ROVERS fan Graham Young is going to great lengths to ensure that his two-year-old son, Louie, develops the right footballing affiliations.

The Birmingham-based dad whisked the lad up the M6 for a tour of Ewood Park and to buy him his first Rovers kit.

Graham's life story is a litany of devotion to his favourite team. He proposed to wife Collette in 1995 as Rovers received the Premiership trophy at Anfield. "The 40,000 fans in the crowd were singing You'll Never Walk Alone as I knelt to propose," he said.

"Collette said yes, but might have been confused by the noise!"

In 1997, three-year-old daughter Holly announced she was an Aston Villa supporter. Graham, a former pupil of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, vowed Louie wouldn't do the same. As the family arrived at Ewood, Graham said: "I'm not making the same mistake twice!"

Graham's first match as an Ewood Park spectator was against Birmingham City, who fielded raw teenage striker Trevor Francis, on Boxing Day, 1970. He was Blues manager when the fixture was replicated 30 years to the day in 2000.

Graham left Blackburn to attend university in Birmingham and has lived there ever since. He is now film and TV editor on the Birmingham Evening Mail.

He added: "Louie was born at 3.18pm, five years to the very hour of the game at Anfield. He could have arrived on May 20, the centenary of his late Blackburn grandfather's birthday, but clearly thought May 15 was the most important date!"