Paul, there were 21 shots on goal when I watched it again but at least 12 were utterly lacking in any conviction or confidence. Also it is worth mentioning that after a slowish start when we allowed Newcastle far too much possession (I wonder whether that was a collective reaction to the early booking for that ridiculous Neill challenge making all the players reluctant to challenge vigorously- we got no more bookings yet Newcastle had a card fest and were very lucky Carr wasn't straight red and Taylor didn't go earlier), we were totally bossing the game right up to the moment Neill climbed all over Owen. The Welsh comparisson is haunting me- I had thought about it before Sunday but Sparky got tactics all wrong in his last few games for Wales and definitely carries the can for the Newcastle defeat in my opinion. We should have terrorised Taylor- one thing about Souness was he was a bully when it came to identifying a weak link on the opposition and mecilessly destroying him. If Kuqi had a role on Sunday, surely it would have been to reduce Taylor to a quivering wreck and disorienting Boumsong. Newcastle had a defence which was there to be totally disrupted and what else are Kuqui or Dickov good for?

There is a more recent post from me at the time the window was closing saying Liverpool were a bad pick by me as they got their transfer activity wrong.

Incidentally, my step son is an Everton supporter- now imagine how they are feeling. 2-0 to the Arse HT (both Sol Campbell goals). Possession- a mere 68% in favour of Arsenal.

Sidders. We played 4-4-1-1. The 'drog says that it was obvious so thee and me are blind. Sparky was way too cautious on Saturday and thereby he saved his predeccesor's career. He hasn't put his career at risk yet but he is a misjudgement closer to it being so. I watched the replay and yes we did have 21 attempts on goal to Newcastle's 4. The fact that 12 of them were rather weedy means we need Deano back to show the boys how to shoot.... or maybe not. There must be a phrase for middle aged men seeking instant gratification from a life time's endeavour - ah yes, Blackburn Rovers supporter 2005/6.

An interesting revelation from Lee on the official site. We did not play 4-5-1 yesterday. It was supposed to be 4-4-1-1 with Bentley in the "hole".

One day we will win at OT. We have broken voodoos at every other ground- St James' Park and Elland Road in recent seasons. 1-0 to Rovers and an outrageous piece of daylight robbery at OT. It's got to happen one day so why not Saturday? We're owed it there big time given the luck they've had against us over the years. I wonder if Hughes saw that Ferdinand Rio saying that Dickov is the player he hates playing against more than anyone else? I wonder if that was a Sky ploy to get folks to watch next week's game?

The advantage of playing Mokoena just in front of defence is the way he picks up the second ball so well. I'd have gone 4-4-2 today despite the very good points by 'all you need is duff' for the simple reason Newcastle were playing 4-4-2 and we should have been able to match then beat the players they had on the park. I'd have gone with the Axe, Sav, Reid and one of MGP or Bentley swapping wings where necessary. What happened in the end was we gave too much fear/respect to Shearer and Owen by playing 4-5-1 and they repaid us handsomely. We should have been giving their defence far more headaches by having a second striker pulling them apart. This game was set up perfectly for the Jansen/Bellamy partnership to start to blossom but Hughes bottled it (then got bottled for his troubles).

Yes he will. ...and the Geordies will still not win anything. This afternoon was bad for the Rovers but a calamity for Newcastle.

Just looked at the Sky stats and it gets worse. If you add blocked shots attempts on goal were: Rovers 21 Newcastle 4.

Huddersfield will come to Ewood and give it a really good go. They will outplay us but will get unhinged by lady luck who found Souness a strange bedfellow today.

We are in the bottom 3 by the way. Anyone else see Carr smash MGP across the face before feigning injury as MGP was about to skin him about a minute before the Neill "leap" which lead to the Shearer goal? Gresko's distribution was woeful. Owen's goal was not dissimilar to the one he scored against Berg for Liverpool at Ewood once. Over all we played pretty decently except for carrying insufficient threat to a Newcastle rearguard which was there to be taken. Hughes carries the can for this one. PS OscarRaven, that is the most profound of posts.

What an entertaining afternoon that was (not). Liverpool v ManU as bad a 0-0 as you can hope not to see then that freak game at Ewood Goals 0-3 Shots on Target 7-3 Total shots 17-4 Two lessons to be drawn 1) Mark Hughes: 4-4-2 at Ewood when you are playing teams as poor as the one Newcastle put out 2) Geordies: ha ha, you're going to keep Souness now

What do you think is the biggest contributing factor in the alarming decrease in our crowds? That is the question. The 'drog argues we got the answers wrong because we used our hearts rather than our heads. ...and since when was football support a cerebral as opposed to an emotional exercise? The 'drog also bases his argument on: "But have you ever considered the efffect of bankruptcy of any particular club in your thinking?" As I have pointed out, I have no problem with Blackburn Rovers absorbing any other football club and playing in blue and white halves as Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. That is what the 'drog is arguing for as well if you spot the caveats he lets creep in from time to time. Now tell me, which clubs in Lancashire are today in imminent danger of bankruptcy?

...and what would equivalent seats cost at Everton? Should always compare like with like.

Premiership initiative- seems rather half-hearted. This analysis has rather more weight. As Waggy, is finding out, it is as expensive to watch lower division non-league football as to watch Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga. I unashamedly copy the list of lowest prices for one adult and one child for the next home game (my italics and bold): Chelsea £90 Birmingham £60.50 Newcastle £56 Portsmouth £52 Everton £46 Real Madrid £28.60 Bolton £26 Valencia £24.80 Crawley Town £24 Hereford £22 Roma £21.40 Juventus £20.70 Aston Villa £20 Blackburn £20 Woking £19 Bayern Munich £12.40 Borussia Dortmund £12 Bayern Leverkusen £11.70 Schalke £9.30 That should cause a reaction or two.

He missed the fact we've won the Charity Shield more often than they have as well, not forgetting our two "runners ups" in the Charity Shield in the 1990s. Plus listing our promotions to the top league- we have less of those as we started at the top and share the distinction with Villa and Everton of being founder members of both the Football League and the Premier League. We haven't been relegated from the top division as often as Newcastle either. ...and our European appearances are missing from his "list"- at least we played in the Champions League as Champions! So there are two major trophies Rovers have won which have eluded Newcastle- Premiership (1995) and League Cup (2002) and one major trophy which they've won which we haven't- Inter Cities Fairs Cup (1969). Anyway, bragging rights are about this afternoon- should be a great game.

The size and scope of the Prem scouting networks means the Keegans are being swept into the Prem system. Plus the streets have got to many cars in them for the youngsters to be able to kick a ball around any more.

Exactly Mum- rover6 should go round for tea one day to learn something about football. Sparky had been an international manager for five years so the chances are he'd analysed most of the world's international sides. After all as Welsh manager, there's not a lot you're going to learn from going to watch Cefn Newydd Druids and their ilk in the Welsh League and you've got to fill in your time between internationals....

Lee put up a list on the official site. I seem to remember that it included Flitcroft, Amo, Tugay, Dickov, Matteo, Gray. The last three are high wage earners as they came on free or near free from clubs where they were earning a fortune. Brad might have been there but he has extended. Jansen is on pay for play so he wouldn't be much of a saving if he doesn't work out.

'drog. 30 years ago Rovers were a little club but now we are about the 12th strongest club in the Prem. We now have the resources through the Walker inheritance to stay there. Even thirty years ago when there was no money to pay the milkman, we still came mighty close to winning promotion back to the top in about half of the 26 seasons we were outside the top division. Your argument for LU is a clear take-over by Rovers of our lesser neighbours. Excellent if we can achieve it but not exactly a strategy grounded in anything resembling reality. EIT- what happens if we (and all the other Prem clubs) are faced with a 25% drop in income? I think that's a very realistic prospect next summer. Having so many million+ earners out of contract is fantastic news for Rovers.

Reading is not your strong suit is it 'drog? Let me elaborate: All the Prem outside of CL clubs face a dramatic drop in income from a double whammy of consumer resistance at the gates and the EU Commission acting where they feared to do anything in France against a more monopolistic deal than Sky have. In fact, I'd argue that Sky/PL probably had the balance of broadcast matches tuned just right before the forced cobbled compromise the EU Commission got two years ago. The key issue is our relative position- Rovers are relatively stronger than all clubs in lower leagues and stronger than most in the Prem- the timing of contract expiries, the strengthg of young players coming through, the all round set-up including the Walker's Trust. In case you hadn't noticed, 'drog, Rovers can only go down if others who are stronger come up and stay up- name more than a dozen clubs unarguably stronger than the Rovers in England. So do Rovers need LU to save our bacon?- no Is LU in reality a stealth mechanism for absorbing and strangling the neighbours?- yes, that's exactly what the drog has proposed. Does Sam Dingle want to be absorbed and strangling?- he seems to have better things to do with his time. Would LU play to bigger crowds than the Rovers do?- the answer from the sample paying public represented by this MB is a resounding NO. Unlike the dreamworld in the black and white simplistic absolutist thinking of one of our contributors, life is messy and the solution to football's ills will be even messier. There is a consumer revolt to the recent and relatively sudden dominance of negative unentertaining footballers paid £10,000 a week+++. It coincides with a TV crisis which the League, TV companies and Government don't want and with ManU falling into the hands of exactly the last people you'd want running Old Trafford at a time like this and Chelski looking good for the quadruple. OK, ###### happens and its happening. The Prem has had its good years and now it looks not so good- but gazillions times richer than football looked in 1990. The solution for Rovers is simple - to make sure we stay at the top table. We are getting headaches off the media because we are seen as the pioneers of 4-5-1 hard ball (we weren't but we are a higher profile club than those who were). Financially, relatively, we are OK and as I repeat ad nauseum, the expensive contracts of ageing players we will no longer need all expire together next summer. The youngsters out on loan are doing their stuff to play themselves back into contention, the Academy are national champions and we've got a squad which will pleasantly surprise many people this season. And Bob Coar is at the absolute centre of everything that is happening at the FA, so Rovers should be better placed than most to work within whatever emerges. As always for Blackburn Rovers (except for five glorious Jack years) the name of the game is survival. We will, probably at the top, end of story....

Souness looking forwards to his return to Ewood

Whilst Rovers were the first to see a decline in attendances, I would imagine Sunderland, Boro and Villa might now be showing the worst relative declines over the past three seasons. I don't have the numbers to hand. As for the drog's apocryphal vision of 4th Division football at Ewood, that would be possible were the Rovers to be on their own in decline. As it is, all the others seem to be suffering as well. I suspect, Rovers are better positioned to handle declining attendances and a big drop in Sky revenue than many others. It is probably no coincidence that so many Rovers' players' contracts expire this coming summer.

Must be Kenny Dalglish if he managed the Championship side. Contacts I can remember: - practically all the 66/7 Rovers when my Dad was in hospital at the same time as Dick Mulvaney. - many of the Directors over the years. David Brown always went out of his way to be welcoming and extremely pleasant. Bill Fox was your archetypal bluff Lancastrian. - Ken Beamish on many occasons. He is very good at his hosting job in making folks feel welcome whereas Vince O'Keefe can be a bit abrupt. - Derek Dougan when he was Chairman of Wolves. - Kevin Gallacher, David May, Mike Newell, Bobby Mimms, Tony Parkes (many times) for after match chats. - back in the early '80s after the famous 5-1 (Garner all five), Sam Allardyce and John Robertson (then a Forest player and current European Champions) were both in the 100 Club because of weather postponements elsewhere. Of course, everybody was making a big fuss of Garns and virtually nobody had noticed them. Windy Miller came to join us- that was a fascinating discussion. - Alan Shearer test driving a Ferrari in Charnock Richards service station. - this year some Rangers player who used to turn out for Rovers at Malta Airport - any London Rovers remember when Tony Finnegan (who was recovering from an injury lay-off) came into our box at the sponsored ball game and one of our number asked him if he worked for the Rovers?

That's the end of going to football matches isn't it? Now Sky show it live on ppv a day before you're allowed into watch it at Ewood. Anyway, Owen and Shearer have shown what Fat Freddie's idea of extra training is. They were playing at being celebs at the Film Premier of "Goal" in Leicester Square late last night.