[Archived] Rovers Reminiscences

[darrenrover]

4 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Who is the best keeper of your generation

Gordon Banks, closely followed by sir Roger Jones.

[Oldgregg86]

I think I would have to go schmiechel closely followed by Buffon. 

To Young to see them play but I saw the banks save and my God that's the best save I have ever seen against Brazil from pele's header

[roverandout]

Ronaldo ( brazilian) was and is in the top 5 players of all time. For me he was a better player than pele

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I think it has to be Gordon Banks although Schmiecel was very, very good. Yashin, Zoff, Gylmar who played for Brazil all have great reputations.  Rovers have had some top keepers in the past even when we weren't playing at top level. Fred Else was the first Rovers keeper I saw. I wasn't his biggest fan but I remember one game at Burnley when he was brilliant. We lost 1-0 to a very harsh penalty. He saved everything else and nearly got the pen.   Roger Jones, Jim Arnold, Terry Gennoe were all outstanding. Bobby Mimms was good. Later on Tim Flowers was top drawer but Big Brad is the best by a fair way in my time watching Rovers. I used to think he was worth a goal start.

[JacknOry]

Franco Baresi? Baggio (not Dino)? Laudrup? R. Carlos? Van Basten? Some fantastic players from yesteryear that certainly deserve a mention.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I remember watching the Pele/Banks incident on TV. As the ball came over you could see Pele poised to head the ball with Banks sort of stranded towards the near post. When he got up to head the ball I thought " If he gets a good head on this we're sunk ". When Pele headed the ball down into the corner I nearly had my head in my hands. Then Banks appeared from nowhere and miraculously managed to tip the ball up and over the bar. A truly amazing save.

Given the circumstances and conditions that was possibly the finest performance by an England team I've ever seen. They ran the best team this planet as ever seen very, very close.

[Commondore]

19 hours ago, darrenrover said:

Unfortunately you can't compare apples with apples. How would Messi, Maradonna, Ronaldo etc of the 'modern' era have performed on the muddy, ploughed up, mid winter pitches of the 60s and 70s, playing with a pudding like, laced up ball and faced with seriously hard men who were allowed to tackle and challenge ferociously without being penalised?

Conversely, you can only begin to imagine Best, Pele, Eusabio playing on todays bowling greens and protected by the rules of a now virtually no contact sport.

There's another side to that argument as well. Today's football players are all professionals and more or less world class athletes, while Best, Pelé etc. often played against overweight, cigarette smoking amateurs in teams without any defensive organisation. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Commondore said:

There's another side to that argument as well. Today's football players are all professionals and more or less world class athletes, while Best, Pelé etc. often played against overweight, cigarette smoking amateurs in teams without any defensive organisation. 

There's an element of truth in that but the playing conditions could be awful in those days. I can still remember seeing stars when I headed a long kick out from the opposing goalkeeper with the old , wet, and very heavy ball.

[jim mk2]

 

Yashin was an outstanding goalkeeper, used to wear all black, safe hands and a huge presence who I'm sure used to intimidate forwards.

Best goalkeepers from the UK I have seen have been Banks and Jennings. 

[Gav]

Shilton and Clemence were both outstanding keepers, usually against us in the cup!

[oldjamfan1]

2 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Yashin was an outstanding goalkeeper, used to wear all black, safe hands and a huge presence who I'm sure used to intimidate forwards.

Best goalkeepers from the UK I have seen have been Banks and Jennings. 

Most keepers of a certain age will tell you that Yashin totally revolutionised the art in the way he came off his line and dominated his penalty area. He also saved 150 penalties during his career - which in itself is remarkable.

[jim mk2]

11 minutes ago, Gav said:

Shilton and Clemence were both outstanding keepers, usually against us in the cup!

 

Remember the league cup tie against Clough's Forest at Ewood - we beat Forest but couldn't get the ball past Shilton !

Justin Fashanu scored the winner - one of the few goals he ever scored for Forest. Ian Miller had a great game

Shilton was a top goalie but can't remember him ever saving a penalty, especially for England in all those penalty shootouts against Germany. 

[oldjamfan1]

In terms of English players Dixie Dean has to be worth a mention. I was way too young to have actually seen him play but my grandad said he was an unbelievable centre forward - the Alan Shearer of his day by all accounts.

I attended a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park in 1980  as a 15 year old and was shocked when an old gentleman near us in the stand collapsed and died. It turned out to be none other than the great man himself. Tragically sad but fitting too I suppose.

I can still name the Liverpool line-up from that game (they dominated English football with mainly these 12 players):

Clemence, Neal, Hansen, Thompson, Alan Kennedy, Case, Souness, Ray Kennedy, McDermott, Johnson, Dalglish. Sub: Fairclough.

Liverpool won 2-1 if I remember correctly.

 

[den9112]

just seeing this old  (original) contract from a Rovers player from 1950 prompted me to just share it for a bit of nostalgia.

£10 a week plus bonuses

ECC (1 of 1) by dennis greenwood, on Flickr

EC (1 of 1) by dennis greenwood, on Flickr

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Remember the league cup tie against Clough's Forest at Ewood - we beat Forest but couldn't get the ball past Shilton !

Justin Fashanu scored the winner - one of the few goals he ever scored for Forest. Ian Miller had a great game

Shilton was a top goalie but can't remember him ever saving a penalty, especially for England in all those penalty shootouts against Germany. 

I remember Rovers playing Leicester at Ewood in the late 1960's in the old Second Division. Shilton  had made a big name for himself as an up and coming young goalie. We were the top two teams in the Div at the time so it was a big game. Rovers played really well that day with Rogers and Knighton dominating the midfield. We were winning comfortably 3-1 near the end when there was a goal mouth scramble. The ball broke to Malcolm Darling who gave one of the best dummies I ever saw on a football pitch. Shilton went flying into one corner of the goal and as he landed Darling calmly rolled the ball into the empty goal. Messi would have been proud of it.

Then the ref noticed the linesman flagging for offside regarding somebody stood out on the wing miles from play and disallowed the goal !

[Guest]

2 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Shilton was a top goalie but can't remember him ever saving a penalty, especially for England in all those penalty shootouts against Germany. 

I think he guessed correct for all of Germany's penalties in Italia 90, but couldn't reach them. At 40 years old, I assume it's hard to dive far.

I'm not sure I ever saw him play in the flesh, but the first time I ever saw him was on our promotion video from the early 90s. He played for Plymouth, but all I really thought was what an old and clacked out keeper with a funny haircut they had. Little did I know of his achievements.

An amazing club career, topped off by goalkeeping the most successful England team in my lifetime, and hanging up his boots on professional football at just 47. I'm not sure they make them like that anymore.

[RevidgeBlue]

Shilton played against us for that great Forest side in the League Cup c1980 and the thing that struck me in the first game at Ewood was his presence. Despite not being the biggest his angles were so good that there didn't seem to be any way you could possibly get the ball past him even in a one on one. Like catching the ball a largely lost art today.

He's the best keeper I've ever seen live, Sir Roger would have to be 2nd. Unfortunately never saw the great Gordon Banks in the flesh.

[oldjamfan1]

13 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Shilton played against us for that great Forest side in the League Cup c1980 and the thing that struck me in the first game at Ewood was his presence. Despite not being the biggest his angles were so good that there didn't seem to be any way you could possibly get the ball past him even in a one on one. Like catching the ball a largely lost art today.

He's the best keeper I've ever seen live, Sir Roger would have to be 2nd. Unfortunately never saw the great Gordon Banks in the flesh.

Sir Roger better than Brad? Fair enough but personally I think Brad is the best Rovers keeper in my lifetime and then I would struggle to separate Sir Roger, Terry Gennoe, Jim Arnold and Tim Flowers  just behind him.

[Guest]

Bit of trivia, try not to Google!

Which former Rover holds the record for fastest goal ever at a World Cup?

[darrenrover]

19 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Sir Roger better than Brad? Fair enough but personally I think Brad is the best Rovers keeper in my lifetime and then I would struggle to separate Sir Roger, Terry Gennoe, Jim Arnold and Tim Flowers  just behind him.

I would say that Sir Roger's handling was better than Brad's, particularly from crosses which he seldom punched unless under extreme pressure. They were both great keepers though, no doubt. I think the best goalkeeping display I have witnessed was Tim Flowers in the final home game against the Geordies in '95. He was simply outstanding.

[jim mk2]

3 hours ago, den9112 said:

just seeing this old  (original) contract from a Rovers player from 1950 prompted me to just share it for a bit of nostalgia.

£10 a week plus bonuses

ECC (1 of 1) by dennis greenwood, on Flickr

EC (1 of 1) by dennis greenwood, on Flickr

 

 

Fascinating document - thanks for posting it. It's worth reading the small print - players really were "servants" of the club, and it's not surprising they fought hard for freedom of contract and the lifting of the maximum wage under Jimmy Hill. I particularly like the clause "the players shall not engage in any business or live in any place which the directors deem unsuitable" - that would upset just about every player currently playing

Eddie Crossan was a very fine player for Rovers too - Ireland international

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

55 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

I would say that Sir Roger's handling was better than Brad's, particularly from crosses which he seldom punched unless under extreme pressure. They were both great keepers though, no doubt. I think the best goalkeeping display I have witnessed was Tim Flowers in the final home game against the Geordies in '95. He was simply outstanding.

Goalkeepers as a breed caught the ball much more in the old days. I think they're all encouraged to punch the ball if in any doubt now.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Phil T said:

Bit of trivia, try not to Google!

Which former Rover holds the record for fastest goal ever at a World Cup?

Yuri Djorkaeff ? That Baggio guy who played for us ? 

[Blue Cabbage]

Was it not Duff?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Seeing as how we're playing Charlton on Saturday I've got a memory of playing them in the late autumn of 1967. It'd been a pretty wet Autumn and on the Friday before the game it'd been raining on and off all day. On the Saturday morning it was pouring  down so I set off from Rochdale on the old Ribble bus service ( 158 ? ) more in hope than expectation. It was still raining heavily when I got off the bus at the Boulevard. For some reason I walked up to the ground and I was like a drowned rat when I finally arrived at Ewood Park. I had the rain soaked programme for years after but my son has it now.

The river by the side of the ground was like a raging torrent and when I got into the ground the groundstaff were working overtime forking the puddles on the pitch. We kicked off on time but before long the game became farcical, with the ball stopping all of a sudden in the puddles . By some miracle Charlton actually scored a goal, how I can't remember.  They had a young winger playing called Len Glover who later went on to much greater things ( and jail ) in Div 1, he was running us ragged out on the dry spaces on the wing.

After about half an hour our winger cut in from out wide and played a lovely cross ball right into the path of Alan Gilliver the centre forward, it was an open goal. He took an almighty swing at the ball which then caught a gust of wind and floated out of his swing like a little yacht on a pond. He missed the ball completely, spun around like a ballerina, lost his balance completely and fell over into the big puddle ! The whole ground as well as the players burst out laughing. Gilliver got to his feet soaking wet and looking more than a little bit embarrassed.

More rain came down and the game was abandoned at half time with the score Rovers 0 - Charlton 1. It was a very fed up and bedraggled Tyrone that trudged his way back into town and home to Rochdale.

According to my record book we replayed the game in the Spring of the next year and we won 3-2. Anybody else remember this water splash fiasco ?