The club’s formal name is Blackburn Rovers Football Club, and they are known by many nicknames, the most popular of which are Rovers, Blue and Whites, and Riversiders.

Founded in 1875, the team hosts games at its Ewood Park venue, in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which has a capacity of just over 31,000.

The owners are the 1987 Jack Walker Settlement Trustees.

The chairman is John Williams while the club manager is Sam Allardyce.

Blackburn won the Premier League in 1994-95, beating rivals Manchester United at the post, a year after finishing second in Premiership races.

Just four years after winning the championship, the Riversiders were relegated. Three years later they were back.

In two games this season, Rovers have one win and one loss; they won 1-0 in their first match against Everton and lost 2-1 to Birmingham City on the second weekend.

Pre-season review:

Blackburn finished in tenth place in last season’s Premiership campaign. They also reached the semi-final of the League Cup.

This relative strong performance will put a weight of expectation on Sam Allardyce.

Transfers have been conspicuous by their relative absence at Blackburn headquarters.

The following players including the Blue and Whites:

Robinson, Salgado, Samba, Olsson, Jones, Nelsen, Givet, Kalinic, Dunn, El-Hadji Diouf, Pedersen, Emerton, Bunn, Nzonzi, Hoilett, Andrews, Chimbonda, and Mame Diouf.

Their goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, was called up to represent England in a friendly against Hungary, and Blackburn called on Frank Fielding, who had never played for the Ewood Park team, to replace him.

The all-round skills of the generously built Christopher Samba as a scoring defender should make him Blackburn’s man for every occasion.

Alan Judge returned from Plymouth Argyle, where he was on loan for the last 18 months. Judge could have several starts this season in the absence of signings.

Manchester United’s Mame Biram Diouf is on loan and is expected to increase the goal tally.

Yildiray Basturk has left after too short a stay at Ewood Park after a less than impressive start.

Steven Reid has gone to West Bromwich Albion.

Blackburn will be looking to top off last year’s strong showing, and can expect some moves from Allardyce to strengthen that resolve while the transfer window is still open.

I expect Blackburn to do as well or even better than last year, with the dark cloud of possible relegation lifted.