IT would have to be some bird, but if a crow took off from Paraparaumu, New Zealand, and flew in a straight line over the Antarctic to Britain looking for a Premiership football club, Ewood Park would be its first nesting place!

It's a strange thought -- but it's the method Kiwi Hayden Smith used to choose his favourite team.

He formed the unusual allegiance with Blackburn Rovers eight years ago.

The New Zealander plumped for Rovers after working out his "as the crow flies" system in a geography lesson in his school near Wellington - Blackburn is on the same line of latitude as Paraparaumu.

And in a twist of fate, Hayden, 24, moved to England last year to play rugby for Blackheath Rugby Club in London and found an Ewood ally in Jack Kay -- a former Lancashire Evening Telegraph photographer.

Hayden said: "All of my friends thought I was a bit mad by picking a club to follow this way. But they all supported Manchester United or Liverpool and I decided I wanted to be a bit different. "Nobody had heard of Rovers at the time but I got the last laugh because the very next season they went and won the league title."

At the time, Hayden's favourite players were Alan Shearer and Tim Flowers but now it's David Dunn.

"Dunny is a class player." he added. "I'm sure he'll go on and play for England soon because he is good enough."

Hayden, who used to have to get up at 3am in the morning to follow the Blues, got to see Rovers for the first time at Charlton on Saturday, where they won 2-0, as a birthday treat from Jack, his new Blackburn buddy at Blackheath.

Jack, a former student at St Mary's College, Blackburn, left the Lancashire Evening Telegraph in 1962 and worked on the Daily Express before taking up the press officer job at Blackheath -- the world's oldest rugby club.

He said: "I always got stick for being a Rovers fan.

"But I didn't think I would get support from one of the players who had travelled from the other side of the world.

"I was fascinated by the way Hayden worked out the way he decided to become a Rovers fan.

"All I can say is that it must be some crow!"