Tyrone Shoelaces

I know people like that. They wouldn’t go if you gave them a free ticket. What the answer is I don’t know.

When I first got really interested in the game I was playing schoolboy football. After the Saturday morning game me and my mates would say “ Right, where are we going this afternoon ? Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Utd, City, Bury, Oldham, occasionally Rochdale ? Somebody would say “ Spurs are at Bolton let’s go there “. So we’d all jump on the train, pay at the gate, and you were in. Dirt cheap and some great players that you rarely saw on tv. Rovers were a great team to watch then so a lot of the time it was the bus over the tops to Ewood. You can’t do that today.

Season tickets might go up a bit, a thousand or two, but the days of filling Ewood are over. As a spectacle the game just isn’t attractive enough. Yesterday I caught myself thinking “ If football had have been like this back in the day would I have got involved ? “ I live in Rochdale and I go on their site quite often. They have exactly the same complaints. Dull football, guys one step up from pub team players being expected to play Pep style football, the centre halves having ten times as many touches of the ball as the strikers. Hardly any goal mouth action. The goalkeepers being able to wear the same kit without needing to wash it etc etc.

I honestly don’t think that applies anymore to a significant degree.

Right, let’s see.

That might have been the case when walk in’s were paying half a crown to get in. Given the prices to watch Rovers these days things have got to be better entertainment wise. Another thing that is killing the attendances is “ magic boxes “ . I know guys who’ve paid £80-£100 for a dodgy box that enables them to watch every game known to man. You name a game, anywhere in the world, they can watch it. Rovers home and away - no problem - for what is basically free. Rovers won’t be getting a penny. So if the football is dull, as it is at present, they don’t get out of the arm chair and they keep their money in their wallet.

It depends what people expect from a trip to Ewood. The hard core Rovers “ Junkies “ will keep going. It’s attracting new fans that will be the problem. My grandson is a new fan. He told me yesterday “ I was planning to get a ticket for yesterday’s game but something came up, after watching the game on TV I’m glad I didn’t “.

Our movement isn’t good enough at the moment. Plus we need too many touches to get the ball under control.

They realised that Cantwell isn’t much of a defender. They were 2 on 1 with Beck much too often for my liking. I was expecting Hedges out left, Dolan out right and Cantwell in the middle right after after half time. Failing that take Cantwell off and put Weimann there.

I thought Swansea made us look shit yesterday. They passed the ball with much greater fluency. It was when they got in front of goal they had nothing.

I just want players who can successfully pass the ball to players wearing the same colour shirt. The ball retention yesterday was awful. Get that right and we’ll look a much better team.

If you rolled JRC and Brittain into one you wouldn’t have a full back as effective as Beck. If you play Cantwell out wide left you’re hanging Beck out to dry because he’ll do the bare minimum of defensive work. Putting that to one side, Cantwell is nowhere near quick enough to play out wide. At the moment he’s actually slow. I was shocked yesterday when he got in a foot race for a loose ball about 15 yards away with a Swansea defender. He looked like he was running in quicksand. The Swansea player easily out paced him. He needs to play more centrally and not have to do as much defending. We bought him to create, not to track back all afternoon. Regarding the strikers. Neither got much in the way of service. Gueye hasn’t picked up since the sending off at Burnley. He looked like a fish riding a bike yesterday. He over played that pass to Dolan in the first half for instance. Ohashi always looks lively but without service any striker will look out of it. He needs balls he can attack.

I forgot about the QPR game. I make that 5 poor performances. Maybe it’s the shape of things to come.

I thought that was a very average performance yesterday, and I’m being generous there

I make it 4 poor performances on the bounce. Something will have to change.

I thought they played quite well until they got near our goal. They looked pretty toothless then.

I see Gally was missing from the Stoke set up today. It appears he’s injured again.

The Cars - My Best Friends Girl

I didn’t like to say that. Let’s hope the new loanee is better.

On another point - I wasn’t impressed by the ref, every tackle was a foul.

Give any winger 5 or 10 yards to run at you and you’re in trouble.

Is Southgate still waiting for the United job ? I was really hoping he’d get it.

The Beatles - In My Life

Show them these stats - Division FOUR, 1985-86 season, Mar 16th 1986 Rochdale 1 - Burnley 0. Att 2,406 Division FOUR, 1986-87 season. Jan 1st 1987 Burnley 0- Rochdale 3 Att 4217. Incidentally Rochdale finished 21st that season.

Beck’s what I look for in a full back. Quick, likes a tackle, he’s aggressive, doesn’t take a backward step, excellent decision making, good with the ball at his feet. He’ll go far. Hammering that ball out of play was unlike him.