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."

Nelsen called up into the NZ team to play this month If you look at the squad list you can see why an unfit Nelsen has been drafted.

This is the Guardian's Sunderland match report but in reality it is simply an article in praise of Mark Hughes

Thank you- that was just wonderful to see again.

Stiff back kept Benni out of the squad. Apparently he was watching the Academy game this morning.

Absolute MUST READ article from NZ about the admiral and all things Rovers. Yes, sure modern Premiership players are lazy....

Early days but five clubs have lower average gates than us in the Premiershipthus far. Our gate is up over 2,000 on last season's average. Seven clubs are averaging over 40,000 for home games.

Tough to call offsides to favour the attacker. This should help Benni, marginally.

Chelsea struggled to sell seats at £45 against Rosenborg so Rovers get a mauling for poor crowds.

Celtic and Rangers' turnovers fluctuate greatly with how they do in the Champions League. They have both been increasing their basic income impressively recently but if Rovers under the current media deals achieved a top 6 finish and one of the Old Firm had a season in the UEFA Cup at the same time, the respective incomes would still be pretty similar.

I believe the number now is all but 15,000 season ticket holders. I hope that last night was a function of: 1) Birmingham at home again ten days from now in a Premiership game which for ST holders is "free" ie nothing extra to pay. 2) Birmingham home being a prospect of a game at best after two sub-standard Rovers' efforts. 3) Everyone saving up their mid-week night out passes for next Thursday when the club really needs another 20,000+ crowd on to cheer the lads forward and make the difference. For what its worth, I am told by friends in Thessaloniki that every man and his dog in Larissa are scraping the readies together to be at Ewood next week and we can expect a huge outpouring of Greek national pride as every Greek waiter in the UK is trying to get the night off to be there as well! 4) It was 24 degrees and balmy here last night with everyone sat outside their front doors in shirtsleeves chatting to the neighbours. In Blackburn it wasn't.

Hughes on Dunn

Yesterday Arsenal released a staggeringly fabulous set of financial results which must have sent waves through the football world and rattled Man U, Liverpool and above all, Abramovic (Chelsea are just an appendage now). It clearly is a case of the tortoise and the hare- Arsenal have endured three relatively barren years whilst rebuilding in every sense and have re-emerged under the same corporate and managerial control as a powerhouse it is difficult to see anybody stopping in the foreseeable future. This analysis of Man U by the Arsenal Supporters' Trust shows again how weak Man U are in the longer term. Thankfully the Rovers are well-managed and in the hands of a Trust that can and will only sell when all the boxes are ticked.

The way Pompey play, this is a fixture Benni should thrive in. Any sign of a Pompey preview?

I think speeedie has made some excellent points. I find Benni one of the most likeable personalities in modern football- the guy just tells it as he sees it in a very engaging way (even when he wanted to jump ship) and no doubt if that impression is true to life it explains why he is so popular with the players. Will be interesting to see how Roque and Benni click on Thursday. I think they have the potential to be the best Rovers forward partnership since the SAS (and we know those two didn't get on) and I think it is only a matter of time before they combine to give some unfortunate defence an absolute thrashing. Incidentally, Derbs would have got no change whatsoever out of Chelsea on Saturday. Roque is probably just about as quick as Matty and the only runs he got with the ball were on the touchline.

There's a very readable piece on the official site of Brad paying tribute to what Sparky is achieving.

Article about Benni from a Chelsea perspective- it says a lot of nice things about rovers as well.

Rovers promoting the game to the Pompey fans.

Here's hoping Mark Hughes celebrates the third anniversary of his appointment in the style he will want to- a win at Chelsea. I was in the Yes camp and now he is Yes- the first and only choice! He is that good.