Indeed Greggy. That Wigan result was probably warmly welcomed at Ewood as well. Just seen that when Brum are tackling 'arry's allsorts, Boro are entertaining Wigan and the Baggies are home to Sunderland. BIG CLUB could well be 9 points and goal difference away from safety this time next week. And then, as you say, they play Liverpool and Arsenal.... Ho hum.

I think PPV is about £150K per game. From a financial standpoint Rovers did the right thing with Category A yesterday. To make it Category B would have required a gate of about 21,000 to bring as much revenue in through the turnstiles. I don't believe for a moment we would have got those numbers. Time and again, the Blackburn public has shown the club does not get rewarded for dropping prices. I don't know what BRISA were told at their meeting but my guess that for every £1 knocked off the ticket price, about 10p comes in through the gate in terms of extra attendance.

Even better- it's the Sunday 4pm game so we have an extra day's recovery over them. Here's hoping the Mancs get a good kicking off Burton mid-week as well. RFW has got to put a few more first teamers into the team for the replay surely?

Hopefully the derision this is being met with means no other paper will try the NoTW "scoop" just before or during the world Cup when it would really matter.

It went wide because a Bolton player was on his backside in front of him and put it wide. Should have been another corner if we are talking about the chance from the short corner which got back heeled back to MGP.

Well, one good thing about yesterday is that it has weakened the Mancs for their game against us. Cristina will be unavailable (might have been a tad harsh but there is no denying that it was late, dangerous and with murderous intent- even RFW has said he was wound up after a decision which went against him) whilst there seems to be a growing expectation that both RFW and Rooney will face charges for the half time fracas yesterday. Quite apart from the suspension(s), losing 3-1 at Citeh has ended the Mancs good run and shown them to be distinctly ordinary. And as for Evra, hope he plays like that against us. The Mancs have Liverpool next Saturday which the scousers will be really up for as they will move ahead of the Mancs with a win. It will certainly be a very tough game and no doubt more histrionics etc.

Possibly a rather truthful comment.

Disappointing, frustrating, opportunity missed. A consolation that I have to go back seven games to the Fulham match since I last felt this way and we even got a draw last night! If we were Wanderers supporters we'd have been angry with Riley for sending off Nakata but immensely proud of the fight and organisation our rearguard put up. As a Rovers fan I look at the stats- shots on target Rovers 3, Bolton 3; shots off target Rovers 14, Bolton 0 and the fact that Brad made more saves than Jussy to know where it went wrong last night. Big Sam was a disgrace (I used to have a very high regard for him as a person but really...) but I had to chuckle when Sky commented that he'd ask a Policeman to arrest that referee when he moved from the stand to the bench immediately after Nakata walked. For those moaning on here, had Emo's header been one inch lower, we would have murdered Bolton in the second half and you know it. This Rovers side is very honest, you know they have weaknesses and many strengths and always give their utmost in everything they do. I was glad to see Nelsen find his passing range in the second half after a wayward first half, to see Reid impose himself as well as playing some classy stuff and Savage showing commendable restraint. Bentley is an attacking midfielder and no way is he a forward- his instinctive movement showed that in the first half. But we needed something special and classy to open that Bolton rearguard and the fact Kuqi didn't start is a very clear admission by Sparky that special and classy is not in Kuqi's bag. The real villain of the piece was Riley. Yes he sent a Bolton player off and gave them five other yellow cards. But did you realise that Rovers conceded 20 fouls to just 14 by Bolton in the first half???? O'Neill should have been red carded and had Riley yellow carded other Bolton misdemeanours, Nakata would not have harshly received a second yellow. As it was, Riley's earlier leniency to Bolton forced the second yellow against Nakata on a totting up basis! Riley was also guilty of not giving three blatant corners to us, penalising three fouls on their keeper when replays showed he wasn't touched by a Rovers' player and that yellow card for Reid when he jumped out of the way when the fouls were flying in was an utter disgrace. Book him if he rolled in mock agony but Reid bounced up and got on with the game to such an extent that the Sky commentators took an age to work out who had been booked! Sadly, Allardyce's moaning will gave the impression that we were thugs, we were lucky with the reffing decisions when the reality is completely the opposite. PS great trip by Diouff on Vaz Te! At least this match report got it right.

Nothing will happen- it was a sting by a well known trickster and Atholle still is trying to take the rap for it as his agent!

Your statistics show that the Todd Nelsen pairing has conceded 10 goals in 11 games and Zura Nelsen 7 goals in 9 games. Therefore on those numbers, Zura Nelsen is marginally the better pairing.

No a home for mad men... 1) I am satisfied that Hughes would have given Matty every chance consistent with not damaging the Rovers. 2) I am satisfied that the club did there very fairest by Mat. 3) His substitute cameo performance for Bolton was no better and no worse than he has done for us. He showed enormous guts courage and determination scrapping for the ball at the end with three Rovers round him and we were quite fortunate Riley blew for a foul when he emerged with the ball in the 94th minute. 4) Other than that nothing. The thing which really bothered me for Mat's sake was that when the camera focused on his face before he came on, there was just a very blank look in his eyes. It was frightening compared with the way he was before that terrible accident. The tragi-hero status everyone feels for Matty is absolutely right. The lad was goingt to be a Rovers great and that was robbed from him and us and from England by a moronic Roman taxi driver. The only part of the story everyone agrees with re the accident is that he was hit by the taxi driver, not the other way round. To that extent, whether you are a pedestrian, a biker or in another vehicle, you are at risk from those psychopaths in Rome.

At the moment Man City are putting a Manc side including Evra and van Nistelrooyd to the sword. Perhaps Wednesday's game was tougher than it looked- I hope that doesn't mean Notlob are going to do the same to us at Ewood.

The Boro defense wouldn't agree with you Roy. He terrorised them. There is no way we would have been playing the Mancs last Wednesday were it not for Kuqi completely rattling the back line and giving their midfield a rough time of it as well in the first game at the Riverside. He's also averaging a goal for every second first team start. Yes, he's agricultural at times but in the Premiership, surely that's a difference?

Stelios stirs it for Savage. Perhaps not the wisest interview to give to The Sun ahead of today's match?

You feel really good when you are angry don't you?

The last words of Newell on that interview: "Don't you think its interesting that certain agents do repeat deals with certain Managers?" On that basis, we need to hunker down at Ewood. Incidentally, slipping into 'drog mode, perhaps jim would confirm that it would cost less for an agent to buy a journalist than it would to buy a Premiership Manager. That was my reaction when Mike Newell said he could not understand why the press don't investigate and blow the lid on it- as he said "we are only talking football, not investigating the White House." My guess is that someone somewhere will now dig some dirt on Mike Newell to discredit him. A positive Blackburn Rovers mention here. Interesting to note that the taxman not only got Al Capone, his British counterpart trapped George Graham. A background on bungs etc.

Only happy when you're bitter.

They certainly "did" Bentley and MGP got some treatment as well. I am sure the hard physical stuff handed out late in the first half contributed to the Mancs getting the upper hand in the second half.

I guess Sparky has something lined up for the second leg which is designed to catch the Mancs out. As it is, I wonder if Hughes got caught out second guessing RFW in the first leg- putting Todd in expecting van Nistelrooyd when they went with the speedy Saha whose movement befuddled Andy for the goal.

The Manc supporters we all know and (don't) love, You couldn't make it up.

This is where the Savage money went. Rather glad Pandiani chose BIG CLUB.

It's good to hear Blacburn Ender. The reason for suggesting London is that Rovers are a client with a pre-existing bad image and bias against it and are competing against a vast amount of other material for space. A typical example this evening- Sparky goes on Sky News and answers a leading question with a straight bat: "MGP not for sale and no approach from Spurs." That story doesn't even get into the 20+ stories listed under Premiership in the Sky web site! The Rovers account is not about news coverage. It is all about image management in the face of a deeply hostile and sceptical media. I am not aware of anyone who does that well outside London and I wouldn't go to Freud either. I'd be looking for a young Agency which is hungry but can show a track record of handling a tricky account well.

Who do you believe and if there is systematic corruption/money leakage, will anything happen? I don't want to sound cynical but would Rovers fans prefer, say, Sparky being exposed as a bung merchant at Ewood or the whole thing remaining murky? That is a highly hypothetical question which I only pose because it seems so utterly unlike the man. But there are probably at least ten Premiership clubs seriously wondering if their man is going to be on Mike Newell's list and their fans will be asking that question for real. Sadly, the rewards for whistle blowing are usually pain and anguish for the blower as well as the blown. Society does not have a good way of handling these things.

I type fast

Got a few moments so I will share my surreal evening with you last night. Malta is unfortunately a sort of Manc in the Med. As you walk the streets, you wonder why so many cars are registered UTD, little red devils peep disturbingly at you in shop windows and bars and offices have ugly Manc memorabilia. The barman shouts "Giggs Out" and an ugly hound lopes back outside and if anyone asks you "How are we doing?" its an evens chance that the we in question are over a thousand miles away at Old Trafford. Whilst the Maltese have a love hate with the old colonial power, they are subject citizens, willing and servile, when it comes to "United". So it wasn't difficult to spend yesterday evening in the company of a load of Mancs in Malta to help me compile the preview for the formalities on 25 January of the inevitable United procession towards another trophy. Malta has the oldest Manc Supporters Club in the world- and the biggest outside Manchester. www.manutd-malta.com/ They have their own three story premises over a gas showroom (yes I was tempted but they sell appliances, not the inflamable stuff) complete with bar, restaurant, liveried waiters, cinema and their own museum which I cheekily pointed out was rather more full of stuff than the trophy cabinet at Old Trafford has been for a season or two. Each year, at least one Manc player comes over to Malta be received with as much reverence and pomp as the Pope and they are very proud of the Gary Neville Training Academy which pumps yet more cash into the right back's copious pockets. And, get this, they reckon there are about 150 OT season ticket holders in Malta and they all go every other week to watch the games. So I was with, how shall we put this, slightly unbalanced company yesterday evening. Thankfully our bright start curtailed their bragging and made sitting through the five minutes before MGP equalised slightly less unpalatable than had the Mancs been all over us. So what do they think about the return leg? I won't pose the questions but here are some of the quotations: "Blackpool aren't worth bothering about. We are completely controlling this game and it will be easy at Old Trafford." "Where is Blackburn anyway?" "We played the Reserves tonight, we'll score two or three quickly and then give the kids a game back at Old Trafford." "Burton are the luckiest team around. We will handle that replay no problem- we'll be fresher than Blackburn in the home leg." "That Kuqi is uglier than my pug." "My pug is playing- he's got Tugay on his shirt." "Rio and Wes were always in control- no sweat." "That Bellamy is a donkey next to Rio." "You lot were really lucky Rooney mucked up all his shots tonight. You'll pay for that at Old Trafford." "Do Blackburn know what the ball looks like?" (during the second half) "We got rid of Savage didn't we? Don't know what he was doing at United in the first place. We only sign class players." "That bald headed keeper of your's looks older than my Nan." "There's nothing at Blackburn for Sir Alex to worry about." "We were playing with you tonight." "We'll be alright if we get a decent ref." "We played badly tonight, just watch us go at Old Trafford." "You won't get another freak result at Old Trafford." "40 years since your last win against us, 400 years for the next one." "Wes Brown hattrick in a 5-0 win for United." "I don't know why we have to play such little clubs." "United have always been the biggest club in the world." "Chelsea are nothing." "Another treble next season- I can just feel its coming for us." "Sir Alex taught Hughes everything he knows but kept the best bits to himself." "There's nothing wrong with United at present." "Mr Glazer's a true gentleman." "Hey, aren't you going to buy a round?" I've got a feeling that the prospects for this match might look rather different on 24 January than they do today. Will Evra and Vidic form an instant impenetrable barrier? What injuries/suspensions will there be (at least one less game for Bellamy to get crocked after last night's yellow card)? And any surprise signings by either side? The good thing about the Rovers' second half display is that for all their posession, the Mancs hardly threatened and Hughes can see exactly what he has to do to tighten things up. We have 120 minutes to get a goal assuming we reach full time all square so I cannot see it ending 0-0. My head says 2-1 to the Mancs, my guts suggest penalties after extra time.