A FOOTBALL fan is travelling 4,000 miles to watch Blackburn Rovers play - and he does not have a ticket.

John Spurn was devastated when he visited the region for the first time two years ago as the match against Liverpool he came to see was called off.

The 30-year-old follows English soccer on satellite television at his home in Alberta, Canada, but has never seen his favourite team, Rovers, play at Ewood.

When he was in Blackburn in 1994, he contacted the Lancashire Evening Telegraph to ask if anyone would like to start writing to him as a penfriend. Now he will be combining his second trip to see the football with meeting his correspondant Mrs Hazel Robinson, who began writing to him after reading the article.

She has sent him team shirts, books and regularly encloses cuttings from the sports pages of the Evening Telegraph so he can keep up with all the team news.

John was to arrive today and stay at her home in Queensway, Church, for a month.

Mrs Robinson has a son, Andrew, who is a Rovers fan and together they have tried in vain to get John tickets. She said: "I regularly send him Rovers memorabilia and he sends me photographs of where he lives, There are grisly bears and log huts.

"He is desperate to go to the December matches and is prepared to pay full price for tickets. But we just can't get our hands on any.

"We are looking forward to his visit but feel awful because he's going to be dreadfully disappointed."

Anyone who can help with tickets for Rovers v Leicester, Wimbledon, Middlesbrough or Newcastle should contact Mrs Robinson on 01254 723825.

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