EAST Lancashire's game of the decade between Blackburn and Burnley is causing a split in the Government.

Home Secretary Jack Straw -- one of Rovers' most famous fans -- and Turf Moor regular Alastair Campbell have been picking their dream teams ahead of the December 17 match.

The Blackburn MP's "personal opinion" of merging England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales into one great British team was greeted with mixed reactions among the fans and looks to have caused as much as a fuss among his colleagues.

Clarets-mad Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's official spokesman, was the first to act and quickly drew up his Great British team consisting entirely of Burnley players past and present.

In response Jack Straw and Hyndburn MP Greg Pope put their heads together and came up with their own team full of Rovers players.

And the Parliament pair have "challenged" Alastair Campbell's side to a match.

Mr Straw said: "I think this is a top-class side that could beat Alastair's." Mr Pope added: "This side is composed of some of the players I have enjoyed watching since I first went to Ewood Park in the 1960s." The Turf Moor connection is not the only consistent theme of Alastair Campbell's side. It is made up mainly of Scotsmen, something not lost on Mr Straw.

Mr Straw said: "I bring to Alastair's attention that while his team has no English players, Greg and I have not merely had the good grace to pick a Scot in Colin Hendry but made him captain."

Burnley MP Peter Pike joined the derby debate by standing firmly on the side of his team saying: "While my personal selection might be different from Alastair's I am confident that his Clarets team would trounce Jack and Greg's Blackburn Rovers squad!"

While Mr Straw and Mr Pope agree on most of the team the pair are at loggerheads to see who would play up front alongside their mutual choice of Ewood Park hero Alan Shearer.

Great Harwood-born Mr Pope wants Rovers legend Simon Garner as the other striker, but Mr Straw wants to see Shearer reunited with his "SAS" partner in the Premiership winning side, Chris Sutton.

Both Mr Straw and Mr Pope were united however that their team would win the fantasy derby.

The game is so hotly contested that when asked for a professional opinion a host of soccer experts could not give the Lancashire Evening Telegraph a definitive verdict.

BBC's Match of the Day team -- Gary Lineker, Alan Hanson, Mark Lawrence and Trevor Brooking -- did not want to touch it, and after casting his expert eye over the team sheets Jimmy Hill said it was a match he would want to want to comment on. Even Lancashire legend Jimmy Armfield was quick to distance himself from the hotbed.