Nonsense. Just because he played for England does not make a "great". Carlton Palmer anyone? Equally, Simon Garner qualifies as a Rovers "great", but he never came anywhere near a senior England cap. No one is "deriding" Le Saux and you are probably right that he was the best left back in the league at that time. But he is not the best left back to play for Rovers, not by a long way.

..... good player, not great. In the modern era, Bailey was his equal in my opinion. The greats are the likes of Eckersley and Newton.

Then the whole thing is a waste of time.

Just wait till you apply for a (decent) job, matey. Then you'll find out.

Condemned by his own hand, showing the extent of his footballing knowledge and his understanding of Blackburn Rovers history. Nil.

Unbelieveable. If ability were the only criteria (or longevity, or loyalty, or honesty, or character), Le Saux would be bottom of the list and Newton and Eckersley near the top of it. Le Saux's lead in this vote is a farce and makes the whole exercise a waste of time.

Not to be picky, but periods should go before ending quotations, even if the quotation is not for the whole sentence. For a journo, you sure make a lot of grammar mistakes on here, Jimbo. Pardon? Can you rewrite that in English please?

Not idiotic at all. There is a saying in sport that a "good big 'un will always beat a good little 'un" and it is usually true. It doesn't always work but nine times out of ten the big guy comes out on top. Forest probably had to make a choice and they went for the big 'un. You only have to look at Arsenal and Chelsea now; full of athletic 6 footers. The Rovers championship-winning side was a big strong team. Martin O'Neill has always had big teams - look at his side at Leicester and the way his Celtic team outmuscled Rovers at Ewood. Men against boys. Football is littered with stories of players who were rejected because of their size. Back in the 1960s, Bolton rejected Alan Ball (one of best players to wear an England shirt) because of his size; Rovers turned down Tony Green, a skilful Scottish inside forward, for the same reason. Both players were taken on by Blackpool. Generally, though, they are the exceptions that prove the rule. Forest rejecting Wright-Phillips because he was small was not "idiotic" and had nothing to do with stereotyping or discrimination. The odds were that he would not make the grade.

I note that you are so well educated that you do not know how to use apostrophes, hyphens, capital letters or full stops. Perhaps you might care to attend remedial classes at "Uni".

I thought Highbury was known as the "Highbury Library"? Would disagree with your statement anyway. Ewood is no quieter or loud then any other ground in the country.

Doling out free shirts to kids is all very well but supporting Rovers for life requires an act of faith that is sorely tested at the best of times. Pity the Rovers kids who have to go to school today to be taunted by their peers about losing to Bournemouth. Little wonder they take the easy option and support teams like United who win far more matches than they lose!

rovers out.

Home to Cardiff next (if we win)

Gallagher 91st min

Bournemouth scored.

Of course Sir Keith became a Claret in his latter playing days but despite his Blackburn upbringing managed to impress even the footballing afficiandos (sp?) at Turf Moor. Read this: http://www.clarets-mad.co.uk/news/loadsngl...=ED95&id=114394 and this: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/6...les/newton.html and here is a picture of him. http://www.justcatnaps.com/collection/pict...newtonkeith.jpg

Good idea. Then the manager (whoever he is) can take off Le Saux (presuming he wins) in the first minute and replace him with Sir Keith. Fifty one per cent voting for Le Saux merely reflects the age of those on the board and has nothing to do with the ability of the candidates. I saw Billy Wilson make his debut in 1965 but he was never anything more than solid. Bailey was like Le Saux, a converted forward who struggled when a good winger ran at him. Basil Rathbone, a lower-league scuffler, getting 2 per cent of the votes, almost as many as England international Newton, is ridiculous.

German football faced the problem of declining attendances a few years ago but is now booming with record crowds at many grounds. The reason? Ticket prices were slashed, sometimes by as much as 50 per cent, and lo and behold, the fans came flocking back in. Pretty simple really.

Middlesbrough have been relegated from the Premier League twice. They were founder members of the league but went down in its debut season, 1992-3, and were relegated again in 1996-97, the same season in which they also reached the League Cup final and the FA Cup Final (losing both to Leicester and Chelsea respectively)!

Yes, because he was too good to be omitted.

More random thoughts. We are not the only mid-sized club with this problem. Fulham, with whom we were promoted three seasons ago, have seen their crowds start to dwindle as the excitement of reaching the Premiership gradually wears off. They took only 500 fans to West Brom last weekend - did anyone notice the ranks of empty seats behind the goal when Andrew Cole scored? Television saturation: there is so much wall-to-wall footy on TV now that, quite frankly, it is becoming a turn-off. People are bored. ManU v Liverpool, traditionally one of the biggest fixtures of the season, was on TV last night and I couldn't be bothered to watch it. Television will eventually kill football in my opinion.

I'll make one last plea for Keith Newton - the classiest and best full back I ever saw in a Rovers shirt. Le Saux was a converted winger with all the faults therein. An all-star Rovers team without Keith Newton is unthinkable in my opinion. Whatever next - Tim Sherwood instead of Ronnie Clayton?

And therein lies another tale. Every year a relative of mine buys merchandise from the Rovers catalogue for Christmas presents. And every year she has to ring up the Rovers store to ask them to send her the latest catalogue. Her address/credit card details are on the database so why is the catalogue not sent automatically? Why is the club not bombarding her two or three times a year with literature to spend on Rovers products? If the commercial department cannot make use of that sort of information at their disposal it does not give me much hope that those responsible for ticket sales are any more efficient. Cue someone now leaping to their defence.

I must admit I was shocked when I saw the figure for Saturday's attendance. Talking to a number of (ex) supporters, the sale of favourite players such as Dunn and Duff, the perceived lack of ambition in the cup competitions (especially in Europe), and the generally appalling performances at Ewood in the past 12 months have led to them staying away. People want to be entertained these days - if they don't get it at a football match they'll go elsewhere.

Excellent article on Jay Bothroyd in the top people's paper today.