[Archived] Spurs V Rovers Fa Cup 1960

[AJW]

Wonderful to hear the opinions of rovers fans who were fortunate to see that team from the 60's , and compare it to the champions , the fact that so many of that team are judged to have better than the 94/95 is both enlightening and surprising ...Messrs Clayton England Douglas Newton and all must really have been some players , I suppose that's why my grandad fell in love with Rovers

[jim mk2]

It's all subjective of course. Would the likes of Ronnie Clayton, who was never a quick player, been able to cope with the pace of the modern game? He was also a classical right half in the old 2-3-5 formation so may not have been able to fit in with latter day formations. It's fun speculating though and they were all wonderful players.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Wonderful to hear the opinions of rovers fans who were fortunate to see that team from the 60's , and compare it to the champions , the fact that so many of that team are judged to have better than the 94/95 is both enlightening and surprising ...Messrs Clayton England Douglas Newton and all must really have been some players , I suppose that's why my grandad fell in love with Rovers

I don't think it's a case of rose coloured glasses. Ronnie Clayton played 30 odd times and captained England at a time when England caps were hard to come by and games were almost always against top sides - no San Marino's then. Ditto Bryan Douglas , 35 caps for England playing for un-fashionable Rovers at the same time.

Keith Newton , an England international under Sir Alf Ramsey for four years, was sold for a British record for a full back.

Mike England , not only the best centre half Rovers have ever had but arguably the best centre half in UK in the last fifty years. Sold to Spurs for a British record for a defender.

Fred Pickering , only two players had been sold for bigger fees than Fred at that time. Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law. The £85,000 we got for Fred was a British record between two British clubs for any player at the time.

You could arguably put Dougie back on the right wing were he played most of the time in his early days to accommodate Tugay in central midfield. Bill Eckersley was before my time so I can't comment there.

Regarding Jim's criticism of Ronnie's lack of pace, well a lack of pace didn't do Tugay much harm.

[jim mk2]

It wasn't a criticism - more an observation. Like Ronnie, Bobby Moore couldn't run much either but he could read the game. The game's changed Tyrone (not for the better IMO) but pace is crucial nowadays.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

It wasn't a criticism - more an observation. Like Ronnie, Bobby Moore couldn't run much either but he could read the game. The game's changed Tyrone (not for the better IMO) but pace is crucial nowadays.

I agree Jim, somebody once said the first yard of pace is in your head. Bobby Moore is a good example.

[AllRoverAsia]

Andy McEvoy has had some deserved mentions in this thread. A hero of mine and scorer of great goals. Found this interesting article on Andy - see item 5 - but please avoid item 4.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/aug/21/underrated-footballers-joy-of-six

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Andy McEvoy has had some deserved mentions in this thread. A hero of mine and scorer of great goals. Found this interesting article on Andy - see item 5 - but please avoid item 4.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/aug/21/underrated-footballers-joy-of-six

Good article. A very underrated player. I recall Rovers playing Arsenal at Ewood around that time. We were top and they were second, or the other way around, I forget now. When the teams were announced Bryan Douglas was out injured ! Bloody hell, what do we do now, Dougie was irreplaceable.

What we did was move Andy to Dougie's No 10 shirt and bring in a young guy called Reg Blore for his debut to play up front with Fred Pickering.

Although we went behind early on to a Joe Baker goal ( I was still changing ends ! ) we gradually got on top and gave Arsenal a 4-1 football lesson. Andy was outstanding in the attacking midfield role that Bryan excelled in. I can see him now coming from the half way line down the Riverside side of the pitch to put one on a plate for big Fred at the Blackburn end. He also got one himself that day, Pickering got a hat trick in this game. I think that was the day the big clubs started taking notice of Fred.

I was reading an archive interview the other day by Fred and he was saying he was on about £20 a week and he knew some players at Rovers were on £30 to £35 a week. He would have stayed for another £10 a week ! We let him go and and then squandered the transfer fee on trying to replace him with various flops over the next 6 or 7 years.

Just a line on Reg Blore . We picked him up from 4 th Division Southport for a small fee, we were hoping to have got a bargain. My impression that day was he was a yard off the pace all the game and he was out of his depth that day. So effectively we thrashed Arsenal with 10 and a 1/2 players.

He was a main stay of the very good Central League team we had for a few season before leaving us to join Oldham in Div 3. That was his level I'm afraid.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Ronnie was the heart of the club when I first started watching Rovers. Bryan Douglas was the brain. If they both played well we would probably win.

[bazza]

Trying to compare footballers from decades ago to the modern day game is a bit futile really.

However, let's get futile.

Imagine the Preston North End of the 1950s with the most brilliant Tom Finney in his hay day.

Now put modern day Lionel Messi in there in place of Bobby Foster. Who would be rated the best footballer?

My guess is they'd be on a par. And PNE would have won the league title instead of finishing runners-up.

But would Messi have been able to cope playing in mud, snow and through large puddles?

[den]

Trying to compare footballers from decades ago to the modern day game is a bit futile really.

However, let's get futile.

Imagine the Preston North End of the 1950s with the most brilliant Tom Finney in his hay day.

Now put modern day Lionel Messi in there in place of Bobby Foster. Who would be rated the best footballer?

My guess is they'd be on a par. And PNE would have won the league title instead of finishing runners-up.

But would Messi have been able to cope playing in mud, snow and through large puddles?

Peter Dobing could Bazza, so Messi definitely could.