Tyrone Shoelaces

Appointing Coyle was the tipping point for me also. Not because he was an ex Dingle, but because his subsequent career had been an un mitigated disaster. One failure after another. I walked away from a club I had supported since 1960. I didn't come on here, I didn't watch football on TV, I didn't read about us in the paper. I just looked at the scores at 4-55 on Saturday afternoons and that was it. It did wonders for my mental health, Rovers were seriously getting me down. I only came back when Lambert was appointed. I thought that was the only sensible thing they've ever done. Especially when you consider the backroom team he had. I know it didn't work out but you could see some logic in the appointment.

He could always point out what was going wrong as well.

Part of the problem is where we're playing Armstrong. He's not a " hold the ball "type of striker. We're crying out for somebody who can keep the ball down the other end.

Never !

Yeah, getting rid of Mowbray and then finding out that either of Venus or Lowe are appointed as a caretaker manager would be a real nightmare.

Or on loan at Shrewsbury.

That's what young lads do.

He wasn't on his own either. Those of us who pointed out things might not be that simple, especially in Dack's case, came in for a bit of stick on here.

Spare a thought for those who've given up drinking. We can't even drown our sorrows !

Mm. well all know what that means then. If I was a gambling man.

Have ever worked there ? I have as a contractor, lots of times. Normally the customer's maintenance guys were glad to see you because you were going to do a job they either couldn't do or didn't want to do. Liverpool is the only place I ever went to were they didn't want to do the job and they didn't want you to do it either !

Steve Cotterill at Shrewsbury has also had it bad. He's been taken back into hospital.

We need all the room we can get - we've had a team's worth of players in there recently. Bennett, Ayala, Wharton, Williams Holtby, Davenport, Johnson, JRC Butterworth, Gallagher,

Yeah, nasty bastards.

Maybe he had ripped jeans ?

I was right behind it Jim. He could side foot a ball harder than I could belt it in my prime !

That was back in the days of no segregation. I was stood in the Blackburn End behind the goals. When the Harrison penalty went in a Rovers fan near me was celebrating a bit too enthusiastically. An old Scouser just turned around and gave him a real head butt. The Rovers fan went down like he been shot. The police got involved then.

I was at that match. The Harrison goal was a penalty. Dougie ran them ragged as usual.

Nothing he says makes sense. He'd be better off not saying anything.

Then whoever the new guy is has to start all over again from scratch. Blowing him out now would give whoever it is time to sus out what we have and sign new players accordingly.

They're doing what we used to call " Working To Rule ". Just enough effort to stop it becoming a showing up. So far.

I'm starting to wonder if Ayala is getting the Salgado/Nelsen treatment ? Too expensive to play now were out of the promotion race.

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.