I am actually on that photo along with my girlfriend of the time. I've got a much better, bigger, glossy version of the photo so I spotted the the two of us. If you look to where that pole is in the centre of the picture, right at the top, next to the pole there's a bloke in light coloured trousers. Look just to the left in the photo and there's a couple stood close together in dark clothes roughly in line with the guys feet. That's me and Janet. The game is against Aston Villa 2nd of January 1965. We won in a canter 5-1 in front of a crowd of 18,292 on what as the game went on became a tricky, icy pitch. We were unstoppable in really difficult conditions under foot. For those interested the team that day was Else Newton, Joyce Clayton, England, McGrath Ferguson, McEvoy, Byrom, Douglas, Harrison. Scorers - Byrom 3, McEvoy 2 Gordon Lee played left back for Villa according to the programme I have. Villa were really bad, I think they went down that season.

That's my main complaint regarding Mowbray. We have no coherent way of playing. We look like a pick up team that just rocked up at the local rec on a Sunday afternoon for a post Saturday night piss up kick about. When you watch a well organised team you can see a method in what they are doing, you can see why each player is playing in the position they are in. Together they amount to more as a team than they amount to as individual players. You can't see that at Rovers. We become less as a team than we are as individuals. That can only come down to one thing - the Manager and his coaching staff.

Yes he was a unique performer. You don't get Roy Orbison tribute bands because it's not easy to equal his singing. I remember seeing the Four Pennies and they did a great version of " Running Scared ". I was there that day they played " live " on the pitch at Ewood.

I usually walked up to the ground when I got off the Rochdale bus at the Boulevard but now and and again I got that bus. If I was late or it was raining.As soon as it filled up it set off and it was replaced by another bus. The fee was a a standard fee, 3d seems to ring a bell. I'd gone early one day and I remember waiting by the bus stop near the ground for autographs and Keith Newton, Mike England and Fred Pickering all jumped off the bus and signed my book as they walked to the ground I remember reading that Roger Byrne who was the Man Utd captain and England full back at the time getting on a similar football special in central Manchester. It was only 5 standing downstairs then and he was the sixth. The conductor told him he had to get off and wait for the next bus, so he did.

You could play four defensive midfielders if you like but if none of them get over the half way line you'll always concede eventually because the ball will be in your half most of the time.

It's over for this season Phillip. Once you accept that as a fact life becomes much less stressful. I'll be more happy when we get to 50 points though.

Dougie, Mick McGrath, Eddie Thomas ( 12th man ),Ronnie, Dave Whelan, Peter Dobing, John Bray, Ally Mac, Harry Leyland, Matt Woods, Louie Bimpson, Derek Dougan.

What did they get in the first test Den ? It can't have been much, we always seem to be around the 20 for 2 mark after half an hour or so.

Is that in this game or in the series ?

All those points Mowbray has laid out above in that quote could apply to me also, but would you want me managing Rovers ? Talk is cheap. It's what happens in that 90 minutes out on the pitch that matters. At the moment it's nowhere near good enough.

Yes, but not by much these days.

I was reading an article in the paper the other day about Sean Longstaff. " A midfielder Man Utd once wanted to spend £20 million on has regressed alarmingly since Benitez's departure for China and now plays as if mentally scarred by the ruptured cruciate ligament that interrupted his progress. Longstaff shows flashes of his old ability but there are times when he resembles a player a player struggling with a slight loss of nerve or who doesn't entirely trust his repaired knee ". Not everybody recovers from that type of injury, even with todays medical advances. When you've gone years as a player just missing the odd game with slight strains an injury like that is a real shaker. What struck me about mine was how easily it happened. It can play on your mind even when everything appears to be OK from a physical point of view. I wouldn't be starting Dack on Sunday.

The usual suspects to produce the usual performance.

He'll sign whatever we put in front of him if he's got any sense. That injury he got is a career threatening injury for a pro footballer. It'll be another Gladwin job, we'll keep him on until he's " fit " again and that might be a long time.

I remember a game in the late 1960's against Charlton Athletic going ahead on a day like today. I walked up to the ground from the Boulevard and I was like a drowned rat when I got to Ewood. I used to have the programme for the game, that was rain soaked as well. As the first half went on the pitch got worse and worse with the ball really sticking in the mud. The game was called off at half time with Rovers losing 1-0. My abiding memory is one of a Rovers player getting away down the right wing and putting a great cross in. It was heading straight for Alan Gilliver who was completely unmarked right in front of goal. He took an almighty swing at were the ball should have been but it stopped dead in a puddle, he lost his balance, slipped, and fell over into the puddle ! Everyone including the ref was laughing at that one.

We're nowhere near good enough at the moment to thrive in Aus. We need to find some openers for a start.

Rochdale town centre was under several feet of water then. That'd never happened before in my 65 years of living here. The Weatherspoons was flooded out and didn't re-open for months.

All four of those players were full England Internationals.

They're the only team I know that are both bad losers and bad winners.

I don't know who the teams are, it could be some sort of testimonial. I think the players in blue are Gordon Milne and Derek Temple.

I can't recall anybody mentioning Mowbray at all before he was appointed. If there was a list of 25 likely candidates at the time I bet he wasn't on it.

A flawed genius. I used to be in the " Phil Spector Appreciation Society " in the 1970's. I still wear my " Back To Mono " badge that I got when I joined ! His music will never die. They're still playing " Be My Baby " on BBC TV every day at the moment. Having said that I never forgave him for marrying Ronnie when she could have had me.

A sending off in today's football all day long.

I was pleased when we got Souey, Hughes and Big Sam. Appointing Ince was inexplicable. Berg - inexperienced, as was Appleton at the time. Bowyer - Tony Parkes MK2, good caretaker but not full time for me.

That's only a bit muddy. I once played on a pitch with big pools of standing water. The ref said - " It's your pitch lads, if you want to play it's OK by me ". Now and again the ball landed in pools of water with nobody nearby. The wind was blowing and the ball would sail across the pool like a toy yacht. The trick was to anticipate where the ball would sail to.