Despite Sunderlands league position, Wednesday night game, was one of the most significant results of the season for Rovers as they reached the magical 40 points that virtually secures any team premiership survival. There wasn’t a great deal of difference between Rovers and Sunderland. In fact, if Sunderland had been able to capitalise on the number of crosses, it could have been a different result. To be honest the main difference between the sides was that Rovers had a player capable of putting away the chances, something that Sunderland have lacked all season. Unfortunately, failure to capitalise on chances in the premiership is a one way ticket to the championship league, which sadly appears to be Sunderland’s destiny. One of the biggest cheers of the night was for Sunderland substitute, Jon Stead, who sadly has yet to score for the Black Cats, since his summer transfer from Rovers. A transaction that many Rovers supporters questioned at the time, even though it helped to finance the deal that brought Wednesday’s goal poacher, Craig Bellamy to Ewood. With no game this weekend, the first team squad have jetted off to Dubai, to prepare for next Saturday’s clash against Arsenal at Ewood Park as they(Rovers) attempt to improve on their league position, currently 7th, and a push for European football next season. Despite what the score may indicate, Rovers were unfortunate to loose their away game to Arsenal earlier in the season, having gone behind as early as the 4th minute, they battled hard and were unfortunate to come away as losers, so hopefully they can reverse the 3-0 result next Saturday to move above the Gunners in the league and push for automatic European football qualification. After a number of seasons when avoiding relegation has been the main objective, the next few months should be exciting times down at Ewood. Tickets for the game are now on sale.Ticket Office Details They can be bought at the ticket office, by phone 08701123456 or on line. You dont have to be on the data base to buy tickets for this game, so register you interest as a Rovers supporter now, ahead of future games against Liverpool, Chelsea and the end of season clash against Manchester City, when tickets could be in short supply.

Lets not build up our hopes too much, Rovers have a habit of making life difficult, against the lower placed teams. I just hope Mark Hughes makes it clear to the team, that failure to produce on Wednesday will not be acceptable.

Raffle the tickets,to fans who went to West Brom and Everton

Editorial. After their exhilarating display to beat United 4-3, it was half expected that Rovers would be exhausting when they met West Brom 3 days later. Their lack lustre performance therefore when they lost 2-0 away at the Hawthorns was tolerated to some extent by Rovers supporters; however there can be no excuse for not turning up at Goodison Park yesterday. Out of 2 cup competitions and within 3 points of the magical 40 points, to make premiership survival virtually assured, there appears to be a comfort zone mentality running right through the team. With the thought of an up and coming jolly, I wonder how many players are shirking tackles to avoid being on the injury table when the squad fly out to Dubai at the end of the month, for a team bonding exercise. Maybe it would be better to take them on a tour of shops, hospitals, offices and factories, to see how the supporters team bond and earn their money. Yes you may think it’s just a gut reaction after 2 dismal performances, however coincidental as it may appear, but after watching Rovers for over 30 many years, there’s a touch of read the book, seen the video, bought the T shirt, about the last couple of weeks. With no incentive and nothing to play for, with the odd exception, performances have fallen away towards the end of each season, as if someone has come in and switched off the electric, in order to save energy. The players have the opportunity to show the fans that they really care on Wednesday night when they take on Sunderland, at Ewood. Another lack lustre performance will surely effect the already declining attendances. Failure to produce on Wednesday will not be tolerated by the fans and neither should it be by Mark Hughes. With premiership survival virtually assured, failure on Wednesday night, should be the trigger to blood some of the fringe players that have a hunger and something to prove. The fans will tolerate defeat and will support less gifted players who try, Dickov and Kuqi are prime examples, however anything less than honest endevour and a failure to show any pride in their performance will not be tolerated. Click here for fans views.

Everton 1 Rovers 0 Everton moved to 10th in the league, when they stretched their unbeaten run to 7 games this afternoon with a 1-0 win against a lack lustre Rovers team, that failed to test the 10 man Everton team. With Everton down to 10 men from the 9th minute when keeper Turner was sent off, Rovers failed to capitalise and were punished when former Rovers striker James Beattie headed home a free kick just after the half hour mark. After the game there were no excuses from Rovers manager Mark Hughes when he stated. "Going up against a side who has lost their keeper early on, down to ten men, and with their fourth choice goalkeeper between the sticks, we never really tested him. "We had plenty of possession but never at any point did we have a sustained spell of pressure to test them. "Everton were excellent, they really fought hard for everything that they got and deserved to win."

Rovers youth team lost 2-3 to Brighton last night after extra time, as the exited the FA Youth Cup.

Rovers Reserves return to action tomorrow night, Monday 6th February, when they take on Aston Villa at Christie Park, Morecambe. ko 7pm. In their first home game since November, Rovers could give their transfer deadline signing Martin Ollsen his first run out in Rovers colours.

Rovers young guns are back in action on Wednesday night, 8th February, when they take on Brighton in the FA Youth Cup, at Ewood Park. ko 7pm. Admission FREE to season ticket holders. Non season ticket holders - £3 Adult, £1 concessions.

After last weekends defeat to Manchester United, Rovers Under 18’s were back to winning ways this morning when they beat Liverpool under 18’s 1 – 0, at the Liverpool Academy.

Look at the good point, it moves West Brom 6 points clear of Birmingham.

West Brom 2 Rovers 0 Rovers missed the chance of moving into 6th place in the league this afternoon, when they were beaten 2-0 by relegation candidates West Brom. With the Baggies battling for survival, Rovers were always second to the ball in the first half and appeared to be suffering from the fatigue associated with their 4-3 winning encounter with United mid-week. West Brom took the lead as early as the 6th minute with a goal from Kevin Campbell and went further ahead just after the half hour mark with a volley from the edge of the box by Greening. Despite an improved display in the second half when Florent Sinama-Pongolle came off the bench to make his debut, Rovers failed to breach a resolute and determined West Brom team, who after this afternoons results moved 6 points clear of Birmingham, who are in third spot of the relegation zone. West Brom: Kuszczak, Albrechtsen, Curtis Davies, Clement, Robinson, Greening, Wallwork, Quashie (Carter 78), Inamoto, Campbell (Ellington 67), Horsfield (Kozak 86). Subs Not Used: Kirkland, Martinez. Booked: Wallwork. Goals: Campbell 6, Greening 32. Rovers: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Nelsen, Gray, Reid, Savage, Tugay (Emerton 45), Pedersen (Peter 76), Kuqi (Sinama Pongolle 54), Bentley. Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Mokoena. Booked: Peter. Att: 23,993 Ref: C Foy

Saunders tipped as Derby new manager although I was supprised to find that Deano had another side to him.

Award Winning BBC 5LIVE presenter, Adrian Chiles, speaks to brfcs.co.uk prior to Satardays game against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. As well as being a BBC presenter who appears on both the Radio & TV, he is also a Baggies Fan. The Interview Thanks Adrian for your time; and thanks to Colin for getting the interview.

Press report. Well wouldnt we all give up work, with a compensation package.

January Review by Bob Fleming In case you missed it, January went something like this…. Saturday December 31 – New Years Eve (you knew that). Messageboard celebrity and all round good guy Vinjay makes his last ever post “Anybody bothering to read those links?” he asks cryptically. He’s banned from BRFCS.com immediately for the unheard of crime of persistently staying on topic. Unfortunately though this is in every topic apart from the one titled “I hate the Walkers and their £600 milli…. Aarrghh!!! £680 million fortune, It’s so unfair, I hate them. I can’t sleep.”. Rovers beat Wigan Athletic away 3-0. Pedersen, Reid and Bellamy doing the damage. Reid scores one of the goals of the season and ensures that at least one Rovers fan sees the New Year in properly, rather than from the comfort of a hospital bed, by getting a shot on target for once. Monday January 2 – Rovers 2 Portsmouth 1. Four Minutes gone and Matt Taylor scuffs a free kick in for Pompey when we’re clearly not ready. We respond with a beauty of a MGP free kick from 40 yards, and a splendid Dickov header. 2nd half, held on, didn’t play well. Another three points and we’re up to eighth. Mark ‘Lawro’ Lawrenson almost implodes as Gary ‘my old club Leicester City’ Lineker asks him a closed question on MOTD and he has no option but to give us some credit for once. The ‘Preston Rentb….’ steady… The ‘Preston Hairdresser’ completely loses his mind after this little episode and actually predicts that we won’t lose every game we play in January. Wednesday January 4 - Rovers announce in the LET that that they’ll announce on Tuesday 10 that they’ve agreed to let Matt Jansen leave. A sad end to a sad story. Sure he’s made for life but every Rovers fan, and Matt, must be left wondering as to what could have been had he not got on that ruddy moped. For example: July 2003 LET: “Chelsea Swoop For £10m Jansen”. LET two days later “Souey Delight! Rovers Swoop For Unknown £10m Serie G Striker”. Good luck Matt and thanks for the memories. Following an in-depth investigation into the cancellation of the Sunderland match at Christmas, Rovers also announce on this day that this was “due to a leek appearing in one of the pipes”. Clearly the Welsh contingent within the back room coaching staff (i.e. all the back room coaching staff) are to blame for planting the ruddy thing there in the first place. Whatever next? Daffodils in the goal mouths? A dragon living under the Riverside? The Blackburn End drummer replaced by Max Boyce? (actually, that’s maybe not such a bad idea… Nah.. out of the frying pan and into an even bigger frying pan). Saturday January 7 – ‘FA Cup fever’ hits Blackburn with a wet fish as 9,000 home fans turn up to watch Rovers dispense with QPR with a minimum of fuss. Bellamy scores two beautifully taken goals after a bullet like Todd header from 20 yards opens the scoring. His celebration is something to behold, one camera angle on MOTD actually shows a slight smile. Or was it just wind? German youthlet Sergio Peter makes an extremely efficient debut and efficiently creates all three goals with clinical precision and a complete lack of a sense of humour. Monday January 9 – The romance and utter magic of the FA Cup now stinks like a wet fish. Rovers draw West Ham United away. Wednesday January 11 – Rovers confirm that Matt Jansen has left Rovers. Rovers 1 Manchester United 1. Saha scored for them. Pedersen equalises with yet another great goal, smashing the ball home on the volley from 3 furlongs. Kuqi puts his boots on the wrong feet again. Alan Smith should have been sent off for doing a rubbish Eddie Izzard impersonation and a two footed lunge on Savage’s legs, which leaves our player writhing in agony on the ground holding his face. Thursday January 12 – Another one of the old guard leaves Ewood. Garry “Shagger” Flitcroft departs for Sheffield United. All the best Garry. Friday The 13th – Matt Jansen, in search of regular first team football, signs for Bolton Wanderers, presumably as cover for Spit the Diouf who is away with Bob Carolgees touring Africa for a few weeks. Saturday 14 January. Rovers 0 Bolton Wanderers 0. T’was a terrible game as has come to be expected from the Premier Leagues ‘entertainers’. The Wanderers fans lived up to their name though and tried to walk down the front of the Riverside towards the Darwen End with some sort of flag. Fortunately, tragedy was averted. If they had left it to 10 minutes before the end they’d have been trampled to death in the rush to leave. Tuesday 15 January – South Korean striker Ahn Jung-Hwan is due to arrive at Ewood for a trial opening up, apparently, unlimited marketing opportunities in the Far East. This for a club that doesn’t even have an official club shop at Ewood. “Yes but, no but, yes it’s Sports World International now you know, it has nothing to do with the club anymore does it, stewwpid.” Was how it could have been explained to me once by customer services manager Vicky Pollard or maybe I just imagined that. Wednesday 16 January – Ahn declines the offer of a trial. The whole episode was getting too “intricate and complicated”. Indeed the concept of “we’ll have a look at you in training and if we like what we see we’ll offer you a contract” would baffle almost anyone who wasn’t good enough and was just coming for the money. Thursday 17 January – Yet another departure, little David Thompson departs for Wigan. All the best David. On the possible incoming side of things Rovers reveal that they are taking a look at de los Santos. Fans of Brazilian football will recall that this is the team where Edson Arantes Do Nascimento made his name. Unfortunately, they don’t have one decent player in their entire squad and we send them all back on the same plane as Ahn (which was probably a geographical mistake on Rovers part but who cares?) Saturday 21 January – Newcastle United 0 – Rovers 1. A superbly crafted goal from “Gamst” (as he now wants to be known) earns us the points at St James’. Kuqi rises like a dirty great big eagle on helium to majestically power a header towards goal on 75 minutes, although the ball is clearly destined for the top corner anyway Pedders makes sure and leaps well over 40 hands into the air, like a salmon with one of those jet pack thingy’s, to power an unstoppable hand volley into the empty net. Pick that out. Ex-Rovers manager Graeme Souness, now in charge of the Sky Sports News sponsored North Eastern sit-com that is Newcastle United, just can’t believe his luck, again. Incredibly, despite only spending £50 million on injured players, some Newcastle fans actually demand that Souness is sacked. Well at least he can look himself in the mirror… blah de blah de blah. Dean Saunders waits patiently in the wings. Rovers move quietly back up to eighth. Tuesday 24 January – Ex-Rovers Ex-non trialist Ahn joins some German pub side. Wednesday 25 January – Manchester United 2 Rovers 1. My first trip to United for over ten years. I can’t stand the place. I’ll not be rushing back. 60 odd thousand there and I only recall them singing about three or four times, you have to feel really sorry for all those day trippers who don’t know the words. There was quite a large police presence I thought and no lager at half time – Pah!. Anyway, we lost, Reid scored to give us hope. There was nowt up front for us though. Clearly it’s a Mickey Mouse cup, certainly not as prestigious as it was when it was sponsored by a bitter rather than a weak lager. Hughes comes up with the quote of the season, to Gary Neville “You’ve always got a lot to say for yourself haven’t you? What don’t you f*** off?” Too true. Concise and to the point. Saturday 29 January – The wet fish that is this seasons FA Cup bites like a rabid piranha and we lose 4-2 at West Ham. A stunning 25 millimetre strike from Bentley and a curler from just inside his own half from Lucas Neill into Ludo Miklosko’s top right hand corner prove to be the highlights. Zurab Khizanishvilli has an absolute Yogi. Tuesday 31 January – For those who have stuck with it, we’re nearly there now you’ll be pleased to know. At last, after well over a month of hot air and bulls*** (and that’s just this post) the transfer window is about to be slammed shut, which is just as well as it’s bloody freezing. Speculation on this messageboard reaches fever pitch. We clearly need a striker with Dickov’s shoulder falling off and Bellamy doing a Paul Warhurst. Two names have sprung to the fore over the last few days, Franny “Massive Question Mark” Jeffers and Florent “Unit4” Pongolle. Wednesday 1 February, early doors: - You know the what happened. We got Pongolle, Bentley & some kid called Ollsen. Which was nice.... Hopefully.

Rovers have announced the signing of Liverpools's Pongolle on loan until the end of the season. The have also signed 18 year old Swedish defender Martin Ollsen. This news follows the announcement of the signing of David Bentley permenantly from Arsenal for an undisclosed fee.

Editorial. After their exit from two cup competitions within a week, it will be interesting to see whether Rovers can bounce back in the league on Wednesday night against United. It will also be interesting to see whether more fans can be bothered to turn up,this tme, than the 24,348 fans who turned up at Ewood for the Carling Cup Semi Final first leg against United. The drop in gates this season must be a worrying factor for the club after the way that Mark Hughes has turned the club round in the last 18 months. However for Rovers fans and the town of Blackburn, the more worrying factor should be, is whether the club can retain the services of one of the most talented of young managers on the scene at the moment. Mark Hughes was recently quoted in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph as saying. "My ambition is to go as far as I can, and take Blackburn as far as possible." "We have got some way to go and hopefully we will get there quickly." "Then we will need major investment to go to the next level." "The club will have to decide how far they want to go. Chase the best or stay where we are?" Unfortunately, even if the club's board of directors have major ambitions, without an increase in gate revenue, the club will find it extremely difficult to finance Hughes's ambitions, which could ultimately see the departure of their manager to greener pastures, which ironically could be Wednesday nights opponents. It must always be appreciated that Rovers are a small town club, however they are the major factor in the global advertising of the town of Blackburn and any decline in the fortunes of the club will also severely affect the fortunes and profile of the town, it's associated businesses and the overall employment within the area. Whilst I can understand that there was a decline in attendances during the latter stages of Souness's reign, when his main objective was premiership survival each season, I wonder has the public of Blackburn and surrounding areas really become that disillusioned. Two cup semi finals since Hughes's appointment plus a current top half league position, surely deserves some recognition from the local population. If Rovers are to make the step to the next level as Mark Hughes stated, the club will require major investments, but also they need the support of the local population. Any indication of whether the people of Blackburn and surrounding areas really care, can only be reflected in the gate this Wednesday night. If the club cant get a near capacity gate for a local derby against United then there are worrying times ahead. Discuss on the Messageboard.

Despite scoring within a minute of kick off, Rovers went out of their second cup competition in a week, when they were beaten 4-2 by West Ham in the FA Cup this afternoon. Scorers. West Ham. Sherringham (pen) Etherington, Khizanishvili (og) Zamora. Rovers. Bentley, Neill.

half the lights have gone off at upton pk

4-1 at Ewood

The financial results for the year show revenue for the year at £41.3million an operating profit(pre player trading) of £1million. However when they take into account player trading, depreciation of player values, loan repayments etc there was a loss of £5million. Hopefully Ive explained that correctly, if not I hope Philip will correct me. For the uneducated, an accountants report full of figures can be a mine field, so I would like to express my thanks to Philip for putting this years figures, into a language that can be easily understood.

Rovers made an operating profit of £1m compared to a loss of £1.4m in 2003/4, before the player trading was taken into account. The publication of Rovers’ results has been a muted affair compared with Chelsea announcing a £140m loss. Abramovich has now publicly declared losses of £270m in addition to the reported £130m all up cost of buying Chelsea- still £100m less than the reported development value of the Stamford Bridge! To the Rovers and my immediate reaction to this year’s accounts is that there are no big surprises- the numbers are what I suggested they would be a year ago. However, on closer examination there are lots of very pleasant little surprises all over the place which is a sign of an extremely well managed operation. Click here For Our Experts Review

Rovers return to cup action this afternoon, at Upton Park, against West Ham, in the FA Cup, hoping to bounce back from their midweek defeat in the semi finals of the Carling Cup against Manchester United. With a number of players carrying knocks from the trip to Old Trafford, Rovers manager Mark Hughes will leave it until the last minute before naming his side. Whilst he has a number of option in defence and midfield, with Dickov and Bellamy definitely ruled out, Hughes has limited options up front and may have to gamble on playing either youngsters Johnson or Derbyshire, along side Kuqi. However on past experience, Hughes has the habit of surprise team selections when the chips are down and may opt for starting with Peter on the left and moving Pedersen into a more central striker role, as he did for the last 10 minutes at Old Trafford. One thing for certain is, that Hughes aims to progress in the FA Cup, stating yesterday. “We are looking to progress in this cup. The League Cup has closed on us now, so hopefully, we can keep the FA Cup run going instead.”

Simple answer NO. The trust could have quite easily after Jacks death closed the cheque book, but they didnt, and have continually bank rolled the club, despite the apathy of the Blackburn public.

To quote various managers "These things even themselves out over the season"