Car broke down on the way to Ewood so had to listen on the radio!

Leagues with fewer teams will generally be less competitive in these terms. The best teams play the worst teams more frequently. That (partly) explains the discrepancy in the Women's leagues.

19 for me - forgot about Witschge and Alan Wright

The mates who went on to do all the Scottish grounds - I take it they hadn't discovered girls at that point! Did they ever? 😉

Thinking about how easy it was back then to go to matches brought back a memory of 3 games in a day with my dad on a Good Friday back in the late 70's / early 80's. Wigan Vs Bury 11am at Springfield Park, Rovers Vs somebody maybe Derby, Sunderland?) at 3pm. Back home for tea and then up to Dark Lane to watch Rossy Utd in a local derby at 7.30. My mum must have been very understanding...or had just given up by then! Was later than I thought - 1987. Wigan beat Bury 1-0, Rovers beat Derby 3-1

Add Maidstone United, Dagenham&Redbridge, and Yeovil to that list. Then go lower down for Kidderminster, Hereford, Chester, Darlington, Southport, etc. Quite a few of the clubs mentioned are reformed after the originals went out of existence.

In the real world that's true. I'm guessing with the 'clever' world of football finance there's a loophole!!

Apologies Boz - my mistake. Every day's a school day! The 1889-1890 season was bizarre. They drew 4 and lost 13 of the first 17 and then won 4 and drew 1 of the last 5! Suspect they got some new players as they also came good in the Lancashire Cup beating us in the final. I guess we were distracted by winning the FA Cup instead 🙂

Burnley didn't seek re-election. They had to win on last day to avoid relegation from Div 4. If I remember correctly it was the first season of relegation from the League to the Conference (now National League). Much as I enjoy it when we beat Burnley (and enjoyed bragging rights at school when they were in the 4th Div) it would have seemed a bit unjust for them to get relegated on their first time at that level when teams like Rochdale and Hartlepool and many others had finished bottom multiple times but been saved by the 'old boys' network. I'm sure there will be some on this forum who disagree 😉

And afterwards, if you want to go home by train, they can go in the Cut!

Lots of teams in there fallen on hard times - Wrexham (until recently), Grimsby, Oldham, etc. Not a great year for the city of Bristol either. By the end of the season must have been a interesting race to see who finished next to bottom - the most-depressing bragging rights ever!! Never realised before but if Preston had drawn with Swansea they'd have stayed up at the expense of Cardiff and stopped Swansea going up - that'd made them popular in S Wales!

Been away from the area too long and didn't realise what was happening to Hornets. What has happened there? Always look for the results (used to go with my Dad years ago - the JPL final in the 70's being one of my earliest sporting memories) and was looking forward to seeing them at Llanelli this season - until I found out the South Wales team has folded. Feels like dark days for the lower levels of the pro game.

No - 3 up by then. West Ham making 2023 Burnley look average in comparison! At 3 points for a win and 46 games would give WH 103 pts. Particularly when draws were more valuable back then in comparison - I suspect with 3 points for a win they might have looked to convert some of those away draws into wins.

'The first leg of the semi-final at Ewood when Rovers came from 2-0 behind to win 4-2.' Amazing game - the Mike Newell thunderbolt is possibly the most memorable moment in my Rovers-watching history.

1, Difficult choice this one but I think Wembley Play-off final. That feeling of knowing we were going to play in the top flight after 17 years of supporting Rovers was just incredible - particularly after the Palace defeat. Honourable mentions to Gigg Lane 80, FMC 87, and Cardiff 2002 2. Anfield 95. Disappointment of not being there was softened by going to work in Swinton the following day with my Rovers shirt on. Lots of grief from the plastic Man U fans (those who never went!) but congratulations from (most of) the real Man U fans who knew how long I'd followed us. Their view was 'you got more points than us - that's what winning a league is!'

Dad and me did same - although I was old enough for it to affect! Palace - enough said

Never felt quite the same for me as Palace. Maybe because I wasn't there (was at Preston hoping they'd do us a favour). Also wasn't in our own hands - we did all we could on the day. Well except win by about 9 goals!!

Same for me. At the time thinking we might never get another chance of getting to the top flight. Then got back to the car and had a parking ticket!! I disliked Sarf London before then - hated it even more ever since!

Having lived in the area it is surprising how much snow Stoke gets. It sits on a plateau and often has snow when the lower surrounding areas don't.

I still replay that miss in my head whenever FA Cup semi-finals are talked about.

We were one of the early pioneers of flicking on near post corners - so effective for a while

Same age, Remember that game as one of those where we scored first and the defence was so good we had supreme confidence in another 1-0 win! Fantastic days out that season. The days of scarves streaming out of car windows!

Went to this game with an Oldham-supporting friend of my dad's. Free tickets sat in the front of the stand (Ford Stand?) opposite the main stand. Luckily surrounded by forgiving Latics fans!! Just realised that was the 5-0 in 1979, Was on the away end for the Boxing Day match.

Until Trav's renaissance I'd have said Speight for the extra bite. But has to be Garner for the obvious reason.

What a tense night that was eh? QPR had 9 English players plus 1 Welsh and 1 NI in the starting 11. We had 8 English, 1 Scot, 1 ROI and 1 rogue Norwegian. How times have changed in the Prem!