No Savage, no Nelsen. This is a certain defeat now.

I was sure we had an Academy thread somewhere but cannot find it. Anyway good luck to the youngsters on Saturday morning- they play Liverpool who will take over top spot if they beat the Rovers under-18s.

I'd forgotten about us losing 2-5 at home in the early days of the Prem and was reminded it was Coventry who rolled us over. Seem to be a few will he won't he mind games going on over team availabilities from both sides.

Drugs use in Ilkeston or any small town in Britain. Professor Parker estimates that the Police estimate of 240,000 who have used crack cocaine to be an under-estimate by 50%. To the lock 'em up brigade, there are around 100,000 places in British jails. If just one type of Class A substance has five times that number of abusers, what are you going to do?

Yet another ex-Rover to make a debut for BIG CLUB. When Damien Johnson pulled up with a hamstring earlier this week, Bruce moaned that he had lost his best player this season. Says it all really.

Ferguson offering to strengthen the England squad. England would be strengthened by the three of those withdrawals and lets face it, will have to get used to Rooney suspension absences from key matches.

The LET rating of the players that night. So many what might have beens....

Matty has unbelievable skills- right up there just below McKenzie. The two goals against the dingles at Ewood especially the second where he raced away from the half way line and comprehensively beat the keeper on his near post one-on-one. The jink for Rovers' third at Burnden. Promotion winner at Deepdale. That cracker against Norwich at Ewood. The League Cup semi-final hattrick against an Arsenal side which when you read the names who played that night now, you realise what a strong team we thrashed. A goal, the tackle to set-up Cole's winner and a marvelous all-round performance the last time we won silverware. No shaddy, he's not a legend. (I understand that Roscamp and Puddefoot were pretty limited players but they are both Rovers' legends- we have only had one Cup win since 1928 so why can't Jansen and Cole be legends as well?)

...and Dickov played in which divisions with Man City? Were you watching Rovers in the Prem in 2001/2?

Red face time sparky marky Dickov Appearances 368 goals 102 born 1972 Jansen Appearances 276 goals 82 born 1977 (and he's missed most of the last three seasons remember) Jansen in his prime was massively better than Dickov has ever been.

I think he meant 500th ticket this season.

More than a point- he's dead right! ..and the funny thing is, because of the way he's gone about it, it's made it harder for the Mancs to do what is needed!

A bit of a rant about Keane not having a rant against Ferguson.

Psychopaths as a rule are pathetic maanagers. Souness is only decent when he is genuinely scared for himself but when he reverts to cro-magnum type, he is a competent pansy compared with what Keane would be as a manager. On second thoughts, perhaps Keane could take over when BIG CLUB sacks Bruce, Dunny would be back at Ewood no time flat.

The last two or three times I've seen Keane, he looked well past his best. Perhaps not motivated but certainly not the Keane of old. If Hughes wanted him and a deal were done I wouldn't be against it but I don't see it happening.

jim - I'll be delighted if you are right about Barcelona but I think you understate Hughes' profile. Look at Toshack getting the Real Madrid job! I know Murray and Souey have a love in but that would be a massive step backwards- even from Newcastle.

I believe a new record has just been set with November reached and no top division managerial casualties. Could it be that there is a new maturity regarding managerial appointments or is it that Prem Managers earning at least £1m a year on rolling or long fixed term contracts (sorry about my error on Mourinho and Wenger) are just too expensive to dispose of. There hasn't been a cavalier dismissal since Fat Freddie shot Bambie over twelve months ago. If these are indeed changed circumstances, the opportunities for a move for someone like Hughes might be seriously reduced. The Man U job will fall vacant but quite when RFW will hang up the hair dryer is anybody's guess. Souness now has a run of easier fixtures to consolidate the get out of jail fluke he got at Ewood. Bennitez has the European Cup and remember it took Liverpool donkey's years to sort out Houllier. O'Leary could be at risk from new ownership at Villa but apart from that I can see no job coming up in England that would attract Hughes. OK so Bruce gets fired after losing at Sunderland on 26 November- so what? However, given Hughes' experience in Spain as a player, he has to be an outside bet to go to Barcelona when they fail to pick up the pace in La Liga and get knocked out of the Champs League.

Does this work?

Brums next two games are the emminently losable fixtures away to Newcastle and home to Bolton before a bit of a tussle away to Sunderland on 26 November for who gets 20th. Lots of entertainment from the gobby clowns at BIG CLUB to look forwards to this month. Nothing to spend in January 'cos we'd go bust in the Chapionship- Sullivan. Bruce not allowed in the toy shop even in the January sales? I don't know whether anyone else spotted it but the BIG CLUB big mouths were spouting about a relegation battle even when they were still 14th and were not noticeably headed for trouble.

Gosh, do Charlton supporters always believe everything Mourinho and Wenger tell them? Don't they have eyes, ears and opinions of their own? Real benchmark game for Rovers- in many ways Charlton are achieving what Rovers hope to achieve: Unsung club developing its crowds and support base Excellent midfield supplying high quality balls into a fast breaking dangerous striker. It will be interesting to see how they make 4-5-1 work for them when we have failed to do so this season. I suspect that the difference is between the all round footballing quality of their wide men compared with the contributions of MGP and Emerton. They genuinely become 4-3-3 when breaking whereas we become 4-?-? and the 1 gets out-numbered dealing with a ball delivered at his throat if he's lucky. So lot's of man-for-man comparisons on show; Bellamy and Bent, Murphy and Tugay being two outstanding examples. Very hard to call this one. Charlton to win if Todd rather than Nelsen is facing Bent. A draw otherwise, perhaps high scoring. Going for 2-2.

Very much the standard style of contract for football managers and senior executives outside football. Ferguson, Mourinho and Wenger are on rolling one year contracts I believe.

That article was before Cally Thistle earned a routine draw at Ibrox. Looking at their fixture list, they'll be the best part of 20 points off the SPL Championship race and out of Europe by the start of December. What a shame... At least Zura won't want to go back.

If the agreement is watertight, why splash £1m (or whatever the value is) now when we can wait to the summer and spend whatever limited cash we have elsewhere in team strengthening in January? Only make the move now if the loan deal purchase option isn't strong enough or if Zura is itchy to go elsewhere- a pre-contract agreement signed with the player in the second half of the season would seem to be the most sensible thing to do.

Second defeat against a big city club in which I feel we lost to the referee as much as to the opposition. I can accept beatings from teams that are better on the day (or fluke it- Newcastle, or catch us on an off day- West Ham and Villa) but this just leaves me feeling exasperated and fed up with football.

From the BBC Gossip column: Newcastle boss Graeme Souness says Jean Alain Boumsong's frequent tumbles are because the St James' Park pitch is "treacherous for leggy players" (Mail on Sunday)