Hodgson also signed; Darren Peacock Sebastien Perez and Dario Marcolin on loan

A Barnsley fan at work was asking about Richie Smallwood as he has been mentioned on one of their fans sites.

As a sideline, I thought it was interesting that the Blackburn End have a song for Ryan Nyambe. He was warming up and you could see he was pleased with the song. Does anyone know the song? I think he will be excellent for us in the future.

I very much hope that Kevin Stonehouse and John Lowey will be remembered at the next Rovers game. We seem to be very poor at remembering our former players.

I know I am quoting myself but, this shows a lot of guesswork from the press. This was 2 weeks ago and Stoke have announced it today.

Adam Davies the Goalkeeper from Barnsley is going to Stoke.

I haven't posted for a long time...But there is talk in the south that Rovers have bid for Mohamed Eisa of Cheltenham. A young quick striker. Peterborough have had a 1m bid turned down recently. Apparently.

http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/8795562.Ambleside_s_Homes_of_Football_closes/ The shop in Ambleside is closed, it's a shame, decent day out. Now the Homes of football is in Manchester.

I think you should do your homework R6. Darracott was a highly respected member of Rovers backroom staff. He was reserve manager until 2001 when illness/injury forced him to take a none active role within the club. (None active, I mean direct coaching) He was involved with the development of youth players such as Dunn, Duff, Martin Taylor and Damien Johnson amongst others. You have blindedly lumped him in with the Souness gang. He was at Rovers previously. A certain K Dalgleish rated Darracott highly, as did Roy Hodgson. There was a distinctive change in the quality of reserve football after Darracott was replaced by Murray. Darracott certainly got the young players to push themselves forward and try to play decent football. Which I don't believe was the case after. A decent servant to Rovers wrongly maligned.

I thought they were a bit ahead of their time. By coincidence I met a number of people from that era who made a living as drummers. Also I know some people who make a living as musicians. These people are not all connected. Considering I don't have a music background I have always thought that a bit strange.

I don't know if anyone remembers Three Colours Red. I thought they were a good band. Their drummer died last week, he was Keith Baxter a nice guy who I was proud to know. Anyway if you haven't heard of them there are a couple of their tracks on Youtube. My favourites are 'This is my Hollywood' and 'Nuclear Holiday'.

I read this a few years ago. Around the same time I read 'Inside the Third Reich' by Albert Speer. The descriptions Harris makes of the New Berlin are the same as Speers plans for the post war rebuilding of the Reich. Other factors are researched in a similar way.

Clavells book although fiction is based on his experiences of being a POW. I believe he was at Changi prison where Eric Lomax also spent some of his captivity. Both the Titherington and Lomax books are the experiences of the authors. So as the subject is hard hitting there are no real high points or happy endings. Severe beatings of prisoners being routine. Also the Clavell book is also good in its historical context where he is able to bring together the experiences of many prisoners to give light to that particular time. Titheringtons book was originally released under the title 'One day at a time.' He was a captive for over 1,300 days.

With your Dad being a POW of the Japanese you may wish to read one of the following. Kinkaseki By Arthur Titherington or The Railway Man By Eric Lomax They are both very good and more than relevent to your father. The Max Hastings book on the Korean war is also very good. It is supposed to be the most accurate account of the conflict. I certainly haven't read a better book on that particular subject.

Does anyone know exactly how many games David Bentley has played this season? I think it must be 50 or 51 for Rovers in all competitions and a handful of U21 games. It must be less than 5 appearances for them.

Den your like an "All in Wrestler!" Taking on everyone, Lee and Pleasure knocked about in a couple of posts.

I understand your point Den and tried to answer the question in my post. He is a young player and would never be expected to save our premiership bacon. I think that when MH took over we spent a considerable amount of games with Paul Dickov as a single striker. In stead of the young Jon Stead. (Who wasn't good enough??!!)

I think we should look at this in context. Matty is a good player from the reserves who is doing well at the moment. I really hope he makes it! He has a chance. With the injuries we have he will get his chance, maybe too soon who knows? But I always want Rovers youth players to do well for the first team. As for TWO matty's playing up front?! This is not really a realistic comment. In the past could we have had a David Dunn and Damien Duff carrying the hopes of Rovers when they were too young. Then getting relegated in 1999. What does the TWO Matty's point make? They were too young possibly but still made an impact. If Matty turns out to be not good enough then he will not play very many more games. So at the moment I look at his performances with optimism. We can be too negative and cynical. Give him a chance don't get carried away but also don't write him off.

I think dellusion is a bit harsh. Matt is a very good finisher. Compared to his generation of reserve players, Gally, Johnson etc he is by far the best at staying calm an putting the ball in the net. With first team injuries, he is now at least the third choice striker and the only way we will know if he can finish at premier level is if he plays. I am normally very reserved at assessing reserve players as my previous post shows. But he is the nearest we have and we are desperately short. He should at least be on the bench against reading. I would give him a start.

I think Matt Derbyshire isnt too far off a start in the first team. We only have Nonda & McCarthy (Fit) as senior strikers so I would start him against Reading. Sergio wasn't on top of his game tonight but I think he has the ability to be in the first team squad. I think his appearance tonight could put pressure on MGP to perform better. As for the others, Nolan is still relatively young. Most matches I have seen him play he has been a center half and at 19, (I think) he will have a while yet to develop. Gally & McEv seem to be too inconsistent they do some things that give the impression that they could make it then at other times seem to be lacking in certain areas of their game. The question with these two is at what point do the club decide too much time has been spent waiting for the players to improve in aspects of their overall play. The example I would like to give is Martin Taylor. He was big (brick outhouse), relatively quick, good in the tackle etc etc Rovers waited for years and he just didn't progress to the next level which everyone hoped he would aspire to.

Rover 6 mentioned Keith Treacy. When I first saw him he looked ok but relied on his left foot too much. The last few games that I have seen him play has seen him improve very much. Some of his crossing has been very good, although we have to remember that he is playing reserve football. It will be interesting to see how he performs in his loan period at Stockport. I think he is considerably closer to the first team than Garner, his overall play and control is better at this time in my opinion.

Anyone driving to the Morecambe game should allow a bit of extra time to get through Lancaster. The road to Morecambe is very slow moving this morning.

I think it is worth adding that David Brown has been on The Rovers board for several years even during his commitment to Flybe. So not a totally fresh appointment, he is a man who knows how Rovers work. In that I mean the the club, the fans and the area. Also, not only is he a Trustee of the Walker estate but he was a colleague and close personal friend of Jack Walker. I was speaking to some friends of David Brown yesterday his role with Rovers always seems more important than other business interests.

First Rovers game was York City at Ewood. 4-0 win! That got me hooked, I think it was 1973. At the time I had a lot of pressure to support Leeds who were doing well at the time. I was living in Morecambe and everyone supported the successful clubs of the day, Liverpool etc. Also I had been taken to watch Morecambe by a relative and had the chance of a season ticket. I chose The Rovers and through thick and thin I have never regretted it. From Christmas 1979 I have probably missed six games at Ewood Park. This is a personal stat which I have always been proud of. Also I have been a season ticket holder since 1982.

Thank goodness !! It's also sung by Tony Christie. The best song he ever did!?