Tyrone Shoelaces

Coldest I've ever been was at a Rugby League Challenge Cup years ago at York. It'd snowed on the Saturday night but Sunday morning was cold and bright. We'd phoned the York club up and the game was definitely on so the coaches set off over the Pennines for York. The ground was packed but about 2-00 it started snowing heavily again. If it hadn't have been a cup game it would have been called off. I was only wearing a suit with a collar and tie on an open terrace ! I was absolutely frozen. The only thing that saved my life was my mate shared a hip flask of whiskey at half time. We lost a game we should have won and to cap it all the bloody coach broke down on the way back. What people today don't realise is that fans back in the 1960's and earlier didn't have the access to casual sporting clothes like anoraks and cagoules or quilted jackets like we have today. Look at photos of the crowds then and most of the blokes will be in a suit wearing a collar and tie. If you were lucky you had an overcoat or a raincoat.

How do they plan to reduce the League to 18 clubs ?

That is a defensive line up. Obviously Southgate doesn't fancy going toe to toe with Belgium.

There was an article in my paper years ago asking fans of various teams what their worst football experience had been. A QPR fan wrote in about a visit he'd had to that open terrace in the opening shot. Conditions were similar to that only cold and sleeting. He'd just got over a dose of flu that week. Half way through the second half he collapsed and had to be taken to the nearby A&E at Oldham Royal just over the road. He was in hospital for a week with pneumonia after that ! If you think Boundary Park was cold you should have gone watching the Rugby League in Oldham. Their ground was called " Watersheddings " ! The clue is in the name. It had an eco-climate all of it's own, it could be really bloody cold in Summer there.

I haven't got sky so I won't be watching it.

Didn't the government intervene to ensure that the " Crown Jewel " sporting events like the Cup Final were always on steam television ?

Same powers that they have to tell pubs to shut at 10.00pm or to close all together. They have an 80 seat majority so they can soon sort out the Premier League, if they want to that is.

Benrahma is good enough on a good day, the problem is he doesn't have enough good days. I think signing him would be a mistake also.

The third Celtic V Racing Club World Club Championship highlights are probably the most violent although Chile V Italy in the 1962 World Cup got a bit lively.

Yes I thought that. Bennett got them both sent off.

I think I'm pretty sure what the answer to question 2 will be.

Keith Newton played for England in both full back positions. If you're two footed, as any pro player ought to be, you should be able to play on either flank.

Or me.

Yeah, I'd have thought they'd have gone for someone with more experience at that level.

Mm, he needs a win. The pressure will be on soon.

Ernie Hannigan - another one who missed his way. He was a bag of tricks. Talking about Howard Kendall, he was about the same age as me and I recall feeling really envious of him when he was playing in the Cup Final as a very young player. Fast forward a couple of years and I was stood right behind him when he was taking a throw in playing for Everton in a pre season friendly at Rochdale. I was near enough to see the bald spot appearing on the back of his head, I wasn't quite so envious after that !

Yeah you're right it was Craig Skinner who put that far post ball in. The cross field ball from Wilcox ? out to him was a gem as well. The incident at the end summed Speedie up. He picked up a ball in the centre circle, fed the winger then busted a gut to get on the end of the cross, diving in where the boots are flying most of the time.

Yeah he was a master at it. He'd get half a stride on the full back and boom, over would go a really deceiving bender of a cross. He was as good as any winger you care name at getting a cross in and he never wasted any. Grealish did exactly the same thing the other night for England. When you see some of the crossing at Ewood nowadays I find myself shaking my head !

It's going to be harder than it would have been two weeks ago. We'll need to be sharper than we were against Cardiff.

If you had to pick just one player to thank for getting us back to the big time it'd have to be Speedie. Who did more ? What would he be worth today ? He was absolutely unquenchable in fighting spirit. When I say " It's what's beating under the badge that matters most " players like Speedie epitomise that will to win no matter what the score is. No such thing as a lost cause with players like him. Give us another Speedie up front with the team we've got now and I'd seriously fancy us to go up.

Great cross there from Windy followed by an even better header from Speedie. They should show this clip to Brererton and Gallagher - that's how you jump for a ball. Rovers undone by an alehouse ball for the equaliser.

I've got another Old Trafford story. It was a bit of a happy hunting ground for Rovers in the 1960's. I'd gone over with a City supporting mate on an Ellen Smith's coach from Rochdale for a Rovers night match and the coach parked up miles from the ground. As a consequence we were late getting into the ground. Whilst we were queuing up we heard a sort of muted roar like you get when a shot just goes wide. As I was going through the turnstile I heard a loud prolonged roar that could only mean Utd had scored. When I got to the top of the steps I asked a bloke what the score was. He said " 1-1 mate ". This could only have been in the first 5 minutes of the game. We didn't play particular well that night and we were under the cosh for lots of the game. Half way through the second half we were under prolonged pressure and ultimately Utd scored at the far end from us. After that the game was petering out without Rovers looking much like scoring. Knowing it was a long way back to the coach about 5 minutes from the end my pal said to me " Come on lets go and find the coach ". So we left and made our way back to an empty coach. We'd been sat there about 5 or so minutes when a group of Utd fans got onto the coach. One said to the other " Bloody Rovers are a jinx, the jammy bastards were never in that game ! " My ears picked up at that and I said " What was the final score ? " The bloke said " It finished 2 apiece ". So of the four goals I saw one, and that was over a hundred yards away. According to the record books the two Rovers scorers I missed were Mike Harrison and Andy McEvoy.

Just going off at a tangent for a minute - it mentions a player called Lewis Baker in my paper. It says he's been a Chelsea for 16 years and has played 133 league games- non of them for Chelsea ! It also mentions a 23 year old Chelsea player called Izzy Brown who's been loaned out 9 times. They have 25 players loaned out at the moment. What's that all about ?

I remember going to a 2-2 draw at Halifax once. I was usually on my own coming from Rochdale so I didn't get in any lumber at away games. I didn't go looking for any either.

The Rovers V Burnley book I've got is called " East Lancashire Derbies " by a guy called Dean Hayes. I'm sure the author meant well but to be honest it could have been a lot better. It was published in 2001, how time flies, I'd have said just over 10 years ago ! Regarding the old Shay in Halifax - When Rochdale and Halifax were both going for promotion from the old Div 4 in the late 1960's they played each other on a Thursday night at the Shay. With one more game to play whoever won was guaranteed promotion. There were 17,186 on that night ! It was amazing, we were packed in like sardines. Halifax won 1-0 and went up. The 'Dale won their last game the following Saturday and went up for the first time in their history. The thing that made me smile was the corner flag area. Because the speedway track at The Shay cut into the corners of the pitch the area near the corners were boards with turf on top with the whole lot sat on house bricks ! I know it's hard to believe but it was true. Taking a corner was an art, ideally you needed one leg shorter than the other by about 4" ! Halifax had a guy playing on the wing who was only playing because he could throw a ball from one side of the pitch to the other. ITV had a long throw contest back in the day and he won it, beating Martin Chivers in the final. As a result every throw in they got within range was like a corner. Halifax had a team full of giants, a young Chris Nicholl who later starred for Villa, was one. Most of the game was like head tennis. An awful game that was always going to be a 1-0 score line.