Colt Seavers

I'm quite heartened by this display... But we desperately need a competitive left back!

JRC looks a little rusty with his distribution but he is all over the pitch. I'd love him to be freed from his right back position as I think defending is the worst part of his game. He could be sensational as a free running midfielder

Archibald was warming the bench at Barcelona after an injury. He was 31 years old. If memory serves, we paid him 6 grand a week. To put that in context, Garner who would have been our top earner at that time, never earned more than 600 quid a week. It would seem that Jack Walker had some involvement in paying Archibald's wages although a doubling in crowd attendance because of his arrival would have helped as well. Archibald arrived a couple of months into the season if I recall correctly, with Ardiles coming much later. Ardiles was aged 35 and slightly frozen out at Spurs. He was an old mate of Archibald from their time together at Spurs, and Archibald was used by Don as a bit of a go between in negotiations. Ardiles spent a night or two on Simon Garner's settee on first arriving in Blackburn. I was a paperboy in those days and delivered the Sunday papers to Simon's house on the Kentmere Drive estate. Ardiles only played about five games for us. He oozed class as you would expect, and was brilliant to watch. Archibald was too good for the 2nd Division. He only managed six goals for us in total due to being marked very tightly by opposition defences. What this tight marking did however was release Garner from being the main man for the opposition to worry about. Garner benefited from having a bit more space than normal and scored lots of goals that season. I think Garner probably learnt a lot from Archibald because the following season was his best ever for us, in which he scored 25 goals in all competitions, and was quite simply too hot to handle for most defences that year. Most of his goals from that year( 88/ 89) are on YouTube, including good examples of his all round link up play of which you can watch extended highlights on YouTube. Although my favourite ever Rovers team comes from the 88/ 89 season, look at our best starting 11 from the season before that. Gennoe Price Mail Hendry Sulley Barker Ardiles Gayle Archibald Garner Sellars At least nine of those played (or easily could have done) in the top flight.

He would have been at Forest when they played at Ewood in the big cup tie which was 1980 I think. I don't actually remember him playing in that game though. Brilliant night that. Felt like a huge match.

My group of five all renewed yesterday. Very quiet in the club shop.

Ooh you are awful....

I watched this boy many times over several seasons in the youth teams. He always seemed one of the more important lads in that set up and something of a leader in the group. More so than Buckley actually. I was amused, but not in the least bit surprised, at his furious turf thrashing reaction to being booked yesterday. The lad has fire in his eyes and a touch of devilment about him. A very bad loser! With a good, injury free run and an inevitable growing in confidence, I could see him regain his aura and become a main man for us as he was in the 23s. I would like to see him further forward, with Brittain behind. His marauding style fits in well with our front three and I think he would give the team something that someone like Hedges isn't quite capable of.

Totally agree. He reminds me a lot of Simon Barker when he first broke through. If he can score goals like Barker did we might just have something extremely special.

In the final analysis, too many of our squad are average Championship or top end League 1 players in terms of their ability. I'm thinking Pears, JRC, Pickering, Travis, Hedges, Szmodics , Gallagher, Dolan. In fact hardly any of the players currently available could be considered top end Championship standard. It's a puzzle how we have remained so high in the division all season. The team yesterday played like total strangers, unable to complete simple passes to one another. Gallagher has regressed alarmingly. I would go back to basics from now on, with KaminskI JRC Carter Hyam Brittain Travis Wharton Thomas Szmodics Dolan Brereton

Plus bad instead of badly

The linesman on the 'stand' side took disgraceful personal abuse from the Liverpool defence today. A couple of vile characters in their back line. It's obviously much easier to hear what goes on at pitch level when you are standing literally four feet behind the Linesman on a small quiet ground but it got me wondering at what age these lads in their late teens were suddenly allowed to go unchecked when abusing officials . They certainly would have been severely rebuked in boys football and I would be surprised if a linesman in the men's game would tolerate being called an effing useless cheating ginger c--t and similar epithets. The Liverpool centre half; a particular lowlife even shouted at and taunted a group of primary school lads who heard his exchange with the Linesman and tried to call him out on it. No wonder these players often grow into the kind of morons we see time and time again in the men's game (Kyle Walker anyone?), when their thuggish swaggering contempt is tolerated and unpunished.

Excellent, thanks for that. Think I'll choose to be "living" in Ukraine for this match on Rovers TV. 😉 🇺🇦

I can see 0-0 or 1-1. A dull affair unfortunately. I was encouraged by Szmodics in the last game. The likes of him and Dolan are going to have to hit some real form if we are to stay in contention.

John Motson was at Hillsborough on that dreadful day, expecting to commentate on a game of football. Instead he was forced to react to the unfolding tragedy and he did so beautifully and touchingly. He was a great talent and a giant in his field.

Pears Brittain Carter Hyam Pickering Travis JRC Thomas Dack Dolan Diaz

Yes

Our powderpuff midfield is causing too much stress on our back line. We need some resilience in there. its only a matter of time in the 2nd half until we concede unless we add some bite in the middle

Dack channelled his inner Jimmy Greaves with that finish

That'll be the subs bench the way things are going.

Worked hard, bit of pace, got stuck in, nothing sensational but quite lively

Do you mean "should have used the correct tense"?

I'm finding Neil Macdonald's co-commentary interesting on Radio Lancs. Just seems to give a more nuanced and thoughtful insight than the usual assortment of monosyllabic former players.

I've watched JRC for many years. In my opinion he operates best on the right hand side of midfield. I believe he would offer more of an attacking threat from that position than the overrated Hedges.

It was a little joke I made about a cup match many years ago

Probably wise to avoid you next time it's cold then! 😄