BLACKBURN ROVERS

One of their early grounds featured a "cow pit", which was a drainage pool that had to be covered by planks and turf by the players to allow matches to take place. Unfortunately, two Bury stars required hospitalisation after plunging into the pit when the boarding collapsed during a rainstorm. Further problems arose after the move to Ewood Park. Darwen were the visitors, just after the four FA Cup victories had been achieved. The fans of the away team were enraged to discover that only three of the first choice Blackburn players had been included in the side and went on the rampage, uprooting goalposts, breaking windows and ruining some carpets. They also spilled some cups of tea, emptied out the waste paper bins and threw the corner flags, javelin-style, a distance of 90 yards.

League success came for Blackburn in 1912 and 1914 with First Division Championships, but the war became a watershed in Rovers' fortunes. They ebbed with the side and they were sunk when relegation followed in 1936. Three years later, a Second Division title saw them regain their top flight status, but they were then interrupted by Adolf Hitler. Despite the inconvenience of the intervention, they were back in the 1st Division between 1957 and 1966, before a decline set in and found them at an all time low in1979, when they fell into the Division 3. The long climb up the league ladder began straight away and culminated in a Full Members Cup triumph in1987. There was anti-climax when promotion was missed in the play-off final against Leicester, but the next year they went into the Premier League under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish and the financial tutelage of Jack Walker. Alan Shearer was purchased from Southampton for in excess of £3 million and he proceeded to shoot for the stars and in 1995 the Premier League title was secured. However, things were far from stable - a disastrous European Cup campaign preceded a battle to retain their place in the Premiership. The acquisition of the experienced ex-Switzerland boss, Roy Hodgson has seen a revival for the side this season, but strangely, they are never feted by the media.

The fans of the club have had a major influence on the game as the supporters in the early days did something that would spark a craze more than 100 years later. The followers of the side, when the club was formed, were not well off - toiling in the dark satanic cotton mills of the North-West, but wanted to display their loyalty to the Rovers. So, two fans bought one home shirt and one away shirt and cut them in half, sewing the one half of each shirt together . The club were so impressed, that they adopted this as their, now famous blue and white halved home shirt and immediately produced a new second kit, thus introducing the first replica kit merchandising rip-off. Although the half-and-half shirt fad resurfaced in the late 1980's, it was never to have such a lasting impact as the original version.

More latterly, the club have shed the inexperienced Kidd and gone for Souness to lead them on.  This has resulted in a return to the Premiership, with promotion gained automatically with a second place finish. The hard work was for Souness in trying to keep the Rovers up in the top division, which he succeeded in doing, but was replaced by Mark "Sparky" Hughes - nicknamed as such because he had terrible problems generating static electricity on the new textured berber carpets at Ewood Park.  Well, they have to get some electric atmosphere in the stadium somehow.

He didn't last too long before being tempted by Manchester City, only to be replaced by Paul Ince, who dropped his sobriquet of the "Guv'nor" to take the boss's role at Ewood Park, but it was not for long before the Rovers board took a last throw and his boots were filled by a bigger man in "Big" Sam Allardyce and then Steve "Who ?" Kean. 

FAMOUS PLAYERS: - Derek Fazakerley, Alan Shearer, Bill Eckersly, Uriah N. Luckey, Ronnie Clayton, Barrington Heckerslike.

FAMOUS FANS : - Jim Bowen (TV Game Show host), Wayne Hemingway (Fashion designer - Red Or Dead), Stephen Pinder (Actor - Brookside, Emmerdale)

2 pts for a win : 60  Division 3 (1974-75)