Ive been chatting with some Blackburn fans on Footymad this weekend and I mentioned this match from 1991-92, when we had a rare home win against them. Remember we came back to win 2-1 with second half goals from Mark Smith and Andy Rammell. They went up that season by the way, but that match got all the wrong headlines because Mel Machin started a fight with their asst boss Ray Harford. I think it was after we kicked the ball out because of an injured player, and they refused to give the ball back. Mel was normally a boring character wasnt he, and it was shocking to see him lash out like that with an opposing manager/coach. So who was there that day, and what do you remember about it and the match itself ?
Yo Jimmy, theres nowt wrong with being sloshed on a Satdy night, especially after we've won today away from home Remember though we often won more away games at Ewood, and we rarely managed to beat them at home.
Superb game. We hadn't conceded for ages before, and I have a feeling (though could be wrong) that some sort of record was at stake. We started quite cagily but once we conceded we seemed to start playing. Shearer scored for them - Duncan, not Alan. As for the altercation between Harford and Mad Mel, I thought it started due to Roy Wegerle being brought on as a sub despite having no number on his shirt.
I went, Blackburn fetched 4000 more fans than usual and we're swanning round the ground giving it the big 'un because they were near the top of the league and we're spunking money around left right and centre buying up some top talent, I recall david speedie getting plenty of abuse and loosing his rag on couple of occasions. We were 6 or 7 games into an unbeaten run at the time mad mel had steadied the defence with signing of a young centre back from man utd called neil Whitworth who was excellent during his time here but went back to utd after two months and I never heard anything about him again, anyway back to the game the reason Blackburn lost is because they had all these new shiny expensive forrads like speedie, wegerle, big Duncan shearer and mike newell meaning there was no place in the team for legendary goalscorer Simon garner who if picked would have sneaked in a winner in the 90th minute AGAIN, sithi.
We arrived about 5-10 minutes late that day because of the extra traffic in and around Oakwell. I liked our chants towards them like "what a waste of money" and "David Speedie, is a w*ker". Remember over the years they have bought some of our top talent and absolutely wasted them, what did they do with Steve Agnew, Ashley Ward, & Craig Hignett!
I'm pretty sure the OP was right, the fight was about not giving the ball back - with a few minutes remaining the ball had been kicked out to allow a player to get attention and instead of giving it back to us they tried to launch another attack when play resumed as they were chasing the game near the end.
I think aggie was injured for much of his time there and if I recall correctly he was signed by Don McKay so by the time he was fit McKay had been replaced by Kenny dalgliesh who signed loads of players from top flight clubs for big money leaving agnew well down the pecking order, sithi.
Remember them being in front and Hendrie continually passing it back to Bobby Mimms wasting time. When we went in front they were flying about like burnt paper.
To be fair I mainly remember the scrap between Mel and Harford. We kicked the ball out for an injury and they didn't return it. Mel pointed out that this was ' quite unsporting' and Harford had a go back. Mel looked like he might kill him. I'm still surprised even now when we play Blackburn and Simon Garner doesn't score.
I was at the match & I remember Mel having a rumble but I cant remember what it was over but I dont think it was about giving the ball back because simply that has only become a recent trend , where as twenty five years ago, the ref would restart with a bounce up.
Little did we know that the top divisions would soon be full of such clubs. Can remember going to Blackburn when they were just like us. Similar crowds, stadium with big concrete bus stop for a home end etc etc, then uncle Jack waved his wallet and their fans became willy wavers. Enjoyed beating them on Saturday. Sent from my SM-G850F using Tapatalk
Yeah we were at that one. Bloke who was in charge of our Sunday team was a big Blackburn fan and drove the minibus. Took us to Oswaldtwistle for the afternoon first for a good wet. Sent from my SM-G850F using Tapatalk
Was that 1989 game the game where someone left the away end and ran to the dugout to tell Allan Clarke how to set the team up better? First away ground I ever went to was Ewood Park, 1980 or 81. Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk
Yeah it will have been around that time. I was playing for the supporters club back then. Sent from my SM-G850F using Tapatalk
Weird seeing that after all this time. I thought there were more reds fans there than that on the day as well. Sent from my SM-G850F using Tapatalk