Top class preview and a very enjoyable read. Many thanks for the effort on our behalf.

Sorry Cocker but you must be having a laugh. Reid thinks the ball is a hot potato, and in my opinion it does not matter in which position he plays.

And here was me wondering how the club are going to male ends meet?

Can anyone fill me in with the rules re kit colour clashes. How is it when we play a team whose shirts are white eg Bolton or Spurs, we have to wear our away strip. Yet Brum were allowed to wear a white shirt against us today?

More Udders than Rovers. Darwen end has more Udders that there were barcodes at the weekend. They estimate gate of around 8000

Booked for kicking ball into net when he had been flaged offside (According to Radio Lancs)

What a memory Den lad. The one and only Denis the menace Law. I wonder how many folks will know who the manager of Town was when Denis started at Leeds Road? Great peview as always. We are truly blessed on this site with excellent previews.

It is noticeable that the question asks for four Englishmen (Born in England?) but not necessarily capped BY ENGLAND. May not help but just a thought.

Great new look. Well done. By the way, why do only some avtars appear on my screen and some of the clickable smilies are missing on the enter post page?

Might be better to look at next seasons fixtures before we contemplate signing Bellamy. Just think if we signed him in the summer only to find the first match of the new season was the geordies at St.James'. "Bellamy's season cut short as he has lost his head" On a personal point I think he is a good player but I feel the dissruption caused by him in the dressing room would be a terrible price to pay after all the good work this term. You never know though. Spending some time in Glasgow where in is not too beneficial to your health if one goes around saying stupid things in the wrong places, might have actually done him some good.

Having had a few days to compose myself since the semi final games last weekend, I have been left wondering whether the Millenium Stadium or indeed the FA are both fit bodies to be in control of such big games. Although our beloved fans were extremely well behaved, I noticed that in the game on Sunday both the mancs and the geordies were stood up during the whole match. Not just the exiting bits but the whole 90 minutes. This on the anniversary weekend of the Hillsborough disaster, the repercussions of which have affected all of us and the stadiums of this land. If the result last sunday of the standing crowds had led to another crowd problem, then where does the buck stop? Am I the only one who noticed this? The press were to caught up in the relentless persecution of our Andy to notice such things, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they would have been wringing their soiled hands in mock horror if such an event had happened, and pointing their slings and arrows in all directions.

The best feeling for me at the moment is that even though the gutter press and their reptillian reporters, Chelsea, Arsenal, the FA, the BBC, Lawrenson,Hansen etc. etc. etc. hate us, THE ROVERS WILL BE IN THE PREMIERSHIP NEXT SEASON, so they will just have to lump it. Meanwhile I will just get on with supporting my team as I have for the past 45 years and sod the press. Woo them indeed? I know what I would like to do with them!!!!!

I have been reading many of the comments and I think there are many fair points raised for and against going to Cardiff. My position is that both the wife and I are season ticket holders in the Blackburn End. I myself have been a season ticket holder for 40 years. We are going to Cardiff and taking a 12 year old lad, who we have managed to get interested in watching Rovers, and I am sure will become a fan for the future. He is not a season ticket holder. So,because he is not a season ticket holder, we have to wait until Saturday before we can all get tickets together, hopefully in the family enclosure, thereby enabling the boy to get a half price ticket. So first point: Enough of this sanctimonious crap from some of the posters on this board about "you should have done it earlier" Here is a situation where both the club and board members have encouraged fans to bring along a friend. Well I have and now, to be able to sit together, we have to wait. I am not complaining to the club, I just accept the situation. I don't like the venue, I don't like the KO time, I don't like the journey I don't like the prices. So ****** what. It's a semi final. Come hell or high water WE WILL BE THERE. COME ON YOU BLUES.

Fair point Eddie. Pity that neither Manure nor Arsole are still in the Champions league as it would have been interesting as to what day each of the semis would have taken place then.

Strange is it not, that all the talk of our Day/KO time is based around wheather Newcastle get through to the next round of the UEFA Cup, where the tie will be played on the previous Thursday to the semi finals. Are they not playing this leg tonight WEDNESDAY, so why the hell can UEFA not play the next round on the Wednesday also? Just a thought, but too logical I suppose!

I used to hate George Courtney as well until Speedie tripped over that long blade of grass at Wembley and good old George pointed to the spot. For the record my 5 most hated: in no particular order: Rodney Marsh ( Talks a load of ###### all of the time) Alex Ferguson (Spitting chewing gum everywhere) The sons of Neville Neville Christiano Ronaldo (For being a member of the Port & Cheese Diving Team) El Hadj Diouf ( For spitting and diving and playing for the Notlobs) Big Fat Sam (For wearing that stupid bloody earpiece all the time) Must stop 6 already and I can thing of so many more.................................

I went down to Ewood on Tuesday after work when commputors went down. Tickets arrived in post as promised to-day. 11:00am at a guess but I was at work when postie calls. Can't wait till dingle time

Great Post Den. Talk about driving the point home. That stat just makes you wonder a bit doesn't it? For me it has to be from McEvoy, Briggs and Southworth. Yes I have to include Garner in there also. I think of all the team this is the most difficult pick of the lot.

Well there have been some very meritous posts on some of our well known strikers and as bazza says, no mention of Jack Southworth who I am afraid non of us have seen play. Nevertheless the stats deem that he does indeed deserve recocnition among our hero's. I take the following from Mike Jackman's 'Blackburn Rovers. A Complete Record' Jack Southworth was born in Blackburn in 1876 and was Rovers first truly prolific goalscorer. he began his football career at the age of 12 when he formed a junior club named Inkerman Rangers. He later played for Brookhouse Perseverance, which were both nurseries for Blackburn Olympic. Southworth was promoted to the Olympic second team in 1883-84. His ability was quickley recognized by the committee at Olympic and he was made captain of the second team and first reserve when there was a vacancy in the first team. It was at this time that he rejected the first approach by Rovers to join them. Whilst guesting in a match for accrington he received a serious knee injury which threatened his career. Having lost some of his mobility he turned his hand to goalkeeping and became the first team goalkeeper with Olympic. having helped Olympic to win the Lancashire Cup against Rovers in 1885, he now received a serious injury to his other knee whilst guesting for Vale of Lune. The following year he signed professional terms with Blackburn Olympic despite his knee problems. A keen musician, he took a job with a theatre in Chester and returned to Olympic, resuming his old position of centre forward. having overcome his injuries, he became a great success as a centre forward and in the 1887-88 season saw him finally join the Rovers. A contemporary wrote that: 'His dodging, his neat passing, his speed and general accuracy in shooting won the hearts of the spectators at the Leamington ground. He is built for speed, he plays an unselfish game, he's good at tackling and has excellent jugement.' He captained the side as it made it's first excursion into league football and became a prolific goalscorer. Capped three times for England, he won FA Cup winners medals in 1890 and 1891. In August 1893 Everton paid £400 for his services and in his first season he scored 27 goals in 22 games. The following season saw him score 9 goals in 9 games, before injury and illness finally forced him into retirement. Turning to his other love, he became a professional violinist and played with the Halle Orchestra. Rovers career statistics: League Played 108 Goals 97 Cup Played 25 Goals 25 Total Played 133 Goals 122 During this time the scorers of 11 league goals and 3 Cup goals remain unidentified so Jacks total goals could be more than shown.. I thank bazza for bringing this great goalscorer to our attention and I hope that the above is of interest to you all as it has been to me. A truly remarkable player I think you will agree

My number one vote has to go to Alan Shearer of course. The greatest accolade to him is that we always expected him to score as soon as he got the ball anywhere near the opposition penalty area. Indeed it came as a massive shock if he missed. The greatest Rovers player I will see or have ever seen. Mention must be made of David Speedie. As has already been mentioned, his efforts in our promotion season will live long in my memory, especially his goals against Derby County in the play off semi-final at Ewood when I for one thought all was lost. Prior to that semi, I remember travelling the three million miles to Plymouth when we had to beat Argyle in the last match of the season to secure 6th. place and reach the play offs after leading the table comfortably in December. Things went downhill from then on and I felt a little uneasy to say the least about our chances at Plymouth who were themselves fighting for their lives to avoid the drop. Enter our talisman Speedie who not just won the game but emphasised his sheer determination and guts and bagged a hat trick. What a player, he made the long trip home that Saturday night fell a quarter of the distance of the journey down. I was absolutely gutted when we sold him to Southampton as part of the Shearer deal. What a pairing those two would have made. And what of Andy McEvoy. Born in Dublin and bought from Bray Wanderers in 1956 he made his League debut in 1958-59 as a wing-half as back up to Clayton and McGrath. The then manager Jack Marshall converted him to inside forward alongside Fred Pickering in 1962-63 season. This resulted in a strong goal scoring partnership the envy of many and the following season saw Andy become the League's leading scorer with 32 goals from 37 appearances. Including cup games his total for the season was 36 goals from 41 appearances. A very healthy return you must agree, especially as the top marksmen of the time were Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law both of who were beaten by Andy's total. He was the epitome of a good striker, lurking in or around the area with blistering pace and deadly finishing. The McEvoy-Pickering combination was ended prematurely when Pickering was sold to Everton in 1964 and Jon Byrom was to be McEvoy's new strike partner, and that season his tally was down to 32 goals from 45 appearances. Relegation in 1966 seemed to affect him and he became disillusioned with the professional game and returned to Ireland to play for Limerick and finished driving a tram in the city. He continued to play for Limerick until the early 70's and sadly Andy died a couple of years ago. As a 16 year old at the time of his goal scoring exploits I have always felt privileged to have seen him play and remember him with great affection as one of Rovers truly great strikers. Total League Appearances 183 Goals 89 Total Cup Appearances 30 Goals 14 Total 213 Total 103

Try this Tim. http://www,cardiffcityfc.premiumtv.co.uk/p...,,10335,00.html

Sorry if this has been asked, but there seemed to be some concern about crowd control/segregation prior to this game. Unfortunately could not go due toe the dreaded flu so gave my ticket to a young nephew who went in my place. He didn't see any problems. Was there any of the usual outside the breezeblock?

Good shout 92er and many thanks for relieving my failing memory. Indeed we did buy Mike Harrison from Chelsea and sold him to the Pilgrims. As I said in my previous post I used to love watching Mike but still my vote just has to go to Duffer. The best accolade I can give him is that he would go straight into any Brazilian side including the great team of 1970.

I have been a Rovers supporter for 48 years and have been privilidged to have seen some great players wearing the blue and white halves. In past polls I have voted for players from the sixties like Douglas, Clayton and England as unlike some of the younger forum members I have been able to see play. However in the vote for the greatest left winger there can only be one man for me. Damien Duff. I am sure I will never see a greater left winger. I have great memories of some of the others from Noddy McLeod onwards, and I have marvelled at the skills of Scotty Sellars, Noel Brotherston and Jason Wilcox, but let's be honest here, there can only be one winner. The problem we have, is that in this position we have been spoiled over the years. When all the talk is of a lack of good left sided players, we have had an abundance of them. I must make mention of Mike Harrison who I think we bought from Plymouth Argyle. He was built like a brick out-house but this belied the fact that he possesed great speed coupled with a tremendous shot. I can well remember sitting over the wall on that red cinder track at the corner of the Blackburn End/Nuttal St., and seeing this massive frame running towards me. If he hadn't stopped in time I always thought that he would have taken both me and the wall with him. Long live Mike Harrison and the memories he gave me. A gentleman as well.

The match against Spurs that will forever remain in my memory was the 7-2 drubbing we gave them at Ewood in the early 70's against a very classy Spurs side that included the great Jimmy Greaves. What a day!!!! As for our most famous export being Tim Sherwood! You must be joking. Mike England has to be that man.