Sorry to question your post, but in them days playing football was an escape from the dangers of working down the pit or mundane factories, where health and safety was the last thing on the minds of the bosses. There was a saying, that clubs only had to shout down a pit and a player emerged. That said the clubs could have the pick of the best available footballers. And therefore only the best made the grade to top flight football.

I fully understand this is a hot topic and everyone will have their personal opinions, politically and moraly. Debate the subject by all means, in fact a lively debate is what the messageboard is all about and it is encouraged, by the admin and mods, however personal attacks are not tolerated. We dont want to have to spend our time deleting abuse and sending pm's to members so can you all please cut out the personal attacks.

Ewood Park will host the Final of the UEFA European Women’s Championship on the 19th June, 2005. and two of England’s group games. The Football Association has announced its plans for the European Womens Champoionship to be played in the North West of England, with five venues hosting games next June, between the 5th June and 19th June. Featuring eight teams in 2 groups, 15 matches will be staged at 5 different venues across the North West (Manchester, Ewood, Preston, Blackpool and Warrington)with The City of Manchester Stadium hosting the opening England game on Sunday June 5th.

Firstly let me clarify, that I do not condone the actions or events of last weekend at Ewood Park. What happened was totally out of order. Racial abuse take place up and down the country. However Rovers have been singled out by the media, because they are a premiership club and the events took place in front of tv cameras. Whilst events at Rovers have been highlighted throughout the world, very little publicity has been given to Mansfield Town who are facing an FA enquiry into allegations that their fans racially abused Boston United players and caretaker manager Carlton Palmer last weekend. I wonder if there would have been so much publicity, if Steve Bruce had acted in the same manner as Boston United who put their complaint in writting to Mansfield Town regarding the abuse towards their black players and manager. Boston have also written a letter of complaint to the FA. requesting action. I dont suggest that SB, should have brushed the events under the carpet, but maybe more diplomatic action, could have prevented all the media frenzy, regarding a couple of idiots in a crowd of 20,000 plus.

Rovers FA Youth Cup 3rd round tie against Bolton will take place on Wednesday the 15th December at the Reebok Stadium, kick off 7pm. Admission details to be confirmed.

Forest Res. 1 Rovers Res 4. After going behind from a David Johnson goal in the 36th minute a young and inexperienced Rovers Reserve team came back all guns blazing to convincingly beat a strong and experienced Forest team 4-1 away at Nottingham last night. Forest were first to settled into the game and hit the Rovers cross bar early on before Johnson gave them the lead, from close range. This appeared to wake up the youngsters, who hit back within 5 minutes, with goals from Jemal Johnson and Keith Barker scored twice in a minute to give Rovers a 1-2 lead at half time. The second half saw Rovers in total command, bossing the game and deservedly added a further two goals through, Keith Barker, and Ciaran Donnelly. Forest: Roche, Impey, Doig, Beaumont(Biggins 79mins, Hurren, Tarka(Mullarkey 45mins HT), James, Perch, Johnson, Jess, Bopp. Unused subs: Fernandez , Gamble, Glass. Scorer: Johnson 36mins, Bookings: Perch 45mins, Mullarkey 46mins, Hurren 71mins, Rovers: Enckelman, Danns, Morgan, Donnelly, Fitzgerald, Bruce, Hodge(Peers 79mins), Harkins, Johnson, Barker(Garner 82mins), Peter. Unused subs: Byrom, Drench, Jones, Scorers: Johnson 39miins, Barker 40mins, 69mins, Donnelly 78mins, Referee: C.D.Sarginson Attendance: 342

Im not going to quote, just skip back and read bellamy11 excellent post. MGP has to adjust to premiership football, it's a big step up from Norwegian football. People will say he's an international but I recall another Norwegian who when joining Rovers took over 12 months to establish himself as a regular.. The management at the time brought the player on gradually and he developed into one of the best defenders that graced Ewood Park. MGP is young and impatient, he and his supporters have to be patient, then maybe one day he will grace similar status at Ewood to Henning Berg.

Could it be that Emerton is the better of the 2 options that Hughes has. Reid of Emerton on the left ? Alan75 leaves door open for the MPG fan club

Forrest not only played for the Rovers he was also after retiring, director at the club until his death.

Last home game of the season, hopefully by then we will be safe from the drop.

Blinking heck, finding a car park is bad enough, now I have to find somewhere for my pogo stick. Maybe I could lend it to Lucas Neill, might get up for a cross then. Anyway aint it girls who play hip hop, with skirt tucked into knicker leg, jumping between paving slabs.

Where's the 4th

It would be more productive to provide free transport to Ewood from North Lancs,

den the closet punk

Rovers have been drawn away to local rivals Bolton, in this years 3rd Round of the FA Youth Cup. Fixture date, venue and kick off time to be confirmed. All ties must be played by Saturday 18 December 2004. This could be an exciting game for the supporters as there are no replays in the FA Youth Cup. If a match is level at the end of 90 minutes, extra time of 15 minutes each way must be played. If the scores are still level at the end of extra time, the game will be decided on penalties.

Interesting to see that this poll and the TP sacking poll are neck and neck. 168 to 169 votes in each poll. 3000 odd votes still havent returned their voting slips yet. So much for email voting. Civil Service please note

match report by bellamy 11 Very young team out, which gave us a look at some of the players playing for fringe places. Bruce and Fitzgerald are both strong and good headers of the ball. The Bolton goal wasn't really the fault of the defence - a clearing header hit somebodies back and left everybody stranded. Credit to Vas Te for being in the right place at the right time. He looked lively a lot, but faded in the second half on his own. Ahem, about the sending off. Didn't really notice it. From our view behind the far goal it looked like Campo had been booked. Somebody mentioned a red card, but as we thought it was Campo fouling and he was still on the pitch we dismissed it. Campo was completely ineffective all night - especially in the second half. He's very much like Tugay except his passing is abysmal. He can't tackle, can't run, and can't even play simple balls. Of the midfielders, Harkins looked the best and his belter on the stroke of half time was worth the price of admission alone. Granted it was free for us, but still, cracking goal. Defensively we had problems and on a few occasions the ball just evaded Vas Te from crosses. In the second half Bolton tested us very little in this department and we comfortably retained possession. The midfield didn't seem to be cutting Bolton up, so overlapping from Peers and Morgan was important. Both did their jobs well, but nothing to suggest they should be in the first team. Its been suggested that Peers should replace Neill - he's not ready at the moment. Towards the end we went 3-4-3. A lot of balls went into the box but Bolton defended well. When we got chances we either found Poole on form or shot straight at him. Bolton perhaps deserved a draw for defending resolutely, but we were really on top. Having an extra man makes so much sense now

In my opinion, it's not the sacking of TP, thats annoyed people, it's the manner in which it's been done. Personally I have been disillusioned with the professional game for some time, inconsistent kick off times, saturated tv coverage, mercenary players, etc. the words sport and enjoyment have disappeared from the game. This latest chapter of PR by the club, may be the straw that broke the back of many supporters, me included. Football has become such a cut throat business, that the human factor has disapppeared.

Good idea there FLB. It's a 2 horse race, if it's a photo finish with less than 12 votes between them, then have a 48 hour shoot out between the both of them. Anyway my brother is bigger than your brother.

A youthfull looking Rovers reserves team, continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 1-1 draw against local rivals Bolton reserves at Christie Park Morecambe this evening. Rovers claimed a share of the points with a 30 yard screamer from Harkin after Bolton had taken the lead through VasTe, Bolton's Julio Ceaser was sent off in the first half after recieving his second yellow card of the night. Attendance: 334 Team Yelldell, Morgan,(Sergio Peter) Bruce, Fitzgerald, Peers,(Nolan) Byrom,(Barker) Harkins, Donnolly, Danns, Johnson and Derbyshire. click read entire article for match report

Whilst I can understand that Mark Hughes would want his own back room staff, I cannot comprehend or defend the actions of the club that has always had the reputation of being a friendly family orientated club. When the news broke in the press that Parkes had been sacked, I was shocked, however I was more shocked to find out that the club had not informed Parkes, before the press broke the news. If reports are true that the decision to release Parkes had occurred on Tuesday, why didn't the powers at Ewood, see fit not to inform their loyal servant that his services were no longer required, before the news broke in the press Friday morning, allowing him a dignified exit. There is no such thing as a job for life and every one is expendable but the manner of Tony Parkes's dismissal has left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Neither can I. This has gone well off topic, and I cant see it getting back on topic either. Locked.

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Rovers extended their unbeaten run to 3 games with a 1-1 draw away against Manchester City that pulled them off the bottom of the league table. More over Rovers’ success was as a result of their first penalty in 52 league games. Colin’s match comments summed up the afternoon when he stated. It was another of those games that we have played under Mark Hughes where the result didn't quite match the performance. We played some good football in defence, midfield & attack but never quite did enough to grab the three points. A draw was a fair result to be honest. City's goal just before half time, came from a Shaun Wright-Philip's low hard cross from the by-line which was one of those which is really hard to defend against. Antoine Siberski stormed in and was at the right place at the right time to smash it past Brad. At half time Rovers brought on Matt Jansen for Stead, however despite a spirited fight back Rovers couldn’t find that cutting edge up front to get an equaliser until Mill’s brought down Dickov as the wee scot raced into the box. Whilst the full-back took an early bath for his professional foul, Dickov stepped up and fired home Rovers first penalty in over 50 league outings. As the game came continued Rovers pressurised the 10 man City, and could easily have snatched all 3 points, firstly when substitute David Thompson smacked a speculative long range effort wide and then in the dieing minutes when Dickov sky’d a Jansen knock down over the bar. Player Ratings by 1864 roverite. Friedel - 7 one good save nothing else to do Neill - 7 good game Johannson - 8 coped with Anelka very well Todd - 8 ditto McEveley - 7 one mistake in giving srw too much space allowed him to create the goal for city Tugay - 6 still gives too many balls away Emerton - 7 good solid game Reid - 7 won a lot of ball, good game Ferguson - 7 solid and controlled the second half Dickov **9** star man. How can one so small cause so much mayhem ? Stead - 7 did okay and had chances but clearly got injured. Jansen - 7 caused problems Thompson - 7 again caused a differing type of problem and its just great to see him back. Man City: James, Mills, Distin, Dunne, Jordan, Flood (Reyna 65), Sibierski, Bosvelt, McManaman, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anelka. Subs Not Used: Fowler, Onuoha, Waterreus, Bradley Wright-Phillips. Sent Off: Mills (77). Booked: Jordan. Goal: Sibierski 45. Rovers: Friedel, Neill, Johansson, Todd, McEveley, Reid, Ferguson, Tugay (Thompson 71), Emerton, Stead (Jansen 45), Dickov. Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Djorkaeff, Matteo. Booked: Todd, McEveley, Thompson. Goal: Dickov 78 pen. Att: 45,504 Ref: M Clattenburg

Heck bob, you could be right with your prediction 12 months from now, if we dont get 3 points against Birmingham