Tyrone Shoelaces

Leadership on the pitch comes in different forms. Some players don't say a lot but lead by example. Alan Shearer being the one that stands out for me. Their attitude inspires, or shames depending which way you look at it, other players to raise their game. I don't think there's any doubt that we lack leaders of either type.

Having seen the video the correct decision was arrived at, unfortunately for us.

I was reading an article by a guy who came up through the ranks at Utd recently. He was asked who the best player was in his time there. He said the one who could have been anything he wanted to be was Ravel Morrison. This lad reckoned he could have been right up there with Messi and Ronaldo but for his attitude.

Sellars would definitely be on the right wing , coming inside all the time.

Yeah, I could tell you now which 11 the dingles will field next Saturday and how they'll play. I really hate to keep bringing them up as an example but as my mum says - " What can't speak can't lie ". For too long they've over achieved with the players they have and we've under achieved. We still have no real idea as to our best way of playing and 11 that will play it

That tells you all you need to know about the mentality of everyone at the club. It's been a thorny issue with me for a long, long while. How many games against what you would consider as inferior opposition do we just basically get out enthused in ? I'd be interested in how many tackles we win as a team, how many second balls do we win , how many contested headers, who runs the furthest between the two teams. I was spitting feathers at 5.00pm on Saturday. Then I turn on the radio to hear the manager talking like the worst thing that had happened that day was Mrs Mowbray had burnt the lemon drizzle cake he was having for his tea.

Just the two centre halves would do me.

Where does that leave us financially ? Cutting their losses again ?

The only stat that means anything is that one in the blue band with the club crests on either side.

Williams seems to have discovered a goal threat recently so maybe he deserves not to be dropped. I'd be loathe to split the centre backs up but we desperately need some heading ability at the back. I'm not a fan of three at the back because if you're not careful you can have three players marking one striker and the rest of the team getting over run in midfield. Over to you Tony.

There are NO outstanding teams in this division. None of the recently relegated teams are pulling up trees. We will never have a better chance of going up.

No you're right there Phil. Nearest to that for me is Rovers 5 - Arsenal 5 back in the old days. Now that was well worth my one shilling and sixpence entrance. 7.5 p in modern money to the youth of today.

To be honest Rovers have made a speciality of building fans up to let them down over the years. One of early ones that stands out for me is the West Ham game years ago. We played Villa at home and won 2-0 in front of 17,000 fans. We go away and win 8-2 at West Ham. The whole British football world was agog. Consequently there were 29,000 on Ewood for the return match a few days later. Unfortunately it was a repeat of yesterdays performance and we lost badly 3-1.Next home game - back to 19,000 die hards.

Brian Clough - " Nobody can lose you a game quicker than your goalkeeper, so sign the best one that you can ".

The " elephant in the room " is who would these idiots replace him with. If I heard Chris Hughton was coming in I'd be reasonably happy.

I agree that other clubs will see the potential in Nyambe, weren't Preston sniffing around a year or two back ?

I don't know Ossy. My first game was against Sheff Utd many years ago. It was just the same sort of match, 16,500 on, we huffed and puffed and they won 2-1 but I was hooked. It was a lovely autumn day and the ground looked a picture, I just couldn't wait to get back. I took No 1 son years later, we won 4-0 and he's never been back. Just not interested. A few years after that I took No 2 son, a really boring end of season 1-1 draw. He was hooked as well.

Bill Shankly used to trash Liverpools opponents in the changing rooms before the game - " Denis Law, he's crap, two bad knees, he can hardly walk, Bobby Charlton, he's crap, he couldn't tackle a meat pie, George Best, he's crap, he's probably still pissed from last night. " etc etc.

I won't bother trying to predict which 11 will get to wear the shirt. I think it's pretty obvious there will be changes, maybe quite a few, maybe another change of playing formation also. Anybody know when we last played the same 11 for two consecutive games ? As somebody else said Forest will come fancying their chances so maybe it'll be a more open game. We've no idea how to break down teams that " park the bus " but we do better against teams who come to play. I wonder how many of the 1,500 or so extra fans that turned up yesterday will be there.

I'm not a fan of either of SG or BB and I'm on record as saying I wouldn't have signed either of them from day 1. Certainly not for the large transfer fees we paid. SG from when he played here previously and BB from his so called " highlights " video that showed him running around a bit without much end product. Having said that to paraphrase Tony Blair - what you need as a striker is " Service, Service, Service " . At the moment whoever plays up front isn't getting that. Only the Alan Shearer's of this world can make something out of nothing on a regular basis. Playing up front with no proper ball to work with is the biggest arse kicking position on the pitch.

I think he's taken us as far as he can. If you are happy to spend the forseeable future roughly where we are now, then Mowbray's your man. 40 or so years ago we had a team who were probably of the same sort of level of ability as the lot we have now and we were content to bump along season after season. The difference between then and now is we had a board who by and large knew what they were doing and most of all - the club had manageable debts. We could just about afford to bump along at this level, now we can't. Having said that I wonder what the likes of Gordon Lee or Howard Kendall would be doing with these players.

At least Grabbi scored a few good goals.

Well if you set your team up one way and it's nor working try another tactic. Chucking Samuel on out wide is just more of the same.

Two types of midfield players cause defenders problems - the Damien Duff/Scott Sellars type that can get around teams and up the side and the David Dunn/Eyal Berkovic type who can carry the ball from the half way line and draw defenders out. If we have any players who can do this we need to play them.

They all do it. Somebody once saw Arjen Robben come in off the right wing and bend one into the far corner with his left foot. After that they were all expecting Tom Dick and Harry who were playing at a much lower level to be able to it on a regular basis. I played full back and I'd show my winger inside all day long. " Go on son, get inside and run into heavy traffic, you'll do for me ". The wingers you really feared were the ones who were always trying to get on your outside and get everybody turned around and running back towards their own goal. Then you have a real problem. Mowbray was saying as much in his interview tonight.