Can we just ban Vinjay for being so boring and spineless? Let him back when he files a report of his meeting with John Williams.

At the moment, Australia are carrying a lame duck skipper in Ponting. His innings at some point tomorrow will be one of the biggest challenges in his career.

Read page 4 of this thread Great minds and all that

Hoggard did his job OK. At least Freddie didn't have to come out tonight and Old Trafford will be packed before the players emerge in the morning. What price a Freddie first ball duck? Excellent day for England today- we're on for either a good total or a massive total tomorrow.

Funny, I hadn't thought about that possibility Shillito.

The LET are reporting that both Bellamy and Nelsen are doubtful for the game at West Ham. So who is correct?

With the number of chances being missed by Australia, this has the feeling of the 1st Test in reverse.

Ok, ignore the stab in the dark on page 1. Kick off two days away and many of the transfers I had expected haven't occured so my final prediction is: 1. Liverpool 2. Chelsea 3. Arsenal 4. Man U 5. Middlesbrough 6. Spurs 7. Rovers 8. Everton 9. Charlton 10. Villa 11. City 12. Pompey 13. Newcastle 14. Bolton 15. Birmingham 16. Fulham 17. West Ham 18. Sunderland 19. West Brom 20. Wigan

No - and I expect Sparky to keep the uncertainty over Bellamy and Nelsen going until the team sheet is announced at 2pm on Saturday. Whilst West Ham will be buoyant following their promotion, the lack of Prem experience in their squad means there will be plenty of pre-big match nerves as well. Winding that up a notch so they don't know whether they will be dealing with one of the Prem's quickest forwards and most effective and uncompromising defenders has got to be good psychology in my book. ... and give Matt Jansen and Tugay an on-pitch pre-match fitness test which involves practising ball juggling skills. That one will psyche them out as well. Ripley giving a virtuoso display along the half way line in the warm up at the County Ground terrified the Swindon players before our game there early in the season they spent in the Prem! Another example- Ibrahimovich, Ljungberg and Larssen's keepy uppy session with two balls between them during the warm-up here in Malta so mesmerised the opposition that Sweden were 4-0 up after 16 minutes!

There used to be a particularly revolting jellied eels shop on the main drag near the ground. West Ham supporters reading our web site reading their web site etc etc. Never mind the closed loop, this is an open-minded and reasonably informed assessment of t'Rovers.

Please submit your review early said Den. Is this early enough? With the board not knowing what time it is, what is early anyway? It's all relative I suppose but what has relativity got to do with it other than Bellamy getting heavier the faster he runs? Relativity is a tricky concept particularly when you are previewing game number three and the season hasn't started yet. Several inter-planetary objects might have moved by August 24th, or maybe not, or exist in a parallel universe (Jenas at Highbury?). Just how big an asteroid belt does Jol need anyway? And will they collide with mother earth or at least Ryan Nelsen? Oh I'm enjoying this a lot more than when I punched Blackburn v Tottenham into Google thinking I could crib some other pundits' work. Woohoo, up popped espn and two other sites- there it was Blackburn Rovers v Tottenham Hotspur 24th August 2005... and a blank screen. (on every site) So no early season form to go by. No knowledge that we got robbed blind by a 92nd minute Wham winner and Fulham hadn't forgotten how to win at Ewood either, nor that Spurs frollicked to an easy win at Pompey before taking their frustration out at not being drawn out of the pansy bowl (oops, fair play lottery) for a UEFA place by thrashing 'Boro. Bottom v Top and huge stakes for so early in the season but could it be the other way around???? Rovers 100% success, Spurs under-achieving ..or will this already be predictable mid-table mediocrity? Enough of this whimsy- Spurs are the enigma of the Premiership with on paper a great coach, one of the best keepers, a more than OK defence, a cornucopia of riches in midfield and several international forwards who lead the line for their respective countries. And yet they always seem to be considerably less than the sum of their parts. A failing which has bedevilled them for every one of their anonymous years in the Premiership. Of course there have been many significant Rovers v Spurs games. 7-2 and all that when Rovers destroyed the Spurs double team, Danny Blanchflower and all. One of the first televised sightings of Rovers for me was when Match of the Day covered Rovers 0 Spurs 1 in the 65/6 relegation season and very unlucky we were too. Nothing until Spurs had sunk into the 2nd Division and in that wonderful season Jim Smith steered us to 5th when we drew 0-0 at Ewood and got hammered 4-0 at White Hart Lane. Were there any Rovers v Spurs cup ties whilst we were in the wilderness? Ah yes November '88 and a plucky 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane in the League Cup followed by a 1-2 knock out back at Ewood. Spurs knoocked us out of the League Cup again when we were first back in the Prem. So into the Prem and both clubs won away in that glorious first season back. Rovers did the double when we came second in '93/4 and in the Championship season we were comfortably beaten 3-1 at White Hart Lane but were equally comfortable 2-0 victors at Ewood. '95/6 saw a Rovers double with Rovers taking a 3-2 victory at White Hart Lane in one of my all time favourite games. Two early Shearer strikes to the good, Spurs powered back to equalise and also brought two magnificent saves out of Tim Flowers as well. 90th minute and Sutton finally back from injury hooked the ball over his head from the half way line. Shearer out paced, out powered the Spuds rooted defence (I had to work that in ) and planted it in the bottom corner. Delirium!!! Spurs returned the double compliment the season after, had the temerity to win 3-0 at Ewood the following season and again took four points off us the season we went down. Saturday 25 August 2001 and back in the Prem at Ewood as we recorded our first Premiership win in three seasons and first against Spurs since the magnificent Shearer hattrick. We lost at WHL but it was a second 2-1 win for Rovers in Cardiff which brought the first silverware of the 21st century- good old Matty Jansen and Andy Cole with Mark Hughes supreme in the middle of the park. Another home defeat to Spurs the season after was rectified by an end of season Rovers 4-0 romp at WHL. How sad it was that it was to be goodbye to Dunn and Duff as well. Shorn of flair, 1-0 home wins for each side in 2003/4 and a 0-1 home defeat followed by a 0-0 draw in (as I write) our most recent Premiership match. So a distinct historical edge in results for Spurs (Rovers W34 D 19 L42 F137 A 157) but we've made a habit of winning the ones that matter. In the Prem its much closer (Rovers W9 D3 L10 F24 A25). At Ewood in the Prem it is Rovers W5 D1 L5 F10 A13 so we hardly have a good record in this particular fixture. Indeed Spurs came to Ewood and gave a very well organised impressive display to disrupt a mini-revival Mark Hughes had got going before Christmas and the arrival of the Axe and the Admiral. Prediction- ask me on August 22- but I have to confess I don't have a good feeling about this one. Spurs at their best will be too strong for us.

Surely the hattrick against Arsenal in the League Cup Quarter Final even if Spuds in the final were an ickle team. And before the old reserves argument gets trotted out, they fielded five but **** Souness put four on the park for us... and their reserves included Wiltord and three from what is now their current first team.

Don't worry Kimberley, I don't think that was addressed to you. But you are correct, no need for the abuse.

Espanyol qualified for the UEFA Cup this time and were within two points of making it to the Champs League: Primera División OVERALL HOME AWAY P W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A Pts GD Barcelona 38 25 9 4 73 29 14 4 1 40 12 11 5 3 33 17 84 44 Real Madrid 38 25 5 8 71 32 15 1 3 43 12 10 4 5 28 20 80 39 Villarreal 38 18 11 9 69 37 14 4 1 41 10 4 7 8 28 27 65 32 Real Betis 38 16 14 8 62 50 12 5 2 36 22 4 9 6 26 28 62 12 Espanyol 38 17 10 11 54 46 12 5 2 34 18 5 5 9 20 28 61 8 FC Sevilla 38 17 9 12 44 41 10 5 4 25 19 7 4 8 19 22 60 3 Valencia 38 14 16 8 54 39 11 5 3 31 17 3 11 5 23 22 58 15 Deportivo La Coruña 38 12 15 11 46 50 6 7 6 25 29 6 8 5 21 21 51 -4 Athletic Bilbao 38 14 9 15 59 54 11 4 4 39 24 3 5 11 20 30 51 5 Málaga 38 15 6 17 40 48 8 4 7 19 24 7 2 10 21 24 51 -8 Puts Saturday's result and quality of opposition into perspective. As does Deportivo's double over Newcastle. Quite a scalp for a pre-season "friendly".

...and a more detailed account in the LET. Don't know why they did two articles.

I don't know the veracity of the shirts deal numbers. The number quoted by the Telegraph for Rovers seemed to be unnaturally low. However, we do know that Lonsdale signed up the Rovers World and shirt supply deal with Rovers which the club were delighted with. Then when HSA dropped out as the main shirt sponsors I remember John Williams commenting that there was little sponsorship interest in the Rovers so perhaps the £300k is what Lonsdale were willing to add on to the existing deal to have their name in big letters as well as little letters on the shirt- I am guessing. It is possible that in addition to being small, unfashionable and a long way from London (for the corporate freebies), all the press coverage about dirty Rovers made us a name which was too risky in PR terms to be associated with. Let's face it, the first controversial incident Bellamy, Savage, Todd, Neill, the Axe (or any other Rover for that matter) get involved in, the red tops (and perhaps the "qualities") will have their picture under an appropriately abusive caption- and the distinctive shirt and logo will be there for all to see. That prospect alone will be enough to scare off the financial services sector and their likes who need respectable association for their branding. I do remember that when someone did a comparisson of Rovers and Bolton's last published annual accounts, Rovers earned some 40% more than Bolton in commercial income and that wasn't including the Walker Trust donation. On the basis, you pay for what you get, the Rovers have invested for two top ten finishes and have significantly under-performed in the last two seasons on the pitch (having over-performed the two seasons before). The Rovers have continued to spend commensurate with a top ten finish in hiring Hughes, his back team staff and Bellamy- there after delivery is the province of the football professionals. My advice with Leeds having over-taken Manchester as the major financial centre of the north would be for the Rovers management to work their way through the companies based or operating in Leeds as prime targets for future corporate deals. I fancy Leeds will struggle to gain promotion this season thus giving Rovers a bit more time to build relationships and do the deals.

A west Ham preview of the match. I will stick my kneck out and guess that neither club will make a signing before the deadline to be available on Saturday and I will venture that Bellamy will be on the bench and not in Rovers' starting eleven. That would be a shame as his pace would probably unsettle the Hammers backline but my gut feel is he simply won't be ready for his Rovers' Prem debut and we might be without Nelsen as well. I doubt Jansen will even be on the bench. That West Ham piece leads me to think Banayoum is the only serious threat and that containing him will be about physical presence and curtailing supply which Rovers much-derided pressing game of last season seems ideally designed to achieve. Interesting that the Hammers are looking to Christian Dailly to provide the Premiership experience and stability. This is an archetypical cup game. West Ham will be on a high and will try to give it everything they've got with what is patently an inferior set of players. Hughes will need to get Rovers to quieten the crowd and then expose the vulnerabilities of the likes of Repka and Dailly (not forgetting some blasts from the edge of the box to test Roy Carroll's security). If we do that effectively, a win is very much on the cards. However, I'll go by our experience away to Coca Cola sides last season in the FA Cup and forecast we will do no better against West Ham than we did at Cardiff or Burnley. We won't get above 50% of the posession and therefore I think this has 0-0 written all over it.

We live in hope that Matty can get back to his best and I rather suspect that Hughes is calculating he will do. I'll happily take a big girl's blowse scoring 16 goals and powering us to a Cup win - which is what he did first season back in the Premiership

...and Bolton who came up, spent little, stayed up, were innovative, qualified for UEFA whilst being generally despised and have just announced a significant drop in club borrowings to under £30m despite spending net more on transfers than Rovers have this summer.

Everton play Spanish opposition (well Latin american in reality) mid-week in the Champs League qualifier. So perhaps just acquainting himself with the way good teams in La liga play.

I hadn't realised the attendance had been so low for those two games. Neil, I guess you know what the evidence points towards. Lowering prices in the last two or three seasons has had almost zero impact in improving the attendances.

Yesterday's attendance was disappointing considering we topped 10,000 for Barcelona, Sporting and even Chievo (I think) in previous pre-season show cases. The risk of local "friendlies" is that they aren't. I know that Espanyol were downright hostile blood thirsty hoodlums but generally playing top flight international opposition is a chance for an excellent test without the passion of a local derby. Besides which, apart from Wigan and Bolton, all the neighbours were opening the coca cola yesterday.

If MH with his Spanish knowledge had an inkling that Espanyol might be a touch "competitive", I'm glad he held Bellamy and Ryan back. Otherwise, the injury situation is a bit concerning ahead of the big kick off.

Thanks for the clarification. Seeing as they have photographers, perhaps they can start looking for writers!

I know its a rival site but some great pictures here. A huge tribute to the powers of digital cameras and an 80% empty ground allowing supporters to be DIY roving press photographers! PS I'm won over by the new kit- think it looks great and even the flash on the bum works.