Back From Blackburn..

[cheshire_red]

i think the players should do a days work experience following a few fans to work for a couple of days and see how priveliged they are to be doing what they do. im sure a player on £10k pw will soon realise what its like to really earn your money when they do a round with Bill the binman or Clive the carpet fitter.

A friend was recently asked by Nigel Davies to speak to Gloucester RUFC players about what it was like to follow Gloucester home and away, what the club meant to him, the costs etc etc but not about 'play for the shirt' etc. Davies' reasoning was simple,rugby players like footballers are now cosseted from the 'real world' they don't know what it is like to work, they have no idea how people have to budget to afford to follow their club and they have no idea how much it costs to do so.

Davies first did this shortly after he became coach at Llanelli Scarlets, they got a stuffing from their arch rivals Swansea (or Ospreys as they are now known) and he walked into the changing room after the match to find the players larking about and basically not giving a damn about the result. Davies was being a local lad so he got some fans in to talk to the players and then made them spend a couple of days a week going to work with those fans for a month and interacting with the 'common supporter'.

My friend gave a 15 minute talk as did another Gloucester fan. The players enjoyed the experience and chatted afterwards with both of them, in fact one of them, currently playing for England on the wing, made a point of giving him some Gloucester and England bits and bobs including a shirt from his car in the carpark before they left.

It's extreme and not sure it would work with footballers but it worked for both Llanelli and Gloucester players.

[havanatopia]

Hats off to all those who went yesterday. Serious money was spent along with a very long day of travelling interspersed with 90 minutes of drivel.

Let us also remind ourselves that it is NOT the average football fan who puts up with what the average BCFC fan has had to in recent seasons; few teams amongst the 92 have struggled for 3 seasons and even fewer have, on many occasions, had players who have shown the level of dis-interest that some of ours have.

I genuinely thought we might get a decent result yesterday. The fact we appeared to capitulate with ease against a rather lacklustre opponent is probably the very first nail in the coffin for our management team. I believe they have 3 matches and it will be assessed after each block of 3. Possibly the inevitable looms.

[antlers]

A friend was recently asked by Nigel Davies to speak to Gloucester RUFC players about what it was like to follow Gloucester home and away, what the club meant to him, the costs etc etc but not about 'play for the shirt' etc. Davies' reasoning was simple,rugby players like footballers are now cosseted from the 'real world' they don't know what it is like to work, they have no idea how people have to budget to afford to follow their club and they have no idea how much it costs to do so.

Davies first did this shortly after he became coach at Llanelli Scarlets, they got a stuffing from their arch rivals Swansea (or Ospreys as they are now known) and he walked into the changing room after the match to find the players larking about and basically not giving a damn about the result. Davies was being a local lad so he got some fans in to talk to the players and then made them spend a couple of days a week going to work with those fans for a month and interacting with the 'common supporter'.

My friend gave a 15 minute talk as did another Gloucester fan. The players enjoyed the experience and chatted afterwards with both of them, in fact one of them, currently playing for England on the wing, made a point of giving him some Gloucester and England bits and bobs including a shirt from his car in the carpark before they left.

It's extreme and not sure it would work with footballers but it worked for both Llanelli and Gloucester players.

This is something someone at the club should take seriously, if the players and management team saw what some fans go through to see a game they wouldn't be able to sleep at night with what they have put into the club compared to us fans. i know of plenty of relationships that have come to an end over football and even know some people who have lost their jobs due to pulling sickies for games.

[finbarr_in_z]

Apart from the goals, the Blackburn fans chanted twice in 90 minutes, that was it. Our support was very good, especially during the 2nd half, 2-0 down but continued singing throughout.

Had a chat to a few of their fans in the pub afterwards. A large number (it seemed the vocal ones) are boycotting the club. The ones who were left were embarrassingly quiet.

By the way, the boycott is due to: inept managers / selection of managers; no communication with the fans; club in debt; no-one in the club seeming to care; etc. Sound familiar?

[finbarr_in_z]

As they would have said on Bullseye - let's see what you would have won:-

4th round draw: Derby County v Blackburn Rovers

Could have been another humiliation (& if you look where I live......

<-

......it saves a lot of grief at work).

[Fiale]

The sad thing is that Blackburn are a midtable championship side - we only managed to get 35% possession in the game (a game where Blackburn themselves did not play well). (yes they are under-performing, but only against others - not us !)

We really need to get back to some basics, get the ball and don't let the opposition have it - I don't care if it goes sideways the whole bloody game, the more possession we have the less the opposition has the ball, the fewer chances they can make.... we might start to see at worst some 0-0 and to be honest that 1 point and not conceding would be a start.

We need to play higher up the pitch - we need to shift play 15+ feet further up the pitch - we are sat to deep, and the opposition defence are to high - this makes it easy for their midfield/attackers as they have less distance to travel to cross/shoot/create - it also give their defence a huge buffer to rectify mistakes. To do this we need a fast player up front, don't play long balls to him, play the ball over the defence in the ground between keeper and CB, or into space towards the corner flags - get the defence turned and make them play further in their own half, creating space in the middle of the pitch.

We make things hard for ourselves -

Loanees, ok I understand when we struggled bringing in loans to get us out of danger, but we have far to many loan players - as much as I am sure they want to win/play it's not beneficial to the club overall to have so many loan signings. We need a team of full time contracted players who care, not so many loans. As some mentioned on other threads - Morris for example.... how much are we paying him and why ?

[Northern Red]

Had a chat to a few of their fans in the pub afterwards. A large number (it seemed the vocal ones) are boycotting the club. The ones who were left were embarrassingly quiet.

Yes there were a lot boycotting yesterday. A Cup game involves paying extra, whereas for a league game those with season tickets have already paid, so it would have been noticed more financially yesterday than at any other time.

Apparently quite a few took the opportunity to go and watch local non-league sides, so there were a few at Darwen, and about 2-300 turned up to watch Chorley, who are managed by Gary Flitcroft, who played for Blackburn a few years ago.

[EstoniaTallinnRed]

First thing Norman Hunter did as manager (Barnsley?) was take the team down the local pit to show them where their wages came from. If you tried that now their agents would be up in arms. If Maggie hadn't closed all the pits, that is

Norman Hunter was a legend. If only we had a few like him now, we wouldn't be in the position we are in. Plenty of skill, guts and determination, OH YES and a love of the game, not just the money.