Tyrone Shoelaces

I,ve been very impressed with Chimbonda , For £500,000 he strikes me as a steal, he's got excellent athleticism, he,s good in possession and he can head it. We,ll have to see if he can maintain this form for a full season but he's one of the reasons Wigan are doing so well.

The famous last win was on Saturday the 13th of October 1962, Rovers scorers were Mick McGrath, Mike Harrison,Ian Lawther. The Team was- Else,-Bray,Newton,-Clayton,Woods,McGrath-,Ratcliffe,Lawther,Pickering,Douglas,Harrison. I've still got a cutting from the following Mondays Manchester Evening News,It's in the form of a cartoon strip about the game and one frame shows a really good caricature of Dougie dribbling in and out of about 6 opponents and generally running United ragged, if I wasn't such a Klutz I'd be able to scan it onto the message board. The following season was a night match which ended a 2-2 draw, I managed to miss 3 of the 4 goals that night ( could this be the game you refer to ?). In 1964-65 we lost 3-0 but I didn,t go to that one.This was also a Saturday game. The following year also a Saturday game in the relegation season, we were losing 2-0 at three quarter time but United's goalkeeper took exception to Mike England at a corner and laid England out, getting himself sent off and conceding a penalty from which Harrison scored. From us being dead and buried it was suddenly game on and we grabbed a scruffy equaliser from a deflected free kick again by Harrison.I hope this brings back some memories.As the years went by there were times when I thought we'd never win there again but yesterday shows than anything is possible in football.

Iv'e been banging on for a while about the full-backs ( especially Left-Back ) getting forward more often and making our attacking play less predictable, yeterday showed the benefit of that, could anybody see Matteo , steady as he is, robbing Scholes on the edge of their box and putting Pedersen in for the winner ? Trouble is can Gray defend ? Teams have latched on to the fact that a long diagonal ball over his head usually finds him wanting.

Sorry Tony you must be thinking of another game, the 3-0 game at Old Trafford was on a Saturday. I can still see Mick McGrath opening the scoring now, Douglas absolutely played them off the park but unfortunately missed a penalty that would have made it 4-0, we also played the last twenty minutes effectively down to ten men with Lawther limping on the wing.Happy days.

I'm listening to Doncaster v City at the moment, a bit earlier on a Doncaster player ran on to a through ball ,got pulled up for off-side, went on and banged the ball into the net - did he get booked ?????????? did he b-----ks .Give a dog a bad name?

I must admit I agree with most of the content of the last post if not agreeing with the tone. As for the people who advocate playing Savage in front of the back four, you're having a laugh, Savage isn't as quick, isn't as good in the tackle or in the air,and can't pass the ball any better than the Axe. Savage is not the player for that role, and when you look back to what Berkovic and Bohinen ( before he got injured) achieved in the more forward position, it makes you wonder what his position is. As for saying we lost because the referee failed to send of a Toon player, we're really clutching at straws now.

We hit absolute rock bottom today, worse than the four -nil canings by Boro and Chelsea last season, I felt sorry for the sponsors having to pick a man of the match! It's the same old problems ,we're slow out of the traps, we allow teams to play themselves in, the tempo is always pre season friendly standard, our shape is none existent in midfield, nobody seems to get forward and attack the spaces beyond our strikers, we very rarelyget behind teams, we're always playing in front of the opposition, players up field are taking the ball standing still instead of on the move- I could go on and on but to put it in a nutshell we play like a poorly coached team! We don't play in units, the midfield give minimal support to both attack and defence. As to players , Lucas Neill dived into a stupid foul straight from the kick-off and stupidly gave away a dangerous free kick when he was in a heading contest with the 5ft-6in Micheal Owen. If we needed any more proof that Steven Reid is not a wide player today was it. Robbie Savage is a massive liability and is preventing us having a real shape in mid-field. Pedersen doesn't get in the game enough and doesn't impose him self on the opposition. Kuqi can trap it further than I can kick it and although he's obviously a trier he's not going to make it at this level. I came away today fuming,what would Newcastle's first string midfield do to us,that lot today was the reserves ! Dangerous waters for the team and Mark Huges, that was relegation form today!

The referee booked him to shut him up, he'd been rabbiting in the ref's ear all afternoon,It's time he learnt to get on with the game and leave the refereeing to the guy with the whistle

I made the pilgrimage to Ewood yesterday and I was rewarded with two of the best goals I've seen in 40 years of watching the Rovers. We started off brightly and after going a goal up to what could be the goal of the season we looked like adding more goals as we pleased, we should have been two or three up at half time. Obviously a very poor Fulham team could only get better after half time and lo and behold a dreamy Rovers defence allowed them a soft goal right after half time. For ten minutes Rovers struggled to regain control but gradually we got back on top leading to Tugay's thunderbolt from a corner putting us back in front, after that we played the game out quite comfortably. I,m pleased we won our first home match and I'm glad we got the three points, only another thirty seven to go. One or two observations- Kuqi lacks Premier league ability and will never score the number of goals needed to make a major impression, having said that he never stopped trying and did his best to lead the line, he also uses his size without falling foul of the officials unlike Dickov who will always be in trouble. Nobody in the midfield got beyond our solitary striker at any point in the game , I don't expect Tugay to get that far up field but either Reid or Savage should be making these runs all the time ( very ,very disapointed with Savage I think we've bought a pup here, one of the most one paced players I,ve ever seen, he'd do better concentrating on playing and leave running the game to the man in black). Pedersen's obviously a very talented guy but he just drifts in and out of the game, we need to work on ways of getting him on the ball more, he's a genuine goalscorer. The back four and the goalkeeper did well, Neill and Nelsen especially, Lucas was bombing forward all the time and Fulham didn't now how to deal with him. Emerton looked all at sea ,his confidence is obviously gone, playing against Jensen ( not a bad footballer but not the best defender in the world) he needed to get the ball beyond him and just run him, but he didn't. Generally we need to pass the ball better ,we give it away much too often in dangerous areas of the pitch, Tugay, although he played well and passed it better than most is the No 1 culprit in this area. Come Wednesday we'll be playing a much better team than Fulham, give it away in our half and we'll suffer. I expect us to play 4-5-1 again , given our lack of genuine strikers we don't really have a choice.

I came on here a few weeks back saying what a bad first match the computer had thrown up, A newly promoted team away( not to mention West Ham, where we've only won once since 1963). My reasons were as follows- Their confidence would be sky-high following a recent promotion,and good results. The ground would be packed to the rafters. West Ham would have every player in a small squad available for selection. New players in the squad would be making their debuts and would be out to impress. I concluded by saying I would take a draw if offered one at any time, In my book an away point is a very good point in the circumstances. I got several replies all more or less saying I was talking ###### and the three points were there for the taking as long as we could be bothered to turn up! It looks like the team had the same idea! I just hope some of these wiseguys are reading this now. Without more creativity it,s going to be a long season, we can't afford two none tackling wide players , the Axe doesn't look like he can play centre half, and Matteo doesn't look like he can play left back- none of this is exactly news to anyone he watches Rovers on a regular basis. See you all against Fulham.

I'm with Rover 6 on the Gresko thing, I'm only going to say it once more- the lad can't defend ! If we boiled all our left-backs into one we may just have a decent player.

If he does get transfer listed Birmingham will be in like a shot, I think Bruce sees him as the next Robbie Savage.

It's got to be a good signing , it's simple really - he's better than what we've got by a long way. Team building is easy in theory, you just replace good players with excellent players and then you replace the excellent players with stars and before too long you,ve got a good team out there. Until recently Rovers were following this plan in reverse. One thing about Bellamy, all the teams we play next season will be defending 15 to 20 yards further back towards their own goals because of his pace, this should give our midfield a lot more room to play into .

Well, we'll see who's right after the West Ham fixture, as I said I'll take a draw now !!!!!!

West ham away for the opening fixture, why do we always get newly promoted teams first game in ? Their confidence will be sky high coming off a good run at the end of last season, no injuries ,no suspensions -the best time to play teams like this is mid season when they've had a few good bangings and confidence is on the slide, when injuries and suspensions have eroded a squad thats slim in numbers. Given the fact we never seem to win at West Ham even with good teams I'll take a draw now !!!!

My first game was on the 30th of September 1961, Sheffield United at home, we played crap and lost 2-1 but it didn't matter I was hooked, after that I went reasonably often until I started playing myself a couple of years later. Broke my right leg twice in the late sixties and had to call time on a promising career at 18, I've never really got over that ," I couda been a contender, I couda bin somebody ". I starting going down to Ewood again just as we fell into Division 3 as was and we had plenty of ups and downs until the Walker era. The last 15 years have brought more ups than downs and we live to fight another day. High points have been - Seeing us win in a canter 3-0 at Old Trafford in 1963, Bryan Douglas mesmerised them that day. Beating Spurs 7-2 at home when they were the best team in Gt. Britain by far. Beating Burnley home and away 1961-62 to stop them winning the title. Winning the Premiership and winning the Worthington Cup down in Cardiff. Low points have been- Losing several times to Rochdale ( my adopted home town, we left Blackburn when I was 5) the most galling of all in the league cup semi-final in the early sixties! Losing to Oxford the one year I thought we could really win the F.A. cup ( the final was between West Ham and Preston ! all the big sides had gone out early, we could have beat either of them easily.) Best Player- the one and only Bryan Dougas- Imagine Damien Duff and David Dunn rolled into one at their absolute best and that was Bryan. Lots of great memories ,that's why I find the football we're playing at present so disapointing. Having said that I've got confidence in Mark Hughes and I'm sure he'll get us footballing teams off the park before too long.

Apart from the late, great Keith Newton he was the best left back Rovers have had in my time ,( Bill Eckersley had just retired when I first visited Ewood). He was probably as good as anyone going forward and very tidy in defence, only his temperament let him down, as in the incidents in Moscow and with Perez when he was playing for Chelsea. What I can't forgive him for is when he had that truly awful ankle injury, ( against Middlesboro I think), he had the best treatment in the world courtesy of Rovers. If the surgery had not been successful and he never played again he would have expected his contract to have paid up to the last penny. As it was, as soon as he regained match fitness contracts were simply forgotten, he wanted a transfer and he was off. Another one of the Championship winning team that did the dirty on Jack Walker and the Rovers.

Much as I admire Tugay's passing skills in my opinion we've always allowed him to play too deep. Berkovic played where clever passing can hurt teams, from the half way line to the edge of the penalty box and he was always looking to carry the ball to the heart of the opposition defence ,pulling people out of position. I would still plump for Berkovic in spite of the fact he could cause trouble in an empty house. Of course this is based on past history, I can't see Berkovic ever playing again in the Premier League.

Re. Pedersens heading ability. The good news- He's got a good spring and gets up well for the ball. The bad news- He's got little control over his heading and the ball rarely goes where he would like it to.

I couldn't agree more , what Mark Hughes has done is nothing short of miraculous, last Autumn I thought we were dead and buried but he managed to bring us back to life. If he can get us playing winning football next season I will be even more impressed.

I watched the Baggies on Match of the Day and the score line was a travesty, they played really well and made loads of chances, only an exceptional performance by ' Boro's goalkeeper kept them scoreless. They did however look vulnerable at the back, Russel Hoult looked like he was carrying an injury. Maybe we can take advantage of this and keep them out at the other end. They're bound to throw the kitchen sink at us in the first 20 minutes if we can keep it quiet in that period I'll fancy us to get something.

Jan , have you considered knocking nails through the back of your hand ? it's slightly more painful than yesterdays game but a lot less expensive.

Awful game , neither team would have scored if they'd have played until midnight. Dry, bumpy pitch and a blustery wind at pitch level made life a bit difficult but there's no excuse for performances like that. My son, who lives a fair distance away has been to 4 games this season, West Brom 1-1, M,boro 0-4, Everton 0-0 and City 0-0, so in four home games he has not seen a Rovers forward score a goal in 360 minutes of football!!!!!!!.He was mightily p----d off today. We need to remember things like that when we lambast people for not turning up at Ewood. I thought the defence played soundly , Matteo played very well at left back , but forward of Makoena there was very little. Maybe the players were tired after a lot of big games in a short space of time but that was dreadful. Nice little cameo from Gallagher when he came on, he was sharp ,could actually run with the ball and beat a man. My favourite moment was the Axe tackle on Robbie Fowler near the dugout, can that man tackle !!! Savage is not in the same league when it comes to tackling.

Just been watching Match of the Day , Paul Scholes got sent off for a second yellow card ( which should have been a straight red ) for having the most almighty whack at an Everton player with the ball nowhere in sight. Nothing like this tackle happened in Saturdays Semi-Final, will it be all over Thursdays papers ? I think not. Watch this space.

Disapointed with the scoreline yesterday , the Rovers had their game plan which was to disrupt Arsenal's rhythm and stop them playing, Arsenal had their game plan which was to fall over in every tackle, working on the assumption that the ref would give them 75% of the free kicks and they were right. If the Arsenal way of playing is allowed to prevail football will not be the game I played and watched for 40 years, it will become a soccer version of rugby's tig and pass with physical contact not allowed. I admire Arsenal's football but their gamesmanship was sickening, I've never seen a team spend as much time lying on the grass. They had guys built like light-heavyweight contenders, Lauren,Toure, Vierra and co. going down when tackled by midgets like Thommo and Dickov as though they'd been hit with an axe. I'm prepared to give Todd the benefit of the doubt but given the disgraceful hue and cry lead by the London media I expect the F.A. will throw the book at him, today's Observer was particularly outrageous and I'm certainly going to change my Sunday paper after today. From a Rovers point of view the defence played well , but we lack creativity in midfield, Oh for a Berkovic type player who could carry the battle into their half, Pedersen was peripheral as was Thommo and Flitty. Reid and the Axe did their best but you can't beat Arsenal without everybody playing 100%. Up front we'd nothing, our lack of pace allowing Arsenal to play a very high line in defence and catch us off side all afternoon. Senderos turns about as fast as an oil tanker but we never got him turning all afternoon. We need to concentrate on achieving safety now with two home games on the bounce, four points from these two will do.