I don’t think he's ready either.

I think it’s worth a try. Nothing else is working. Cardiff probably won’t be expecting it.

He was very quiet for the U-21’s during the week. I expected more from someone knocking on the door of the first team. Having said that nobody played well in a 4-1 dicking..

Mm, and how do you know that ?

I would have changed things today. Pears Britain, Hyam, Baath, Pickering, Hedges Tronstad Travis Cantwell Gueye, Ohashi

The Lovin’ Spoonful - Summer In The City

I heard a fan went up to the back of the net, pulled the ball out and threw it back on the pitch. I used to watch the ‘Dale a lot then if Rovers weren’t playing and I remember going to a league 4 game against Brighton ( yes that Brighton ) and there was a melee after a corner. The ball ended up in the back of the net and the ref gave a goal but the Brighton players claimed the ball had fallen in through a hole in the roof of the net. They demanded he consult his linesmen. So he goes over to the linesman, they have a chat, then the ref comes back and gives a penalty ! Cue more mayhem. Somebody had pushed the ball over the bar with their hand and it’d dropped into the goal through the hole apparently.

Yeah the QPR game was a shocker. When we were coming off I said to my son - “ Don’t worry about it, Kiddo won’t be here for the next game “. That was when Jack was running the show and you knew he would sort the job out.

He heard voices in his head telling him the keeper had carried the ball out of the area. Then he heard another voice telling to make up for the first fuck up by disallowing the goal. The best one I ever saw was when the ref blew up for time and took all 22 players off at Bolton v Rovers 20 minutes early ! Although the game at Rochdale in the 1970’s was a good one. I was down the end Rovers were attacking but it looked like the Dale scored a perfectly good goal at the other end but somebody pulled the ball out from under the net and threw it back on the pitch. The ref then disallowed the goal. The Dale players went apeshit so the ref sent one of them off ! After a long chat with all concerned he gave the goal and had the player he’d just sent off brought back on ! Anybody else remember that one ?

He needs to grow up.

Article that caught my eye in todays paper - “ The Songs That Defined The Spirit Of Punk “ These are the songs - Patti Smith - Pissing In The River Iggy And The Stooges - Gimme Danger Bad Brains - I Bikini Kill - Double Dare Ya Plasmatics - I Thee Head oats - I’m Hurting Bad Brains - Banned In DC Mm, not my idea of the song that defined punk. No “ 96 Tears “ for a start.

Anybody booked for trivial reasons like mouthing off, getting involved in pointless scuffles with opponents - I’d fine them 25% of their wages. Taking one for the team is different.

How does Dolan get 5 yellow cards ? He hasn’t got a tackle in him. That was one of the things that stood out when Dyche was running things at the Dingledome. They very rarely lost players because they got on the wrong side of the officials. That was in spite of them being a physical team. Since he’s gone they’re just like every other team in that respect. I learnt a long while ago that if you lose your place in the team it can take time to get it back. Meanwhile you’re kicking your heels and waiting.

Or in the water - Billy Fish ?

Not like Tiny Taylor to get sent off. A real gentle giant, that was his weakness really.

Mm, most of it was boring. Watching Spain play back in those days was like watching a submarine race. I appreciate the technical ability, they were top notch skill wise, but it didn’t get me out of my seat.

It’s like watching another sport entirely to todays football.

Me too but we’re running out of options.

If Beck isn’t fit we could play Hedges there ?

The Marvelettes - When You’re Young And In Love

I don’t like knocking young players but Leonard is just the new Jack Vale. He’s not the answer. It’ll be like playing with ten.

Something needs to change. We’re back to leaking goals again.

It’s a massively different game. In the U-21’s game Barrett in goal had more touches than any outfield player. He had probably ten times more touches than the wingers. We were just knocking it around the back four and the keeper for way too long. You could see the Dale players streaming back to get into position whilst we fannyed around with the ball. Then they’d play it forward to a midfield player invariably running back towards our goal who would be unable to turn with the ball because they were all marked up by then. So they would either play it back again to the centre halves/keeper or square to the full backs. It was awful to watch and completely ineffectual. Pep has a lot to answer for.

The only reason to have 7 at the back is to get clean sheets. We have 7 at the back and we’re still conceding every game. Something has to change. As we all know “goals change games”, but you need to score first to change games

Watching the U-21’s last night was the same, not enough players forward. Somebody eventuality gets a cross in and if it misses the one player forward that’s it.