Steve Rowland column: Great to see the boss back after such a terrible time

We now have a second round tie at home against high-flying Birmingham City at the end of the month.

The Blues are a club that won promotion to the Premier League twice with Bruce as their manager. It should be spicy.

It was a pleasure to welcome ‘young’ Jay Spearing back to Bloomfield Road on Wednesday evening as he marshalled Liverpool’s Under-21s side to a goalless draw against Blackpool in our EFL Trophy group game.

The Seasiders can qualify for the last sixteen knock-out stage of the competition if we get a result away against Harrogate Town next Tuesday.

Before that, we’re back to league action down in London at the weekend, with Leyton Orient as the opposition, and our next home game will be against Northampton Town a week

tomorrow. Let’s get right behind the team for that one as we look to climb the table again.

I saw the latest version of the plan for the new East Stand this week.

It looks most impressive and I believe it goes out for public consultation in the very near future. Meanwhile, initial work has started on site clearance and demolition of buildings at the north end of Back Henry Street.

Here’s a quick reminder of an initiative that I mentioned last time around.

The Club is holding an initial meeting for supporters with disability issues (both visible and hidden) at 7pm next Wednesday, November 13.

The long-term aim is to make Bloomfield Road more accessible and user-friendly to an often poorly catered for section of our fanbase.

If you’d like to attend please contact the Club’s Disability Liaison Officer: [email protected] and if you cannot attend in person, a zoom link-up is being provided.

I’m not sure how to phrase this next bit, so please bear with me.

The BFC Volunteers are a great bunch of fans who work hard in the spirit of giving something back to our community club.

They would like to devote more time to projects which improve the look of the stadium but spend most of their hours cleaning up the rubbish that some of you drop during games. If all fans could put their empty cups, bottles, pie wrappers and sweet papers in the bins on their way out (or even take them home), instead of just leaving them on the floor, that would really help.

I know old habits die hard, but please try and think of Bloomfield Road as your football home, treat it with the same respect, and encourage others to do the same. It all helps.

Finally, let me remind you that if any fan wishes to contact me for any reason at all, both my email and my mobile number are on the club website.

You might also like to follow @bfcslo on Facebook and X.

UTMP!