[Archived] Villa Semi Final Match Preview

[bobsterbrfc]

Jesus Wept. That Lee fella on the Official Rovers Messageboard says that the 12-13,000 figure of tickets sold for Tuesday INCLUDES Villa fans!!!!

[McAds]

It can't be that low for a semi-final.

[ABBEY]

its either a misprint or misread.

[martonrover]

Jesus Wept. That Lee fella on the Official Rovers Messageboard says that the 12-13,000 figure of tickets sold for Tuesday INCLUDES Villa fans!!!!

Looking at the weather forecast there may not be a game on Tuesday

[ultrablue]

Shows how little entertainment fans expect to get despite how close we are to wembley. Just expecting another TV embarrassment. Pride is at an all time low.

[martonrover]

It can't be that low for a semi-final.

Afraid so - it was 11,000 on Friday

[Ossydave]

Well the low ticket sales reflects the mood at Ewood at the minute. As I said previously, if people weren't tied down with season tickets I suspect the crowds for league games would also be suffering.

I'm undecided on whether or not to go and will leave it till the day of the game to make my mind up.

[bobsterbrfc]

Aye, I have just re-read the comments on the Official Messageboard and it is indeed the total figure including Villa sales. That is shockingly bad. Brace yourselves for pointing and laughing on Wednesday morning comrades.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Embarrassing. £15-20. there arent any excuses. Yes we may not be playing brilliantly or expected to win, but its a cup semi final. Other clubs dream of such things.

[bobsterbrfc]

On the bright side at least we have the FA Cup to look forward to....

[Brainfreeze]

Must admit I'm considering not going on Tuesday, not because of money, not because of work, but because the football is just cr@p and far to many of the current crop of players are just not putting in the effort.

But this is football isn't it? Highs and lows? Successes and failures? Sticking by your team through thick and thin? Sorry, there is no excuse for not showing your support on Tuesday night - especially the one that you are pushing here. It'll be a total embarrasment if our fans don't fill the ground for this.

If you desert them now, don't bother coming back. This is when our club needs you most.

Sorry GAV, not trying to single you out here...

I'm annoyed by our position at the moment and the way we are playing, but at the other end of the spectrum, I also enjoyed it when we won the title, the league cup last time round, our promotion back to the Premiership...all I'm saying is that you can't have the sweet without the sour I'm afraid, it just doesn't work like that..Life doesn't work like that - you can't just give up when things aren't going perfectly for you.

[Ewood Spark]

But this is football isn't it? Highs and lows? Successes and failures? Sticking by your team through thick and thin? Sorry, there is no excuse for not showing your support on Tuesday night - especially the one that you are pushing here. It'll be a total embarrasment if our fans don't fill the ground for this.

If you desert them now, don't bother coming back. This is when our club needs you most.

Sorry GAV, not trying to single you out here...

I'm annoyed by our position at the moment and the way we are playing, but at the other end of the spectrum, I also enjoyed it when we won the title, the league cup last time round, our promotion back to the Premiership...all I'm saying is that you can't have the sweet without the sour I'm afraid, it just doesn't work like that..Life doesn't work like that - you can't just give up when things aren't going perfectly for you.

Spot-on. The luckiest, most mollycoddled fans in the country have lost sight of what a being a 'supporter' means.

[ABBEY]

weve lost sight of football and entertainment....i could write a parson of my support but cant be bothered but it was my little lad pleading to go that changed my mind.

[RevidgeBlue]

Spot-on. The luckiest, most mollycoddled fans in the country have lost sight of what a being a 'supporter' means.

The reason for low sales I suspect, as with the Chelsea QF is that we are playing so poorly in general no one really thinks we will win.

That said I wouldn't have thought there was any need at all for anyone living locally to purchase their ticket before tomorrow or during the day on Tuesday so there should still be a good uptake before kick off.

[Ricky]

Surely this is the time for everyone to do there bit, grab a mate and bring them along, bring your dad, bring your kids, bring anyone you bloody can. I've bought 4 tickets and bringing 3 mates from Hereford, only one is a rovers fan but the others can't believe how cheap it is for a semi final.

We can moan and bitch about attendances but we are all in a position to do something about it, this is a semi final of a cup competition ffs, every club in the league (bar the other 3 still in it) would swap places in an instant. We have the chance to get to wembley for a one off cup final.. Can you lot imagine what that would mean to a club of our size. Stop the bitching, put the gripes with the gaffer behind you for a couple of days and get down to the ticket office tomorrow.

Let's all do our bit for the club we are all 'supposed' to support!!!!

[bobsterbrfc]

I can imagine there'll be a surge on the day. I'll step out and predict a total attendance of 18k if what's on the other board is true...

[Claytons Left Boot]

Top post Brainfreeze - when I think of the efforts that the Norwegian Branch of the Supporters Club go to, let alone the financial implications, to get to three or four games each season, the attitude of a large chunk of our 'support' makes me want to weep.

If it were a wet Tuesday winters night against Darlington or Torquay, fair enough, but it's the semi final of a major cup competition for God's sake.

As poor as our support was in the mid to late 80s, had we been playing this tie then, it would have been sold out some time ago.

I suppose it's a bit like winning the lottery. Win a couple of million and it's great, then a whole host of other unwanted problems spring up. We were perhaps a bit too successful for our own good in the 90s. Twenty three thousand home regulars for league games, yet ten thousand + can't be arsed for a game of such importance.

What will happen if we get to Wembley? Cue the moaning about no subsidised coach travel, ticket prices, got to get up early, blah, blah, blah......We'd be lucky to shift 18k. Just imagine - 70k Mancs, 18k of us and a few empty seats. Embarrassing or what?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

But this is football isn't it? Highs and lows? Successes and failures? Sticking by your team through thick and thin? Sorry, there is no excuse for not showing your support on Tuesday night - especially the one that you are pushing here. It'll be a total embarrasment if our fans don't fill the ground for this.

If you desert them now, don't bother coming back. This is when our club needs you most.

Sorry GAV, not trying to single you out here...

I'm annoyed by our position at the moment and the way we are playing, but at the other end of the spectrum, I also enjoyed it when we won the title, the league cup last time round, our promotion back to the Premiership...all I'm saying is that you can't have the sweet without the sour I'm afraid, it just doesn't work like that..Life doesn't work like that - you can't just give up when things aren't going perfectly for you.

Win , lose or draw I want to be entertained. That's what professonal football is , it's a branch of the entertainment industry. I want to see somebody out there do something I could never do when I was playing. I want to walk away from Ewood saying to my son " That's the best £25 I've spent all week" ! What's my chances ?

[TrentVilla]

So putting aside the attendance issue, what line up do you guys think we will be facing on Tuesday?

[the original david brent]

But this is football isn't it? Highs and lows? Successes and failures? Sticking by your team through thick and thin? Sorry, there is no excuse for not showing your support on Tuesday night - especially the one that you are pushing here. It'll be a total embarrasment if our fans don't fill the ground for this.

If you desert them now, don't bother coming back. This is when our club needs you most.

Sorry GAV, not trying to single you out here...

I'm annoyed by our position at the moment and the way we are playing, but at the other end of the spectrum, I also enjoyed it when we won the title, the league cup last time round, our promotion back to the Premiership...all I'm saying is that you can't have the sweet without the sour I'm afraid, it just doesn't work like that..Life doesn't work like that - you can't just give up when things aren't going perfectly for you.

Well said pal. We are in a semi final of a major cup competition for gods sake, something fans of a lot of the other 92 english league clubs could only dream of.

Some of the reasons cited on here for not going are pathetic, particularly the complaints about the style of football. One of my first seasons of watching rovers was 1990-91, we finished just above the relegation zone of the old division 1, with crowds of 6-7k. That was 'dross' football. Some fans on this board need to take a serious reality check. Get behind the team and turn up Tuesday!

[Gav]

But this is football isn't it? Highs and lows? Successes and failures? Sticking by your team through thick and thin? Sorry, there is no excuse for not showing your support on Tuesday night - especially the one that you are pushing here. It'll be a total embarrasment if our fans don't fill the ground for this.

If you desert them now, don't bother coming back. This is when our club needs you most.

Sorry GAV, not trying to single you out here...

I'm annoyed by our position at the moment and the way we are playing, but at the other end of the spectrum, I also enjoyed it when we won the title, the league cup last time round, our promotion back to the Premiership...all I'm saying is that you can't have the sweet without the sour I'm afraid, it just doesn't work like that..Life doesn't work like that - you can't just give up when things aren't going perfectly for you.

No problem at all with what you're saying brainfreeze, just saying how I’m feeling and by the sounds of things so are many other fellow supporters.

I’m not the biggest Hughes fan in the world, but under him I’d be going down tomorrow without any question because we’d possibly lose the game, but we’d go down fighting. I just don’t think this side will fight for the manager and certainly won’t for the fans.

[martonrover]

Not an excuse for such poor sales, but I think the proximity to Christmas has probably been a factor.

Had the game been later in January I think we would have shifted more tickets.

[Ewood Spark]

weve lost sight of football and entertainment....i could write a parson of my support but cant be bothered but it was my little lad pleading to go that changed my mind.

Being a supporter has nothing to do with being entertained ... if I wanted to be entertained I'd be off to Vue cinema or King Georges Hall ... if I wanted to watch good football week-in week-out I'd join the massed ranks of 'plastics' at Old Trafford or the Emirates. What the hell have we become that we demand to be entertained! We sit at the top table despite paying peanuts for the privilege and yet still we get so called supporters droning on and on and on about hoof-ball, Allerdyce, Keith 'bloody' Andrews! Get a grip for gawd's sake. We are a provincial Northern team from a town the size of Rochdale, Oldham and Bury living the dream in the semi-final of cup .... managers, players and boards will come and go but we are more than the sum of the parts we are Blackburn Rovers Football Club. Get a grip!!!

COYB

[tony gale's mic]

No problem at all with what you're saying brainfreeze, just saying how I’m feeling and by the sounds of things so are many other fellow supporters.

I’m not the biggest Hughes fan in the world, but under him I’d be going down tomorrow without any question because we’d possibly lose the game, but we’d go down fighting. I just don’t think this side will fight for the manager and certainly won’t for the fans.

You mean like the way we didnt fight against Chelsea? Or against Villa in our last home fixture after being a man down?

Stop talking rubbish.

[stuwilky]

So, we've only sold 5500 home tickets.

Looking at the online ticketing system It seems like we've sold more, and it doesnt include the Darren End.