that might explain his weekly predictions of us losing... you know, reverse psychology! i know i do that; go into every game predicting a loss in the silent hopes that we win. pessimistic lot we are!

"I've never asked Sir Alex to defend my team. He's never volunteered to do it in the past. If anybody needs to defend Blackburn, I will do it." This line for me sums up everything about Sparky. He's truly one of us now, and his passion for the cause is there to see. While i do not doubt that he will move on in future, he is clearly fully immersed into the club, and takes pride in his band of players. In the last week or two, he has also clearly stood his ground, chest puffed out, for us, standing up to criticism from a club who seemingly he cherishes most. One certainly can't accuse him being afraid of burning his bridges, given that the scum job surely is one that appeals to him. This is why we are all so proud of the man, and he deserves every bit of the adulation we pay him.

you guys beat me to it! damn. i was hoping sour will bring them down. would have been sweet revenge for taking shearer, given, batty off us and giving us peacock and gillespie instead.

The Kingdom Stands Firm. On a night when the crowd called for a hero, the young padawan Bentley stepped right up to the plate and proved his mantle... someone make him a Jedi Knight now!

Hahahahahahaaha. Now that you mention it cletus... Colin: chewbacca... remember what ryan giggs look like when he took his shirt off during the celebration of his wonder goal against arsenal years ago?

nelsen's on the bench? hope he's only being rested and not injured... suppose its still kuqi and bentley up top?

Time: 1955H; 01 Feb 2006 (GMT) Event: Episode III; Revenge of the Rovers Venue: Ewood Park, Blackburn WAR! Ewood Park is under vicious attack by the ruthless Scum Lord, Ailing Ferguson. There are heroes on both sides, yet justice is nowhere. In a stunning move, the Scum Lord engaged the services of one crooked man, Devious Poll, and together inflicted a crunching low blow seven days earlier. The inequalities are obvious; three pieces of the evil scum’s attacking machinery, namely Lucky Saha, Horseface and Shrek, together with their pet Portuguese show-pony, cost more than Ewood Park’s team of gallant fighters put together. In the heat of Episode II’s battle, a braided-haired ballet dancer made a sneaky attack on Ewood’s blonde midfield protector. Earlier, a snarling Yorkshire mad-dog too had, with the permission of Devious, attacked this oft-misunderstood warrior. Other agents of this evil empire include an anonymous reggae-haired character, a barging Scot who got away with murder in Episode II, a shaven-headed Frenchman with a penchant for mistakes as well as a Brown cow. Together, they are herded by a psychopath protégé of the Scum Lord, who excels at inciting crowds and rants non-stop. Now, a dark cloud engulfs Ewood Park as this evil empire descent upon the sacred turf. A site of previous battles, the Kingdom of Ewood is now ruled by a former protégé of the Scum Lord, Master Sparky whose passion and bravery is unquestioned by the people of his Kingdom. This was perhaps best epitomised by the Master putting the Psychopath in his place at his former hunting ground, telling him: “Too often you speak, F*** off you will”. And now, with Jedi Knight Craig Bellamy still missing, a team of fighters fiercely loyal to the Master, comprising of a Kiwi braveheart, Norwegian Viking, Irish and Australian warriors, a Finnish renegade, the young English Padawan Bentley and the Welsh protector, must embark on a desperate mission to restore justice...

home 3, away 1 for me... too bad i can't vote, but it seems like no one's going along with my choices yet!

i'll not talk about the referee or debatable incidents for everyone has pretty much covered it. however, i'd like to point out another incident as yet unmentioned that i thought kuqi cost us an equaliser. about 5 minutes after saha scored, the ball was switched over to kuqi, who took it down extremely well. at that point, rio ferdinand was the ONLY defender left, and bentley was completely free, for a good 10 yards radius at least. watching on the tv, it seemed like kuqi thought about the pass, hesistated, then inexplicably decided to dribble at goal himself and eventually got crowded out by a recovering neville and ferdinand. foolish and selfish decision i thought, when a pass to bentley would surely surely have meant an equaliser for us, or at the very least a clean shot at goal.

exactly my sentiments too, USABlue. the most worrying point i abstracted from that article was that hughes seems to be saying 'i'm available', and if the right offer comes along, he's off. the board better tie him down to a long term contract as soon as possible, and insert a release clause in there to ensure we get amply compensated WHEN, not if, someone comes in for him.

agree with most.. i don't think its a big problem at all. however, i'm more concerned with his fitness... it seems that after every 3 or 4 matches he breaks down. that's more worrying i think..

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news1.shtml i don't see this posted anywhere here yet.. hence a new topic. hate the man, don't u? think his position is now really untenable, but would the FA have the guts to fire him?

on your first point, it looks like a resounding yes. looking at manure's line up for the fa cup tie today, which is really really weak, it seems like we're gonna face pretty much their full works. expect to see ruud, shrek and co. but we did them once at home, we must believe we can do it again.

I was horrified at the sight of our left back last night. A fully fit and match sharp Matteo runs and turns slower than an HGV so imagine what he was like last night on his return from 6 weeks out. If you weren't there, put a Rovers DVD on and play at half speed... I never thought I'd say this but bring back Micky Gray 371214[/snapback] to compound the problem, i thought he looked like he had too much of the christmas spread... he looked like he had put on quite a bit of weight during his lay-off.

*sheepish* point fully taken! god i'm ashamed of myself!

is that reporter a spurs fan or what? it seems like a wishlist he's come up for himself, and being a journalist gives him the opportunity to put out such articles to either notify the reading spurs authorities and unsettle our best players. like what philip said too, it'd well be a case of him being 'touched up by someone with an agenda'. whatever it is though, we must be doing something right for people to take notice. spurs interested in bellers? where were they 6 months ago? as for MGP, although i'm a fan, i wouldnt say no to 10m cash plus andy reid

erm... its not them in charge? oops. ok, i mean the 'powers that be' then.

the extent to which the FA will go to ensure a manure vs arsenal final will result in penalty-to-manure riley being appointed the ref in our match at the theatre of merchandising, so as to further compound the odds against us. i dont know who favours arsenal perpetually, but i'd bet it'd be some dodgy ref for their game against wigan as well. for once i'm hoping we get uriah rennie who seems to be the bravest of the lot; inept as he may be, we may get some calls.

at my most imaginative, i can only assume that the numbers correspond to the ties themselves, not the order of qualification. hence 1.) manure 2.) wigan 3.) arsenal 4.) us, since that was the order the ties were played. I'm not trying to absolve the FA of blame, but even if the numbers were in alphabetical order, we'd still be playing man u as we'd be 2.) vs 3.) manure. in any case, tough luck on us that manure and le ars(e) are taking this cup fairly seriously this season. i'd have preferred arsenal due to them still being in the champions league and might still put out a weakened side. but manure isnt going to take this lightly, mark my words.

hope arsenal and man utd get each other like last season. but looking at united's line up, they played a near full strength team last night. looks like RFW has realised that this is their best chance of a trophy this season, so i wouldnt hold out much hope of them putting out a 2nd string for the rest of the competition...

well... if its a 6mths deal to the end of the season, he wouldnt have to, cos we've won there already

the freekick was similar to MGP's effort at old trafford. either way, the keeper had everything to lose. had he came off the line, any touch at would have resulted in a goal anyway. that said, i'd still rather he had came out and tried to punch it away (he does afterall, have a very solid punch). the problem i think is with keepers in general; quality goalkeepers are at a premium. why else is a team like man utd employing edwin van der sar as 1st choice keeper? personally, i'd rate him and brad at the same level. both are still quality, but they can't defy the aging process, and with it, the natural slow-down in reaction. as for enckelman, i'd go with hughes judgement. if sparky deems him good enough, i'd go with him. but i suspect he doesnt, hence he's scouring for a younger keeper with potential (lee).

We lost to Riley, simple as. Strangely enough, he started decently, and had what i thought was a good first half. was speaking to my manure supporting friend at half time and told him jokingly that riley was really simply a scum supporter; even he's doing his bit to derail chelsea. Alas, someone from the FA or russian mafia probably had a word in his ear at half time. EVERYTHING went against us in the 2nd half, and it was so bad the commentators clearly were miffed as well, pointing out various incidences where unfair calls were made against us. (eg: essien fouling pedersen with an outstretched elbow, but freekick going to chelski; when peders went shoulder to shoulder with the show boating pony j cole, he was booked) all in all though, after the first 15min, i was well-prepared for a pasting. but very very pleased with the way we battled back to go in level at half-time. it was a heartening performance, and combined with the last half-dozen of games or so, we have much to look forward to. only niggling question i have is... how long can we keep bellamy happy? we clearly need 1 more quality midfielder and striker each, and i'd say we could even be challenging for 4th spot.

with him as ref, i predict: 3-0 chelsea; lampard (pen, todd off), drogba x2 yes i'm pessimistic, but i really do fear the chelsea backlash.