Tyrone Shoelaces

I wouldn't mind another Andy Burgin at left back now. A very neat and tidy player who had a fair bit of pace.

In industry if you blew £12 million on some machinery that didn't work you'd be long gone by now. I did some work for a US company 20 years ago, we built a £1 million machine to the yanks design that never worked. The chief designer over in the US got fired.

We used to have a saying about head down players like Armstrong. " He dribbles when he comes to a pair of feet ".

I'm getting ready to start looking over my shoulder. Our home form is terrible. Win your home games and normally you'll be OK even if your away form is poor. Struggle at home and normally you're looking at the drop.

My mistake.

We know that but they didn't. Armstrong wasn't under any pressure, he'd time to get his head up and have a quick look before crossing the ball. He just banged it in. Good cross in theory but in practice a wasted opportunity.

In an ideal world that's true, but If they weren't there what was the point in crossing it to nobody in particular ? On another point I thought Dack looked sluggish at times yesterday, maybe he'd been celebrating his engagement a bit too much.

Coleman flopped badly at Rochdale. Maybe he just fits in with Accy.

If we hadn't have blown £12 million on two non strikers we'd have enough in the bank to get any manager we wanted.

That's because Armstrong hasn't got a football brain. He should have looked up, taken another touch, and waited for the attacking support to actually arrive in the danger area before crossing the ball. Shearer wasn't playing yesterday.

You never beat Wales Matt, you just score more points than them.

Hughton ?

They go together. If you're mentally strong with good self belief in yourself as a player and as a team you keep going even when you are tiring. " Fergie Time " worked because his players knew they were never out of the game when behind and you can win games in time added on if you keep a cool head.

Just look at the impact the Cowley's have had at Hudds. They looked down and out at half time but their management came up with a way to get them back into the game and they won the second half. Nothing our guy did altered that, we were second best for 45 minutes. Some of the teams that you would have though would have really struggled, like Charlton and Luton, are doing fine. Hudds will get clear, in fact the thought crossed my mind that they could easily end up with more points than us by May. We can't stop conceding soft goals. Our latest style of passing it around in our half until we lose it won't cure that, it'll just make it worse, especially when the back 4 changes every week. That's how teams get relegated.

Mentally strong teams score at the death. Mentally weak teams concede at the death.

Our set pieces in general are woeful and we never look like scoring from one. When we got that late free kick that Dack eventually took No 2 son said to me " This is going into the wall ". Exactly. Big Sam's team scored a high proportion of goals from them as do lots of today's teams. Anybody remember the last time we scored a headed goal direct from a corner ? The first one that Rothwell took was a shameful attempt from a pro player. If we aren't good at attacking crosses take short corners and keep the ball. A couple of times when we'd sent both the centre halves up and a poor corner was cleared easily we were nearly caught out short at the back. Regarding the failure to clear our lines before their second goal. We're too busy playing tip tap keep ball in our own half instead of putting our foot through the ball. I had my heart in my mouth several times when a ball from the back four to the midfield was then played blindly either back or or square without the passing player actually knowing if the pass was on. Several times the ball was then intercepted in dangerous areas. Our first goal came directly from Hudds making the same sort of mistake. From the fitness point of view this walking football must be more tiring than it looks because although we rarely broke into a gallop as a team we were spent with 15 minutes to go.

You're dead right. Players come and go, managers come and go but the lack of desire, commitment, effort, self belief is always with us.

Good teams don't beat themselves, We beat ourselves frequently. The conceding of soft goals is a speciality. That shot that flew of William's boot and only just cleared cross bar could have easily been No 3.

I saw that. As far as I know in Rugby League the video ref doesn't get to adjudicate on forward passes.

We give it our usual good half an hour. Let's not get too greedy.

I think whoever wins the England v New Zealand game will win the cup. England will have to play an error free game to beat the KIwi's but it can be done. No penalties and no silly handling errors.

I thought Bennett stuck to his task well. The pen was harsh in the extreme. He got run a couple of times early on but after about 20 minutes that winger took no further part in the game. He's got a nice line in falling over though. I'd never boo an individual Rovers player at the game. I'll criticise them on here but they don't have to come on here. I'd rather have Bennett at left back than Bell or Hart,or Williams come to that.

I could blame a few for their second goal.

It's not going to make you a better player, that's for sure.

I listened to his post match chat on Radio Lancashire - the usual Blah blah zzzzz with the usual bigging up of how dangerous Big Club are. Do me a favour !