Regarding Mowbray continually bigging up the opposition. I remember having a chat with the chairman of our local Rugby League club. He was emphasising how important it was to have an over night stay when the team played in Cumbria. He said " It's vital to remove from the players all the excuses they have for losing ". Long coach journey, the kit isn't right, not enough water bottles, my strapping wasn't done properly etc etc. " Make sure everything is done correctly and the buggers have no reason not to win " !

Well we certainly won't be now with the controversy regarding headers.

What goes through my mind is " Why aren't we good at set plays " ?

I had a really vivid dream on the night before the Everton v West Brom Cup Final. I dreamed Everton won 4-0, not an unreasonable score given Everton were heavy favourites. So I went down to the bookies next day and lumped a fair amount of my apprentice wages on Everton. They played like drains and lost 1-0. That's the only time I've ever had a football dream.

Sick of hearing it. The players would be better off keeping their headphones on when he's talking.

Yep that was the one. I'd taken my youngest son to the game and we were waiting outside the foyer for autographs. It was starting to rain and most of the Forest players just brushed past everyone and got onto the coach. Stuart Pearce was almost the only one who stopped and signed autographs for everybody. Other players were banging on the coach windows but he ignored them and continued signing in the rain. That was the measure of the man.

Me too. Given modern surgical techniques an absence of almost 12 months indicates it was a pretty serious injury.

I'll say this for Richard Brown - he could cross a nice ball.

I remember him leading Forest a merry dance shortly after he signed for us. It was like having Bryan Douglas back for an afternoon !

There was an article in my paper the other day were " Razor " Ruddock was talking about Souness. He said Souness didn't bother telling you that he was leaving you out of the team - he just injured you in training during the week so you couldn't play anyway ! He also said Kenny Dalglish tried to sign him for Rovers when he was at Southampton. Regarding Souness - what a terrific player he was in his prime. If you wanted to play football he'd football you, if you wanted to fight he'd be only too happy to oblige you.

Good player though. He scored two crackers for Weds in that 7-2 hammering we gave them.

It's time we gave them a game !

He seems to have missed more games through injury in a couple of months than Matt Woods missed in about 6 seasons here. What do they make centre halves out of these days ?

I remember that game really well. We looked a class act that day against a good 'Boro team. That was the moment I started to think " we're going up this season " ! Stuart Ripley and Alan Wright had a ding dong battle out on our left wing until Ripley decided to try his luck against Richard Brown on the other wing. I said to my pal as we were coming off the ground - " I like the look of that blonde winger, he's real handful. "

" Private Eye " had a good cartoon for the recent World Cup in Brazil. It had the England players coming down the steps off the plane. The pilot had the cockpit window open and he's saying to the players - " Shall I leave the engines running lads ? " They weren't far wrong either !

Yes I missed that one the first time around. " Leeds United " about a garment workers dispute was good last week. I saw that back in the day.

I see they've started repeating some of the old " Play For Today ". Tonight it's " The Black Stuff ". The stand alone play that started off the fantastic " The Boys From The Black Stuff " mini series.

When you look at the players who were knocking on the door when we actually won the World Cup Southgate wouldn't have got anywhere near the squad then. When you consider someone like Howard Kendall never got a smell of a full cap and Norman Hunter only played when Bobby Moore was unavailable it tells you how difficult it was to make the grade then. There's been some right old rubbish playing for England over the last few decades. Comparing England caps now with back then is like dog years.

Whoever thought he wasn't good enough needed firing. The lad was a terrific player right from day one, as was Tommy Hutchinson. Regarding the City FA Cup game I was behind the goals in the Blackburn End, it was pretty scary. I took my first wife to the game and she refused to go to Rovers again after that.

Kenny was starting to have an influence by then . Our passing and movement was starting to look top class.

I don't need to. The next World Cup winning manager is out there, that's a fact. We just have to find him before anyone else does. All I know is as long as Southgate is there we'll just be treading water.

I got lucky with that Mike. It was caught in time and I'm ok now. Some blokes are too squeamish and leave it until it's too late. My next door neighbour was one and it spread to his spine. He died on Boxing Day 2 years ago. Any blokes over 45 reading this - get tested !

Thanks, I just edited my original post to put in a little bit more detail.

I feel like that as well. I can't put my finger on it but he just doesn't set the pulse racing. He's a bit " colourless ". The stats that Chaddy quoted are very impressive but for me he doesn't hold a candle to Shearer in his prime in the excitement stakes.

He was miles better than anything we have today. Anybody remember that episode of a programme called " The Big Time " ? It was about a scouse amateur footballer who got to play a half in Tommy Smith's testimonial at Anfield. The other players contrived to win a penalty in front of the Kop for the lad to take. Clemence was in goal and he rained on the lads parade by saving the pen. I thought that was a bit un necessary, it would have been easy to dive out of the way of the ball. I think it was the series were Sheena Easton was discovered as a singer.