I was once nearly run over by Kevin Gallacher as he was pulling out of Kwick Fit and I was walking to college in Blackburn. Also met Souness in a gym just outside Derby when he was still our manager - we'd just played Derby in the FA Cup and were playing Nottingham Forest at the weekend - he had legs like tree trunks!! And I still live across the road from Kevin Davies - I think he's recently become a father as I see him pushing a pram around a lot. I remember that in the close season just after we'd been relegated I was stood at the bus stop and watched him flicking the ball up and volleying it into the goals that he has in his garden. I saw him do it 7 times, but he only scored once - I knew we were in for a bad season that year!!! Also, not Rovers but hey, I used to play in the same pub team as Carlo Nash (Prestons keeper) before he signed for Clitheroe and then a year later for Palace. Also went out with his sister for a short time when I was young.

The point(s) you seem to be missing are: 1) It's their money and so they can spend it as they please. Just because you could afford to give the beggar at the end of the road £100, does it mean you have to?? 2) Who else do you want to come in? If there were a queue of muti-millionaires waiting to invest in the club I might well back your stance, but there isn't. Nor is there likely to be any time soon, so we have to accept what we have. Driving the trust out of the club, with no alternative backer in place, would be finacial suicide and, if you are as big a fan as you say, you wouldn't want that!!

Hear, hear. 318592[/snapback] Yeah like we are overwhelmed with british talent Friedel USA Neill Australia Nelsen New Zeland Todd English Matteo Jock ( non talent) Tugay Turkey Reid Irish Pedersen Norway Emerton Australia Mokena South Africa Dickov Jock also add into that Gresko, Encklmen, Johnson 318611[/snapback] Fair point, was thinking about this after complaining about Liverpool's lack of British talent. We usually field at least five British players in our eleven. 1) Gray or Matteo or McEveley 2) Todd 3) Savage or Flitcroft 4) Reid 5) Dickov or Stead or Gallagher That sometimes becomes six if Thompson starts ahead of Emerton. There's a big difference between two and five or six which I actually think is the right sort of blend. I still can't really see how the neutral British soccer fan can be expected to be any more excited about the current Liverpool outfit achieving success than say someone like Deportivo La Coruna. To the extent it was a stirring comeback and a triumph for the underdog then yes it represented everything that was good about the game. Again not something necessarily associated with the Liverpool of the last few seasons. 318626[/snapback] There have been games when we have played no English players at all this season! wake up mate! so by your logic- you wouldnt want Rovers to even win 1 game because of having hardly any English people 318635[/snapback] I don't think that was the point (unless I've completely misunderstood!). Obviously we would all support our team regardless of how many English/non-English players we have. But the number of foreigners in a team does matter when it is supposedly a question of patriotism to support an 'English' club. So, put simply, would I support Rovers if we fielded a completely foreign 11? Yes. Would I expect the rest of England to support that same team? No, why should they??

Wonder if the 26 fouls committed by both of the Uniteds yesterday is worthy of comment in todays press - or do those extra 2 make all the difference!!

42 fouls in total in our game - 28 by us, 14 by Arsenal 52 in todays game - 26 each But remember, it's not the facts that matter - the press say that we are a dirty, over-physical, cynical bunch of hackers and so that's good enough for me!!!

The reason for the negative stuff against us is clear from the people atricle: They all want a Utd - Arsenal final so that they can churn out the usual tired old drivel instead of having to actually bother thinking of something new to write!! (Incidentally, how they can say that that is the final that the whole country wants is beyond me. The number of Utd fans is surely outnumbered by the number of ABU's and I would imagine that the same is true of Arsenal as well!) I was at a wedding yesterday and so had the misfortune of having to listen to the game on 5-Live. The absolute bias throughout the match commentary was typified by the comment "What we really need now is for Arsenal to score" about 30 seconds before their first goal. How a supposedly neutral commentator (paid for by mine and yours License fee incidentally!!) can be so openly willing one team to score is beyond me. One more thing that got me - in pointing out all our bad challenges, both on the radio and on MOTD last night, they seemed to miss the challenge from Viera on Reid, a tackle from behind on the edge of the box, a clear booking if ever I saw one. And (just MOTD) there was nothing said about the worst tackle of the day - Nigel Quasie on Darius Vassell from the Southampton - Villa game. It would appear that unless you play for Rovers you are incapable of committing a bad tackle!!

So if someone only attends one game (for instance the cup game against Burnley) putting approx £20 into the club, they should be given priority over someone who attends a minimum of 19 games putting in over £300 for the season?? Doesn't make sense to me - season ticket holders get rewarded for putting a lot of money into the club - it is, as someone has already said, one of the few perks of being a season ticket holder - don't forget we miss out on cheaper tickets when the club decides to do a special promotion.

I guess I must be an 'excuse maker'. I would love to go to the semi - regardless of time, money, distance etc. - however, my cousin is getting married on that day - an event planned for the last 18 months and I can't really get out of it. But I am a season ticket holder and have been to every cup game so far this season, including Cardiff away, and you can bet your life that I'll be first in queue when final tickets go on sale. It's a strange thing, but for every game so far in the run, people who attend a specific game think that they should be more entitled to tickets than other fans - but not every fan can go to every game - and it is not always just personal choice not to attend. That is why the club - on the whole - get it right. They reward season ticket holders as they generally attend every home league game, and I suspect for the final, they will require a minimum of 2 cup game ticket stubs, thus ensuring that people who have attended some cup games get first choice over those that haven't been to any - but to suggest that going to one game (irrespective of distance and inconvenience caused) should get you that priviledge is nonsence.

Just had a gander at the BBC site and found these quotes: Never heard so much ###### in all my life!! With who??? Not fans from any of the 4 clubs involved it's not! Have they??? Doesn't seem like they've fans travel arrangements into consideration at all!! It'd funny if I wasn't so flaming furious!!!

Why? How have we, or any other club (except for Chelsea), benefitted from Chelsea's win last night?

I think that's answered your question. It''s the patriotism for England that means we'll support a team for the good of the country. Bizarelly we might only have Liverpool to cheer on in the next round But this is the point that I struggle with. Why is it patriotic to support Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool or Man Utd when they play in Europe? Why is it for the good of the country? They are only really representing themselves and their fans, not the country. TBH I'm not sure any of those teams can really be classed as being particularly English when you consider the nationality of the majority of the playing and coaching staff (maybe Utd at a push!) I live in Sheffield. At the moment much of the talk round here is of Sheff Utd's good cup run. Do you think that Wednesday fans were sat at home rooting for Utd to beat Arsenal on Saturday 'cos it's nice to see a Sheffield team do well'? I don't think so. Were you rooting for Burnley last night against Derby cos it's good for Lancashire teams to do well? I just don't understand why people who normally dislike the so-called big boys, suddenly become big fans when they play in a European competition.

Can someone explain why they support the English teams in Europe? And, before anyone has a go, I'm not having a pop just really interested to know the reasons. I enjoy watching these games, but don't ever really root for one team or the other (except for last night when I wanted Utd and Barca to win, but that was to do with having money on the games not anything else - I was rooting for Wigan for the exact same reason - doesn't mean I prefer them to Coventry) I know that I am not the most patriotic guy in the world - i struggle to get truly excited by the national team - but I can at least understand why other people do. But not with club sides. These clubs aren't representing England - they are making themselves even more money to further ruin the competiveness of the league in which my team plays. In my eyes it's like wanting Burnley to win (except aginst us - obviously), cos they are a Lancashire team!

I go to every home game (and quite a few away aswell) with my dad. I am a reqular reader, if not poster, on here - my dad is not. Recently my dad been talking of us not renewing our season tickets (which we have held since 1991) because of a) it's not that enjoyable to go to the rovers anymore and b ) it's not that hard to get tickets when you want them anymore. During, or shortly after (i forget when), this discussion I mentioned the good work work done by John Williams during the transfer of nancy boy Ferguson and my dad really didn't have a clue who I was talking about. (TBH I wonder if I would really know who was CEO of rovers without this site.) After the 3-0 defeat of Norwich my dad seemed to reconsider his position and say if we play play like that every week then he'll come no matter what. Now tell me that Williams and Finn have a realistic role to play in increasing our attendances! It's down to the players and manager - if we're playing good, entertaining football (and winning every now and then) the crowds will come. If we don't, they won't! Simple as!

Fair do's - we're not a big club. Don't think you'd find many people on here that would argue that point. TBH not many on here would argue that we've got a good side at the moment. That's why we're down near the wrong end of the table. BUT, were we to play Rangers I'd still fancy our chances. Think the game would be fairly close actually. And that tells me all I need to know about Scottish football. A poor side, struggling in the Prem is probably the equal (on the pitch) of the title chasers north of the border. Which is why no-one wants to watch the SPL (can you imagine watching a league where, say, ourselves, City and Charlton were the best on offer?) and why, therefore, Sky don't want to throw money in your direction. A vicious circle you may say!

From where we sat in the DE it looked as though the ref was going to book Diouf - he certainly didn't point to the spot straight away, and was running towards the cheat - when suddenly he realised who it was, and presumably that he was already on a yellow card, and so decided that it would be easier to give the penalty rather than send him off. Obviously not 100% sure of this, but there was certainly a time delay between the whistle and the point to the spot and he certainly ran towards Diouf first, then stopped and pointed to the spot. The difference being that Duff didn't deliberately cheat to win the penalty - there was contact, but outside the area, not his fault if the ref decides to give a penalty for it - Duff probably didn't know if he was in or out of the area as it was fairly close. Heard someone moaning about this as we came out of the ground. The penalty taker has a 10 yard head start on everyone else, so when the ball rebounds directly to him as it did on monday, then no-one else really has a chance of getting there first.

Agree with most of what has been said already by people at the game. On Dickov - being sat in the DE I personally thought he was quite lucky to get away with only a booking for his first offence. He looked to have deliberately just kicked out at the defender in retaliation for a bit of pushing. You could argue he was going for the ball, but if he had connected with it he would only have sent it into the crowd. I don't think any one of the players last night came out with any credit. Thompson took the first goal well and got lucky for the 2nd, but didn't really influence the game at all other than that. Tugay - well it wasn't really his kind of game. We saw against Celtic at Ewood a few years ago that if there is someone big and strong on him he disappears. Emerton and Pedersen did well - but not up to the standards of recent weeks imo. Ditto for Todd. The rest were poor - special mentions for Matteo (can't believe Johannson was dropped for this numpty!), Neill and Reid (who managed in the short time he was on to give the worst performance I have ever seen from a rovers player!) But at least we're through and at the end of the day that's what really matters. And as a side-thought, maybe it's difficult for the players to raise themselves when the atmosphere around them feels like a reserve match - perhaps they fall into the reserve/friendly game kind of mentality. Not sure if that is the case, just thought I'd throw it out there. On another completely different note - did anyone see the metal bar fall from the top of the big screen. It missed a guy by inches - that could have been a nasty one - from the height it fell it would almost certainly have been a fatality.

I've got my tickets. I decided to stick with our usual seats in the Darwen End, as it was more expensive to switch to the Jack Walker, we wouldn't get as good seats in the BE and the less said about the the riverside the better! However, I'm now getting worried that we may be the only ones in the DE. Has anyone else got a ticket for there??

It said on Radio Five that it had actually cost Yeading some of their income from this tie to stage the game at Loftus Road. The chairman claimed that the £300,000 they have made could have been £500,000 had they not had to pay QPR for use of the ground plus pay for extra police as it was a bigger ground. Don't know how true that it is before you shoot the messanger, however, if they really were just in it for the money why not switch the game to St. James'? The Yeading fans would have travelled, as it's their biggest game ever, and more Geordies would have been there, as they pretty much turn out whatever, so they could have had a gate of 35 - 40,000 which would have considerably increased their income. Personally I feel that this year's 3rd round has returned some of the magic of the cup. There were a number of upsets and some real dream ties for the smaller clubs like Yeading and Exeter. All the lower league teams did themselves justice as well (apart from Leeds maybe!) - no hammerings handed out by the premiership big boys, and there were some special moments for those small clubs as well. Exeter's players will never forget their trip to Old Trafford and for Scunthorpe to take the lead at Stamford Bridge they must have been on cloud 9 even if just for a short time. It continued today as well with Yeading holding Newcastle for 45 mins and Stoke having a half-time lead at Highbury. I think yesterday also served to prove to RFW that he can't afford to play his reserve team in the FA Cup anymore, even against non-league teams - so all in all a good day for the old cup!

I can understand the argument that Tris and others are making, but time and again it's the same clubs that benefit from these wrong decisions. If it truely were the case that 'these things even themselves out over the course of the season' then it'd be ok, but we all know that Man Ure are highly unlikely to get a really bad decision given against them, probably only when playing against Chelski anyway. And football has become such a big business that bad decisions could cost clubs their very existance. Take our game against Man Ure for example. Two points could be the difference between survivial and relegation for us, and relegation could well put us into debt and maybe administration (I know this is unlikely as by all accounts Rovers are a very well run club, but for other clubs this could well be true). And I think that the time has come to use video technology to help referees, as it's totally unfair for one person to have such a big say in the future of clubs. My idea, for what it's worth, would be to have the 4th official as a kind of 3rd referee's assistant, but sat watching a monitor. If he spots something that he thinks the referee has missed i.e. a ball crossing the line, a blatant dive in the penalty area for which the ref has awarded a penalty, a blatant handball, a sly punch etc. he can buzz the ref and call him over. The ref can then watch the replay and make the decision from that. It wouldn't slow the game down too much (it's only the same as if a linesman sees something and the ref goes over to have a word with him) and it would still be the ref making all the decisions. Just my opinion, but I think it would work.

If this were true, why was Stead the first choice replacement when Bothroyd got banned. It was only when he picked up a knock that Jansen got his chance, and likewise when Jansen injured himself Gally got a look in. Surely if the manager doesn't rate Stead then he would have found himself behind Jansen and Gally in the pecking order (not saying that that isn't the case now due to the performances of the other two.) And remember the game where Stead started was Man City away, a game that we absolutely had to take something from - not the kind of game you throw someone you don't rate into.

There's a lot of ###### being written in this thread about how bad MGP is and I'm sure it's got something to do with the fact that rover6 is championing his case. Not that I particuarly agree with most of what rover 6 writes, but the slating that MGP is recieving on here is completely out of order IMO. I'm sure that eventually MGP will get his chance - if he was that bad then he wouldn't even be on the subs bench - and when he does I hope that he takes it with both hands - he is after all a rovers player and we could do with all of them playing well. But at the moment I think he probably needs a little bit more upper body strength - plus Reid and Emerton are playing exceptionally well at the moment and doing everything that could be asked of them (apart from scoring 5 each every game - bloodly wasters!) and so it's unlikely that Hughes will bring in anyone to disrupt a midfield that is beginning to play well together - hence Thommo didn't start against Fulham. In short, what I'm trying to say is that I don't think MGP is crap, as some have posted, and I have no doubt that he will get his chance at some point this season - hopefully near the end of the season when we're up challenging for a European spot (I can dream, can't I?) - and I hope that when he comes in he will prove to be an excellent player. I'm sure that all rovers fans are hoping that though!

Diasagree. If we appear not to take any action against the guy responsible then fair enough we should be punished. However, the idiot was ejected from the ground and will most probably be banned for life from all grounds not just Ewood, so I would like to see the FA commend the club for their stand against racism, rather than punish us. If we're going to be punished then numerous other clubs, who have had more serious crowd problems imo, like West Ham fans throwing coins, Millwall and Liverpool fans nearly causing a riot etc, all need to be punished as well.

Where was the public outcry last season when Tugay was abused at Leeds and at Leicester? Or is abusing someone for being Turkish not racial abuse? That said I have just seen the pictures on SSN and the one idiot that made monkey gestures towards Yorke should, imo, definately be banned for life - he has tarnished the image of all Rovers fans and I just can't find any sympathy or forgiveness for him. Shouldn't be too hard to identify him anyway, his face is all over the media and it looks as if he was the guy that was ejected by the police. Throw the book at him and then lets move on - case closed!

Personally I thought we played Ok although I agree with what some have said on here regarding the overall quality of the match itself - Rodney Marsh (yes, I know he's a prick) said he'd rather chew on a broken lightbulb than watch this game and you can hardly argue with that assesment. Other than one moment of lost concentration from us the game would probably have ended 0-0 - and lets be honest before the game we would have all taken a point. Neither side created many chances - we hit the post with our best, they put theirs wide (when Lisbe was clean through on Brad). Even after we conceded with a bit more luck we could have equalised - the goalmouth scramble, Jansen's header - but unfortunately it wasn't to be. However, the pleasing things for me were (as others have mentioned) the effort and the team spirit - but also I think we look harder to beat. We seemed to close down more effectively and pressed higher up the pitch - we may have to endure a few 0-0's before we start winning games, but at least I could see signs that defensively we are getting better (Obviously alternatively it could just be that Charlton are absolute tosh going forward - I mean a forward line of Johannsen, Lisbe, Euell and Jeffers hardly strikes fear into you does it?) The things that concern me however: 1. We very rarely seem to pass the ball into the stride of a player - meaning that the player has to check his run in order to pick up the ball and thus loses all momentum. This makes our build up very slow and ponderous. 2. At corners and other set pieces we don't seem to attack the ball. Look at the goal yesterday, the player met the ball on the move, having run from the back post to the front. Look at how other teams line up for corners - often with players outside of the box, or at the back post, ready to make a run. We, on the other hand, line up between the 6-yard box and penalty spot and wait for the ball to come over - which means that even when a good ball is played in (about 25% of the time with Emerton) we're standing still and therefore unable to get the kind of power you need to be able to score.

I haven't had time to read all the previos posts on this thread so I apologise if I repeat what has been said before. I wasn't planning on going last night, but after reading some of the posts on this thread and in the thread on low crowd attendance, and after hearing what Hughes had to sya about the importance of the competition I felt suitably guilty/inspired to leave work half an hour early, drive like a madman upto Ewood and fork out my hard earned money to see the game. I really wish i hadn't bothered! Last night was the first time I ever remember coming away from a game angry. I'm often frustrated/depressed/philosophical (depending on the type of game) when we get beat - but last night I was fuming, downright furious - and to be honest I still am. Some questions that I feel need answering: Why, when our defending was jittery at best (inept mostly) all night, did we decide to sit back and try and hold onto a one goal lead in Extra-time? Why, when we had scored two goals (and had two other decent scoring chances) in a minute at the end of normal time and the start of Extra-time, did we not keep pressing our advantage home? To use a boxing analagy, we had them on the ropes but then stood back instead of finishing them off. Why was our most potent attacking threat of the evening, Brett Emerton, moved to full back? Why did 3 of our highly-paid, top-of-their-profession players go down with cramp, yet not one of their 2nd divison players had the same complaint? Why can 8 out of 8 2nd division players hit the target with penalty kicks (albeit one very poorly hit), whilst only 6 out 8 of our highly paid superstars can do the same, with the two missers being our star centre-forward and main goal threat and a veteran international who has played in a world-cup semi-final! I'm still so angry, I'm almost shaking typing this. I left work last night at 5.30pm, drove straight to Ewood and didn't get home til gone midnight. And I'm having to work like a pig today to make up for the work I should have done last night - and for what? To see a lacklustre throwing away of a game to a pretty poor 2nde divison side. Yes they used the ball quite well, but I honestly don't think they could have complained too much if we had put 6 or 7 past them. Well, that's it for me and cup competitions. I just can't be bothered forking out the extra money (not to mention the time) to see us surrender so easily.