I saw him play many times, a few times in the flesh at Ewood. More of deep lying centre forward than an all out leader of the line. He'd fit in very nicely in todays football. He had bags of skill but he wasn't the fastest. That was when almost every team had a couple of top class Scots players. RIP Ian, thanks for the memories.

They're communicating by telepathy. I thought everybody knew that to receive a message you have to close your eyes. On a serious note that quote is so Mowbray. " Let's have a new way of playing because I fancy it " . Not " What system will suit the players , can this lot play a passing game, or are they more suited to a more direct style of football ? " The first rule of coaching is to play in a way that suits the players you have, not the ones you'd like to have. Either that or sign players that will fit the system you would like to play. Mowbray hasn't done either.

The Northern football correspondent of " The Guardian ", Louise Taylor, has written a really warm appreciation of Glenn in todays paper. He appears to have been a really nice guy. RIP.

it's not often you see " Ayala " and " fit " in the same sentence. I suspect he was just about fit enough to sit on the bench. It looks like he's vanished down the Brockhall Black Hole now.

As a Rugby League fan I thought it was really good. Some old film of great tries. Big Jim Mills was a nasty bastard.

I thought Carney could have been the new Berkovic but whenever we played him in centre midfield he was ineffectual.

You must have a vivid imagination then.

I think the players are like most of us, they've seen through him and now they're just looking after No1.

Best way to keep a game tight is to get the ball in your opponents half. We don't seem to be very good at that. We like to pass the ball around in our half until we lose it.

They had their chance at the end of the promotion season. What was the gate for the final home game ? Then they blew it spectacularly.

You're sounding like a dingle now.

Bramble was a bit accident prone as a player but maybe he's learnt from that. Being good at the job doesn't mean you'll be a great teacher but the reverse is also true. I ended up working as a technician in a school. I'd forgotten more about engineering than the teachers in the department knew but they were much better than me at actually teaching the kids the basics. Different techniques and ways of working are required when you're trying to put ideas over.

Who's going to be in the 3 at the back ? We only have Lenihan fit at the moment.

It just gets worse. It'll be all pals together down at Brockhall today. No extra training on Sunday to try and sort out the back four. I think we should change our name to Blackburn Depressing Rovers.

Good on yer. If we were set up better to prevent opponents getting easy crosses in we wouldn't look so poor under the high ball. It all comes down to the same thing - we don't work hard enough as units. The guys out wide see two on ones developing against the full back and just stand there watching. Some blokes were complaining about the Cunningham goal in the Preston game and blaming Nyambe for not being out there. Hang on a minute, what position was Cunningham playing ? He's a full back, our winger should have been stride for stride with him, then that goal probably wouldn't have happened. It's not all about the centre halves. Same with the goalkeepers. Modern keepers seem very loathe to leave their line these days. When I was playing the six yard box was the keeper's responsibility and you'd be expecting any crosses to be claimed by him. If you go barging out into the pack to claim a cross 9 times out of 10 the ref will penalise the guy you bump in to. Back in the day keepers were probably 6" shorter than the modern keepers and they were much better at coming out for crosses.

As I've said a million times under Mowbray - what do they do in training ? That's where you try out new formations and ways of playing. Under normal circumstances Nyambe wouldn't be my first choice at centre half but I think he would be a better bet either of the two apprentices we've got there at the moment. He's quick and he can cope physically. Speaking of centre halves, we did actually sign some guy called Ayala in Autumn didn't we ? I'm not imagining it am I. He seems to have vanished off the planet. Surely it's warm enough for him to begin playing again now. Same with Johnson. Where are they ? Anybody else beginning to get the smell of a bit of Salgado/Nelsenitis in the camp ?

I'd be considering Nyambe and Lenihan at centre back with maybe Pike at right back. Can he be any worse ? Failing that Douglas at right back and Bell at left back. Didn't Douglas have his best game at right back ? Nyambe has bags of pace and he can defend in that position. OK he can't head the ball but Lenihan will have to do that.

I think that's in the first season back in the old First Division. Arsenal at home Oct 25th 1958. Players from the bottom - Matt Woods, Mick McGrath, Ken Taylor, Harry Leyland, Ronnie Clayton. Att 37,747. Won 4-2, scorers - Dobing 3, MacLeod 1. Team - Harry Leyland. Ken Taylor, Bill Eckersley. Ronnie Clayton, Matt Woods, Mick McGrath. Bryan Douglas, Peter Dobing, Tommy Johnston, Roy Vernon, Ally MacLeod. Those were the days, it seems light years away from where we are now.

Like he said - a better manager than ours.

With anybody other than Mowbray in charge I'd be thinking we could get a draw. As it is the players appear to have given up on Mowbray. So it's just more of what we've been seeing since before Xmas. They must have no pride in their individual abilities.

If we'd have brought Pearson in a week or two back I'd be prepared to bet we'd get something at both Reading and Millwall. At the least he'd set us up not to lose.

My wife has it a bit. A friend of ours lectures in " Health & Safety " with particular attention to noise hazards. He was explaining how it's caused, all in your brain apparently.

That's why it's all such a mess. Loads of random signings without any clear thinking as to how they're going to be used. I thought he struck lucky with the Graham- Dack tandem. How many games did it take him to come up with that one ? If you have a plan that you've been working on pre-season you unveil it in game one.

Or right back.

That's the problem though. He wants Armstrong to be the leading striker so he has to play up front. He won't play with two strikers so Armstrong would have to be back out on the wing again we're he's not as effective. I'm not sure where Dack fits into the picture at the moment. People say good players can play anywhere but to get the most out of them they need a system that plays to their strengths. At the moment we don't have a workable system.