Bryan Douglas. Very much like Duff in a way. The ball seemed tied to his boot laces. Regularly tricked his way to the by-line and layed it on a plate for someone. An England regular. He once leapt above the tall Spanish (I think) defence to head home a cross. When playing later at inside left , against WBA at Ewood, attacking the Darwen end, he started on a mazey run from the left touchline just inside the WBA half. He jinked his way to the penalty area and with the WBA defence standing off expecting him to do his usual pass to someone else to score, he beat two more players and smashed the ball past the stunned Albion keeper; a real gem. Incidentally this was at the time when the second half of a top league match was broadcast on radio. It was always kept secret but that day someone made a gaff and stated it would be Rovers v West Brom. I heard the gaff at lunch time and so took a portable transistor radio with me and listened whilst standing on the Blackburn End. The commentator was in raptures about Duggy's goal.

I haven't time to give a long account of Duggy. How many of you intend to overlook Duffer for the left spot? How will you be able to explain to your grandchildren the magic of Duffer when they wont have seen him play? Oh yeh, there will be video and DVD recording to show them but how will it look to their modern game? Well I can tell you that Bryan Douglas was equal to Duffer if not better. A Blackburn lad who remained faithful to the club throughout his career and is still with us now. He played outside right for Rovers and England, then moved to inside left to fill a vacant position. A totally brilliant player. It was said of him "He could turn on a sixpence". It was a shame that he didn't receive the recognition he deserved because of being in the shadow of Tom Finney who IMO was the greatest ever player in the world. VOTE DUGGY

Thanks for reviving a memory. Deepdale was a very early ground to get floodlights back in around 1956(?) Ewood was much later but erected better ones. Obviously technology had moved on. Me and my mate took a North Ender onto Ewood for an evening game. When the lights were switched on they used to switch on only two of the four pylons at diagonally opposite sides of the ground. We got the North Ender to agree that Rovers lights were as good as those at Deepdale. Then the other two pylons were switched on and he had to (reluctantly) admit that the Ewood floodlights were TWICE as good as the Deepdale ones. We were in hysterics. He took it well, though.

and there, for the oiks, is a man who knows his football. Like almost everyone who has seen them all, he knows who was the best, by a long way. Den, if you were a referee I'd say you were biased.

I'm coming in very late on this. I haven't voted yet so don't know what the score is. Billy, when I started watching Rovers we were crap and had centre halves such as Holt and Holliday.(Sounds like a Monty Python sketch, doesn't it?) Then we bought Willie Kelly from Airdrionians. He was a brick wall and did the same job for us as John Macnamee years later. The problem I have is distinguishing the classy players from the rock solid dependables. Hendry is the best of the latter. The ones who, IMO, oozed class were England, Moran and Henchoz and, to a lesser extent, Allan Hunter. Of the three youth cup winning players who made it to Rovers first team in the 1950's the reverse order of brilliance was Pickering, Newton, England. Mike England is head and shoulders above all others mentioned so far for this position so my vote will go to him. I expect Hendry to win the poll,though. I'm making up my own team of players who don't win. So far my team is:- Else; Newton; Eckersley. I might just get Mike England for my central defender. If so I shall be well pleased. At this rate my team could maybe thrash the "elected" team at the end. So please, you youngsters, don't vote for Douglas and Clayton!!

Spot on KSB. I am quite upbeat even though we lost. But the effort was there for all to see. We are getting better in fitness and effort. Things are not going for us yet. We deserved a point from tonight's display but we didn't have "the rub of the green" No penalty either. Ball on arm rather than arm on ball. It'll come good. Have patience. Thank goodness it's September and not April. Sparky has plenty of time and he is beginning to turn it around.

Glad to hear about the new,better training system. I think Gamst is a good player but is taking quite some time to get used to the pace and, moreover, the physical element of British Prem league football. He'll come good. So will De Pedro; classy guy. Either of these two in front of Gray is preferred to the currently useless Gresko.

I agree with you ,Jim, that an all star Rovers team should include Newton but looks like it wont. He was very, very classy but Eckersley beats him into 2nd place for left back. One of my favourite film clips is of Newton playing right back for Burnley and scoring a superb own goal. It really is one of the best I've ever seen. Just to even things up I've seen Bill Eckersley put a penalty kick well wide of goal. (Jonathan Stead style) He was Rovers regular penalty taker and "never missed". He did that once and I saw it, It was at the Darwen End.

It is extremely difficult to compare players of different decades over a period of a hundred years because the game has changed each decade in rules, style, speed, etc. Also, it's no use asking me to give an opinion on someone who I never saw play. Arthur Cowell must have been one hell of a player at left back for fifteen years. Walter Crook, another legend of the thirties-forties. How can I vote for these? How can the younger posters and readers of this board vote for players I've seen yet they haven't and have to take my word for it . Very difficult for the younger members of this messageboard. In my lifetime of watching Rovers I can remember such good left-backs as Eckersley, Whelan, Wilson, Bailey, Wright, Le Saux, Croft and Gray. (Keith Newton doesn't enter the frame because he was right back/ midfield). 8) Mickey Gray: Good lad. Keep it going! 7) Dave Whelan: Him and John Bray were two steady full backs around 1958-60; nothing special, just steady. 6) Gary Croft. I can't remember where we got him from but the fans of that club were quoted as saying "Le Saux wont get his place back". He was quite a classy player. 5) Alan Wright. Five feet three inches from Blackpool. A terrific defender and a good overlapper. I'm sure he could have outjumped Tiny Taylor and Jon Stead to head the ball. I was sorry to see him leave Ewood. 4) John Bailey. A crowd favourite. Good full back and loved to streak forward down the wing. Who can forget that game against Southampton where John did a lot of talking to put a young Saints player off his game so much so that the young lad got sent off for a vicious challenge on Bailey. Then Peter Osgood pointed at Bailey and said " I'll have you, lad". Within five minutes Bailey was streaking down his wing. Osgood, in the ouside left position,towards the Darwen end near to me in the Riverside, made a diagonal run and caught Bailey in the Blackburn end penalty area, clattered his feet away from him thus giving away a penalty, then stamped on Bailey and got himself sent off. And to this day Osgood and Lawrie McMenemy blame Bailey for the whole affair; unbelievable! 3)Billy Wilson. My personal favourite. I called him Billy Whizz. A good reliable full back in an average Rovers team. I used to delight in watching Mr Reliable ply his trade. 2) Graeme Le Saux. The best left back in recent years. Won a Premier League Championship medal with Rovers. Good enough to play a few games for England. Will probably be voted No 1 by most on this board. 1) "Sir" Bill Eckersley. The finest left full back I have ever seen wearing the blue and white halves. A regular England player and captain of the Rovers. I once had the pleasure of a quick conversation with the retired hero in the Fox and Hounds. What a nice man and what a great player.

Oh how sweet, how intoxicating, how wonderful was that breath of fresh air that blew across Ewood Park today. What a change in spirit! I have suddenly become an optimist. Sparky has his work cut out. But, oh, the signs of what is to come!

Only 30 mins left. I bet he doesn't go anywhere and we're stuck with him till January

You said it, Jim

Yeah that was nice Was near his own touchline with a United player pressuring him. Did two on the foot and then kicked it up in the air and hit a sweet overhead kick. Can't really see Matteo doing that if he was in that situation Yeah, MGP was on his own goal-line and his "sweet overhead kick" went straight to a United player just outside our penalty area, putting the defence under more pressure. But on the whole I thought he had a good debut; no nervousness in the first half; good player!

MGP really impressed me on his debut. He is strong, looks good on the left, races back to help the defence and gets into the penalty area to win headers. I was at the game, on the riverside so dont know what he looked like on TV. OK, so he missed a sitter that would have made it 2-0 but I still rate him a great player after seeing him once. More MGP for me, please

Dont bank on it!

I can't believe your feeling good all about fantasy football. Rovers are getting stuffed!!! So much for Souness making us "a team hard to beat". Worst score at Highbury for how long??

Excellent news re- henry the vacumn cleaner. He can play in away matches without the expence of providing him with a kit! His position will be sweeper! You felt so good when you posted that, didn't you? Yes, it made my day. Also thought about playing him on the centre spot so he could suck in the opposition midfield

Excellent news re- henry the vacumn cleaner. He can play in away matches without the expence of providing him with a kit! His position will be sweeper!

So there it is. A defeat and no points from Southampton. I'm gutted because we deerved more from this game for our 2nd half performance. I lay the blame in two places:_ Firstly and most importantly, our manager, Graeme Souness. How can he expect to get any points if he only chooses our best players and best formation at half time? How does he expect them to only play for 45 minutes and get a result?? We had a 95% fit squad and he plays Emerton, Matteo and Flitcroft out of position!!! Two successive games he has made a double substitution at half time which indicates he has picked the wrong side in the first place; for the two games WE NEEDED TO WIN. Souness either buck up or pack up. Secondly, the referee, Andy D'Urso. Now I'm not one to slag off refs; honestly. I believe "the ref is always right" even when he's made a mistake. But if you're going to give a penalty in the last few minutes to any side when the scores are level it has to be a blatant, obvious foul. If that jump by Short was a pen, then both sides should have had 5 pens each throughout the game. A niggling little thought came to me that D'Urso had been bribed by someone, but I'd better not suggest that. Gutted

In my opinion there are only five of these to choose from. Harry Leyland was a character who was fair to poor one game and unbelievably brilliant the next. Terry Gennoe; a great servant but not worthy for best ever. That leaves Brad, Fred, Roger, Tim and Jim. I never saw Jim Arnold play.I was living abroad at the time. I believe he was good but that's it; can't comment. Brad and Tim are (were) good shot stoppers. The best two keepers I've ever seen for Rovers are Fred Else and Roger Jones. However Roger did it at level 3 whereas Fred did it at level 1 Therefore my vote goes to the mighty FRED ELSE who was brilliant even though he wasn't very tall. He was also a folk hero at PNE where he played before joining Rovers.

Pete, you've come up with a brilliant way of describing the four divisions of football in the English League........LEVELS! Let's all refer to them as "levels" from now on. Has anyone noticed in the new match programme that our brilliant league championship wins of 1912 and 1914 (Level 1)are classed on a par with runners up 2000-01 (Level 2)???!! Also in that match programme I've discovered that Darren Bent has scored for us against WBA. Has he ever PLAYED for us? Back on subject, we'll be lucky to scrape a draw with the Saints. 2-2

Glad to see someone has mentioned John Byrom. As well as being a cult hero for us he is definitely a cult hero for Bolton Wanderers. What about Malcolm Darling?

It will come as a mighty surprise to all of you that right at this moment I'm listening to Niccolo Paganini Concerto for violin and orchestra No 1 in D major. I just shove the CD into my i-mac's mouth and click track one. Up the Rovers

I've been off the board for nearly two weeks and was shocked to find I could not get straight back into it. Got there eventually.I love the messageboard and ICBINF board, too; especially the word association thread ( along with Al, American, Rachrover and many others). THIS SITE MUST NOT FOLD! It is one of the best footy supporters' sites in the country. And that spreads the good word about Blackburn Rovers in its entirity to all who visit the site ( e.g. Mickey's No1 fan from Sunderland and Jezzard of Fulham to name but two). There seems to be a lot of confusion as to how to get regular, even donations to sustain a good site. It's no good saying "Ive set up a standing order (for £??) so that's my bit done."!! Hows about doing something like the way badges were sold? (Paul??) Invite members to pledge to donate, and, as they do, list them. OK, we need £1600 per year to have a good site. Members pledge to donate a maximum of £30 pounds per year. Listed on a thread would be (initially) 4 members (£400) Then 8 members (£200) and so on until maybe a maximum of 120 pledged to pay £13.33 per year. I think we could get around 130 to do this. An annual payment would suffice instead of monthly payments of £1 or £2. I would willingly contribute to this if there were a planned organisation like with the badges. Doesn't matter about how many visit the site, posters or readers only. What counts is those of us who do not want the site to fold. Shamefully (he says) I haven't contributed anything to the site yet. But I am prepared to do so if it is organised correctly rather than willy-nilly donations. Oh I did buy four badges but I don't class that as contributing directly to the running of the site.