Tyrone Shoelaces

Play in your opponents half, that's the best way to see out a game.

He was a really good player in his day and a fine manager. Nothing is forever though.

For me League position wise we are over achieving by a few places. I thought we'd be around 6th from the bottom. Football wise we are about where I thought we'd be at the start of the season. Although we were promoted ok from a football point of view we blew hot and cold somewhat. When we were hot it was enough to get us over the line. With more or less the same team I didn't expect things to be a lot different this season.

Hang on a minute, where have I slated him ? What I said was he isn't going to go on forever and we need to be looking at a realistic replacement. Even Dougie had to hang his boots up eventually.

Yeah but will he be one of our best players next season ? Unless someone else gets signed we'll have Nuttall, Brererton and Samuel to play up front.

Only Dack has been a roaring success. Reed is a good player but will he be here next season. Everybody else will be a year older and the stalwarts are not likely to be better. If we stay up I think we'll probably be OK next season but if we're looking for promotion we need changes.

When players get around the 33 mark they can be here today gone tomorrow from a physical point of view.

Looking back over the history of football management not being able to improve a successful team has got plenty of managers the sack. I was reading about Bill Shankly the other day, a great manager but totally ruthless when it came to moving players on, as club legends like Ian St John, Roger Hunt, Ronnie Yeats all found out

Johnny Byrom was only 17 when he was playing for the Rovers first team in the First Division. Stuart Metcalfe would have been about that age when he made his debut.

I thought he was the sort of player who can dominate youth team games because of his size advantage but when they get up against blokes their own size they lose that advantage. Maybe he just didn't fancy it at Rovers and his heart wasn't in the move ?

Yeah I saw that, I know he's only a young lad but he looked deeply average when I saw him play.

I agree, the minute you start standing still in this game is the minute you actually start going backwards.

Most centre halves are vulnerable to the sort of ball that gets them turning sharply. That's why they are centre halves and not strikers. An ideal pairing is one centre half that dominates in the air and a quicker guy that gets everything on the ground.

He was on the verge of a big move a couple of years ago, then he broke his leg. He's hardly played since then. Quite a gamble there, I hope it comes good for him.

I see just as we recall Wharton because he wasn't playing at Lincoln Jason Shackell, who I assume Wharton would have covered for, got himself sent off yesterday.

I agree with a lot of that Ben. Lot's of very tall guys are not great at heading the ball. You can see that Crouch wasn't a natural. It's not just about being brave, I loved a tackle as a player but I didn't relish a contested header. There's always an exception to the rule though, Mike England was 6 ft 3inches tall with a fantastic spring. I've seen him attack a corner with a running leap and head the ball down into the top corner of the goal ! One of the reasons why he's still be best centre half I've ever seen.

Players who can carry the ball from the defensive third of the pitch into the attacking third are a nightmare for defenders to play against.

It's a bit too early to say yet but there's a class player in there. He just needs to show us some more.

The first time I saw Tugay play for us he launched a fantastic pass through for Matt Jansen to run onto. The weight and direction of the pass was perfect and he'd put back spin on the ball so when it bounced it sat up perfectly for Jansen to chip the goalkeeper who'd come racing off his line. I thought then " This lad's some player, only top class footballers can play that sort of pass ".

Douglas was Tugay with added pace.

I think you could be right Bazza. My lap top isn't that clear in that area of the photos.

I just named them.

Are you sure that was him ? I can't see any spelling mistakes.

Some great photographs there from the era when I first started going to Ewood. Bimpson, Dobing, Ferguson, Lawther. Taylor, Vernon, Woods, Bimpson. Bray, Harrison, McEvoy, Byrom. Lawther, Newton, Whelan, McGrath.

No, it's Latin.