Received this from Christina at the club at 3.45pm today in response to my email to Maggott.... presumably a standard email sent to all fans Dear Sir Thank you for your email in regard to the closure of the Blackburn End for our Carabao Cup match versus Cardiff City on Wednesday, 27th September. There are a number of factors to consider when creating the operational plan for a matchday and the decisions made are based on these. Initially we review what the anticipated attendance is going to be and then measure this against the financial cost of opening the entire stadium. For the first round of the Carabao Cup; BRFC V Walsall, we attracted an attendance of just over 6,000 supporters. There were fewer than 2,000 supporters in the Blackburn End for this fixture, which is less than 50% capacity for the lower tier. Due to the make-up of the stadium, once the decision is made to open a stand, the staffing of that area remains the same whether the stand is at capacity or accommodating fewer than 500 supporters. For this evening’s fixture, we are anticipating an attendance of just under 4000 which is just over a third of the capacity for the Jack Walker Stand and will therefore adequately cater for the demand. We do appreciate that many of our long-standing supporters sit in the Blackburn End and would argue that this stand is affectionately referred to as the home end, but the Jack Walker Stand can be relied upon to accommodate all supporters with ease, provides a better backdrop for the broadcast footage and ultimately it will help us to manage costs at a time when all costs have to be carefully considered. I’m sure you can appreciate and understand why the Club has taken the relevant measures on this occasion. Of course, these decisions will be reviewed on a match-by-match basis should we progress further in the competition, as we hope to do. Thanking you for your continued support. Kind regards Christina Haines On behalf of Steve Waggott

Entertaining game but Entertaining match but has the feel and pace of a training game. Cardiff surely wouldn't have been so open and lackadaisical in a league game.

Shame we're not playing Chelsea at Ewood Maggott could have closed the BBE, Jack Walker and Riverside

Website still down, so the undecided few are unlikely to be getting tickets anyway. How convenient. Who would have thought Maggott would stoop this low to justify his decision?

Sorry for the basic question - I assume fans can pay on the gate tomorrow night?

Now here's a lad who could do us a good turn Warning: Burnley connection https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66918026

The Premier League isn't "boring" but it isn't a true competition because only a select few clubs can win it. As such, you could definitely (not deffo) say that the Premier League is pointless because there will be only ever be a very small group of potential winners, while the rest are there to make up the numbers. As always, it's the relegation battle at the bottom that is far more interesting

Any football "fan" who says Rovers "bought the league" is a no-nowt berk. If Rovers "bought the league" then the same applies to just about every club since professional football began - particularly in the last 30-40 years. ManU fans will say they had the class of 92 in their team but they wouldn't have won anything without buying other players who were crucial to their success. And in any case, many of the players that Rovers bought were cheap, bargain unwanted players from the reserve teams of other clubs. The twits who say that "we bought the league" are also only parroting the numbskulls in the national media who always looked down on the rise of little Blackburn Rovers and invented the they "bought the league" narrative as a slogan with which to do us down. Anyone football fan who really knew his stuff would never repeat this nonsense,

Like all the others after beating us. They would say wouldn’t they - can we play you every week? Playing well and nul points leads to relegation. Give me a scabby win any day of the week.

The season is taking shape and I think it's time to look at the possibility that we could be in trouble The squad is weaker than last season, it's inexperienced, it's lightweight, it's unbalanced, and it's struggling We're shipping easy goals every game. Players are making costly individual mistakes. The goalkeeper is a liability Worse, the manager doesn't look like he's bothered and it wouldn't be a surprise if he left I hope this thread can be consigned to the rubbish bin and we comfortably stay in this division, but I'm worried.

Not like you to criticise Lewis.

Clarke og on the BBC

George Hirst, who looked like a non-league player in a Rovers shirt. T'was inevitable I suppose.

It's all going Pears shaped. He looked a decent keeper for 6 months last season but has reverted to his previous useless self. Time to bin him - he's costing us more and more points

Well, that didn't take long. soft as a baby's bottom this team

Here we go, and the first goal of the day will be scored by.......... George Hirst! It's the immutable law of the ex.

Maggott has the mindset of an accountant who think he can manage a football club using a spreadsheet. He knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. The only policy tool known to him is to cut. So long as his figures balance, nothing else matters to him. People like Maggott have been the curse of British industry for decades. They don't know how to innovate, or how to invest, or how to grow, and all they can deliver is austerity, in Maggott's case by selling training grounds, closing stands, failing to maintain the Ewood infrastructure. Cut, cut cut. Maggott is dangerous to the long-term survival of BRFC. .

Anyone can cut costs. It's easy to save money in any business. You don't need to have an exec on £300,000 to cut costs. A large part of a CEO's remit is to grow and expand the business, and for instance for the Cardiff game aim to get 10,000 in by going out and selling the game to the East Lancs public, Has he heard of one-match promotions? This is all clearly beyond Maggott, probably because it's too "difficult", and closing the BE is easier. First job for any new owner is to shunt this bloke out of the club

Waggott's making that up to justify his decision. There's no way the crowd will be as low as 2,000 - if it is that low it would possibly be a club record. Did no one challenge it?

Say it like it is and straight to the point. Not much to disagree with.

Shouldn't have to matey If he doesn't know a story when it hits him on the nose then he shouldn't be a journalist Perhaps he doesn't wants to upset his chums at Ewood

The decline of local journalism is very regrettable. People have lost a voice and democracy suffers. The likes of Peter White and Alf Thornton would have given the club and CEO both barrels in days gone by over the Blackburn End closure. It would have been a front page story, 144pt banner headlines Such is progress.

Dodgy goalkeeper, error prone defenders, porous midfield lacking strength and nous, non-existent forwards who can't score. What could possibly go wrong?

I don't see how anyone can "enjoy" a match - any match - that Rovers lose. Last night was a well worn script - we played well for a while, failed to score, then crumbled under the slightest pressure. The second half was awful to watch - so much for "enjoyment". I'm even more pessimistic than usual about the season. We're weaker than last year, we don't have any decent forwards, Pears is always likely to make a mistake and worryingly, the midfield looks a mess too.

How many would Brereton got tonight? The lad wasn't always great but he scored goals and he would surely have notched a couple tonight. The simple fact is he hasn't been replaced properly. The lack of a natural goalscorer is killing us.