Stoke four without a win, loitering just above the relegation zone and bereft of confidence...........hold on, Charity FC are about to roll into town........

Neither Rovers or Preston have been pulling up any trees of late so I'm expecting the game to be poor viewing whatever vantage point people decide to take up. This, plus the additional expense of football matches so soon after Christmas leaves me thinking that it'll be a pretty disappointing attendance irrespective of the stomping of feet from up the 65. If people don't want to come to the game then fine. It's understandable, but rallying round the flag of 'lower tier or bust' seems odd in the extreme. The madness of crowds comes to mind.

That stat surprised me given that Burnley were in town a couple of weeks later - a game that seemed to attract 8000 fewer fans. The fanbase of all three teams seems to be of a similar size so I'm wondering whether it was the lure of seeing Sir Tom play that boosted the attendance ?

Best I could do for you, Shaun, is a 2-2 v Ipswich in 1989. Lenny scored, as did a young right-back called Mark Atkins. Never thought he'd amount to much ?

Don't think it was Sunderland and pretty sure Brown didn't score in the Tranmere match. From memory, Lenny's only goal that season came down at Millwall in a game just prior to Sir Kenny turning up. There was a 2-2 v Sunderland in the 88/89 season though. I'll have been at the game but don't recall who scored. I'll check my programmes. Lovely lad. Used to get a lift home from Ewood with Terry Gennoe now and again and Lenny would sometimes be in the car. Both good guys.

It's an interesting one, Bazza, when you consider that this was the team picked to play Leicester the following week: Rovers: Leyland; Bray, Pickering, R.Clayton, Woods, McGrath, Douglas, Dobing, Dougan, McEvoy, MacLeod Looks like Duncan wasn't impressed with the performance v Preston and made a number of changes. Seems to have had the desired effect as it resulted in a 2-3 win.

He did indeed. Think the game 47er is referring to was in October '59: Blackburn Rovers v Preston North End 1-4 (H/T 1-2) Saturday, 3 October 1959, Ewood Park, attendance: 41,694 Rovers: Leyland; Taylor, Smith, England, Woods, McGrath, Isherwood, Douglas, Dobing, Vernon, MacLeod Preston North End: Else; Cunningham, Walton, Milne, Dunn II, Smith, Mayers, Farrall, Finney, Sneddon, Taylor Scorers: 1-0 Dobing (1.), 1-1 T.Finney (4.), 1-2 S.Taylor (28.), 1-3 Sneddon (52.), 1-3 Farrall (68.)

In the main, North End fans are a decent lot. Of course there's the odd helmet amongst them but what team doesn't have fans like that ? Rovers included. I live over here now so mix with quite a few of them and my take is that's there's a lot of frustration within the fan base that they remain - despite coming close on a couple of occasions - the one 'big' team around here that haven't made it to the 'promised land' of the Premiership. I think that can manifest itself as bitterness and resentment towards other clubs and their fans, particularly when they are coming up against them. It's almost a siege mentality. So, whilst I can process all that, what I struggle with is this idea that Preston are rivals of Rovers. That is in no way meant to be condescending. I simply don't see it. It's always been Burnley for me. I've been watching Rovers since the late 70s and whilst there's been the odd match against them, Preston just aren't on my radar and I have no feelings towards them one way or another. It all seems to be very one sided. As for the match itself, I'm seeing a score draw. Pearson is a decent player for them and, like Dack, if a big money bid comes in, he'll be off. That's the nature of modern football.

Tried to do it to us at Bradford last year, JH. Attempted to herd us into what appeared to be the smallest pub in Bradford. Thankfully, we managed to find someone who had half a brain cell and we were allowed to wander into the centre unaccompanied. Stumbled upon a decent pub called the City Vaults which had plenty of Bradford fans wearing colours. No problems at all. Was there really sub 2000 away on that match ? Surprised me that. Seemed to be a lot more at the time. Still, I guess it wasn't the best start to the season was it ?

Surely it's a homage to Rovers' former mascot: Roar the Lion. Clearly a sign he's coming back to Ewood. Although I did read that said person got arrested on suspicion of some rather nefarious activities ?

Saw 6 or 7 of the U-23 matches up at Leyland last season and, for the majority of those games, Travis played out on the ride hand side (if memory serves, he may have even played on the left in one game). This wasn't as a RB because Rovers play a three at the back formation at U-23. They are quite rigid in sticking to this. It was more as a wing-back. Johnson and Dunn clearly utilise his ability to get up and down the pitch. There's no doubt in my mind that he is a midfielder though - he's played in a midfield three alongside Tomlinson and Hardcastle before. That said, I'm not a football manager though, so what do I know ?

I've been sniffing around a few of the West Ham forums lately to try and gage the reaction to Big Sam's appointment. Whilst doing so I found a site which had a section devoted to '100 Greatest Moments in West Ham History'. I quite liked the idea and wondered whether there'd be any support for us 'adopting' this as a sub-section for our own club. I would imagine that it would be top heavy with moments from recent history but those supporters with longer memories might like to offer contributions that would help give an incite into Rovers rich history for the younger element amongst our members. Anyway, Just a thought. A few off the top of my head that I can recall (in no particular order): 1 - Winning Promotion back to the Prem at Deepdale. 2 - Winning the Full Members Cup at Wembley 3 - Winning the Leage Cup at Cardiff 4 - Beating Derby 4-2 in the play-off Semi Final. 5 - Beating Man United 4-3 at Ewood 6 - Beating Man United 2-1 at O/Trafford 7 - Beating Palace 5-4 in 88/89 8 - Drawing 3-3 with Leicester at Ewood 9 - 87-88 23 match unbeaten run 10 - Garner's hat-trick v Man City to break Tommy Briggs' record 11 - Shearer's last goals for Rovers v Wimbledon 12 - Shearer's debut double v Palace 13 - Beating Forest 7-1 to officially open the 'New Ewood'. 14 - Signing Steve Livingston and Tony Dobson for £750,000 - Unheard of money for Rovers at the time. 15 - Garner's 5 goal haul v Derby 16 - Rovers first play-off venture v Chelsea (0-2 v Chelsea 87/88) 17 - Signing Shearer 18 - Beating Norwich 7-1 19 - Signing Big Colin the first time around. 20 - Dalglish's appointment on the day Rovers beat Plymouth 5-2 in 1991 21 - Winning the Prem League at Anfield 22 - Newell's hat-trick v Rosenburg 23 - Beating Liverpool at Anfield in FA Cup (1-0 thanks to Nathan Blake) 24 - Beating Burnley 5-0 at Ewood in the promotion year back to the Prem 25 - Speedie's hat-trick v Newcastle

I’ve just been rummaging around in the loft and come across 6 old VHS video cassettes containing Rovers footage. The videos in question are: Blackburn Rovers – The Golden Goals Collection Rovers Official Season Review 92-93 Season Rovers Official Season Review 93-94 Season Rovers Official Season Review 95-96 Season Rovers Official Season Review 96-97 Season Rovers Official Season Review 97-98 Season If anyone has the means and inclination to transfer these onto DVD then they are more than welcome to take these off my hands. All I ask is that they give me a copy once the process is complete. Give me a shout if you’re up to the challenge.

Your quite right TNG. The piece of skill that your referring to was fantastic and it did have me off my seat. It's just a pity Rocky couldn't apply the finish to what would have been a sublime goal. I was pleasantly surprised by Benni yesterday as I was beginning to have doubts about his attitute of late. Long may it continue.

Coldest night ever ! Remember being stood on the station outside the ground after the match. Even the result didn't compensate for the weather.