Down by the Riverside

WAS anyone else relieved that Rovers weren't drawn in the UEFA Cup against Stromgodset (like Villa) or Skonto Riga?

I was delighted to find that we had not been paired with a team from an obscure Norwegian town, or an unknown outfit from the wastes of Latvia. We don't need anyone else volunteering to be twinned with Burnley, after that fateful Trelleborgs episode!

In fact, Olympique Lyonnais look like ideal opposition. They're not too worldly-wise in Europe like Parma, or Dynamo Moscow. They finished sixth in their league, like Rovers.

And French football still hasn't come down from Cloud Nine after the World Cup, if my European spies are to be believed.

Lyon should be a good, hard test for Rovers, but a test we can pass with flying colours if we can show our true form and pay heed to Roy Hodgson's vast Euro-experience. But why couldn't the BBC have chosen to show Leeds instead as the live game?

I say this not because of any false modesty or acute camera-shyness, but out a sense of foreboding.

What we need on September 15th are 25,000 passionate voices to lift Rovers, not five million people in armchairs, out of sight of the cameras and out of earshot of the team.

Much as we all love Motty, we don't want to give him the chance to spend the evening talking about the gaps in the Ewood stands.

So, well done to the club for a prompt announcement about reduced ticket prices for the Lyon game.

That will certainly help and is a sensible and welcome gesture.

Talking of Motty, I once heard him compliment a referee for doing his job with a smile on his face. Mr Uriah Rennie was seen to smile several times at Ewood last Saturday.

Call me a cynic, but I'd personally prefer a grim-faced official, provided he uses his common sense in handling the game and gives a modicum of thought to his role in ensuring the paying spectators are entertained.

Don't hurry back, Mr Rennie!

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