England players playing like there’s 3lb of lead in each of their boots. Terrible performance, so far.

“Hit the high point.” A new one on me, just heard it in the Switzerland v Cameroon game. From the examples they showed at half time, it seems to mean, knock the ball long or at least play it to the player furthest forward. 🙄

There won’t be any complaints from Celtic. They’ve only played two games (it’s a three team tournament) and they’ve banked £5m from it. In the Scottish Premiership, you can’t turn down that sort of money.

Very good points.

Bearing in mind that, following JDT’s appointment, it was all about our style of play to be the high press. Since then, with one or two exceptions, all we’ve seen is this mind numbing, possession based, play-it-out-from-the-back football. My question would be regarding recruitment that took place prior to, and at the beginning of this season and also future recruitment. If you don’t know the style of football you want to play, how do you determine the type of footballer you wish to bring in?

I wish the interview had been filmed. I would have paid f***ing good money to watch it.

I was at this game. Went on a red, white and green single decker, leading up to a merger with the two councils. Got there at stupid o’clock, as there were no time restrictions in those days. We ended up at the station waiting for the football special to arrive. As it pulled in (most probably was the Ewood Express with 600 on), the doors all opened before it had stopped and off everyone poured to an absolute cacophony of chanting. I do remember that trouble you mention and I can still see an ‘old boy’ being led away by the police, coffee, soup or something all over his face. He had obviously done nothing but the police were having none of it. I would have been 15 at the time and whilst the poor guy seemed ‘old’ to me, he would probably have been a similar age to what I am now! We got our coach tickets via a lad up at SMC. Can’t remember his name, small, likeable lad called Robinson maybe who, in turn, had arranged it via Brendan Searson, the name of the latter rings a bell. So @Exiled in Torontoand @arbitromay well have been there as well along with other regulars like Chris R and Andre R… They can’t take away our (fading) memories. 😆

I think I was at the game, John. Just short of 50 years ago. Bloody hell! I get mixed up with outings on the League Liner and the Ewood Express, although I’ve been to Watford two or three times over the years, including an evening game. What a miss from Tony Field in the first half. Normal service (his) resumed later with that delightful chip. And how good was Roger Jones? Great days. I’d love to be able to relive some of ‘em. It seemed like we’d been down at that level for years and years, so it was strange to hear Brian Moore point out that we had been in the first division (top flight) only seven years previously!

Nice clip Chaddy. He’s some player is AW. The way he runs and picks his passes, he makes it look effortless, including the way he put Szmodics through for his goal. He if continues to develop, as he has done to date, we’ll soon be sitting on a small fortune.

Steve. See the Facebook site, The Talbot Archive. You may be able to register and make contact via that site. Wally Talbot and his son Howard (both sadly deceased) were Blackburn based photographers who captured images, in and around Blackburn, over many years. There will be countless photographs of Ewood Park covering the black and white era you’re looking for. See also www.cottontown.org for further information and email addresses etc.

Wigan 82 Bath 6 Bath 44 Wigan 19

Best I could get from a Google search. Distant view of it from the Darwen End plus another view of the entrance (right of the ticket office) from the outside on Nuttall Street. Nothing from inside, unfortunately.

I think someone should tell the Sunderland fans about the lemon drizzle..

Haha, been to Almoradi a few times over the years. We used to have a place in Quesada but sold a few years ago. We are here for a month, so if you fancy a beer and a spot of lunch, let me know 🙂

Watching in a bar in Quesada, Costa Blanca. Overall, a good win but that last 30 mins was hard work. We just couldn’t get the ball and keep possession. Oh for a Gordon Cowans in midfield to settle us Down and orchestrate things.

Used to use isagate a lot. Going to have to resurrect that one to confuse the Cheshire folk down here.

Fuck me. Insisting on going BACKWARDS with the ball, has cost us!!

Agree. We’re the kings of going backwards and sideways. So much for the press. We need to up the ante and move forwards. If we insist on playing it out from the back, the receiving midfielder has to control the ball, turn and start moving FORWARDS, ffs.

Yes, I have worked in both Nelson and Burnley. Taking Blackburn’s (not including Darwen) current population of 120k and an Asian percentage of 35% (from previous census), that’s 42k Asians in the town. As you’ll know, they’re keen on cricket, they like walking around in Utd and City shirts but not as keen on getting down to their local club. It’s a problem for Burnley but a massive problem for the Rovers.

That’s a pretty good assessment o2g. I would say Rossendale is 66% Burnley, 33% Rovers, with only Haslingden and Helmshore being strongholds for us. I’m assuming you mean Rovers, PNE and Notlob for Chorley. I have worked in Chorley previously and just get the feeling that, with the Breezeblock being where it is now (as opposed to BWFC being south of Bolton town centre), our support in Chorley is becoming less as each year passes. I’ve done this sort of thing in the past and, give or take a few thousand, both catchment areas were the same. The ‘elephant in the room’ is the substantial, and growing, Asian population of Blackburn. I realise that the club are working hard to get as many of them as possible down to Ewood but it must be hard. Another thing to mention is that it becomes more difficult for Rovers if our near neighbours are doing well at any particular time. Five miles to the west and we enter Preston territory. Five miles to the east and we enter Burnley territory. Seven or eight miles to the south and it’s Bolton. We are hemmed in on all sides. Burnley only have to worry about us and, joking aside, their support stretches well into West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Very little in it.

Just seen the goals from the Swansea v Hull game. Defensively, Hull were shocking. The third Swansea goal shows exactly why this tippy-tappy way of playing it out from the back, keeping possession at all costs, can often be suicidal. Coaches keep insisting that players do it. Laughable.

I thought we were supposed to be playing a ‘press’ style of football. I’ve seen very little of it so far this season and it sounds like today was another day of tippy tappy stuff at the back. Decent possession but doing sweet fa with it. It’s all rather confusing.

I thought that the other day when I was looking back at an old thread. Another lost poster is phillipl, who hasn’t either posted or looked in on the site for well over a year. I don’t post on the other (Thenodrog’s) site but a mate of mine, who used to post on here, defected over there and for a few years, posted virtually daily. Then, at the beginning of June, this year, he simply stopped posting. Sometimes, I think a nerve is touched, for some reason and posters throw in the towel.

Yep, it was either 83-84 or 84-85 season when they had six attendances under 2,000. They never remember that though.

Was in there when we beat Wolves 3-2 away in May 2011, final game of the season when we avoided the drop. It was the only pub showing the game for what seemed liked miles. We’d been on a wild goose chase to a pub in Egerton before ‘about turning’ it back to Darwen. The booze definitely wasn’t 6p a pint on that day but the place was packed to the rafters.