The date was March 11th, 1986, the venue was Craven Cottage, the visitors were Blackburn Rovers. Ray Harford, later to manage Blackburn, was in charge of Fulham, Bobby Saxton was Rovers' manager. Two struggling second division sides attracted a gathering of 2,535. It finished 3-3, Jimmy Quinn among Rovers' scorers. Noel Brotherston played. While Fulham went on to be relegated, Blackburn went on to become champions of a different league, the Premiership. The two have not met in a league match on the northern bank of the Thames since.

Until this afternoon. At three o'clock a crowd possibly 10 times the 1986 figure will witness Graeme Souness's first game as Blackburn's fifth manager in under three years. Paul Bracewell, in his 10th month as successor to Kevin Keegan at Fulham, will be shaking Souness's hand. Both will look edgy. Fulham and Blackburn Rovers are unrecognisable from their last Craven meeting. Hiding in the shadows of low expectation is no longer possible.

Money has changed everything in English football since 1986 and few clubs offer better examples of the effects than these two. Fulham, upwardly mobile again after the influx of cash from Mohammed Al Fayed's brown envelopes, should heed that, in their opposition, lies the lesson that it has not been all for the good.

Back in 1986 Blackburn had a J Walker on their books, but it was the name of the club physio. One year later, however, at the invitation of then chairman Bill Fox, a local steel magnate Jack Walker donated the funds for a new stand at the dilapidated Ewood Park. The WalkerSteel Stand duly rose. Blackburn's rise came shortly after.

In January 1991, a few months after selling the family business to British Steel for £350 million, Jack Walker acquired the majority shareholding in Blackburn Rovers. Seven months later Kenny Dalglish walked into Ewood Park just eight months after leaving Liverpool. It is still difficult to say which event caused more surprise. Dalglish was promised, and given, millions in what amounted to a football experiment in social engineering, though it was Kevin Moran who kickstarted the Dalglish era with the first goal in a 5-2 victory over Plymouth Argyle.

Suddenly Blackburn were famous. Suddenly they were in the Premiership. Suddenly Alan Shearer was playing for them. Yet, as Dalglish was to say after he departed: "Part of the beauty of Blackburn Rovers was the naivety of the place, almost innocence."

They trained beside the town crematorium, mis-hit footballs hitting mourners. Richard Witschge, a Dutch international who arrived at Ewood on loan toward the end of Dalglish's time, stayed only briefly and parted with the comment: "I was raised among the sights of Amsterdam. I had played and lived in beautiful Barcelona and Bordeaux. But Blackburn is so poor and ugly. I couldn't bear to live there one more day."

Jack Walker liked Blackburn, though. He may have moved to the Channel Islands for tax avoidance reasons, but Walker loved the team, the club and the town. He pumped more and more millions into Dalglish's Blackburn and it won them the Premiership and European football. But Walker was content to remain in the background. Only belatedly has he accepted the title of senior vice-president, although no-one believes anyone else has taken the decision to appoint Harford, Roy Hodgson, Brian Kidd, Tony Parkes and now Souness in succession to Dalglish.

It was instructive to talk to Keith Gillespie this week on the subject. Walker, Gillespie said, never appears at the training ground, but he does show up in the dressing-room before all home matches and most of the away ones. He is friendly, encouraging and approachable. Gillespie, bought by Kidd, said in response to a question about whether Walker's presence was a notable everyday factor at the club: "Oh yeah. He's the one. You are always aware of who owns the club. But then when I first met him I called him Mr. Walker. He said: `It's Jack'."

The contrast typifies Blackburn. When they qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1994, their first European football in 119 years of history, the stadium was not full. Their support has always been in question, in fact. In 1986 their biggest home crowd was less than 10,000, the accusation was of Johnny-come-lately Premiership glory-hunters. Even then there were not that many of them.

But that is part of Blackburn's size as a town. Burnley, just down the road, is a bigger club, arguably even now. Walker's passion, however, remains indisputable. When Manchester United sealed Blackburn's relegation from the Premiership last May, the image on the giant screen in a corner of Ewood Park showed Walker standing grim-faced in the directors' box, his eyes welling up. He does not come across as an actor.

That was on a Wednesday night. The previous Saturday, also at Ewood, Walker had taken the remarkable step of going onto the pitch before kick-off to exhort the fans to make some noise. Victory against already relegated Nottingham Forest would give Rovers a real chance of Premiership survival. Forest won 2-1.

Walker must have felt a combination of anger, humiliation and failure - not an experience his successful business career can have prepared him for - and when, after a dismal start to this season a local journalist managed to get through to Walker to ask how things were going, the reply was: "Things are going bloody awful, what do you think?" Then the line went dead.

Walker soon dispensed with Kidd. He had given Kidd over £20 million to spend, but whereas Dalglish bought success, Kidd bought relegation. Parkes, for the third time in his Blackburn coaching career, stepped in. Results improved so much that Parkes was made manager until the end of the season. Liverpool were beaten in the FA Cup, the play-offs loomed.

But then, as Gillespie says: "We were murdering teams like Tranmere and Norwich and getting a point for it. Last Sunday we battered Crewe and didn't even get that."

By then the call to Souness had been made. Parkes, allegedly promised a job for life, will stay. But to Walker there must be something of the stature and prestige of Dalglish in Souness. Whether he has the same effect only time will tell. Souness said on Wednesday he has mellowed while simultaneously joking: "If you want a fight, we can go in the car park now."

With Blackburn Rovers, Souness already has a fight, kicking off at Craven Cottage today, for the first time in 14 years.