DID you sell your ticket to a Manchester City fan?

If so, here's a suggestion as to how to use your profits.

Ask Blackburn Rovers for a copy of their fans' mailing list, buy around 20,000 envelopes and sheets of writing paper, and apologise to all those Blackburn fans in the ground.

I, like you, was pestered by every City fan that I have ever passed on Deansgate to get my hands on tickets for the Blackburn areas of Ewood Park.

I, unlike you, thought of the consequences, resisted the emotional blackmail and politely declined.

Of course, your particular friends are the salt of the earth and weren't the ones causing all the problems.

Think again.

So my immediate reaction -- as I watched on in horror and sanctuary in the Press Box fearing for the safety of my mum and sister in the stands -- was not to blame the club over Sunday's debacle.

I blamed you!

And the morons from Manchester, for their behaviour seems to have acquired a degree of respectability through inevitability.

Sure, there are lessons which must be learned.

I think all clubs are placed in an impossible position because of the ludicrous cost of policing sporting events.

The cheaper option, of stewards, is always second best to trained law enforcement officers.

(Except for the case when one ageing Blackburn steward attempted to single-handedly break up a fight in the Blackburn End with no apparent police help.) And the move to draft in City's own stewards raises the other issue -- that most of these people are themselves supporters.

Rovers took every possible and usual precaution to stop tickets falling into the wrong hands.

In fact, the Ewood club shop did a brisk trade in Rovers tops being bought by City fans attempting to pose as Blackburn fans.

They were turned away. However, no system is foolproof and some would have sneaked through that particular net.

There is, however, no such excuse for the fact that many City fans were allowed into home areas wearing their own colours.

Those exceptions, though, do not account for the estimated 2,000 infiltrators.

You, my friends, were responsible for that.

You were responsible for families being so intimidated that they had to leave early and found their exit prevented as City fans tried to enter the stadium.

Allowing that congregation of away supporters was one area where the police palpably failed in their duty.

Rovers cannot be expected to control fans outside the stadium as well as inside.

There were, in fact, a record number of police on duty for the game -- more than for the visit of Manchester United last year.

Fans are now understandably concerned that the same scenes will not be repeated in next season's derby clashes.

It is, of course, impossible for anyone to give a watertight guarantee of safety at any public event.

And one option for both Rovers and Burnley would be to restrict derby attendances to season ticket holders only.

Nobody wants to see that.

(I'd be surprised if Blackburn fans would want to watch the game at all unless those players who showed all the backbone of a jellyfish on Sunday quickly realise the local importance of this fixture.)

So, next time, when someone offers you £50, or £500, for your seat, keep your selfish, money-grabbing hands in your pockets and think of your fellow fans.