old!). In 8 years time I highly doubt Venkys will have sold us to anyone rich enough to propel us to where a club needs to be to have England’s first choice striker in their ranks. Jack was a one-off.

Don’t think it means anything tbh.

Not strange at all... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Football_Group

We have local billionaires. Trouble is they need to be Rovers fans. We won the league at exactly the right time with Jack. It will take Arab or Chinese money to take us to the PL heights.

I can say with reasonable certainty that we will not see England’s number one striker, at the peak of his powers, in a Rovers shirt again.

Promotion should be our aim until it is no longer possible. The problem with writing off certain games with a shrug means that failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy. For me, Hull is a must win to get us back on track after not beating Millwall. If we had then a draw might have been acceptable.

So it kind of depends on the target. Promotion was 90 points last season so by that definition no game is ‘must win’ until after 16 games. Sam with play offs (75 points) you can write off 21 games before you get any ‘must wins’. If avoiding relegation is our aim (typically 50 points) then we don’t need to win technically until 30 games (provided we get a couple OFA draw). But this is complete folly because it is impossible to win every one of those ‘must win’ games when the target can technically still be achieved. If we assume a WDL sequence (15 wins, 16 draws and 15 defeats) this would probably have us midtable. We ‘must win’ one game in every three game sequence to achieve this target. Ergo, ‘must win’ games happen throughout the season and not only when the maths kicks in - or it’ll be too late.

Yesterday. Hope you weren’t invited to the watch him blow out the candles - you missed it!

Big brands want to be associated with success. I guess local is the way to go but you don’t generate much revenue from each. We need to start being more imaginative and, in particular, grow the fanbase and potential audience for sponsors to advertise to.

There seems to be a school of thought that the only must win games are ones which keep you in the division. It makes no sense. We must have targets for the season’s, teams that we expect to win against vs teams we hope to compete with. I’m with you, if we don’t beat one of our target games then we ‘must win’ one of those that we didn’t expect to. Whether it’s the next game or the last one before we go down (or miss out on the play offs - to balance the argument).

There is something about our first team that screams hope, that screams potential. Maybe it’s youth or team spirit or both. This can overcome a lot of deficiencies in quality. However, we do not have the depth to allow this to translate to the squad having those same attributes. We need the right kind of players on the bench who can influence a game - either to hold on to a lead or to go out and win a game from behind. I still feel that we need a new Danny Graham. Experienced older head and with the right quality but who fits into the squad.

Hopefully we can do the same very early this week. We have gaps in the squad, we have the targets, we have scouted them and spent time confirming their availability, and we have the money. There are no more excuses.

There wouldn’t be any Rovers fans in the section below, that was my point. Having them up there keeps them well out of the way and the noise at that end of the ground to a minimum. Stewarding costs are moot because upper and lower sections are kept separate. It would be good to understand why the club don’t think this would be to the benefit of the team on match day - other clubs do. Just to be clear, I’m not asking them to reverse the decision to move DE fans back. The milk is spilled now. As for being told you aren’t a supporter of you don’t sing, stop being soft. Of course you are a proper supporter, it’s just that another equally passionate supporter but their equally passionate foot in their equally passionate gob.

Any thoughts about housing the away fans in the DE upper, Paul? A much more pertinent debate I’d say.

‘Twas a joke mon amis.

Surely it needs to pan up then, not move?

That wasn’t my question. Accepting that DE is away fans only, why can’t they all be housed upstairs only - unless they sell out and are given more?