The Rovers Return

Everyone knows where they were when Kennedy was shot. When Princess Diana was killed. All Rovers fans know exactly where they were when we won the title – so where were you when the Dingles’ dream finally ended.

I was in the Hare and Hounds on Blackburn Road, Oswaldtwistle – my local – where, with 20 minutes to go we were serenaded with The Final Countdown by Europe, counting down to the relegation party. At full time we were treated to blasts of My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, Hillbilly Rock by Marty Stuart and Down Down by Status Quo, among other relegation-themed classics.

I had earlier asked Rovers fans to tell me where they were when Brian Laws’s hapless gang dropped out of the Premier League.

moodonthepitch: At home in New Orleans folding laundry.

MarpleLeaf: I’ll be with my Burnley-supporting wife )

tonypreece: At home, working and watching Sky Sports News while teaching the kids ‘We’re having a party when Burnley go down’.

ninjathunder: In Tesco purchasing celebratory beers for the party. Read more »

Just as well none of the inbreds could read, they may have got upset

True Rovers fans old enough to remember, will never forget this infamous photograph.

Rovers, then in Division Two and having just been bought by millionaire Jack Walker, chartered a plane to fly over Turf Moor, where Burnley were in the process of losing a Division Four play-off against Torquay United, trailing a banner saying: “Staying Down Forever, Luv Rovers, Ha ha ha.”

In some ways, Burnley fans may feel they got the last laugh. They definitely proved they would not be staying down forever.

However, with West Ham winning today, Burnley are all but down. Barring a miracle that includes them beating Liverpool tomorrow, their honeymoon is over.

Indeed, those who ‘Dared to Dream’, might as well resume the lifelong nightmare that being a Burnley fan usually is.

Anyway, going back to the banner, there is a rumour that another banner has been chartered to help Rovers fans to celebrate the relegation party in style.

As with winning the Premier League, where all Rovers fans will remember where – if not at Anfield – they were.

Where were you celebrating the Burnley relegation party in 2010?

"Where's my hairline going?" asked McCarthy

Hopefully, Rovers can use today to break the hoodoo and win outside Lancashire (I’m including Greater Manchester as part of Lancashire before anyone starts being sad) for the first time this season.

It definitely won’t be easy at Wolves, who have exceeded all expectations will definitely still be around next season.

Unfortunately, in my time watching Rovers, we have never had a win at Molineux – our last win there was in October 1990, when I was three – so today is a chance to break that hoodoo as well.

To be honest, to anyone without an interest in either side, this really is a nothing game. In fact, in many ways it’s a nothing ae for Wolves and Rovers now. Both of us have achieved safety and both managers have an eye on next season, with potential transfer deals probably already being negotiated.

However, as I’ve said on several occasions, each league place is worth £750,000, which as an amount not to be scoffed at, certainly not by a club as skint as Rovers, so it’s definitely a case of points win prizes, even when those prizes aren’t trophies.

The importance of that extra few bob gained extra significance this week, with Big Sam seemingly priced out of a move for Polish hot shot Robert Lewandowski after it became apparent Lech Poznan are hanging on for a fee of about £5m. Should Rovers sneak up a couple of places in the Premier League table, that may make the difference between signing someone decent and signing another Nick Blackman. Read more »

This season marks the inaugral Rovers Return awards. So far, I’ve come up with the following awards, although more could be announced:

Please feel free to suggest potential winners/nominees of these awards and suggestions for other awards.

Player of the Season

Pretty self-explanatory.

Young Player of the Year

Awarded to the best player this year, under the age of 24.

Emerging Player of the Year

Awarded to a youth player, either bought in or from within our ranks, who has caught the eye. Again, under-24s.

Most Improved Player

Awarded to any player who has seen a significant improvement in their performances, be that over the course of this season or improving on last season.

Goal of the Season

In no way connected to the Rovers’ own competition, and will include all goals scored this season!

Steady Eddie Unsung Hero of the Year

Awarded to a consistent performer who receives little praise in the media.

Performance of the Year

Awarded to the greatest individual performance in a single match.

Jack Straw in The Ivy in Blackburn. FROM THE TIMES

Found a nice article about Jack Straw’s affliction to the Rovers in The Times.

I’ve always liked Straw. I’ll admit to being biased as I am a Labour voter. But I do like the man.

I’ve met him a couple of times. Once in the run-up to the last General Election when I was doing my A-Levels at Blackburn Sixth Form College and he, along with the Liberal and Conservative PPCs for Blackburn, came to a Question Time-esque event with students of the college.

My speed camera-related question was not chosen.

But Jack creamed the opposition in the debates. In fact, the bloke from the Liberal Demcrats looked as if he was going to puke for the majority of the time he was there.

Mr Straw engaged with the students and answered their questions properly, without patronising us.

I later discovered that, before I gave up my old season ticket to go off to university, he sat just a few rows behind my Dad and I in the  Blackburn End lower tier.

Although he’s not from the area, he’s adopted the town as his own, and admits to having fallen in love with the club.

Trusupporter recently featured a video of him on the eve of the East Lancashire derby, in which he described his love of the town and the club.

Anyway, heres that article:

Politicians cannot resist being associated with the beautiful game. Just as the spotty teenager hopes to feed off his handsome buddy, politicians believe that the aura and the passion of football can do them a favour. That is why Gordon Brown likened the economy to Wayne Rooney’s injured ankle. And that is why Tony Blair mucked around with Kevin Keegan.

But what about the politicians who are true fans? Can football help them to win the election? Read more »

Download and listen to the latest in the series of Rovers podcasts.

From The Marple Leaf:

Ever wondered who should be in a team made up entirely of Blackburn Rovers players who you wouldn’t let near your daughter? Confused as to who Rovers fans should vote for in the election? Have 2,500 people ever had more fun inside a football stadium than on March 28 at Burnley? And did you see Chris Kamara miss that sending off at Portsmouth? And do you really know what #bbtacf stands for on Twitter?

Then wonder no more. The new Blackburn Rovers Podcast is now ready to download. Contributions from Stuart Grimshaw, Jon Hindle and some berk from Marple.

It’s here. Download it, let me know what you think.

Amusingly enough, Rovers’s 2-1 defeat that ended with us winning the title at Anfield is Liverpool’s 23rd greatest Premier League game, apparently …

Got to cheer myself up after a disappointing result today.

Steven N'Zonzi is mobbed after scoring the equaliser

Today, we fought and lost.

As I said in my earlier pre-match posting, Everton are a very good team and they played well today.

However, Rovers created chances well, ending with 10 shots on target, despite chasing shadows for long periods, particularly in the first half.

I’m not going to talk about Everton’s goals individually. They were just three instances of sloppy defending.

It was very disappointing but we didn’t look nearly as solid as we have in recent weeks and definitely missed Chris Samba. Nelsen was done for the first and it was a penalty. Blatantly. We weren’t “playing 12 again” at all.

Having said that, Mikel Arteta should have been sent off after hitting out at Morten Gamst Pedersen after the Norwegian had fouled him. Unfortunately, the “young and inexperienced” ref, as Big Sam put it, seemed to miss the incident.

Poor defending aside, today we witnessed two glorious goals – something we don’t see much of at Ewood anymore.

Firstly, Steven N’Zonzi fired it into the corner from 30 yards to make it 1-1. Pushing for a winner we allowed the Toffees to come back and regain the lead.

Then Roberts, a second half sub in a bizarre incident that saw Big Sam introduce a second striker, instead of making a like for like sub, smashed another equaliser in from 25 yards.

Unbelievable. The sun was shining and the atmosphere in an excellent second half was becoming electric. Then all our hard work was undone in the dying moments when Cahill ended our four month unbeaten home run. Read more »

David Moyes recently won the 'face most like a skull' competition

Are my eyes deceiving me, or does it still say 3pm next to the kick off time for today’s game?

The traditional kick off time for a football match has seemed a thing of the past this year. Indeed, the luxury of having one in our final home game against Arsenal has now been taken away for the ESPN cameras.

But enough of that, I’ve done enough ranting about kick off times. I’m already blue in the face.

A quick look back at Sunday as I haven’t had the chance yet.

Against United, it was at times a bit like a cross between the Alamo and Custer’s last stand. Although the Texians were a bit more successful in defeating the Mexicans at the Alamo, and the Indians slaughtered Custer and his gang.

Where those characters in history succeeded, United failed. And it wasn’t just down to Dimitar Berbatov’s lack of … well, anything really … as Rovers’ defence was absolutely impenetrable.

As the bloke who sits in front of me chanted, although few joined in, “Phil Jones is Superman”, as the Rovers fan from Chorley continued his excellent start to his Rovers career.

Jones is definitely the most exciting prospect since Duff and Dunn emerged in the late 90s/early Noughties, and it is lucky we have another centre back of that quality to provide cover for Nelsen and Samba. Speaking of Big Chris, he was solid as ever until an injury forced him off, making way for Captain Fantastic Ryan Nelsen who managed not to be overshadowed by Jones on his return, putting in a typically strong display. Read more »

Roque Santa Cruz on the attack for Rovers against Man Utd.

Since the inception of the Premier League, there have been some massive games between Rovers and Manchester United, more from a Rovers point of view than United’s …

In the first three years of the league, we were genuine title rivals for the Reds. Particularly in the 1993/94 and, of course, 1994/95, we gave them a real run for their money.

The first meeting was on October 24, 1992. Having just won promotion, Rovers were surprising everyone with some excellent performances and results, and we held title hopefuls United on their first Premier League visit to Ewood Park. At one point during the following season, Rovers were lagging about 18 points behind future champions United in the Premier League table. However, as Alan Shearer scored twice in our 2-0 Ewood Park victory in April, Rovers had narrowed the gap and were real title contenders. It wasn’t to be, however, as United went on to lift the title for the second time.

In 1994/95, a season every Rovers fan will look back on very fondly, United did their first Premier League double over Rovers. But both games were filled with controversy.

In United’s visit to Ewood, United were twice stunned as first Paul Warhurst and then Colin Hendry equalised for Rovers, but United went on to win 4-2. The game is best remembered, though, for the dodgy penalty given to United after Henning Berg was judged to have brought down Lee Sharpe (I think) in the box, when he actually got the ball. The Norwegian was sent off and Cantona tucked away the penalty. Read more »