Quality-cheers for that Nayef. One goal they missed though-his cracker in our 2-1 win at Southampton about four years ago...God did that ball move!

Probably me not doing enough reading-but how come Tugs has only received a one game ban and Ghally three? Is it because Ghally's was for voilent conduct?

I pretty much agree with your whole post AESF. Our squad depth has obviously been tested to the limit at present due to injuries but other squads too have had injury problems. Take our subs bench against Spurs' (who granted have spent almost more than anyone else in recent years) who could bring on Keane, Berbatov and Murphy despite being depleted by injuries. We currently have no plan B whatsoever. Hughes clearly doesnt't have much faith in Jeffers, Peter and Gally for example being able to grab a goal because he always seems hesitant to throw them on despite our abysmal run and poor form from other players (ie Nonda and MGP). Last season showed how well we did to keep pace with clubs with larger squads at their disposal. Until January it has to be a case of fighting for every point that we can until we get some of our big game players back and hopefuly being able to strengthen all departments-even our strikeforce-if we are to repeat the second halves of the previous two seasons.

Why it has taken everybody except Rovers fans five years to see how good Tugay is I will never know. If Fergie rates him so highly then I'm suprised he didn't go for him a few seasons ago when he outclassed £28 million Seba Veron at OT.

If Hughes were to go after Koumas I'm suprised that he didn't do it when he was having his problems at WBA. After all hughes would know all about the guy.

Of course the Berg one was 100% more puzzling, but I was just likening it to the way that nobody in the whole crowd expected him to get sent off.

I can only repeat what others have said. Awful officiating-absoloutely awful. I do think however that a penalty was probably fair (we would've gone crazy if we'd not been given it) but not in a million years should Tugs have been sent off....It reminded me of Henning Bergs dismissal against Utd all those years ago. So 1-1 (which was probbaly fair) and then Mido goes and hand balls it and we get jack all-where as two weeks ago it wasn't even remotely a pen and Ooijer is adjudged to have handled. I would like to think that refs would give us the benefit of the next 50-50 but I'm not going to hold my breath. As for the game it was pretty poor football from both sides and we only really came alive after Tugs got sent off which is rather strange. What is now certain is that the Fulham match on the 2nd of December becomes a must win-no excuses. They say if your creating chances but not putting them away then you don't have much to worry about (Arsenal)...we're unfortunately doing neither this season which is why we are where we are in the table.

Henchoz over our best performer in recent weeks?!!!!!!!!! As for the game-I said it in the other thread: we will lose. All my mates are Spurs fans and they never let it go when they win, so this is the one game I hate us losing. I'll go with what Left Winger said: Rovers 0 Spurs 1 Robbie Keane

Definitely...they accepted my loan offer from Rovers on FM anyway!! But no seriously I think your right, players such as Obi Mikel and SWP will surely have to leave at least on loan as they appear to be nowhere near the first eleven right now.

A potential Neil replacement Gareth Bale has again been linked away from St Mary's. It would show good ambition from the club if we went for him-but it is obviously dependant on how much he is available for (Teamtalk mention 7million but this is surely some way off) and who goes in for him. Out of the big four I could only see Arsenal possibly needing a left back.

Eurosport said last time that they're definitely showing all of our group games. Lets just hope they don't have technical difficulties for the first 15 minutes this time!

I know Neil's only got 6 months to run on his deal but to me Warnock for Neil is still not fair despite our need for a left back. As FLB just pointed out he's played around 40 games for them and he's almost 25... Whatever people think of Neil he's still one of the best full backs in the prem.

Brum haven't really got much choice in the matter. His contract runs out in June and he's one of their biggest earners. I think the deal would be under £1 million-especially given the risk for any club signing him.

I completely agree about the chances that our team create. But don't Arsenal already own a better version of Nonda in Adebayor?

One 'rumour' website has linked us to David Nugent. After sorting out our defence and midfield I think that we could possibly do with another striker...but I suppose we shouldn't get too greedy.

As of now I'd be dissapointed if we signed him in January-as we did with Bentley last year. I know he's adapting, that were not creating him many chances and that he had a huge injury etc but I'm sure that we could get a better premier league striker than him. Paying 2-4 million (or whatever Roma's asking price would be) would be too much of a gamble judging on how he's performed so far.

Completely agree Rover6. Our ability to turn defence into attack makes us easily one of the least effective teams in the league right now and this is mainly due to our distinct lack of pace.

I would agree with you but for this season. He has came back from the world cup and looks easily the most dangerous player in world football right now. He has pace and just runs and runs at you...something we could do with now. God I hope Sav is back for Spurs. A loss in this game will obviously drag us further near the bottom three and put huge pressure on us to win the 6 pointers following on from this. It's easy for us to say 'oh we should win our next few games after spurs'-but right now every team in the Prem will fancy their chances against us.

I think today summed up Hughes' faith in certain squad players who were on the bench. We needed fresh legs to run at United and maybe Peter aside we had absoloutely eff all to bring off the bench to change the game and Hughes knew it.Our midfield was never going to cope against that quality with the injuries that we have, and as a result our strikers had nothing-but I was unimpressed AGAIN by Benni and Nonda. Special mention for Ooijer though-he was quality and should form a good partnership with Nelsen. 99% of us braced ourselves for defeat today, but again we didn't score and again we could have played all night and not scored. Until we get some of our key players back I can see things getting even worse before they get better-starting with an in form Spurs next weekend.

Yeh me-the commentary is awful and so biased towards Utd it's untrue...George Graham takes the biscuit though "They over achieved last year" and then went on to call us Bolton. We have been utter pants though-when will we stop hoofing the ball to our bewildered strikers?!

And he's easily better than what we have...Bentley could move inside-or even to the left.

If Hughes is this keen how come we didn't get him in the summer? Pitty we can't get him before January if as appears Hughes has lost faith in some of our centre backs.

As Dave just said we'd need quite some luck and effort to beat Utd without our key players. They're the form team in the prem right now and I just cannot see us getting close to them. Were struggling to score any-they're banging them in for fun and we're conceding too many whilst they boast the prem's tightest defence. If we're to have even half a chance I think that we need both Neil and Emo at full back-because Ronaldo (and even Giggs) will murder anyone else with their pace and trickery. But then again couldn't we do with one of those in central midfield? Either way it doesn't matter in the end: Rovers 0 Utd 3

I dont udnerstand why some people are saying he's extremely pacey-and others saying he lacks pace to be a good striker. To me he has enough to get into the odd good position but he never looks like skinning a top class defender. Clearly this season we lack what Bellamy gave us-which was pace to beat defenders.

I'd have to disagree about Benni and Nonda getting their partnership off to a tee. On Thursday for example Benny looked very annoyed with the lack of options that Shabani and the midfield were giving him and as a result kept coming back into deep midfield to pick up the ball. Although Shabani is quite powerful he was brought here as a goalscorer-of which he is yet to do. I just dont think the midfield and strikeforce are attacking well as a unit at all right now-and our lack of chances and goals in the league would back that up.