Hardmen of Ewood Park

[M_B]

Lucas Neil. 

[Tomphil2]

Neil was a tough player without doubt but i wouldn't say hardman he was just physically very solid.

Shit himself when Carragher and his boys were going to square up away from the pitch, couldn't see Andy Todd ducking a threat on or off the pitch.

Real tough guys are a different breed than the flat track bullies who rely on size or image.

Speedie was another you wouldn't want to mess with despite his stature, Hendry was a tough as they come on the pitch but no hard guy, Hughes as well.  Was never a fan of Hanley but not many got change out of him physically on the park and he stuck me as the sort who could handle himself off it.

That fat gimp Barnes wouldn't have put any of that lot into the back of the net with the ball.

Edited 23 hours ago by Tomphil2

[Ozz]

Faz, Keeley, Branagan. And Basil.

 

Branagan had to be restrained by Garner,Barker and Basil from kicking my head in, during an exchange of views with me in a night club on the Isle Of Man. 

Thank God 

[Andy]

Going back to the 90's again, Billy McKinlay was one who liked a tackle and didn't back down from a confrontation.

But yeah, otherwise Todd, Batty, Flitcroft, Hendry, Nelsen in my lifetime.

[Ossydave]

Steven Reid was a hard bastard. 
 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 hours ago, Mercer said:

My goodness, you would sh1t yourself if a bloke like this approached you menacingly!  This guy was really, really hard.  According to Alex Ferguson:

• McNamee threatened to "kill" Ferguson at the end of one game
• Ferguson dismissed the threat but "nearly fainted" when he saw McNamee waiting for him after the match
• Ferguson hid until the Celtic coach had departed, reflecting that he was "dealing with a monster"

Says it all!

So all depends upon what you mean by hard - my definition, players your opponents wouldn't want to mess with.

Rovers' players I readily recall:

Fergie, Knighton, McNamee, Branagan, Keeley, Speight, Batty, Shearer, Flitcroft, Todd and Mokoena.

Some 'tough' competitors have been mentioned like Nicky Reid, Faz, Hendry, Moran etc but, IMO, not as 'hard' or as 'feared' as those named above.  In fact recall reading an article many years ago where John Fashanu supposedly put the frighteners on Hendry in the tunnel pre match and Hendry was physched out by it.

 

 

 

I went to a league cup game years ago. Rochdale v Wimbledon. Fashanu was playing against an old school centre half called John Bramhall. I ended up just watching the two of them battle it out. It was brutal. Knees and elbows going in all the time. I think the ref thought - “ If that’s what they want to do they can get on with it. “  I had them even on my scorecard at the end of the “fight”.

[simongarnerisgod]

13 hours ago, Comfortably numb said:

Interesting that all these names are mostly from decades ago.

There just aren't these type of players around any more. Can anyone name a current hard man ? I know I'm struggling.

For what it's worth I'll go Nicky Marker.

Crocked Ardiles in his first and last game for Rovers (and was signed a few months later if memory serves me right)

 

the likes of all the players we`ve mentioned and a few others from that era,they`de be sent off after their first tackle,you can`t put the "reducer in these days!!!"

id`e have payed good money to see cristiano ronaldo up against an old school full back🙂

[rigger]

21 hours ago, because of boxing day said:

John Coddington for all his penalty aberrations was a lumbering beast though not in the same mould as McNamee.

I witnessed McNamee's debut vs Tranmere away. It was breath-taking; he was a galvanising force for Rovers and against all opposition. I haven't seen a harder tougher competitor in a Rovers shirt before or since.

Man's game in those days. Compare with the sneaky feigning modern tactics adopted generally in the game these days.

McNamee saved our club

[roverandout]

Alan Shearer.  Remember him grabbing his best mate, Neil ruddock's neck defending one of his rovers teammates 

[Gav]

Has anyone mentioned Mark Hughes? Gent off the pitch, but a tough bugger on it. 

Shearer could really handle himself, Batty was a thug at times, loved watching him. Andy Todd had a screw loose.

Killer Keeley took no prisoners on the park.

[Parsonblue]

John McNamee and Walter Joyce are two that come to mind.  McNamee was the hardest of hard men and literally saved the club from dropping into the fourth division.  

[Bohinen1983]

Andy Todd, what a hard nut that guy was! 

Absolute quality too. You'd want him in the trenches with you 100%.  Lacking any sort of player like that presently. Powder puff soft arses.