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.

Not too bad Jim. It’s worse when I get out of bed in the morning. Putting my socks on is a struggle most of the time. It eases off as the day goes by. I have a “ Backfriend “ ( a back support for using in soft chairs or car seats ) that I sit in most of the time when I’m watching TV, in the car etc. Anything really physical like digging in the garden or lifting sacks out of the boot of the car is a no no. It’s been like that on and off for 40 years. I remember seeing my osteopath and him saying to me “ After the first sunny Sunday in spring on the Monday morning my phone never stops ringing. With all the gardeners trying to get appointments to see me ! “

It’s the football for me. Lots of times it’s mind numbingly dull and negative. I’m not one of those who’s been ruined with watching us in the Prem. I go way back before that. We were good to watch under Gordon Lee, Ken Furphy etc playing at a lower level than we are at now.

Once people walk away you have a devil of a job to get them back. I walked away from my Rugby League club after being a regular home and away attender for 15 years. I didn’t go again for about 10 years and apart from reading the match reports in the local press I lost interest totally. Then they moved grounds to the football ground very near to where a lived at the time. One Sunday I had time on my hands and I went to a game. Right away I was hooked again, but if they hadn’t moved grounds chances are I would have never gone again.

The first time I saw him years ago I thought ” He’s definitely one for the future “. He put me in the mind of a young David Speedie. I was really impressed. Since then he’s missed at least two full seasons with a long term back injury. Do you ever get over a chronic back injury ? I didn’t. I would be fine at the start playing 5 a side but after 45 minutes I could hardly bend over to retie my laces. Maybe that’s why he’s only getting sub appearances. Maybe he can’t take part in full training sessions. When I did my disc somebody told me” You’ve got a friend for life there “. They weren’t far wrong. I hope for the lads sake he’s fully recovered, after all the medical procedures have improved immensely over the years.

He’s good enough defensively to play at a higher level, it’s when he has the ball at is feet that the problems arise. Premier League full backs need much better ball skills.

Lots of things have caused me to lose significant interest in the club but Mowbray and the football being played are top of the list. Have we ever played well for a full 90 minutes in all the time he’s been here ? Even when we were running away with it in the promotion season most games contained 45 minutes of dross. People aren’t going to pay good money to watch rubbish like last nights first half when it’s on TV.

We had our chance when we got promoted. We’d 25,000 plus on for the final game of the season. Then you get the manager waffling on about bringing a few squad players in to “ help out “ the existing players. It was obvious the existing team wasn’t good enough to get a second promotion. A couple of high profile signings would have made all the difference. I’ve said it lots of times before but I would have fired Mowbray at that point. Absolutely not the manager to take us to the next stage. We stuck with him and look where we are now. More. or less back where we were when he came in and he’s lost us 5,000 or 6,000 fans with his dog shit football.

I was at that game. We lost 2-1 with Speedie scoring, it was big money signing Stuart Munro’s only game for us. I think that sealed Don McKay’s fate.

Don’t forget it was also live on SKY TV. Having said that you don’t have to look any further than the manager for the main reason why people are staying away. He’s over stayed his welcome by at least a couple of seasons.

Not many tacklers in that team, or goal scorers.

If we can lose at home to Morecambe we can lose to anybody in this league.

Can Ayala ?

It’s a good time to get to the top in women’s tennis. They aren’t many other outstanding players at the moment. The top bunch all seem to be able to lose to each other.

Yeah, they made out like nobody else had ever bought a top player.

“ Fever Pitch” brought back some memories tonight. I was expecting us not to get the credit for winning the League and the programme didn’t let me down in that respect.