Tyrone Shoelaces

I would have thought he's playing for a contract at Shrewsbury at the moment.

Chapman isn't playing on the wing for Shrews. He's playing more of less where we were playing Dack.

I re-watched my CD of the 1960 Final the other day. Honestly I could have refereed that game. No diving or pretending to be hurt, no arguing with the ref over who's throw in it was etc. I was surprised how quickly the ball was back in play after throw ins, none of that inching up the line 20ft from where the ball went out of play, free kicks were taken equally quickly. None of the farce we get at corners these days were players are hanging on to each other all over the place. They used to have a feature in the sports bit of the " Sunday Observer ". It was a " Where are they now ? " style thing. It was a photo of one of Brian Clough's Notts Forest teams. In the details about one of the players it mentioned he was the first Forest player to be sent off since the 2nd World War ! That'd be in about 30 years of play. I'd been watching Rovers for about 3 season before I saw a sending off. Last night two teams ended up with 9 on the pitch ! That would be unheard of back then.

Will there be room in the treatment dept ? He'll have to wait his turn.

I'm not really interested in that anymore. I'll reserve judgement until I've seen him playing for Rovers.

That's the thing isn't it, when Souey brought players in our promotion push, you could see the team as a unit improving as each one came in.

I don't think home advantage counts for much these days.

It's fast becoming a game were you don't tackle, especially in the penalty area.

Yeah, there's nothing like scoring goals but I still got a big buzz if I could make one for somebody else with a good pass or cross.

I was only thinking about this the other day. How old would you need to be to remember a Rovers team playing attractive football on a regular basis. I'd say you need to be about 15 at least before you can form an intelligent, informed, opinion as to what's going on out on the pitch. So you'd have at least 30 years of age to remember a really classy Rovers team. Anybody younger than that will have seen tons of rubbish with just the odd good performance thrown in. That explains how lots of people are happy with our current form.

Yeah, when they get back to their original club it'll be " If you don't shape yourself that's what life has in store for you ". A bit like Rovers sending Chapman to Shrewsbury.

BCD games have thrown up some strange results. My local team, Rochdale, have won 5 games away yet only 1 at home.

You can change all the soloists in the orchestra if you like but if the conductor isn't up to the job the music will never sound right. I've said it before but I was underwhelmed by the standard of football on show when we got promoted. I would have made a change then. Nothing I've seen since has caused me reconsider that opinion. Yes we have better players, but the overall standard of play hasn't improved much at all.

Yes, given the strength of the league that's fantastic.

Yes, they're expecting big things of him.

They've just sold the lad Baah to City.

I always had the feeling he was just passing through.

Well Burnley don't and it hasn't done them any harm. They playing at a higher level and yrt it's always Tarkowski and Mee barring injuries every game

Yes, he was a really good winger in his day, fast and tricky. He had a trick were he'd deliberately over run the ball then bring it through with his trailing leg. I've never seen anybody else do it. The defender would hesitate thinking Tommy had lost the ball, he'd be past them before they realised he hadn't. Even watching from the stands he did me every time !

I thought Vale got a bit lucky with the right foot shot, should have gone with his left really.

Great pass for the first goal. What the keeper was doing I don't know, must have got a deflection off the full back.

Yes Brian Hill was a lightweight, I never really saw him have a good game. Don Hutchins was another left winger who left you longing for the likes of Mike Harrison. I liked Don Martin but I always thought he would have been better playing off a centre forward rather than leading the line himself. Adam Blacklaw was on the way down in more ways than one. Having said that, Newton and Wilson were the best full back pairing in that league and better than some in the First Division. Alan Hunter was the best centre half in the Division and I'd give a lot to have Ken Knighton and Eamon Rogers in our midfield now. Meccy was on the way up and John Connelly still had goals in his game although his blistering pace had gone. Our coaching was old hat, somebody like Malcolm Allison would have sorted the job out. Looking at Blackpool, Green and Hutchison were great players as was Alan Suddick, a real class act in midfield.

Good player, better than any of our central midfield players.

There's a lad at Rochdale called Humphries who I think would do ok at an higher level maybe next season. Too soon at the moment though. The prodigy they have called Baah looks to be going to City, he's very raw but he could be a real player in the future.

Who knows ? It does give us that option. I think one of them will be on the bench but with Lenihan you've always a chance of a card or an injury. It makes you wonder what's going on with Ayala.