Saturday's game will tell us wether we are serious promotion contenders or just pretenders. Overcoming tough opponents at home is what promoted teams do. I'm cautiously optimistic, we're are playing well as a team but we have a couple of weak links in the team.

Nov 25 th 1989. Won 5-4. Scorers - Sellars 2, Johnrose, Stapleton, Garner. Collier Atkins, Hill, May, Sulley Irvine, Reid , Sellars Johnrose, Stapleton, Garner That must have been some game.

That was more like it. We looked a decent side on the ball.

He was a class act on his day. Good enough to drop back into a more advanced midfield role and be able to pull the strings at Stoke once he'd lost that burst of pace. Signed as Denis Law's replacement at 'City.

Jones hasn't progressed in any way. He still making the same mistakes that he was making as a 17 year old.

Don't rush back would be my advice also. You've got youth on your side. I should have taken longer to let the leg get stronger before I started playing again. I was crackers, playing football on the street with the kids while I was still in plaster and on crutches ! I had one good leg so that was ok. I broke it the first time in the first game of the season and the second time in the last game of the same season. Not a great season for me. After that it was basically all over. If I had have left it for that season and started again in the following season I may have been ok. I hope you're back on the grass soon, but not too soon.

Good goal from Chris Sulley.

I remember seeing Garner going to Halifax in the Sunday paper along with Fazackerly going to Oldham at one point. Letting Byrom go was a massive clanger. We brought in Alan Gilliver, Frank Lord, Jim Fryatt, and Don Martin to replace him with only the Don being anything like as good a player. All the while Byrom was banging them in for fun at Burnden Park.

It's hard to say, so many great players. Big Fred was a colossus on his day, I'm so glad I saw him in his prime. On his day he was a Shearer that could beat people with the ball at his feet. Great to watch. I think this belongs in the nostalgia thread. We need to leave some room for all the transfer talk !

Sorry guys, to lose one game 3-0 is bad enough but to lose two !

Bloody Hell, how did I forget Bellamy ! ! ! One of my all time favourite players. He'd be better than Dwight Yorke playing on one leg. There are some fantastic players in that list but I'd have Bellamy up along side Shearer in my all time Rovers 11.

Yes but is he better than Williams ? I reckon he'd have to wait for his chance.

I did say " my " top twenty.

I know it sounds silly but I remember thinking that my foot hadn't returned to exactly the same place after the second break. What had previously been an automatic ability to pass, shoot and cross the ball accurately with my right foot ( I was right footed ) seemed to go. I was slicing the ball some of the time. I asked our coach to watch my shooting at goal in training and after a minute of two he said " You're no longer striking directly through the centre of the ball, you're striking across the centre ". I think I was subconsciously afraid of really belting the ball in case I damaged my leg again. So what I previously did automatically I had to concentrate on really hard. It never really came back to be honest. If I had to make a long down field clearance for instance I found myself switching the ball onto my left foot because I knew I could get a clean strike with my left foot, that was still going through the centre of the ball. I played on at 11 a side for a bit but the it wasn't the same. I played gym football for years after and loved it, it wasn't so obvious in that environment. Guys used to say " How come you're not still playing ?, Come and sign for my team " but I knew there was no point.

Where does he play ?

I go back to just before that and he wouldn't be in my top twenty. In no particular order - Dobing, Dougan, Vernon, Big Fred, Andy Mac, Johnny Byrom, Tony Field, Simon Garner, Speedie, Newall, Shearer, Sutton, Kevin Gallagher, Matty J, Andy Cole, Santa Cruz, Yakubu, Benny Mac, Duffer, even Dwight Yorke, were all better.

Archibold and Ardiles played in that 0-3 loss. Ardiles got " quietened " by Nicky Marker and had to be subbed.

Me too at 19 with a second break of the same leg. What people who've never had that sort of injury don't realise is the problem can be 50% physical and 50% mental. I just wasn't the same player after the second break. I take my hat off to the players who can rise above serious injuries and come back strong.

Did that young lad we sold to Leicester a year or two back get a game for them ?

That would have really spoilt my Saturday back then !

Great Film. I've got a piece of the multi story car park the " Alf Roberts " character went off.

What I noticed was we were getting plenty of bodies up and around the box. As mentioned 7 up in the last third. When did that last happen ? Johnson for instance got up to the " D " for two shots at goal. It's a high risk strategy at times but I prefer that way of playing to the our previous rather laboured walking football.

It's a sign of the times that we're all so excited about next Saturdays game. During last seasons spell in the doldrums there wouldn't be a thread on the up-coming game until the Thursday or Friday. I'm just hoping we can play with a smile on our faces again.

Every team has dropped that sort of clanger. Bolton let Alan Ball go and kept Gordon Taylor. The Dingles told Bryan Robson he wasn't big enough. Billy Bremner had trials at Arsenal and got sent home. We had Ron Davies on trial when Mike England was his pal and let him go. It happens

What I liked about Rhodes was he rarely blasted the ball, he just gave it enough to get it to the back of the net. He went for placement and accuracy rather than power. He had as cool as head in front of goal as I've seen from a striker. Very unflappable and calm, he never got over excited with a chance. What let him down was he wasn't blessed with any sort of pace and he wasn't physical. If you ever went on the Boro site or the Sheff Wed site the critics were saying exactly the same of his time there.