The normal time is a fortnight at this time of year - best to go through the Post Office who will offer to check the form for you. You can always call up and get an appointment at the office in Liverpool, where they will issue it in the day, but that cost about £95 when my son lost his in March - probably more now that they have put up the prices again.

I remember we had been on holiday in Cornwall that week and i had to leave Newquay at the crack of dawn to get the train to London and then after the match go back alone to my in-laws in Bristol to catch up with the rest of the family. I think I was just in complete shock all night and hardly said a word to anyone. The boys couldn't work out waht was wrong with me (although they probably would understand now).

Mourinho was quoted in the Independent today as follows: - "The rules are very clear; if a defender pushes or pulls or keeps contact for more than two or three seconds it's a penalty". Well no wonder Chelsea get penalties and we don't if that's the rules Chelsea are playing to. It explains why Carvalho can grab an opponet's shirt in the penalty area and get away with it twice in week - he just makes sure he lets go before the three seconds is up!

You can fly Ryanair from Stansted to Graz for £43. It's then a 4 hour train ride and the fare will be more than the flight but it's still the cheapest option I've found so far. If there were a group of you hiring a car might be quicker and cheaper from Graz. I considered flights to Verona and Treviso in Italy but the trains from there are 6.5 hours with many changes. You can fly from Liverpool to Treviso though.

Another option if you've got the time is the train. More exotic and no cheaper than current flight prices but whilst the flights will get more expensive the train probably won't. http://www.seat61.com/Austria.htm#Salzburg

I checked some flight prices to Salzburg about an hour ago: - Cheapest thomsonfly from Coventry £121 Ryanair from Stansted £204! Swiss from Manchester £159 (with a change) Sky Europe from Manchester £169 All were for going on 14th and back on 15th. Should also be practical to fly to Munich and get a train. I've only checked BA for this and it was £300+

I think this was a bit different. Yes, it was an awful challenge that broke Carragher's leg, but at least Neil was going for the ball with his leg i.e. a normal if bad tackle. Thatcher's attack was clearly pre-meditated and led with a deliberate elbow - he was just out to get Mendes. I'm not sure you can be too hard on the ref though. Like me, he probably saw it as a clumsy challenge at first. it was only with the benefit of a slow motion action replay that you could see what actually happened. As someone else said (and Gary Lineker) it got worse every time you saw it.

To counteract the prophets of doom on here this is the report of the match from today's Independent. http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/pr...icle1221364.ece This fits in with my view of the match - that we were the better team for most of the match and that we had plenty of chances to have put the match beyond Everton, but that we missed them. Then we sat back to try and protect the lead, which we were doing OK until the last 20 minutes. I don't know whether that was our design or forced by Everton's pushing forward - probably more the latter. Before that Everton had not been in the game at all. I can only remember them creating 2 serious attempts on goal - Andy Johnson's break and shot saved by Friedel and the goal. Overall aa draw was the right result but only because we missed chances and paid the price. On another day we could have 3 or 4 easily. We're not as fluent as last season yet but we were comfortably better than Everton. PS Did anyone else notice that Bet24 are our "principle" sponsors. Good to see an on-line betting company with principles...

We have just received our new packs. Amongst all the promotional stuff was a new plastic wallet for the season ticket but no new card - as i was expecting.

But even if just a few players move from Juventus to CL clubs, that will shake up the existing players at those clubs and give clubs like Rovers opportunities. For example, if someone at a CL club finds themselves not first choice, they may well prefer regular first team and European football to bench warming. This was reported on Radio 4 this morning from an article in Gazzetta Dello Sport - the main Italian sports paper. It's still speculation, but from what would be a very well informed source.

But the likelihood is that those teams relegated to serie B are also likely to have points deducted so that an immediate return will be very difficult. If you're a player at or just past your peak, aged say 26 to 30, will you want to commit to maybe two years in the wilderness with a chance of playing at the top level again in 2008, or look to move to a club towards the top of one of the best leagues in Europe and can offer good contracts?

Presumably for the Uefa match the previous thursday. I imagine the home game with Wigan on 30th September will also be moved back a day.

And that, in a hutshell, is probably why England are unlikley to win the World Cup in the near future. As long as Premiership audiences demand blood and thunder football that's the type of footballer England will produce, who will then be found out when they come up against a team who can play the game properly.

? After that display by Italy? Peerless defending and wonderful performances all over the park, particularly Pirlo and Cannavaro.

I can remember it was a bit ugly when we played Legia Warsaw in the Champions League. After spending a very pleasant day and a half in Warsaw Rovers fans had to walk into the ground from the coaches through two rows of armed police with baying Legia fans in the background.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Micah Richards' actions either. He went down as if he'd been shot when Kuqi tackled him (a definite foul but also a genuine attempt to get the ball and not the man). After treatment he bounced up, trotted over to Kuqi, pushed him in the chest with both hands and then walked away with an exaggerated limp again. If he picked anyone except Kuqi the player would probably have gone down (Robbie would have, holding his face for effect) but he just bounced off Shefki's chest. as soon as the game restarted he ran off like a spring chicken...

Perhaps one of my second teams Southport (I was born there) can do the same next season to repair the injustice when they failed to get re-election despite finishing fourth from bottom. Unfortunately the team that replaced them were Wigan so it could be a few years yet...

It looked like it was planned for him to come on but everything had to change when Mokoena had to go off early on. Gallagher would also have had longer on but for Tugay's sending off.

I agree that if that's the level of ideas then it's probably worse than useless as they can hide behind the fact that they are "doing" something when in reality as you say it will more likely rile the fans. Nevertheless the new money does give an opportunity for imaginitive clubs (oxymoron?) to genuinely encourage fans to live games, although it will need a collective will rather than efforts of a few clubs. If other clubs put their extra money into players then everyone will have to follow or face decline. Anyway time I was off to Ewood...

Most commentators are suggesting that Setanta will be making their matches available to Sky and cable users for an extra fee, so it will feel little different to the current arrangement where the PremPlus matches are extra. What is not clear yet is how much you will have to pay for them. You might think more than now but there will effectively be two organisations competing so I suspect it may not be much different.

I was about to write a post wishfully thinking that some of the TV money could be used to reduce ticket prices, at least for the televised games. However, I was pre-empted by hearing on FiveLive that a report in the Sunday Express says that an attendance working group is being set up by a number of clubs, including Rovers and, more bizarrely, Chelsea and Arsenal to look at reducing ticket prices and subsidising away travel etc. Is it too much to hope for some progress in this area? Maybe the new contract might bring a little bit of benefit for the fam who turns up rather than the armchaire and pub fan.

According to today's Independent each place in the Premiership is worth £484,000, so finishing 6th would bring in £7.26m, so for once Lawro gets something right.

There were no packs but you should have had a flyer, there were ads on the big screen at the match, in the programme. I have had a recorded message from Mark Hughes to my home phone and an email reminding me of the deadline. I think they've done pretty well with the marketing...

Also another question, are we still in 6th today because our club name begins with a B? 401297[/snapback] Yes, the table is shown in alphabetical order if teams can't be split any other way. God knows what would happen, though if the season finished with us and another team tied for 6th place on points, goal difference and goals scored. presumably some sort of play-off?

No idea but it's probably quite low at the moment, as I imagine most folk will be waiting until the last few days of April...