If Cole is coming back it makes me wonder why we sold Jon Stead. He would have learnt a great deal from Andy whilst providing the legs for Cole.

Thanks bob fleming and coffeeman, I didn't know either of those points. Must start buying the LET again.

Went to the cricket last night at OT - good game - and drove up Warwick Road towards OT about 8.15pm to find the road down to the ground closed off by one policewoman. As far as I could see there was a small group of fans and a few policeman. Quite prepared to be wrong but what I was able to see from the top end of Warwick Road didn't look like a major protest.

This name change discussion is pretty irrelevant when it all originates from a three line article in a red top rag that is not exactly renowned for the truth (sorry that should be accurate reporting?) theno - are those you know who won't renew judging Hughes, the club or the players? I've renewed, I imagine I always will, but for the first time I didn't want to. I'm dreading next season as I see nothing ahead of us but the same crap we have watched for the last two years. I'm not going to criticise Kugi because I assume Hughes knows a striker when he sees one but I can't be the only person wondering why Ipswich let a 20 goal striker go on a free? This is the only change we appear to have made and it isn't going to set Blackburn on fire. Expectations are so high now, I'm guilty of that. Why? Simple pay footballer a £1m plus a season and EVERYONE demands a performance, and rightly so. The players' attitude over the last couple of seasons stinks and Rovers fans are showing their disapproval. If it isn't their attitude one must presume collectively the team is not good enough for the PL which makes Hughes' achievement even greater, Regretably most fans turn up to support a team, not a manager.

Certainly true Dave but not in every case. We have Nelsen who seems to appreciate exactly how fortunate he is to be at Ewood and then the likes of Emerton, Neil and Robbie "I moved here to be close to me Mum" Savage who appreciate nothing and should leave tomorrow. In the unlikely event of becoming Chairman I would, in all seriousness, introduce the following: Player transfer would be decided on: 1.Talent 2. Personal Terms 3. An interview to determine the player's attitude Fail 3 and no matter who you are, you don't get in Salaries would be: 1. Basic rate 2. Appearance related - in the squad, on the bench, in the side etc 3. Performance related - goals scored, clean sheets, number of yellow cards etc At that start of each season I'd present the players with the bonus fund, maybe even put a big pile of money on the dressing room floor and tell them - that's yours if YOU achieve x, y or z. I'm just so tired of watching players who don't care and waste their talent. Look at Emerton can't shoot, can't/won't beat a defender, can't cross, can't take a corner and is described as a superb athlete. He's wasting his ability, presuming he has some? Don't they practice in training? They do nothing all week, surely a player can improve a weakness in his game by taking 200 corners a day or whatever? My only motivation for renewing the STs was to avoid cutting off my nose to spite my face. This is the problem for JW.

Very difficult to agree with that view Rev. Graeme Souness created the negative atmosphere at Ewood in three ways: 1. Banging on about survival being the target 2. Bully boy tactics 3. Awful purchases I've said it before, the players and manager create the atmosphere and while we continue to employ footballers who clearly could not give a sh!t about the club the place will be surrounded by a negative atmosphere. Where JW could be held accountable is in not recognising this and failing to do anythng about it if he has. The big problem is the modern day footballer - lazy, arrogant, under-motivated, over-paid, etc. That's what creates the negative atmosphere around the club. The sooner we clear out the likes of Neil, Emerton, Amo, Savage etc the better.

From the Mirror: You can't dignify that with words like journalism and newspaper article. It's nothing but inaccurate speculation and out of context quotes. Just read the first line............it's pure rubbish, when did the Mirror last publish anything with any foundation If the name changes? The Riverside is still the Riverside regardless of it's official name and for me Ewood will always be Ewood regardless of what the club decide to call it.

Three.. Tom Finn as MD which should rule out any possibility of him moving on

Right that's us signed up for another season......the online thing is a dream once you suss out the credit card problem. It seems the form doesn't like spaces between initials and surname so J P SMITH needs to be JPSMITH Anyone know if we decide to move stands if we can still do it, even though I've just paid up for the FS?

brfcs.com is applying for a licence to publish the PL fixtures. Without a licence publishing fixtures is breach of copyright and could threaten our licence application. Would members please refrain from posting full fixture lists. Early fixtures, highlights, discussion is fine but please don't cut and paste the whole thing - provide a link instead. cheers

MB members are at the forefront because the idea arose from discussions between brfcs members. In the last 48 hours BRISA has written to every known BRFC organisation/group/supporters club in Europe ** telling them of our existence and inviting their views. ** with one exception where we don't have an address - yet. As for overseas members we need to be told what you want. If it's as simple as sorting out tickets I'm sure that can be done.

That is up to the individual, none of us are going to deliberately break the confidentiality that goes with this MB. All the real names are published on the BRISA web site.

Spot on. You hit the nail on the head...in other words you don't feel valued by the club and/or fellow supporters? BRISA wants EVERYONE involved, from everywhere be it East Lancs or East Timor. We want everyone's voice to be heard because we know the support is dropping like a stone. This is about supporting Blackburn Rovers, nothing more and nothing less.

Clare wasn't on the list I posted because she did not attend the original meeting which my remarks referred to. Six people attended, two sent apologies. If you follow the link to the BRISA web site you will find the full minutes of that meeting together with the names of those who attended. **EDITED 4.00pm - just re-read the minutes of meeting 1 and realise I was wrong, Clare did send apologies.** To answer points 1-3: 1. Please read all the information posted above and on the BRISA website. You will find it stressed on many occassions all Rovers fans can join and any member can stand for election. You will also find the six people at the original meeting are willing to stand down at the first public meeting and for others to be elected. We all know we are unelected, just a bunch of football fans with no jurisdictiuon at all. We also believe the time is right for BRISA and someone has to make a start, somewhere. If it works and others run BRISA, so be it. 2. Remuneration? This is costing money. Everyone who is involved has put their hands in their pockets to get BRISA working 3. I don't actually understand the question though I get the point you are trying to make. The list includes nothing more than the six people who were interested to turn up at the Fernhurst one Friday night. Please do not try to find sinister intentions where none exist. If you are concerned by BRISA or its intentions please come along, get involved and listen to what is being said and done. If you wish to be involved the choice is in your hands. BRISA are fans who believe there is work to be done, we are concerned about our club and it's future and we have got off our backsides and are attempting to make progress. We may fall flat on our faces but we are trying.

...and to be clear BRISA has had no involvement with that decision. The club where completley unaware of BRISA's exsistence when the decision was made to disband the OSAs Just heard that BRISA's e-mail is now live. Please contact BRISA via admin@roversisa.co.uk

No secrets thenodrog: Scotty, stuwilky, den, Kiwiwannabe, Glenn, Ste, Tris, Paul. The brfcs.com e-mail address is being used because it's available and BRISA wants to hear from people. brfcs members are likely to be interested just as are other existing groups. There are no longer any BRFC based supporters organisations, although we didn't know about those changes when the ideas where first developed. and as you posted last night

To give a flavour of BRISA here are a selection of the FAQs BRISA will publish in the near future to explain its objectives: What are you all about? BRISA (Blackburn Rovers Independant Supporters Association) wishes to independently represent the interests of Blackburn Rovers supporters. It will aim to represent the views of BRFC fans to both the club and the media, as well as increase the opportunities and ways in which supporters of Blackburn Rovers can express their affiliation with, and active support of, the club. What do you hope to achieve? What BRISA can achieve is to create a stronger connection between the club and the fans. Hopefully, in the fullness of time through the workings of BRISA, Rovers fans will be able to see that they can have an influence on their football club. The other main aim of BRISA is to help increase the level of support. We have already discussed various ways and means of achieving this, and are sure there will be many more discussions in the future, but BRISA hopes that by simply having an active supporters group that the fans feel represents their views will help to decrease the level of disillusionment many supporters currently feel. Who can stand for posts within BRISA? Anybody who supports Blackburn Rovers and joins BRISA. What do you intend to do to benefit the fans? As stated earlier, we hope to increase the level of communication between the fans and the club. This means that the fans will hopefully gain more knowledge of what the club are doing, and why they are doing it, as well as allowing Rovers fans to have a real voice and say in the decisions the club makes. Another potential benefit could see an increase in regional supporters groups and supporter events that will hopefully allow Rovers fans everywhere to feel part of the club and the supporter community. What does the club think of all this? They have been very supportive of the idea of BRISA so far and are actively encouraging us to set the association up. We think they can see the benefits of increased communication with the fans just as we can. That said, we will be an independant organisation and are not answerable to the club in any way. What about overseas fans? They are just as important to BRISA as anyone and are encouraged to join. BRISA aims to represent the views of all Blackburn Rovers supporters throughout the world. As stated previously, one of the aims of BRISA is to encourage the forming of more regional, or even international, supporters groups. Who are the people behind BRISA? Initially, six people formed the steering committee for BRISA and attended the first formal meeting. The steering group has now increased in size and there is no restriction on how many people can be part of this steering committee. The sole aim of the steering group is to successfully get BRISA up and running. At the first public BRISA meeting the steering committee will be disbanded and a new BRISA committee will be formed. How was the steering group decided upon? The idea of a BRISA came about through informal discussions between various supporters at matches. As these discussions started to take shape it was decided that we should hold a more formal meeting (at The Fernhurst on 28/01/05) where ideas about how best to set up an ISA could be debated. Anyone who had expressed an interest was invited to attend the meeting, six of us did, so that was the initial steering group! All the Steering Group members are also involved in brfcs.com - what is the connection? The only connection is that the initial disccussions about forming an ISA were conducted between supporters who had met as a direct result of being members of BRFCS.com. It should be noted though that just because the idea and initial discussions regarding BRISA were conducted by fans who use brfcs.com this does NOT mean BRISA will be a part of brfcs.com. The association will be totally independent of BRFCS.com. Any Rovers supporter can join BRISA, whether they access the internet or not, and the initial BRISA committee will hopefully reflect a wide range of Rovers supporters and groups. How will BRISA reach out to fans some distance from Ewood? As stated previously, we will soon have our own web-site that will contain all the information anyone would want about BRISA and what it does. And again, as stated previously, we will be actively encouraging people to set up regional or international supporters groups. To this aim we intend to work closely with any existing supporters groups. If I want to start a BRISA group/cell how can I do this? We haven't decided the detail yet but the intention is to make it a lot easier than it currently is. At the moment we believe a fee has to be paid to the club and there has to be a certain number of members before a group can be officially recognised. We will certainly be looking to relax these restrictions and will attempt to provide incentives to encourage groups to be formed. Is there any guarantee that the BRISA will be fully democratic? BRISA will be totally democratic. All it's meetings will be open to the public and each meeting will be fully minuted and made available for everyone to read. To gain a position on the BRISA committee you will have to be elected by the BRISA membership. Each year the positions for the committee will be up for re-election and anyone else wishing to take up a position will have the chance to stand.

For some months a small group of like minded Rovers fans have been discussing the merit and possibility of setting up an Independent Supporters Assocciation (ISA). The group have met twice, corresponding via e-mail to discuss the many issues which will be encountered in the formation of an ISA. Out of these discussions Blackburn Rovers Independent Supporters Assocciation (BRISA) is developing with the intention of representing the interests of Rovers fans across the world. To date everyone involved in BRISA is a member of brfcs.com. This is the ONLY connection between BRISA and brfcs.com. With more than 3500 members of brfcs.com it is not surprising to find some who have a common motivation in their support of the club. BRISA has met with club officials and received encouragement in the efforts to form the new supporters group BRISA will shortly be contacting all known existing, official and unofficial, supporters groups to explain BRISA's intentions The public launch will take place in the early weeks of next season An open public meeting will be held to launch ISA to all Rovers fans Any fan with a serious interest in helping to develop ISA is welcome to join the discussions. Please contact BRISA for further details via the e-mail address below - this is solely because we can provide you with links to all the current information. BRISA nees your support, Rovers need your support - please get in touch by e-mail As of 8.00am BRISA has a live E-mail address - admin@roversisa.co.uk THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED AT 8.32, June 20th - just to help explain the discussion below.

errrr...........hope so Chucked mine away in disgust after the Fulham game. Hadn't really considered I might need it again that day

The renewal costs on the internet are £3 processing fee and £2 postage for the whole transaction regardless of the number of tickets. I think this is very reasonable and comparable with other online ticket purchases - Tickmaster is £4.95. Having said that I have been unable to renew on-line and having got ready to do it this morning am pretty fed up. Today is the first time I'd had any enthusiasm for renewing the STs and the system keeps rejecting my credit and bank cards. I have used both of these many, many times to buy tickets, my credit card is paid off every month and bank account is OK. I have been unable to make the purchase as the site refuses ALL my cards. Does anyone know what a CV2 number is? I presume it's what the rest of the world calls the Security number on the back of the card? Why is the facility withdrawn on the 27th June? Presumably it's the "claim your seat" deadline? Yours, Irritated of Chorley

...history of mental problems......

This is the sort of lateral thinking Rovers need to employ. Just to correct the prices at LCCC, which are dirt cheap: Full Adult ST: £120 plus a one-off £35 joining fee Country ST: £70 plus one-off joining fee of £35 Under 16: £10 An LCCC ST is actually membership. The "Country" ST is for those who live outside of a 40 mile radius of OT. My kids are members at LCCC and get free tickets to take their father

I'd urge anyone thinking about that to do their sums carefully. At £225 for a BBE Young Adult you only need to go to 9 home games at £25 each to pay for the Young Adult ST. My eldest will be away from late January and I plan to get him an ST just to cover the first half of the season - will probably then invite someone else along in the second half. A Young Adult ST makes a lot of sense for people at uni, working away etc. How about sharing with a friend, be imaginative.

I'm much the same Stu, never any problem GETTING to the ground. We can leave at 2.35 and be inside for KO. Getting out again is a bigger problem as by the time we've made it back to the car there's a big queue out of the car parks on LBR and we rarely get back in less than hour from FT. On the odd occassion at OT we get home quicker than from Ewood. The traffic problems seem to be worse heading back into town, up Bolton Road and the road that cuts across to Witton Park - can't recall the name. I'd happily use a bus from EP to Chorley on match days but there isn't one