I'm a season ticket holder at my local Rugby League club ( Rochdale Hornets) , a season ago we were playing our local rivals Oldham in a needle match. One of the Oldham players broke through to score under the posts, as he was putting the ball down one of our forwards did a " Thatcher " on him and the guy had to be helped off with a broken jaw. The referee missed the incident ( so did I ), but put it on report, the R.L. judiciary panel viewed the video on the following Tuesday and our guy got a deserved 6 matches which effectively ended his season, in fact the guy with the broken jaw was back playing before our player. Time the F.A. took similar action ?

Jrabrfc, I thought Fife Rovers answer was pretty clear but let me repeat it- When Ronnie played Right Half which he usually did, he wore the no.4, but he also played Left Half ( no 6) and Centre Half ( no 5). Dougie usually played either Right Wing (no 7) or latterly Inside Left ( no 10). However I've seen him play in no 8 and no 11, also I read somewhere he once wore no9.

You know how to pick your matches, best performance in my life time for your first game- respect!!!!!!!!

Like I said the other day my dog is better running with the ball than Emerton, take whatever we can get and cut our losses .

It's a tough one, he's one of the very,very few players capable of playing a Tugay like role in todays game, he's also a local lad who we all loved. The down side is when was the last time he played for 90 minutes TWO matches on the bounce ? That's more than just a niggling injury.

There's that guy I spotted last week , called Riquelme , he seemed half decent, maybe he'd be interested in coming on a weeks trial - give him a game or two in the reserves ?

What ever the why's and wherefore's of the David Dunn situation todays game against Liverpool proved we are crying out for a player who can pick up the ball in midfield and actually run at defenders to make things happen, we had nobody prepared to do that today.

Yeh, Well Done Stanley, any more Mike Fergusons out there ?

Lets face it our position in the league far out weighs our current playing form, Mark Hughes has worked wonders with the squad but at this level the cracks are beginning to show. We've got two forwards out there who wouldn't set the Championship on fire ( Bentley and Dickov), why we gave Bentley a contract God only knows, he'll always be a lightweight who flatters to deceive. Pedersen is Pedersen, only ever gets involved when somebody actually gives him the ball. Against a hard working four in midfield we are never going to dominate , we've only got two and two halves.The players we have got in the main are not top six players so lets stop kidding ourselves. Massive game at Pompey next up, this is a game we've GOT to be up for, no excuses , we cannot lose this one and be realistically talking about Europe. When people wonder why Rovers fans are cynical it's games like this that provide the answers, we can't expect wins every game but we have a right to expect performances.

Spurs definately have the toughest run in, apart from City at home they could conceivably lose every game. Newcastle away- not easy these days. Everton away- ditto. Arsenal away- Arsenal will want to win this one no matter what's happening elsewhere. West Ham away- no love lost here , should be a real battle. Man Utd home - United always seem to win this one. Man City home- City's away form is crap , I've got to go for Spurs here. Bolton home- they'll have to battle in this one as well. If we don't get our noses in front of Spurs we'll want shooting, Bolton's run in is nearly as difficult, obviously Arsenal are the major threat.

It,s great to reminisce Jim, weren't we lucky to see all these great players from both era's.I know you couldn't compare Hendry with Mick McGrath but they both wore the same shirt number so that was my starting point. I really rated Mick , he was a very consistent, quiet un- assuming player who kept the game simple and played to his strengths. My favourite memory of him is when he opened the scoring in the 3-0 win at Old trafford in the early 1960's Unfortunately I wasn't at Villa Park that day for Fergie's wonder goal but I've heard plenty about it since , seems like it's up with the Bryan Douglas wonder goal against West Brom in 1963. It's interesting to hear you mention the Villa fans applauding the goal , if somebody scored a similar goal today all you would hear would be silence mixed with a few boo's. The Bob Jones you referred to was a Scouser who played for Southport and Chester before signing for Rovers as understudy to Harry Leyland in 1958, he played about 50 games for us without really establishing himself before leaving in 1966. I suspect the Aussie goalie you mentioned was John Roberts who played 3 games for the first team at the end of the dreaded relegation season of 1965-66, he later played for Chesterfield. Some things never change, I noticed the other day that 2 weeks before the famous West Ham 8-2 away win we played Liverpool at Anfield and won 2-1 (Andy McEvoy got both goals), now as you know NOBODY beat Liverpool at Anfield in that period. The following week we played Villa at Ewood and duly won 2-0(Pickering 2 ). In the previous 8 games we had won 6 and drawn 2, scoring 19 goals in the process, so how many turned up at Ewood to watch this scintillating team ,paying 3 bob to get in ?????????????????? ----------------------------------------------------------17,095, makes you sick doesn't it !

Thanks Phil, on a good day the Rovers team of the early Sixties were something else, the football they played has never been surpassed, for skill , sheer excitement and goal mouth incident they really were the business.I,m sorry you were too young but at least you got to see the mid 1990's when we did actually win something. The thing that made the midfield so potent was that they were the perfect blend, you had the drive and dynamism of Clayton, the unbelievable wizardry of Douglas, pace and trickery with Ferguson and the pure speed and power of Mike Harrison. none of the later midfields even come close although Batty,Bohinen,Berkovic and Warhurst would have been worthy substitutes.

I can't see him surviving this result.

Den the scoring in the Arsenal game went as follows- Douglas Rovers 1-0 10 mins Pickering Rovers 2-0 14 mins Douglas Rovers 3-0 28 mins Baker Arsenal 3-1 34 mins Skirton Arsenal 3-2 40 mins Skirton Arsenal 3-3 47 mins Lawther Rovers 4-3 57 mins Baker Arsenal 4-4 76 mins Pickering Rovers 5-4 85 mins Eastham Arsenal 5-5 89 mins A brilliant game , Rovers seemed to have the game won about 3 times but couldn't quite kill Arsenal off, I thought we'd done it at 5-4 with 5 mins to go but Bobby Jones ( deputizing for Fred Else) fumbled a Baker drive and George Eastham fired home from close range. Compare the two teams, Well - Flowers was better than Fred Else ( too small in my opinion ), Berg was more cultured than "The Tank", Newton was incomparable as a Rovers fullback ,but Le Saux could play. Clayton versus Sherwood ? no contest. England versus Pearce ditto. Hendry was better than the under rated McGrath . Much as I liked Rippers Fergie was a genius on his day, Harrison was a much better winger than Wilcox ( and who of all our penalty takers was better than Harrison from the penalty spot? ). Douglas V Atko , well that's not too difficult. Shearer v Pickering, well Big Fred was better on the eye but nobody could seriously could leave out Shearer. Last but not least Mac v Sutty, I've got to go with McEvoy, he was a goal scoring machine. Joint Team in a 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 formation- Flowers, --Newton,England,Hendry,LeSaux,-- Ferguson,Clayton,Douglas,Harrison,--McEvoy,Shearer. What a team that would be.

Hi Den, I think you mean John Sissons not Peter ( news reader ? ) In the return game at Ewood Rovers were unchanged, West Ham brought in Bovington ( a tenacious man-marker to mark Dougie) but apart from that I think they were unchanged. We played like we'd been celebrating since the first match and never really got going , West Ham were 2-0 up early in the second half when Andy McEvoy raced through to put us back in the game, 5 minutes later we allowed the Hammers a sloppy goal and it was game over. As for the 7-2 game with Spurs- Rovers fielded the same team as in the West Ham games - Scorers- Andy McEvoy 4, Bryan Douglas 1, Mike England 1, Fred Pickering 1 Spurs - Brown, Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, Mackay, Saul, White, Smith, Greaves, Dyson. Scorers- Jimmy Greaves1,Dave Mackay1. Attendence 20,949. Other great games I witnessed at that time were the 5-5 draw with Arsenal and another thrashing of Spurs in the last match of the season 1962/63, Spurs had just won the Cup-Winners Cup and paraded the trophy around the ground before the game. Rovers took them apart that night winning 3-0, our 8-9-10 for that game was Ferguson, Pickering and Byrom, all local kids who seemingly had the football world at their feet. Like you said without a doubt the best Rovers team I've ever seen, I'll die happy having seen them at their best.

How's this Den , West Ham Standen, Bond,Burkett, Peters,Brown,Moore, Brabrook,Boyce,Byrne,Hurst,Sissons. goals Johnny Byrne 2 Rovers Else, Bray,Newton, Clayton,England,McGrath, Ferguson,McEvoy,Pickering,Douglas,Harrison. goals Fred Pickering 3, Andy McEvoy 3, Bryan Douglas 1, Mike Ferguson 1. Attendance 20,500 There were some good forwards out there on both teams, this win took us clear at the top of the old first division by one point, unfortunately it was a high water mark for the team.

What was Lucas Neill doing with that throw in ? Commandment 1 of the throw in bible says " Thou shalt not throw the ball to a player level with your own penalty box." Commandment 2 of the throw in bible says " Thou shalt not throw the ball to your centre half at anytime, anywhere." He broke two commandments with one throw.

What can you say about a performance like that , I think we managed to string more than two passes together about three times in the whole game , our ball retention and our ability to win the ball back was shocking, we lost about 80% of the 50/50 balls, consequently we made Villa look like they were playing with a man more than us. Brad Freidel showed his worth last night by staying on his feet and out facing Baros. The midfield was lightweight, only Savage really got to grips with their midfield ( well done for keeping his cool when that sly Villa player did him with a spiteful tackle down the back of his calf), Pedersen and Bentley tackle like sugar stealers ( if you had a team full of these two you'd never win anything ,you'd never have the ball !) not only that but they persisted in giving the ball away. Reid stiffened things up a bit when he moved inside but is obviously not a ball player. Nobody picked Phillips up when he dropped deep and he was always the out ball for them. Nobody took on that Billy Bunter look a like Wilfrid Bouma until Emmo came on. Our back four had a collective nightmare, hopefully they can't play that bad again. I thought Pongo had his best game for us and looked sharp, Bellamy is obviously top class but we have got to get him on the ball more. Dickov was up to his usual tricks when he came on , giving away soft free kicks when it was vital to retain possession. They guy who said " Villa never really caused us any problems ", I can't believe you were at the same game as me , we were second best for 80 minutes last night and we could have got a real caning. Plus points ? just three of them.

David Pleat has us down to finish 4th in today's Grauniad, tomorrow's match is assuming massive proportions. Come On Rovers.

I meant to say on that Boxing day me and two mates had gone to Turf Moor to watch Burnley thrash United 6-1 ( you could do that then, one mate was a Burnley fan the other was a United fan and we all stood together). I got told our score on the terraces at Burnley and I thought theyd'd got it the wrong way round. I could be wrong but I think there was a lot of big scores that day, Somebody. Blackpool ?? got 9 and it was the record for most goals scored in one day in the old first division.

Yeah , they played on Boxing Day morning with an 11.30 kickoff I think ( I can't imagine many making the trip down from Lancashire, I know I didn't).From pictures I've seen of the game it was played on a pitch ankle deep in mud but that team could score goals on a quagmire, apparent we had 10 shots on goal and scored eight goals they had about 13 shots and only scored 2. Dougie gave Martin Peters the usual runaround and Peters got dropped for the return two days later. I went to this one , we were never at the races, typical Rovers we pulled in a big crowd and let them down, West Ham brought a guy called Eddie Bovington in to mark Douglas and he followed him into the Rovers changing rooms at half time he was that close. We got back in the game at 1-2 after about an hour but then let the Hammers in to score the third and conclusive goal straight away. I remember on the day of that game the Daily Mail had a cartoon of a guy selling scorecards outside Ewood, like it was going to be a cricket score, maybe the players saw that.

They were a great side Den, without doubt the best attacking team of the two. If only Jack Walker had got wealthy sooner we would have been able to correct our main weakness - a lack of strength in depth, when players got injured or lost form there was nobody really to bring in. Just think only three cost money, Else £20k, Harrison £20k and Ferguson £2k from Accrington Stanley - what a bargain he was. All the rest came up through the ranks. How about this for a combined team- Flowers---- Berg, England, Hendry, Newton-----Ferguson, Clayton, Douglas, Harrison----Pickering, Shearer. Subs---- Else, Le Saux, Batty, McEvoy, Sutton. That team would take some beating and score some goals!

I took my son to that game, afterwards we were waiting for autographs outside on a miserable, cold ,dark and rainy evening. The Forest players pushed their way through the small throng to their coach , every one refused to sign my sons book, all except Stuart Pearce. He kept all the so called stars on the Forest coach waiting for about 10 minutes whilst he insisted on signing for everybody and had a brief chat with my son, the mark of a true sportsmen and a gent.

When I first started going to football matches the "Chelsea" of the day was Tottenham Hotspur, every player was a top international, they played with style and swagger, they scored goals for fun and they very rarely lost. They were the first modern team to do the " Double" , so when they played in the Charity Shield they faced the full England 11 , and beat them 2-0. This same Spurs team became the first British team to win a European trophy when they beat Athletico Madrid 5-2 to claim the old Cup-winners cup. From Bill Brown in goal to Cliff Jones on the left wing they had a starstudded line up, Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay drove them forward in midfield , with England No9 Bobby Smith and the incomparable Jimmy Greaves banging in the goals. This was the team that ran out at Ewood on Saturday 7th of September 1963, the Rovers team had established stars in Ronnie Clayton and Bryan Douglas as well as some up and coming players who chose this match to stake their claim for future greatness- the three ex- youth team lads , Newton , England and Pickering plus the two Mikes on the wings Ferguson and Harrison. Nobody in the crowd of 20,949 who turned up that Saturday could have possibly predicted what they were about to see. From the off Rovers were buzzing, knocking the ball about in great style with the little maestro Douglas running Blanchflower ragged, it was Douglas who opened the scoring then McEvoy made it 2-0 from Pickering's pass. In no time at all Douglas had put McEvoy in for his second and after 25 minutes Rovers were beating the second best team in Europe 3-0. Obviously Spurs weren't going to take this lying down and rallyed, a lucky Greaves goal followed by a rocket from Mackay made it 3-2 at half time. It was one of those halves you don't want to end because you think " we can't play as well as that again and Spurs will only get better ." Fortunately Rovers roared out of the blocks and took the game back to Spurs, 10 minutes into the second half Mike England rose to power an unstoppable header in to the back of the net from a corner and Spurs wilted. From that moment Rovers and Douglas in particular tore Spurs apart giving them a lesson in passing and finishing- McEvoy twice running through a weary back line to slip the ball past Brown before Pickering administered the coup-de-grace with a rocket into the top corner from another flowing attack ,in all honesty it could have ended 10-2, Rovers were so dominant. The Rovers faithful rubbed their eyes in disbelief, the mighty Tottenham Hotspur demolished in 90 minutes, never to be quite the same force again. Put to the sword by a team who looked like a footballing version of the Haarlem Globetrotters. What a great team we had in the making, mostly young lads with their best years still to come--------- sadly for various reasons and inspite of some great results and fabulous football this Rovers team never went on to achieve the success that might have been. This was the most perfect display ever by a Rovers team, certainly in my life time , and I consider myself priviliged to have witnessed it, the football they played that day was truly awesome. Since then I've had my ups and downs with Rovers but nothing has compared with the feeling I had as a 14 year old lad skipping down Bolton Road on my way home about 5 feet off the ground.

Wouldn't it be nice to come up with players of this standard again- the best full back ever to play for Rovers ( since Bob Crompton anyway ), the best centre half I've ever seen , and a centre forward second only to Shearer in my opinion. Funnily enough none of these players started off in the position they later made their own, is there a case for experimenting with players in different positions, Andy Mc Evoy also started as a pretty average midfielder but became a goal scoring machine when he was moved up front.