Simon Garner

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philipl -Every member of the greatest team selected so far plied their trade for Rovers in the top league across the near 130 years of the club's illustrious history. Most won at least one major honour whilst with Rovers (or a runners-up medal in the case of Douglas and Clayton) and for many, Rovers was the only club with whom they won anything (and that for the next three weeks still goes for Damien Duff rover.gif ). More poignantly, everyone of them were not only internationals but multiple cap winners and several captained their respective country. So why should we break this record and elect a player who never won a cap, never collected more than a Full Members Cup winners medal and never once played at the highest level? I'll tell you why- Simon Garner is quite simply a legend and a player whose feat in being the club's leading goal scorer with a relatively modest sub-200 total of goals will nevertheless be unlikely to be beaten for many years, if ever. Not only was he a goal scorer but Garns was ever a grafter and always popular with the crowd from the day as a teenager he buried a chance in the Anglo-Scottish Cup to mark his first goal for the Rovers to the day he walked out as a non-playing member of the play off promotion winning side. Garner was well capable of amazing single handed scoring feats- I'll never forget shaking hands with him on the pitch before a game against Derby and shaking hands again two hours later in the 100 Club after he had scored all five in a one man 5-1 demolition "derby". There was a 4 against Sunderland and quite a few hattricks including the three great strikes against Pompey away in a recovery from two down to win 4-2. (Poor Neil Webb- he scored three times to take the lead for Pompey against Rovers that season and Rovers took all six points!) Of course the hattrick against Man City when the Darwen End was covered in discarded inflatable bananas brought by the fans of all-conquering City could have been the most joyous day of all as we thrashed them 4-0 and the new goal scoring record was set but it was for ever over-shadowed by the events at Hillsborough. It wasn't just the routine second or third division games in which Garner scored but he made a speciality of scoring against top flight opposition whenever we drew them in the Cup. Twice in different seasons he put the Rovers into the lead against Liverpool at Ewood- one a truly stupendous swivel and strike from a corner. Away at QPR, he streaked away from the defence in a way that became a Shearer trade mark to beat Phil Parkes with a curling daisy cutter on his near post to give us yet another lead we failed to protect. For me the greatest Garner performance came in a League Cup game at Ipswich when Rovers were so badly hit by injuries a postponement was requested but denied. With only eight fully fit players Rovers took on the UEFA Cup holders with Thyssen, Mariner and Wark (who was to score a hattrick) in the side. More to the point, Garner was facing the two England central defenders- Terry Butcher and Russel Osman with one of the best keepers around, Cooper, in goal behind them. Nothing daunted, Garns twice received the ball with his back to goal, comprehensively turned and went past both Butcher and Osman, beat the Ipswich defence and thrashed the ball past Cooper from about 15 yards out. Even in the second half after Ipswich had pulled the two goal deficit back to 2-2, Garner was not done and he again beat Osman all-ends up to get into position to strike a blistering shot which Cooper parried onto the post. The ball returned kindly to Garner who rather than going for glory as a recovered Osman blocked his sight on goal, precisely and deliberately passed the ball ten yards sideways across the box to an unmarked Windy Miller who just as precisely passed the ball just inside the post with Cooper unable to recover the ground. 2-3 became 4-3 to the home side but that remains one of my favourite Rovers memories. Absolutely magnificent stuff- and I am sure there were other goals against top flight opposition in the Full Members, League and FA Cups I haven't remembered. Although Garner gathered his greatest haul of goals against Derby County (12 in all down the years) it was against Burnley that he was unnerringly the master executioner. From a stunning 25 yard blast with which he put Rovers into the lead the last time the dingles won at Ewood to the tap in which completed the double at t'Turf, Garner just loved scoring against the dingles. For many years, the dingles were in the outer darknesses of football but Garns crossed their paths again in his later days- scoring with glee for West Brom and Wycombe against them to rub in the old emnity. There are great contenders for the second spot- goal machines Southworth and Briggs, mercurial McEvoy, the unsurpassed talents of McKenzie and in recent times Newell and Sutton who were technically the equal of any strikers but the heart, overwhelmingly, and the head, with justification, says a list of Rovers greats would look as odd without Garner as it would with England, Clayton or Douglas missing. .

Simon Garners 194 -He played for Rovers at a time when the club was basically on its knees and he bacame a cult hero, a figure to look up to in our darkest hours. From scoring five in one game v Derby to breaking Rovers goalscoring record against Man city he will be remembered as a player who helped keep the clubs nose above water as the likes of Burnley,Preston and Blackpool began their fall into lower league oblivion.Magic memories of a loyal servant to the cause.

drummer boy - the facts speak for themselves. Sponsored by Silk Cut with an incentive scheme funded by Thwaites, he was genuinely one of us - as could be witnessed at his post-match "reviews" at the 500 club. This man was Blackburn Rovers in the '80's and must be one of the best never to play top-flight football - had he been a few years younger, I reckon KD may have given him that chance. Does anyone remember how sharply he could turn in the box, onto either foot? For sustained contribution to the club and a phenomenal ability to score goals in a mediocre team, Garner has to stay

steverovers - I would have loved to have seen him and Shearer together in attack. Thatwoul've been something!

Drummer Boy - Garner is a different matter altogether - the extract from the Independent sums it up nicely and I've flicked through his autobiography again - and for reasons not entirely connected with his qualities as a player (good as they were) but as much with his qualities as a man and an employee of BRFC, he gets my vote when we finish this charade of a vote for the first spot upfront.

Simon Garners 194 - Simon Garner........it says something very special about a player who,10 years after having left the club, attracts a 15,000 crowd to his testimonial game

Drummer Boy - Tim "the pimp" Sherwood - much maligned because he wasn't fancy and gave the ball away; however, at his peak, when he didn't play or had an off day then Rovers usually didn't win. He did simple things effectively, didn't make a fuss, galvanised the team and was a superb captain of his time. He even chipped in with the odd goal - no mean achievement when you are in a team fronted by Shearer & Sutton. His skill, talent, temperament and vision were much underrated and I reckon that, given time, I could put together a case denouncing the international managers of the time for ignoring him - not glamorous enough and not playing for a Sky TV-adopted club, I suspect. Quite simpy, he made the team he was in tick, allowing the wingers to do what they did best which in turn allowed Messrs Shearer & Sutton to do what they did best. He was part of the "spine" that any team winning things has to have (Flowers, Hendry, Sherwood, Shearer) around which the rest could ebb and flow. What made him better than Batty? When the grade got higher Tim rose to it whereas Batty always made like a crab when playing in Europe or against the better teams - no unnecessary sideways/backwards passes or unimaginative punts from Tim, thank you very much. Oh, and he was available for selection more often than Batty - and utterly consistent. OK - he lost the ball occasionally but sheer percentages say that, given the amount he was on or around the ball, he was bound to lose out now and then. Tim has to be in the team and he has to be captain IMO.

Drummer Boy - The second easiest vote of the 11 in my mind, after I read all the worthy testimonials on the first striker and made my mind up (well there was no option who to vote for on the first striker, was there?) - bring it on, THERE'S ONLY ONE SIMON GARNER (the number of times I've nearly torn my throat roaring that, when we had little else to roar about). He was there when we ................................ achieved sod all, actually. BUT, he was there and I would buy him a pint anytime and thank him for so many fantastic memories around an otherwise largely bleak landscape that he would probably get a bit embarrassed.

den - Simon Garner - he's probably going to win. The highest goalscorer in the history of rovers, that takes some beating as a reference.There's only one snag with voting for Garns - he only ever did it in the lower leagues. If he won though, I wouldn't have a problem with that.

SD4E - Garner for me. that hatrick goal against Man City at Ewood, to break the Rovers Goalscoring record. Oh, what a finish into the BBurn End!

ianb - It has to be Garner for me because he was my generation and era and for all the reasons stated in Cheshire Blue's comments on the first page and this despite the fact he was not the greatest striker in the list

tmap - IMy favourite Garner moment was the one he knocked in against Burnley in one of those pre-season Lancashire (Manx, whatever) Cup games, probably 1985. 5 minutes to go, right in front of the Blackburn end, and he stood there with that big daft grin and cheered like he'd just won the World Cup. And I've got a Man City supporting mate who still goes pale when he remembers that 4-0 thrashing he gave them, especially the one he scored from almost the corner flag.

mhead - After logically thinking Chris Sutton...wanting to vote for Tony Field,knowing it was probably Southworth,wishing it had been Fred Pickering I voted blind SIMON GARNER!! And then found out that 50%...old and young...had voted with their hearts. A week before the trip to Yorkshire I am not surprised. Get the plane ready with the message!

Blackburn Ender - As far as Rovers' second greatest striker of all time goes, it's just so hard to look beyond Garner because of his contribution to the club during his 14 years service at Ewood. And the fact he's our all-time top scorer and became a blue 'n' white through and through. I believe the only players who could hold a candle to his legacy would have to be from the distant past. Players such as Southworth whose goals contributed to us winning major trophies.