THE air might be blue between the two benches at Ewood tomorrow but the rivalry will be strictly friendly, exaggerated only by the fact that some of the principal occupants have been more used to seeing red.

Not the red of Middlesbrough but Manchester United!

For, as Rovers boss Brian Kidd admitted with a wry smile, he and Ewood coach Brian McClair along with Boro manager Bryan Robson and his assistant Viv Anderson have clocked up "one or two games between us" during their respective days at Old Trafford.

In fact, the quartet can count more than 1,000 first team League and Cup appearances in Manchester United colours.

The individual totals for League matches alone almost reach four figures - Kidd (203), McClair (355), Robson (345) and Anderson (54). Kidd recalls the support he received from the United senior players when he stepped up to become Alex Ferguson's assistant, especially Robson.

"He was a great help to me when I first took the job with the senior team at United," stressed Kidd.

Old Trafford memories, however, will be far from their minds tomorrow as Rovers bid to claim the victory that would give their survival hopes a boost and Boro concentrate on their objective of one more win to virtually guarantee Premiership status for another year.

There are other obvious Manchester connections on both sides, Rovers winger Keith Gillespie and Boro central defender Gary Pallister for example. But, as far as everyone at Ewood is concerned, the only thing that matters in the struggle to stay up is to give Boro a severe case of the Blues.

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