Tyrone Shoelaces

I take my hat off to any player who’ll turn out every week to get a hammering. Idon’t think I would.

Robert Knight - Everlasting Love

Gudjohnsen got better as the second half went on. In the first half he was hardly ever in the game.

Chris Crowe was playing on the right wing in my first ever game at Ewood. He came as quite an expensive signing but never really made the grade at Rovers. He had a good spell at Wolves afterwards though.

Give him some space and he can run past people. If a defender fronts him up he has to play the ball back into midfield again. He hasn’t got a trick in his locker. If we are going to play with a left wing back Ismael obviously thinks he’s a better bet than either of Ribeiro or Pickering.

High point for me was when Miller, I think it was, put that Southampton player over the barrier. That was a John Bray style tackle. A real “ quietener “.

He did work really hard. He’s got no idea how to beat anybody apart from trying to just rum past them but the lad is a trier if some what limited technically.

Can I just bask in the euphoria for today ? I’ll go back to being gloomy tomorrow I promise.

From the upper Jack Walker I thought that was in right until it hit the backboards ! Wrong choice of shot I thought. Shearer would have put his foot right through that and it would have either knocked the keeper out or been a goal !

They didn’t manage to improve Nyambe in that respect. He’s also a good athlete but his choice of final ball is patchy. He got in once in the second half and looped the ball over everybody when it was crying out for a driven ball hard into the goalmouth. He had bit of luck with the goal. In swingers like that can always beat everybody and end up in the far corner ( see MGP at Old Trafford ), but that was almost central and I would have expected somebody like Toth to get something on it at least.

I counted 3 times.

If goalkeepers can win you matches Toth won that one for us today.

At least that many.

Two poor teams in the first half. I can see why Southampton are down there with us. They got lucky with the rebound that ended up as good as a pass. Their guy took the chance well though. If we are going to play 5 at the back with wing backs we can’t have two water carriers in centre midfield. You end up playing seven at the back. When you actually win the ball it’s hard to find a player down field. We are crying out for a player ( Baradji ? ) who can win the ball back there and carry it into the last third. I thought Gudjonnson was the love child of Ashley Ward in that first half. He got hardly any service but you’ve got to do more yourself to make things happen. Once he got the goal he looked a different player. Second half was much better and the last 25 minutes was what I expect from a Rovers team. All of a sudden we were winning tackles, headers, 50/50 balls. Launching ourselves into tackles. When Morshita missed that chance I thought - “ We won’t get a better chance than that “ . That seemed to inspire us though and we really took the game to Southampton after that. I also thought Southampton playing into our hands by dropping back and just playing on the break, thanks to Toth we rode our luck in that respect. I was expecting Armstrong to put both of those chances away but Toth faced him down each time. Play like we did in the last 25 minutes and we’ll give ourselves a chance. We were definitely trying for the whole game, I can’t fault our effort at all, we just lack composure at the moment. One thing is for sure, they are playing for the manager.

Kean is in a class of his own. Nobody else comes near.

I know how she feels.

I thought he wanted to keep most of the players that have left. Any other club and a loss tomorrow would equal the bullet. At Rovers normal rules don’t apply.

Me too.

Don’t worry we’ll be able to get O’Riordan back in January. It’ll be like signing a new player !

Dobie Grey - Out On The Floor

My grandson is the same. I thought I knew a lot about football teams when I was his age but he’s like a walking encyclopaedia regarding who plays where and who for. I suppose we can thank the internet for that. He’s really keen but I think he’s got the resilience of youth to keep him going. I was the same age as he is when we dropped out of the old Div 1 in 1966 and I’d be in my early twenties when we dropped out of Div 2. In spite of that I never lost the faith back then. The difference is the club wasn’t being sabotaged by the directors regardless of us not having two pennies to rub together.. His dad is still a fan but he no longer goes, he watches us on TV.

Dear or dear, Hedges and DeNeve on the wings ? Is that what we’ve finally come down to ? I’m not having a go at all but I grew up when we had the two Mikes on the wings. Now they were real wingers. We had better wingers when we were bumping around the old Div 3 at times. Mecky, Johnny Price, Noel B. All better than what we have now.

My grandson and I will be going over. I’m desperate to keep Rovers in our family. He’s the only one of the assorted grand kids that has shown any interest. At least none of the other grand kids support other teams. I used to walk up to the ground from the Boulevard with a spring in my step and with a bit of optimism in my mind. Not these days, it feels like going to the dentist.

Unlucky going off those highlights. A lot of heads down and looking at each other when the goal went in though.

I always thought that way you had twice the chance of getting selected.