Tyrone Shoelaces

Only 10 years ago there'd be maybe up to a dozen kids playing most nights now there aren't any. When I was a kid the place for me was an area called " Lenny Barn ". It was a huge area that had been left to the town by a wealthy stock broker in the 1920's or 30's. There was enough room 4 or 5 full sized pitches, a cricket square, changing rooms , full time groundsman etc. I more or less lived down there, you could always join in a game if you just wandered down. When I was a bit older and playing organised junior football that was our home pitch. School holidays and Sunday afternoons we'd be down there all afternoon, go home for tea, and then the back again until it was so dark you couldn't see the ball ! First team to score 20 and all that. Small sided games against the Big Lads, you soon learnt to pass the ball then. I go down there now on a Sunday afternoon on my way to the Crown Oil Arena to watch the Rugby League and in all that huge expanse there's not a soul about. They installed one of these enclosed modern all weather kick pitches down there a few years back. The sort of place we dreamed about when I was a teenager and there's nobody in there either.

There was a point in the early 1960's when we could have fielded a front five of all Blackburn born players. Douglas, Bradshaw, Pickering, Byrom, Ratcliffe. I saw four of those play in the same team in the old First Division, and Bradshaw also played in the first team but not as the same time as all the other four. Do enough kids actually play real football these days. ? I live facing a huge common that in my youth would have had about 50 to a 100 kids playing football in several " coats for goals " games at night or weekends. These days nobody at all plays on the common. Very sad.

I think that's really good. The role Johnno has at the club can be a real arse kicking job. Your best players can be called up to the first team squad or loaned out at critical points in the season. Maintaining a team structure and a coherent style of play can be difficult In that case. It's vital that the bloke in charge knows he has the full support of the manager. I see Johnno as a real asset to the Club and I wonder how much longer we can keep hold of him. I know we are playing at a lower level but it's a while since we had such a good crop of decent players coming through and Johnno must take the credit for a lot of that.

Is Lenihan injured or out of favour ?

Do you think Nuttall will ever be smart enough to play a Danny Graham type role Parson ? Just asking, I know it's early days yet.

The " Rothmans Football Yearbook " used to pick a Great Britain team every year and Mike was in it for a couple of years even when he was past his best at Spurs in the 1970's. I watched him quite a lot when he was at Spurs and I thought he was a better player at Rovers.

You never saw Mike England then ? What a player he was, 6' 3" tall with a great spring and the ball skills and passing ability of a top class midfield player. The best centre half I ever saw in the flesh and I can only think of one better that I've seen on TV, a colossus,

Manchester Industrial League Div 1 at 17. It was a tough league, lot's of guys playing that had been pros at various levels. The standards you had to be at regarding facilities were pretty high. You had to have a fully enclosed ground for instance. Some grounds had stands. One of the grounds in the league ( Manchester Ship Canal I think ) was used by Brazil as a training ground in the 1966 World Cup. Most of our opponents were large manufacturing companies that no longer exist. I think the league no longer exists either. The centre halves in that league were pretty hard lads. You didn't antagonise them unless you wanted a battle. I was just looking at going to Bacup Borough were a couple of my pals were already playing and had got Borough interested in me when one of the big clumsy centre halves broke my leg. I played again after that but when I broke it for the second time I called it a day with serious football. I played in " fun " matches after that but the spark had gone. A case of what might have been really, but plenty of players can say that.

He must be getting soft in his old age with that long sleeved tee shirt under his shirt. I remember us playing 'Boro on a bitter, freezing cold day. Colin came out for the warm up just wearing a short sleeved tee shirt and shorts. Juninho was playing for 'Boro that day and he came out to warm up looking like a Michelin man !

I thought Stephan Henchoz was a class act. Chris Samba would be knocking on the door also. Ryan Nelsen would be another that deserves to be in there really.

If he was that mediocre at Colchester why did Norwich head hunt him ? I seem to remember Norwich came for him after his Colchester team dicked Norwich by 5 or 6-1.

He has had a lot of injuries since he left Ewood. We've already got centre halves who are not strangers to the treatment table. When I played if you kicked the opponents centre half you'd hurt your foot. Real centre halves are born and not made.

You've got to give Johnno credit for picking us up after a really tough start to the season.

I've seen a lot of good centre halves at Ewood since Matt Woods Jim but I'd have Colin and Mike England as my centre half pairing in the All Time Rovers Great 11.

I know which team I'd rather watch.

The Guardian weekend magazine had an interesting article regarding players wives last Saturday. Wes Brown's wife was featured. Apparently they've lent a pal £500,000 and it doesn't look like they're going to be getting it back any time soon !

No it wasn't him, he's a good example though. This lad was better than him.

Regarding Downing some of us said we were a bit hasty letting him go given the fitness history of Lenihan, Rodwell and Mulgrew. Of course we've still got Williams.

Even in the old days of the U-23's when player were older and much more established and weren't being handicapped by foreign imports at their clubs the number that ended up playing in the bottom tiers within a couple of years was pretty high. Signing any player is a gamble no matter how good they appear to be but signing 18 year olds is even more of a gamble.

In spite of what people might think I'd love for him to be a success. We desperately need a striker at the moment and the repercussions from the Chokers of another massive flop on our future spending plans don't bear thinking about. Having said that the World of football is littered with players who peaked at 18. Look back in the past at England U-18 teams. How many out of the 11 usually make it at top level ? 2 or 3 ? Some times not even that many. I remember watching a game years ago when we had a forward who's name I've forgotten. He'd every trick in the book, he went past players like they weren't there. I thought " This lad can't fail ". A couple of years later he was playing in the Fourth Division !

Is he still tipping us for 6 th place? He's as good a tipster as he is a journalist.

I think we could have got a pretty good centre half for £7 million.

I don't agree there, I think Mowbray is better at running the club than Bowyer. Having said that Bowyer ( or his dad ) was a lot better at bringing new players into the club.

When we got our noses in front last season quite a few teams thought it was game over. Teams in this league know who we are now and what our failings are. They know we haven't got a full 90 minutes in us and no matter what the score if they keep pressing they'll get a reward.

That's his 3 year contract removed from off the table then ?