I liked what I saw in the first 45 minutes yesterday. He looked to me like a good footballer who was being played in a position he's not a natural fit for and he was using his intelligence in making the best of it. That's the sign of a good player to me. I can see why smarter guys than me rate him. I wonder how Modric would do out on the left hand side ?

I mentioned David Helliwell when I first saw Buckley play. I remember Helliwell making his debut against Bristol City at Ewood back in the 1960's. He was playing in Bryan Douglas's old position in midfield and I'm pretty sure he was MOM that day. We all thought we'd discovered the new Dougie but it wasn't to be. He was average height but really slender. You couldn't fault his ball skills and he'd a good eye for a pass, average pace but nicely two footed. The game in those days was much, much, more physical than it is now and he got physically over powered especially on heavy grounds. Today he would have had lot more protection from the officials. As you say Meccy had a bit of needle about him and if you kicked him you'd get one back, David was a more placid lad. He played 16 games for Rovers scoring 1 goal - then had a short spell of 11 games at Lincoln followed by 197 games at Workington. He finished up by playing 20 games at Rochdale.

Lenny Johnrose doing well for us there. The goal at Oldham was a brave effort.

Looking at him purely as a left full back he's not even back up standard. He must be great to play against because he always give the winger room to turn on the ball. Rule No 1 - Never let your winger turn with the ball and get a run at you. Keep them facing back down the pitch.

I thought that kid had the look of the young Johnno when he was first starting out. Bangs of enthusiasm and a willingness to run at people with the ball.

Johnson looks like a pub team player. Not a good pub team either.

No I never noticed him go off, that's probably because I hardly noticed him when he was on the pitch. The game just passed him by. It's not always easy getting into the game from out wide but he's got to do better than that. Players come in two groups for me 1) The players that can play right from the kick off. 2) The players that can play when the first group have set up the game for them to shine. I'd say Rothwell belongs in Group 2. The young kid comes on and right away you know he wants to be out there. Not just on the ball but off it as well. He was showing for a pass all the time and he put himself about harrying the Fleetwood defence.

He looks like a winger having to stand in for the full back in an emergency. He has no real idea of how to play the fullback role successfully. You need to be decisive and he's terminally indecisive.

I agree with you Phillip It was a decent performance given the circumstances. I thought 4-1 flattered us but I'll take it every day. Armstrong looked particularly sharp, especially for his second goal. What we are desperately lacking is a central midfield player who can carry the ball from our half into the last third. Oh for a young David Dunn. Our central midfield are all pretty stodgy spear carriers. Every team needs one in that role but two is a luxury.

Chapman did more in 5 minutes than Rothwell did in 45. As did the young lad Dolan. You can have all the talent in the world but if the end result is nothing you're not long for the first team world.

When you play with two central midfielders, neither of whom can run with the ball in Evans and Johnson it's always going to be a bit turgid

I love that list to be right but it's not realistic - in my opinion of course.

Some strikers like to be involved much more than others. If they're out of the action for a while they switch off mentally. Then you get the other types that don't mind being on the periphery of play but come to life when that one good chance comes along. They like to lull opposing defenders into a false sense of security. It can be much harder to get yourself into the game out wide. I suspect Armstrong belongs in the first group.

And then you woke up.

It's like he's scared of taking the ball further and going down is the easy way out. Could you see Shearer falling over like that ? He'd trample all over a centre half to get off a shot at goal.

He got pulled up four times, off side three times, the other time was for a foul. I'll say one thing for him - he's good at flattening the grass. He goes down really easily for a big guy.

Wingers Eh, who needs 'em ?

Rothwell was also very quiet, the half seemed to pass him by. Regarding wingers of which we had three real wingers playing plus Buckley out on the left - we need to learn how to get them into the game more. That means getting the ball to them quicker and the full backs not getting into their space and cluttering up play.

" Relaxing " ? Get Mowbray to talk to them. He sends me to sleep.

Even at that level I'd be surprised if he has more than 45 minutes in him on a regular basis.

I can't see this lad is coming here to sit on the bench. I think we can forget Westwood.

I thought he called K--n" A germ ". Not far wrong there.

I'll bet Gigg Lane doesn't look like that and nobody's playing there at the moment !

He should have shoved a paint brush and a tin of paint in their hands and told them to earn their keep for a month.

A knee in the groin is just what a few of them need.