brilliant idea! though i haven't even been near ewood... hope i manage to catch a glimpse of the banner on television if it does happen! and maybe... just maybe, some ref will give us a pen...

out of 10, i'd give morten a decent 6.5. yes, he wasnt into the game that much, but the step up from norwegian league football to the EPL is a huge one. also, he didnt disgrace himself with his performance. most importantly, he provided much needed balance to the side. thought we certainly looked much more balanced today. so, given time, i think he will come good. negatives - in the first half, there was once manure had a freekick on the left wing. think it was neville or ronaldo who jogged past pedersen (in his full view) but he did nothing to track him or even show that he noticed. another point was in the first half as well when he was chasing ronaldo as manure was on the counterattack. i thought he looked more like he was jogging along than fully sprinting after the cheating portugese greaseball. finally, the freekick in the 85th min or so on the right wing was just shocking. the one where he tried to cross but blasted way over. but all in all, encouraging performance. surely he will improve.

cheating saha. conned again. but magnificent performance. can't fault the team. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

dickov!!! great turn and volley!

match just started. but some WONDERFUL SINGING. REALLY REALLY LOUD even on the television! good job guys! now for rovers to do their part...

looks like a good team. only thing i don't understand is why gray has been dropped. would rather see gray there instead of gresko. ronaldo vs matteo... hmmmm

seriously though, i'm wondering if we will even take the lead in any game this season... for the game itself, hope to see pedersen on the left if he's eligible. and no matter what, please souey, no matteo in midfield!!!!!!! and let's see if gally makes the squad... if it were up to me, it'd be friedal neill amo(if fit) nissa gray thompson fergie tugay pedersen de pedro yorke but think i'd have a better chance of striking lottery than seeing the above line up tomorrow...

hey mate, cool it cool it... i think it's just the pro-longed wait that's increasing the anxiety of all of us... can't really blame anyone really... we're just desperate to see him sign!

Very worrying that home-grown players aren't given more of a chance. I've heard whisperings that there's been a bust-up between Gally and Souness - any truth? i have no idea... i certainly hope not. really thought that gally could have got cygan into a bit of trouble had he played. his pace and trickery could at least have worked the arsenal defence a little more. hope its not another dunny incident. sigh.

maybe if he'll get in ahead of tugay as an attacking midfielder? morten can play on the wing with tugay rotating with de pedro for the attacking midfielder position. then again our master tactician may suddenly decide that morten's a right winger... or right back... or goalkeeper?

thought we did well in the first half, but arsenal just outclassed us totally in the 2nd. pluses - at least friedal looked to be in some sort of form - matteo is NO midfielder. i think most people can see it now. hope souness sees it as well. - de pedro looked useful in his cameo appearance - johanson looked pretty solid for 70% of the match... negatives - the right side was all wrong. emerton was quite honestly awful. he showed that he can go past players... but he can't do anything else. what happened to the emerton we thought be bought? as for neill... made a few good challenges early on but faded away... and then gave away a needless corner which lead to their second goal. after his very verbal abuse of the linesman, he was very lucky to stay on. that said, it was never a foul. - stead. i risk being lambasted but still, i feel that with the surprise element gone this season, he is being found out. - refereeing. abysmal. if the above neill challenge was a foul, why wasnt toure's challenge on dickov punished? and what must arsenal do to get carded? toure should have been carded early on for that deliberate challenge on short but wasnt. and emerton and neill were carded for very petty challenges in my opinion. baffling - why is gallacher nowhere near the first team? i'd have favoured him coming on instead of yorke. yorke quite frankly, did nothing. he ran, he chased a little, but wasted the ball everytime he got it. once, he got it in the centre circle, could have released emerton, but didnt and got tackled. - what's happened to amoruso? is he injured? is he dropped? did he have a bust up with souness? - why is matteo playing in midfield? he doesnt look comfortable playing in midfield, and to me, he doesnt have the necessary guile to play there. face it, matteo is a brute. stick him in defence and he may be of some use. playing in midfield, he's just a fiercer looking version of flitcroft, offering nothing more. in fact, i think flitcroft is more mobile than matteo anyway. finally, rant over. bring on manure.

0230hours now... just climbed out of bed in preparation to watch the game... and some good news before kick off!!! lovely job translating that article greggyk. many thanks!

personally, am a little worried about tromso officials travelling to london. certainly, we will be playing in london afterall, so the location does make sense. however, there is the propensity of the deal being hijacked right at the airport... ala one diego forlan and manure......... fingers-crossed hopefully we get this deal sorted out by the time the arsenal match's over. at least then, we'll have something to cheer us up... unless of course, its double happiness!

after all the excitement in anticipation of this new signing... we're back to... nothing.

what about henry and reyes vs any from short, amo, matteo, nils?

watching arsenal tear boro apart now. sad. very sad. just hope we manage to pull something out of our hat and keep it to a respectable score on wednesday night...

I watched that interview live. HE was stood next to Paul Sturrock. The interviewer asked something along the lines of "what do you think of recent events at Southampton?" He referred to people at the club shood be getting behing their manager and smart arse fans. It it was about Rovers club andor fans and him it was a very well disguised comments. I suspect people weren't listening probably. agreed stu, i saw that interview too. also, on the surface, it looked like he was somewhat sympathising with sturrock but it sounds almost like he was pleading his own case as well.

the espn commentators here in asia thought the same thing. infact, during the preview show, they had us down as a 3-5-2. personally, i thought for a 3-5-2, it looked like a pretty solid formation, with matteo short and nils at the back, gray and emo bombing the flanks and flits and barry protecting tugay. however, as we all know, it turned out to be 4-4-2... the rest is history...

fingers crossed... uriah rennie?

Good Post that. Let's all bow to greggyk, the supreme Rovers fan and Superman in disguise. He must be to be pounding on the keyboard so quickly after the match, or maybe he has a wireless laptop perhaps. We are all (well there are a few imposters) Rovers fans here. I have not been to a Rovers game in many many moons but if one of you wishes to tell me to my face I am not a fan the next words out of your mouth would most likely come accompanied by copious amounts of blood. Come on, I thought we did OK today, obviously still room for improvement but it will come. I hate this game. precisely because we deserved something from the game, and came to within a whisker of getting it, that's why we're so so so upset and gutted. all snatched away by an inept referee. i am beginning to agree with the conspiracy theory against souness by the way.

looks like a blatant hatred for us

yes. 45min of action has won me over. though i thought he didnt link well with stead, but hope they can develop an understanding soon. fullmarks too to souness for half time changes. still ###### off. arghh........ die d'urso. DIE.

in the last 10 min, a manure and a pool supporting friends called up to offer their sympathies. we were F****** ROBBED!!! what in the world is d-urso's freaking problem?!!!?! dickov was elbowed in the arse when it was a CLEAR goal scoring opportunity and short's penalised for a run of the mill everyday challenge in the air?!??!?!?! if short committed a foul there, then why wasn't johansson penalised throughout the game for the same challenges on beattie????????? what in the world is wrong with the refs?!!!!!!!! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i'm utterly screaming now. totally gutted, especially given the way we performed in the second half. we deserved something. freaking ref. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and how that was a penalty i will never know. the ref's screwed us.

how that was not a penalty, i will never know. when will we ever get a pen???????