Tyrone Shoelaces

Nyambe-Ayala-Wharton Dolan-Travis-Morton-Pickering Hedges Gallagher-Brererton Maybe ?

Strange team. 3-4-1-2. ? Time to stop chopping and changing ? I’ll be surprised if things aren’t changed at half time - again.

Too hard, a Frido ? What can I say, maybe we were bred hard back then. I never saw a brown one, they were always white in my experience.

Our you’d be having a 15 a side thriller and some bloody mongrel would run on and bite the ball !

I think they were slightly dimpled. Without doubt the best of the plastic balls on offer at the time.

A tall, long haired striker. A sort of poor man’s BBD. He played in the 7-1 banging at Shrewsbury. The low point in the history of the club. He scored twice against my adopted home town of Rochdale in a 3-0 win.

Yeah, dead right. “ Frido’s “ were good balls. Some of the other plastic balls were cheap and too light.

I remember that game. As you say two really pointless bookings. Especially the one for handball. I think we ended up losing 4-0. I think Djorkaeff played in that game and scored a good goal- only for it to be disallowed for off-side.

I remember putting Dubbin on my boots. I never had a real ball of my own. We always played with the plastic “ Frido “ balls that were made in Stockport I believe. Whenever one burst we just had a whip round and bought another one. They were about 10/- or 50p in todays money.

I saw him play at Ewood a few times and although he scored he was very quiet other than that. Best British goalscorer I ever saw though. If he was through on goal you could get ready for the kick off, goalies had no chance. He was lethal in broken play in the penalty area, cool and very deft. You never saw him blast the ball, always just enough on the ball to score. Regarding the balls - when I was a 17 yr old kid making my way in mens football the guys would be blowing the balls up before the game. The more air they pumped in, the harder the ball got ! When they’d finished it was like kicking a cannon ball. As for heading it, I remember playing left back and heading one of those towering kicks that came straight from the opposing goalies hands 50 yards away. It came down like a mortar bomb. I honestly saw stars !

Bill Foulkes about to take the doggie out. Probably a red card coming up. I don’t recognise the other two but the player clocking the dogs arse could be Wilf McGuinness.

Dogs on the pitch used to happen quite often back in those days.

We were all “ taller than that “ once upon a time !

My uncle was a drayman for Duttons back in the 1950’s and 60’s.

It was a shame, Bonnetti was a class ‘keeper. I saw him have some great games for Chelsea, one in particular at Ewood when they won 1-0. He won them that game. I reckon my mum could have saved the Beckenbauer shot, maybe the fact that he didn’t hit it cleanly fooled Bonnetti. Bobby Charlton was spent by then and he was supposed to be marking Beckenbauer but he just let him run with the ball from the half way line. Ramsey subbed him right away after that, not at 2-0 as most people think. Our Keith got out jumped on the last goal but he’d played all the game in that heat and made two goals. The lad jumping with him had only just come on. Ramsey never picked him again after that game. Bonnetti was gone after the first goal. I couldn’t get to sleep after that game I was so wound up. I genuinely thought we had a chance of getting to the final again.

Best team I ever saw. They could give the current England team a 2 goal start. The best England team I ever saw was the team that played Brazil in 1970. Very unlucky not to get a draw against them.

I suspect that team is for the opening game of of the 1968-69 season. Home against Derby County 1-1. Att 13, 686. If my memory serves me well Eamon Rogers scored from a very early penalty which was the first goal scored that season. Back Row - Billy Wilson, John Coddington, George Sharples, Adam Blacklaw, Don Martin, Barry Hole. Front Row - Les Chappell, Stuart Metcalfe, Malcolm Darling, Keith Newton, Eamon Rogers, Jon Connelly. They probably lined up - 4-2-4. Blacklaw. Newton, Coddington, Sharples, Wilson. Rogers, Hole. Metcalfe, Darling, Martin, Connelly. Sub. Chappell.

The bowler should have stopped in mid delivery, stepped right back to the wicket, and then said “ Next time, I’ll run you out “. Fair enough after that. Headline in my paper today says the “ MCC states the win was properly officiated “. Of course it was, that’s not the issue, as soon as the Indian player appealed the umpire had to give the England player out.

I almost got run out in a similar sort of way. I’d played and missed at a ball with the wicket keeper standing up. He’d had it his gloves for a while so I wandered out of my crease. The keeper whipped the balls off and appealed. Before the umpire could make up his mind the captain of the opposition, who was fielding at first slip, said to keeper “ Don’t be a dick, put the bails back on “.

You’re wrong there mate. Sutton marked Tugay out of the game at Ewood. Even the dogs in the street know that.

It’s really sad that we have so called international players that can only play on one side of the pitch. Keith Newton played right back and left back for England without a problem.

The accepted rule in my experience was you warned the batter first. After that if they did it again it was fair enough. What the Indian player did yesterday was unacceptable.

I know who it is now but in took me a while. It’s a good competition. My first thought was Brian Hill who played on the left wing in the early 1970’s.

It’s like watching another sport entirely. Too much running around and not enough sideways passing.

Thanks but you should also salute my collection of Rovers related books.