I can walk great with my knees but I wouldn't like to take a corner with my right foot these days.

The Osteopath I used to see for treatment on my back, Frank Plum, used to treat Rovers players around that time. He had rooms in Rochdale as well as in Blackburn. We were talking about Rovers a lot while I was in his traction machine. He told me he was giving Ronnie traction on his back every day in the week before that game. Ronnie didn't play well that day and knowing that it's hardly surprising. Alan Gilliver came to see him to get a second opinion when he'd been advised to give up the game by the powers that be at that time at Rovers . Gilliver thought the club was after the insurance money. Just as an aside the captain and centre half of one of the teams I played for used to play with a bad back. He wore what looked to me like one of those old whalebone corsets that women wore under his shirt !

I'm with you pal. Mrs Shoelaces will tell you nobody wants Rovers to win more than I do. I'm always on cloud nine when we win and I'm sulking for a day or two when we lose. I think I've got worse as I've got older. Having said that you can only be under par and be winning games for so long. Before too long it'll catch up with you. Remember our first season back down under Keanochio ? We were winning and miss firing, teams gave us too much respect so we got away with it for half a dozen games. Then the penny dropped for our opponents that we weren't actually that good and it was downhill from that point. If we aren't playing well I don't see much point in trying to convince ourselves that we are. That's been two disjointed home performances on the bounce now. That's against very willing but limited opposition. Looking at both Barnsley and Millwall, how many of their players would you like to see in our first 11 ? We're still no nearer knowing what our best 11 is. Every game throws up more selection questions. We were all pleased to see us sign an solid centre half in Ayala, now people are saying lets get Wharton back in there. Lots of people wanted Johnson back in, now it's lets drop him and get Trybull back. Another quiet game from Holtby and he'll be for the chop. We'll need to have it sorted for Saturday, Brentford have got a cutting edge, something that Barnsley and Millwall haven't got.

It's full of it, they're a horrible set of bastards. It's not just like it's one or two either. I couldn't support a team with a fan base like that. You'd think it was still 1970 down there.

If our support ever got so bad I'd have to consider wether I want to support a club with fans like that.

It looks to me that it'll be a lot harder to bring over players that aren't exactly well known on an international level. Just the pond we'll be fishing in. Good job we got Kaminski when we did.

Where does that leave our overseas scouting set up ?

That Burnley team played against Rovers on many occasions, teams didn't change members back then anything like they do today.

Correct. Walter Joyce, who was 12th man for that final, is peeping out from behind Ray Pointer and I think it must be John Connelly behind Tommy Cummings. The missing player is John Angus and he must be stood directly behind Brian Miller, unless Miller had three legs ! It could also be Jimmy Robson hiding behind Miller.

No.

Lets see how observant people are - I can see two ex Rovers in that photograph. Anybody else spot the other one along with Adam Blacklaw. There might even be three. I wonder what " Adidas " gave them for wearing the boots

You've only got to read some of the general posts on their site. They make " Sun " readers sound like left wing intellectuals .

There were times he looked like that lad who was chosen to appear in " The Big Time " tv programme. We've had other players in the past that have lacked technical ability but at least they put themselves about. His first two seasons were basically a write off.

You'd have to knit quickly today, the players will have left by time the scarf is finished. You had the like of Clayton, Woods and McGrath playing together for about 6 or 7 seasons then. I've mentioned before that I used to see a group of women going into the Riverside with similar home made scarves - half Rovers and half Burnley. I had a blue and white scarf my mum made for me but I left it on the bus after a game. I had one of those rattles painted blue and white but I don't know what happened to that.

There was a time when Rovers were really on song a few seasons later when Ronnie was the best attacking wing half in the country but having dropped Ronnie the selectors were loathe to lose face and pick him again.

There's nobody out there that I'm expecting us to lose to Phillip. Obviously that's not to say we won't. You've been watching Rovers long enough. We can beat anybody and lose to anybody in this league.

Yes and we all thought a 3-2 defeat wasn't too bad, but that was then, first game up. We know better now. They're not that great if the can get beat by Preston.

You need a few lads that are willing to give the ref a helping hand now and again. We've too many quiet lads who don't make a fuss.

Heywood had a Labour MP called Jim Dobbin not long ago. Poor guy wasn't a drinker at all and he got plied with really strong alcohol on a trip to Eastern Europe. It killed him.

I know it's easy to say now but I think we gave Bournemouth too much respect when we played them.

Sellars getting a Maradonaesque goal there. Bobby Mimms had a blinder. I can't remember what I had for my tea last night but I could give you the first name of everyone of those goal scorers without having to look them up.

That photo reminds me of an incident when I was playing youth football. About 5 of us had met up in town before getting the bus up to the local playing fields. One of the gang decided he needed some shin pads so we all trooped off to our local sports shop. In those days all the kit etc were in little drawers like those in that photo behind Ronnie. Behind the counter the wall was just a full wall of big and small drawers. The counter was empty apart from a fully inflated football and the till. When the guy turned around to go up the little steps to reach one of the high up drawers one of the lads whipped open his draw string duffle bag and shoved the ball in ! We were all mouthing daggers at him and whispering " Put it back ! " I thought " Bloody hell we're all going to get arrested here and miss the game ". When the guy turned back around he never said a word, just handed over the shin pads and took the money for them ! I was out of the shop like a flash and never went back in there for years. I later discovered the team mate was a real 100 % kleptomaniac who'd steal anything not nailed down !

The gang of lads I knocked about with decided we'd go over to Burnley that day. The Dingles battered the Red Rats. I remember Andy Blockhead having a field day in the air against Billy Foulkes and Paddy Crerand getting shirty when they were about 4 down and looking for the smallest guy in the Burnley team ( Ian Towers ) to punch and getting first go at the bath water.

Sounds like the same place.

Could he have contracted " Ayalaitis " ?