[Archived] How Many Have You Then?

[Jammy]

My dad took me too a couple of games in the mid eighties, and it's been Rovers ever since. As soon as I left school and got a job this enabled me to fund my saturday afternoons at ewood from around 88/89. Only missed a handful of home games since then, enjoyed a few seasons watching away games, but finances stopped that.

[MCMC1875]

26 seasons.

First game was at Ewood in February or March 1980.

Too many memories too mention them all.

Going to the Isle Of Man in the 80's to watch the Rovers in the Football Festival. Forry got smacked by Newcastle fans on the ferry from Heysham. When we played them in the final at Douglas Bowl one wag shouted as the teams walked out that Beardsley was even uglier in real life - the rest of the Newcastle team were hysterical! It rained so much that Clarky turned black with the dye from his leather jacket.

Every away trip with the Valley Blues in the 1980's.

Pre match bevvies when Paul and Annie had the Havelock.

Edited August 5, 2005 by MCMC1875

[Randall]

Started supporting the mighty Rovers in the 93/94 season.

Next year won the title.

Secondly i am not a glory hunter or i would have jumped ship when we was relegated.

[BlueMonday]

1985, away to Everton in the FA cup, must have been 5-6,000 Rovers on. Remember being crambed into the lower tier, cracking atmosphere and I was hooked.

Went home in a fleet of double decker corporation buses. Even having Everton fans smashed our bus up didn't put me off !

[Cowan]

iv been a fan since i was born.....that is all

[Guest danprez]

Not sure when first went to see rovers... but have vague memories of "Oooh" Colin Hendry scoring in the full members cup final - and seeing the glorious teams of don mackay - tony finnigan anyone???

i can remember ian wright scoring against us in the play offs for palace...

then along came uncle jack and everything changed! i can remeber us signing speedie, then that glorious day when my dad came home from work with the lancashire evening telegraph, saying "You'll never guess who we've got as manager!" and the excitement that we'd got king kenny! then going to wembley, that penalty, oh wonderful time!

"eh what, how can we get rid of speedie? and who exactly is this shearer? £3.6 million??? how much???"

i can remember a few seasons ago - must be about 9-10 years or so - going to watch us stonk man city at maine road, and some city fan saying to me "Where were you when you were ######?" and me saying "nutall street stand, row number, seat number - had the ticket since i can remember" (can't remember the exact number now) and it made all the rovers fans around laugh at this bitter city idiot!

sadly, due to work and growing up and the price, i can now no longer get to see the fabulous rovers every week, but those years are forever etched in my heart - it reminds me of what an anomoly we are as a club - a town team who had a glorious past, struggling around in the second flight, fans dreaming of but never really believing in a return to the glory days, then uncle jack came along and changed everything...

ok so since then we've had our ups and downs, and some shocking moments and managers - but i think that compared to what it would have been like, well i've loved every minute of it - we are one of the big teams in the country, we can attract from amongst the best players, and we definately punch way above our weight....

[Exiled_Rover]

Supported them since I moved into the area, fifteen years ago. Had supported Oldham previous, but then again when I say supported I was five at the time . Everyone at primary school supported either t'Rovers or Man United, so I chose one and jumped on the bandwagon

Had a season ticket since the '99 season, after I managed to convince my Citeh loving dad to tag along to matches . I've not fully converted him, but I'm working on it!

[tonyoz]

My first game was in the mid/late fifties.....only a whippersnapper but i remember sitting on the red mud running track with older lads from my street. one of those games involved a "near retirement" tom finney too.

Really took serious notice in the relegation year mid 60's. my first away game was west ham in the third round of the FA cup that same year i think. 3-3 with dougie playing a blinder. won the replay 4-1. went to norwich in the next round too.

fond memories of mike harrison - left winger with charles atlas thighs and a shot like a rocket and right winger mike ferguson......ex-accrinton stanley and one of my all-time favourite players....he just loved to take the mickey out of opposing full-backs.

other players remebered with affection:

billy wilson, barrie hole, andy mcevoy, fred else, roger jones, stuart metcalfe - remember playing against him when we were both at school, don martin, simon garner, ronnie (of course), noel brotherston......jeez....there's too many!

and of course most members of the 95 team......

enjoyed reading clayton's left boot's recollections as i remember them all ...brought a smile to my face as the memories took me back.

Sky tv is out-doing itself this season. the chelsea match is live tonight and its about the 6th or 7th i've seen this year!

[waggy]

thought i'd posted on this topic but obviously not,this is my 5th decade off following the blues.

sixties the back end remenber going down with all the greaser's scrapping on the blackburn end.

seventies a brilliant decade to be a roverite,promotion under gordon lee in our centenary year,the best ever ewood game 5-2 plymouth.

eighties i call these the nearly years,how many times did we miss out on promotion to the promised land,from kendall-saxton - mackay.

nineties i died and went to heaven,uncle jack appeared so did king kenny,big al and a premiership title.

what do you call the 00,the naughties? well the death off uncle jack changed our fortunes again,but his last legacy mr souness put this club back on track,and sparky continues the great work

[Dan Furness]

How many kids you see make it? ha ha

[dave birch]

How many kids you see make it? ha ha

356939[/snapback]

What on earth are you talking about?

[Manchester Blue]

January 1985 I think it was. Man United in the FA Cup, hanging off the railings at the Riverside. We lost but I enjoyed it immensely and still have the programme now. Only used to go to the odd game in those days when I could persuade my Dad to take me, but still managed to go to Wembley in 87 which was a special day. Missed out on a ticket for the FA cup match against Liverpool when Super Atko made his mark. It was that that convinced me to go every week so me and a mate made the trip every week from the following game I think it was Ipswich at home.

[Dan Furness]

What on earth are you talking about?

356940[/snapback]

runnin joke dave

[nonaynevernomore]

my first match was charoty shoeld v everton. as seen as i was born in 1992 ive been going regulary since 98, my first season as a season ticket holder. i remember being 7 and crying when we got relegated, being 9 and wearing my full rovers kit to school when we got promoted, being 10 and jumping around on the settee when we won the league cup, being 6 and going crazy when colin hendry scored( my fave back then) oh, as a rovers supporter, ive been through good and bad times. and still, all those years to watch the rovers still left. i get all the videos, strips, books, banners and programmes. all this and im only 13!!! i still have a few more derby games left to see, and maybe a title win, or fa cup win?

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Born in '92 eh.....believe me nonaynevernomore, you dont know what 'BAD TIMES' are watching Rovers!

Edited December 1, 2005 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Paul Mellelieu]

I'm nopt really sure when my first game was. My grandad, who took me, is dead and my parents don't know. I'm fairlt sure it was in the late 60's - probably 1969 - maybe 1970. I was taken to a reserve game to first to get me used to the ground. I also remember nothing other than being tapped on the head by someone I now believe to be Johny Carey who was manager in 70/71.

I have to admit to falling out of love with football in the 80s only to return to the fold in the 90s after moving back up north to Manchester from London.

[Fife Rover]

I remember my first visit to Ewood very well. It was late November 1946 and Rovers were playing Grimsby in the !st Div. We cycled over from Ashton on the Blackpool side of Preston and got to Blackburn via the Old Road and Livesey Branch Rd. I still remember thinking as we slogged along Livesey Branch Rd with my dad encouraging me by saying "come on lad , not far now" and me thinking "you have been saying that for miles now, and we will have all this to do again going home"

However we made it to Ewood and I remember we got our bikes stored in the back yard of a house on Nuttall Street for the princely sum of one shilling (5p).

Unfortunately I can't remember much about the match itself. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that we had gone with the main purpose of watching Bobby Langton who was then a current England international, but I can't honestly remember anything about his performance that day, or indeed whether he even played!

I was however very impressed with Ewood Park and the atmosphere was great, and I became a Rovers supporter from there on. So all in all, I reckon it was well worth the hard slog on the bike.

[FourLaneBlue]

Fife Rover - That was well before the Blackburn End had a roof wasn't it?

What else can you remember about Ewood from those days?

[Fife Rover]

How many kids you see make it? ha ha

Are you drunk? :ph34r:

[Fife Rover]

Fife Rover - That was well before the Blackburn End had a roof wasn't it?

What else can you remember about Ewood from those days?

Well I definitely can confirm that the BBE had no roof on it until many years later, early 60's (I think). Lost count of the number of times I have gone home soaked after standing on The BBE in the pouring rain!

Other things I remember that impressed me on my first visit were the size of the ground and the pitch. Up until then the only Football League ground I had been on was Deepdale and that was far more compact. Also I remember thinking how impressive the Riverside stand looked from my viewpoint on the BBE.

Little did I know then that a few years on, I would be a regular in there. But sure enough from about 1955 to 1960 I sat on the front row just to the BBE side of centre; absolutely magnificent view! And although the Rovers were in the old 2nd div at that time, the football that we witnessed week in week out was of the highest quality in the sense that there was always plenty of goals and plenty of very skilfull play from both teams. Not as much emphasis on defence in those days, and I feel that there was in fact very little difference in standard between the 1st and 2nd divs. This was borne out by the fact that I and many hundreds of Blackburn people regularly went to watch Rovers at home one week and PNE at home the intermediate week. My opinion was and still is that you could exchange virtually any of the teams in either div with each other and nobody would notice any difference. This was borne out by the fact that the promoted teams from the 2nd div invariably prospered in the 1st div, and relegated teams from the 1st div could find themselves down there for a very long time indeed; which is exactly what happened to the Rovers after their relegation in 1947.

Then In 1960 along came the end of players wage equality and the start of the long road to ruin for lots of clubs and an end to equality for all clubs. Oh please don't get me started on this again!

Edited May 26, 2006 by Fife Rover

[Fife Rover]

1951/52 Season.

First lasting memory - losing to Newcastle in Cup Semi-Final Replay 1-2 (robbed again)

That game has memories for me! It was my first Rovers "away" game and it was played at Elland Road, Leeds. I was just home on leave from the Navy the night before and had no ticket. Luckily Eddie Quigley was a friend of the family and I was able to get him to arrange a complimentary ticket to be collected at the ground. Another friend was going and driving through and I got a lift with him. Then the only thing that spoilt a great day out was the result. No Cup Final for Rovers that year.

[Billinge End Blue]

<First home game was against Carlisle in December 1966 - I can remember their team coach being snowballed as it made its way down Cravens Brow. First away game against Bury in 1967.>

CLB - no reason to doubt your early recollection but, pre M65, why would Carlisle Utd's coach be heading north up the A666 (OK, perhaps they'd stayed at the New Drop or Smithills in Bolton ?!)

Bit of a pedantic post, I agree !

[Mr Maureen]

My first game was the 1885 cup final at the Kennington Oval,Rovers v Queens Park.

Can clearly remember Jimmy Brown scoring Rovers second and winning goal,what a glorious day.

[Hannah]

My first game was the 1885 cup final at the Kennington Oval,Rovers v Queens Park.

Can clearly remember Jimmy Brown scoring Rovers second and winning goal,what a glorious day.

Probably missing some sarcasim or humour or just being rubbish at maths but doesnt that mean you must be well over a 100???

[colin]

Probably missing some sarcasim or humour or just being rubbish at maths but doesnt that mean you must be well over a 100???

Your maths is OK