I’ve never done it before but at 8 to 1 the odds on us going down are very tempting.

How did we get £ 248,000 for Alex Marrow ? He made Lowe look like Franz Beckenbauer.

We also had a really nice short sleeved version of that kit for games on hot days.

It’s probably my favourite as well. Times were different then, we must have worn that same kit for the best part of 10 years ! Imagine that now. I remember the first game we wore it at - Everton at home on the 17th of November 1962. It was cracking match that we won 3-2 after being 1-2 down late in the game. A Bryan Douglas penalty won it in the last minute. He sent Gordon West in the Everton goal the wrong way by a mile in the teeth of a snow storm. Big Fred ran them ragged all afternoon, I think that was when Everton took notice of him. Happy days.

Now that is what I call a Rovers kit.

We all like the shirt we grew with the best I suppose. The one I like best had the contrasting blue and white where the red vee is on that one.

I know what you mean but the first time I saw us play the numbers on the back of the shirts were red.

That’s my complaint in a nutshell. Don’t like the collar, the lack of a reversed back and sleeves doesn’t fit in with my view of what a traditional Rovers shirt should look like. They got the blue right though. The “ Spray on fit “ will go down well in East Lancs. Do they come in “ Dart Player “ size ?

You were luckier than me then. Once I split from my wife because of her drinking she did all she could to make life as difficult as she possibly could with regard to me seeing my two sons. I had court orders regarding access to the lads but she just ignored them. As my solicitor said “ At the end of the day they aren’t going to send her to jail over this so what do you want me to do ? “. My youngest son was more feisty and he continued to see me but the eldest one just wanted a quiet life so our relationship more or less collapsed. When he got married I was told I could attend but my new partner wasn’t welcome, there was no way I was going to accept that, so I ended up just stood outside the church watching him and his new wife enter and leave. I had many tough times over the years, Christmas’s were always the worst, usually ruined by my lack of quality time with my kids. Alcohol didn’t just ruin her life, it blighted my life for years until I got out and it scarred the lads life’s after I left. When it all boiled down I was left with my clothes and a few books and trinkets. That’s all I had show after 20 years of marriage apart from the boys. The house was repossessed, my very valuable record collection ended up in my ex wife’s hands. I had to start all over again in my early 40’s. Luckily my new partner never gave up on me or my lads and now she has a better relationship with my eldest son and his family than my ex wife has.

Gambling can be another bad habit to fall in to. I heard a thing on the radio about an ex army officer who had it really bad. With the internet he was betting 24 hours a day, he was getting up in the middle of the night to bet on sports in Australia etc ! He lost everything in the end, wife, home, kids, jobs. He’d actually won the “ Sword of Honour” which is given to the top candidate each year at Sandhurst but he ended up selling it to get more betting money !

My wife had to deal with a member of her department who was in the habit of slipping off to her car for a quiet drink at break time. She had to tell her that under no circumstances was she to leave the school building after 8.30am without authorisation. I don’t think it ended well.

That’s saved me some money. It’s a no from me.

Back then if you turned the tv on without knowing who was playing you’d only need to watch for 5 minutes to realise one of the teams was Brazil. They had a style all of their own. Now they could be anybody, it’s a shame really.

I didn’t hear that but I did hear an interview on the radio with the chief exec at Villa who said what a really good report it was and then proceeded to tell us that everything was rosy in the football garden and there was nothing to see here. He finished off by saying all owners have the best interests of their respective clubs at heart !

My ex-wife was the same. She had to lose her husband, job, house before she finally packed it in. She’d be dead now if she’d have carried on. From what I know she hasn’t touched a drop in 30 years. She won’t even have trifle or Xmas cake in case it’s got alcohol in it. My second wife’s dad was also on the wagon. He could tell you to the day when he’d last had a drink, how many years, months, days etc. He’d been off it for about 20 years when he died of heart trouble.

I’ve seen it before at other clubs I’ve been involved with, both football and rugby league. Once they’ve taken their ball home that’s where it stays. There’s plenty more things to do on a Saturday afternoon these days. It’ll take something extra ordinary to get people who stopped going 5 or 6 years ago to come back again. Most of the walk aways have probably lost interest in football completely.

50% of the fans that have bailed out will never come back no matter what. People find better, less stressful, things to do.

He was m o m in that really crucial game against Rovers in our first season back in the old Div 2 in 1966-67. An absolute colossus at centre half for Coventry that day allowing them to pull off a key 1-0 win. We just couldn’t get past him.

Yeah why not. Some of the treatment regulars have move on so there’ll be a table or two over now.

“ ruin our club “ would fit better.

It’s at it’s worse in the morning getting out of bed. I can put my socks on though so I can’t complain. As the day goes by it eases quite a lot. You learn to live with it and not do the things that aggravate it like digging in the garden or lifting heavy things out of the boot of the car. There are plenty of people worse off than me.

I already contribute Gav. Prompt treatment saved my life, least ways I hope it has. Any man over 40 not had the test, get it done, it may save your life.

I’d like to be a fly on the wall there. His medical notes will be in a small suitcase.

No, I did mine in my early 30’s. Slipped disc again. I was still playing 6 a side in a Wednesday night league. We played for an hour, I felt great at the start but in the last 15 minutes my back was seizing up pretty badly and I usually got subbed off then. When I got home I put myself in a home made traction device for 1/2 hour right way. The next day or two I could just about put my socks on. I wore a weight lifters belt for work. The stiffness in my lower back eased off over the weekend and by the next Wednesday I was ready to go again ! There was no way I could have played professionally though. Having said that this was 40 years ago and I would hope medical procedures have improved a lot since then. We had a centre forward years ago, Alan Gilliver, who had a similar problem and he ended up having a disc fusion. He played again but he wasn’t at his previous level. I believe Martin Dahlin also had a chronic back condition. I’d be really gutted if Butterworth has a chronic condition, he looked a real prospect for the future in my opinion.

Given the amount of time he was out with the back injury it sounds like it’s a chronic injury. I really hope not because speaking as a fellow back pain sufferer it’s the last thing you want if you’re a footballer.