Rovers U21s are 6-1 up v ManUre Omen? Final score 6-1 Vale got 2, making it 14 goals in his last 10 U21 outings. Adam Wharton scored one too.

I was a country lad. Hard enough.

Frido was a vinyl ball with small dimples and pattern to look like a real football. I had a brown one, hated it and hardly used it on grass. Too hard. My first club used them for indoor training in an old aircraft hanger. They were ok there.

Hes only travelled from Austria and only played as a sub for 25 mins or so in Chile's last game, which was early in the past week.

Until you mentioned it I hadn't even spotted the kid on the floor, too focused on those shin pads. LoL. As a kid I always had a supply of used tennis balls which would last well after the 'ball hair' had been worn away and until the rubber was punctured. Also was the local possessor of real footballs, thanks to my Dad, and when worn would also use dubbin as a waterproofer and preserver. Same with the boots. Clean, wash with a damp cloth and dubbin them. Boot laces were always long so they could be tied around and under the boot at least twice. The boots with eyelets (?) to assist this. My first pair of real boots, second hand, at about my age 10, were nailed studs, then onto screw-in and later moulded studs.

And soon after the WC it's into the uncertainty of the January transfer window.

I cottoned on a week or 2 back from Twitter posts. Best wishes to in your new role.

We have 4 live games on Sky Sports Football before the WC break. Whilst not yet quite Sky 'darlings' they are seriously flirting with us. The games are Cardiff, Wigan, Sunderland and Burnley. Only home game is Sunderland.

Jimmy Greaves is the lad with the ball. He was born in 1940 so my estimate is that the photo is from the early 1950s. Just look and those boots and laces and the football. I can vividly recall playing with a laced ball in the early 1960s which if a bit worn weighted a ton in wet weather ....I headed one .... once The nostalgia link is that I saw Jimmy play at Ewood.

I posted this in error in the England thread too. Peter Dobing taking a shot at goal v ManU. Question is who was the dog playing for ....or was it the Referee

Whilst checking for Keith's age in 1970 I came across "The Keith Newton Story", a 60 page book published last year. https://www.toffeeweb.com/season/21-22/comment/general/41350.html Also in my wanderings this pic of Peter Dobing taking a shot at goal v ManU. Question is who was the dog playing for ....or was it the Referee

I was visiting my relatives in Kirby Rd from 1963 until the mid 1980s and used to go in most days I was there.

It's nice that Kirby Rd is still there. I can see their old house on Maps. There used to be a few shops, I remember a sweet shop on the left going down Kirby Rd to Bolton Rd and a ladies clothing shop, I think, more or less opposite their house. Also a corner shop at Longshaw/ Bolton Rd. All gone now. Brings back good memories, 2 up 2 down, no indoor bathroom, toilet at the bottom of the back yard and train line just across the back lane. All daily living done in the kitchen, front room hardly used and very clean and tidy.

I noticed the 2 on the hill on second viewing, very clear too.

Stones, White and Tomori are all better CBs and better footballers than Dier and Maguire. However my belief is that Southgate will go with Stones, Dier and Maguire v Iran.

My Aunt and Uncle lived in Kirby Rd. Uncle had a small scrap 'pen' on the hill, I suppose it was meant to be an allotment, lol. I spent many an Easter and late summer holiday up there, unscrewing junk and viewing Ewood.

Ben only played 25 minutes as a sub for Chile last night so should be ok. I think the game v Qatar was in Austria. Ben got an assist.

I suppose celebrating flushing a turd down the toilet is a good thing .

If anyone thinks Dier is the answer WTF was the question.

Yes that team could have got to the final but were Bonettied after being 2-0 up. I just watched the goals and the dive for the first, Beckenbauer goal, was pathetic. I'd forgotten how bad that was, although I've never forgotten the Seeler header, also atrociously marked. The good things were that my Dad rented our first colour TV for the WC and I met a lovely Scottish lass over on her holidays and discovered stuff that took my mind off the pain of football. She was a beaut.

What a great find! Am I correct in saying that the stand with Nuttall & Co on its roof is where the Riverside is today with the hill behind.

I also thought it had been long running when tonight's game is actually only the 5th time that these countries have played each other but 3 of those meetings have been in 2022 and close together. I think that all the media attention around the actual playing of the WC playoff game is playing mind games with us.

Tomori aged 24 and with 3 senior appearances totalling 124 minutes played 88 of those minutes against Italy in June 2022 in a 0-0 game. In the 3 games since he has no appearances and only in the squad once. There is no chance he makes the starting eleven v Iran. That's not how the cautious Southgate operates. He will do well to make the squad.