I came on here a few weeks back saying what a bad first match the computer had thrown up, A newly promoted team away( not to mention West Ham, where we've only won once since 1963). My reasons were as follows- Their confidence would be sky-high following a recent promotion,and good results. The ground would be packed to the rafters. West Ham would have every player in a small squad available for selection. New players in the squad would be making their debuts and would be out to impress. I concluded by saying I would take a draw if offered one at any time, In my book an away point is a very good point in the circumstances. I got several replies all more or less saying I was talking ###### and the three points were there for the taking as long as we could be bothered to turn up! It looks like the team had the same idea! I just hope some of these wiseguys are reading this now. Without more creativity it,s going to be a long season, we can't afford two none tackling wide players , the Axe doesn't look like he can play centre half, and Matteo doesn't look like he can play left back- none of this is exactly news to anyone he watches Rovers on a regular basis. See you all against Fulham.

I'm with Rover 6 on the Gresko thing, I'm only going to say it once more- the lad can't defend ! If we boiled all our left-backs into one we may just have a decent player.

If he does get transfer listed Birmingham will be in like a shot, I think Bruce sees him as the next Robbie Savage.

It's got to be a good signing , it's simple really - he's better than what we've got by a long way. Team building is easy in theory, you just replace good players with excellent players and then you replace the excellent players with stars and before too long you,ve got a good team out there. Until recently Rovers were following this plan in reverse. One thing about Bellamy, all the teams we play next season will be defending 15 to 20 yards further back towards their own goals because of his pace, this should give our midfield a lot more room to play into .

Well, we'll see who's right after the West Ham fixture, as I said I'll take a draw now !!!!!!

West ham away for the opening fixture, why do we always get newly promoted teams first game in ? Their confidence will be sky high coming off a good run at the end of last season, no injuries ,no suspensions -the best time to play teams like this is mid season when they've had a few good bangings and confidence is on the slide, when injuries and suspensions have eroded a squad thats slim in numbers. Given the fact we never seem to win at West Ham even with good teams I'll take a draw now !!!!

My first game was on the 30th of September 1961, Sheffield United at home, we played crap and lost 2-1 but it didn't matter I was hooked, after that I went reasonably often until I started playing myself a couple of years later. Broke my right leg twice in the late sixties and had to call time on a promising career at 18, I've never really got over that ," I couda been a contender, I couda bin somebody ". I starting going down to Ewood again just as we fell into Division 3 as was and we had plenty of ups and downs until the Walker era. The last 15 years have brought more ups than downs and we live to fight another day. High points have been - Seeing us win in a canter 3-0 at Old Trafford in 1963, Bryan Douglas mesmerised them that day. Beating Spurs 7-2 at home when they were the best team in Gt. Britain by far. Beating Burnley home and away 1961-62 to stop them winning the title. Winning the Premiership and winning the Worthington Cup down in Cardiff. Low points have been- Losing several times to Rochdale ( my adopted home town, we left Blackburn when I was 5) the most galling of all in the league cup semi-final in the early sixties! Losing to Oxford the one year I thought we could really win the F.A. cup ( the final was between West Ham and Preston ! all the big sides had gone out early, we could have beat either of them easily.) Best Player- the one and only Bryan Dougas- Imagine Damien Duff and David Dunn rolled into one at their absolute best and that was Bryan. Lots of great memories ,that's why I find the football we're playing at present so disapointing. Having said that I've got confidence in Mark Hughes and I'm sure he'll get us footballing teams off the park before too long.

Apart from the late, great Keith Newton he was the best left back Rovers have had in my time ,( Bill Eckersley had just retired when I first visited Ewood). He was probably as good as anyone going forward and very tidy in defence, only his temperament let him down, as in the incidents in Moscow and with Perez when he was playing for Chelsea. What I can't forgive him for is when he had that truly awful ankle injury, ( against Middlesboro I think), he had the best treatment in the world courtesy of Rovers. If the surgery had not been successful and he never played again he would have expected his contract to have paid up to the last penny. As it was, as soon as he regained match fitness contracts were simply forgotten, he wanted a transfer and he was off. Another one of the Championship winning team that did the dirty on Jack Walker and the Rovers.

Much as I admire Tugay's passing skills in my opinion we've always allowed him to play too deep. Berkovic played where clever passing can hurt teams, from the half way line to the edge of the penalty box and he was always looking to carry the ball to the heart of the opposition defence ,pulling people out of position. I would still plump for Berkovic in spite of the fact he could cause trouble in an empty house. Of course this is based on past history, I can't see Berkovic ever playing again in the Premier League.

Re. Pedersens heading ability. The good news- He's got a good spring and gets up well for the ball. The bad news- He's got little control over his heading and the ball rarely goes where he would like it to.

I couldn't agree more , what Mark Hughes has done is nothing short of miraculous, last Autumn I thought we were dead and buried but he managed to bring us back to life. If he can get us playing winning football next season I will be even more impressed.

I watched the Baggies on Match of the Day and the score line was a travesty, they played really well and made loads of chances, only an exceptional performance by ' Boro's goalkeeper kept them scoreless. They did however look vulnerable at the back, Russel Hoult looked like he was carrying an injury. Maybe we can take advantage of this and keep them out at the other end. They're bound to throw the kitchen sink at us in the first 20 minutes if we can keep it quiet in that period I'll fancy us to get something.

Jan , have you considered knocking nails through the back of your hand ? it's slightly more painful than yesterdays game but a lot less expensive.

Awful game , neither team would have scored if they'd have played until midnight. Dry, bumpy pitch and a blustery wind at pitch level made life a bit difficult but there's no excuse for performances like that. My son, who lives a fair distance away has been to 4 games this season, West Brom 1-1, M,boro 0-4, Everton 0-0 and City 0-0, so in four home games he has not seen a Rovers forward score a goal in 360 minutes of football!!!!!!!.He was mightily p----d off today. We need to remember things like that when we lambast people for not turning up at Ewood. I thought the defence played soundly , Matteo played very well at left back , but forward of Makoena there was very little. Maybe the players were tired after a lot of big games in a short space of time but that was dreadful. Nice little cameo from Gallagher when he came on, he was sharp ,could actually run with the ball and beat a man. My favourite moment was the Axe tackle on Robbie Fowler near the dugout, can that man tackle !!! Savage is not in the same league when it comes to tackling.

Just been watching Match of the Day , Paul Scholes got sent off for a second yellow card ( which should have been a straight red ) for having the most almighty whack at an Everton player with the ball nowhere in sight. Nothing like this tackle happened in Saturdays Semi-Final, will it be all over Thursdays papers ? I think not. Watch this space.

Disapointed with the scoreline yesterday , the Rovers had their game plan which was to disrupt Arsenal's rhythm and stop them playing, Arsenal had their game plan which was to fall over in every tackle, working on the assumption that the ref would give them 75% of the free kicks and they were right. If the Arsenal way of playing is allowed to prevail football will not be the game I played and watched for 40 years, it will become a soccer version of rugby's tig and pass with physical contact not allowed. I admire Arsenal's football but their gamesmanship was sickening, I've never seen a team spend as much time lying on the grass. They had guys built like light-heavyweight contenders, Lauren,Toure, Vierra and co. going down when tackled by midgets like Thommo and Dickov as though they'd been hit with an axe. I'm prepared to give Todd the benefit of the doubt but given the disgraceful hue and cry lead by the London media I expect the F.A. will throw the book at him, today's Observer was particularly outrageous and I'm certainly going to change my Sunday paper after today. From a Rovers point of view the defence played well , but we lack creativity in midfield, Oh for a Berkovic type player who could carry the battle into their half, Pedersen was peripheral as was Thommo and Flitty. Reid and the Axe did their best but you can't beat Arsenal without everybody playing 100%. Up front we'd nothing, our lack of pace allowing Arsenal to play a very high line in defence and catch us off side all afternoon. Senderos turns about as fast as an oil tanker but we never got him turning all afternoon. We need to concentrate on achieving safety now with two home games on the bounce, four points from these two will do.

Sorry to spoil your story Hanks but he did actually score 17 goals for Huddersfield , some of which believe it or not were penalties, he also scored 3 goals for Rovers.

Martin Britt was an England youth international who came to Ewood with a great reputation, apparently he made mince-meat out of the great Tommy Smith in a youth cup semi-final in the mid sixties. He played 8 games in the league without scoring in the 1965-66 season. At the start of the next season he started in the Central League and scored 12 goals in 12 games playing with a knee he had injured early in that season, he had to retire at the age of 21. One or two other Rovers who had to retire or leave early early because of injuries were- Jimmy Kerr, saw him at Bury before he came to Ewood , he was a real player , could have been a star but he did his knee as well. Steve Agnew, great at Barnsley, never had a chance at Rovers. Alan Gilliver, great goalscorer at Huddersfield but came with a bad back, had the operation and couldn't bend at all after that. One or two nominations for you to think about for worst player- Francis Kopel, Brian Hill, John Coddington ( anybody remember the penalty he took against Palace ? I've never seen anything like it , he had a longer run up than any fast bowler and when he actually got to strike the ball his shot was so soft the goalie could have saved it by throwing his cap on the ball !!! Unbelievably the ref made him take it again because the keeper had moved and he did exactly the same thing, the ball only just made it to the goalkeeper he had to dive forward to save it !!!!!!!!)

Having got this far I think it would be foolish to throw away our advantage by playing an over expansive game, Southampton need to win this game much more than we do , why play into their hands ? At the moment our strength is in our defence, we can strangle the life out of most teams, I know it doesn't put bums on seats or sell season tickets but thats not the issue on Saturday, making sure we don't give Southampton a leg up is. My team- Freidel Neill Todd Nelsen Matteo Mokoena Emerton Reid Savage/Flitcroft ? Pedersen Dickov/Stead? * Savage and Dickov if fit Subs Enkleman Amoruso ( may need to throw him up front if the worst happens ) Tugay (may need some creativity in midfield --as above-----------) Stead/Dickov Johnson Last Saturdays " performance" puts Gallagher and Thompson out of the reckoning for me.

Great performance today ,thats the best we've played for a long while. If we can maintain that level of commitment we should have no problems. What a difference a day makes, --- sound of me eating humble pie !

To win games you have to score goals, thats my problem!

Which three games do you see us winning then ?

Who was it said there are lies, damn lies. and statistics, going off actual playing performances we are very poor at the moment, apart from the Norwich game when were you last happy with the football we are playing? Both Palace and S/ hampton are playing better football than we are , principly because they have a threat up front, Rovers at the moment have the most toothless attack in the premier league. I hope i'm wrong but I do fear the worst.

Remember who told you first, Palace and Southampton are staying up, where does that leave Rovers ? I know we have to play them both at Ewood but on current form I can't see us beating either of them. As I see it the only hope we've got is for Pompey to drop down into trouble. At the moment on current form Rovers are the third worst team in the competition, anything from tomorrows game at Goodison would be a massive plus, but I fear the worst.