Exactly Den - there you go TDI What I could guarantee is - if we had been playing a Semi Final this weekend - we would certainly not see a performance similar to the ones what we have been watching over the last month or so. Too many players off colour - no excuses please the players know how long the season lasts

Excellent post AESF, however we have been conceding stupid goals for a while and not just this season - IMO we give up to easily in certain defensive situations and don't do enough to break down attacks - and comes back to what I posted earlier about how other teams seem to find us easy to score against given the chance. As for the burn out -sorry TDI but just codswallup this is just a poor excuse for inexcusable performances - the players primarily concerned with the poor inept displays have not played a near full season anyway. Yet again we had the chance to propel ourselves forward with a mighty leap -but looks like we have done the usuual and fell over our own shoelaces.

Indeed Floppers - but surely somebody can realise this and at least try -its just we seem to be so devoid of idea's without the Turkish Maestro unless Bells struts his stuff

Comes back to what I commented upon a couple of months back regarding how teams always seem to score easily against us given a chance yet we struggle and have to really work at scoring and waste far too many 'scoring'opportunities. Last night reminds me so much of the West Ham game some seasons back when they where relegated. Typical Rovers always take their foot of the pedal too early - same in games when we seem to be coasting something which we all know is nothing new for some reason. One thing is certain which I forgot about in the player of the season thread, which I disagree with Hughes upon and that is IMO we are at present most of the time a one man team - if Bellamy doesn't fire neither does the team. Nobody else appears to have the urge/drive to try to force the issue.

Bellamy - but only because he has done most of it on his own and without him we would definitely not be where we are now. Nelsen has been immense (would have been mine if another forward had contributed sufficiently with Bellamy) but he has had a fairly decent set of defenders with him for the majority - Neil has become bit more rocksteady and Todd has been Todd with Gray outstanding then v.poor. Friedal - Also deserves recognition Reid - Improved immensely but still a bit more required. Pedersen - For his goals contribution but little else. The rest have done their jobs to a high degree to make the team achieve what it has thus far.

Same here - and a scoreline that keeps popping up but to who? We haven't been playing very well and are probably due a tubbing - however vice versa and are due a decent performance and win away from home. We got a decent point at Portsmouth who are a better team in my opinion than Brum - however as we all know the Bluenoses need the win and I just fear the home advantage will carry them through to victory. I just hope it isn't the case and we can add one of the final nails and pass the hammer over to somebody else. So 0v0 it will probably be

Like it or lump it ( as we played last night) miraculously we salvaged a point - which as many have siad could prove to be more valuable than it seems at the moment. BUT GOD IT WAS BLOODY AWFUL!! For the 3rd game in a row IMO we have been poor but yet again have emerged with points on the board - which can only be a good sign. So not wanting to reiterate what has always been said :- Firstly credit to Paul Jewel and is merry band of pie eaters - he did his homework and the players copied it - ticks all round for the underateds. How much longer do we have to put up with the ferkin useless officialdom -PJ had every right to lambast the ref /why didn't Sparky as he was as bad for both teams. Nothing wrong with either of our goals or Wigan's - clash of players for our 2nd (1st)- Neils momentum carried him through after a push -Filan lost control of the ball before contact. Refs/Liesmen (not a typo) - useless. Kuqi - Changed the game somehow and scored our equaliser - did he meant it? Still shouldn't be allowed to play again after that run down the wing and his non-attempt at the ball. Hand ball in the middle of the pitch - obviously only Savage gets cautioned for this offence. Tugay - opened up the midfield for our benefit once he settled after coming on. Ref/ Liesman - useless not for the first time Savage - pure awful until the last 10-15mins but then again we where totally outplayed in midfield upto then Pedersen - does he not know how to vary corners -forget about scoring direct -Wigan had you sussed. Ref/liesman - ferkin useless (again) for both teams Bellamy - 2nd half challege was a penalty. Ref/liesman - bottled it again - even further ferkin useless. Nelson - thank foook he's ours. Full time - ref/liesman still ferkin useless 1 - 1 fair result? (depends whether you prefer hotpot or pies)

I know - just totally forgot sorry

Didn't I see you in York Saturday Steb? Anyway - the x1 arrested was indeed a Burnley Fan - whether he goes anymore I don't know but is well known in the Accy area. I was on a Stag do and the place was full of Accy people consisting of Blackburn and Burnley Fans as well as others and regular Stanleys. Alot had gone up because of what happened at the home game in Accy.

RB - Personally, I don't think we are wrong in moving the fixture and empathise with the Liverpool supporters What I do find wrong is the timing and the way it has been done( as its not as if they haven't had enough time to sort), mostly in detriment to the Rovers fans especially after the bollux from the FA re the FA Cup re the movement of the SF's from Cardiff last season. In fact this is better for me as I am at a wedding on the Saturday and have been trying to sort a way of getting out of it That's not the point though - the morality and etiquette of it is though No qualms about not getting a refund Steb Renwal time and the FANS remembering is.

Exactly Steb - difficult though the situation is, this has gone from Rovers being accommodating to being sheite muslimed on. SIMPLE ENOUGH - Why don't we Rovers Fans BOYCOTT the game

Personally, I think the general concept of 'Price' is being mis-interpreted. Although there is alot that contributes - IMO I think the downward spiral is more to do with VFM and fans perception in that nowadays it costs too much to watch a game of football at Ewood regardless of what is advertised. As mentioned in many discussions on here and in the BRISA letter re other fans replacing the 'missing ' fans - Blackburn do not have nor carry the 'hype' for the floating fan/supporter to just'pop' down as such on a whim. The problem for our club is that alot of the 'ex loyal regulars' have now fell into the way of thinking of the above and the 'matchday experience/ritual' is lost, regaining it is not an overnight thing. Advertise all we want (£15 tickets etc) - but alot of support has been lost to never return - the hardwork now and probably the success for our future (it has been mentioned numerous times) is getting the younger generation to strike up an affinity with the club and getting them hooked and building from there.

Where the hell did he get that impression Just adds to my opinion about the none understanding of Roevrs fans he seems to have. So how far do we have to take it to make it negative - complaints have been going on for the past 2 seasons at least.

being reasonable and looking at the fixtures I have got it to us finishing 6th with Bolton finishing level with Spurs but losing out on goal diff, the rest staying as it is now -exceptance if a team breaks from the rest. Rovers - +17pts Spurs- +15pts Notlob - +19pts Arses - +18pts Wham- +17pts Wigan- +11pts

We are Paul - the future without drums!! Agree on the F/S stand though, however nothing wrong with the Riverside ( I started my Rovers days off in the old Riverside- the BB End was the place in them days to work your self into as you got older - or climb over the wall that used to be at the corner

One of them was, however he didn't have a drum then. Atmosphere was better before we won the title, the 'old BB End' may not have been the best but it had its own atmosphere and characters. Bring back the horn I say or the guy with the bumley Turd Hat, or should that be the Turd Bumley hat or just plain Turd hat They have been told from some quarters where to stick it and the one mentioned above has worn his drumsticks literally - unfortunately the perpatrator of such act is banned from the ground or was for a while. GET RID FOR FFS - Steb its over to you at the FF or Scotty and Brisa.

My worry is are the flaming things breeding!!! We now have x4 FFS. We need to get rid not get in to em....................

Something I posted 2 seasons ago ER No Beef with Pongo for me Neil The way I look at it is - Emerton will still have a saleable value come the end of the Season - lets make use of it

Well 1864 I hope you where drunk when you posted. Was debating before the game whether we should offer Tugay another 1yr contract - not because I don't rate him but because of whether time has caught up on him. I think last night answered it perfectly. As per many this has got to be Hughes' biggest challenge so on the basis of using Tugay sparingly lets put in a bid for Nolan at Bolton. I'm sure at the end of this season we could be in a position to pay a better wage than Bolton along with being an attractive enough pull as long as MU don't step in. Anyway back to the game -(note to Hughes - when Sunderland are officially relegated - 'ARCA'). Not the best but a wins a win yet we still looked a bit jittery. Thought Savage and Reid where poor until later in the game, but to be fair to Savage he did take a few whacks. Pongo - Thought he started of quite brightly, has a good touch and appers to have vision but not use it and try's to do it all on his own - IMO seemed to think he could do the same as Bellers last night. Zurab - thought he did ok when he came on in midfield. Gray and Neill - although not outstanding and could have both cost us goals last night (and Todd) though they did alright in trying to up the attacking tempo coming forward. Pedersen - clearly not fit Sergio - very impressive Somebody said earlier about the strange organisation Sunderland have about them, and I too feel a little sorry for them (and their FANS) beacause although you can see they are trying, they are clearly not good enough however they could in all truthness have got something from the game last night given the chances they had. Also I think the comment re Stead not scoring is understandable considering the team he is playing in. So its of to Derby for a jolly and then bring on the Arse. Come on Blue boys we are approaching the finishing straight - LETS GO FOR IT!!

Which are?? For such a big guy he doesn't exactly win alot of headers- yes he challenges for them in a fashion but very rarely do they connect with his head unless he is unmarked. I said when we signed him he wasn't a Premiership player but lets see what he can do - well as much as we all like the guy and want him to do well the 'do' bit has not materialised and IMO needs shipping out at the end of the season. Personally, I wasn't surprised - our midfield is nothing much without Tugay and MGP hasn't really offered much lately except for his free kicks and still appears to have the inability to take on players. To say the team has the work ethic and is set up to play counter attacking football, we sure make it difficult for ourselves by what I term 'pissballing' about with the ball too much instead of going forward ie we seem to take so long to make decisions - couple that with the basic errors and 'daydreaming' (why do we always make it look easy for teams to score against us - yet have to work for ours or create 20 chances to score 1) is it any wonder. As somebody mentioned previously - midtable team is exactly what we are and we don't have the cream to rise to that next level.

Hope so, as he always seems to play well against us

Agree Steb Any idea on the colour of shorts with this - same red? Well there ya go then - thats my question answered - 1960's style ' tight square swimming' style for the ladieeez and maybe the 'men' of that nature. 3 v 3 for me as well

AR - I presume you just mean their home support as I would consider them one of the best (if not the best) away from home

Louis Saha - you can go on about MGP but this guy has something against us. Working in Manchester amongst the reds the feeling was of nervousness before the game because of there supposed lack of midfield - my response was we have no forwards and Saha is always a thorn in our side (inc Foolham) and would along with a contentious decision from the ref would more than likely settle the result ... (and no I'm not psychic... psychotic maybe) Anyway, last night was a chance to overrun them in midfield which we didn't and is where I feel Sparky got it wrong, culminate that with the individual errors/late subs and the vital decisions the ref got wrong and we all saw the results. Level thinking, I don't think any Rovers fan could have felt comfortable with the starting 2 up front, as so proved and likeable as he is I feel Kuqi has now signed his tfr form - lets just hope this has convinced the powers that be to release/obtain funds to purchase a new striker because if there was any doubt before there certainly isn't now. Overall I don't know whether to feel disapointed, annoyed, dismayed, proud or whatever but I do know that MU where there for the taking and we blew it. I don't feel either team did enough to win, and IMO neither team played in the knowledge that a Cup Final place was up for grabs. Well done to the fans that went last night and those that have supported them through the rounds.

Coming back to the goal - just one aspect that nobody appears to have picked up upon and worth considering and that's the Ref's decision and IMO my reasoning for justifying why I think the goal was given. As we all know the Norwegian is quite adept at heading a ball and in most circumstances would probably have met it fair and square on his bonce, however Bowyers foot was at head level when 'the hand of Ped' intervened which I feel MGP was aware of hence the reaction. Normally though in circumstances the Ref would have blown for high kicking yet there was nothing for this - if he had blown his whistle what decision would he have given? Penalty?(yes) freekick - where from as it would have been direct and on the line? Or then again he could have just missed it ....... what a shame