Tyrone Shoelaces

I'm not being right after the event, I thought I posted yesterday that Root was right to bat our innings out. I can't find the post now, maybe I put it on another site. Root's first job was to make sure India couldn't win the test. His judgement was bang on.

Always radio 4 in our house. We have an internet radio that can play 35,000 stations according to the maker ( Revo ) but it's always tuned to radio 4 apart from Saturday afternoons when it's Radio Lancashire.

There used to be a charity game between Rochdale AFC and Rochdale Hornets RLFC. It was 40 minutes football then 40 minutes rugby league ! Can you imagine that taking place now ? Some of the rugby league lads were really good footballers having had trials at the top North West clubs. One or two of the footballers looked like good rugby league players in the making also. It was really entertaining and good fun.

I thought Jimmy Cumbes was a bowler.

I'm pretty sure he'd be injured in the head if he ever set foot in Blackburn again.

I don't recall Field being a particularly " go it alone " type of striker. Certainly not in the way that Armstrong can be with his " shoot from anywhere" attitude.

The Indian's have enough batting to chase a big total rapidly. We need to ensure that their chances of winning the game is nil. If our bowlers can't bowl them out on that wicket in over a day it's a poor do.

I don't think so although he may have been involved. My memory is of a Lancashire stalwart from the 40's and 50's who never made it as far as the England team. A bit like Harry Pilling or Jack Simmons were but this bloke was before their time.

Call me a cynic but I think it was significant he signed after he'd had a run out or two.

I agree, we are Blackburn Rovers, we expect better from our manager.

Mine were before " Kings ", they didn't have a name back then, just " Puma ". They were great boots though. I've told this story before but I bought them from a sports shop on King Street in Manchester, one of the owners was an ex Lancashire cricketer who's name I can't recall now. I only had £4-10-0 and the boots were £5-0-0. The guy could see I really wanted them so he said " I'll tell you what son, take the boots and bring me the ten bob you owe me next week ". Of course I was back the next week with my 10/- note. I had them for about 4 or 5 seasons, I couldn't wear them out. Later on I bought another pair just because I wanted a new pair. First proper game in the new boots I broke my leg.

Show pony.

The fact he signed the new contract without a murmur spoke volumes for me. Even today with all the advanced medical techniques not everybody makes it back from a 12 month long injury. I know nothing about the respective injuries but I suspect Dack's was worse than Shearer's.

You're obsessed with systems. It's 11 versus 11. You get your 11 to win their individual battles against their immediate opponents and happy days are here again. If you don't do that you're more likely to lose than win. Coherent systems of play help but they're not the be all and end all. The further up the food chain you are regarding the ability of your players the smarter you can be tactically. If you're shopping in Pound World you're better of deciding on a way of playing and sticking to it. Dyche has done well at the dingledome with a very average group of players by having a way of playing and sticking to it.

We didn't have a great team then and we weren't wealthy by a long, long chalk, but we were proud of who we were - the famous Blackburn Rovers. I can't say I'm proud of the club now.

It could be but I think it's Dewi Atherton.

The football on show is crap and putting to one side the battering of ten man teams earlier in the season it has been for a while. The team looks like a team that is bemused by what is being expected of it. If they are playing for him now I'd hate to see us when they stop playing for him.

This is a perfect time to bring a new manager in. I don't think we'll go down, although our current form ( not results ) is awful. Time to assess the squad, sort out who he wants and who he doesn't, and begin building for a push on next season. This guy has lost the plot and under any other Rovers board he would have been down the road long ago.

I don't think Armstrong has what it takes to be a success at top level. He misses too many chances. You don't normally get that many in a game in the Prem. You've got to score when the chance comes along.

By the way, there's nothing new about the " false number 9 " system. Hungary famously murdered England 6-3 and 7-1 using it back in the 1950's. People have worked out ways to combat it since then.

To be honest with you the team and the players have been messed around that much under this guy that I'm at loss to know who is a good player and who isn't so good, what their strengths and weaknesses are etc. You need players playing in their correct positions for a decent amount of time to get the best out of them. I was thinking about a "predicting the score " competition for Rovers games. It'd be much harder to predict the team and the formation. That's just ridiculous. I get the feeling that Mowbray sees something about a different way of playing, this false No 9 for instance, and thinks " Yeah, we'll have a go at that ". I don't get the feeling that he thinks " What are my players best at ? Let's build a system around their particular skills ". I don't get the feeling that he has had a coherent plan and his signings have been bought with a view to fulfilling that plan.

That's how you get out of this league. Didn't the dingles have Vokes and Ings playing those roles ? Simple ways of playing that everybody understands are the best ways. You can see the players are as confused as everybody else is. I'm expecting Jim to be on soon reminding us that a similar striker, Murray who's just joined Forest, got two yesterday albeit one was a pen. However it says a lot about the bloke that he was taking pens on his debut !

Nothing wrong with being a bad loser - we don't have enough of them out on the pitch. It'll be business as usual down at Ewood on Monday morning, all pals together. Nothing to get too excited about.

I no longer listen to anything he says, he's deluded.

Spare a thought for the guys who no longer drink - like me ! I picked a bad time to quit.