Just stumbled across this article in the Guardian. Don't have any memory of this game - was away at Uni at the time. I must have watched it on TV I guess. I do remember the Oxford match as was part of that rivalry we had with them that season. Blackburn v Manchester United: the Cup tie that made Mick Rathbone famous | Manchester United | The Guardian

Although the 92/95 team wasn't a one-man band - as could be seen by how they maintained performances in the 2nd half of the 92/93 season without Shearer - it is fair to say that without him we wouldn't have win the league. The 2000's teams under Souness / Hughes / Allardyce were much more a sum of their parts and less reliant on an individual talisman.

What made it worse IIRC was that Ashby refused to review the decision later and therefore Berg's red card stood and he was suspended. I had no problem with ref's making mistakes in pre-VAR days - even if I didn't like the decision - but that was just bloody minded.

Unfortunately for any other left winger they have to get past Duff. The first season back in the Premiership he virtually kept us up single-handedly.

In some ways you could just pick the whole 1980 back line as one - Arnold, Branagan, Faz, Keeley, Rathbone. Once they'd fully gelled under Kendal they were the football equivalent of a castle!

We really were blessed with some great keepers in the 70's /80's weren't we.

Love the lower league team - mine would be very close to that. Possibly John Bailey in for Chris Price and Kevin Hird switch to RB?

I think Batty was one of those players who you only really appreciate by watching live. So much of his good work was done off the ball - when Le Saux was rampaging forward and we lost the ball the opposition would naturally look to utilise the space left. Batty just naturally knew to cover those spaces. Similar to Tronstadt in many ways 😉

In my watching years and trying for a balanced team: Friedel Berg Hendry Nelsen Le Saux Ripley Dunn Flitcroft Duff Shearer Bellamy Bit worried about the defensive abilities on the left flank - that's one of the reasons Flitty is in there. Almost went for Batty as he was brilliant at covering Le Saux - at least until they started fighting each other 😉 Feel a bit guilty about no pre-92 (other than Big Col) in there. Just think nowadays Duff would probably play on the right!! Maybe another theme is best pre-Walkers team and best post-Walkers team. Although the second of those might makes some of us almost suicidal!!

Impossible task to say who greatest Rover was. Depends on what criteria. Bob Crompton probably ticks most boxes but as he is, even to our oldest forumites, a name in the record books he doesn't get that emotional pull. Ronnie and Dougie will be the ones for those watching from the 60's I guess Garner for my era as a hero - but not the greatest player tbh. That has to be Shearer. I feel for those who have only been watching since 2010. There might have been a 'cult' hero - Dack for example - but with the constant circus that is now our club - the likelihood of another club legend coming along seems very remote. Sad times indeed

Just seen that Morgan Gibbs-White signed new 3 year contract at Forest. Whatever his reasons it's a real slap in the face for Spuds.

Just seen a Football League World article saying AI predicted us to finish 4th. Must have data-scraped Chaddy's posts to come up with that 😉 No offence intended Chaddy 🙂

Read this as EU confirms no change on the Brittain situation. Was wondering what sports journalism had to do with Brexit!

One of those things you have to do.....and then ignore 90% of it!

Speaking as a trained and qualified project manager I totally agree. A well-run project has a start and end. It also has an agreed set of objectives and ways to measure those ongoing once the project has been delivered. An ongoing project with no end is a bad one. That's not to say they don't exist and I've been involved in a few in my time - usually involving the introduction of tech. What people in football refer to as a 'project' should really be referred to as a 'programme' as that can be ongoing and has multiple phases (projects) within it. What is going on at Rovers doesn't seem to satisfy any of the above - I think the technical term is 'clusterfuck'. And I've been involved in a few of those as well 😄