Rovers Circus

Following the 4-0 home defeat to Manchester City, the supporter unrest continued to grow, especially when it was announced 9 members of the Fans Forum would be accompanying the team to play a pointless friendly in Pune during the international break.

Many had an opinion on that trip, which must of given the 9 supporters who went the old “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t” scenario, especially as it seemed to be a publicity stunt from the owners.

The truth is no-one could predict how that trip would work out, at the time I was open minded, although after watching the media snippets of the trip, it portrayed the opposite feelings to what was being witnessed in Blackburn. I was quite angry that our own supporters had been put on display like performing monkeys, when some of them had gone with the right intentions, which was to put the supporter’s feelings across to the owners. Having spoken to some of that delegation since, and also read a blog regarding the trip, it seems they came in for some unwarranted criticism and tried their best.  

Hot on the heels of this trip was the Venkys Chicken advert which even now makes me cringe when I think about it, as it was like watching a circus, but that circus was my football club.

One of the key parts of that trip, which would come out, was Ian Battersby and Ian Currie both attended the trip which was facilitated by Jerome Anderson (More on him in later blogs). Both met with the family, and part of their discussion was indeed  about those two potentially joining the board of Directors, which backed up Paul Agnew’s claims from a couple of weeks earlier, but also opened up more questions than answers, when the meeting was set up by SEM’s Main protagonist. Both Currie and Battersby are long standing Rovers Fans, But the very nature of how the meeting was set up, had me very suspicious at the time. (I did have a meeting with Battersby a couple of years later, where this meeting was fully covered, I will discuss this in later blog as it important due to Seneca’s interest in the club). 

Away from the Pune trip, things were really beginning to evolve in Blackburn with media interest from the papers worldwide, TV, Radio and SKY Coverage as the protest movement continued to grow, with more and more supporters showing their support. However despite the support, things were beginning to turn ugly, especially for Simon and I. 

The first sign of real threats started to filter in, with Text Messages, anonymous phone calls, emails and forum/face book post. I remember one in particular which came from a Rovers supporter by the name of Carl Elwell. It’s stated unless protest came to an immediate halt, that my children would feel like they are stood in the centre circle at Turf moor. These threats got more serious with threats of further violence which later in the season would result in me being assaulted at the Wigan away fixture.

Next a large banner was pinned to the Gates of Ewood Park, with the words R.I.P MULLAN, The club left this up all day, despite being notified of it being there, before Rob Crabtree went down to Ewood Park and removed it

All these threats were reported to the Police and club. Eventually Elwell received a restraining order from the Police to not come within 500 metres of me, one which he constantly broke,  it became plain obvious he was working under instruction. He knew when I moved seat, my exact location in around the ground at anytime, he stalked every radio phone in I appeared on, and made various outlandish claims under various user names on rovers supporters forums. Despite this supporter’s action, the club refused to even speak to Elwell about his conduct, for reasons which become clearer further down the line (I will cover more of this in later blogs as it shows how far the club would go to silence supporters). Elwell was not the only person issuing threats and as the months and years went by, these threats become more vicious and more serious.

Not deterred by the threats, the open supporters meeting at Uncle Jacks went ahead, which was the day after the delegation to Pune had returned. A PA, System was set up on a little stage and Simon and I chaired an open discussion with around 60-70 supporters who had turned up for the event.

There was a distinct mixed opinion in the room, and it was the first time I would meet Alan Birdbeck who is widely known as Birdie across the supporter base. Alan has been watching Rovers all his life and organised away travel for the Ewood Blues. Although I had seen him at games over the years, I didn’t know him, or indeed know his stature within the supporter base. He was very critical of the protest movement, and was adamant that the Venky’s and Kean would come good and we need to back the team. Alan had also been across to Pune, at his own expense, as wherever Rovers play, Alan will be there; he never misses a game and has without doubt the largest collection of Blackburn Rovers Memorabilia than any other rover’s supporter I know. His support for the club is unquestionable and in recent times has been used by the club as part of their marketing campaigns including launching kits.

 Other notable people that attended that evening was Mark Fish, Current BRFC Action Group Chairman and Robert Crabtree, who would become an integral part of organising the protest.

The meeting had many mixed views, but the meeting was ended with an open call for people to put their names forward to be part of a group who could meet with the club, if we could organise a direct meeting with them, so that protest could be halted and a direct communication line to the owners could be opened. Around 10 people put their names and numbers down, and we promised we would ensure any meeting organised with the club, they would be on the invite list.

I also met Wayne Wild for the first time that evening. Wayne is the Group Commercial Director of the WEC Group and at the time of this meeting, WEC was the Darwen End Stand sponsor. As a main club sponsor Wayne had become disillusioned that there was no communication from the owners, despite him personally writing to them. He did not want to go public, or indeed end the sponsorship with the club, but felt the effort was one sided and he wanted answers regarding the club’s direction. I spoke to Wayne for around 10 minutes where he asked questions about me, i.e. what my background was. I told him I had once applied for a job at WEC, As a Project Engineer, but had not got the position. He told me, they are always looking for people and there would be other opportunities and send my CV across to him. 

I came away from the open supporters meeting, even more determined to get a communication chain opened with the club, so supporter concerns could be put across open and transparently and without prejudice.

Before I continue I thought I’d give a little background to me, as my background caused me a lot of issues during the early years especially with those out to discredit my intentions.

I was born in Queens Park hospital on the 1^st May 1978, and was brought up on Fosse Close, on the Roman Road estate, I went to Roman Road County primary school, however moved to Bamber Bridge in 1989 when the company my Mum worked for relocated from Great Harwood after a fire burnt their factory down. My uncle Stuart, who lived in Darwen, would take me to Rovers each week whilst I was a child. In 1998 my Brother Lee, who like all our family was an avid Rovers fan, died on the 28^th October aged just 24, after suffering an asthma attack in his sleep. Lee was buried in Blackburn in his full Rover's kit and would be turning in his grave, at what has happened to the club he loved,  Lee's death significantly changed my life, to the extent I moved to Wigan to restart me life. I continued to watch Rovers, but would drive in, watch the game then go straight home. I never really mingled with anybody at the games and more than often would attend games with my eldest brother Russell. Not really knowing anyone locally, did give people the angle to say, who is this person? Is he really a rovers fan? I actually now live in a BB code but still very much keep myself to myself socially and tend to go out of town to drink or have a night out, with friends I have made over the years who live away from Blackburn.

During the week leading up to the away fixture at QPR, Various correspondence from myself to Paul Hunt was exchanged requesting a meeting with the Board of Directors, each request was denied and we was offered a meeting with John Newsham instead. Simon and I contacted all the names of the people who had put their name down to attend, during the open supporters meeting. I did not know any of them, but each and every one of them was important and had different concerns and opinions to the next supporter. 

The meeting went ahead and again was attended by the Police. John Newsham was always professional and of all the people I have met at the club over the years, stands out as being the most consistent and genuine of the lot of them. A number of things were put across to John regarding the supporter unrest and things which we had heard regarding Steve Kean’s appointment and Jerome Anderson’s involvement with the club.  I also broached the subject of Paul Agnew and all the things said in that room did not seem to surprise John. He was in fairness keen to listen and also keen to get the board of Directors to speak with the supporters. He said during his visit to India, all Rovers employee’s had to bow, to the owners like they was royalty, which made me sick. John felt the owners were honourable people, which to this day I think he strongly believed.  The meeting was ended, with John promising to escalate the discussions further up the chain, whilst he would continue to facilitate peaceful organised protest, which he made a point in saying was at a big financial cost to the club due to extra stewarding and Police charges.

Rovers played QPR and drew 1-1 as the poor start to the season continued, and with that came the plans to organise another protest march against Spurs the following week. By this time, other people were now getting involved with the planning, including Mark Fish, Rob Crabtree who was also selling the yellow Kean out T-shirts, Phil Thompson, Carl Hatch, Andy Woods and Paul Keogh. Simon and I had also come up with a name for the protest group going forwards, as we had received a number of complaints that we don’t represent a number of supporters. This is when the BRFC Action Group was born, formed by Simon and me, with the intention that at some point it would have an elected committee to be voted in by its members, to represent its members.  

It was decided that the Protest March would run from the Brown Cow Public House. This was run by Wayne and Alyson. I had known Wayne for near on 20 Years, after having my season ticket with him during the mid 90’s.  Things were in full swing, for this protest, with the legal’s put in place with the Police and the club, when disaster struck me on the Sunday before the march.

I was playing a cup quarter final Sunday league game, against the team top of the league, we were winning 1-0, when I went up for a header and landed badly. I remember the pain now, as I had never screamed so loud before. I crawled off the pitch as I did not want the game abandoning as there was 10 minutes left and I wanted us to win the match so badly. The game finished 1-0.  After the game I went to casualty and my worst fears were realised, I had snapped my ankle in four places and it was a bad break. I was immediately placed in plaster and sent on my way. I phoned Simon and told him I was noq going to struggle with these protest as I’m in plaster. A few days went by, and I started to get frustrated with the plaster, and stupidly (I know), I cut off the plaster and never had it replaced. 5 Years on and I’m really feeling the effects of that stupid decision. I actually returned to playing just 4 weeks later and came on a substitute and scored within 5 minutes of entering the fray, but I knew that day, my amateur football career was over and that proved to be my final game as an amateur player.

In the week leading up to the Protest March against Spurs, I recall SKY Coming to my house to carry out an interview regarding the protest. The interviewer that day was Alan Myers, who years later would become a Director at Rovers. I recall him asking as he entered my home "Can we do the interview in a different room?" I had never felt so insulted, i thought to myself, you cheeky sod, whats wrong with my living room, I've just decorated and had new carpets, whilst this is my home, sorry I;m not a millionaire, In the end we agreed if I put my fire on, the interview could take place in the living room.

The day of the March came and more supporters attended, than had attended the Arsenal March. I remember going to the Bar pre-match, it was the first time I met “Chicken Head”. He was the person whose picture went global, what I didn’t know until weeks later, was the man behind the mask was an elderly gentleman in his 60’s names John Riley. John Riley was a very popular member of the BRFC Action Group who sadly died of cancer a couple of years back. His memory lives on amongst the members and many people have some great tales of John. He was a real gentleman and has a brick on the Walker Fame at Ewood in his Memory.

John epitomised what the protest symbolised, so many supporters from the age of 50 upwards, attending these protest and are even today very active members of the BRFC Action Group

The march itself had around 1000 supporters take part, sadly on the pitch there was no improvement Rovers lost 2-1 to Spurs as our season started to get real desperate, yet there was no sign of the Manager getting sacked, in fact it was now being rumoured he was about to sign a new contract to the dismay of the rovers supporters. Anger was now reaching new heights, but despite the poor start, there was still a growing section of supporters, who were strongly against protest and were making their feelings known within the ground as supporters started to clash. This was making things really difficult, as a team of organisers, as we was under pressure to organise things from a large section of supporters, but was also being berated from another section. It would of been easy to give up, as surely no grief is worth all this effort? However as more people were now supporting us both here and abroad, we had entered the realms of no return, because if we walked away, we would be disappointing those who had put their faith i us, and chosen to stand shoulder to shoulder with us, on the fight to protect the long term future of Blackburn Rover Football club. The Ex Pats element of the supporter base, has throughout the last 5 years been one of the most supportive, with supporters as far as Australia, constantly helping in the back ground, whilst they have also donated funds to help obtain information tom put together an investigation into the running of Blackburn  Rovers, which will be part of future blogs.

During my next blog, I will cover the training ground protest, 24 hour protest and Jerome Anderson's Sky interview.

The Aftermath

Following the Victory against Arsenal, Steve Kean was paraded across a number of media outlets, including Sky Sports, as the Messiah. Every time you turned the Radio or TV On, he was there spouting the lines which we were to get accustomed to during his reign.

After the protest March against Arsenal, I thought that would be it, they would either remove him as Manager or the supporters would take the Arsenal Victory as the Turning point.

Within 24 hours of returning home from the Protest march, the emails, messages and tweets started to roll in to ask what was planned for the next home game, as some supporters wanted protest to continue and stated the result against Arsenal did not change a thing. Other supporters said that the target was all wrong and all protest should be aimed at Venkys’s and needed to continue.

Around social media, it was really a mixed bag, of those agreeing with the above and some supporters who were of the opinion that we needed to back the Manager and the Owners and take our pathetic protest elsewhere, as we were not Blackburn Rovers supporters and a disgrace to the club and Jack Walker. Other things which I remember reading at the time including:

1.       Who is this idiot Mullan? he can’t string a sentence together.

2.       Mullan has had his two minute of fame and should jog on.

3.       Mullan is not even a Rovers fan

4.       Mullan is someone’s puppet

It was not nice reading some of these comments, as I’d not been subjected to this type of grief before, especially as I’m quite a private person. I could handle the comments, but it was difficult knowing my family were also reading these and in particular my mum and wife Laura, who I had married on the 14^th May 2011, which incidentally was the day Steve Kean was stopped for drink driving.

With so many supporters divided on opinion, and me finding myself at the focal point of what we do next?  The real answer was, I did not actually know what to do? I knew whatever was next; I could not do it alone.  

This is when a gentleman named Simon Littler; who ran a Face book Group called “Sack Steve Kean”, stepped forward and said he would help.  Knowing someone was going to help publically lifted a big weight off my shoulders, as too many people had offered help in the background, but did not want to be seen helping publically, which was their prerogative, but did make me feel like I was being thrown as a lamb to the slaughter.

Simon was different to me, he was much louder, a far more confident person and if truth be told, he was not afraid to ruffle feathers. He had his own opinion and had his thought process was firmly on the removal of Steve Kean as the Manager of our club. I was always of the opinion that everyone has a voice and it’s important to capture the majority’s opinion without ignoring the minorities. After a couple of phone conversations with Simon, we both decided that the opinion within the supporter base was too divided and the best course of action would be to speak with the club and open dialogue. We agreed to meet with the Ground Manager John Newsome and the Police at Ewood Park, the Monday after the Newcastle Fixture. 

Rover played Newcastle away and lost 3-1, which brought more anger within sections of the supporter base, calls for a much bigger protest against Manchester City was being muted across social media as the Arsenal result now seemed a distant memory.  We attended the meeting and made it perfectly clear that protests would continue and we called for a sit in to take place after the Manchester City fixture. The club agreed to this, as did the Police, and the plans were put in place, with it being advertised locally, through social media and through a press release.

In the week leading up to the Manchester City fixture, I got a twitter DM from Glenn Pegden who was one of the owners of the BRFCS Supporter site, which is the largest online forum for Blackburn Rovers. He told me that 9 members of the Fans Forum had been picked to go to Pune and they may possibly have a chance to meet with the owners.  He wanted to be careful that some of the attendee’s of this trip were not being seen by the club to be aiding the up-rising within the supporter base which had lead to protest. Although I had never met Glenn, We had spoken via Twitter a number of times and I’d always found him helpful and courteous. I never really knew what the Fans Forum was, I didn’t know the club had a section of supporters who met with the club monthly, or how this forum had been put together. After a bit of research it became apparent that they do not discuss footballing matters and their meetings were predominantly to discuss issues surrounding the supporter experience.

One thing I can say about the Pune 9 trip, is this trip was being organised long before the protest started and it was merely con-incidental that suddenly supporters were going to Pune as part of a showcase friendly with local Indian team Pune FC. Glenn asked me at the time to keep it out of the public domain as the fans forum would announce it themselves via an agreed statement amongst their members in due course. I respected his wishes and never spoke about it prior to it becoming public knowledge.

The day after speaking with Glenn via messages, I received a call from Rovers then PR Guru, Paul Agnew. I’d read about Agnew on forums and he did not appear to very popular in various circles he had come into contact with. However I’m not the type of person to have my own opinion swayed by others.

He started the call by telling me, “I had it all wrong, Steve Kean should not be the target of the supporter’s abuse, but it should be the owners”. He started quizzing me on who and what I knew, and was in particular very angry that a trip was being arranged to Pune for 9 members of the Fans Forum. He accused me of being Glenn Pegden’s puppet, and stated that the owners of the BRFCS website were behind the protest. He also told me Simon William’s days at Rovers were numbered, which at the time I thought, “Why are you telling me, I would not know Simon Williams if I passed him in the street”. After being quite abusive with me for 15 minutes, he then calmed down and said, “look Glen, I know you are not the one behind all this, but take a step back for a minute, we are currently on the lookout for fan representation on the board, you seem very passionate about the club and I can promise you this, things are changing in the background, and we will soon be in  a position where you and I can talk about some real exciting things, I will get you a meeting with Kean and you will realise you are actually batting for the wrong team, you are batting for the team who are out to damage the club”. 

I was quite taken aback with what he said, I thought to myself, is this guy for real??? I also thought, how can a PR Guy suddenly be making sweeping statements that people are going to be losing jobs, whilst other people like supporters are potentially going to be getting jobs?

This was one of the first times I knew deep down inside that there was something going on at Rovers very untoward. I had heard quite a few rumours over the previous 12 months and looked very closely at the events surrounding the removal of Allardyce and the then Board of Directors, John Williams, Tom Finn and Martin Goodman. I had recently put together a blog post called, Puppet or Puppeteer, which was based on my interpretation of the things I had been told and through research I had done through the internet and other forms of communication I had previously had from former employee’s of the club.

Anyway in the end I took his call with a pinch of salt, although my wife Laura told me “Glen, you need to distance yourself from this movement as we are now getting calls at home from people who we have never given our number to, whilst lots are supporting you to do this, but how many of them are publically standing there with you to actually take some of the weight off your shoulders”. Laura did have a very valid point, but at the same time, having been a victim of bullies as a child growing up, I Was not about to give into what appeared to be a movement to discredit my intentions.

Match day came, and Rovers were hammered at home to Manchester City 4-0, there were chants throughout the game for the removal of Kean, whilst this was the first time I actually saw physical violence in the stands, as supporters who were against the protest clashed with those who were protesting. Although it was a minority, it was very sad to see as emotions were running high.

At the end of the game, Simon Littler addressed the supporters who had gathered in the Blackburn End to stage a sit in protest, he made it quite clear this was to be a peaceful protest and we had to follow the rules which had been put in place by the club and Police. 

It was always our intention for protest to be peaceful as delivering the message the right way was important. As the protest started the PA Machine was turned up full blast to try and drown out the supporter’s chants, I was later told by John Newsome some months later, this was under the instruction of Paul Agnew. The protest lasted around 30 minutes with around 1000 supporters staying behind with Banners to air their frustrations. The protest went off with no issues, bar the odd supporter who refused to leave, who were eventually ejected by the stewards.

With Rovers having no domestic fixture now for two weeks, Simon and I decided it was time to Call an open supporters meeting.

We put this plan into action, picked a venue and issued a press release, calling on supporters to attend to put across concerns and put a plan in place going forwards. Uncle Jack’s public house kindly agreed to provide the venue free of charge. We were not sure what to expect from the meeting, as opinions had been mixed.  For every supporter who supported us, we had another lined up ready to lambast us.

In my next Blog, I will talk about the open supporters meeting, the communication chain which started with the club and the accusations of Dark Forces.

A Call For Action

11th September 2011, Is a day which will live long in my memory as a Blackburn Rovers supporter, Rovers played Fulham away, After losing their opening three fixtures of the 2011-2012 season. The pressure was on, and in particular on Manager Steve Kean who had carried the previous season's poor form into the new season.

As a regular visitor to social media, the unrest within sections of our support was setting in, as the calls for the sacking of Steve Kean grew amongst the supporter base. Rovers drew that match 1-1 as we started the season exactly how we have started this season, with three opening defeats and a draw.

That evening as I do most evenings after Rovers have played, I scanned social media to see what the overwhelming reaction to that result was.

Having gone through Facebook, Vital Rovers, BRFCS and Twitter, there appeared to be  unified opinion that Steve Kean should be sacked as Manager. This was not a new opinion and one which had carried on from the season before, which had also seen a protest for his removal after the home Manchester City fixture.

After tweeting a few things myself regarding the result and my fear for the season, a number of supporters tweeted me back stating "The time had come and something needed to be done". I continued to look around social media, Although many wanted something to be done, there appeared to be no-body actually taking the lead or indeed coming up with idea's of what that "Something" Should be.

I ended the evening by putting my email address out on twitter asking supporters to email me their concerns regarding the clubs current position.

I woke up early the next morning and had hundreds of emails in my inbox, to say I was astounded was an understatement. These were not three line emails, but full blown emails. I read each and everyone of them, and felt the sentiment and pain each one had been written with. I sat their in my kitchen eating my breakfast racking my brain on what I could actually do about it? What could stop the rot? What needs to be changed? How do I influence change?

Having received all these emails, I knew I had to now do something and not waste the time of those supporters who had emailed me.

I vaguely remembered the protest against Manchester City and the supporters climbing all over the statue of Jack Walker. I knew whatever I did, it could not be allowed to go down the route that did, as that was not only embarrassing, but not the picture I wanted to be tarred with.

I remembered that Everton supporters had recently done a protest march which was peaceful and had got the coverage which perhaps our club needed to help hammer home the message that supporters wanted the Manager Removing.

Having decided I would organise a protest March, I put it out on social media to gauge interest, I remember tweeting it our, and put my tin hat on, waiting for the negative tweets to come flying in my direction. I was pleasantly surprised, that the tweets, messages, emails and comments I received were all positive, with supporters stating they was fully behind me and would support this action.

At this point I contacted a few contacts I had made through social media, these were mainly from Vital Blackburn and BRFCS. I told them I'd like to organise a protest match, At  this time I did not know how to go about it, or indeed the legals behind such a  movement. I was advised that I would need to make contact with the Police. as although protest are legal, it has to follow the protocol set out by the Police when organised. I was also told if I wanted people to attend, I'd need to write a press release. I remember thinking "What the hell is a press release and what does one look like". I got a bit of advise on how to write one, after my google search did not really give me any further insight, and set about writing one. I still remember now the response I got from the person I sent it to to proof read, he said I'd need to cut it a lot, as the press have not got time to read a 30 Page press release. I set about trimming it, and after hours of playing with it, it was ready to be released to the press.

I spoke to another supporter who had press contacts, and he agreed to forward it to the press ahead of Steve Kean's press conference regarding the forthcoming Arsenal Fixture.

At this stage, I still did not know how this would pan out, or if anyone would actually turn up?  I also thought that Rovers would probably sack Steve Kean and this protest would never actually happen.

Within minutes of the press release being released, my mobile phone did not stop, calls came flooding in from the BBC, ITV, SKY, Newspapers and Radio Stations asking for interviews. As each call arrived, I got quite scared. I have always been a private person,. who likes to keep himself to himself, suddenly I'm being asked to stand in front of a microphone and TV Camera to tell the world, why I'm organising a protest. This was something I was very uncomfortable with, especially when I tried to find others to share the work load and do these interviews on behalf of supporters.

The first interview I did was with the BBC and Richard Askam, he called when I was on a course in Wigan, I was there that day doing my SIA Door license,We agreed to meet outside at Lunch time. I was met my Richard, who introduced himself, within 2 minutes the camera was rolling and I had to deliver what was happening. I remember thinking, "I bet I sound really stupid and a sandwiches short of a picnic". People were walking past, then stopping and staring at me, it was an uncomfortable feeling and one I had no training for. It was certainly not like the films, where its take one, take two, take three. It was questions and one chance to deliver.
I did the interview, went back to my course and went home.
The calls continued , more interviews and more request. Radio Lancashire then asked if I could do 7 a.m in the studio the following day, I could not, so I asked Rover23 and OZTHEMAN, This is all I knew them by, as I'd never met either and had only ever engaged with them through social media. Both kindly agreed to do the interview, which I was fortunate to listen to. I remember after the interview Rover23 whose real name is Joe Ainscough saying that Radio Lancashire literally had to take the microphone off OZTHEMAN and throw him out as he was too passionate about the clubs position. I chuckle to myself , when I remember this story as this element shows clearly we was just everyday supporters, who were making it up as we went along as we clearly had no experience or training for any of this.

A few more supporters like Phil Thompson (who is now an active committee member of the BRFC Action Group who I will discuss in more depth in another blog post) came forward to do a few interviews as people shared the load.

The club then made contact, through John Newsome who was the Ground Manager at Ewood Park, his role was to look after all health and safety. He invited me in for a meeting ahead of the protest, which I declined. Mainly because I was scared, scared I could get into trouble, scared I could get banned from the ground, scared that what we was embarking on, could get messy and I could end up in trouble with the law through no fault of my own.

For the rest of that week the protest march was plugged throughout social media and in the papers, As the countdown to the day had begun.

Match day arrived, My brother Russell came around and picked me up, as he had agreed earlier in the week to be by my side, just in case I got lynched by supporters who did not like what I was doing. We parked up near the Brown Cow Public House and made the 15 minute walk to the Havelock Inn, which had been chosen as the starting point for the march, as I felt people may not come if they have to walk up the hill to the Brown Cow, prior to the game. On the way I was wondering if anyone would turn up and by the time I got there, I had convinced myself that 30 or 40 people would be there. As I approached the Havelock I could see hundreds of people stood outside the pub, I could see loads of police and various media outlets with cameras in place. My heart was pounding as I got the entrance of the pub. For a moment the place went silent, everyone's eyes were on me, I wanted the ground to swallow me up. In all my life, I had never felt so nervous. Everyone was just waiting for me to speak, waiting for instruction. 

After getting briefed by the Police, I approached the crowd and along with OZTHEMAN, who thankfully turned up, I gave a speech of why we was there, what the march would entail, and to reiterate this was a peacful march, and the need to support the team during the match. I must of sounded like a mouse to the on-lookers as public speaking, was even harder than doing the media interviews. 

The march got underway and 700 supporters or so Marched to Ewood Park, many people watched as the March went by, some joined in as we passed, whilst others clapped as we walked by. We arrived at Ewood and did a lap of the ground before we stopped in outside the Blackburn End. The crowd then formed a horse shoe shape around me and again went silent as they waited for me to deliver a speech. This was even harder as now more people were present, whilst we was outside the ground, with club employees and the owners evidently looking out the windows at the assembled crowd below them. I to this day. can't remember what I said, but fortunately I lived to tell the tale. The crowd broke away and went into the ground to watch the game.

The game itself proved to be an entertaining match as Rovers beat Arsenal 4-3 in front of the owners and a very supportive crowd. Was this the turning point I remember thinking as I left Ewood after the game, are things now looking up?

Once I returned home and went through social media, I could see another storm had kicked off, this time Steve Kean had claimed after the match that only 1% of the supporter base had an issue, he had also made claims that this section of supporters had fierce opposition from the other 99%. I could not believe my ears or what I was reading. 

It was at this point I realised that this was going to be far more than I bargained for.


During my next Blog I will discuss what happened next

Blackburn Rovers, A Supporters Story

I thought i'd start by introducing myself to those who don't know me, or know of me.

I'm a founder member of the BRFC Action Group and the former elected Chairman of that organisation. I'm the former Secretary of the Rovers Trust and i'm also proud to have been voted onto the National Council of the Football Supporters Federation. I have relinquished my roles in all these positions over the last couple of years, which this blog will document over the coming months the reasons behind this.

Having started protest 5 years ago from my kitchen, I have been to the Premier League, The Football League, The Football Association and Parliament and been part of a delegation who presented the case of our club on behalf of the town and supporters.

My hunger for our club to once more be in safe hands, is stronger today than it has ever been.

I have been asked many times to write a book, which I may do one day, but for now I will be using my blog to put out my memoirs of what I have heard, seen and witnessed these past 6 years.

It's been six long, painful and uninspiring years, Since Venky's and the Rao family took ownership of Blackburn Rovers Football club.

The club has gone from being the blueprint to what other clubs aspired to, in terms of how it was ran, to being a laughing stock and a  victim of a failed system, which includes the fit and proper test carried out by the Premier League when the Rao family where deemed "Fit and Proper".

Over the last 5 years in particular, I have found myself slap bang in the middle of a political warfare, which includes, corruption, incompetence, threats, violence, up-rising, legal threats, injunctions, board room fights and a world wide ignorance to what is happening at Blackburn Rovers football club.

This battle has been a battle of wits and a battle of good against evil

This past week, a number of documents which are part of so many which have been gathering dust on my computer over the last 5 years, were released into the public domain. Some of them is old news, some of them confirms suspicions and some of them just opens up more questions.

However i'm sure one thing we can all agree on, is they show how incompetent the Rao Family are?

 Rovers supporters have now got their second wind, there is more unity and even more determination to rid the club of the rot which has set in, since the Rao's brought their dark cloud over, six years ago.

Over the coming weeks, I'm going to be writing via my blog real life stories which I have personally witnessed, which surround the goings on at Ewood Park.

This will include things like:

1. Being blackmailed

2. Picking Rovers Transfer Targets

3. Threats and Violence

4. Protest

5. Board room fights

6. Dodgy Transfers,

7. Hidden work permits

8. Character assassination

9. Employee's cast away.

10. Brown envelope payments.

11. Family intrusion

12. Team selection

13. Substitutions

Many will ask why now and not before? My answer to that is, this has always been a marathon and not a sprint, even now we are not on the final bend. Many in my position would of run away after a couple of weeks, whilst it be fair to say, any one of you could of sat in your Kitchen that fateful evening and taken it upon yourself to make a stand.

I'm just a football supporter , like many others. There was never a plan to follow, or a written rule on how we combat the challenges we have and will continue to face.

This blog is my story and will be told to the best of my ability.