Tyrone Shoelaces

That photo will be going in to a coaching manual illustrating how not to defend. We're all over the place. Nos 7 and 11 plus their guy on the centre circle are on the move. Our guys nearest the ball are flat footed.

I've been saying this for years, collectively and individually we don't sense danger until it hits us on the chin. It's been going on for too long

Yeah, we're un-playable, especially when we're up against 10 men.

Joao had ability when he was here, it was just that he just played when he felt like it. Reading seem to have him motivated.

If I'd have said that to my boss I would have been on a journey, to the Job Centre !

There was some top class finishing on display last night. Armstrong's first goal especially was something else. When it's a instinctive finish there's nobody better, when he has time to think about it he's not as clinical. If he carries on in the same vein I would expected a team that is struggling to score in the Prem to coming knocking.

The first goal was tragic. A long nowhere ball that shouldn't have troubled the " Dog & Duck " 2nd team yet an experienced full back turns his back on the ball, the keeper comes a mile out of his goal for no apparent reason, and it's a gift my mum could have scored. I will say this for Reading, they had players up to take advantage of the cock up very quickly. If that had have been Rovers we would have still been ambling down the pitch at that point. I thought JRC was going over to buy a pie for the third goal. Talk about being sent the wrong way. We were lacking in pace in our half of the pitch through out the game. What's the point of playing with two defensive midfield players if they can't prevent a free shot from the edge of the area. Joa took the fourth goal with a top class finish.

Weren't they after Gallagher when we signed him the second time ?

He should have been history years ago. He's got no idea of how to get out of this division. You don't need to be a mini Liverpool, you need to be well organised with a coherent, settled way of playing. It doesn't need to be too sophisticated at this level, everybody in the squad needs to know exactly what's required of them and be able to fulfil that role. Under Mowbray we've never looked like a team were every element of the team is fit for purpose. And that's when we were playing well. How long has Readings manager been in the job ? Yet he's already constructed a team that will be there or there abouts at the end of the season. Just tired of this " Ground Hog Day " of a club where no matter how many changes we make nothing actually changes.

I stopped listening to anything he has to say about a year ago.

He'll still be here this time next year. He's on easy street.

When was the last Rovers team that wasn't easily bullied ? Too many nice lads and not enough blokes who don't take a backward step.

Ground Hog Day. Taxi for Tony.

I was thinking that. It's hardly stopped raining all day here in Rochdale and we're not that far away.

If you're a good passer of the ball full back is the place to be. Normally you have all the play in front of you so there should be plenty of options. Of course you need to be able to defend. The chance that the Coventry lad banged against the post came because there was a gap you could drive an oil tanker down where the right back should have been.

I think it was Fuccillo I think that went over Keeley's shoulder onto a bone hard frozen pitch. I've been at a couple of rugby league games were I thought a player had been killed but when he came straight down head first I thought he'd been killed !

If we are playing really well by Xmas, as I fervently hope we will be, it's not going to be easy gradually incorporating Dack into the team. We wouldn't want to disrupt a team on a roll. On the other hand if we're on one of our regular downward spirals it wouldn't be fair to expect a Bradley Dack just back from a serious injury to pull us out of it. Who'd be a manager ?

Futcher was a complete knob, a master of shithousery. Tim 's brother in goal for Grimsby. We were starting to look a team who could go places at last.

Was that the game were he shinned in the winning goal from the edge of the penalty area ? Great connection.

Angus had a nasty streak as well. We were playing the dingles at Ewood and I was stood at the Blackburn End at the front near the wall towards the corner flag. Mike Harrison and Angus had been involved in a tackle right in front of me were they both went to ground. The ball was quickly cleared downfield and as Mike was getting to his feet Angus kicked his legs right from under him. Not many people saw it because most were watching the play down field so he got clean away with it. No TV then. I think he knew Mike wasn't keen on the rough stuff and was trying to intimidate him. Brian O'Neill was a good little player, in the later games he was usually marking Dougie. I remember him ripping Dougie's shirt right down the middle in one game at the Turf. I heard he'd had women trouble and Bob Lord had told him to leave town ! John Talbut played for the same England school boys team as a one time drinking partner of mine, Tony Street, with Barry Bridges, Willie Carlin, Warwick Rimmer and the old West Brom goalie John Osbourne who actually was an outfield player as a schoolboy.

I think the likes of Ray Pointer, John Angus, John Talbut, Jimmy Robson, Gordon Harris etc were all Geordies. Maybe they were before your time. Brian O'Neill was some player, if he hadn't have been such a bad lad he would have played for England. Bob Lord got fed up with bailing him out in the end and got rid of him.

Goals 1 and 3 were real pub team defending, Goal 2 was a beauty. I can see these being a handful if we don't impose ourselves on the game.

The Dingles had a conveyor belt of talent coming down from the North East at that time. Johnny Price was one of them. What Newcastle and Sunderland were thinking of I'll never know. I think the guy who took Shearer to Southampton was the guy responsible for all those players but he had a falling out and left them. The conveyor belt stopped right away. A lad I knew was in and around their reserve and " A " team then and he told me the coach went up to Newcastle for a Saturday afternoon reserve team game with a full compliment and came back nearly empty because the Burnley lads were all Geordies and they were having a weekend at home. Stan Ternent was one of them.

Years ago I was watching a Rugby League game at the old Spotland stadium. Our opponents were a Yorkshire team who had the Fairbank brothers playing for them. Two farmers boys who were both a sandwich short of a picnic. They were punching everything in sight in the tackle and eventually the ref lost patience with one of them and sent him off. The tunnel at Rochdale then had sloping brick walls to about six feet high topped with iron railings. As he was coming off one of young lads I actually worked with ran over to the railings and started giving the player dogs abuse. He obviously thought he was safe behind the railings. As the player was going down the tunnel he saw the lad who was abusing him, sprinted towards the tunnel wall and then leapt like Batman up to the railings. Within a split second he was face to face with the lad. The leap he made was unbelievable. The lad shat himself and ran off through the crowd to the cheers of the fans. If you ever went to watch Bradford play Rugby League at the old Odsal ground you'd know the players got changed in changing rooms at the top of the ground and then walked down through the crowd onto the pitch ! Obviously at the end of the game they had to go back the same way, this could be interesting. We had big prop who was well known for being a rough handful and he'd been putting himself about throughout the game. As he was making his way back up the hill a little old lady who was waiting there with her husband started hitting him with an umbrella ! He said to the lady " If you don't stop hitting me with that umbrella I'm going to hit him ", pointing to her husband.

I think we're quite a way off having to make that decision. I'd be surprised if Dack is ready to start a first team game before Xmas.