Match Report by Mike Payne England came back from their home defeat against the Irish with a superb victory over France which sowed the seeds of promise for the following year's World Cup finals in Sweden. Everyone felt that this England team must surely provide the nucleus of the Party for that tournament unless there was a major lapse in fitness or form. The big success in this game was the outstanding play of Bryan Douglas. Since the great Stanley Matthews left the international arena there had been a void which nobody had yet been able to fill. But the great man himself would have been proud of Douglas' performance against the French. He teased and and tormented the visiting defenders from the start and in the first half England were able to build up an impregnable 3-0 lead, thanks mainly to the wing wizardry of the Blackburn star. It was worth recording that for the first time Douglas had a proper inside-forward alongside him and Bobby Robson's performance was almost as impressive. The partnership certainly promised a great deal. The rout began as early as the third minute. Robson fed Douglas and the winger cleverly went round Kaelbel to centre. Tommy Taylor, under pressure from Tylinksi, timed his jump perfectly at the near post to beat Abbes superbly with a looping header to the far corner. In the 24th minute England notched a second. Again it was Douglas the provider as he received a good pass from Don Howe and then jinked his way past several challenges before only Abbes blocked his path to goal. The 'keeper dived one way and Douglas went the other before pulling the ball square, giving Robson the easiest of chances to score. Johnny Haynes was also in top form and he sprayed passes all over the lush Wembley turf. On the half-hour he sent a glorious through-ball for Taylor to run on to and the game was virtually all over at 3-0 to England. The French tried bravely to rally themselves early in the second half and Wisnieski was unlucky with one effort which struck the base of Eddie Hopkinson's post. This attempt at a revival was short-lived, though, and England soon regained control to dominate the rest of the game. They missed many glorious chances and Abbes leapt across his goal like a demented frog, getting in the way of several close-range attempts. Taylor, Haynes, Tom Finney, Robson and Douglas all missed straight forward chances and Abbes was by far the busiest player on the field. In the last 23 minutes, no less than 18 shots rained in on the French goal but miraculously for them only one more counted. That came with five minutes to go and was the icing on the cake. A superb seven-man move began with Duncan Edwards. Eventually, and inevitably, Douglas made the final pass, once again setting up Robson for goal number four. A damp and grey November dy had definitely been brightened up by a splendid England performance that augured well for the future and excited the crowd.

Thanks for that Den, a great watch. In the team: 3 Busby babes who would all lose their lives the following February. 2 from Blackburn Rovers, 2 from West Brom, and 1 each from Bolton, Wolves, PNE, and Fulham. Didn't matter which club you played for in those days. Duggie making three of the four goals, what a player.

Are kick ins being suggested instead of throw ins because most referees these days don’t recognise a foul throw if it hit them in the face.

Has he signed up yet or are the Loons stalling because they’ve seen that Pochettino is available 😃😃 Past history tells us anything can happen yet.

JDT’s Blue and White Army maybe? pity his initials aren’t DDT, we could do with some insecticide around Ewood. Does it have any effect on maggots?

Even Mogadon had a 51% win ratio at Celtic and he was only there for a year before he was binned.

He’s cryptic because like the rest of us he knows the square root of bugger all.

Of course it is but no different to any other posts. My point was that if, as we are now being told, that they want someone with championship experience who is still in work, then between Warne and Ainsworth who have very similar CV’s then I should have thought that Ainsworth would have been the choice. Anyway it is what it is if Warne is the choice.

But not as much passion as Ainsworth would generate sadly.

Ainsworth must have turned us down then

So Ancelotti wanted Ferguson to follow him to Real Madrid but Duncan wanted to stay loyal to Everton. He will ditch Everton though to come to Ewood ! You couldn’t make it up

Of course I can’t speak for Tyrone as I don’t know the man other than on here, but I spent a lot of time working in France in 2011-12 and saw Mahrez playing for Le Havre and I actually sent an email to Rovers telling them to have a look. Guess what? No reply was the answer. Regarding the Steve Walsh scenario. Are we sure the clowns are after the correct Steve Walsh?

Took the words right out of my mouth. It’s made out that spotting talent is some kind of secret society.

A target of 277 with a day and a half to play should be a walk in the park for any team who can bat…………oh but this is England!

Sorry folks it kept telling me to wait 10 seconds to post so I did.

Wasn’t he captain of Leicester when we beat them in the play off final?

Agreed. I can’t understand not wanting Ainsworth on merit regardless of his Rovers connection. The Wycombe job didn’t put clubs off wanting Martin O’Neil in the past

I thought it was Bertie Mee

The mentality is for the white ball game. Test cricket is an art and the white ball game is for sloggers.

Bob Dylan. Like a rolling stone

These English batters as they are called now should stick to battering fish.

Could easily have been 5-1

What? Worse the one I mentioned a few pages back, which I got slagged off for and then you , along with a couple of others, agreed with the person slagging me off. Anyway as this is supposed to be a forum but apparently we are not allowed to mention any prospective names. My money is still on the unmentioned one because he’s desperate, he will be cheap because he’s desperate and he comes from the NW and to top it all he’s crap. All the credentials for this rudderless club. I’ll leave it at that.

Just watching Halifax v Chesterfield. Didn’t realise that the top manager Paul Cook was the Chesterfield manager, so there’s another dead leg that would be right up Venkys street. Cheap and desperate, and another to add to a hate list of back room staff.

It makes you wonder what the outcome of the sale of Chelsea will pan out. Let’s see if the “Fit and Proper Test” works with that sale. I won’t hold my breath.