Enjoying Season 2 of this. I spent my corporate career working in marketing where you meet a lot of vacuous wankers, but none more so than “Charlie“ now running Sunderland. What a clown!

You’re not wrong Mark, I have much more positive memories of our time at St Edwards, not least because I was in that team! Three buses to get to SMC, a class half full of Burnley fans, all that faux public school stuff (gowns, houses etc.) and teachers who seemed more bored with their subjects than was I. The only one I really liked taught us Physics (gruff old geezer who called us “blokes” - forget the name) but I never forgot about resonance thanks to him referring to the Tom and Jerry cartoon where the ants march along the hammock strings!

From the enclosure it looked like you could’ve thrown your cap on it from your deck chair...!

Living proof that leaving the centre circle shortens the lives of refs.

Shout out for Ken Knighton

I thought the stonework looked West Yorkshire pennine towns

Except Rovers didn’t beat Old Etonians in the final

I’d take Brotherston ahead of the bookies’ favourite.

A very enjoyable series. The factual inaccuracies are there to sharpen the Interpersonal and inner conflicts which drive all drama. Each character is conflicted by some element of the football story presented: Toffs vs factory lads; amateurs vs pros (between and within teams); Blackburn vs Darwen. The football story was changed (and had to be imo) to sharpen those conflicts. Olympic was the first working class team to win the cup but had no pros. Rovers had pros and dominated the game but were stacked with public schoolboys. It would’ve been far too confusing, and detrimental to the drama, to stick to reality.

Bloody Dalglish not being able to close a game out....

Ditto, I made all those observations to Mrs B. I’m not sure about the Old Etonians all being cads and bounders storyline, I’m pretty sure they didn’t invent the rules just to bend them, and it was us playing two pros! Onward to episode 2 and the semis!

Mowbray’s wording has subtly changed from “He will..” to “He needs to...” ie nothing to do with me Guv. I watched the first goal vs Derby again and Brereton was just pathetic at the beginning of their move, running away from the guy who burst past Downing. You can see Downing yelling and pointing Brereton to the guy but he does nothing. So then it’s a two in one against Travis and bang, 1-0

He hasn’t been worth £2 million the last two games without Lenihan beside him

I’ve only ever seen him ghost past midfielders who are mostly content to let him run across the pitch. However, near the penalty area he either runs into traffic, passes to an opponent or puts crosses into the Riverside - as you say, a classic number 10...

He had the best possible development money could buy at Utd. Had two loans, neither of who came back for him, and ended up at Oxford Utd. where he’d still be if we hadn’t signed him for nothing. A lot of football people better than Mowbray must have also used him badly. Or maybe he’s just a bit crap.

It’s only a missed opportunity if we are good enough to take it, which we aren’t. There’s more holes in this squad than Swiss cheese, the biggest ones being the Brereton and Gallagher-shapes ones (plus scorer of great goals not great goalscorer Armstrong.) A decent season, IMO, depended on two of those three hitting 15+ goals, and two of them aren’t going to have 15+ goals Rovers careers. Add in the awful Rothwell and that’s four “goal threat” players who all looked League 2 standard today. Gallagher, Rothwell and Brereton together have 41 starts with four goals and two assists between them. Pathetic. If we start with Nyambe, Lenihan, Tosin, Bell, Travis and Johnson we can stay in a game. As to the other four, Armstrong Graham, Downing and Rankin-Costello would be my picks. Still a midtable team though.

Injuries and suspensions catching up with us at the back. Nyambe not fast enough out to close down the shooter for both of them, plus the downside of playing Downing in centre mid exposed by Travis’s early booking. I feel with Johnson and Lenihan it’d be 0-0. Can we finally see the back of Joe Rothwell? Completely peripheral until setting up Derby’s second with his usual sloppiness. Waste of a shirt at this level unless it’s against some crap team at home. And with Armstrong misfiring the last 2/3 games we have become toothless as no-one else is capable of stepping up.

Building to promotion doesn’t always work. Three of the five relegation seasons I witnessed followed on from top half finishes (from memory - can’t be arsed to go upstairs for my Jackman) The first two relegations to the 3rd Div and Woy’s second season.

I do remember them, and miss their contributions, which often had a subtle wit. But neither of them made any bones about their provenance; indeed, didn’t we all refuse to believe MG Road’s claim to work in Venky Towers? The last ten years on here have shown me, for one, that the opinions of the 20-30 prolific posters are as fixed as Mount Rushmore, irrespective of which new posters wander inadvertently into the echo chamber!

Of the many hilarious things posted on here, the fact that some posters think theirs views are so important that someone would be paid to argue against them tops the lot! Excellent set of results all things considered, even a draw tomorrow wouldn’t be a disaster.

Superb motivator, I’ve been told! Four of the five teams above us dropping points, with two getting tanked at home.

I just found this. Pretty much every name except Sir Roger is wrong!

Good shout on Hird. I can’t remember what Kenyon looked like! As they are definitely not Sir R, The Don and Mick Heaton, I’m struggling for other names.

Going back to the 74-75th 40th anniversary, can anyone put names to faces? I only recognise Parkes, Faz, Beamo, Hawkins and Lee.

And yet, by the definition of success on the Mowbray thread, he was a failure! Definitely a pivotal appointment in that, like Furphy, he changed the trajectory of the club while the next manager added a little bit extra and got all the glory.