Den - You've pretty much said what Thompson is all about. He can pass, run with the ball and like you say has plenty of enthusiam. Defensively? I think he's ok, not the best but not the worst. Last Sunday there was the incident where Savage hit the post towards the end of the game, who was in the box to clear the ball? Thompson when fully fit can run all day, Gencler at home in the UEFA Cup ws an example of what he can do but, in my opinion he's the best player to replace Tugay. Tugay can pass well, but strength on and off the ball, work rate and determination I'd rather have Thompson instead.

The fans involved will be punished accordingly. The sooner this case is done with, the better we don't need it in the news every day. Fan fined over Yorke racial abuse

The abuse Lennon has suffered since his move to Celtic has been shocking, he retired from international football because of it. The issue of religion needs to be dealt with, I don't know what the SFA have done, if any, to prevent it. Not only on the pitch, but Lennon and his family have suffered abuse in general every day life, If I remember rightly his wife was attacked in Glasgow some time ago. No NI comeback for Lennon O'Neill critical of Lennon abuse Ex-footballer makes 'racist' remarks at ball - Thought this might be of some interest.

Very interesting preview. Have to go for. Fulham 2 - 3 Rovers Lots of goals yet again with Rovers leaking them and scoring again.

Blues chairman backs Yorke claim In a way I can see where Sullivan is coming from and where he isn't. Yorke had every right to warm up where he wants to, or where he was told to warm up. But, after hearing the comments of various ex-players they seem to have two sides to it. The racism isn't acceptable from the fan and he'll be dealt with in the next few days. But last Wednesday, in my opinion Sean Wright-Philips suffered far worse racism than Yorke did, I know Yorke was still racially abused but compared to what SWP received in Madrid, it was nothing. Yorke shouldn't have gone and confronted the fan. The situation could have turned a lot more nasty than it was, the fan and Yorke were face to face, other fans came to the scene and the stewards took for ever in handling the situation.

I'll give Cole a good reception down at Fulham and here at Ewood. In his first season he kept us up, and played part in winning us our first trophy in a few years. He did have a bad season, never got a good run of games because of hamstring injuries and did get some stick, deservedly so in some cases. Last season his goals were very important in keeping us in the Premier League. Not only his goals, but he was playing for the club and the fans, not just for himself. Remember the reception Cole got on the lap of honour after the Birmingham game last season?

Don’t really know what to say about the performance. Started off really well and after the early goal, I think we all thought that three points was there for the taking. It’s been a while where we have gone a goal up and really we should have been in control of the game from then on. People may blame Jay for the goals, I do admit that he was at fault for them, but not entirely. The left winger, Emerton needs to give Jay more cover. For the rest of the season I don’t think Emerton can carry on as a left winger, just because there is a un-balance to the team on the left as he keeps coming inside and leave Jay exposed. Even so Birmingham’s goals I still feel could have been prevented if we had better defenders. I say this because we need new, improved defenders. I’m sure Hughes has his eye on defenders that he would like to bring, but we need them. The defence still is conceding far too many goals. The midfield had a good game, the fitness regime has paid dividend and the midfield is operating a lot better than it used to. Ferguson had a decent game along with Emerton, Reid I thought had another solid game, yet I’m still unsure on Tugay. Seeing Thompson back was good, he brings a lot more options to our game. And was the reason in us getting back into the game. Jansen scored a great goal with a great move prior to it, unfortunate to get a dead leg from Melchiot. Gallagher made an impression and has to be considered for a starting place in the next few games, Dickov yet again worked his socks off. Overall, I game we played ok, but should have done a lot better.

I and most will agree with you there. SkySports also show the 'fan' appearing to doing an impression of a fan. After the fan was escorted, I don't know it anyone else saw this, but Yorke told various stewards what the fan had done to make him become angry. That fan deserves to be named and shamed, not the Blackburn fans.

The whole story today has been blown out of proportion. Sky Sports were live at Ewood a bit ago and basically confirmed that it was two/three fans involved in the incident, with one with video evidence that he did racially abuse Yorke. Yorke was always going to get stick, he's an ex-Rover who didn't achieve, or show any interest in the club, so he's bound to, but not racism. I'm sure the club will deal with the matter with Lancashire Police properly and we'll have to wait for what they say. Police probe Yorke 'racism' claim

In my opinion Dunn gave everything when he was a Blackburn player. I admit at times Dunn did try and be the best, but overall when he played in a Blue and White shirt he gave 100% every game. Dunn was a huge influence why we gained promotion along with several other teams in the 2000/01 campaign. Dunn could have ran in front of the Blackburn End but didn’t. He’s still a supporter of the club, compared to Shearer when he scored his first goal for Newcastle at Ewood in the FA Cup, grinning his face of in front of the Blackburn End.

Yorke was booed simply because he was too lazy for us. I booed him, yes. My reason for booing him was that last season when the going got tough, Yorke wasn’t there. He rarely put effort in a Blue and White shirt. Today he got booed, don’t think it was ever a surprise to anyone that he was going to get booed. He was on top wages at the club and looked as if he didn’t care, that’s when fans get annoyed. On MOTD 2, that’s just been on the incident referred to Yorke was that a Blackburn fan had been ejected for giving Yorke a hand gesture, nothing to do with racism as Yorke and Bruce suggested.

There was always going to be a bit of banter with Yorke and the Rovers fans. It was right in my vision in front of me. I saw a Rovers fan in a yellow away shirt, I think, go up to the front of the railings and said something to Yorke. Yorke reacted straight away, jumped over the sponsor boards and seemed to say something back. Before several stewards and a police officer escorted out the fan, I then saw Yorke doing an impression of a monkey to alarm people what actually went on. The chanting of there's only one greedy.... is fine, if the Rovers fan did racially abuse Yorke, then there's no excuse.

Well said. No matter how badly he messed the squad up, I really don't care about him anymore. Whether he does well at Newcastle is up to him and how he decides to manage them, if he does differently. I'll give him till December '05 at the latest before he's out of a job again. But anyway, the only time I really want him to fail is against us on Boxing Day at Ewood.

Says in the article below that Dunn along with Morrison will return from injury. Blackburn v Birmingham Team for Sunday Friedel Neill - Todd - Nissa - Jay Emerton - Thompson - Ferguson - Pedersen Dickov - Gallagher

Me too. I thought the ending to the missions at the end was poor, considering the missions building up to it, the ones that you've mentioned, were very good. At the moment, I'm taking over all the other gang's turf now. Brilliant game though. I'm taking over the turfs as well, I have got about 30 now, Lagos down to 9 and the Ballas down to 11 I think!! Those Lagos are hard @#/?s though Do you know if once you take over a whole gangs turf does it wipe them out completely or will they still attack you hood? I think, although I'm not sure, but they can still come and attack you up to a point, there's loads to do so it should keep you busy. Is there going to be another GTA released within the next year or two?

Me too. I thought the ending to the missions at the end was poor, considering the missions building up to it, the ones that you've mentioned, were very good. At the moment, I'm taking over all the other gang's turf now. Brilliant game though.

Thought the Rovers players on the pitch played well tonight. Emerton stood out of the three who started the game, seems to be playing with a lot more confidence this season for both club and country than this time last year, perhaps he's settled in now. Neill made a decent run and assist for Australia's goal, but at times has to work on his distribution of the ball. MGP - Looked ok on times, but needs to be a lot stronger if he wants to make it in the English League. Norway hold SocceRoos

Is anyone up to the third island yet? I'm working for Woozie in the casinos, has anyone met Pete and Macca yet Call me sad, but this is probably one of the best games I've played in a long time.

Don't put ideas into his head please

Rovers 2 - 1 Brum Emerton, Dickov - Savage 20,963

At the moment both managers are getting by, just. Hughes has found the players that make the club's best team with what Souness has left him. And it seems that we are beginning to play better than at the beginning of the season. Souness picked up a young, promising squad of players. Like we found he has begun to play players out of their usual positions. What will be interesting is the game at Ewood on Boxing Day and when the tranfer windown re-opens. Both managers have cash to spend, we'll see who spends it more wisely come May.

Couldn’t make the game today unfortunately. From watching the highlights it looked as if we were in control for the majority of the game. Looked like the centre of defence looked solid enough again, with Nissa becoming a better centre half game by game. The midfield looked as if it was doing exactly the same style of play that they played against Liverpool at home. Not allowing City to pass it, but closing them down every time. The passing play again, didn’t look as if we were a team at the bottom of the table. Although from what I’ve heard of mates who went to the game and what I saw from the tv, yet again Tugay at times was sloppy when in possession. Simple pass please. What at times we lack is the final pass, the cutting edge, a good pass to rip a defence apart, or a clinical finish from any of the strikers. Great to see Thompson back, with Thommo, Ferguson and Emerton, those particular players in that midfield looks promising in games to come. Oh yes, we got a penalty, finally. After the Boro game at home, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to the team. However I’m confident enough now to think that from our last three games, we are making steps in the right direction. The next couple of games are going to be crucial, whether it will kick-start our season or we’ll struggle again. Games against Birmingham, Fulham, Spurs and others, points are there for the taking if we play our football. Man City 1-1 Blackburn

Shev - It took me ages as well to do Zero's misisons. Several times I managed to shoot them down but ran out of fuel after I shot the last one down and flew back to Zero's base. The trick is to do the first three really quickly, using less than a third of your fuel. Once you take off you can shoot two very quickly down, the couriers are quite close together on streets adjacent to each other. The third one is a bit of a way off, then the last two. Fly as quickly as possible all the time, eventually you'll get it. Good luck.

To drink - The Stanley lets small numbers of away fans in. I was told to avoid Queen Victoria and Crossroads pubs at the bottom of Grey Mare Lane by a City fan. Man City v Blackburn - Team News

Well pointed out. Zero's missions are really challenging. I managed to complete his missions, but it took me at least 4/5 times on each one apart from one where I did it first time. I think it's using the analog pad on the controller which seems to make it harder. Just started the mission 'Monster' on the third island, that's where I'm up to at the moment.