jim mk2

I noticed that too. Is it a first for the club ?

A touch generous to Gallagher. He is lacking so many of qualities needed in a modern striker; he does not have the strength or technique to play with his back to goal, he is not a good passer and does not bring his team-mates into play, he does not take defenders on and try to beat them through either skill or pace, he is not a great header of the ball and he is not a deadly finisher in the penalty area. So the question has to be asked: what is Gallagher for ? A career in non-league football with Great Harwood beckons.

You are. Really ? I thought I was complaining about poor service.

Since when has asking staff to man a telephone, take supporters' credit card details and reserve a seat, been a hare-brained scheme ? In the words of Yosser Hughes, "I could do that".

And what happened to your customers who did not receive the service they expected ? Took their custom elsewhere no doubt. Customer/client relationship is hardly the same as the supporter and his football club. Fans will always be loyal but they are not compelled to attend matches, and if there is difficulty obtaining a ticket then in all likelihood they won't bother trying the next time. I doubt if anyone is "shouting from the rooftops". After hanging on the phone for hours they are probably extremely grateful just to speak to a human voice.

Thank you for saying it far more eloquently than I could. Paul, read and inwardly digest. You might learn something.

Why only those limited opening times ? To ensure that every tickets is sold and fans are not on the telephone for hours on end the ticket office should be open 24 hours a day. Pathetic.

Well said. Years ago I saw Jack Marshall sweeping the terraces after a game ! Johnny Carey used to to muck in cleaning the dressing room. Work to be done so the management helps out. If the club asks for criticism it is going to get it, and in this case it deserves it.

Missing the point. Supporters are making legitimate points about the way the club is run. For the price we have to pay it's not good enough and adds an unnecessary sour taste to the enjoyment of the occasion. Ticket problems at Ewood are nothing new - remember the 1960 Cup Final ?

With all due respect you ought to be and so should everyone else. Multi-tasking and a flexible workforce is a manadatory requirement in most work places these days - with a small staff such as the one at Ewood I would have thought it essential. Even Mr Williams might get his hands "dirty" occasionally. All hands to the pumps in the areas of greatest need ! So if needed you can nip down to the printing works and run off 3 million copies of the Sun (or its cousin the tabloid Times) ?? I think not. Multi-tasking and a flexible workforce is a manadatory requirement in most work places these days - with a small staff such as the one at Ewood I would have thought it essential. Read it again before making stupid comments. Another pint of Guinness please.

With all due respect you ought to be and so should everyone else. Multi-tasking and a flexible workforce is a manadatory requirement in most work places these days - with a small staff such as the one at Ewood I would have thought it essential. Even Mr Williams might get his hands "dirty" occasionally. All hands to the pumps in the areas of greatest need !

Good post. Exactly the point I was making earlier. Not exactly "rocket science" is it, but then Williams is paid £400,000 plus a year so he must be good at something.

Send Williams your phone bill. He might get his overpaid lazy arse in gear next time.

I really do sympathise. The club have scored yet another own goal over this. Send John Williams your phone bill.

The Guinness drone is defending the indefensible as usual but he's right on one thing for once - it isn't rocket science. As soon as the whistle blew at Turf Moor the management should have been organising the club staff (including other departments) to work in the ticket office 24 hours a day. This is a unique match and it requires the club to do something out of the ordinary, which it patently has been unable to do. Perhaps they'll be geared up properly for the next time it happens 45 years hence. Yet another example of management failure at Ewood - take a bow the man at the top, John Williams.

This is all ######. It's the biggest game for years, a local derby, massive interest, the ground should be full with punters getting all the tickets they need. The ticket office should be open from 6am to midnight every day in the run up to the game and the same for the Leicester match if we beat Burnley. So what if the staff are overworked ? - that's why they're there. They've got a whole summer to have a rest.

Well done. Duff is in the team.

1. Gary Lineker, for saying "shame Blackburn went down" on They Think It's All Over after we were relegated. I've not forgotten, Gary, and I'll give you hell when I meet you.

Worthwhile exercise and an interesting team. My only real objection is the weasel Le Saux, who got in only because he was in the championship team and was not even a decent left back. Bagsie me manager - I'd haul Le Saux off in the first minute and replace him with Sir Keith Newton.

1 COURTS Hooligan Lancs FIVE MONTHS JAIL FOR SOCCER HOOLIGAN A serial football hooligan who ran on the pitch to confront soccer star Robbie Savage was today jailed for five months. Jobless Michael Lewis was already serving a three-year ban from every football stadium in England and Wales before Sunday’s FA Cup tie between Blackburn and Burnley. The 42-year-old Burnley fan invaded the pitch and headed straight for Rovers star Savage. He was seen by millions of TV viewers offering to fight the Welsh international, Burnley Magistrates’ Court heard. Lewis, who has 24 previous convictions including for football-related incidents at Millwall, Blackpool and Wolverhampton, was warned off by players from both sides who protected Savage. He then ran to the touchline and assaulted two officers as they arrested him. Lewis, from Nelson, pleaded guilty to breaching the football banning order, encroaching on the football pitch, using threatening and abusive behaviour towards Savage and assaulting two police officers. He was jailed for five months and given another football banning order for 10 years. Lewis was already serving a ban of three years from Wolverhampton magistrates in December 2002 for being drunk at a match and obstructing police officers. Last March he breached the order by going to Burnley’s game at Millwall and was jailed for 28 days. He also invaded the pitch at Blackpool in 1992 and breached an exclusion order at Burnley in 1990. And he had been jailed for 18 months for assault in 1989.

From the Guardian. "They are entitled to believe they created the better chances, with Savage and Morten Gamst Pedersen the best players, but they ought really to have done more to quell the Burnley fans, some of whom seemed to be frothing at the mouth Chortle

The cup draw draw could not have been kinder to us .... this is our best chance of reaching the semi-finals that I can remember. Can we muck it up ? Of course we can.

Amen to that. Lancashire in general has suffered terribly since the war through changing economic circumstances and the disinterest of successive London-centric governments. Let's celebrate the fact that the county's football teams are in relative good health. In the early 1960s, Rovers, Burnley, Bolton, Preston and Blackpool were in the old first division and I'd love to see them all back there (the top flight that is !).

It's not that difficult. All it requires is foresight and long-term planning. Twenty years ago, Leicester rugby club started giving away FREE season tickets to kids in the area, building up a supporter base that is now maturing to the extent that the club are leaving Welford Road to accommodate their burgeoning crowds in Leicester City FC's Walkers Stadium. I think you overestimate the ability of chief executives and managers in general. Most do not have any special ability but have got where they are either through bullshitting/brownnosing their way to the top, or luck. I repeat what I said: running Blackburn Rovers does not require any special skills and for what they do Williams and Finn receive more than ample remuneration.

With most of the club's income guaranteed as long as we stay in the Premiership, it does not need a genius to be chief executive and secretary of Blackburn Rovers FC and makes the salary increases of Williams and Finn even harder to justify. Attendances may be only a small percentage of income but it the one source of income that Williams and Finn have the power to influence through their skills (or lack of them) as managers. Williams has said over the past year that he does not know how to reverse the decline in attendances, which is a remarkable admission of failure that would have led to his departure/sacking in other industries.