Well- here's my team....... Thomspon and Stead have done little to warrent inclusion but I think changing things up as Emerton and Gally have been so poor. I cannot see how Thompson would be less of a threat than Emerton. I have a suspicion however that neither Thompson or Stead will even get on the bench if recent selections hare any guide. Bothroyd should be hounded back to italy. 2-1 Rovers MGP, Stead (I wish....)

Fantastic result although the performance was a bit worrying. Our only real attacking threat remains MGP, even Dickov did not have much about him. Good to see a bit of decent banter between the fans on the message board rather than a slagging match (including the burnley site which I had a look at, a couple of morons giving Rovers a bad name but most had the decency to acknowledge a good Clarets performance). Leicester should be a winnable game but it is a shame to be in such a good position but so bereft of attacking talent. We need a late resurgence of form from all of Stead, Emerton, Thompson, Tugay, Reid, Dickov and Gallagher if we are ever going to hope to make an impression on the semis (should we get there!). Anyhow, we have a very important run of league matches where our forward players should get a bit more room. Lets try and build on this! ps. Defence was excellent. Amazed at just how good Nelsen is. Oh for a decent left back..... pps. Everybody else left in the cup looks vulnerable apart from Man Utd. Praying for Southampton to pull a suprise and open it right up.

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Just noticed that Thompson is not even on the bench..... with Emerton playing so poorly I would of had him arounfd to change things up. Still, I suppose we have Reid.

The game looks like it will sell out at just under 29,000 (due to security arrangements) making it the biggest crowd of the season so far apart from the Newcastle boxing day clash. Does anybody knw when the last true sell out occoured since the new stadium was built- ie. +31,000?

The team I would go for if Dickov fails his fitness test: I suspect Hughes might prefer Reid or Tugay to Thompson and maybe work Johnson in therer somewhere too. I still think Stead and Gallagher deserve a shot as a partnership.

Ferguson might just end up wishing he stayed to the end of the season. We could have done with him yesterday and the draw we got means we have a decent crack at a semi final. It would be an experience I think you would agree, bigger than Bolton-Rovers anyway and even the Old Firm derby in its own way. Well, good luck to him. I am not bitter but surely six more months would of been worth it to see if something like this would of happend.

Obvious question, suprised no one has explicitly asked it- I could not quite decipher Phillips cryptic comment in the report. What is a decent guesstimate for the summer's transfer budget if we exclude unknown factors (dont factor in Dahlin money, Assume Finishing at 17th- it cant be any lower! etc.)? Does the Walker funds intervention have a huge impact on this or a tny one? Will we see Shevchenko and Ronaldinho sign in the summer? Or Nicky Barmby and a one legged chimp?

Its a funny old game..... We do not really deserve to get such an easy route to the semis but we cannot look a gift horse in the mouth. Our defence is meaner then my gran and in the likes of Savage, Pedersen and Dickov we should have sufficient tenacity and a tiny bit of quality to be favourites against both Burnley and Leicester (should we get there). Getting to the semis would be great but that is as far as we can possibly get unless somebody finds their shooting boots. We were woeful up front against Burnley. It is unfortunate in its own way that our team which is so inferior to the 2002-2003 vintage should be so blessed. A draw like that handed out to the likes of Duff, Berg, a top form tugay, Dunn and Cole and we would be laughing. Oh well, all ifs and buts.

Can you sort something out for me? I caught the rugby league world final and the commetator constantly referred to canterbury being australian. I had an arguement with my flat mate where I said they were from New Zealand and he said that the commentator was right. Was I right, or is there another canterbury in australia? If not that is some shocking research done by the commentating team.

A valid and important point. but probably not one that Rovers fans can make! I knew some one would say that. Nonsense!!! Rovers did not go out and buy established international superstars in the early nineties, like Chelsea and Man Utd are now. Indeed we bought much lower profile players than Man Utd did then too (Cantona anyone?). Shearer Le Saux Sherwood Ripley Sutton Wilcox Were all talented up and coming players, not people at the top of their game. It was intelligent management rather than raw economics which won us the title. Batty could be said to be a well respected player when he moved, while Shearer and Sutton were recognised outstanding talents but still! We had the financial backing but we were not massively outspending the other big clubs (look at Cole's 7 million transfer in '95 and shearer's 15 million). We were not operating with kind of advantage that Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal can exercise now. Rant over.

Wednesday because my dad supports them, but always rovers if Wednesday were in the prem or met them in cup- like the league cup on the way to cardiff! Hearts in Scotland because they are my cousin's team and i am at uni in edinburgh. I cannot stand the old firm. Apart from that no one really. I always go for the smaller team if I am watching a game. I have a maissve antipathy for 'big' clubs who essentially bully teams with their financial clout. What I do like to see is clubs exceed themselves in terms of their relative financial position and play decent football. On that basis I had a soft spot for Arsenal in the early Wenger years but since they have been throwing money around I have lost that. The bottom line however is that Rovers are the only club I feel attached to, the only club I support.

He scored two goals which is good, but his link up play has been atrocious. It really takes the impetus out of the team. We need to free up cash and we cannot just pray that he will improve. Stead and Gallagher are the players we are looking to for the future to have Matt as well is a luxery. He will go.

It is a ridiculous thing to say that Australia are a better team than England. The friendly, despite being an excellent performance by the socceroos, does not prove much. England currently have more world class players and a stronger all round squad than at any time since I dont know when. Ferdinand, Campbell, Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham, Rooney and Owen would all get in to almost any team in the world. Even rat face Neville can be said to be world class. Wright Phillips, Downing, Terry, King, Smith and De Foe all look like real prospects too. I just hope Sven can make it work. With players like that we should be looking at the semi finals as the bare minimum in the next world cup. It would be a real travesty if such a golden era of english talent is wasted. The only weak link is the goal keeper and the left wing. We need to find a system, 442 preferably, make it work and stick to it. Oh I do love making up formations: That is one hell of a side, Sven just needs the balls to pull Beckham off and stick SWP on if he is underperforming. Similar goes for Owen and Defoe. Also, get us to pass the bloody ball and retain possession! ps. what is even more encouraging is that the next world cup will only be the last for three players in the side, and for those obvious replacements seem to be maturing: SWP for Beckham, Terry for Campbell and Glenn Johnson for Neville. A good time to be an England fan.

That might make them a bit more pro rovers....... Anyway, we are suffering from a bit of a comedown. When we had Duff, a top form Tugay, Dunn, Cole and Yorke we were one of the most attractive sides in the league- although we didnt quite get the press we deserved for that. At the moment I would certainly say we are no worse than the likes of Charlton, Bolton etc. I do believe Hughes will look to get the ball on the deck next season and pass it around more, indeed we can move it round at the moment okay. The fact of the matter is however that we do not posess the strikers to make that system work effectively and we need the points but we are hardly route one. We havnt got anybody who can win it in the air! Savage can pass a bit, Gallagher is technically proficiant and Pedersen has a some invention about him. If we can get in a striker who can hold up the ball and a true creative midfielder I think things can rapidly change. Having fullbacks who can actually overlap would be good too. Oh well, as long as we stay up!

Oh bugger it. I havnt a clue. How about this? 8-0 Rovers.

Things have gone from looking quite reasonable a couple of weeks ago to looking pretty desperate. While our midfield seemed to be playing well and sort of making up for our forwards being inept now that looks lost too. Emerton is looking low on confidence again, Pedersen is losing momentum and we have a new problem of finding a partner for Savage. The way I see it is we persevere with MGP and Emerton. They have been decent so we just need to pray they get back into it. Dickov needs a partner, I personally think Gallagher is the best shot but that is merely on the basis that he gets the midfield involved and can finish. He can be bustled off the ball but that goes for all our front men, bar Dickov. Moko looks like he can do a job sitting infront of the defence. Flitcroft is a decent alternative, but not much more than that, and Tugay is a huge risk. Why not tell the fullbacks to play flat (ie. dont foray too far into the opposite half) get Moko to act as a defensive shield and tell everybody else to drive forward. It is not much of a plan but it is the best chance we have to create openings. I, an eternal optimist, am beginning to feel a little desperate. Realistically we have to try for three points against Norwich as the following four games are stick on losses.

You've gormlessly put the cart before the horse! Murdoch (an Australian with no vested interest one way or the other) put money into English football not to help it out or to make it better but because it is more marketable and he will make even more money by doing so! PERIOD. To put that amount of money into Scottish football would have been suicidal from a business point of view. Try and think things through before you let your prejudices run away with you. When it comes down to it Sky pored 20 million pounds per club into England in the early nineties because the crowds were bigger, the interest was larger and the competition was more fierce. The SPL lacks competition, crowds and international interest compared to England not just since the Sky money came in but since the start of football records. Why? England is bigger and has more fans more fairly divided (although not fairly enough....) to actually create a competition. That is the crux of the scottish problem, you cannot just say "oh, its only because you got the sky money!" because the league earnt that money out of the virtues of its size and competitiveness. Murdoch did not put it in out of the goodness of his heart, ha, but to turn a profit. Rovers, Bolton, Charlton etc. are all part of that success and fully deserve a share. Indeed they deserve a larger share than they currently command as Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool etc need us to survive. If we were all rubbish teams who they could turn over with one hand (which is worryingly becoming more and more of the case due to money issues) then we would go the way of the SPL. Anyway you talk about Henry, Berkamp etc, coming for the cash. Then How do you explain English dominance of Europe in the early eighties before SKY was even a twinkle in Murdoch's eye? We have a better league, we always have. Not because the English are intrinsically better than your lot, but just because there are more of us. ps. The Scottish porblem is made worse however by the way Celtic and Rangers monopolise the whole nation. The Celtic and Rangers shops in Edinburgh do far more business than the Hearts and Hibs shops and if you go deep into Perthshire or Aberdeenshire then still the majority of fans will be for the old firm. If it was a little less cuthroat then maybe more than would 4,000 would turn out for an average league game at Livingston.

Virtually impossible to work out what is going on with these commentators. From what I can make sense of it seems we are utterly toothless.

There is nothing to suggest that Jansen will get a new contract. He has been terrible since his accident and there is little prospect for improvement due to his age. For the sake of his career and rovers wage bill I believe he will be moved on. I expect Gallagher and Stead to stay due to their age and low wages while Bothroyd will not be bought. Hopefully we can buy a 'quality' striker over the summer leaving us with: Stead Dickov Gallagher Johnson AN Other Pedersen (?)- see how he does in the role this year.

Savage had an excellent game last night although he probably served to be booked. The guy ran and ran. With him and moko in the middle we are going to be hard to play through and he showed some decent technique and passing. Moko similarly. What was interesting is that in our second game he was as influential as Ferguson's near best (only performances like Barry's against Newcastle exceed lily's last night). Not as neat on the ball as Ferguson or as composed- but his driving runs (a la the penalty) and shooting are a lot more convincing. When Hughes said "he more than compensates for Ferguson leaving" I think our manager might be right. Im am glad, especially in the pridicament we are in, that he is at rovers.

My team: Got to be optimistic..... 2-1 Rovers. ps. Just realised that if this team plays, which I think is quite likely, then we will only have one English player on the pitch. And only 3 (4 if you cont Reid) British players- which is a bit of a shame.

Nope. The 4.5 million includes the 2.5 still owed-written off as part of the transfer.

Told you all Seriously I dont think it is such a bad idea. Reid/Thompson and Emerton on the wings will provide more defensive awareness while Pedersen has shown suprising versitility in the air and on the deck. I imagine Flitcroft will return alongside Savage as Tugay has been a complete liability giving us one hell of a tough tackling midfield. I hope Pedersen can make a go of it as, to be brutally honest, none of our 'real' strikers (bar Dickov) have. If he looks good then I am more than happy to have Emerton back on the left as he has been good there. If Dickov fails his fitness test it will be interesting to see who Hughes partners with the Norweigen. I would guess Johnson, but Gallagher could be a good shout. It is amazing how the running order of strikers changes each week but this is how I think it is at the moment. 1. Dickov 2. Pedersen 3. Johnson 4. Gallagher 5. Stead 6. Bothroyd 7. Jansen Their have been murmurs about Jansen playing but I just cannot see it.

A good case in point. Duff respected the club and went when Rovers were satisfied by the price/ release clause was triggered. Unlike a different scumbag. Duff was as good to Rovers as anybody in the last twenty years. Showed more respect than Shearer or Dunn for example. Deserves a cheer. Hopefully he wont, along with Robben, destroy us.