Blackburn Rovers

This game represented my first foray into the real purpose of the season, doing all the away games as well and visiting the other league clubs not in the Championship.

Living in East Suffolk greatly complicates travelling to football matches, for the heartbeat of the game is still in the North West.(For the purposes of this blog, East Yorkshire is in the NW). Plus, apart from Ipswich, every other club seems to be quite a drive from my front door. Not to worry this odyssey is something I have been looking forward to for some time now and a few miles on the open road is not going to deter me.

It would have been possible to do the whole visit to Blackburn in one day, but, after driving up on Friday, I felt so knackered that it would have been no fun to try it in one day and, probably, positively dangerous. Instead, I drove up and visited the Rovers ground the day before our match. This enabled me to park at the stadium and have a good nose around.

I last went to Ewood Park on 13 January 1986 for a replay of the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. They had forced a 1-1 draw at the CG and we lost the Replay 3-2 (scorers Birtles and Walsh). This was before the ground was rebuilt and the away end was a cowshed. It was an evening game, of course, and I went up by train from Manchester Victoria. I remember it as being wet and cold and the walk from the station in town to the ground was very dreary. The walk back was worse.

So to see the ground now is a revelation. Three new, tiered stands towering above the older Riverside Stand. (As you walk around the ground, blink and you'll miss the river. Let's just say, it's not on the scale of the Trent). On my way I noticed a plaque of great age on the wall of the Jack Walker Stand. It is placed in a glass case and remembers brave men of that Parish who perished in the Great War. Alongside it are two new granite plaques repeating those names. Simple acts like this make the club that much closer to the local area and the fans.

I wandered round the ground to the statue of Jack Walker, the great benefactor of the club.

If I remember rightly made his money in steel, anyway a fan who had the chance to change his club. And change it he did. They became one of the few clubs outside the Big 4 to win the Premier League. After a few photos I went into the Blues Bar for a well earned pint. I had hoped to chat to a Rovers fan. Disappointed! First two I spoke to were Man U fans and, moving on, I bumped in to a Man City fan!! I gave up then and left.

 Away fans are housed in the Brian Douglas Darwen End Stand alongside the noisiest Rovers fans. (To aid them they have one of those ghastly thumping drums.)And they don't have to be very noisy to out shout the rest of the ground, which was the quietest I have visited for a long time. And you wouldn't have much trouble getting a ticket, because there were great empty spaces all around, tribute to the drawing power of the Venkys, the unpopular owners of the club.

The match was a somewhat defensive affair, but we won by virtue of a very late goal, cue for a burst of enthusiastic singing and chanting. Events like that make it all worthwhile.

In the great scheme of things, I was also due to visit Preston's ground at Deepdale. Apparently the oldest ground still staging league football (we have been drip-fed these facts from the FL because they are celebrating 125 Years of League Football this season). It has, of course, been rebuilt over the years and now boasts four stands, separate and not joined at the corners. Two sides of the ground have been shoe horned into the local houses, one of the houses was festooned with PNE scarves etc and the owner must surely have the shortest walk of any supporter in the country. I reckon he had all of 20 yards to walk to the stand by his house. The ground shares accommodation with a strange bedfellow, the NHS. There is a Walk In clinic built into one of the stands.

Preston also used to house the National Football Museum, but this has now moved to the middle of Manchester. Rather sadly, the old museum building is still at Preston's ground, the building empty and anonymous save for the ghostly lettering visible on the walls.

This ground also boasts a statue, this one based on the great photo of Tom Finney (Mr Preston, also known as the 'Preston plumber' for obvious reasons. It was not unknown for one of the greatest footballers  of his generation to turn up on local doorsteps to mend the kitchen sink) sliding through  puddles of water during an England match.

As well as the Tom Finney Stand there is the Bill Shankly Stand reminding us that Preston has had some great managers, like Billy Davies, for instance.

By the statue is a  feature also found at Blackburn's ground. A commemorative walk, where you can buy a brick to remember a loved one or fan, putting any inscription on it so long as it fits. This is a great idea and one that I hope, in time, finds it's way to a redeveloped CG.