I went on the dingle site just to see what their feelings were regarding “ Fever Pitch “, the history of the early days of the Premier League. Guess what - this excellent programme doesn’t even get one mention. As far as the dingles are concerned it doesn’t exist. There’s plenty of chat about tonight’s “ Panorama “ programme about young players but “ Fever Pitch “ ? Not a flicker. Rovers winning the big one must still rankle over there.

I saw him play as a kid in a pre season friendly at Rochdale. All the other kids were playing, Beckham, Scholes, Butt, the Nevilles etc. Gillespie was head and shoulders above all those, he was first team ready then. He was taking the defence on at warp speed, going inside or outside , they couldn’t get near him. He could have been anything he wanted to be. What a waste.

Keith Gillespie features a lot tonight. What a player he could have been.

Jimmy was a bit of a dog whisperer. During the World Cup game against Brazil in Chile in 1962 he managed to catch a dog that had run on to the pitch and had evaded everybody else. The dog promptly peed on him ! Dogs running onto the pitch was a common occurrence back in the day, it never seems to happen nowadays. I recall Noel Dwyer, an international class goalkeeper, got injured trying to catch a dog and was never the same player again.

Yes he was, the best player in a one on one with the keeper situation I ever saw. He made going around the goalkeeper look ridiculously easy, a goal was a formality if he was bearing down on goal. He was coolness personified in a crowded goal mouth. He didn’t run around much off the ball but he really came alive when he got in possession. You could watch him for hours and not know what foot he favoured, he was really good off either side.

After the 0-0 draw Terry Paine and then Ian Callaghan played on the wing in the next two games against Mexico and France. Ramsey still wasn’t happy with conventional wingers and how it was going though and he brought in Alan Ball who played right through the rest of the games including the final.

That game is etched in my memory. The best performance by a Rovers team in my lifetime. Bryan Douglas got 11 out of 10 for me that day.

We played Spurs over the Easter weekend in 1965 - April 16 th 1965 Spurs 5 - Rovers 2. ( Douglas, McEvoy ) att 36,497. April 19 th 1965 Rovers 3 - Spurs 1. ( Harrison pen, Douglas, Byrom) att 14,026.

Jimmy Greaves got one goal Jim, Dave Mackay got the other with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.

The best pure goal scorer I ever saw. He was a one off. If he was through on goal you could get ready to kick off again.

That’s a shame . Edinburgh is a fantastic City that in my experience welcomes the English. Good luck with job.

But Venkies are the ‘ Devil we know “ . At least with the Issa’s if I want to protest I can go around to their house and put a brick through their window. Metaphorically of course.

Are The Chicken Chokers ?

I’d be willing to take that chance.

I’m shocked !

Yes it would be Stan Bowles. Another two in that class of Mavericks were Alan Hudson and Charlie George. Class players but not favoured by England very often.

Him and the lad at Bolton are ones to watch I think.

I think the surprising number of points we’ve managed to acquire doesn’t tell the whole story. Some of our play has been abysmal at times.

He had a varied career as a player. As a manager he was caretaker at Chesterfield when they went down, brought in too late I suspect. He got Barrow promoted to the Football League after the best part of 50 years in the wilderness. Going well at Bolton at the moment after getting them promoted last season. He’s got the town of Bolton buzzing at the moment in complete contrast to things at Ewood were it’s hard to find anything to be enthusiastic about. I heard him interviewed on GMR recently and I was really impressed. He has the right mixture of enthusiasm and common sense. You could tell he’s very ambitious. If things go well at Bolton this season he’ll be off.

My pick would be the lad at Bolton but I doubt wether he’d come here now.

Yes, I’d forgotten about that.

I like it. Thanks for the time and effort you’ve put in.

The first time I saw Lowe I couldn’t believe how bad he was. Apart from athleticism he had nothing.

I listened to an interview on GMR with the new manager at Bolton the other day. What a contrast to Mowbray’s muttering. He was very honest, frank, confident and very impressive. He was asked “ Whereabouts do you expect to be at the end of the season ? “ He said “ Promoted with Bolton Wanderers “. No Mowbrayesque chat about consolidation. He’s brought a real buzz to Bolton and after being dead and buried they’re on the way back.

Munro was a big money signing from Glasgow Rangers ( £350,000 ) when Jack Walker gave Don Mackay the cheque book to play with. He was injury plagued in his early days and only actually played 1 first team game for us. By the time he was fit again Kenny Dalglish had taken over from Don, signed Alan Wright for the left back spot, and Munro was stuck in the Central League team. Even when Wright was unavailable Tony Dobson was preferred as a stand in left back which tells me all I need to know really. Munro was allowed to go on a free to Bristol City in February 1993.