Now he would make an exceedingly good player.

Good advice - I will be having either a bike ride or a good walk on Sunday. However on Saturday afternoon I’ll be busy watching Rovers.

I was saying that just because there has been a media story that Stoke might be interested in a player doesn't mean that Rovers aren't also chasing players as well. Your post gave the impression that somehow Stoke were being more pro-active. Maybe they are but I assume you have no way of knowing.

What is noticeable is that there has been a media story about what Stoke are doing, which is not the same thing. It doesn't mean we aren't doing the same, just that no one has either found out or has posted a speculative story.

The producers of the BBC documentary are still interested in getting any footage you might have of Rovers from our promotion to the Premier league up to winning the title. They have now asked me to check if anyone has any material you might have relating to the 1992 playoff final against Leicester? This could be the build up in the days before, fans travelling to or arriving at Wembley, and then during or after the game. As usual, the will licence any footage and pay a fee for it. If you have anything you think might be of interest please pm me.

He's from Chester and could easily commute to Brockhall from there (if he still lives there).

I thought you were planning to watch Ipswich v Swindon?

Nah - Spiral's on BBC4.

I'm glad you're not the groundsman then. Laying a new pitch in the middle of January with another game next Saturday? Really?

Yes but that wasn't my point. Gav was suggesting that we can no longer compete with PNE in the transfer market. I was pointing out that they are only wanting to sign Whiteman because they need to replace Pearson and his sale could fund it. If Pearson or one of the others doesn't go for a decent fee in January they won't be buying Whiteman.

PNE need to sell one or two of their best players to pay for him - Pearson and/or Davies will be funding Whiteman (or not). No doubt we could flog Travis say to buy Whiteman but why would we?

Seeing the new (and last) series was starting I decided to download the fist few series that we never saw. I can't remember when we came in so I downloaded everything the BBC had, all 73 episodes - it took all night for them to download. We have one episode of the very first series to watch tonight. I should catch up sometime in February! We watch an awful lot of subtitled TV. It's one great advantage apart from the usually high quality, assuming you can't understand the language, is that you have to watch the screen the whole time and the temptation to be constantly glancing at your phone/iPad is removed.

My PNE mates are expecting Pearson and maybe Davies will be moving in January for fees. Probably not big fees as they only have 6m on their contracts but maybe enough to get Whiteman.

I suspect they are planning to get enough in fees for Pearson and Davies to pay for Whiteman.

They have arguably their 4 best players out of contract - Ben Davies, Ben Pearson, Daniel Johnson and Darnell Fisher. It looks like Pearson is off to Celtic and there is wide interest in Davies. Whiteman is designed to replace Pearson and wold be their 4th signing if he did.

How many are you expecting him to score as a defender, maybe midfield? For the record he scored one at Hartlepool.

He has played the last several games in midfield.

It's just worked fine for me, using my iMac.

According to wikipedia he turned 21 on 17/12/20.

They did beat them in the reverse fixture on Boxing Day.

Remember this side struggled to beat them in August........... 33 Fisher 24 Rankin-Costello 26 Lenihan 28 Wharton 17 Bell 27 Travis 4 Johnson 10 Holtby Substituted for Rothwell at 41 minutes 11 Chapman Substituted for Dolan at 65 minutes 7 Armstrong 20 Brereton And to save Sparks pointing it out Ben Whiteman wasn't in their side that day.

A quick glance at Hartlepool's recent games seems to suggest that Magloire has been playing most games but in midfield rather than as a centre back?

For me I's like to know what Sparks' view of John Buckley and Ben Whiteman is ............

I see that both Sheffield Wednesday and Derby have had to close their training grounds because of covid. Might be good news for Chorley's cup tie.

I presume if the game ends up being called off then we get a bye to round 4 - that's what has happened in previous rounds. Doncaster already have 3 postponed league games to fit into their schedule.