Can't understand 1. Why the kick off was not delayed. 2. Why they opened the small gates on the Riverside and not the big ones.

imo (and this may be something to do with age I grant you) the Champions League is dull and uninteresting compared to the old European Cup knock out system. It's proving a turn off for the public. G14 only clubs would make it as dull as dishwater. I've said it before, take away hope, optimism and expectation from football supporters and it'll be as dead as a dodo in quick time.

Big regret of my life was not being able to see Duggie and Shearer in their pomp and in the same Rovers team. How many would Big Al have scored for us then?

I dont think you read FLB's post properly LDR.

Hughes would be mad to blow his meagre budget on a crock.......... and he certainly isn't that mad. Forget Dunny and move on. ......btw did somebody mention Joey B somewhere? Now he'd be a far better transfer target.

PR stinks? Hardly. We've upset a few fans it appears, and I'm not happy really either cos imo if it had been a less fashionable club than Liverpool the Prem League would prob have rejected their appeal outright thereby protecting us from being put on the spot as we have been. The Prem have been very very weak imo by not shouldering the responsibility for any decision themselves! BUT I think overall your criticism is unfair and as far as BRFC is concerned the PR on this occasion is actually good! Our poor reputation in the world of football was damaging enough to be discussed at full board meeting not too long ago. MH was left in no doubt that our reputation must be restored. He has done that exceptionally well on the pitch and I think this benevolent capitulation will have helped even more to dispel our unearned poor reputation within the footballing world outside Blackburn. BUT TO JUSTIFY IT WE MUST NOW MAKE SURE THAT WE EXPLOIT THIS UNSELFISH AND SPORTING DECISION FOR ALL IT IS WORTH. GO MILK IT ROVERS!

He may as well stay where he is then! I was Steadinho's biggest critic last year and got plenty of flack from the experts on here for saying that he was not Prem material. BUT it really gives me no pleasure seeing him unable to score week in week out. I may be wrong of course but he does seem a genuinely nice kid and he really deserves a touch of good luck sometime..... as long as it's not against us of course. btw .....Anybody rem reports of his agent asking for more money for Stead at the end of his first season because he had done so well?

Wouldn't do that much for BRFC but would do wonders for the airlines and cause havoc with the environment.

Vote Labour eh? You know it makes sense!

I dont really understand why people pay for the JW upper centre these days. Why not simply pay for the outer area and then move in 5 mins after KO. Nobody ever stops people doing this.......... ........suprised no ones mentioned this on here yet tbh.

I did say that I was employing lateral thinking SG. But consider this (prob far from accurate guesstimation) ...if JW was still alive the rest of the supporters are unecessary! In half a dozen years he chucked in about 3 times more than the rest of us have contributed in total in 15! I dare say Abramovitch could quite easily weld up the turnstiles at the Bridge and have his own personal Prem league club for himself and invited guests only. All that tells me in actuallity abbey is that you would simply be one of the first few thousand to fall by the wayside. My research for the above was virtually none existent but yours is even less!!!!!!!!!! Think deeper into the subject and tell me how would you feel if the number of games were halved? Less wages, costs and overheads still, yet you would be paying exactly the same for a season ticket as you are now. If that had been in place since the year dot and you had only ever known that situation I'd wager that you would be quite happily shelling out for your ST year in year out just the same.

Good stuff macca. Now somebody with ticket price increases over the last 10 or so years please and we will really be getting somewhere. I must say given the figures that you provided re: indices of deprivation, unemployment, coupled with changing demography of the population we wont ever again have much hope of increasing the supporter base in anything other than a short term blip based on the occasional succesful season. Possibly time for more unpopular but inevitable lateral thinking? Lanky Utd maybe? or how about 'North West Nomads' eh? Wait........ I've got it! Red Rose Rovers!

No thats I think that is more than reasonable.........! Dave's right. There are too many 'I've got that particular 'T' Shirt ex fans around. I've said before that it is the 60's revisted but you kids wont accept it. BTW Are there any economists out there with facts, who can relate the cost of a ticket in 92-96 to the cost of living and taking into account the average wage, with the equivalent ratios in 2006? Might be helpful and probably very revealing

Oh dear. You should have quit whilst you were ahead gazsimm.

Yes Paul but in gav's defence.....there's no chance of gettong a sh*g at the Rovers.

And there's the rub! We cannot blame people for staying away if they simply cannot afford to go (lots could afford to go in 94-95 though ....and to the final in the millenium stadium ). The fact is that 1. through mainly geographical factors more fans support their team from Blackburn than anywhere else. and 2. Blackburn is a depressed, run-down northern town with a small population most of whom are on below average incomes. The result assisted by Sky, Canal+ et al is that we can never hope to fill Ewood never mind extend it! Now all we need is the solution. Forget piffling circular arguments about attendances for a bit, what we must discuss is income. Lateral thinking maybe .....but has anybody considered doubling the cost of a ST and settling to cater for just 10,000 fans? Just 2 stands open means less staff, less insurance and less up keep. Discuss that cos I'm bloody sick to death of people chattering on about tickets for a tenner and kids for a quid. It's demeaning and embarrassing to the club. This is the Premier League not the piggin DearDora!!!

It suddenly became so cold that most kids will prob dread going again! The lack of decent clothing suitable for for such temperatures was evident. Slaves to fashion or cheap bargain hunters matters little but few people nowadays seem to value the benefits of proper clothing.

Kids for a quid? I was speaking to a bloke after the game who confided to me that he bought a ticket for a quid and took his wife! She strolled in and there were no checks and no questions asked. Great business move eh?

He might (just) but in a 5 man midfield. Personally I would be struggling to find a place for Bentley in my strongest team. He is not a striker, not a winger and not a midfielder as such. He is useful on the bench though as he can make a passable attempt at any of them. Emerton deserves to be selected next week imo. But he still does my head in! On one occasion when he won the ball and we were pouring forward with Villa in disarray he chose to play a ball deep to Pederson and by doing so gave Villa the necessary few seconds to organise. He has certain attributes but killer instinct is not one of them. Pongole looked a threat yesterday and is mighty quick.... he's growing on me. Dickov was up for it when he came on and is damned good at defending from the front should we be ahead in the closing stages. Nelsen was good. Neil had his worst game of the season by far. That said I do think Gareth Barry is a damned good player. says it all that Brad was deemed MoM.

He does like to get forward frequently and is exceptional at thrusting forward from deep positions behind other players.

"18,000*28 =£504,000 30,000*12=£360,000 I know which one I'd rather have." Deeeeyell Jan! I wonder why brfc4eva couldn't manage that simple calculation? Its not just him but loads on here suffer from the same problem. I blame comprehensive education personally.

The catering facilities at the front of the Riverside are in the open air Paul. I dont smoke but even I could not object to the authorities allowing smoking in the Riverside...... especially if it was restricted to one end of the stand. Smokers money is as good as anybody else's to BRFC so surely a perfectly legal solution could be found. Mind you in our poncy nanny state I could even imagine em banning it at Portsmouth!

Brave decision jbn to also drop our brand new six million pound man!

I know exactly how you feel ROVERS!

Since JW took over we've had the benefit of Cowans, Batty, Sherwood and Tugay playing deep midfield. Bentley will have to go some to come anywhere near that lot!