Tyrone Shoelaces

I haven't seen the game but when I saw the team just before I went out I thought there was no balance between attack and defence and nowhere near enough bite in midfield. Every game we play there are multiple changes. In my opinion that's another game lost in team selection. I'm afraid the manager has lost the plot regarding our best eleven and is starting to also lose the players, if he already hasn't done so. At any other normal football club he'd be getting the hard word tomorrow morning. " Sort it out or you're down the road ", but we aren't a normal club so nothing will happen.

I'm not watching the game but I got a text from my son who is. He said exactly the same as you and he's been watching Rovers for 30 years.

Not really impressed with that team. Very attacking but not really balanced.

There's much more pressure to perform at Ewood than there is in an away game. Away fans tend to be a lot more enthusiastic and forgiving of poor performance.

And look what happened to Shrewsbury after he left.

If I was in his shoes that's exactly the game I would want to be playing in. An away game so no real pressure from the fans and you're up against a very poor team. Fill yer boots !

Whatever position he plays in I don't think he'll be scoring many goals. I know Mowbray reckons he's brilliant in training but so is Gladwin.

Mowbray's response to last nights game is worrying. Rovers last few managers since Sam all lost touch with reality at some point and started talking bollocks and I fear he's going the same way.

Move him upstairs, get Johnno in as first team coach. Venus and Lowe can go and paint the stadium.

I remember watching the game live. When Jairzinho did Terry Cooper on the goal line I thought " This looks like bad news ". When I saw Pele head the ball I thought " This is a goal ". I couldn't figure out how Banks kept that header out. He had to get across the whole of the goal and then get down into the far corner. England were brilliant that day, it's still the best performance I've seen from an England team and that includes the '66 Final. Moore and Mullery were outstanding in keeping that tremendous Brazil team to 1 goal. We really deserved a draw and we would have got one if Jeff Astle hadn't have missed a great shooting chance late on.

And then you woke up.

That's a blow, the current kit is the worst ever. Nothing would induce me to wear one.

Aren't Mick McGrath and Mike England also still alive of the members of that great team ?

Bryan Douglas without a doubt. I can't figure out that photo. We started wearing that kit in late 1962 and the cantilever stand at the Blackburn End was already built by then, maybe it's just out of shot. It's a great photo of Fred in his prime. He was just coming into the side when I first started watching Rovers. He was a bit raw at first but soon developed in a really top class striker who had it all. A terrific shot in either foot, he was a good header of the ball, very light on his feet for a big man with a good change of pace. He had a trick or two in his game, I'm sure I saw him do that " Cryuff Turn " before Cryuff. On his day he was unstoppable, as other people have said second only to Shearer in my estimation of Rovers strikers. He could beat a player running at them with the ball at his feet, I don't recall that being part of Shearers game, he was more about running past or through opponents. So many great memories of Fred, I was gutted when he left to sign for Everton. We spent the next ten years and all the record fee we received trying to replace him with inferior players. It was his leaving that started the rot that led to Rovers being relegated in the 1965-66 season and our slide down the Divisions. RIP Fred and thanks for the memories.

Well we were down in the Midlands visiting in friends over the weekend so I haven't seen anything of the game. All I know is as soon as we got back to our friends house from a trip out they put BBC sport on the TV. Almost immediately the guy said words to the effect " There's been a goal at Ewood Park, lets go over there ". How did I know at that very moment that 1) Bristol would be the team getting the goal when there was only 10 minutes to go? 2) That would be that as far as we were concerned and the chance of a late equaliser was nil ?

It's been going on at this level for a lot longer than this season Jim. Coyle's team was just as bad. You need guys who'll kick their grandmothers to win a game of football. we haven't got anything like enough of them. We're a team of nice lads.

Who was it saying we didn't need Downing ?

Mm, I wasn't an admirer. He didn't have the physicality to play in the League we are in. We get bullied enough as it is.

If we got promoted with the big payday that entails I'd be delighted if they took the money, left us with no debts, and we never heard a word from the Chicken Chokers ever again.

No It's not like that. You can just walk in any time you like. It's not a full size pitch, more like half full size but great for 5 or 6 a side.

Only 10 years ago there'd be maybe up to a dozen kids playing most nights now there aren't any. When I was a kid the place for me was an area called " Lenny Barn ". It was a huge area that had been left to the town by a wealthy stock broker in the 1920's or 30's. There was enough room 4 or 5 full sized pitches, a cricket square, changing rooms , full time groundsman etc. I more or less lived down there, you could always join in a game if you just wandered down. When I was a bit older and playing organised junior football that was our home pitch. School holidays and Sunday afternoons we'd be down there all afternoon, go home for tea, and then the back again until it was so dark you couldn't see the ball ! First team to score 20 and all that. Small sided games against the Big Lads, you soon learnt to pass the ball then. I go down there now on a Sunday afternoon on my way to the Crown Oil Arena to watch the Rugby League and in all that huge expanse there's not a soul about. They installed one of these enclosed modern all weather kick pitches down there a few years back. The sort of place we dreamed about when I was a teenager and there's nobody in there either.

There was a point in the early 1960's when we could have fielded a front five of all Blackburn born players. Douglas, Bradshaw, Pickering, Byrom, Ratcliffe. I saw four of those play in the same team in the old First Division, and Bradshaw also played in the first team but not as the same time as all the other four. Do enough kids actually play real football these days. ? I live facing a huge common that in my youth would have had about 50 to a 100 kids playing football in several " coats for goals " games at night or weekends. These days nobody at all plays on the common. Very sad.

I think that's really good. The role Johnno has at the club can be a real arse kicking job. Your best players can be called up to the first team squad or loaned out at critical points in the season. Maintaining a team structure and a coherent style of play can be difficult In that case. It's vital that the bloke in charge knows he has the full support of the manager. I see Johnno as a real asset to the Club and I wonder how much longer we can keep hold of him. I know we are playing at a lower level but it's a while since we had such a good crop of decent players coming through and Johnno must take the credit for a lot of that.

Is Lenihan injured or out of favour ?

Do you think Nuttall will ever be smart enough to play a Danny Graham type role Parson ? Just asking, I know it's early days yet.