Product Description

Blackburn Rovers are one of the great names of British soccer and the club has had its share of ups and downs since it was formed in 1875. In this substantially revised and updated edition of his popular club history, Mike Jackman charts the fascinating story of the club's fortunes from the earliest days to the present time. From early honours (the club were six times winners of the FA Cup before World War Two) to more modern achievements including the historic victory of winning the Premiership in 1995, right through to this year's Premiership campaign, the book is a fascinating insight into the history of this proud club. Fully illustrated throughout, and including pen portraits of key players, this new book is sure to appeal to Blackburn Rovers supporters of all ages, and will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of every fan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130367 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Mike Jackman, who has been watching Blackburn Rovers for over 40 years, is the author of several previous Breedon books about the club. He works as a primary school teacher in the town.

Customer Reviews

Readable, authoritative, absorbing
In the none-too-plentiful annals of good books about football history this is a very fine entry. Published in A4 format it is 246 pages long,. The text is well presented and there are plentiful illustrations.
The text is presented as A-Z entries on the history of Blackburn Rovers from its formation to 1994. The author deserves a massive amount of credit for the work he has undertaken in researching the book, and then (and this is the crucial part) taking all that work and shaping it into something readable and accessible.
The entries are mainly short, punchy portraits of players. These are informative and colourful, going beyond dry statistics to give at least a few words (often more) describing the player`s style and work-rate, etc. (Occasionally these read like an obituary, which makes you a bit uncomfortable when the player in question is still alive!) Managers, chairmen, trainers are all included. The research is very high quality, making the book an absolute goldmine - I liked the man in the 1890s who was plucked from the crowd when Rovers were a man short. He scored too in a 4-4 draw but the newspaper report said he got in the way and he rests with a "goal-a-game" record. As far as I can tell every person connected with Blackburn on the playing or management side is represented here - amid the great stars there is plenty of mediocrity but the encyclopaedia format enables you to pick the bits you are interested in.
The second type of entry are each of the clubs Blackburn has played against and their "head-to-head" playing record but this is a lot less interesting, as it is usually just a list of scores. It might be helpful if you were looking to settle an argument about the score in a specific game but this bit of the book needed some more colour like "the greatest match" against Burnley / Liverpool / whoever.
The third category is back to a winning note with occasional entries on particular subjects such as "Hat-tricks" or "Bribery". I would have enjoyed a few more of these but those included made really interesting reading, including an entry on Ewood Park itself.
Some people might have a problem with the book being published in 1994, which means it misses the most recent history including winning the Premiership. I didn't mind this: on a positive note it means there are hilarious pictures of the very young Alan Shearer and Graeme le Saux, amongst others.
You will enjoy this book if (like me) you are researching the early years of football, if you are a Blackburn Rovers fan who believes football existed before the Premiership, or if you are just a fan of the game who enjoys a "toilet book" you can dip into with ease (there are about six entries to a page so you can read as much or as little as you like). When I last checked Amazon, a copy was available second-hand at £10 (not from me, I hasten to add!) And if you need further convincing how exciting a read this is, my library copy of the book had a lot of pages that were stuck together - draw your own conclusions.

Extraordinarily well researched and lovingly told
The full A to Z of every player to have played, every club they played against (+ results), and a host of entertaining anecdotes (up to 1994, so doesn't include the Championship, but as a result focuses a lot more on the Full Members Cup, which was much more fun anyway).

My favourite was the story of Herbie Arthur, famous for having played against Burnley entirely on his own - the rest of the team left the field in a snowstorm, leaving the poor goalie to face the on-rushing Claret and Blues. He successfully appealed for offside, and then took so long over the resulting free-kick that the ref abandoned the match. Brilliant!

How about an updated version?

Keep the blue flag flying high
Incredibly thoroughly researched and well-told book which nicely complements the Illustrated Encyclopedia (especially as it was written after the 1995 Championship!!).

P.S. If you liked this, try and find Accrington Stanley - A Complete Record by the same author.