USA, Brown

Ideal time to play Chelski, Hughes had the lads well set up and good performances all round apart from MGP who was consistently bad and Bert who was consistently infuriating. Great fight back but unfortunately 2nd half we were against Mike Riley at his worst. Chelsea were lucky to win/ we were again exposed by lack of quality in key positions.

Bolton v Leicester Manchester United v West Brom Doncaster v Aston Villa Arsenal v Reading Wigan v Newcastle Charlton v Blackburn Middlesbrough v Crystal Palace Millwall v Birmingham All in all, a seriously bad draw. Apart from the prospect of BIG CLUB getting embarassed, few of the more powerful Prem clubs have been drawn against each other.

Diddums or hogwash?

Right now, Hughes seems to be harnessing the "edge" to Bellamy's personality to remarkably positive effect. Based on about 45 minutes of injury recovery playing time spread across two second halves against distinctly second rate opposition, Bellamy's performance is off the positive end of expectations and above anything I could have realistically hoped for. Chelsea's rearguard's discomfort at Darren Bent's pace last night only whets the anticipation for another Bellamy cameo on Saturday. Unfortunately, based on a dozen games, Dickov and Kuqi are disappointing and Jansen is way behind where I'd hoped him to be by now. Jemal finding his shooting boots for the Reserves is a ray of hope but its no wonder Hughes is putting the management of Bellamy's fitness ahead of all other concerns.

Bellamy's fitness regime.

Chelsea are out of super-human mode after slaughtering Liverpool, Notlob and Betis. Our task is to keep them human like Everton and Charlton just have done. That is not impossible and Rovers are the sort of club you DON'T want to be playing 64 hours after a match like the one Chelsea have just had this evening. Sparky also has an interesting option in terms of when he deploys Bellamy. Based on the 45 minutes of action Bellars has seen in the last two games, he is one of the very few players around for whom Chelsea/Mourinho are going to have to adjust their gameplan to cope with. Of course Mourinho won't know until 2pm whether Bellars is starting or not and if not, whether he's going to get the whole of the second half or just a run out at the end. So does Mourinho come the arrogant **** who tells his team to go out and play their game or does he hatch a plan to neutralise the threat Bellamy carries. If he does the latter, it could leave a lot of interesting options/space for Tugay to exploit if Hughes picks him.

Don't want to sound cocky but since the 60th minute, Chelsea have been pretty well at their first XI. Charlton in contrast have brought on the reserves (Jay Bothroyd is now playing) and are coping OK. All in all, everything Rovers could have asked for from tonight's game. Not that fussed about the result except a yellow for Drogba would be nice if it keeps him out of our game and a red card or two for Chelsea on the same grounds...

If we are posting requests for the next round, Arsenal home for me. OK there's a risk of a bunch of 16 year olds turning us over but it would be the ultimate put up or shut up to Rovers supporters to see if we got 31,000 in Ewood at £5 for adults and £1 for kids. PS with Brum going through, (Tiny og for Norwich incidentally) just have the feeling we are going to draw the BIG CLUB in the last 16. Reading would be a bit of a nightmare draw for any Prem club at this stage of the season. PPS looking at the surviving clubs, Man U and Arsenal might be looking at the League Cup as their best hope of silverware this season. Of the others, Charlton, Bolton, Rovers, Boro and Newcastle have every right to fancy their chances of winning the Cup.

Huddersfield Man U West Brom BIG CLUB Leeds. You're right its four - BIG CLUB were worse than rubbish.

Saturday lunchtime I believe.

Would love to see it Neekoy but a quick reminder- our five wins have been against rubbish teams (yes and that includes the Man U side we beat). Playing against good teams playing well will be the litmus test.

Just scooted through the press coverage- now we are a one man team- Bellamy Rovers (I'll get that in before the hacks use it). Only the Telegraph which go a wow on Emerton have anything like a balanced report.

Great article LD Rover!

Gresko is still injured and Hughes has said he's going to play Bellamy to increase his match fitness. The crowd might not be big but the Rovers contingent are going to be in good voice. According to the Leeds web site, both Hulse and Healy are carrying painful injuries and Blackwell is going to rest a few players as well. So it will be a warm Ewood welcome to dingle duo Blake and Moore!

Wow, I hope Sparky puts that up on the dressing room wall. Chelsea fans I have spoken to are very nervous about this one. Before our humiliation last year, Rovers hadn't lost away at Chelsea in donkey's years (apart from that play-off thrashing we took) and we regularly won there as well- Blackburn are their number one bogey side. They know what a hugely difficult game they had at Ewood last season (and admit they wouldn't have won had Dickov scored that penalty) and see this one as being a massive test following the Everton draw. As one of them put it, "draws against Everton and Blackburn then lose against United and its game on again for the Premiership title and we don't want that." Will be interesting to see what sort of side Mourinho puts out against Charlton on Wednesday night. That will be a huge test of their quadruple ambitions so I think he will be relatively sparing in terms of putting too many of his lower ranking squad members on the pitch. Hopefully Charlton will give them a real run around and take them to extra time.

Koumas- if we were going to get him, Sparky would have signed him by now. Of all the Prem managers, he is the one who will have watched Koumas the longest. Gravesen- £95K a week wages; there is only one place he is going and that's on a knock down transfer fee to Man U to replace Keane, Scholes, Beckham and Butt. Otherwise, he's happy on the bench at Real Madrid watching Beckham collect red cards- unlike Owen he's not sweating on World Cup selection. Malbranque- would be great to see at Ewood (even though he is more than a bit inconsistent) but he might end up at the Mancs to help out Gravesen with Saha going back. Liverpool another possibility but also the sort of player Celtic or another foreign club might go for. Sidwell will be proven or otherwise when he is playing in the Prem with Reading next season. Coppel won't blow it at the death a second time. PS Chris, you are not being serious??? Tugay's outfield play is simply a different class to anything we've seen at Ewood since the '60s- only Bohinen when he could be bothered came anywhere close to his flair/genius. TDI (below) is right about Benayoun but he's not going to be leaving Upton Park for anything less than £10m and Champs League football.

Anyone coming through from the Academy? Let's hope Dunn recovers his fitness at Brum after its too late to save them from relegation.

What a deliciously accurate article! Signing Savage is proving to be the double whammy coup Chelsea/Abramovich indulged in two summers ago. Get a good player but cripple a potential rival whilst you are about it. They did that to us and Charlton (both sides could have gone onto make Champs League challenges but for losing pivotal players) and now we've put Brum in the melting pot.

Agreed Revidge. That's why I was leaving the experimentation (easing seasoned pros back from injury) to the bench. Dickov is doubtful with a knock and I doubt Tugay will be given three full games in eight days so he's either going to sit this one out or be spared the Bridge. Just wonder if he'll start with Jansen and Bellamy though. This could be the sort of game for Matty to make his mark. Having read this Leeds preview and its description of Leeds' style as being to allow the opposition space up to 18 yards from goal, it sounds like the sort of game Tugay would really enjoy. Leeds fear extra time because of the huge game against Reading this week-end; this could be a cracker with two sides going all out for a win in normal time.

I hate to win an argument through the Rovers losing but Drogba has destroyed much better players than Todd- look at what he did to Carragher at Anfield! This is the match in the season when we will really miss the extra class of Nelsen. Zura won't be a match for Drogba's physical presence either. Analysis of Everton's approach to Sunday's game v Chelsea. Of course, it could be argued that Hughes invented this tactic in last season's game at Ewood. Perhaps Hughes will adjust his game plan of keeping it tight for the first 15. If I were Mourinho, I'd wind up my lads to give Rovers a right going over in the opening stages of the game and certainly have Robben or Wright-Philips on from the start to expose Gray. Chelsea have now shipped the opening goal of the game in three of their last four games and I bet Mourinho doesn't fancy repeating that against us.

This will be a high scoring game. The Leeds defence is vulnerable and the midfield has weaknesses but we can be sure they will be playing out of their skins and that their rather useful forwards (Blake sub again) will be looking to enhance their reputation. Our squad should be strong enough now to allow some rotation but what really matters is Hughes getting the lads into the right frame of mind. Ideal game for Kuqui and Bellamy to build an understanding and to have some fun whilst they are about it. I'd rest Tugay and Dickov completely have Mokoena, Jansen, Tommo and Amo on the bench and play Bentley in the middle and Emerton out wide. 4-2 to the Rovers- quite possibly after extra time. Incidentally, there is quality in the Championship. Where do you think all the British-born players who would have been perfectly good Div 1 players fifteen years ago are plying their trade now?

The last two paragraphs of this Birmingham report will make salutary reading to bluenoses.

Gold's comments don't tally with the way he looked when the Sky cameras focussed on him on Saturday. That said, there is an element of "beat Everton on Saturday or else" about the quote. Having seen Everton's performance against Chelsea, Brum are going to have to raise their game a lot to get anything from that game. Sunderland play Pompey so the bottom four are all playing each other on Saturday. Shame, such a nice BIG CLUB.

An enjoyable preview JP! Just read the Telegraph's online report on Saturday's game which says that Nelsen is out for two weeks and Bellamy is being eased back suggesting he will start on the bench on Saturday. On that basis we are close to no hopers despite Everton giving a good demonstration on how to ride good luck against Chelsea. I fear the game will be out of reach before Bellamy is introduced. Of course, it could be Hughes mind games. Just hope we give them as big a scare as we did at Ewood last season but still think we will get beaten 2-0.