Can you imagine all the Rovers fans heartily singing “There’s only one Stevie Cotterill’ on Sunday? Well Ewood Park April 1983 saw Frank Casper, the then Burnley manager, getting the full support of the Blackburn End in the same vein when he rounded on the scum in the Darwen End who were chucking shards of asbestos roofing at their own fans. ‘Animals, you’re animals’ he declared over the tannoy from the Nuttall Street touchline! Actually, it isn’t very funny, is it really….more like bizarre.

Who can sing and shout loudest and longest?!?

The one and only Simon Garner scored the winner in a 1 - 0 victory at Turf Moor, Lancs Manx Cup - August 1985, so many recent victories there, it is easy to get them confused!

<The traditional so called working class fans will stick with what they know ( yes - the loyal hard core ) but the middle class who even in this area are now a large majority which is steadily growing are not so loyal.> - From Tashor. The working (or non-working) class fan has already been discouraged from attending Ewood on price, particularly as a live footie fix is so easily available via TV, now in direct competition with nearly all Rovers matches. The more recent Premier League audience (used advisedly) - middle-class, glory hunters, women, young children – definitely tend to be much more fickle and choosy as to where their leisure pound is spent. Yesterday - a lovely clear day, perfect for watching football - the fair-weather fan was almost certainly also discouraged by the fiver price hike on the day. Perhaps the difference between fifteen and twenty quid is insignificant to many but it is almost certainly enough to act as another disincentive to the armchair/barstool brigade. For every additional fan Craig Bellamy in a Blue n White shirt would attract to Ewood Park, a similar number ( those repelled by the tarnished image of the greedy, spoilt modern professional football player, Bentleys and all) would likely be lost. The recent marketing of football has sanitized the match-day experience to such an extent that, win or lose, the event itself is increasingly diminished. With the 15 – 25 year old young male fan constituting a reducing percentage of the total crowd, things are going to get worse. As a teenager, I remember standing on the Blackburn End terrace and the singing,pushing and jostling was akin (admittedly not ALL the time!) to a Clash or Jam gig at King Georges Hall. Even though attending Ewood Park these days with my daughter in more sedate (literally) surroundings would preclude such fun, I wish the Blackburn End was still like this… Nobody seems bothered by what has been lost nowadays; not all change has been for the better (queue moans about past poor facilities, urine on the terraces etc). The baby has definitely been hurled out with the bath-water.

More like put the drummer in the Darwen end to sabotage the visiting supports' chants and annoy them. The other issue I have with the drumming is that fewer Rovers fans seem to bother clapping anymore - either as part of songs or spontaneously to acknowledge good play. Then again, responsibility for the lack of applause by Rovers fans at Ewood over recent months might not be solely the drummer's fault !

Why not get Blackburn People's Choir on the case to lead the Blackburn End chorus? Only about 20-30 of them but clean, tuneful and powerful vocals - they might need lyric sheets for some chants (eg for the Blackburn Infantry, I was born etc) and there might be some potential away fans amongst their number but it's got to be worth a shot. As regards comments in this thread, it cannot be a fait accompli with the drummers, surely? The <Pavlovs' dogs> response has got to be broken...as McClarky pointed out, renditions of the classic 'Cmon you blues' have been lost in recent seasons because of its lack of percussive opportunity (in spite of occasional vain efforts still by the dot matrix scoreboard to inspire it). Reduce the drumming and rip out a few seats and get that Frenzy single on...

Read the testimonials further up , voted for Latheron narrowly over Forrest....then deigned to read the full thread! Talk about hanging chads... No way should Tim 'original handbag' Sherwood be the second midfield great - did he not flash the V's at the Blackburn End once?

...why was he not given the opportunity to leave the club '..by mutual consent', if his exit is deemed so necessary? And why right now? The humble and loyal guy has been let down by Blackburn Rovers, regardless of his financial position, of that there is no doubt. If Jack Walker did once demand TP was found and should maintain a role at Ewood, surely that should count for something in the face of all this hard-nosed pragmatism that many on here seem to share? Shabby treatment of TP all round, not just the 'leak' factor. Thanks and all the best Tony!

Can hardly believe this... My respect for Hughes as manager is diminished if this is true.

Colin <<It's very difficult for me to get excited and make a noise when we are losing and when it looks like we are going to end up with no points again.>> Too true for most in today's Ewood Park but this was not always the case. The expected pattern of behaviour of the modern-day supporter in the stadium designs of today backed by the Taylor report legislation thwarts almost all attempts to buck the trend of what is happening on the pitch (when it is dire). Not trying to suggest there is a lack of a stiff upper lip these days across the footie world as a whole but, if your team and team's results are poor, you are expected to sit in sullen silence, perhaps even sob for the Sky TV cameras if relegation is at stake, or the old favourite, leave early. In days of yore, not too long ago, dull nil - nils would result in banter on the terraces and hardcore fans would have a good time in spite of the game with boisterous chanting and surging (ironically even), Laurel and Hardy theme etc. Even sizeable defeats would foster defiant chanting 'Oh if you're going to ...insert next fixture....clap your hands' etc. This trumped up steward issue on the Blackburn End recently is all handbags really but soon the turgid torpor will return and everyone will have a great view of the pitch again. Rah Rah Rah! Prawn sarndwiches all round

Of course this is a diversion from the turgid fayre that has been served up on the pitch at Ewood Park over recent months! There is nothing new in fans looking for an outlet to vent their frustration in times like these and this issue is just that. The fact that some embrace it and some don't doesn't make it any less valid. This is fine for messageboard debate but it is a pity when it becomes a distraction from the important business of fans supporting the team during matches. Which brings it cyclically back to how that is best achieved and maintained, particularly during lean times, with fan base falling away and the ever diminishing sense of occasion and lack of atmosphere/vocal support. All those who wish for things to go on pretty much as they are as far as the anodyne Ewood matchday experience is concerned will I'm sure be satisfied that the club are doing their very best to maintain the status quo. Feel free to start a new thread discussing eg the nuances of Barry Ferguson's midfield role and whether he is a worthwhile default man-of-the-match!

<<Fans that Stand... the bane of my elderly mother's life as a BBE season ticket holder. She no longer goes to games because she missed half the game due to being forced to look at someones back end rather than her beloved Rovers. Move to a more sedate area of the ground you say... Why should she?>> 14/5/95 - it wasn't your Mum who used to start the chants on the Blackburn End with 'Give us a B...etc', 'You are my sunshine...' and 'I was born....etc'? Also, why is sitting in the Blackburn End more important to her than watching her team? Even in the Blackburn End there are some seats where no one could obscure your view (over the vomitories or even with the percussion section on the front row somewhere). Incidentally, why are they not obliged to remain seated by the stewards?!? Do all you can to get her back on (she could even act as a spotter for the stewards)!

Breathalysers at the turnstiles and seatbelts on the Blackburn End - that'll make the stewards task a lot more straightforward! Fingers on lips etc. Keith Lard lives and breathes!

While some may console themselves that our unbeaten home run had to end sometime , today's game (not simply the result) indicates that we are are in for another grim season.... The Blackburn End chant of < You only $"%& on your own fans> directed at the police, stewards and board this afternoon was worrying in that we are in danger of being distracted from rallying together by the club's policy towards people standing in that area. With the entire Middlesboro following stood for most of the game, coupled with inconsistent decision making by the officials, the inequity was always going to manifest itself as anger. After Tugay was sent of (legitimately in my book), in stead of the team closing ranks, our defence was laid bare yet again. The worst of it is is that most of the players don't seem to care or be able to do anything to satisfy the home crowd's demand for effort and guts. Like many, I hate the <Gerrintoem!> chant but there is good reason why Rovers supporters feel obliged to urge the team on with it... Roll on Chelsea then....

<<Society is moving on and will continue to do so. I'm happy to be restricted and controlled.....>> Tony Blair must love you, Col! I wish you had carried on....equating sending children up chimneys and down the pit with the barbaric practice of watching sport standing...still progress isn't all beneficial....the sticklebacks in the puddle on the Riverside running track when the pitch drainage was worse 20 years ago have long gone....perhaps it's linked to global warming?! Let's say a prayer or two for all those poor unfortunates at lower league football grounds and rugby grounds this weekend, let's hope they endure their hideous misfortune attending live sporting events with only minor casualties (perhaps a burnt tongue on a hot bovril?)

We are not going to get 'proper' terraces back at Ewood Park easily but a bit of leeway as regards standing in certain seating sections is surely a valid compromise. The club's recent draconian stance with steward intervention and letters to season ticket holders is surely not the way forward. On another hobbyhorse I have, apparently unreserved seating areas have to have a 10% reduction in capacity...if this is indeed the case, it would require 500 empty seats in the Blackburn End lower tier so that is a potential stumbling block to what I saw as the best way of getting the vocal fans together (for another thread, I know). One way round it might be to include the Family Stand Upper tier in the calculation as there are increasingly large gaps there (as we Riversiders can see). As I requested earlier, anybody know if the Fans Forum and the club are seriously considering any initiative on any of these matters or will the status quo prevail and the decline in atmosphere and attendance be allowed to continue?

Colin/Alan No one is going to force anyone into an enclosure pen again...there will still be seats in stands! Even if you don't personally want to be in a packed terrace, I'll bet you can appreciate the atmosphere/noise they used to generate? It's all to do with supporter choice and the current 'one size fits all' mentality has got to change or we will continue to attract fewer young vocal fans to Ewood Park.

FAO Glenn or other Fans Forum representatives (this thread seems as good as any to raise it). Last April you posted this on a 'Singing Section' thread (regarding canvassing the club's view on supporter choice at Ewood Park, not your lack of bar/messageboard presence : <<I believe the infamous Kawazki cloak of invisibilty I always seem to be wearing when stood at a bar is now hiding my posts too (either that or people aren't reading them). WE HAVE SPOKEN TO THE CLUB ABOUT THIS ALREADY AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO! It will no doubt also be spoken about again at the next fans forum too, thing are in motion already, opinions are being canvased, notes being taken.>> Nothing was really done for the start of the current season but is there any update or progress to report yet? Somehow singing Rovers fans have got to be able to cluster together (and it should be on the BBE). Apparently, even our friendly neighbours are going down this path now...

Hanx - 5LF

What about sitting down and waving a flag or banner or group of lads synchro clapping with arms over their heads? Where do you draw the line with this? The standing v seating debate is never going to be won by those of us who want to stand but just get likeminded fans together without the dilution effect of those who politely applaud being interspersed. And let them bring irregulars with them to sit alongside their mates if they are loud enough! Get the boisterous lot together even if it requires some steward to come around and Araldite their keks to the seats!

Vindaloobob, I do feel sympathy with traditional long-term fans of premiership (or recently so) London clubs that have already been excluded and priced out their support; the new constituency, though, no.... Don't blame any Rovers fan for not wanting to attend Stamford Bridge on cost and don't assume that price (albeit relatively much cheaper at Ewood Park) is not still a valid factor here in Lancashire.

I'd love there to be standing areas at football grounds again, ideally without any seats but, if necessary, with people standing in front of them. The problem now is the lack of choice...everyone is expected to get the same matchday experience wherever they sit in the ground. I don't go in the Blackburn End myself anymore so people who do might think I'm not entitled to this view but the whole of the lower tier should be unreserved seating. There should still be season tickets available for 85% of it and the fans who buy a ticket for it should accept there may be periods of standing during games around them. There are families and old codgers (admittedly almost one myself!) sat in what used to be the crucible of the Ewood roar....why? Why do they feel they should sit there when regardless of the terracing/seat debate, that type of fan never used to? Supporters of the same type (ie those who attend matches in the same manner) should cluster together. The atmosphere would improve immensely and the standing debate would be less of a general issue. With our recent fall in attendances, every effort should be made to get the fickle, fairweather or alienated fan back and that can only be achieved by making it easier for them to attend spontaneously. Ten minutes after the recent Bournemouth game kicked off there were still a few hundred queuing for tickets behind the Blackburn End - regardless of the security stance of the club on this, it is certainly a retrograde step over the covenience of pay turnstiles that everyone finds it convenient to ignore. I doubt we'll ever hear the Blackburn End songs of yore the way things are...then we wonder why the atmosphere seems diminished. I think Amanda's attempts are admirable but there are too many people in the comfort zone to achieve the change...Colin Moynihan has a lot to answer for.

Tris, Might you and Amanda not have a bit of 'London weighting' in your monthly payslips to help back up your perspective? Philipl had it sussed above in this thread, as per

McClarky and MCMC The Valley Blues coach was indeed the VIP way to travel to Rovers away in the mid to late eighties...I'd travel from Blackburn to catch the coach as would Smelly Frank from Darwen for the convivial company on those trips (and it wasn't Rocky on the vids either!). Top flag with Whalley arches and other scenic Ribble delights on they had too... Remember the coach 'sneaking' through a police cordon on a 'dry' trip to Huddersfield (after Tory Moynihan tried to scupper ale en tour) only for a massive chorus of 'Roll out the barrel...' let rip, accompanied by three bin bags of empties being discarded from the emergency exit....East Lancs pale ale tins bouncing around the tyres of the police bike escort... People having to be pursuaded to get on the coach with 'Burnley' emblazoned on the side on a Newcastle trip, the driver then setting off for Staffordshire and we were heading towards the M6 before anyone noticed... There was indeed a propensity for the coach to get 'waylaid' ( for a comfort break) at the Woolpack on the roundabout in Rossendale... Arriving at a Holts pub in Cheetham Hill at 11:00 for a City game at Maine Road....then 40 - 50 blue antimaccassars adopted as de rigeur headgear a la ski chapeaux...some sold for a fiver to other envious Rovers fans on the Kippax... Celtic - Rangers 'debates' to while away a long trip... Happy days....away travel certainly ain't what it used to be ( not that I'd know for sure of course!)

I'm confident enough in my sexuality and supping palate to declare the mild isn't what it was in there...still <the Wheatsheaf> really as they haven't chiselled off the carving over the door... a fundamental part of the Barbary Coast experience (or is that unacceptable from a PC point of view nowadays?)