He seems to get injured a lot for a centre half.

RE your last sentence Tom. If you try and stand still in this game your end up going backwards, rapidly.

Neither is Del there to be honest.

It's rugby union, just leave it at " a man kicks the ball ".

The partial report is by the great Alf Thornton in " The Last Sports ".

Some more cuttings including commentary on the best goal I ever saw at Ewood Park. Bryan Douglas V West Brom Easter Saturday 1963. There's a team photo- who can name all the players ?

There are more but the computer is playing up. No 2 son trying his best.

As per requested some old Rovers cuttings . Mainly Bryan Douglas.

Who, Shearer and Sutton ?

Yeah and how many batterings have we been on the receiving end of in that time ? People go to football matches to be entertained, It's not an obligation, like going to church on Sundays. Entertainment in the main is goal mouth incidents, shots and headers on goal etc. It's not passing it back and forth in your own half. Rovers would do better if they put the goals at the sides of the pitch instead of at either end. I saw a game on TV a week or two back, could have been England, were they kicked off backwards and the ball stayed in their own half for over two minutes ! Honestly, I timed it.

Not one that stayed in the job for long.

Letting the centre halves have the ball and then pressing everywhere else is one of the oldest tactics in the book.

Time to bring the poll back I think.

Opposing teams will let you play in front of them all day long. As long as you can see the guy you're marking and the ball at the same time defending is relatively easy. We need players who can get their opponents turned around and running back towards their own goal. Defending isn't so easy when that happens. You might be able to see your immediate opponent but can you see the ball and vice versa ? Those two in the photo above in their prime would do me. Both of them could get opponents turning around.

Yeah, sometimes you get a pen and sometimes you a free kick on the edge of the box. It's what I call a " Home Team " pen, maybe the ref was feeling sorry for us

So ping them in low then. You are allowed to do that. Not every cross has to be head high. How many times have you seen a ball driven hard across the edge of the six yard box create havoc and a few own goals ?

Who knows who they listen to and when ?

Yeah I know, crazy. I don't care if they never clap the fans as long as they do the business out on the pitch.

It looked to me like they were playing to get the manager fired and his post match interview suggests he was thinking along the same lines as me. My Rugby League team used to play like that occasionally and you'd find out later that they hadn't been paid for a game or two.

Well we've started early this season ! Makes you wonder just how rigorous the training schedule is ?

Yes he would have been gone at some point during that abysmal run.

What's really annoying is this League is rank average this season. There are no outstanding teams that are almost unbeatable. Any half decent team will be in with a shout of going up.Just when we decide to implode.

I always think " What would Jack have done " ? Jack would have fired him immediately after yesterday's game.

Our movement off the ball is terrible. Every player on the ball should always have three options available, a short pass, a medium distance pass and a long pass. Players off the ball should be on the move to make this possible. Every game I see Rovers play most of the time we're taking the ball stood still.