Lawro on Steven Reid (don't want to take this thread too much off topic) With the likes of Roy Keane and Damien Duff ruled out through injury, Lawrenson bemoaned the lack of quality available to Kerr, especially on the bench. Lawrenson said: "You look at the three substitutes Ireland brought on against Switzerland and that tells you what you need to know. "Stephen Reid isn't a regular for Blackburn, Stephen Elliott has only played a handful of Premiership games since breaking into the Sunderland team and Gary Doherty isn't even a regular in the Norwich team in the Championship. "He's got a lot of mediocrity in the squad and that can only get you so far in international football.

I am not happy about paying that sort of money but will probably still go. Just going to sacrifice a night out in the next month - that should cover it.

Probably £40 is my absolute max for a Prem league game. Considering I paid £30 for West Ham. £10 more for the best team in the land is not much in comparison (for me).

Can’t wait for the match - I completely understand why people can’t afford it for whatever reason. I am not happy about spending £40. However, I can make cut-backs in the other things I spend and I am sure it will not affect me too much.

Think I am going to go.... Why not, prices are expensive but so is life!!

On Zurab. He can fill in at full back - his natural postion is centre back.

Is Jansen injured? Would have thought some match practise for the reserves would do him good.....

Savage slates Tosh..........

I can understand the frustration at Tugay. I think most of us know now that amongst all his fantastic passing that he has the 'odd' game where his standards drop badly. For me though, the good outweighs the bad with Tugay.

People love slagging off Dickov at any opportunity. When he was fit last season he was playing well and scoring goals, in a struggling team as well.

Only area of concern is centre midfield with Savage out. Reid I suppose as there is no one else?? Sometimes Flitty comes in from the cold but not on this occasion.

I saw Sparky on the front of the metro as well! Obviously doing some scouting because we play Pool and Chelsea soon. Or Raman wants him after Jose!

Brilliant, made my weekend. Feeling dazed and hungover but it makes such a difference when we win!! Both teams had chances but we were deserved winners.

Excellent post Blue Blood.

Opta think he has been poor.............

When is the draw for the next round? Usually on a Saturday isn't it...

Good article!!

Gray back from the dead! Obviousy Matteo's injury has made them think that he could have an important part to play for us!

Have to admit I do not agree with Sparky on this. We were the home side and in my view we were not that positive. We had no support up top for Bellamy. Plus the fact we were playing a side struggling on confidence. Boumsong and Taylor must have loved to mark just Bellamy. Anyway, time to move on. However, I have got a feeling we will be talking about this topic again in the near future (sadly).

Hughes on our system. People can talk about systems and formations, but we played 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 (against Newcastle), whatever you want to call it, and they played 4-4-2. "They created four chances and scored three; we created 20 and didn't convert any of them, so who's the most positive? "If people want to go down the road of saying it's a negative system then I'd disagree because against Newcastle, we were certainly the more positive side. "At the end of the day, it's not about systems, it's about getting the ball in the net and we're struggling in that respect because the number of chances we are converting isn't high enough. "But I'm not too concerned about it at this point. The important thing is we are creating chances, we just need to be a bit more clinical."

*IGNORE*

There are also bound to be wide open spaces in the stands tonight but Hughes said: "You have to be professional whatever the circumstances. You have to make sure you don't take your eye off the ball."

Threesome with Glenn and John Gorman apparently…

Not sure of the full story to be honest. At the time she wasn't one of Sky's main presenters so was there was not much publicity behind the story.

Hughes hits back at 'bore' claims...........