Stead's 'off the ball' running is excellent and I'd like to see him get the ball more often and sooner than he does. It's obviously a consequence of the rest of the team playing regularly with a Dickov type forward(more back to goal then running in channels) and as a result they don't pick up on his runs and react quickly enough. A few slide rule passes in front of Stead and he'll start tucking chances away. I've already posted that I think that it was a tremendous performane yesterday, but I feel the need to say it again!

I agree that we saw a different side of the 4-5-1 today. Interesting from a tactical standpoint to see it utilised from a more attacking perspective, particularly midfielders flooding into the box late. On several occasions today we had quite a few men forward, even early on, and this looks like it might be a new technical wrinkle that Hughes has been working on. An option to switch too that will still fit the personnel on the field if we need to go up a gear. Fantastic performance from all the lads and an excellent day out at Ewood. Tommo looked dodgy after the head injury. After a few passes the ref had to check that Tommo knew what he was doing! Tugay had a good game once he came on, but traditionally he's good when your two or three nil up. It's when it's nil-nil I don't like him on the field. Mokoena was fabulous in front of the defence and the pass for the first goal was sublime. He nearly did the same a couple of minutes later to the right. He even went on a couple of dribbles. He is lightning quick, too. Pedersen could have had a hattrick and also played well generally. Looks a lot more comfortable with his defensive duties and settled in his role. Defensively we were rock solid again. All four defenders were good, with a special mention also being deserved for the link up play between Neill and Emerton. Todd and Nelsen are looking like an excellent pairing and Nelsen spoke very highly of Toddy on Radio Rovers after the game. Reidy and Flittly were both 110% committed and Reid is looking more and more like a good premiership midfielder. Dickov worked hard, but his touch let him down on occasion. At times the second half was like an exhibition match and it's a long while since we've been that comfortable at home in the league. Excellent stuff Rovers!

The only time that Gresko looked good was when he was playing behind Duff. He looked vulnerable otherwise and he is also now coming back from a long term injury. When he played more recently (relatively) he seemed slow and more obessed with pulling shirts and wrestling people than winning the ball. That was under a different regime a Ewood, though, and maybe Hughes and his staff will be able to get the best out of Gresko?

It was only a rumour but I heard that Souness told Neill that he was surplus to requirements at the start of the season completely out of the blue. Lucas had just had a house built/bought a house for a substantial amount of money and was aghast. That's what I put some ropey early season form down to and, if it's true, surely Lucas won't go near Souness with a barge pole...

I'm a big kid at heart...I got my name put on it!

Numbers are £3 each. On a seperate note I always find myself spending a good sum of money every time I go in the 'club' shop. I've got so much Rovers gear now it looks like I've got a sponsorship deal! Good value for money IMO.

I remember the occasion. The ball was there too and he threw himself in front of that. The fact that he also happened to impede the player was a coincidence...;-)

Tackling from behind is against the laws of the game, I'm afraid. If you do it it's a foul and the player involved is being dirty. I don't see Todd doing this, however. He's resolute and uncompromising. He's also hard as nails, but he's a good centre half too. To say he's dirty is just plain wrong.

Did you see the goal he scored against Norwich at home?? or Burnley home??? Point taken but as a wide player he only seems to me to beat a man when the defender is tight on him. There were several opportunities yesterday when MGP was running at a defender and he chose not to take him on. MGP isn't a speed merchant, but he is skillful. He's not going to take on a full back for pace if he's not going to beat him. I'm not saying he's slow, but he's got to pick his times to take players on. If players start to stand off him then he'll start swinging in deeper, diagonal crosses, maybe.(Although that'd be pretty pointless with just Dickov to try to pick out...)

I thought that Emerton played just behind Dickov and not as a traditional central midfielder. I think that Tommo is still in the process of coming back from a long term injury and will improve. His touch and range of passing was poor today, though, and he doesn't look sharp at all. He needs to realise that he doesn't have to leather the ball every time he knocks it. I'm a fan of a bit of force being applied to a pass, but it's no good if it just goes sailing over everyones heads!

As soon as he drops Laurent Robert (and he will) the Newcastle performances will nose dive. It's not good management that has the geordies on a good run of form, it's just a good run of form from a talented winger. Souness doesn't like wingers. If we could put a bid in for Robert in the summer we should do so as I think there's a good chance we'd get him.

It's the price we are playing for keeping solid at the back. There was very little support for the front man. What I could see was Reid being asked to make runs to support Dickov initially down the middle with Pedersen joining from out wide when possible. In the second half Emerton was being asked to play behind Dickov and provide the support. The trouble is that the pace that Arsenal have got means there is literally no margin for error when supporting the front man and going forward. Any small mistake and we surrender possession again. I was surprised that we didn't switch to two up front at some stage today. I'd have prefered to see Stead given a run alongside Dickov than Emerton being cobbled into an unfamiliar role.

What the hell was the ref doing there? We all know that the team that is defending a free kick stands over it so that it can't be taken. In this instance we had THE REF standing over the ball so the free kick can't be taken and then complaining whe Tugay wanted to take a quickly! What did he want us to do? Time waste of behalf of Arsenal? He was already doing enough of that wasn't he! How long was added on at the end, I didn't hear. Should have been about ten minutes IMO. We had loads of the Arsenal players going down and staying down for minutes at a time. Obviously seriously injured...wait a sec he's up on his feet now that plays restarted...wait he's back on the field running at full tilt..wow, the Arsenal physio must be a genius! Another problem is that we hadn't been informed that we weren't allowed to challenge for the ball. Reid wins the ball in the air against Viera. Viera slumps to the floor (of course) and they get a free kick! Why? Reyes tries to turn Neill, but Neill reads it and wins the ball. Reyes starts holding his face, even though Neill was nowhere near his face, and they get a free kick. Why? Reid challenges for the ball when we've just lost possession and the ball is loose. Free kick Arsenal. Why? Dickov challenges for a header, but doesn't get anywhere near player or ball. Free kick Arsenal. Why? There were numerous occasions where I saw Arsenal players have there arms across Rovers players shoulders to 'maneuvre' them wawy from a ball int eh air, but nothing was given. Why? Rant over! What was wrong with Toddy? Did he pick up a knock? Dan Lad

I thought that Nelsen was a colossus again against Liverpool! I lost count of the amount of challenges he won.

"They want to eliminate the potential hazard of thousands of supporters of all four clubs in the city at the same time." Why did they put the games in the same city over the same weekend, then? Stupid people.

What do you reckon the chances are of a lad from Norway getting a ticket for that one? Tickets for a flight to Barcelona? Shouldn't be too difficult to get hold of ;-) I'm away in the Caribbean for the final. If we get there I'll be gutted to miss it, but I suppose if I'm going to miss it that's one of the better places to be :-) Is there anywhere particularly in Cardiff that group members/fans generally are going to arrange to meet up before the semi?

I agree that he did little or nothing. I can't particularly remember him winning anything and all I recall is him desperately trying to grapple Nelsen as our Kiwi superstar headed the ball away.

I think that the fact that Leicester did absolutely nothing to deserve the game is NOT open to debate. It's a fact. They were a niggly lower division team that set their stall out for a draw and play with a second rate, Dion Dublin wannabe up front.(De Vries) All he did was tug shirts and whinge* We were comfortable for the first 20 minutes without actually producing much and it was only when our passing got a bit sloppy that Leicester even got a sniff of some possession in our half. Apart from the odd flash of good running from Gillespie and Tiatto running around like a headless T*atto they didn't show anything. * I just want to differentiate between the shirt pulling and whinging that Dickov does and that of De Vries. The poor little Scottish fella's always getting picked on and is just protecting himself ;-)

Hot balls? Ouch ;-)

Newcastles form is all down to Laurent Robert, IMO. If he plays well, Newcastle will play well. If not they are very beatable.

Was this directed to me? Well, I'm diveded between two tribes, but not Sunderland. My Norwegian hometown team Molde and Rovers are my two teams. Since I am a student I can neither afford nor have the time to go to Ewood every other saturday. Just enjoying watching football for £13!!!! at the SOFL from time to time. BTW you should appreciate the freedom you have to choose your own entrance theme here in England. In Norway all the Prem. Teams are obliged to have the same offical theme. But we introduce the players when they are lined up on the pitch tough, raising their hands and so on... I think the 'Two Tribes' bit is the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song. How about 'back by dope demand' for entrance music? Cracking track, although maybe not particularly politically correct!

I think that Nelsen was rock solid last night and looked very comfortable and composed throughout. Excellent captaincy material, IMO. He looks superb in the air and appeared to have an understanding with Mokoena, even if it was just to have Aaron sweep 5 yards behind him in the extremely unlikely event that he didn't win a header! He's also a good tackler and his distribution is good. You don't see him lose possession and when he did have to look for a longer ball it was generally a good pass, as opposed to just lumping it forward and hoping. You could see from his celebration at full time that the fellas got heart and a lot of commitment generally to the club, even though he's effectively only just arrived! If Nelsen is an example of a MLS footballer I'd like to see more MLS players come over and play at Ewood!

It's a different Reid and it is slightly off topic, but my memory is right that a chap in the Blackburn End used to scream maniacally 'Bring on the animal...Animal Reid' when Nicky Reid used to run out?

I heard he got offered as a sweetner to the Ferguson deal, but once he was removed from the equation the transfer money went UP to a figure we could accept ;-)

Excellent idea especially as red and blue halves used to be ( still is ? ) QEGS colours. I'd like to see Rovers play in blue with white halves at home and white with blue halves away. Old Blackburnians play in red and blue (although not necessarily halves) and they are QEGS 'old boys' right? Quite a smart strip!