Not a feeder club but Rovers co-operation agreement with Cercle Brugge has been extended for another three seasons. They are going well- 3rd in the Belgian League last time I looked. Drew 0-0 with Anderlecht in front of nearly 20,000 at the week-end. The very promising youngster Macky .... is there on loan at present.

Is the Axe going to be our new Super Atko?

The ever reliable Tribal has quoted Chris Samba as saying that MGP is very happy he (MGP) turned down an offer to join Spurs this summer.

Yes, you are right EiT.

I remember seeing what I think was his first goal- a 20 yard blast in a pre-season Manx Cup game against Burnley in 1977 probably.

Hughes interview in the LT. Quite lengthy comments about what was wrong at Spurs.

Another stimulating article about Mark Hughes. Interesting the way the Spurs connection is so summarily dismissed.

Graph of Rovers' attendances over 12 years to 05/6. 06/7 saw a marginal increase over 05/6 whilst this season had been averaging over 2,000 up on the same fixtures last season until the Reading game which I think was down as the corresponding fixture was the last game of last season. The Sky December re-shuffle has probably killed the chances of really big gates over the Festive period so I guess we are going to need the Rovers to do something really special on the field to get the crowds consistently up by 3,000 or more.

Hiddink's comments

The LT explaining what Rovers have done to help get Benni back to his best.

The drums are embarassing- simple as that. - embarassing because they are not talented, they cannot handle syncopation or rapid chants - embarassing because they run behind the opposition keeper - embarassing because like Portsmouth with f***ing bell, we are Blackburn with the f***ing drum when in reality we are Pompey and Rovers in the top six of the World's richest sporting competition - embarassing. Full stop.

That's an understatement if you look at how the five Greek League sides have qualified for the 2nd round of the UEFA. Also a little matter of the Greek population being around 20 times that of Wales.

Soaring rates of A&E admissions because of alcohol

Amongst young people, the rates of 15 year olds trying cannibis (40%) are about the same as the numbers trying tobacco. In the population as a whole, 13% have taken cannibis within the past 12 months according to official statistics. Cocaine usage by 4% of the population and heroin by about 3.5%.

Tobacco consumption is down to about 22% now isn't it? About the same proportion of the population that admits to taking illegal substances.

Chief Constable advocates legalisation of all drugs

Tossack showed us all what a brilliant manager he is again yesterday.

There is your answer. Andy Kennedy, a legend in his own pants (or out of them).

A little noticed fact but Benni has scored 20 in 42 Premiership starts now. That career goal to game ratio is probably ahead of everyone except perhaps Andy Cole and Van Persie amongst the players currently registered in the Premier League. I think Rev is fighting a losing battle with his line of argument. That said, won't it be fun if Hughes has found the formula to get Benni to produce a Brum second half type of performance most games he plays now (preferably not on a repeating three games dropped, second half blast basis!)?

Great to read that 'drog. Very often those individual instances of flashes of genius live in the memory long after the rest of the game has faded away. What formation did Rovers play when Benni came on? Was it 1-1 or a conventional 2 up front. Or was it 2-1 with both Benni and Bentley in forward roles just behind Santa? Not had chance to watch it yet.

Emerton on the travel challenges of playing for Australia.

I think it was established that Benni had one-to-one training then watched the Academy game on the day Rovers were at Sunderland. At least that is what my understanding is.

Dunn on Big Club

AESF- breathtakingly naive. Huge disappointment yes, financial disaster anything but, time to find answers to hard questions yes, good news for the rest of the domestic season probably. Pushing on domestically will be the true test of whether we can keep and motivate our players (and Hughes quite possibly). Last night was our third win on the bounce by the way - all with the system being slagged off. A calm assessment of where we are: - 7th with a game in hand which can now be played before Christmas - played 7 with 4 of those games against teams placed above us in the table today not forgetting an away day at Chelsea who we are now ahead of. - last season's leading scorer having a nightmare so far - Sav, MGP, Tugay all off form and Bentley has put in a couple of very sub-standard performances as well - Reid still to come back (he would have made a HUGE difference last night and was badly missed) - half the goals conceded so far this season have come from uncharacteristic defensive howlers Yet we are still 7th. I think we are still entitled to be looking up the table and not down it. I'll take the Trelleborg comparisons if we finish in the same place in the League as we did when Trelleborg knocked us out! YES PLEASE.

Blue Phil has just posted this on the Smoking thread: "That's what is being denied people - freedom of choice . When some ignorant bugger used to smoke near me in the pub ....I'd simply move away . Relying on Nanny State to intervene is a bit pathetic IMO."