What no Tugay ? Much as I loved Matty as a player, Bellamy was better. Same skill level with added pace.

" Dunlop " in Rochdale had an enormous textile factory making cord for tyres back in the day. Their pitch was one that was used for local cup finals etc. When I went in the bar after the first time I played there I noticed they had a plaque on the wall saying " Duncan Edwards played on our pitch ". It had been back in the early to mid 1950's when he was playing in a junior representative game.

I thought Bruck made a meal of the Fergie incident. It was always the same though, you get kicked black and blue and nothing happens, retaliate slightly and off you go. They obviously targeted Fergie as being our danger man. I have that down as the first player I ever saw dive to get an opponent sent off. My abiding memory is Bobby Gould and Ronnie Clayton chasing a long ball down field. Neither of them was going to get to the ball before the goalkeeper and Ronnie was running in front of Gould just to make sure. So Gould does no more than kick Ronnie right up the arse a la Andy Todd. This was after the Fergie sending off but the ref was happy just to book Gould. In the Chelsea game missing that chance took all the wind out of our sails. If that would have gone in we might have held on for a famous win. I couldn't head the ball but I would have backed myself to put that one in. It was a free header with the Chelsea goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

Grayson was bobbins, one of the worst right backs we ever had.

Yeah, that's more like it. None of handbags stuff you get today.

I reckon the average manager will get 50% of their signings right. Really good managers get about 75% to 80% signings right. Hodgson's figures were terrible.

Yes, he was a rough handful but a much better footballer than he was given credit for. He was a really good left foot passer of the ball. His career more or less coincided with that of Bobby Moore otherwise he would have had many more caps. That's two of the 1970 squad gone in a week.

It was 0-1 Jim. I was in the " Hake Boat " in town after the game queuing up for fish and chips. There were a few Coventry fans in front of me who were cock a hoop and looking forward to playing in the old First Division. I wasn't impressed with how Coventry played that day. They looked very average and basically parked the bus even against 10 men. I remember thinking " You'll be straight back down again ". How wrong I was - they had about 30 years at top level in spite of being near the bottom of the league most of the time. We'd some really good players then but the management was past their sell by date. Jimmy Hill would have walked that league with our players.

I'd argue that given the circumstances his signings record was the worst of any Rovers manager. All that money and only Henchoz was a success. I read an article in my paper years ago were Jim Smith was being interviewed. Regarding the Dailly signing he said a little bird had told him Rovers were sniffing around so he'd discussed a possible fee with his directors. The chairman had told him " Not a penny less than £2 million Jim ". He nearly fell off his chair when Roy Boy came straight out and offered £5 million ! Even then he talked the fee up another £250K !

That's a really poor penalty. Tony Daley showing why wingers are match winners.

I know I keep saying it but we'd do better these days if the goals were at the side of the pitch instead of at the ends. Back in those days if you picked ball up in midfield you had one of the strikers looking to make a run beyond the centre halves, the other striker would be coming short towards you. Both wingers would be looking to get involved. You had players to aim at in front of you. Nowadays they all seem to be stood next to each other.

It wasn't a result but finding out that Alan Shearer had left was pretty bad. We were on holiday with friends in the Cotswolds. My wife and I had gone into a supermarket leaving our friends in the car. When we got back to the car the news had just finished and my pal, who was a Darlington fan, said " What do you want the good news or the bad news ? " I said " The bad news ". He replied " Shearer has gone, but the good news is he hasn't gone to Man Utd ".

Oxford 3 - Rovers 1. FA Cup 5th round in 1964. We were playing brilliantly up to this point and we were drawn away at Div 4 Oxford. For once all the other big clubs had been knocked out really early. The final eventually was played between a mid table West Ham and Div 2 Preston. Preston had beaten Oxford in the next round then had to play another Div 2 Club in Swansea in the semi. We could have won the Cup easily that year, we would have been favourites, but for the slip up at Oxford. The repercussions were more than just on the field. Leading scorer Fred Pickering then became disenchanted with events at the club.and was sold to Everton and that was the beginning of a down ward slope that ended several years later with us playing in the old 3rd Division.

It's OK, I recently read his autobiography so I'm sadly all too aware of how he felt. It was a minor tragedy that he never regained his previous form.

Yeah, I thought he was on his way back after that goal. Didn't he have to be subbed after Lucas Neill got sent off shortly afterwards ?

Biggest miss - the John Coddington penalty - If I hadn't have seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. Chris Sutton at Anfield in the final game when we won the Prem. My dear old mum could have put that one in. Luckily it didn't matter in the end

Possibly but how many fans who can't or won't be bothered would we lose ? Plus the fact that without the fans the atmosphere would be dreadful.

Do you not think playing behind closed doors will be a disaster for the smaller clubs ? No income through the gate and still having to pay wages, bonuses etc

Arbitro, According to Mike Jackmans book MacNamee scored 6 goals in 27 games in season 71-72. Haliax A, Wrexham A, York H, Barnsley H ( Tony Field hat trick in that game ), Brighton H 2 goals. In season 72-73 he scored 4 goals in 30 games - Charlton H,Swansea H, Lincoln H ( another Tony Field hatrick ), Oldham H. Take your pick out of those. Not bad goal scoring for a centre half I'd say.

That's a brilliant kit. At least half a dozen of that lot would walk into the current team - Newton Wilson, Hunter, Knighton, Rogers, Metcalfe. The Don, Dick Mulvaney, and John Connelly won't be far off. 2 England internationals ( 1 a current regular ). 1 Scottish international, 1 Northern Ireland International ( a current regular ), 1 Eire international ( again a current regular ) plus a scattering of U-23 caps. Somebody like Jimmy Hill or Malcolm Allison would have got that lot promoted. It's funny how one of the least likely players in Laurie Calloway went on to have a very long and successful playing and coaching career in the USA.

He was the Bradley Dack of the day only quicker. The sort of player that was always capable of getting you out of your seat. Up there with Simon Garner as a goal scorer, kept his cool and never panicked in front of goal. He had that Jimmy Greaves like burst of acceleration that took him away from defenders. What I thought we were getting when we signed Rhodes.

It's a shame his tremendous career has been cast in the shadow of just one game.

Yes that's true. He'd be a regular today.

I didn't know that. I'm just glad I was there. My abiding memory is even some West Brom players joined in the ovation. With all due respect I scored a couple of long range belters in my playing career, including a 30 yarder into the top corner but I never managed to dribble around over half a team like Dougie did that day. I never got near to that achievement. In my humble opinion that demands a different degree of skill.

A top keeper in his day, he always seemed to play well against Rovers. Extremely agile and a terrific shot stopper. I don't think he ever got over that game in Mexico against West Germany.