Most of Souness interview is very fair and well balanced. I just choked on the bit about Dickov and Matteo and his assessment of the current squad. To be fair, Hughes has got the Souness inheritance defending well now.

My worry exactly: Gareth Jorkaeff Taffy Spector Llewellyn Mokoena Bryn Nelsen even Barry John Johnson promoted from the reserves!

When Souness came to Rovers, his career was on the scrap heap and he was joining a club which Brian Kidd had turned from a good mid table Prem side into a moribund bottom half Div 1 side with essentially the same players. Souness had to work his way back up knowing there was no room for failure... for his career or the Rovers, and he did so magnificently. However, success bred a resurgent paranoid ego, and a failure to understand that bully boy tactics kicking the Kidd dawdlers would not work with UEFA competitors. That combined with training which was out of the ark, poor fitness levels and a lack of tactical finesse to say the least and we all know what happened to Rovers. In comes Fat Freddie and the Souness rationale goes something along the lines of.... "I was held back by a small club mentality at Rovers" "I was a great success for them and now I get the big club I deserve" "All I need is the right transfer budget!" Allied to being told by the media and Fat Freddie "Newcastle went soft under Sir Bobby- it needs sorting out" which gives him an open invitation to be a mindless bully from day one. He has no further ambition now as he has said himself that all the other top jobs are closed to him though how he fantasises he was "half way" to getting the Chelsea job is beyond me... Those who believed Souness would give the bar codes three good years before going off the rails are wrong in my estimation. Newcastle have bought a ready made off-the-rails Souness. I doubt Souness even realises that behind the scenes, the Rovers are light years ahead in professionalism compared with Newcastle. Its the only way we can compete effectively with a club which has more than double our revenue. ...and on Boxing Day, I expect we are going to show how effectively we can compete.

I disagree- for the first time I've seen them this season, the Rovers had stopped giving the ball away stupidly and cheaply PLUS we were defending effectively from front to back. The first two involvements by Gally when he came on were a poor touch and a bad pass- suppose either of those had lead to an Everton goal... what would have been levelled against Hughes then? At this stage of the season better to bank the one point against one of the tightest defences around and climb up to 16th. The expansive playing MGP type of stuff can come after we've won a couple more games and put some real daylight between ourselves and 18th.

Interesting match report. Makes the point that Everton changed their formation, Rovers didn't and very nearly won. However, I agree with RB that bringing Gallagher on a bit earlier for the ineffective Bothroyd would have been a good move. The report quite rightly slags off the residents around Ewood. Yet again, Blackburn showing that it neither wants nor deserves a Premier League football team.

Whether Shearer has thumped Bellamy once twice or three times or kicked Carr in the head, the well-behaved boys of Newcastle have been misbehaving themselves at the Ritz in London as Souness has admitted in a bizarrly worded statement this evening. So much for Souness introducing discipline to the bar codes. It is also worth noting that whereas Souness inherited a leaky defence from Sir Bobby, it has carried on leaking at an increasing rate and their cards record on the field has steadilly worsened. Hughes inherited an even leakier defence from Souness but after those two 0-4s and the 3-3 has tightened up to the extent that we have let in one goal in the last four games. Our card count hasn't got any better though and at least the lads had a colourful Christmas party! So it seems Hughes is doing a better job of a Rovers squad stripped of skill and character than Souness is doing with a Newcastle squad full of expensively signed stars and more "characters" than in Strangeways. So to Boxing Day and a game that I am only worried about in terms of how great a blow it will be if we fail to win. If we bring the level of concentration and determination we showed against Everton- particularly second half when we cut out the few sloppy balls we were guilty of in the first- we should win this one. Surely a crowd of 28,000+ should be at Ewood for this emotive set of reunions and here's hoping Ewood's biggest gate will witness a riproaring victory for the Rovers. I am going for 4-2 if Shearer plays, 3-0 if not.

Sorry but the former held a grudge against him seemingly because he snubbed his mascot child. As for the latter, she only pops up when it suits her to bait fellow MB members. Far from close knowledge in my book. More like attention seekers. Ok I don't know for sure but... jim is a jouno who from time to time fed us more about Souness than was then currently known and pretty well all of it turned out depressingly accurate, Jan has a position in the business world which has granted her access to the inner workings of the "upper echelons" of football north and south of the border and again she hasn't been proved wrong very often no matter how much she might irritate certain people. My hope that there are no morons hanging around to give Souness a rough time before Newcastle get on the pitch. Disdainful silence has got to be the best way of pricking his ego.

That was a pretty dumb post Mr K

15 points after 18 so we have avoided that bogey! The reason for the passion against Souey is the lover spurned syndrome. Yes Souness came to us when both the Rovers and him were in a trough and he massively over-achieved: promotion Worthy Cup two entries to the UEFA (cannot call them campaigns) 2-0 and 5-0 But he was also an egotistical bullying arrogant fool who has no time for modern tactics or fitness methods. At some point the Souness Dr Jekyll turned into Mr Hyde for all of us- two with perhaps closer knowledge of him (Jim 'n Jan) were against him from the start- but for the rest of us we turned from being passionate supporters to passionate detractors at some point realising the negatives were now hugely outweighing any residual positives. For those who stayed loyal to the end came the final kick in the pants when he took Fat Freddie's wodge to join a "massive" club despite being at best fifth chojce in the most amateurly conducted Premiership management recruitment witnessed for some seasons. Fat Freddie the Wrexham kicker, and Souness the Yorke kicker deserve each other. Souness joins Gordon Lee, Dick Dinnis, Shearer and Dalglish in the list of those who won honours at the Rovers but not at Newcastle.

The advert outside the bar gave our game and the Mancs game- another game was being shown (the arab channels always carry a different game from Channel+) and I had assumed that was it. Header?!? Come on the ball was on the ground and Todd dived across Cahill's midriff to check him. He "bought" the card as they say because we were completely open if he hadn't stopped Cahill. That was certainly how the Sky commentators read it. You're talking about a different incident as Todd's arms were not being used for the body check. Not surprised there were only 17,000 Rovers fans- on TV, large areas of the Blackburn End looked empty

Just watched it right the way through in the Scots bar- interestingly, nobody was watching the Mancs being shown at trhe other end of the bar. So what do we take from this? - we more than matched Everton who were at full strength and played as well as they normally do and have won a lot more than 50% of their games thus far. - in the first half five midfield passes were given away setting up Everton attacks, in the second half those sloppy balls were no longer being given away. - Mike Halsey is not a Premier class ref despite being a likeable character: there were 15 seriously bad decisions which could have changed the result - Everton's free kick in the second half wasn't, Dickov's penalty was; other reffing bloopers were his failure to make several bookings and if Todd's rugby/american football full length diving body check on Cahill wasn't deserving of a red card.... - We had 13 set pieces in the Everton half, twelve were played so badly by the Rovers that they were complete and utter disgraces. - Neill, Reid, Ferguson looked class and Emerton is capable of ripping teams apart if only he can get rid of his Souness-induced fear of taking the opposition on. - Gallagher was carelessly off side for the original shot (fool) so cost himself the goal. All credit to Sparky- he came through the trial by Moyes very well indeed. The Rovers looked the part everywhere except upfront where a collective fear seemed to have siezed the team until the last five minutes. There were four great shooting chances in the first ten minutes and all of them were passed away- literally. Bothroyd still does not convince me and the day Emerton finds his crossing boots we will stick five past someone. However, I have changed my mind about signing priorities and a striker has gone on the letter to Father Christmas. Make no mistake- this was a good point earned, Everton are not about to self-destruct and we are steadily going in the right direction. More so than Norwich, Southampton and West Brom...

If as many posters have been asserting, the Rovers squad is not that much different from Everton's, this is going to be a massive test of Mark Hughes' skill, tactical awareness and man management. I still don't think we will get anything out of this game but I will be fascinated to read how it went. PS Is it being shown on any foreign channels- the web sites I usually use to check these things seem to be down at the moment. PPS Got my new keyboard so I can do , and . again!

Ronnie Clayton interviewed by Everton.

Blackburn Rovers wins draws Everton wins League 53 27 52 FA Cup 2 1 7 Other 0 0 2 Total 55 28 61 A bit of history shows we are shading it in the league- by one! Unfortunately the results at Ewood in the last 5 are: W L W L W - all pointing to a L on Saturday

Here are some answers from my Everton-supporting step son pieced together from our conversations: Why oh why are you a Toffee? "Blue was my favourite colour and when I came to England from the Soviet Union aged 9 I was desperate to see English football on the television. The first game I saw was Everton at Goodison and I thought they looked really smart." You were lucky they weren't showing Oldham: "No comment!" You must have been an oddity supporting Everton at Eton: "most of the boys didn't follow any football team so I was a bit different- in the end many of my friends started following Everton because of my influence." How is the nose bleed? "very nice thank you! This is how you must have felt back in the early '90s when Rovers emerged." Will it continue to the end of the season and automatic champions League qualification? "We'll be suffering altitude sickness never mind the loss of blood! A lot depends on avoiding injuries and suspensions but we have some good youngsters coming through who could probably rise to the occasion. I am very confident of European qualification as we are now nine points ahead of 7th place and there has to be a big doubt about the ability of any of the chasing clubs overtaking us for fourth; that is assuming Arsenal and United are good enough to go 2nd or 3rd! At least nobody is talking about us winning the Premiership!" We had an obnoxious Scottish manager who upset people and couldn't change- you have one who did the same but has created the tightest team spirit in British football: what is Moyes' secret? "Moyes is just brilliant. He is tough personally and all the players respect him for that but he is also very intelligent and extremely good at thinking a game through. Nobody has broken our 4-1-4-1 system yet and it is something the players know works and uses their strengths. I actually like Souness a lot- he is always good for a quote and he did a fantastic job for you because in 1999 you were going nowhere in Division 1. But there is no doubt that Moyes is on a different level from Souness in terms of tactics management and motivation." Which players should we be worried about when we play you? "All of them! Everton are flying!!!!And I cannot wait for next week, I have so much confidence in my team at the moment. Nigel martin is in the best for he has ever been in; our full backs are solid; Stubbs and especially Weir are outstanding and must be the best centre back pairing in the League; Gravesen and carsely stop anyone else from controlling the midfield no matter who they are playing against; Cahill Osman and Kilbane are a lot more creative than they are being given credit for whilst Bent is fantastic- you were mad to get rid of him! Don't forget big Duncan Ferguson- he has won us several points and is the most dangerous and intimidating substitute in the Premiership." What are your weaknesses? "We have no individual stars now Rooney has left us and the team works for each other so well that if one player is not having a good day he gets covered by the others and that is creating confidence right through the side. I used to think Pistone was weak but he doing well. Hibbert is vulnerable to pace and strength so if Emerton is on song we might have some problems there." What do you think of Rovers this season? "I really expected you to do well and be challenging for Europe. I think you were very unlucky with those early games against Southampton and United and you play some good football when I see you on television. Your defence is a bit of a joke at times and that has been the problem. I like Ferguson and Dikov and Tugay is so cool." Will we go down? "Don't think so." What will the score be? "Everton should win."

Don't sign them Sparky!!!! The board will be full of moaning Kiwis and South Afrians when they don't get a game

2+2=£600K? South Afrian link Mokoena is a bit of a worry as he has been through a lot of leagues in a short period- whereas Nelsen looks like he has the leadership desire and fight we need but it is an open question as to how he will handle the transitionto the EPL

But will the drummer get the beat? Glad we are strengthening in defence first and we are signing players who are not too old; on silly wages or sky high transfer fees Also hopefully the paperwork will be done early so they will be playing during January The interesting questions are who are the players Sparky is going to splash the transfer fund on? The noises are pointing towards the Welsh blond despite earlier doubts. I suspect we will see a new striker too. I am sticking with the guess that 6 players will go- And that the transfer spend will top £100 Millions in January in the Prem

Brad's post Souness reported words were not full of praise for Souey either

So after the Kiraly show its onto The Toffees from Goodison and the unlikeliest story of the season. my step son is a passionate Everton supporter but I had forgotten he would be in a difficult to reach part of Russia when I volunteered to pen this preview- his answers to my questions will be added when received! Immediately post-Rooney with all the board ructions at Everton this fixture looked like it was going to be another in a procession of easier games in the run up to Christmas after we had the most horrible opening set of games handed to us by the Premiership computer. Rovers v Everton is as the truism goes one of the oldest games in the fixture list: both were original members of the Football League and both (with villa) original members of the Premier League. Everton have the advantage over us in terms of all time results between the two sides and with nine championships and five FA cup wins shade it in terms of Honours won as well. However Everton are not the club we have played the most often in our league history- that honour was lost late in the 70s when our 26 years long exile from the top division meant that fellow travellers around the divisions Sheffield United assumed that position- Everton of course are enjoying the second longest unbroken run in the top division after Arsenal. For all the games we have played against the Toffees few in my lifetime have been memorable- there was a certain frissance to the games after they had signed Fred Pickering. Following relegation in '65/6 Rovers rarely drew top flight opposition in the cups but we did get away ties at Goodison on two occasions- loosing 0-3 and 0-2. In the Premiership we have traded wins with Everton with abandon, quite often one side getting results against the other against the form book- lets hope that continues on Saturday! First season back under Souness I recall a well organised Everton doing the double over us but we returned the complement the following season. The most recent result was a 1-0 away win to the Rovers when a wonderful Stead/ Cole move produced an emphatic headed winner for Stead. Going back in time there was a lovely game in the late 90s when the Rovers scored twice in the last ten minutes to steal a victory at Ewood and tthere was the glorious 3-0 win at Goodison over Easter '94 when we kept our title challenge alive against the odds with a Wilcox strike from 30 yards past a shocked Southall which was one of the better goals I have seen the Rovers score. Of course Colin Hendry's heroism at Goodison the following season defending a 1-0 lead is the stuff of legends and was in any ways the defining moment when I think all football realised that Rovers really were going to win the Premiership. So to this week's game. On paper it looks all over a 1-0 win for The Toffees- that's how they win their games in case you haven't noticed as for the third game running the visitors to Ewood are a team that neither concede nor score many goals. From the Rovers' perspective the combination of suspensions and injuries means that this is going to be the most interesting line-up Hughes will have selected since his first game in charge. Perhaps a certain Pedersen will get his opportunity after his season end break- all the "play Pedersen" posters are forgetting that the lad has finished a full season with the Norwegian season running through the summer unlike our Winter game. There is no doubt that Everton are one of the best organised sides around and can play pretty passing stuff if you let them- interestingly their pass completion statistics are not that much better than the Rovers'. It is their pressing and defending which are superb with Weir and Stubbs the most unlikely top performing pair of defenders in the league. The transformation of carsely (an Ewood hate figure) and Bent into star players must be a role model for Hughes and his staff when they survey the apparently limited talents available to them at Ewood. This should be a game with an unusual amount of atmosphere for an immediate pre-Christmas fixture: Everton have long sold out their 8000 allocation at the Darwen End and those of you who will be there might find chaps and chapesses with funny squeaky accents sitting near you. A 30000 capacity crowd might be achieved. With the relative positions of the clubs any points for the Rovers will be a bonus on Saturday- the Rovers front line is not clinical enough to give any confidence they will convert the very few opportunities that will come their way so I cannot see past a 1-0 for Everton unless Everton find their goal scoring boots.

This report says Kiraly was the key to the result being 0-0: it is in line with all the other reports I read in the press

I certainly remember Xavier producing soome fantastic performances for both Everton and Liverpool. As well as the odd 'mare Don't know if we have the personnel capable of playing to Hartson's strengths but I do think we will be well capable of discovering his ample weaknesses. Sutty is a different matter. I'd have Sutty back in a flash and sod his disciplinary and more colourful off-field reputation. He can still hack it up front and has more mobility and guile than Hartson, gives us a central defender option and I'm sure he could do the sort of midfield job Sparky did for us in the Cup Final.

With tricky games coming up, this is beginning to get into must win territory if we are to avod the dreaded bottom at Christmas slot. Comes down to who wants it most. Dowie has the added needle of haviing been passed over for the Rovers job. 2-2 draw.

I would have preferred 0-0. I totally agree with den that Andy Cole was the big missing factor on Saturday. The Evening Standard's take on the game. At first I thought they had got their geography horribly wrong but then realised the number of times Spuds have taken players from Yorkshire clubs.

What a magnificent set of ties. Not one all Prem game and Man U v Exeter and Yeading v Newcastle marvelous roy of the rovers stuff. Really pleased for Exeter after all their financial troubles. Thirteen Prem v Championship ties, eight with the Prem club playing away. There will be Premiership casualties and have to say that Rovers must be likely candidates for an early exit although not the most obvious. The Bluebirds are massively under performing and the Rovers probably do not have that edge in class needed to put an uppety lower division side in its place. A nervous replay at a chilly half empty Ewood is a quite likely outcome.