I think they joined the queue straight from t'Mecca. ??

I think it is Birdy (Alan Birkbeck) based on the fact him and his friends were at the front of the queue for City tickets. It's strange what the memory holds but I can tell you that they were singing 'we meet the Champions, we shall not be moved' as we passed them to join the queue.

Thanks for sharing these Gav. I look at them and each one raises memories and lots of questions ??.

I'm unable to like your post Ian but I do ?. When this has been put to bed (I'm confident it will) I hope the football world really sees the greed and self interest that exists amongst those who are driving this. Hopefully the clubs involved will then turn their attentions to a European Super League and leave the rest of us alone.

So the generous proposals are going to give £250m to EFL clubs but they won't be paying any more parachute payments saving tens of millions. Reducing the PL by two clubs will be another £200m they can throw into the mix so in actual fact they aren't really giving anything over and above what they currently spend. There is a real suspicion this morning that the big six (I really dislike that term) will want to have the majority to vote on PPV games. Already in this proposal there is suggestion of eight games each for PPV. The Rags reckon that one in seven people globally support them. Imagine the money from everyone of their games being sold. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12102347/project-big-picture-qa-all-you-need-to-know-about-premier-league-shake-up-proposal

https://mobile.twitter.com/RobHarris/status/1315280980958220289?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet PL are disappointed with Parrys involvement.

From today's articles where it appears EFL clubs are in the dark I would say he is a lone wolf. I was told that he is only on a retainer with the EFL so maybe he is lining something up for himself. The word 'slippery' has been used to describe him in the past.

And whoever thinks these stupid Americanised names up should be sacked. Project Restart and Project Big Picture are the wrong names. Project Selfish Bastards would be more apt.

A bit more about the proposal. https://www.football365.com/news/liverpool-man-utd-drive-project-big-picture-premier-leageue-control Rick Parry is supporting this in his role as EFL Chief Executive. One of the proposals is to start the season later so clubs can maximise revenue from overseas trips. The big brother of the PL will pretty much control everything. True colours and all that.

The referee was Dave Allison from Lancaster who was my coach for several years. He was what was termed then as a players referee, quite liberal in his style who generally managed games without too many problems. It was before all the mandates were given and laws changed in an attempt to bring consistency.

This was better though.

It was Gary Bennett who he fought and it was a proper, no holds barred scrap. They started fighting on the touchline and ended up toppling into the crowd. The referee gave them both a severe talking to ???.

I have just noticed that Chris Taylor is playing for Barrow to add to the number of ex Rovers there although Platt hasn't appeared for a few weeks now.

I travelled to a few away games with them and still occasionally see him around Darwen. I did see him prior to one of the Youth Cup matches at Ewood last season and we had a good natter. His youngest son. Nathan was also signed by Rovers so hopefully we could have Rovers supporting brothers in the first team before too long ??.

Yes Andy those type of days weren't for the faint hearted. We were pretty much on the fringes that day but the Rovers fans involved were certainly no shrinking violets. I knew lots of them from going round Blackburn at weekends and a lot of them used to pick their away games based on how much of a tear up there was likely to be.

Remember it well. Hundreds of Rovers fans climbed over the wall where the bus depot was, slid down the shale hill and got in free. Another time a fellow Darrener climbed over the exit gate, opened it up and we poured in. At that time both sets of fans could share the same terrace and a police cordon was the only thing keeping them apart. At that Halifax game the cordon was broken several times as the fans attacked each other. And outside after the game it was like a war zone.

It was much better in my book to Tyrone. I have been watching reruns of The Big Match on ITV4 over the summer and on the whole the football was far more exciting with very few defensive teams and none of this backward, sideways stuff that is far too prevalent in the modern game. Watching some of the players of that generation it was almost instinctive for their first touch to take them forward and look to attack. The bulk of teams played with natural width and simply didn't over complicate a simple game. One really interesting facet is when the camera panned to the dugout and there are invariably no more than four people in it. I'd wager that today's support staff on matchdays outnumber the vast majority of playing squads from that time.

He used to post on here occasionally too.

Cantello was indeed playing and an unsung player amongst the Three Degrees who attracted most of the publicity. Atkinson just let them go out and play - the game seemed much more simple then.

Yes Tyrone just deciding on the hoof to go to a game wasn't the hassle it is today. I remember one Saturday and I was playing in the Darwen Amateur League and our game was called off around 1.30. As Rovers were away several of us decided to go to Old Trafford to see them play West Brom who had a great side at that time. We paid on the gate and saw the best game I have ever seen live. It was 5-3 to West Brom and the football was as good as it gets. Without the ability to have paid on the day we would have gone back to the pub.

Why have a couple of posts replying to mhead been deleted? Edit. They aren't in this thread - sorry.

Stockholm syndrome?

All pretty much let down by the EFL and their weak as piss fit and proper test. I don't think any of them would have encountered the issues they had but for the inadequacies of the people who should have been looking after them. That is where the problem lies in my view.

Great story Jack. You must have many more to tell us ?.

We played Crewe around 1999 I think and Jason Kearton gave arguably the best ever goalkeeping display I have seen. He was simply unbeatable and without him it would have been a massacre. Perhaps it's that game you are thinking of. From memory it was a Sunday game and live on Sky.