I just hope no player is sent off. That always spoils a game.

“I’ve come from Manchester City, where I’ve been since I was six," he added. "I actually had trials at Rovers when I was younger, so the club has always had a place in my heart." Didn't know Rovers gave trials to 5 year olds.

This time tomorrow night I'll be packing away my "England: World Cup Campaign" shirt again. I bought it 8 years ago. I think I've worn it about 7 times, if that. Belgium brought me down to earth when we played them. All their players are technically better than ours. We haven't anyone who is comfortable on the ball and can take on an opponent, the old fashioned dribbling, except for Rashford and, to a lesser extent, Rose. Don't call me a pessimist. I'm a realist.

I thought it was a terrific game for the neutral. Both sides were great, going at each other, either could have scored. Then the terrible mistake by the Argie keeper. After that Croatia were being pulverised but, to their credit, kept attacking on the break. Then the great goal by Modrić and the Argies went to pieces; much like Brazil did when 3-0 down to Germany.

At one time I was convinced the ref had been knobbled.

I've just come on the board and, Philip, you've said it all for me. Spot on. Still, I'm over the moon that we won. We just had to win that first match.

Fabulous game of football. I loved every minute. Let's have more footy like this.

I was speaking to Franz Carr about 6 months ago.He told me a few things. He was Preston born and bred. However, his childhood football team was Nottingham Forest. He went for trial at North End. They didn't want him and he was taken on by Rovers. As soon as Forest came in for him it was a "no brainer". Sean Dyche used to clean his boots at Forest. "It's because Dyche learned his trade at Forest that Burnley are doing so well now", Franz said.

I would love to see Egypt and Uruguay progress from this group. That would require a draw between the two followed by both beating Russia and Arabia. Not going to happen methinks.

That's a bit over the top. You mean the ex Bolton Wanderers centre back? My dark horse, almost black TBH, is Egypt. I'm looking forward to watching them play.

My prediction for winner is........................Belgium

Off the top of my head; Lothar Mattheus, Dino Zoff, Paulo Maldini, Rashin, Stanley Matthews(?), Beckenbaur, Socrates, Hadji. Pure guesswork of course.

Didn't we get Nzonzi from French div 5?

Husky, you are as useless at predictions as I am.?

Looking forward to next Sunday, lunch time kick-offs in the Championship. The battle for survival is immense and all but one of the teams are up against teams battling for automatic promotion or scrabbling to get in the play-offs. I hope to see Birmingham relegated but I think that that won't happen. An exciting Sunday lunchtime.

No. He needs his wages halving until he shows some bottle.

I want to see Brum relegated after how they managed to stay up last season at our expense. Going down, going down, going down............ I hope!

It's the opposite of Arsenal v Man C league game where the attendance was declared as 58,420 and the capacity is 59,867. I quote from the BBC report, "The match was played in front of tens of thousands of empty seats in north London, surely not all as a result of the snowy weather." Surely the powers that be (whoever) should require the actual number of people who've attended to be announced.

The two CMs for me would be Travis and Lenihan in place of Smallwood and Bennett.

I thought you were there, Chaddy, until I saw "twitter account". Thanks for the update anyway.

Yes

Thank you.

Got those, Hanks. It's the words for Smallwood I want.

Holt must have packed up after we replaced him with the excellent Willie Kelly. Holt played for a poor, struggling Rovers side. We only got better after nearly half the team had been replaced.

I've been searching the topics for the words to September by Earth, Wind and Fire which are used for Ritchie Smallwood. Cannot find them. Can someone help? However, reading this thread I've come up with a song for Bradley Dack. To the song, "Black is black" by Los Bravos:- Dack is Dack He's on fire in attack He shoots, he shoots He wears those golden boots Wo ho, what can we do When Bradley Dack he wears Half white and blue. Well there it is for what it's worth. Needs a bit of tweaking.