philipl

Two goals either side of half time for Depor. Souness cannot even take his barcodes to the finals of the Intertoto!

Quack

The last I read was the Dutch Police have not dropped their investigation and I believe Van Persie is still bailed. Arsene Wenger has been moaning that he wants the whole thing out of the way before the season starts whereas it looks like the next formalo steps will be in late August. I agree that the whole media has decided we are the dirty uncultured yobs of the league and nothing is going to get in the way of the story. I always believe that the number of bookings any club gets unnecesarilly (talking back, kicking the ball away) reflects extremely badly on the club management. For all Souness' disciplinary streak, I thought the stupid bookings we got when he was manager were simply sloppy and as stupid as some of his outbursts from the touchline. At least we won't be getting any more bookings because the ref is fed up with the abuse from the idiot in the Rovers' technical area. Some managers use their players to intimidate officials but Rovers just seemed to mouth off to no particular effect. Here's hoping Sparky keeps the lads focussed aggressive.. and disciplined.

Who are the Australians getting to replace Farrina? Its a long shot but properly coached, Australia have enough soccer talent to challenge the fifth best Latin Americans. As for the cricket, England have selected the same team and will get the same result.

Let's hope this is the foretaste of the real thing. Brum Ladies going out of business. No doubt Sullivan would sign 'em up if they played naked.

Managed to see the goal we conceded from the free kick at Swansea- that was horrible! Hope Sparky and the back room boys get that stamped out.

Birmingham City- Where do you start with that bunch of loud-mouthed fools. Steve Bruce: Mr Loyalty (how I wish Glazer takes him to Man U) Karren Brady: Has a soft spot for our Mr Williams- not surprising the number of times he stitched her up. BIG CLUB SIGNINGS- Dwight, Tiny, (thank you very much) Whingeing Champions- Savage saga Last minute bid for Bellamy- why did they brag about it- sorry they are a BIG CLUB and BIG CLUBs do things like trying to hijack deals at the last moment Porn Boys- 'nuff said Dunn's injuries- feel desperately sorry for David but sheer schadenfreud towards Brum. There are more Brum/Rovers incidents but that's enough to be going on with. I'll own up to be hoping the Prem will enjoy schadenfreud so far as Glazer is concerned but my animosity is towards the way he will try to rescue his investment, not towards his failing.

Well done- I had forgotten about that one but I had a sneeking suspicion we had conceded 5 at home some time late 80s/early 90s but couldn't remember when/who. Of course we went down 5-0 to Coventry at the Highfield Road ice-rink when we were Champions.

Oh dear Mr Armchair- bit of a give away that contribution. When was the last time we leaked five at Ewood? I'm struggling on this one but I'll offer Rovers 0 Liverpool 5 in 65/6. (PS answering letting in 4 at Ewood is all too easy- I've just thought of ten instances, two of which we won!). The 5-1 defeat was at St James's Park. Duff equalised with the sweetest volley imaginable with less than 20 minutes to go but then Bellamy and Robert started running at us and we were routed (the third was Gresko og and perversely unlucky it was too). For me, that was the game which first posed huge questions about Rovers' coaching and fitness levels, not about Gresko who was no more or less culpable than seven other players in midfield and defense. Of course you were at Ewood for Rovers 5 Newcastle 2 during the same season. Tiny was so monstrously bad at right back that he scored two and should have had a hattrick.

"Expect Pardew to be sacked early doors." Will 17.00 on 13 August be early enough? Rog- I really enjoyed reading your predictions posting.

Pre-season friendlies are pretty irrelevant but still it was nice to see Swansea 1 Rovers 4 when I looked for the score. Savage can be forgiven at this stage- he is two to three weeks behind his colleagues in preparation and at this stage, it is a big gulf, especially playing opposition which kicks off its season next Saturday. The encouraging signs are that Savage might not be an automatic pick in central midfield as others are quite possibly challenging him on merit. That's not knocking Savage. Bit concerning that the defense is leaking and by all accounts Brad conceded a soft one yesterday. Better at Swansea than West Ham though.

An accident waiting to happen. Slovakia and Scotland have the same population. However, Slovakia has a somewhat competitive domestic league and Scotland doesn't. Perhaps more pertinently, Slovakia are still in with a decent chance of World Cup Finals qualification. In that context, is this a suprise result? I suspect one or more of Liverpool, Everton, Rangers and Man U are likely to discover that third qualifying round of the Champions League is far from a formality. Martin O'Neill is slipping very rapidly off the radar screen as a candidate for "big" jobs in England which can only be bad news for the Rovers over the coming months and years. rover 6, I recall rather more support for Paul Sturrock than Gordon Strachan when the Rovers management was being discussed on here.

These people own and run The Express. No doubt porn boy Desmond wrote that headline this morning.

Just looked at the official board- Lee will do a report later but apparently Rovers played very well and completely dominated until the subs were made. No doubt our boys out there are just going to bed so it will be another 24 hours before they find an internet cafe!

Australian Bar? Beating Mallorca 2-0 in what sounds like an easy victory is a seriously encouraging result for what its worth pre-season. Disappointing to read the list of absentees- particularly Vratty. Another sending off to all intents and purposes- seems keeping eleven on the pitch is going to be a bit tricky this season.

I don't want to belittle the danger posed but I am in two minds about this documentary from what I have been able to see on line. 1 a) Consider the sexual images now freely available on the web. Unthinkable that this sort of thing would be accessible outside of criminal rings thirty years ago but "free" at any number of web-site locations today. Has society collapsed in a moral swamp as forecast by Lord Longman and Mary Whitehouse? and 1 If internet accessibility (by its very nature all but uncontrollable) is the core of what we have to be worried about, I'm uncomfortable but not worried. After all, how many men are copying the do it yourself cannibal who cooked his best friend, are shagging sheep (outside Bumley) or tying their wives up and suspending them using block and tackle? or 2) This stuff is seriously sick and seriously sick people must look at it and perhaps be influenced towards emulating it and on very rare occasions actually drag themselves away from their screen perversion to acting out their fantasies. On that basis it is scary but I can think of many more much scarier angles driving Islamic "fundamentalism" (why don't we call it its proper name- "sexual repressive psychotic Islamic perversion"?) which really would keep me awake at night. After all, on the odd occasion I see a hell and brimstone American preacher, I am usually in hysterics rather than nauseated. No doubt 99% of all Muslims react the same way to the semi-illiterate immans straight off the north-west frontier, imman hook and all their merry bands.

Doesn't matter- Rovers' first home win isn't until sometime back end of November.

Isn't the first 28 in Germany?

The whole thing is a tragic mess and my condolences got to the bereaved family. Ken Livingstone got it absolutely right when he saild that the Brasilian is another victim of the bombers. We live quite close to Stockwell tube station and an acquaintance has said he was in his car when there was a Keystone Cops-style chase between the traffic into Stockwell Tube Station involving at least one uniformed officer who seemed outnumbered by the guys he was chasing. He realised the others excepting the victim were the armed under-cover officers. He did not see any arms but there was a lot of shouting and it all was over very quickly with uniformed officers immediately stopping anyone going into the station when the others had run in. He wondered why he immediately guessed some of the guys running were plain clothes officers and realised that the way the public was getting out of the way with nobody having a go (unlike the rugby tackle attempts on the fleeing would-be bombers last Thursday), made it seem to him that the message had got over to the by-standers that they were police officers. He just wanted to get through and past the incident as he expected (rightly) that the whole area would be closed and sealed off.

I agree about Thorpe but not sure who should make way. At least the rain is sticking better than England's catches.

How sober is Orvil today? Perhaps he's calling anybody with a sun tan Benni!

The crunch is ripping out the Australian tail. This morning is all about holding catches and taking the run out opportunities. If the England performance in the field hadn't been so weak yesterday, this match would be extremely winnable. Instead, assuming the target is 50 runs on from the Australian over night score, the second innings will be the supreme test of the England batting.

MCMC, I agree- a flight of imagination on my part. Just read that the explosives they are using degrade dramatically if not stored in the right temperature/humidity. That would seem to be the likeliest explanation. The fact the intended bombers all ran away and presumably are hiding at sympathisers' will expose more of the network when they are eventually apprehended.

Either London was incredibly lucky yesterday or perhaps the secret service has infiltrated and had nobbled the devices. It seems astonishing that four out of four went off two weeks ago (albeit perhaps the bus bomb had not gone off when intended) and four out of four failed yesterday.

If England make a good start at Lords, it will be a competitive match which the Aussies will shade. If Australia makie a good start, England will have one good session but will otherwise be humiliated.