Maybe we should change the name from Ewood Park to Easy Park.

We've been unfit since Big Sam left to be honest. Coyle started the fashion for regularly conceding late goals. Mowbray started the fashion for only playing 45 minutes at a time.

Stendel's the " german geezer ".

Sunderland have been granted permission to speak to Gareth Ainscough. Coventry have rejected Sunderland's request to speak to Mark Robins about the job. Sunderland are also interested in Paul Cook and Daniel Stendel.

Hang on, we might need him for centre half if we get anymore injuries.

If he's worse than Sancho he shouldn't be playing at all. These lads sum up what is wrong with modern football, not a spark of inspiration or willingness to try something different. They play like robots that have been programmed to play football. There was no tempo to our play, the Czechs played at twice the level of intensity. I don't rate Southgate and I never have. He's completely colourless, just like the team. It was like watching Rovers on a bad day.

He was poor last night but having said that who had a good game ? I didn't know Sancho was playing until about 5 minutes before half time. Mount did nothing. We're crying out for a David Dunn type who can actually carry the ball from the half way line to the the penalty area. Stirling was back to fluffing good chances for England. Harry Kane - not fit to lace Shearers boots as a striker off that showing. The back four looked terrible, Danny Rose especially had a shocker.

Not long after that I started playing myself. After our games the bus back to town would drop us off right outside a TV rental shop. The teleprinter would be going on most of the TV's in the window. We'd have our noses pressed up against the glass. I well remember the infamous FA Cup score coming through - Oxford United 3- Blackburn Rovers 1. .Occasionally they made mistakes so I said to my mate " They've got that one the wrong way around ".

The " Manchester Evening News " football special was printed on pink paper. When I was a young player they also had reporters covering youth games. We'd be playing on Firgrove which was a huge area with about 8 football pitches on it and the reporter would prowl around asking for scorers names etc. It was bit of a thrill to get the " Pink " that night and see a little report with your name in small print alongside reports from City, Utd, Bolton etc.

I used to leave Ewood about around 4.40pm promptly in those days. 10 minute interval and no time added on, games finished on time. . I'd arrive at the Boulevard about 5.05pm after a quick walk into Town. The " Last Sports " would be coming out of the printers by then ! A full, detailed match report would be there although the last five minutes would be a bit sketchy. An old bloke sold them by one of the bus stops. I'd read it from cover to cover on the way back to Rochdale on the 5-15pm 158 Ribble bus. Incidentally it was white then, not pink.

We were really awful tonight. Too static, too slow to the ball, totally out enthused by a pretty ordinary but very willing team. A lot of big reputations out there that did next to nothing. They played like they didn't want to be out there. Southgate's getting found out now.

£2 mill wasted so far. What do you think he'd be like at centre half ?

Yeah a very soft pen. He'd ballsed up the shooting chance so he was looking to fall over.They make me tired.

Bloody Hell, how bad was that first half ? One team's playing stood still football and the other is actually running. It's like watching Rovers on a bad day. Dack is better than Mount and I only realised Sancho was playing about 3 minutes ago. A great cure for Insomnia. Henderson and Rice = Evans and Smallwood.

" In a very good mood ? " A trip to Wales will soon cure that.

Actually I make it 4 centre halves loaned out Phil. Mulgrew, Magloire, Wharton and Platt.

I like Johnno a lot but as far as I can see there has been no discernable improvement in our style so far this season. In fact from a goal scoring point of view you could say we've gone backwards. Maybe he's not been able to have any say in the real nitty gritty of the first team and he's just been sidelined into a stats man/ warm up guy.

Nyambe and Williams at centre half ! You'd get 42 games out of 42 with Matt Woods but he looked like he'd been carved out of a block of marble !

Yep, I've seen a few but Duffer was No 1. Mike Harrison No 2.

I thought Duffer was also a Celtic fan as a youngster.

Yes and who signed him ? Was he ever scouted ? It was a signing than seemed to be a last minute " We've got a bit of money, who can we spend it on ? " type of signing. At the time we weren't crying out for a left back.

Coleman also had Aaron Ramsey in outstanding form at that time. No point anybody speculating. It'll be a completely left field appointment. most of their managers have been out of the blue. Who had Kean, Berg, Appleton, Coyle, Mowbray in their lists of 20 most likely candidates ? Only Lambert's appointment made any real sense in my opinion.

Yep, when I was growing up Football and a bit of Cricket was all there was to do, so that's what you did. You were outside with a ball, jumpers for goals, small scale games, maybe 4 or 5 a side. You were either on the ball or tackling an opponent who was on the ball all day long. Playing " Walley " under the street lights at night. The ball skills, passing with both feet was second nature. Beating players with the ball at your feet etc. I live facing a huge common, you could probably get four full sized football pitches on it easily. There's not a kid on it playing any sort of sport 99 % of the time. Anybody who knows Rochdale will know " Lenny Barn ". It is a huge grassy area just outside the centre of town bequeathed to the youth of the town by a wealthy local family in the 1920's. . When I was playing sport there was a hockey pitch, three football pitches and two rugby pitches plus a cricket square. We were down there in Summer and at weekend in Winter all the time. On a Sunday afternoon it would be packed with kids playing, mainly football. These days I can walk down there and there won't be anybody playing anything ! You don't get good at sport watching it on TV or playing computer games. I was reading the other day that the authorities are worried about the number of obese kids at school today. On my wall at home I've got an old school photo, It's of the " Upper School " March 1964. There probably about 250 kids on the photo, 15,16,17,18 year olds. Of that 250 there are possibly 3 or 4 that you could call obese. If you did the same photo at the upper school I worked at recently it'd probably be more like 50 to 60.

When I had my scrapbooks out the other day i read some of Alf Thornton's old Match reports from our golden era of the early 1960's. They were proper blow by blow accounts of the games that filled most of a page in the " Last Sports ". In most of the games there were more attempts on goal than we get now in a month of games with this current Rovers team. It was end to end stuff and nobody came to " Park the bus " no matter how badly they were getting out matched.

Neither of Bell or Hart is the answer I'm afraid. In fact if you put them both together as one they still wouldn't be the answer.