10 hours ago, Upside Down said:

I remember whe Shearer went to Newcastle and some lad at school turned up with a Newcastle shirt on. Instant loss of any credibility and was excluded from any football related activities (which at 8 years old was pretty much everything). In fact, I think he didn't even really follow football much after that.

I remember when I was about 12 or 13 me and a Dingle lad at school absolutely ripping out this other lad who was a United "supporter" for not supporting his local team.

I can tell you now that if anyone we'd have know had turned up in a Palace shirt then they'd never be allowed to forget it. That is the most tinpot thing I've ever heard of, and age is absolutely no excuse. If I'd have turned up with something like that on my back my old man wouldn't have let me in the house.

I can understand why folk have an interest in following his career but why anyone would want a shitty nothing club like Palace to do well is beyond me.

At the end of the day, Wharton left at the very first opportunity entirely for the benefit of his own career. If he wanted to stay he could have.

A schoolmate of mine was a big Sheff Wed fan inspite of living in Rochdale. His dad was quite wealthy and had managed to get him a match worn shirt that had been worn by his hero Tony Kay, the Sheff Wed captain. 

Then over the Xmas holidays Kay was unexpectedly signed by Everton and when we came back to school my pal was now an Everton fan ! He gave me the Sheff Wed shirt, saying “ You might has well have this, my dad will get me an Everton one this season. “ I wore it for training for years until it wore out. It was a really good shirt with the blue and white stripes sewn in and a red No 6 sewn on the back.

I lost touch with my pal for decades. One day I was reading our local paper and I saw he had died. So I attended the funeral. During the eulogy the vicar mentioned what a staunch Man Utd fan my old pal had been ! 

Nino Tempo And April Stevens - Deep Purple

Bessie Banks - Go Now

1 minute ago, K-Hod said:

Retaining Hedges is a waste of time, but I know why we’ve done it- because he’s cheap.

That and giving Weimann another season tells me all I need to know about our lack of ambition.

I’ve got a couple of Rovers shirts but I’ve also got about a dozen Rugby League shirts from the team I support. When you sponsor a player you get to keep their match shirt at the end of the season. Next time I need to sponsor one of the prop forwards as the shirts of the guys who we sponsor are too small given RL shirts are a shrink fit to prevent the player being grabbed by the loose shirt.

Moon Martin - Bad Case Of Loving You

Willie Tee - Walking Up A One Way Sreet

5 hours ago, riverholmes said:

I'm not sure, but I wonder if Wharton has not been the same since his groin surgery mid-season. Palace continued to play him when he was struggling badly, putting off the op. This despite the fact that they have a fair few central midfielders. I don't know the details, obviously, but from afar, it was negligent, at best, and maybe even cynical. As a result of having his op. later, clubs needing a quick fix couldn't consider him for the January transfer window.

He certainly wasn't great against Villa in the semi-final and outshone by Kamada, in my opinion (despite the pundits lazy bandwagoning). Hopefully, he will return to his best.

It wasn’t a game for Wharton to shine in. There was hardly anybody in front of him to pass to. Having said the thst he showed another side of his game. He defended diligently with good discipline like the rest of the Palace team.

Another thing I don’t like about City is this tactic where if they are beaten by an opponent who’s breaking away their first reaction is pull the opponent back by the shirt/arm etc. They were at it again yesterday throughout the game. It’s creeping in to other teams as well.

21 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I honestly can't remember many clear cut chances for City and again, from memory most of their six shots on target were from outside the box.

The service to Haaland was poor in my opinion particularly the lack of balls into the box where he is dangerous. Tactically Palace got it spot on for me as they denied City space to run in behind. Palace can play some good stuff but yesterday showed that there are more than one way to win a match and ultimately that's the most important thing.

That O’Reilly had the best chance in the second half but by the time he’d switched the ball from being a right foot shot onto his “ favoured “ left foot the chance had gone ! I despair of modern footballers that are so one footed. What do the do in training ?

13 minutes ago, rigger said:

Why wasn't a free-kick given for handball ?

I was thinking that. It was definitely outside the box and it was a definite handball.

Bobby Charles - Small Town Talk

Otis Redding - These Arms Of Mine

City bore me. Pass, pass, pass. Side to side and back again. No end product.

1 hour ago, islander200 said:

He has also been capped twice for his country and Is recognised as one of the best young defenders in the country with many top clubs registering an interest. 

Wharton had only played Championship and hadn't even recieved an under 21 cap.Wharton was never going to be recognised as one of the best young midfielders in the world playing for a championship side.

It depends who’s doing the recognising. Even as a kid at Rovers he was at a Tugay  level of passing. That was pretty obvious.

55 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

jason roberts,or jigsaw as we used to call him🙂

That’s not what I called him, but how we could do with him now.

The Righteous Brothers- ( You’re My) Soul And Inspiration

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

The Miracles - Who’s Lovin’ You 

The “ B” side of “ Shop Around “ .I used have that on a “ London “ label 45.

The Essex - A Walkin’ Miracle

3 hours ago, Ianrally said:

I was first taken to Ewood by my dad, uncle and older cousin in 1961 aged 11. We always walked from my aunties house on Copperfield St. Historically they always stood in the Blackburn End by the Nuttall St. corner flag. 

I haven’t a clue which game I saw but my first memory of a game was in 1962 against the newly promoted Liverpool. We won 1-0 with a late goal from Duggie. What a great team we had in those years, probably the greatest in my book, but I always wanted to see the players from the opposition that I read about in Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly. 
I can remember Ronnie Moran playing for Liverpool as well as Ian St. John and Roger Hunt. Their keeper was Jim Furnell. 

Liverpool team that day.

Furnell

Byrne, Yeats, Moran

Milne, Leishman

Lewis, Hunt, St John, Melia, A’Court

Rovers team - 

Else

Taylor, Woods, Bray

Clayton, Newton

Douglas, Craig, Lawther, Ferguson, Haverty

Dougie scored our 89th minute winner in front of a crowd of 21,700.

25 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Didn't Don Martin play both positions too (perhaps not for us but Northampton)? Colin Hendry was another who was quite versatile and who can forget Chris Samba creating havoc against Spurs.

I'm sure I read that Mike England could play both roles too.

Yeah The Don played at the back also. He was class act, he could play anywhere. All those players you named played at both ends of the pitch. The one player who looked completely at ease in both positions was Paul Warhurst. He really could play anywhere at top level.

27 minutes ago, arbitro said:

John Waddington could also play as a striker. He played mainly in that position coming through school particularly St Mary's College. If my memory serves he was signed as a striker for Liverpool (scouted by local scout Fred O'Donoghue).

Yes I think you’re right about that however he soon reverted to the position he played most of his career in at centre half. Terry Eccles was another one that played in both positions.

I wasn’t at the Fulham game but we could have played an embryonic wing back line up with Hird and Bailey as wing backs and Faz, Keeley and Hawkins as the three centre backs. I wouldn’t mind that back 5 playing for us today !

6 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

He seems quite reminiscent of Nyambe from what I've seen so far.

Nowhere near as good a defender as Nyambe was but probably a lot better going forward. That’s a very low bar though.

12 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I'm not going OTT over that. 

Did anyone suggesting Wharton 6 months before JDT came in. Not to my knowledge 

Wharton was a once in a generation level talent. Duru isn’t as good as Nyambe was when he first broke into the team. He needs another loan, he’s not a championship level player at the moment.

23 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

watched him against Blackpool in the league up and he was good, shown his pace and ability to cope with physical demands. 

In the Rochdale game he did nothing. He should have been a level above everybody else on the pitch. As it was he looked really ordinary. He didn’t look interested to be honest. Plus - he’s not very big. I know Alan Wright wasn’t very big either but he turned out to be top class, however players like him don’t come along very often.

4 hours ago, windymiller7 said:

Actually didn't realise he played his last ever game at Ewood. Had a quick mooch around & found this:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/844940199360108/posts/2023494194838030/?_rdr

It ended up a 1-1 draw in front of 9,406 fans.

Rovers -

Bradshaw

Fazackerly, Keeley, Hawkins, Bailey

Hird, Parkes, Taylor, Wagstaffe, 

Mitchell, Waddington

No subs.  Mitchell scored. A strange line up, 4 centre halves out there.

4 hours ago, windymiller7 said:

Found another pic. Before my time (I was only 2 at the time!), who's the Rovers player in this shot?

Bobby Mitchell I think.