Tyrone Shoelaces

Griffiths Wells, Pickering England, Newton Leech Ratcliffe, Bradshaw, Jervis, Daly, Mulvey Barry Ratcliffe played a good few first team games for Rovers but when Ferguson and Harrison came along that was that. Vinnie Leech had a good career at Bury and Rochdale. I played against his younger brother John, he was top amateur midfielder. David Wells was doing really well at Rochdale when he broke his leg.That finished him. Alan Bradshaw was a stalwart of the Rovers Central League team for years with the odd first team appearance. Jervis, Daly and Mulvey had a few games for various teams in the old Fourth Division. A old pal of mine played with Daly for Manchester School boys. He was doing some scouting for City years later and came across Paddy Daly still playing amateur football when he was about 45 and he was still running the game. Barry Griffiths just drifted out of football.

To answer the question. No, we won't be getting promoted. This season was our best chance and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Other more ambitious clubs will be in for our better players in the close season and I expect us to start next season with a weaker team than we have now. Sorry I couldn't paint a more rosy picture but it is what it is.

Nice finish to the the video. Maybe they would slaughter them but do they entertain us like the old teams Phil ? I'd say not even slightly. Greaves would be a star in any era, he was a one off. Watching that what's missing is the knee slides, team dances, corner flag kicking etc. Maybe that's what passes for entertainment these days.

I think we dodged a bullet there. I'm not a big fan either.

That's him, probably a good coach but not manager material.

Then you have Jay Bothroyd getting an England cap ! I'd rather have Sam Gallagher, at least he tries.

Rochdale did a similar thing with Fred Eyre's lad who was a top youth coach at City. Totally out of his depth in men's football. He didn't last the season out.

That's what's wrong with the " modern game ",

Typical thunderbolt from Puskas there.

Who would you rather play in that midfield role ?

I've finally got around to starting the book. It's a good read, well worth buying. One thing that amazed me was he had a deal with Adidas were he would get £1 million if he made his debut for England ! Football's gone mad.

The one thing the famous video revealed that he could do was he could run with the ball once he'd got turned around and was facing play. Unfortunately there wasn't a massive amount of end product from these runs. A bit like Rothwell. We used to have a saying about certain players - " He dribbles when he comes to a pair of feet " IE they're a bit head down.

Our biggest problem will be holding on to our better players. Travis, Lenihan , Nyambe, maybe Armstrong. If the Chicken Chokers decide it's time to cash in again they could all be gone. That's why failing to go up this season could be a disaster.

I don't care what anyone says, for a tall guy he's a poor header of the ball. Maybe he closes his eyes.

Somebody needs to give him a quietener early on.

Back in the 1960's we had great bespoke shirts when we were getting gates not much more than the current ones. I can't recall the makers, shirts didn't have logos then.

Either play him up the middle or leave him on the bench. It's as simple as that for me.

That's were the " wingerless " formation is all going wrong.

Definitely a must win today after the last no show. I'd love us to put this lot to the sword but I'm expecting a score draw. My forecast is the season will peter out to a slight improvement over last season leading to several of our better players leaving in summer for more ambitious clubs. I sincerely hope I'm wrong but that's how I see the cards falling.

I was still playing 5 a side around that time so one birthday I treated myself to a real Sampdoria shirt to play in. " Phonola " was their sponsor then. There was a shop in the Manchester Arndale that sold real replica shirts from all over the world. It was a choice of the Samp shirt or the Napoli shirt with " Buitoni " as the sponsor. Best shirt I ever had quality wise, it was great to play in. I gave it to number 2 son to sell on Ebay when he was hard up. I think it went for £60.

What a bloody awful shirt. Was that really the best Nike could come up with ? Everything is wrong about it. I haven't bought a shirt for about 20 years. I'm still waiting for the club to bring one out worth wearing.

I was never a big fan of Sven's.

Brian Barry-Murphy at Rochdale has been linked recently.

How can you get to this level and not be able to cross a ball ? It's beyond belief. What do they do in training ? I remember watching Marshall and Carney in that competition were they were trying to score direct from a corner. Cairney got the ball in the net from both wings in a couple of goes and Marshall wasn't far behind. If you can do that you should be able to cross a ball.

He can run with it after a fashion but the next Bohinen, Berkovic,or Dunn he isn't.