Psst IHB, Newcastle's new signing is Michael Owen. Luque is the cherry on top.

If the next game at Ewood doesn't generate a full house, nothing will. Good bye to the greatest forward ever to wear blue and white. Newcastle's new signing. Souey back. Pretty uneventful really.

The Guardian this morning pointed out that the Villa v Rovers attendance was 6,000 lower than Villa's average last season. And Villa were parading their new £7m signing! The full-on crisis is finally hitting the Prem: - the effects of the Champs League means the top berths are unreachable for 70% of the clubs and the supporters know it. - therefore avoiding Coca Cola oblivion is the order of the day in approximately 50% of all Prem games. - therefore the quality of entertainment in the Prem has plummetted over the last three seasons. Great games are now the exception rather than the rule compared with when Alan Green said just before Christmas 2002 "I haven't seen a bad Premiership game yet this season". - the fact Charlton have made a storming start is not registering anywhere outside north west Kent. - prices have risen as the quality of the product has worsened. - ipso facto, the people who go to football matches for the entertainment as opposed to tribal loyalty are staying away in droves. Lower prices don't work, signing top players doesn't work, it is the fundamentals of the competition which have gone wrong and the British public recognises that and is now giving football a collective thumbs down. The options for Rovers are to risk the business by blowing money on a player (or players) who could fail on the field or suffer a long term injury (highly risky) or simply hunker down this season and let the Souness contracts run out next June. The next few days could be interesting at Ewood on the transfer front but I think it will take a miracle beyond the club's control to get the crowds back to an average of 25,000+ any time soon

Did Tony Parkes do the interviews as usual? The press are reporting Souness as safe for the next few matches. So no way will he still be in post when Newcastle come to Ewood and once again we'll be facing a team fired up under a new manager.

This article bears out the contention that crowds are down. Incidentally, crowd numbers also seem to be a lot lower in the Football League as well.

Two observations: Playing 4-4-2 we didn't look any worse at the back or in midfield than playing 4-5-1 but at least it gave us a threat upfront. The 4-5-1 formation completely failed to cope with Philips running through from deep. Two away games, two (probably avoidable) defeats, two halves when Rovers totally failed to turn up. Hughes either sorts it out or we are in for a long unhappy winter.

Intriguing- if you're a Villa supporter, this has to be THE fixture to get your season moving. Rovers suspended, injured, pantomime villains with the blonde baddy; Villa Barosed and raring to go. There is a win in this game for Rovers but I don't think we'll find it. Sticking with 2-0 to Villa but expecting lots of comments along the lines of Villans saying "I didn't know your lot could play football".

Whenever this thread reaches the top of the Board now, my immediate reaction is that Fat Freddie must have sacked him. Must be getting mighty close.

Villa will be desperate for their first win of the season. Baros making his debut, Savage winding up the locals, I am afraid they will get it: 2-0 to Villa

I'd go with the declaration being just right. Australia could have got that total had any top order batsman hung around a bit longer with Ponting. Equally England should have got the last wicket. The asking rate was only a touch over 4 runs an over across a day and a bit- any modern Test side which gets in is going to score at that rate.

...hence all my posts about buying another striker in the summer. That said being Todd and Neill-less is going to stretch our defensive resources.

"woeful" Newcastle seems to be the general verdict. With Wigan playing Sunderland on Saturday, there's a decent chance Newcastle will be bottom when they face the Mancs on Sunday (AND WILL STAY THERE).

So back to square one then- another 0-0 and disciplinary problems. I wonder if Todd has grown complacent? For the last two seasons he was fabulous- playing to the full of his ability. So far this season, his errors have cost two goals and looks like the video boys will get him a ban.

Official site say Matty is expected to be on the bench and that the Axe is back after being injured playing for South Africa.

Just practised with the new Chat link and I like it- much better than the old one.

Looked it up- you are right that Solano will be availsable against us. Overwhelming view of pundits is that Spurs will win a tight match against us. Still feeling optimistic for our chances but all rationality points to us having to be at our best to get anything out of the game. Here's hoping for more good reasons for the stay aways to feel sick that they missed a treat.

Well the Mackems are being realistic- they know Sunderland are headed on a one way ticket. What would our support be if we imploded and lost 15 on the trot the way Sunderland did last time in the Prem? The pointer to their attendances being down was the way they failed to get the crowds back when they were winning the Coca Cola.

Hmm, not a good night for Prem clubs at home. Liverpool through despite a pretty rubbish performance losing 0-1, Brum tonked at St andrews by Boro (what a shame for the BIG CLUB run by LOYAL s Bruce) and Pompey only managing a 1-1 despite Villa having solarno straight redded (won't be playing us on Saturday then). Oh and Sunderland lost at home making that 18 STRAIGHT Premiership defeats. Impressive! Rovers to stick up for home wins tomorrow say I!

Even with 6 out, that leaves Spurs with England's number 1 Robinson in goal (and 3 back ups), Naybet, Edman, Gardner, Bunjevcevic and six other uninjured defenders named in the first team squad. Then Davids, Mendes, Ziegler, Carrick, Tainio, Lennon and three other uninjured midfielders and a choice between Mido, Keane and Defoe upfront (with two others to fall back on who are not injured). Really does look like a Champions League outfit without the Champions League credentials. We'll stuff them!

You're a daft ha'peth.

The problem with eye-catching signings who attract that sort of following is that their worth to the club is priced into the transfer fee and wages and some on top! Assuming the Trustees are business people and there is some form of words about Rovers washing their face in the long run in Jack's Will, I cannot see the Trustees releasing any funds for transfers after Saturday's attendance. I know Rovers weren't brilliant on Saturday but you will still be remembering those goals at the end of the season/ five years/ ten years/ twenty years from now. That has to be a big part of being a supporter. The football has not been good for a couple of years from Rovers and frankly the goals have been fairly mediocre since Dunn/Duff left. As following any football team (well most of them) is the triumoh of hope over experience, its nice to experience something so special from the lads in blue and white to keep the faith that going to Ewood Park can be a fantastic memorable experience. A storming performance against Spurs is what's needed now- I'd even trade an early goal against to generate the sort of spirit we showed against Chelsea last season and avoiding a West Ham-style capitulation at Villa. Then we should see the gates increasing.

Interesting to see that whilst 43% have voted inadequate entertainment as the prime reason for the decline yet nobody has picked up on my suggestion that Rovers addressed that issue (and how!) on Saturday and many stay aways will be desperately wishing they were among the 16,953....

Thanks for quoting me Greggy- the cynicism was meant as humour my friend. I'll add that after all the optimism building pre-season, the West Ham surrender and die second half really came as a "hammer" blow to every Rovers fan and probably an awful lot just chucked it in a week last Saturday evening. Set against that, the Rovers footballing response couldn't have been more perfect (short of a Roy of the Rovers cricket score). An entertaining game. A WIN (yes A HOME WIN- wot's one of those at Ewood grandpa?) Two of the greatest goals ever seen at Ewood which certainly has this Rovers exile kicking himself black and blue that he wasn't there to see them. After all the odium directed towards the Rovers it was a pleasure to hear this on the BBC World Service this morning: "Chelsea's winner against Arsenal may prove invaluable but it was a scruffy affair hardly rating on Blackburn's Golden Goal scale" More of the same please Rovers and the guarranteed 20,000 gates will be back.

Coming off the fence for this one- 1) Rovers defence will remember how to stay awake for all 98 minutes of the game and will do a lock out of last season's proportions despite Spurs having 60% of the play. 2) Rovers midfield/forwards enjoy remembering how good it is to score truly great goals. 3) However, the winner in this one will be scuffed in from a Pedersen-inswnging corner as Spuds go short handed in the 6 yard box having put two men marking Tugay who was hanging around the Nuttall Street touch line just to confuse them. 1-0 Rovers.

Souness always got top Rovers performances against top teams- difference between then and now is that Rovers won at Highbury and Newcastle lost. However, Rovers in the first two seasons back needlessly tossed up to ten points a season away against much lesser opposition. Look at the 2001/2 and 2002/3 tables and see where we would have finished had we not been so careless. Not unlucky one-offs against highly motivated opposition but just rank bad performances where the Rovers team was criminally mentally and physically under-prepared. If you look back at Rovers' side at that time, Champions League finishes would not have flattered the team we had available.