SO WHATS THIS NEXT QUOTE ABOUT.....................? THAT SHOULD P1SS OFF MORE ST HOLDERS THAN ENOUGH! LOSE / LOSE SITUATION EH?

I can't see that happening and if you do the how? Chelsea's ascent to that of megamegarichclub status appears to have had the opposite effect on their two nearest rivals.

I just wanted something that wrapped up nicely and looked a bit like a proper prezzy.

No Paul I expect em to come up with that in August! They may not publicise it till Dec/jan/Feb/Mar etc and wherever we are in the Prem will probably put a different slant on the issue. Certainly 5th position should be viewed as pennies from heaven! Anybody wishing to make a purchase should be catered for based on planning from months ago. It would be a damned sight harder if we were at the bottom I grant you but the brief to maximise ticket sales to the commercial dept should be the same. It's their job ffs! They dont pick the team, mow the grass, drive the team bus etc they are there to run the businesss successfully by maximising revenue and minimising expenses. Maybe the commercial manager/director should be judged as football managers are and when they lose the direction and the respect of his 'sales team' to the detriment of the club they too should be moved on. Do you really think the commercial people are not busy on the phones trying to sell pacakges to local business? I have a local business and yes I think I can recall one phone call about that........ in the 16 years since the JW revolution! How many calls have you had Paul? Theno - I was copying this post as it wasn't working on the quote function, got distracted and screwed up. Sorry, I think I've put it bcak properly. It was a genuine error not an attempt to change your post, if I have done so.

1. Dont bother about the why's and wherefore's for a minute Tris. All I'm saying is that I'll soon have collected a lump of money that will be spent somewhere on a birthday prezzy but not it appears at 'cash strapped' BRFC. Another question do you think I am alone or would plenty of people / businesses be looking for a similar package now that some exitement has been injected into the end of season situation? It's only natural ffs. A wet summer attracts lots of late bookings but do holiday companies ignore the chance of a quick extra buck? Do they hell! Their fixed costs like those of BRFC remain the same, variable costs are negligible so its nearly all extra bunce isn't it? It should be catered for. 2. At the end of a season there should be offers to stop the normal dwindling away of crowds anyway. You ask me why after going 5th I should expect them yo maximise the situation? Well of course I do........Question for you......if BRFC lose their next 3 home games how many match tickets will be lost for the last 3 matches? Bloody loads! At least this way they will have banked something! Strike whilst the iron is hot is true in this situation. 3. Also Tris..... I know it's bloody inconvenient for BRFC but its a fact that not everybody has a birthday in December isn't it? It's an option for a prezzy that was mentioned but is apparently impossible to supply by the club. 4. Crikey given our position with 30% of our stadium empty and with rivals within 10 miles on 3 sides I should be bidding the final 6 tickets down! Let me give you an example.........When we played at Preston away in the League cup a few years ago (after tonking em at home) I enquired about a private box for 10 with HT sarnies, it should have been a lot more but when I offered 150 quid all in they nearly snatched my hand off! The rules of the SOGA apply everywhere. Maybe Uncle Jacks legacy has dulled our commercial appetite. 5. What else would Tom Finn be doing this week to earn his corn?

Very true it might indeed have but I've still never heard a satisfactory answer.

From the same site Philipl......... http://extratime.corporalcarrot.co.uk/mag/...from=&ucat=123& How wrong can one person be eh? This guy should be forced to has published a grovelling retraction and public apology!

Get this! I rang the club today to enquire about a season ticket to cover the remaining 6 home games of the season (idea for a 30th birthday prezzy). I was told politely that the only thing they could do was to sell me a half season ticket which would cover 11 games ....of which five have been played already! I pointed out that no one in their right minds would purchase on those terms and asked why the price of a half season ticket could not simply be divided by 11 and multiplied by 6 as the 'spent' vouchers had no value. Apparently though this is totally impossible! Kinell.....We can put a man on the moon, clone both living and long dead animals, converse instantly with people all across the globe but we cannot get one ticket to cover half a dozen games in a 2/3 empty stadium! I was told the man responsible is Tom Finn so I shall be emailing him shortly to see if anything can be done. Personally I find all this bloody strange given that I have absolutely no problem in spending money anywhere else these days! I suppose that after dealing with the commercial dept at BRFC for 40 odd years I should not be suprised eh? Well I'm not.......... I'm bloody gobsmacked. I suppose we'll just have to arrange a sky dive or strip-o-gram.

Quite right Sparky. Lets hope that was witnessed by the rest of assorted press and media.

"Wenger reiterated his belief that his team were "on the way up", yet patently they were in the process of the opposite. But then everyone must be allowed their own views. For example, somebody at the BBC, and more particularly Radio Five Live, clearly believes that Stuart Hall is funny." Never a truer word was spoken! How does that man stay in the job ffs?

Well lets hope that puts cheap seats to bed once and for all. £13 for a Prem match! There is nowhere to go with that one I'm afraid. On Sat I went into the International suite at the Darwen End....(the club had emailed me with an offer of two free passes so long being in favour of BRFC gleaning extra revenue by attracting both pre and post-match drinkers / eaters I turned up with my mate.) We've used this facility to take customers in the past and its just right. They need better beer certainly but apart from that it was an enjoyable experience compared to our usual pre match routine. Couple of pints and a bite to eat was just the job. Sat match days must cost me about 40-50 quid with half that going on the ST so getting me to part with the other half at Ewood rather than local pubs should be priority to any competent marketeer and even to a crap old striker. Tris'll blow a gasket here but whilst it's obviously illegal and problematically political but if pubs do it then why dont BRFC investigate showing 'delayed' away matches in their own facilities? Discount the beer a bit and they could blow the pubs away! They will inevitably get prosecuted but the biter bit is that the pubs will then have to face the music too. The police / authorities would be forced to act.

No it isn't Simon. It means giving every kid there yesterday £14 back! We would lose money. Thats just a slap in the face for ST holders Simon. Would you purchase a ST next year knowing that you could get in and have a superb view for a tenner? The bottom line is that Premier League football IS expensive. At the moment it looks too be too expensive for the good inhabitants of our town. Premier League? We either use it or lose it. Snidey tossers sitting in the pub watching on tele will be the first to criticise the board /players /walkers etc etc should we end up getting relegated, as we inevitably will when gravity takes over. Pushing for Europe and with ever reducing crowds?!? Hard luck to the die hards but Blackburn simply does not deserve a top team. Face the facts Blackburn is a tiny depressed Northern town, surrounded by rivals and half full of immigrants and people on benefits who either don't, won't or can't support the towns team. We debate this until we are blue in the face, BRISA can meet and discuss over and over again, JW can rack his brains till the end BUT in a business perspective their is only one solution...... but few are mature enough to face the inevitability of that particular situation.

4 players in Sky's team of the week........despite no place for the MoM! How often has that happened? http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=36...+of+the+weekend

Just compare the tone of this to the reports after Cardiff last year. The press are finally conquering their myopia and waking up to the reality of what the likes of Arsenal's foreign legion are really like. The current success of ourselves Wigan, Bolton, City and West Ham are a good really good do for Prem football. http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/tm_...-name_page.html btw the People pull-out sport supplement carries pictures of Lehman soaking Sav after the game! What a p1sspoor loser that Lehman is eh? I missed the incident but did anybody notice it at the time?

"One thing that's puzzling me though is why Pongolle is being preferred to David Bentley. " It's a strange one. Pongole looks a far better option. A good touch and he has better control and miles more pace and strength than Bentley. I like the look of him a lot BUT he needs to weigh in with more end product and I cannot understand why he isn't doing. Maybe a few more weeks coaching will see him 'bed in' with the team..... after all it took Bentley until Christmas to produce anything like a show of form.

What the fook would they want a 55000 seater stadium for? I'm sure Sunderland would like to sell them one and I think Arsenal might in a years or two too.

Best thing to do Simon. Henry is like Dracula he is scared of crosses! We all know that he cant head crosses from deep but rather thrives on defences pushing too far forward by expoliting the space behind em, so at 1-0 up Hughes tactic to deny him that space was spot on. Henry had the quietest game that I can ever recall. Also Reid went off his game when he was pulled inside to replace Toogs so bringing the Axe on and reverting to that deep destroying 4-5-1 that served us so well last season was excellent tactical management too.

imo Bellamy's simply picking out the slowest and most cumbersome opposing defender who will struggle to cope with his pace the most waggy.

No it was Nelsen. It's a typical arsenal tactic to provide Henry with free kick opportunities. Push the ball past the defender and then run into him and go to ground. Refs (the thick sods) allow themselves to get suckered by it continually.

Well imo I have never seen Thierry Henry have as quiet a game as he had today!

You want to move on to a scenario involving even more cheating / diving / time wasting / play acting etc etc Speeedie? I'm frekin gobsmacked!

Indeed I was Le Chuck. Basically I was referring to inadvertant and accidental actions earning yellow cards. Mistimed tackles, raised arms, accidental hand balls etc. Shirt pulling by definition can never be accidental though. Whats your alternative to my suggestion..... forcing players to play in mittens?

Dont design shirts to combat shirt pullers! Simply send anybody pulling shirts anywhere on the pitch off. How difficult's that? 99% will stop inside a month.

Anyway......... My mate in the pub quiz, is a red hot scouse red from Toxteth. Went to Istanbul and all that. But tonight when we were discussing the delayed KO he knew what it was for BUT had no idea of the actual date and year of the Hillsborough tragedy other than it was around about April sometime! Now it was a terrible tragedy BUT stories like the above certainly provide food for thought eh? Especially before we get the usual heavily agenda'd troop on here before the game.