Bryan Douglas

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bob fleming - Bryan Douglas. Never saw him play, haven't even seen him on the tele, but I know that this guy should walk this. I've read enough about him over the years to know that this fella is one of the Rovers legends. I look forward to hearing some glowing tributes for this guy. I reckon I'll need a lot of convincing not to vote for Douglas.

MCMC1875 England International One club man Still attends Ewood

bazzaI haven't time to give a long account of Duggy. How many of you intend to overlook Duffer for the left spot? How will you be able to explain to your grandchildren the magic of Duffer when they wont have seen him play? Oh yeh, there will be video and DVD recording to show them but how will it look to their modern game? Well I can tell you that Bryan Douglas was equal to Duffer if not better. A Blackburn lad who remained faithful to the club throughout his career and is still with us now. He played outside right for Rovers and England, then moved to inside left to fill a vacant position. A totally brilliant player. It was said of him "He could turn on a sixpence". It was a shame that he didn't receive the recognition he deserved because of being in the shadow of Tom Finney who IMO was the greatest ever player in the world. VOTE DUGGY

philipl - Even though I saw him at the end of his career after he had been clattered many times, he was the consumate silky skilful footballer. The ball did as it was told for Bryan and the rest of the football was in awe of him for more than a decade. Over 500 appearances for his one and only club- his home town. 35 caps for England, 7 of which were won in World Cups. And a thoroughly nice guy. He gets my vote.

Scotty - All I can say is that I urge the younger members to look up some info on Bryan Douglas before you vote. My dad kept a Rovers scrap book for about 3 years that covers the time around the 1960 cup final appearance. Reading the match reports now Douglas stands out as being a star week in week out. He'll get my vote.

Al - For anyone who never saw him he is probably best likened to a right sided Damien Duff. Maybe a tad better. (Imagine the two of them on opposite wings. Wow!) He had the ability to have the ball under control in an instant and could beat a man on a sixpence. His favourite and probably most devastating move was to take the ball right up to the goalpost on the byeline. The goalkeeper had no choice than to cover his near post and Bryan would look up and pick out a Rovers man with his back pass (all along the ground). The lucky guy had the easiest of tasks to slide the ball home. Although best known as a goal maker he also chipped in with his share of goals too! He was then picked up by England and quickly given the name 'Black Douglas' by the Scottish because of the devastating effect he had on their team every time he played against them. Later in his career he moved to attacking centre midfield where he developed a superb through ball to either Fred Pickering or Andy McEvoy, but that is a different position and a good case could probably be made for his inclusion in there. VOTE DOUGLAS. You know it makes sense.

bazza Bryan Douglas. Very much like Duff in a way. The ball seemed tied to his boot laces. Regularly tricked his way to the by-line and layed it on a plate for someone. An England regular. He once leapt above the tall Spanish (I think) defence to head home a cross. When playing later at inside left , against WBA at Ewood, attacking the Darwen end, he started on a mazey run from the left touchline just inside the WBA half. He jinked his way to the penalty area and with the WBA defence standing off expecting him to do his usual pass to someone else to score, he beat two more players and smashed the ball past the stunned Albion keeper; a real gem. Incidentally this was at the time when the second half of a top league match was broadcast on radio. It was always kept secret but that day someone made a gaff and stated it would be Rovers v West Brom. I heard the gaff at lunch time and so took a portable transistor radio with me and listened whilst standing on the Blackburn End. The commentator was in raptures about Duggy's goal.

FourLaneBlue - One final thing...Ripley won a title, it's true. However Bryan Douglas is the only Rovers player to have played for England in two world cups. How many games in the finals of a international tournament would you really have expected Ripley to start. 'Super Stu' was a good player for Rovers...but let's not be daft and pretend he can match a true Blackburn legend like Bryan Douglas

cn174 - Bryan Douglas always wanted to be a footballer. He played for the Blackburn town team. He was offered trials at Blackpool, Bolton, Preston, Wolves and Blackburn. He chose Rovers because he was born and bred in Blackburn and had supported them since he was young. After the trials, he was asked to sign by the manager, Jackie Bestall. Bryan only ever played for Rovers, his home team, something he is very proud. He made his debut in August 1954 against Notts County. That was the first of 500 league and cup appearances he made for Rovers. He mainly played either in the outside right or inside left position. Inside left was his favourite although the outside right was where he made his name. He also made 36 appearances for England including playing in the Sweden 58 and Chile 62 World Cups. He retired from playing international football in 1963 and finished his career with Rovers six years later. His most memorable game for Rovers was the 7 – 1 defeat of Tottenham at Ewood. This was when Spurs were one of the best teams in the country. His two most memorable games playing for England were both against Scotland. In his early England career he remembers beating the Scots 4 – 0 at Hampden then later on beating them 9 –3 in England. Bryan said that without a doubt, Tom Finney was the best player he had ever played with while Pele was the best player he’d played against. When he started at Rovers he got paid £14 a week. In 1963, the maximum wage was abolished and Bryan was given a 50% increase on the £20 he received. The players also got bonuses for winning games. The most Bryan ever got was £50 plus appearances per week. Unlike today there were no sponsorship deals. After he retired, he ran market stalls for a year. Then he became a sales representative for a local paper mill. A job he did for 18 years. I doubt that we will see any of today’s professional players have another job when they retire from football. Bryan still watches Blackburn. He goes to all of the home games and some of the away games. He also keeps in touch with some of his Blackburn and England team mates including Ronnie Clayton, Tom Finney and Jimmy Arnfield. In his opinion, the game is not as entertaining now as when he was playing. This is because there are less individual players who take the opposition on. If he had the chance to, Bryan said that he would play football today but he believes it would be a lot harder for him because now the players are a lot fitter. When Bryan was playing, training was very basic, concentrating on stamina and sprinting. Now the players are as good athletes as footballers. Bryan thinks that next season will be a very big year for Rovers. He thinks that Graeme Souness is the manager that will make Blackburn successful again and thinks that they will get promoted again. It was a pleasure to meet Bryan Douglas. There won’t be many footballers who grew up in a town, played for his home town’s team for all his career and still lives in the town but Bryan Douglas is one of those few.

Ianrally - Bryan played for England in two World Cups not many players can say that. As a youngster I was taken by my dad to a Scotland v England game at Hampden Park with a full house of 134,000 and saw my hero take Scotland apart. The headlines in the papers the next day were "Black Douglas of England". I shed tears of joy that day. Here was an England player from my club, from my town, who tormented those Scots and did not know how the hell to handle this pocket dynamo. What's more having spent all his playing days for the Rovers he is still a fan and regular attender ar Ewood. He is indeed one of us.

den - Duggie, completely the opposite of rippers. Small frame, supreme dribbler and was a player known in those days as a schemer! That means he used to be the supplier of goals and certainly had a lot to do with the prolific goalscoring of people such as McEvoy, Byrom and Pickering. To some extent, he made those players. Rippers made one appearance for England, but in all honesty, he was not quite good enough to hold down a regular place. Duggie, on the other hand was someone who gained 30 caps when it wasn't easy to get a cap. There was no changing half the team at half time, the best players played the majority of the games. Not only did he play for England, he was a star for England. Finney, Matthews, Douglas - three terrific wingers. Add to that, as others have said, he was and still is, a one club man. One game in particular stands out from Duggie's career [for me] - rovers beating spurs 7-2 at ewood. A top spurs side too. They had just won the inter city fairs cup [ the equivalent of the UEFA cup]. They had players such as Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Greaves playing for them. That day Douglas was at his absolute best. He tore the unfortunate Danny Blanchflower to shreds. He set up Andy McEvoy with four goals on McEvoy's first game as a converted half back. A game and performance that for anyone priviliged to see it, will stick in the memory. That same season, rovers went to west ham and beat them 8-2, again Duggie the architect. I also remember going to west ham for a F.A. cup game in the early sixties [63, I think]. West ham had a great team. Brooking, Byrne, Sissons and the great Bobby Moore. At Upton park rovers drew 3-3 in the first game. Moore was marking John Byrom then. Duggie was fantastic, setting Byrom up for a hat trick. The replay at Ewood saw rovers win 4-1, Moore marking McEvoy. Duggie set up McEvoy for his hat trick.