SuperBrfc

We won't miss BBD one bit, based on how his time with us is ending. We're playing well up until the final third, where there is sadly no end product or killer instinct. On Luton, they are nothing special and are absolutely doable in the play offs. We need somebody to score a couple for us before that though! Dacky, it's all on you. None of the other attackers can be relied upon.

It was always a delight to send that lot and their fans packing. On this day 19 years ago:

Brilliant short term impact from this man back in the day. I remember thinking "Jon who?" when we signed him, but he didn't half score some vital goals for us during those first few months to keep us up.

This club is cursed and has been from the minute these owners walked through the doors. The minute they sell this club and F.O is the moment the curse will be lifted. Think about how long this bullshit has been going on under their ownership. Constant late goals being conceded, constantly throwing great opportunities away, having players in the building ready to sign for us, but us still managing to not sign them! Constant embarrassing results against Burnley and PNE. Having to watch others celebrate on our patch. Taking the lead at Elland Road in injury time a few years back and still losing the game! These aren't just one off instances. It's been a constant feature under these bastards. I was watching some old season reviews the other day. As recent as 09/10, we were scoring late goals amd coming back from a goal down. I wonder what happened in 2010 for it all to change and for a curse to fall on the club. Venky bastards, go and piss off.

Weakened Burnley 11, which is surprising to see. I just worry we don't have the firepower to beat them though. Would absolutely love to be wrong though, as I was when we beat West Ham and Leicester. Brereton owes us a big performance tonight, after being anonymous for a number of recent games up to this point. I'll take any kind of scruffy win. It wouldn't just be massive for us, it would also be a big blow to those around us in the play off race hoping we mess up tonight. Take the PNE fans pathetically begging for a Burnley win, for example. The tinpot bastards. COYB.

There's always been something special about Rovers v Newcastle games for me (Pre 2010, of course). It's the one game (aside from the obvious) that I'm really looking forward to seeing again as a Premier League fixture, especially with them looking like they are going to be near the top end from now on. Anyway, here's a cracker from 2002 that I remember being at. Some big names on the scoresheet, with the main man sealing Champions League qualification for them that evening.

I didn't fancy creating a Yorkie thread, so seeing as he was Cole's strike partner for a while, I'll put his video in here. If there are any others in the future, I'll put them in the Nostalgia thread.

I don't know what happened in regards the Blackburn End. However, Hyam has looked very shaky these past couple of games. That's unlike him, as he has generally been solid up until the last couple of weeks. I have to admit, my first thought upon seeing him all over the place recently, misplacing passes etc, was that the pressure has got to him. These are all pressure games now, we have effectively two shootouts coming up in the next two. They know how crucial it is for us to pick up points at this stage, the business end, and some won't be able to handle it. It wouldn't surprise me if he was trying to calm the Blackburn End down, if he felt that the crowd wasn't helping. Though if that is the case, I'd have to question the mentality. I also worry that it is getting to all of them, to be honest. There hasn't been a winning mentality at the club for a long time. We've fallen apart numerous times under previous managers when in promising positions. Under Bowyer, Sheff Wednesday away, 3-1 up and we blow it to draw 3-3 towards the business end, then we had the Yeovil at home debacle. There are too many to mention under the previous manager, but I remember him, last season, saying something like "they've never been in this position in the League before". Give them an excuse to slip up, why don't you? Accompanying all of the previous bottled moments, has been a seemingly constant "never mind lads, we go again next week", "It's a project/journey/process", and "nobody expects us to do x, y, z..." attitude about the place for years. That's why we bottle it in key moments, imo. Excuses are made for failure and potential reasons for failure are given by management in advance of us messing up! It's why I think a defeat tomorrow will end our season. It feels like a massive game against Coventry, with everything hanging in the balance. Win and it should give the squad a surge of confidence, hopefully. Lose and that's probably us done for the season, as I think heads will drop.

Go on Coley! I wasn't expecting to see that at all. Days after we were looking back on his Rovers career. I've been saying it for ages. This forum isn't just a place where 'know nowts' talk crap, as some like to suggest. The club knows where to look for real fan opinion. I just hope they showed Coley the appreciation thread 😁.

Even now, he'd bury the chances that our £5m striker gallantly makes a mess of.

I know some are expecting us to bottle it (with fair reason), but I think Norwich could turn out to be the biggest bottlers in the run in. They've had some ropey results recently and haven't been playing well. Losing against Sunderland. Drawing at Huddersfield. Not being able to beat Rotherham. Battered tonight, though it was a tough game. I think they are being viewed more favourably than they should be, by Championship fans in general, based on a comfortable win at Ewood. We were crap on the day which is why they won so comfortably. I'm expecting them to make a right mess of their remaining games, based on how they looked before and after beating us.

All of Cole's goals for Rovers in one video. Brilliant. I had forgotten about the goal away at Pompey. Goal 31. The skill to nutmeg the defender and a drilled finish. That's in my top 3.

Yeah, he said as much. He wanted to play first team football and was hoping to make it into the England squad for the 2002 World Cup. He also said in that interview posted above, and elsewhere, that his intention was to finish his career at Rovers. He only left due to falling out with Souness.

Is it possible for you to elaborate on this, Philip? Maybe via PM. Not doubting the info. It's just, I've seen this referred to a couple of times before and have often wondered what it is.

Good interview with Coley here, if anybody is interested. It's with a United fan channel so it is mainly about his time there. However, he does tell the Waggott story at 36:15 for a couple of minutes up until around 39:45. He also briefly talks about Rovers towards the end at around 1:30:36, with some nice words about the club and John Williams.

In this age of VAR and all the uproar about what is, and what isn't, handball, it's amazing to think we won two games away at Newcastle in the 2000's via handball winners. I'm not complaining, but how we got away with it twice, I don't know 😀. Paul Gallagher's winner in December 2003: Then we have MGP slapping in the winner in January 2006:

My personal view is that there has always been more to it than meets the eye. I don't mean something malicious, but more a case of others in the background advising, who may also be calling the shots at times. We only need to look at the list of managerial appointments before JDT for some of us to reach that viewpoint, as they all seemingly lead back to the same place. Also, consider the following: 1) The Brunei rat was able to say and do as he pleased, results didn't matter one bit, he was not for sacking. At the height of the protests he was given a new contract. Why? In the end, he ended up walking of his own accord. Why could they seemingly not sack him? 2) Shelfy caused them all sorts of issues with the Berg incident. They had to fork out £2m due to what had gone on with the contract situation. The legal advice they received was that they were well within their rights to dismiss him immediately. If you are the boss and somebody acts without your authority and costs you £2m, that person is toast! They didn't sack him. He, astonishingly, stayed on for another 3 years and left of his own accord in 2016. Again, why was he allowed to carry on? 3) When having a look around online, I spotted some old social media posts from one of the agency (yes, that agency) stooges bigging up Gallagher as being the best thing sliced bread. Is it a coincidence that Gallagher turns up here, firstly on loan under Coyle, then on a permanent for £5m under Mowbray? Looking at those names for a second, excluding Gally. All are from the same stable. 4) Mr Paperwork, who had the responsibility of getting O'Brien's paperwork submitted on time, was appointed way back in 2012. I would like to know who recommended or advised his appointment at the time. Will he be getting the sack for what happened on deadline day? I think we know the answer to that one. Imo, either the owners are kind people, who don't like confrontation and like to give people second (or many, in some cases) chances to get things right, or they do whatever their advisor/s suggest is the right thing to do. Yes, things haven't been as chaotic as they once were, and they have quietly got on with it over the last few years. However, for me, there is still something not quite right. I look at some of the people within the club and their agency connections. People who have been at the club for the majority of the Venky period, and who have remained in place despite plenty of ins and outs. That is what gets my radar going and has me believing the problem hasn't gone away yet. Appointing JDT and Broughton appears to be a change in direction, but then you look at the O'Brien cock up, which I only blame one person for, and it brings up the same concerns that I have always had since these lot turned up. Rovers won't recover fully until this lot sell up, but as that doesn't seem likely to happen for a while yet, let's start off by getting Silvester and Waggott out.

Some nice words here from Dwight Yorke on JDT and Rovers' promotion chances. Not complimentary about Souness as a manager, but that's no surprise seeing as they fell out with one another. It feels like the closer we get to the business end, the more eyes there are on Rovers, with some of our former players hoping we can see it through. It hasn't been this exciting for a long time. Even if we don't pull it off, credit to JDT for having us in the race. I seriously thought we would be closer towards the drop zone, back in the summer, when I saw how the squad looked on paper. https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-dwight-yorke-graeme-souness-26629123

It certainly would have been. It was around about that period that the 'dodgy box' started popping up and I was being told how I could watch certain Rovers games at the local snooker club, with the only downside being they would be in foreign commentary. I saw one or two midweek games, but never a Saturday afternoon one. I was too keen a Radio Lancs listener back then, when it came to our away games, to be fussed about being able to watch a foreign channel. The two Richards, Dinnis in particular, were excellent on commentary duty. Then Andy Bayes coming in to replace the first Richard made the commentaries even better. Also, that common phenomenon would also rear its head back then, as it still does today. Snooker club packed full of people watching the football and you can count the number of Rovers fans on one hand. In Blackburn! The rest, either United or Liverpool, with a few Arsenal dotted about here and there. Some things never change.

Finally, one of my favourites. I don't think I have ever been as edge when listening to a game on the radio as I was this afternoon. Our goal was absolutely peppered for the last 30 minutes. Wave after wave of Arsenal attack. It was heroic defending and a world class display from Friedel that day which saw us bring home the 3 points.

Chelsea were no mugs before Roman turned up. Rovers went there and did the business here though. Love how we would take the fight to anybody. Souey, you're the man!

8,000 glory hunters packed into the Darwen End. Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Van Nistelrooy? Doesn't bother us. This is Blackburn Rovers.

A few of our memorable wins from the not so distant past. I'll post them separately to make for easier viewing: The first, what a way to seal European Football on the last day of the season. Duffer, absolutely unplayable that day. Superb. Spurs fans whinging like mad (nothing changes there) as Rovers embarrass them on their own patch.

It's about time Sky started putting us on. After years of being forgotten about, they've gone the whole hog in making up for it this season. I understand from an attendance point of view though, it is ludicrous that we have had only one Saturday 3pm home game since November. This isn't normal for this League. The way I look at it, this is a problem that the big eggs in the Premier League have had with Sky for years. If we're being looked at in a similar way now, albeit a Division below, I'll take it. They obviously see our run in as potentially the most exciting and I'd agree with that. Come on lads, deliver!

Almost 24 years on, but it still feels as infuriating and as baffling as it felt back then. What the heck was the referee looking at?