HE was one of those remorselessly cheerful people, who somehow manage to see a silver lining in every dark cloud. You know, the really annoying type. 'Never mind', he said, 'you could have actually gone to see them lose at Huddersfield'.

The problem was, I couldn't. What's more, I had known for many days that I wouldn't be able to make it through the Friday evening traffic to see if Rovers could construct an away win at the McAlpine stadium.

But, as Sky dictates that our teams should play on Friday nights, early Sunday afternoons and on Bank Holiday Mondays before anyone in their right mind has got up, so Sky fuels the belief that being unable to get to the game isn't the same as missing the game. All you do is pop down to the local pub, grab a pint and watch it on the screen. We Rovers fans know these things. We've been in the Premiership.

Easy really. I knew I could make it to my brother's home in Cheshire by kick-off time. He doesn't have Sky himself, but he knows a landlord who does. Several, in fact. Nevertheless, he decided to check in advance.

Several phone calls later, he knew there was a problem. Those pubs that had Sky didn't necessarily have Sky Sports 3. Those pubs that had Sky Sports 3 didn't necessarily share my brother's view that showing Huddersfield v Blackburn would substantially increase beer sales in their particular part of Cheshire. Come 7.45pm and it was even worse than that: the only pub within a radius of several miles that would admit to showing this vital encounter (well, vital to us, at any rate) was also staging a karaoke evening. 'Very popular, it'll get packed', we were told. And no, we couldn't have the sound on.

So my brother and I decided to forego watching the pictures from Huddersfield to the accompaniment of a bad rendition of 'My Way' and instead listened on the radio to our lads snatching defeat from the jaws of an almost-respectable draw. A dodgy signal, which meant that we could only intermittently hear David Speedie tearing out what little hair he has left, only added to the tension of the evening.

The moral of this tale of a sad Friday night? Simple: Rovers in Division One are so far out of the public eye and consciousness, they're almost invisible!

And, unless there's a reversal of our fortunes pretty soon, we might just have to get used to it!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.