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.

There is a difference between going bankrupt which Newcastle are not and reaching a point at which the banks will not increase their lending and difficulties for the Directors to declare a dividend legally which is where Newcastle might well be. No doubt the Geordies think their club has excellent Directors and a superb management team as well...

If you look at the Yellow card timings, the four to either side were handed out at roughly the same time- our first yellow was to Bellamy which was a stupid one. Savage's was stupid as well, Tugay had it coming and Dickov was extremely harsh but he had been warned and it looked bad even though he missed Neville with the challenge he got booked for! So you can hardly claim the Yellows were preventing us from tackling- none of the defenders got booked. As for the penalty- it was a nailed on penalty inside the area. I don't know what the UK coverage was like, but even the United-loving Sky coverage we got in Malta replayed the incident twice and said something to the effect of "it was a clear firm two handed push, in the area (silent gulp)". The linesman missed it all ends up and I think the prospect of eleven snarling reds in his face might have helped his myopia. That said, the Rovers crowd missed it as well as there was very little noise from them about the decision. One final comment, Bentley was superb in the first half. The first time I thought there was a good case for signing him permanently. The second half reminded me why not though.

Keith Barker scored in a friendly for Cercle last night.

Newcastle hitting the buffers. The debt at £90m is bigger than most were thinking it was and as it nearly equals the asset value under-pinning it, no more borrowing for Fat Freddie and co. They are also getting into territory where it will be of dubious legality to carry on splashing out big dividends. So, I wonder why this story has been placed with its appeal to big rich Russians and a £75m price tag placed on the club? NEWCASTLE ARE FOR SALE FOLKS and Souness is lucky again- he is safe so long as he doesn't get them relegated. Or until FF changes his mind again....

Cardiff 1 Blackburn Rovers 1

It is very good. A thought that struck me when I read the mutual discount with a Prem club idea: - One of Rovers or Burnley are going to end up with Accy Stanley playing league games on the same day as them next season. Rovers should get in there now and agree with the Police and Accy Stanley that Rovers and Stanley league games should not clash and a joint season ticket for Stanley and Rovers games introduced. Stanleys' gates have been woeful by Conference standards but a Christmas gate of 3,000 showed the potential for folks going to them rather than Ewood. Better to embrace this development rather than get hurt by it. I was disappointed that the PR agency idea didn't appear. Believe an 01254 number popping up and "Hello, I'm Blackburn Rovers PR" will be just as ineffective as having no PR. The media is in London- the Rovers' PR has to be in London. Fact of life, if it is considered worth investing in PR, at least spend the money effectively.

Brilliant First Half with two well-matched teams, Rovers didn't get going second half but contained the Manc attacks fairly comfortably. I expect shots on/off target numbers are pretty equal. Yes Savage and Kuqi should both have scored inside the first six minutes but Rooney was thankfully wayward as well. Just hope Savage has scored by the time we go to OT because he's getting into scoring opportunities but not believing in himself putting them away at the moment. When we were on top MGP and Bentley were having superb games and Kuqi was causing real problems. In the second half the two wide players disappeared, Kuqi was back to an agricultural level and Nelsen's passing became awful. Have to say Reid really looked good for the short time he was on in place of Tugay and the Rovers were beginning to change the balance of play as the final whistle went. MGP's goal was so sweet- a volley that reminded me of Duffer at his best! I thought Rob Stiles was pretty fair and handled the game well. The linesman should have spotted the entireless needless shove by Fedrinand on Bellamy in the box- it was pretty blatant. Smith's lunge on Savage was awful and I think he would have walked had Savage not grabbed Rooney round the neck in the ensuing melee. As it was either they both went or they both got the yellows which Stiles gave them. A really bad foul by Wes Brown on Bellamy where he left his studs in the back of his knee early on went unpunished. And a really stupidly bad decision against Kuqi when Van Der Saar got upended by Brown which led to Bellamy mouthing of for his yellow. Enjoyed it and although its an outside chance, we can still make the Final. 2-2 after ET at OT?