Steve Bruce moaning again.... Can't BIG CLUB do any of this in-fighting in private?

Ahn from Duisburg?

Steven Reid talked up in this Guardian report

Wandering a little off topic but I cannot help but thinking we Rovers fans are a war-wearied jaundiced lot. Look at the table this morning: 1. Chelsea 2. Man U 3. Liverpool 4. Spurs 5. BLACKBURN ROVERS 6. Arsenal Had anyone told me that would have been the top of the First Division Table towards the end of March 2006 at any time between 1966 and 1990, I'd have been absolutely amazed and ecstatic. This Premiership League table is a beautiful wonderful sight irrespective of whether we blow it over the last seven games. Enjoy it, paste it up, savour the moment folks. And for all the jeremiahs out there, it could get better. Stop looking at the Walker/King Kenny years as a one-off. We might just have the best manager in the game of football since Brian Clough. Different style, less spectacular progress but Hughes is potentially THAT good with as good a back room team behind him. And we are in the lucky position that RFW is enjoying an Indian summer with his mouthpiece Bobby Charlton talking about him going on forever. If Man U had doubled over the Rovers and not the other way round, the pundits would have been talking of a genuine race for the Premiership title this season. Chelsea going backwards at the moment is taking the pressure off the Mancs. The most obvious destination were Hughes to leave us is therefore not vacant and there appear to be hardly any other positions in England coming vacant in the next twelve months or so we would have any need to be worried about. I am very confident that we have the set up at Ewood to not only punch above our weight but to punch a great deal harder yet. This is a really exciting time to be a Rover.

He's a cross between both of them. A right tubbing for Brum should set the Baggies up nicely to make a right nuisance of themselves at Spurs. I don't expect anything but a Spurs win but the Baggies have a decent track record at WHL.

For our friend from Hull without a back button. Games in hand are Boro H and Brum A but their regular fixtures are a bit tricky.

Boro 4-3!

Boro defended that like they defended MGP's free kick. Got to fancy Notlob to win this now unfortunately.

Very entertaining Colin. Wigan got elected to the league in place of Southport having set a record for the number of applications made. Another "Cup Final". If Hughes sets the Rovers lads up the right way, we should win either 2-0 or 2-1. Attendance around the 20,000 mark.

Before anyone gets too excited, those two seasons saw 4th place with an abnormally low number of points. The previous three seasons were much more usual with 4th collecting between 66 and 71 points.

When the Rovers are pulled up before the FA at the end of the year for disciplinary reasons, I hope they take the Opta tables of fouls and hand balls etc with them. Whilst it will need a few more Liverpool derby type games (Everton 8 yellow and 1 red!) to rob us of the bad boys spot on cards given, I wouldn't mind betting that our ratio of cards per infringement is easily the highest in the Prem and that we will end the season fairly middling on number infringements committed. That said, I bet Rovers v Chelsea will be tasty on the card count.

Sorry den, I got it wrong. It used to be the case that a caution was mandatory but not any longer. Makes Savage's card v Boro even more puzzling doesn't it?

That should be a red if it prevented a goal scoring chance or a yellow otherwise.

We'd have been 14th in the average attendance list if we still had our attendance of three seasons ago. Ticket prices have hardly moved over that period.

Everton v Liverpool over the G14. I would imagine Parry enjoyed saying "getting into Europe is easy- all you have to do is win football matches" given Everton's attempts this season. David Gill has denied that the G14 are planning a break away and also reiterates that G14 membership is closed. Gill says G14 want to go back to 17 games a season in the CL and that the International calendar remains an issue. It is clear the G14 feel that UEFA and FIFA are the softest target to shoot at and that is where they are aiming in the short term.

Well said Shillito!

A tight back = got uptight? Hughes is a genius. I know we are going to lose the Wigan and Pompey games so this will look like ridiculous hubris but we now top the Prem in 2006 as has been pointed out. And just as the sub heading reads four games in the NE, four wins, we could also have three games in the West Midlands, three defeats.... Worth getting a bob or two on the Premiership title for next season if we think the board might match Sparky's ambitions in the transfer market this summer?

Whether its the Intertoto, Uefa or Champions League, we'll be fine under Sparky's stewardship. Come to think of it, he doesn't have any experience in the Intertoto so we'd better come at least 6th.

Lee's found out- the link has disappeared!

Pongo injured?

Phil Neville scoring an own goal playing for Everton in a Merseyside derby must be as close to perfection as it gets for Liverpudlians. I think Phil Dowd has decided that the Merseyside deby is going to overtake Rovers' cards reord in one match.

The BIG CLUB big pantomime rumbles on. Of course Bruce has to criticise Sullivan in public.

With 7th no use for UEFA qualification, that ups the pressure on Rovers, Bolton, Spurs and Arsenal even more to get every point they can. I can see this going to the wire- imagine having the possibilty of CL football or Intertoto hanging on the last two games assuming Chelsea gets shifted to 26 April.

Maxmum points possible are: Bolton 78 Spurs 76 Arsenal 74 Rovers 73 with just Arsenal v Spurs and Spurs v Bolton to come by way of head to heads between the four. I am sticking with the view that all four will be approaching every fixture as a must win until the 4th place is out of reach and that will drive the points collection of the winner of this race to something like 69. Put it another way, as a neutral looking at Rovers' fixture list, you'd say 69 is doable and the other three must know that.

Unfortunately rather high as I didn't put a bet on it.