Oh dear, it's one of those that I can't watch but can't stop watching. It's embarrassingly bad.

If Dyche's Burnley side played "attacking" football they'd be relegated pronto. You have to score to win, but a solid defence gives those players usually responsible for goals more confidence to play as they know if something doesn't come off they are less likely to be punished for it. Anyway, back to Mowbray. Although higher than his past 2 seasons he's averaging less than 1.5 points per game; the absolute minimum needed to reach the playoffs. He will need to pick up 1.6+ over the remainder of the season to get there. Elliott, Dack, Armstrong, and now apparently Brereton have the talent to score plenty. Kaminski is an upgrade on recent keepers Rovers have had, but Mowbray's baffling trait of not being able to sort out a back 4 will be Rovers undoing.

I just finished it. It was superb. I have vague memories of it all as a kid. It spent very little time dealing into why he did it and lots on the police efforts to catch him. Britain was a different place in the late 70's, a lot of the political uncertainty and societal changes taking place factored into how it took so long to catch him. Fascinating. Sutcliffe died of Covid last month.

I do like the podcasts. They get players who tend to have played for northern clubs, and are not usually Prem star types. You can easily lose an hour or two listening to them. Kilgallon had one. He spoke well of his time at Rovers and reckoned that the squad he played with had the talent to get promoted. Marshall being one of those he specifically mentioned.

The knockout stage draw was made today. Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Manchester City Lazio vs. Bayern Munich Atletico Madrid vs. Chelsea RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool Porto vs. Juventus Barcelona vs. Paris Saint-Germain Sevilla vs. Borussia Dortmund Atalanta vs. Real Madrid

Tyrone's post is a good one. Mowbray is a symptom, not the cause. I think he is a competent unspectacular manager, yet he doesn't seem to have the spark to get Rovers to push on. Nobody on here knows what his marching orders are though. He may have told Venkys that it will take 5+ years to get everything ready to get promoted and they are happy to sign off on it.

Some interesting points. At a macro level I think that they can be problematic. Their modus operandi is to make money, they do that by harvesting your data. Yet at a micro level they can help. Living overseas it would probably benefit me if I had Facebook or Instagram to keep in touch with people who don't live close. But I've never felt the need to do it. I may give the Social Dilemma a whirl.

What are people's opinions of social media? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? TikTok? Snapchat? Many others too. Is it good? Bad? In between? I have no interest in them, this is the only social media account I have. Am I in the minority? Facebook in particular gets lambasted a lot over here, with Zuckerberg rarely helping himself in the good publicity stakes. The US government filed suit against them yesterday asking for them to be broken up. The government portend that as they own Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp they have monopoly power, which has effectively driven out competition. On a macro level they've been accused of influencing political changes, and can be seen as all encompassing, but how are they to an individual? Or are they a reflection of the individuals that use them? An idiot in the pub is going to be an idiot everywhere.

I was 15 at the time. My mate and his dad went. He said that it was a brilliant atmosphere.

I went on Wikipedia for a refresher. You were right. After his leg break Rovers lost 2, drew 3, and won 1 - then lost 6 in a row. Frightening form. The rot ended with a draw at Tranmere on Easter Monday. After that the only defeat was Derby away in the playoffs. As an extra the defending for those Cambridge goals was terrible. The second in particular was a comedy of errors. It all started with a Rovers throw too.

The group stage is over. Despite a good start the drama somewhat fizzled. Here are the teams who made it through; Group winners: Germany - Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund Italy – Juventus England - Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea Spain - Real Madrid France - Paris St-Germain Runners up: Germany - Borussia Monchengladbach, RB Leipzig Italy - Atalanta, Lazio Spain - Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla Portugal - Porto Teams cannot be drawn against another from the same country in the last 16.

The story of Mowbray's Rovers. A defence that leaks like a sieve. Halfway improve that will add enough points to have the team knocking on the playoff door.

Yep. They only started playing with 20 minutes to go. I've said from day 1 that Solskjaer isn't good enough to be a top level manager. Episodes like last night prove it. The PSG-Istanbul game was called off. According to my TV coverage the 4th official told the referee to speak to "that black lad over there" as he was irate over a decision and expressing his disgust. The officiating crew were all Romanian so spoke in their local tongue. Black in Romanian is "negru". Demba Ba heard this and went ballistic. Was it racist? I have no idea.

There's an awful lot happening that would not be occurring today. For a start I reckon that the ref would seriously look at calling the game off due to an unfit pitch.

Speaking of, did Newell break his leg in that tackle? I was at the game but have no memory of it at all. I do remember the FA Cup game the year after. They were top of the Championship or whatever division 2 was called back then and thought that they'd beat us. Cue a Roy Wegerle goal and a lot of mad Geordies. They charged down Nuttall St. after the game. The Darwen End was being done up too. It had no roof but still had the metal beams. One of their fans climbed up to the top of one.

10 group winners qualify automatically. All 10 runners up plus 2 who didn't finish second but did well in the Nations League will be drawn into 3 separate 4 team playoff pods constituting semi finals and a final. The 3 winners then qualify. As usual the BBC provides a good overview; Qatar 2022 summary - BBC Poland and England have met a lot in the past. I wasn't born in 1974 but remember Lineker's hat trick against them in a must win at Mexico '86.

The WC 2022 UEFA qualifying groups were drawn today; Group A: Portugal, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan Group B: Spain, Sweden, Greece, Georgia, Kosovo Group C: Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania Group D France, Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia, Kazakhstan Group E: Belgium, Wales, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia Group F: Denmark, Austria, Scotland, Israel, Faroe Islands, Moldova Group G: Netherlands, Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar Group H: Croatia, Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta Group I: England, Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra, San Marino Group J: Germany, Romania, Iceland, North Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein

Some interesting comments in relation to Brereton's injury layoff. He has been written off on here again and again as a donkey, now he is the first name on the team sheet. Fair play to the lad for improving. The last time I saw him play was the FA Cup game against Birmingham in January. He wasn't with it that day.

One round of group games left to go. This BBC has a good summary of what teams are through and what is left to play for; Champs League scenarios Liverpool are through as winners, and as Atalanta play Ajax next week for the other qualifying spot he can play the u18's without upsetting anyone. It may keep him quiet about injuries for a week or 2. PSG are a good team but Man U gifted them the win yesterday putting their qualification hopes in jeopardy. They play Leipzig who they beat 5-0 at home, but this Man U team is Jekyll and Hyde so who knows what team will turn up. This ESPN article rips into the manager; Solskjaer not up to it - ESPN Anyone can progress in Group B. Real could go out.

I hope not but it's typically the way it goes. Rovers had a fantastic run around this time last year. In fact it wasn't too bad until after lockdown. 3 big games coming up.

I had a first looks at league tables yesterday. Accrington Stanley are doing well in League 1. Same spot as Rovers, with one more point and at least 2 games in hand on teams above them. Win those and they are in the top 6. John Coleman has worked wonders in his time there.

I remember them well. A good mate of mine was a PNE fan, I used to go and watch them now and again. As I said the football wasn't anything to write home about but the fans were able to entertain themselves. They were quite imaginative.

He did very well at Cambridge. He had his methods. Everything long. Ball boys with towels. Watering the corners so the ball stuck when it landed. He also had a lot of good players at his disposal. Dublin and Claridge to name two who played years in the Prem. He was at PNE for a while too. The football there was dire. The astroturf wasn't conducive to his tactics.

I'll put this here; Diego Maradona has died. Maradona dead at 60 He was a genius, a joy to watch, and a cheat. Like many geniuses he had flaws. His post football life was colourful. Looks like booze got him.