Forbes made 127 appearance between 1888 and 1894. Apparently not only was he a quality player-a scottish international,but was also a born leader of men and a"gentleman" rather than from the "school of hard knocks", the provenance of players such as Suter.He retired early because of ill-health. He went on to open " a gentleman's store" but from what I remember, there was also a toy department and a sports department.

Bryan-anti Souness does not mean anti Rovers.

Soness said he was a quality player but it would take him a few matches to settle in.

According to my paper Souness is being linked to the job, so it could be his first match against a manager-less Rovers.

Yes, Philip1 there is an argument for Souter(I think the spelling is Suter) to be included at right full-back.I didn't suggest him partly because the role of full back changed some time after Suter finished playing. Forbes should certainly be considered for left back-although I think there might be even stronger candidates. Many younger supporters won't know about the store that continued in business until approx the late 1970's that was started off by Johnny Forbes, nor will thet know about The Blackburn Times, for which William Westell wrote and in which there was reference to star players from the past-I believe these papers can still be read in the Refernce Library.

That's one of the best indictments that could be made about Souness.

Criag Short was our best defender last season.

I think we've got the theme for the next poll.

Pedersen, sorry.

If he doesn't he has seriously weakened the attacking side of the team over the last few months. What I'm worried about is that the challenge of improving Bothroyd appears to appeal to Souness' ego, whereas I can't think of many players the manager has improved.

What Dickov hasn't yet done is provide the service etc that Andy Cole did last seasonfor Stead.My concern about the new signing is that Souness is enthusiastic about him because of his potential that he has not yet achieved and also because he feels it is a challenge to deal with his questionable behaviour.

Wasn't it Perdersen who scored a goal at Chelsea that helped keep us up?

I like the idea of 2 keepers-but will Friedel cope up front?

Although Uncle Jack did not coincide with Bob Crompton,his earlier equivalent did and that was why we won the 2 champoinships before the first world war.

Yes, he's available-we want to get rid. Oh no he's not-not even if you bid £400,000.He's worked hard in pre-season and he deserves his chance. Now he plays.Now he doesn't. Oh yes he is-take over his wages and you don't even have to pay a fee.We're rich, we're Uncle Jack's club.

Has Rooney signed for MU yet?

Neither club was named in the LET.

I read the report in the Daily Telegraph after I knew that Robson had been sacked. "If Robson is no longer the right man, the nettle should have been grapsed by the indecisive Freddie Shepherd during the summer recess...........If at 71 , for all his wisdom, Robson is not able to maintain empathy with 18 to 23 year-olds- a not unreasonable assessment-that situation was no different in June. Newcastle transparently need a new central defender. And why? Because they sold Jonathan Woodgate. Whose decision was that? Kluivert,so gifted,but so errant off the field, was riskily handed , on a free transfer, the keys to the Bank of England.Why? After years of boardroom mismanagement, Shepherd should be examining his own credentials." There is more to the report but I thought this was interesting as was the article in the Sunday Telegraph about Robson and Shearer(Can you do me a link,Alan?)

Just to get back to the match..................my impression of them was that ,although they should have scored 6,they were not a great team and were in fact going backwards. Ferdinand, RVN was missing up front and they didn't have a midfield player who could tackle. Alan Hansen in the Daily Telegraph argues that " United are not just trailing Arsenal and Chelsea by 8 points but they are looking a long way behind in terms of form........United are a shadow of the team they were then(4 years ago). Today, at home to Everton, they hit the woodwork 3 times and according to reports, should have had a penalty awarded against them. I think all this puts our performance into perspective.

Yes 2 clubs have enquired about taking Jansen ,on loan-1 club is English and 1 is from the continent.

I'm sure that every poster will still be upset by the refereeing decision that robbed us of 2 more points yesterday. What I'm a bit surprised about is that people have not concentrated more on the quality of our display. We had 4 shots on target-they had 15. We had 4 shots off target-they had 9. We had 4 corners-they had 14. I could symphasise with Souness being reluctant to play Gray, who has brought a great deal of stability to the defense and did a lot of covering for Amoruso last year, but who has struggled against specialist wingers.I'm just not convinced that Matteo, with lack of his pace,is the answer. In the second half, when the game got stretched, we very rarely broke with pace. I'm not convinced that Tugay and Ferguson can play effectively together. Tugay needs to play behind the strikers, I'm not sure of Ferguson's best position. I personally think there is a big question mark about what I guess is our record signing, but maybe he will come good by October.as Souness said, after 12 games. As I said, on the Emerton posting, despite playing hist best home game since he joined us ,I still think there is also a huge question about whether he will make it at Premiership level. Dickov scored an excellent poacher's goal and worked hard. But he's no Andy Cole and Stead, who is looking a little lost this year, needs a partner who can replicate Cole's contribution from last year. So lady luck came into it again and intervened on our opponent's behalf. However, I can't remember a meaningful save that Howard had to make, nor did I see the kind of quality that is going to get us away from the bottom.

Den-I would suggest that keeper is one of the weakest areas for star players because I think we've had quite a few good defenders as well.

I've seen them all and I've just voted. It was sad to see Arnold get only 1 vote-he was very good. Had to vote for Friedel as he was the best. So far.

John Butcher was one of the worst keepers we had- but he was a good penalty stopper from what I can remember.Gennoe was a steady eddy 2nd Division keeper-not as good as Arnold who he replaced.

Wasn't Butcher also a good penalty stopper?