Nice to see such an old thread dug up. I was thinking about this the other day when someone mentioned it was the worst Rovers team they'd seen in 40 years of watching them. I then thought well that 90-91 team was pretty awful....

having a look at the squad though, such a contrast in abilities throughout back then compared to today. Now they're all just kind of average with a couple of players who might be able to do better but need a good manager/coach to tell them what to do

Back then we had Sellars, Garner, Stapleton, Gayle who all got injured/old but were a cut above the rest in the division (also had an ageing Jim Beglin) and had to throw lots of youngsters and loanees in

Atkins, May and Wilcox all took a lot of stick but then we also had Bob Dewhurst, Craig Skinner and John Millar.... then loanee signings like Bernie Gallacher, Jason Beckford and Phil Starbuck !

I would say we had much worse players back then, we just had a sprinkling of excellent ones too!

yep, and did you see how many Sri Lanka players went over and shook his hand for the sportsmanship? that's right, none of them.

no wonder Warney hated him so much.....

I love the fact Broad is becoming the pantomime villain for the Aussie's. Got the kid out as well with his bouncers. More please

When skimming through topics I would always stop and take the time to read through his posts. Says it all really.

Sad news indeed. Also the same age as my Dad who is also a devoted Rovers fan. Will be sorely missed.

Very sad and too young.

84/85 was my first season watching Rovers and he finished top scorer. Naturally became my favourite player alongside Ian Miller and Simon Barker.

Rovers were unlucky not to be promoted that season as well

RIP Chris

Funniest show on TV.

Now surely that has to be Peep Show

Better the Henry, Klinsmann, Drogba, Cantona and Bergkamp? Equal with Cole, Zola, Rush, Owen, Fowler, Wright, RVN and Sheringham

Shearer wouldn't be competing with Cantona, Bergkamp, Zola or Henry. They'd be competing with each other to partner Shearer!

Shearer and Cantona would still be the dream strike force IMO

I was trying to be charitable!

I liked Lock Stock, then he did Snatch, which was basically just a remake of the first one, but wasn't awful. Then er ...

Rocknrolla is good fun (but again the same kind of thing) IMO. Would have been a sequel only too many of the cast became big stars.

I didn't even know he directed Sherlock Holmes. Saw that on a plane, thought it was mildly entertaining.

Due date, now that is terrible. 1 funny scene in the whole movie

The Town and Social Network to my disappointment weren't out at our local cinema last weekend. So we watched The Other Guys instead, and laughed a lot!

Walhberg is superb in playing a comedy version of his character in the Departed. And Farrell was... well... Farrell of course.

I'm now off to buy a Toyota Prius

Surely that's a bit like saying England's Euro 96 team wouldn't beat today's crop of wasters.....

I know who I'd back.

The Scum double winning team of 93-94 is arguably the best team of the last 20 years and we pushed them all the way.

Watching those clips not only brings back great memories, but makes you realise just what a fantastic team we had then. There was definitely a spell that season where we were probably the best that Rovers have ever been, and that includes the Championship season.

What still surprises me now is the pace of the team. Shearer, Gallagher, Ripley and Wilcox just full of pace and running, not to mention the full backs Le Saux and even Berg! Then of course Batty and Sherwood who played Ince and Keane off the park twice in the same season. And Batty even won the fans player of the year. Not Shearer.

Makes you wonder how close we would come if put against the top teams of today. Right now I'd say we'd demolish the lot with the exception of Chelsea.

98/99 will forever be the season where everything that could possibly go wrong, did.

Hendry coming back from the world cup and wanting a move. The other 2 Scotts coming back injured.

Bad, bad signings by Hodgson, and him subesquently not being able to handle disharmoney in the team

Sherwood's unprofessionalism, although he was still putting in good performances on the pitch

Flitcroft's injury. Perez not settling.

Unfortunately sacking Roy became the only option. The biggest mistake of all though was who we replaced him with.

best film since Serenity, probably of the 00's

although if you dont like Star Trek, probably not as good as that.

Zombieland utterly Rocks if you're looking for something else to watch when you finish Star Trek

Best film of the 00's? Star Trek? Did you mean that?

Even if I try to ignore the destruction of the Star Trek legacy I thought the plot ran out of steam half way through.

Saw Wall St at the weekend. S-L-O-W

See it for yourself as it's watchable and Gecko is great. But the rest of it is mush with characters I didn't care about in the slightest.

Could have done so much with it but it was as if Stone couldn't really be arsed.

Alan Shearer is currently a pundit for the BBC's "Match Of The Day" Programme.

Even above `The Dark Knight`?

It was alright but I just felt there was something lacking,it could have been better IMO.

No I prefered Dark Knight, but that was 2008!

I guess this year it has been Inception so far, but not much competition. When did Kick Ass come out (didn't see at the cinema) as I that was unexpectedly brilliant.

Or it could just be that our taste in movies differs.

It was a nice concept, but it just didn't manage to seal the deal for me. I can imagine someone pitching the idea and it sounding fantastic, but then not having the talent to actually produce something amazing. Long parts of the movie seemed to be a bit lost and it ended up being rather trite in my opinion, which was a shame.

Fair enough but I loved it. Favourite film at the flicks in 2009.

When you say 'that extra yard' Eddie what do you mean? Tugay had the extra yard always, that's why he carried on playing into his late 30s! It's got nothing to do with pace.

Look at it the other way. If he hadn't have smoked he might have run himself into the ground and he knees could have gone earlier...

Or, he's just a natural and the smoking has never affected him.

Read Garner's book. The one time Mackay gave them all a b*llocking about going out drinking and not being prepared. Then he turned to Garner and said "This doesn't include you Simon".

Watched Shanghai over the weekend. Didn't know anything about it but had generated a fair bit of interest here in Singapore.

Excellent stuff. Dark, tense, visually stunning.

Not bothered about fitness levels and whether what's been said is true or not (most of it comes from the agent rememeber!). I've supported Benni in the past but his form has been patchy at best over the last 2 years+ and to get 2-2.5 mill for a past it 32 year old with our ageing squad is decent business.

Sam will still send us down if we play pro zone hoof ball for the rest of the season with or without McCarthy.

Get Kalinic in, get the ball on the deck and we'll be OK.

Yep, agree with Paul on Avatar. It was certainly entertaining enough and with the 3-D novelty is worth going to the Cinema to see. Outstanding visuals and and the 3-D excitement enough to paper over the crappy plot. Starship Troopers meets Gorrillas in the Mist!

That's just not true though, the referees have to go by the letter of the law, and this is what it says:

"Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick"

The wrong decision was giving a penalty because it was a very good tackle, but if the referee deems it a foul then he has to send the player off. A penalty but no red wasn't an option in that situation.

I'm still puzzled as to why he has to be sent off. Makes a genuine attempt to win the ball. Whether he wins it or not it was nothing mallicious, nor was he deliberately attempting to win the ball by foul means.

"Denies a clear goal scoring opportunity"........ tell me, what's a penalty if not a clear goal scoring opportunity?

I think there's a lot of jealousy around regarding A. Cole. If it was your mate who got arrested for drunk and disorderly it would probably be no more than a laughing matter. And as for the Arsenal saga, while we're talking silly money and far more than we could ever hope for I'm sure we would all compare or wages to our team-mates and maybe feel under-appreciated. That said, he is a stupid manchild but we're not talking a Lee Hughes or Joey Barton here.

Quite right.

Waiting for my bacon buttie this morning I was flipping through the Sun (the photographer Cole got annoyed with works for this rag) and having a good chuckle reading the story. They were slating him at every given opportunity desperately trying to paint a picture of this evil, womanising binge drinker when all they could come up with were lines like "Cole downed a steak!" and "sat at the bar necking a bottle of Asahi beer". Really? A whole bottle?

Guy's a plonker for losing his cool and he probably deserves all the paparazi attention for that book... but, can't help thinking he's been a little bit set up on this one.

Let's put it this way, I'll never get that two hours and forty minutes back ....

Really AS? That's not good to hear. From the reviews and adverts it looks great (anyone see today's Metro?).

Like Xmen meets Sin City

Sting, indeed is one of the classics. And the Hustler, just because it gave Begbie in Trainspotting his classic line of "playin like Paul f'kin Newman like" when descibing his pool game in the pub.

The critics were always going to pan Rocknrolla as it was a return to genre for Ritchie. You'll see it's the pretentious broadsheet brigade who have done as opposed to the dedicated film magazines who actually know what their audience like.

Saw it last night. Got pretty much what I expected so left a happy man. It hardly revolutionised British film making but is a slick, funny comedy ganster thriller which I managed to lose myself in for a couple of hours. Set itself up nicely for a sequel too. Just a shame it took him all these years to find some decent actors.