I haven't watched the game, out watching Ed Byrne in Bacup, but some people say Nyambe was pretty good, some say he was garbage. Somebodies got it wrong !

In my paper today - " Jim Smith the former Birmingham, Oxford, QPR, Newcastle, Portsmouth and Derby manager, who has died at the age of 79 ". Being fair to them further on in the article it does mention lots about his early career, first as a player then manager at Boston, Colchester and then Rovers. Strange not to include Rovers in the first paragraph though.

It's alright, he didn't. He just robbed a wage off us.

Osgood was a bit of a handful but he was a good footballer. He would have been better still if he hadn't have had his leg broken as a young player. Subsequently he made sure it never happened again by getting stuck in first. RIP Jim, thanks for the memories.

Was that one of your chat up lines ?

That's why we don't play that way very often.

Which ever system you play there are areas of the pitch you will always need players in.If you overload one area you will be light in another. I remember seeing a speculative question years ago. One team has the conventional line up of 10 outfield players and 1 goalkeeper, the other team has 2 goalkeepers but only 9 outfield players. Which team do you think would win most often ?

I'm afraid that's more like it.

Every move in football in my time has been to make the game more defensive. I suppose to answer your question the team with 5 in midfield will usually overcome the team with 4. When I first started playing it was 2-3-5 which was really a sort of 3-2-2-3 system. Then the Brazilians adapted that to a 4-2-4. Alf Ramsey modified that to 4-3-3. As the years went by you got more and more defensive players and less atacking players. There's a good book to read about this called " Inverting The Pyramid ".

In the 70;s Rovers had the reputation of being a breeding ground for managers. First Division ( Premier League now ) clubs kept enticing away our guys.

I'd need to know the fully extent of the prognosis regarding Cunningham. If I'm being brutally honest I'd look elsewhere. He can't be the only decent left back out there.

The shouts on here to resign him were deafening. So we sign him and he's hardly been near the first team since.

Just watched the extended highlights back again. Downing over playing it played Tosin into trouble early on which nearly led to a Derby goal. Armstrong missed an easier shooting chance than the one he scored from. Good to see Gallagher out muscling a Derby player out on the right to set up Armstrong in front of goal. Was it their kit but some Derby players look like they're carrying a bit of timber. Bielik, who I rate as a top young centre half shouldn't be playing in centre midfield. He looks to have put a stone on since I saw him play last.

I think he must have been aware of the unrest in the support. He'll want to keep the fans on side. How else do you explain the Chapman signing ?

Thanks for that but I don't need Clark Carlisle or anyone else to tell me how bad Coyle was. His record after leaving the Dingle Dome told me all I needed to know. I gave up temporarily after we appointed him. That was after 50 years, that tells you how sure I was that he'd relegate us.

I can't honestly see the Chicken Chokers giving Mowbray the cheque book again. Especially to buy a striker when he;s already splashed the cash on two, three if you count Armstrong as a striker. The best we can hope for is a promising young loan player up front.

Bloody hell, what have you been eating ? Sounds like you've been on the " Mexican Heavyweight " diet !

Well we paid out enough money to get us 20 goals a season striker. We just haven't had the goals.

You could argue they've already given it a good go stumping up big bucks for Gallagher and Brererton.

I'd need to see us playing well consistently for longer than a handful of games before I'll be holding my hand up. We've had a good fortnight, lets not get carried away. If we can get good results at Swansea and Bristol I'll think again. Even then it still doesn't account for him betting the ranch on two bench warming strikers. If either one of those had have hit the ground running things would be looking a lot brighter.

It doesn't really hang together with the " defenders are coming " statement he made less than a year ago. Maybe he meant " defenders that are no better than you lads so don't worry about losing your places ". The way he pussy footed around the Bauer non signing does make you wonder.

When we've been successful in the past we haven't been bringing in players to " create competition ". Souey didn't bring Berkovic in to create competition, he was brought in to be one of the first names on the team sheet and drive us on to promotion. Same with Kenny and the likes of Gordon Cowans etc. Ditto Bellamy with Mark Hughes and dozens of other players we've signed over the years that I could mention. There's absolutely no point in signing players that are no better than the ones that are already here.

" Creating competition " has lead us to where we are now. We have about 5 players who are regular stand out first team players and another 20 plus who drift in and out of first team contention as and when they take Tony's fancy. How many current Rovers player would you really be gutted about if they were to be sold in the window ? That tells you all you need to know about our recruitment policy

I don't fancy us today for some reason. Possibly because I don't think we're good enough to go on a long winning run. I'm going for a 1-1 draw. Hoping for a win though.

And 1960's.