You could have walked all the way from the back to the front on those flat caps.

He lost half a yard of pace in his time at Rovers. The knee injury robbed him of that acceleration he had when he came at first. When he had that bad injury at Newcastle he lost another yard.

There was a good film on Saturday night. " The Hill " with Sean Connery. Connery thought it was his favourite performance.

Yes we got George from Everton reserves as a squad player. That was the financial level we were operating at then. He was an elegant, skillful player with good distribution and a decent ball winner, if anything he lacked a bit of pace. I thought he was the sort of player who found keeping his weight down a bit of a problem and a stone less would have made him a much better player. He started as a stand in for Ronnie Clayton or Mick McGrath at wing half as both of them were experiencing a few injuries. Later on he moved into the middle of the back four were he played with some success. George had been an England schoolboy and youth international at Everton and a great career was expected of him but it didn't really work out especially after they signed Jimmy Gabriel and latterly,Tony Kay. A badly broken leg suffered at Derby County put an end to his career at Ewood and he left the club to have a season at Southport before retiring. It's been a bad year for losing players from the sixties. Thanks for the memories George.

Have a look on a site called Chrono 24.

The prices for " Rolex " are crazy. The pound collapsing against the Swiss franc and the way " Rolex " think nothing of putting the price up in leaps and bounds has driven the value of them up. A watch I paid £1750 for about 10 years ago I could get £7,500 for now.

I'm still interested in watches but I'm not buying much at the moment. I got rid of a couple of nice watches a year or two back just before " Rolex " prices started going through the roof and I'm still pissed off about it. One was a " Thunderbird ", they're as rare as hens teeth. When you qualify as a pilot with " The Thunderbirds " ( The USAF version of The Red Arrows ) they give you one of these ! Mistakes I have made No 397.

With us not being able to get out to Spain for over a year I was really concerned about getting our Clio through the ITV ( Spanish MOT )over there. It was due this Xmas and I couldn't see a way of getting out there any time soon. The ITV isn't like the MOT in that you can't just take your car to your local handy back street mechanic. There are state run centres scattered about Spain and you must take your vehicle there. Our nearest centre is 50 minutes drive away. You have to make an appointment, turn up bang on time, drive your car into the centre where they clip a loudspeaker onto your car and give you instructions, in Spanish of course. You drive from station to station on command and everything is checked. There are guys in pits waiting for you to drive over the pit etc. It all takes about 20 minutes. It all runs like clockwork but it's pretty unforgiving. One year we put our car in our local garage for a pre ITV, just to make sure. Everything was checked or so we thought. When we had the official test nobody had checked the centre seat belt in the back ( we'd only ever had four in the car previously ) and it wouldn't latch ! So we were failed. Then it's get a new seat belt anchor, that had to come from Madrid , get the stamped document that says it was changed by a registed seat belt specialist ! Then book another test, drive back to the test centre, wait to be seen. The inspector guy just looks at the document and passed us. He never even tried the seat belt. all the while you're only able to drive the car between home-garage-ITV test centre. It's a bloody nightmare. One good thing - when you pass you get a coloured sticker that you must put in your windscreen that tells everybody that you have passed the test and when your next test is due Earlier on today I got a text from our Spanish friend who garages our car when we're in England. The text was just a photo of our car with a brand new ITV sticker in the windscreen ! He'd taken the car to the ITV centre without being asked and got it through the test for us. Whoopee doo. What a great guy.

Yeah, I was on the " Rolex Owners " site for a while. I barred myself in the end. There are some real snowflakes in the USA. It was mainly Yanks who were running the show. One guy comes on with photographs of a watch he'd just bought. He asks " What do we all think of his new purchase ? " So I told him -" It's not my style, It's too bling, I don't like fancy coloured dials, I don't like roman numerals and I don't like " open heart " style watches ". That's the style of watch where you have a window in the dial so you can see the movement. The moderator gets on to me - " Why am I raining on the guys parade, I'm spoiling his day ". Well a few words got exchanged regarding the fact that the guy asked for my opinion and he got it. I was just pissed of with their attitude, there's a lot of show offs on the site and that was the final straw.

I'd be hard pressed to name a team in this division that Rovers can " out muscle ". That's not how we roll these days.

I think that might be the one. In one of it's early races it won at about 30 to 1 I think. Some of the blokes I worked with backed it. Next time it won again but the odds were roughly half of that. It won again a couple of times and by then everybody in the workshop but me had backed it. Next time out I backed it and it wasn't placed ! I thought it was in the early 1990,s but I could be wrong there. Mrs Shoelaces has all the luck with horses and she knows absolutely nothing about them. We were out in Spain at the time of the Grand National about 8 years ago and her son had called to ask if she wanted him to back a horse for her. Unusually it was a cloudy day in Spain and she was looking out of the window. As I was reading out the runners I came to either " Cloudy Day " or Cloudy Sky ", I can't recall which one now. Right away she said " Yes that one will do, put me a fiver to win on " Cloudy Day ". It only won at good odds. Edit - I just checked - it was called " Many Clouds " and it won at 25 to 1.

I don't think Holtby has had a dip in form. I think what you see is what you get. 1 very good game followed by 4 very average to poor games. He should be due another good one in a game or two.

I promise not to back any of them, I'm the kiss of death with horses. We used to do a lot of work at a factory in the middle of one of the big horse training areas. Some of my workmates came back with great tips. Winners at really good odds. One was called " More Style ", it just kept winning. After seeing my workmates picking up their winnings from about 4 consecutive wins I backed it. It was nowhere. " More Style " = Less Money.

So that's a 1-1 borefest then ?

No I don't think they work hard enough. Did we work harder than Bristol last week or Norwich on Saturday ? You can bet your house that Rotherham will work harder than Rovers will on Wednesday night. We might out football them and win but chances are we won't out enthuse them. Running off the ball is hard work, especially when you're 99 % sure you won't get the ball. We don't do enough of it. We don't win more tackles, second balls, contested headers, interceptions than our opponents most of the time. When we do we usually win. Having a laugh on Snap Chat or what ever media site they're on doesn't make for team spirit when you're up against it. Have a look at David Speedie on the nostalgia site - that's what " working hard as a footballer " looks like.

We could beat good teams at home some of the time with Big Sam in charge. It was the tough away games that were write offs.

That's your opinion. My opinion is we lack winners with some fire in their bellies. Oh and a manager who knows how to put some fire into them.

It was a strange appointment in my opinion. First season back in the league, I'd have gone for someone with more experience at the lower levels.

The games we've lost when we've gone behind would suggest otherwise. The stats don't lie in that respect. If we score first we're in with a shout, if the opposition score first you may as well switch your TV off.

It depends what you mean by attitude. All pals together on holiday and taking the piss in training - yeah great. Coming back from a goal down - not so great. Too many happy go lucky nice lads and not enough bastards who'd kick their granny to win a game of snakes and ladders.

I wasn't a fan matey. I found myself thinking " how did that get into the back of the net ? " too often with Fred. He was a bit like Robbo in that respect. I only ever saw him have one game that justified his reputation. Away at Burnley when we lost 1-0 to a Gordon Harris penalty. He was brilliant that night. He stopped everything they threw at us and he even got a hand to the pen but couldn't keep it out. I'd say Roger Jones, Gennoe, Jim Arnold were all better goalkeepers.

I think Roy Keane fits into the category of a really great player who struggled all his life to deal with players who 1) Didn't have his ability 2) Didn't have his level of commitment and will to win. Any managerial job he took was always likely to come up against that major obstacle.

Yes, it was a bad one. Just when he was looking the part after waiting patiently for his chance and then grabbing it with both hands. He'll be missed when you consider the other three centre halves are not strangers to the treatment table or the disciplinary committee..

I think Wharton might struggle a bit. What with his leg being in plaster and all that. This time next season he might be ready for a run out.

A bit like some recent performances - out enthused.