Ewood Beat

Fan-tasy football keeps the peace

A GROUP of Rovers supporters will be heading for Ankara next week on a special peace-keeping mission designed to improve relations between rival fans from England and Turkey.

Just 18 days before England meet Turkey in a crucial Euro 2004 qualifying game in Istanbul, a team of Blackburn fans will take on their counterparts from Genlerbirligi in a special challenge match ahead of Rovers' UEFA Cup tie in the Turkish capital.

Within hours of the first round draw being made last month, several Rovers followers contacted their counterparts at the leading unofficial Genlerbirligi website to exchange information on their respective clubs ahead of the big game.

And it was out of these early contacts that the notion of a friendly 7 a-side game quickly developed.

As a result, the Genlerbirligi fans then made contact with their own club who have promised to provide the two fan teams with a training pitch at the Mayis stadium on the day of the UEFA Cup tie, together with a club coach to and from the ground for the Turkish and English fans taking part in the friendly.

Amazingly, the game has started to attract nearly as much Press attention as the UEFA Cup tie itself with the Turkish media eager to generate some positive news to counteract the negative atmosphere surrounding the England game.

Turkish news channel NTV will be carrying a 'live' news report of the friendly game on the day.

And Steve Birtwell, joint manager of the Rovers team and a contributor to the BRFC unofficial website, believes the whole thing is a great way of building bridges between the respective countries.

"I think this proves that English football is not all about a few idiots and fans can actually go over to a place like Turkey and have a good time.

"With all the hoo-ha surrounding the England and Turkey game, it's nice to see that supporters from both countries can get on together and have some fun.

"What gets me about some sections of the media is that good news stories like this rarely get reported on.

"Some papers, particularly the red tops, would only be interested in covering it if a fight broke out in the middle of the game."

A return match is also being planned for October 15th when Rovers host Genlerbirligi in the second leg.

Rovers offers are just the ticket

BLACKBURN fans have still got time to take advantage of a couple of great ticket offers in preparation for two big games at Ewood in the next four weeks.

Old rivals Fulham provide the opposition in a Premier League showdown at Ewood Park next Sunday.

And youngsters could be watching the game for nothing -- that's absolutely free!

An adult buying a ticket for the Fulham match, prior to matchday and subject to availability, will receive TWO junior tickets FREE!

Juniors are young people under the age of 16.

Seats available under this superb promotion will be sold on a strictly 'first come, first served' basis.

Initially, the seats will be in the Darwen End and could be extended to other areas of the ground if required.

Rovers also have a mouth-watering half-price offer for their season-ticket holders looking forward to the second leg of their UEFA Cup tie with Genglerbirligi SK on Wednesday October 15.

Season ticket holders who claim their seats before matchday will pay just £5.

Non season ticket holders can purchase seats for the tie at £10. All tickets

purchased on the day of the match will be £10.

For enquiries regarding tickets and availability, ring the Ewood Park box office on 08701 123456.

Ladies move to top of the table

ROVERS Ladies moved joint top of the Northern Combination with a crushing 8-0 defeat of Newsham at the Academy.

Four goals in each half was the sum of a fine team effort and manager Andy McNally said: "There were some terrific performances out there and we did well to retain our composure despite being well in control at half-time."

Rovers had already hit the woodwork twice before the excellent Vikki Eastwood opened the scoring after rounding the keeper.

Andrea Bell then used her pace to notch the second, Sarah McRea struck the third and Lisa Welsh hit home a 35-yard pile-driver to complete the first-half scoring.

With Nicola Makinson firing over excellent crosses from the right flank Rovers continued to threaten and Katie Anderton (2), Justine Wallace and McRea all hit the net to round off a comprehensive victory.

Ex-Rover Dunn helps raise a Fu bob

DAVID Dunn returned to Blackburn earlier this week to help raise cash for a cancer charity.

The Birmingham City midfielder was the star guest at a charity auction held at Ming Fu's chinese restaurant in aid of Breakthrough breast cancer.

Dunn chatted with fans and signed autographs, as well as providing a pair of signed boots for the auction.

A total of £2,500 was raised on the night, with one person paying £500 for a pair of Dunn's boots and another paying a similar amount for a pair signed by Andy Cole.

The event was the third of three organised by the charity at the restaurant with over £5000 raised in total.

If you would like to make any donations then ring John Magee on 07788 111896.

Garner gets on Parkinson

ANY Rovers fans tuning into Michael Parkinson tonight might just catch a glimpse of Ewood legend Simon Garner.

For Garns was at the BBC's Shepherd's Bush studios on Thursday night when they filmed the show.

But he wasn't there as one of Parky's guests, he was there as a member of the audience instead.

"A couple of friends got us tickets so me and the missus decided to go," said Garner.

"I thought he might have some good looking women on the show but when we got there the guests included Jo Brand and Cilla Black!"

Nevertheless, Garns has had some fun out of the experience this week by telling his friends 'I'm on Parky on Saturday night.'

It's pronounced... oh, just look it up!

BLACKBURN Rovers head for Turkey next week and if any fans making the trip to Ankara want to know how to pronounce Genclerbirligi properly then I've found a helpful website.

Just log on to www.accentenglish.de/ROVERS/Genclerbirligi.htm if you want to brush up on the local lingo.

We're live on five

ROVERS' UEFA Cup tie against Genclerbirligi will be screened live on Channel 5 next week. The match kicks off at 3.55pm UK time.

Date in reserve

NEXT week's reserve game against Middlesbrough has been postponed due to Boro's involvement in the Carling Cup the following night. A new date for the game has yet to be decided.

Who's Di Baggio?

GRAEME Souness caused the Press to chuckle when he read out his squad for the Portsmouth game at yesterday's Press Conference.

"Flitcroft, Ferguson, Tugay, Di Baggio......Di Baggio? Who's he? Tony (Parkes) keeps calling him that. We must have signed a new player!"