Come to Ewood, come to Ewood, it's a place of misery.
There's a notice on the doorstep saying welcome unto thee.
Don't believe it, don't believe it for it's all a pack of lies
If it weren't for B****** (we sung Blackburn back then) Rovers it would be a paradise.
That's going back some time and it goes back to a time when, although a place of misery, it was a place where we did rather well. My first ever visit to Ewood, my first ever away game, ended in defeat but we won five and drew one of my next six visits.
Even the draw was one to savour. That was at Christmas 1976 and we trailed 2-0 before Peter Noble and Ian Brennan both scored in the last ten minutes.
How I wish it had always been like that. How I wish that subsequent visits had been every bit as good. How I now wish that some of my more recent trips there just hadn't happened. The truth hurts and this truth very much hurts that we haven't beaten this lot in league or cup, and I really don't count Lancashire Cup games, since April 1979.
I was in the Darwen End that day as we came from a goal behind to win 2-1 with Tony Morley and Brian Hall scoring the goals. Neither of them ever scored for us again but what memorable last goals they were.
The winning team that day, the last winning team against Blackburn was: Alan Stevenson, Tony Arins, Joe Jakub, Peter Noble, Jim Thomson, Billy Rodaway, Brian Hall, Billy Ingham, Paul Fletcher, Steve Kindon (Tony Morley), Leighton James. Harry Potts was the manager and Bob Lord was still chairman.
That's it. No wins since and just the home draw in December, courtesy of a Sam Vokes goal, alongside the bleak results, albeit only seven league games.
Since that win I've seen us at Ewood on four occasions.
I certainly don't want another 1983. I don't want to come home having suffered a 5-0 defeat either as we did in 2001 to hear Stan Ternent tell us: "When we achieved First Division status I knew that somewhere along the line we'd get our backsides tanned from time to time and that's happened today."
"But with all due respect to my players they were beaten by a far superior side so I think if the cap fits you have to wear it."
Stan then went on to talk about Ferraris and Minis in trying to compare the two clubs.
Just over four years later I stood proud of our team at the end of the cup defeat there. We'd given everything but it was still a defeat. Steve Cotterill, in his first season as manager, said: "I am gutted, I'm gutted for our lads and gutted for our supporters because I just think it was a cruel blow.
" I don't think we could have given any more and the biggest disappointment is that we didn't get a result after all the effort we put in. Everyone is so disappointed that we haven't been able to give our supporters what they craved."
We've been once since and that was in the Premier League. Just for a few minutes it was enjoyable after Robbie Blake had given us the lead. But it didn't last long and, in the end, it was another defeat.
And so to tomorrow.
I so much want a win, yes I crave a win. We all do and for so many of our supporters it is a moment they are still to enjoy for the first time.
I could say I want us to win for those younger fans but it's not just for them. I could say I want us to win for a very good friend of mine who passed away just over a week ago, two days after being on the Turf to see the Barnsley game.
But it's for me too because there will not be a happier person in Ewood Park tomorrow than me if the final whistle goes and we've won the game.
I'll do my bit. It's only a small bit but I'll give my team as much support as I possibly can tomorrow. How brilliant it would be for 4,000 of us in the Darwen End to be bouncing in delight at the end of the game. Yes, Mr Cotterill, it is what we crave.
Let's all give it what we've got. Let's get behind our lads. Let's put to the back of our minds the awful home performances in the last few weeks, they'll count for nothing tomorrow.
And above all, please let's come home from Ewood Park with a win.
Come on you Clarets.
The photographs included with this article, showing Ewood Park some years ago, have been reproduced by kind permission of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.