A Villa fan's view. Skysports have tipped a Rovers' 1-0 win.

Woops, just seen the fixture list for Saturday.... Southampton v Man City Norwich v Portsmouth West Brom v Bolton Crystal Palace v Fulham If we lose we could easily be bottom at 5 o'clock.

Pardon? Good point Flopsy. Ferguson for two and a quarter games prior to his accident= superb Ferguson at Charlton= worryingly poor Ferguson without someone to fill the hole behind him= played out of position. Flitcroft is being used by Hughes to be the hole filler but is not good enough. Tugay sadly has lost the mobility that is needed for that role when we are not in possession. Big Sam was using Djorkaeff at the end of last season in the role Ferguson is supposed to be playing for us. Saturday's line-up for the Rovers will be fascinating.

Good point about Shearer's crossing blue phil. He was a phenomenal crosser when he drifted out wide and I would think a high proportion of Wilcox's goals came from Shearer crosses= Liverpool at home and Forest away immediately come to mind. I remember standing in the Home Enclosure at Boundary Park (tickets in the away end had sold out more than a week before the game) without revealing my allegiance. Three Oldham supporters had been barracking Shearer from the start when Al broke from an inside right position to the wing directly in front of us. He destroyed the full back for pace and put a pinpoint cross onto Newell's head between the central defenders bringing a brilliant save from the keeper. One of the barrackers turned to me and said; "I don't like to admit it but you have just got to admire him haven't you". He even cheered when Shearer blistered through the middle to score Rovers' winner in the second half!

1864, interesting point about the Mancs. Looking at your list of players, Giggs, Christina Ronaldo, Scholes, RVN and Rooney will be the automatic picks with the likes of Kleberson, Djemba Djemba, et al fighting it out for the fourth midfield slot. Smith will be the big looser although with the Mancs playing so many matches he will get plenty of rum outs and sub appearances but not enough to help his international career. The interesting aspect is that had Beckham stayed at OT, on current form he would not be starting for them. As for "bigger" clubs coming in for Rooney, I tend to think that none of those listed are now bigger than Man U any more. Man U's turnover is significantly larger than any of them can muster and whilst they have backers with deep pockets, there is only one club in the world which could find the likely £100m needed to take Rooney away from OT whilst he is still in his prime... Chelsea.

30 goals in 63 appearances. I never heard any groans when Shearer was available for England but plenty when he was unavailable through injury. I think M-K is on his own here.

Just seen footage of the Man U goals last night. Considering they were playing with a naff midfield, the Mancs performance was stunning. I knew Rooney was a talent but was waiting to be convinced. Anyone else watching Rooney smash those shots in have a flashback to standing on the Holmesdale Road End in August '92? Sad to admit but the Mancs are back in contention to win everything again. And this time the best forward in the world has not snubbed them.

Now what was jim saying?........

Mike England was a sensational player. My first Blackburn Rovers hero as my passion for the club developed with his emergence as a world class player. That is the rub, whilst Hendry was an all action hero, England waas probably the best centre half in the world at his peak- he was that good. I had hoped we would see a Hendry/England combination at the centre. A special plea to see the names of John McNamee, John Waddington (played over 300 games for us), Graham Oates, and Dick Mulvaney in the list- they were all favourites of mine. Lets not under play the importance of Faz who holds the Rovers' all time appearance record.

Fascinating contrasts of views on here. I'll offer this explanation- it was a game we hoped and wanted to do well in to extend Hughes' honeymoon and dispel our fears for of a relegation battle ahead. Charlton are not the most glamorous club around- we feel we should be beating them irrespective of the actual team that might be playing for them. So hope levels were high and expectation not far behind. The Rovers' performance was mixed. So mixed that everybody on here is right based on what you want to take from it and how you are feeling about life in general and Gray/Emerton/Amo et al in particular! In case you have all forgotten, the build up which lead to Flitcroft hitting the post includied the most flowing passing move from either side all night- when Charlton got at us for the rest of the half it got very bitty and frustrating. Second half, one badly defended corner, a goal down was a prelude to a less than elegant but well sustained pressure which although lost its intensisty pretty well continued for most of the half. On corner count and possesson, Rovers dominated the second half. BUT, every player made big errors with at least one significantly bad pass and there was nowhere near enough cohesion for the Rovers' efforts to be convincing. So anyone seeing Gray hit a crossfield pass to nobody, Emerton run it into touch, Matteo head it skywards, Amo under hit it back to Brad, Neill marking nobody, Ferguson losing possession etc etc saw all the evidence they needed to say x, y or z had a stinker and the team as a whole are rank bad. For me they whilst individually there were far too many mistakes, collectively Rovers had passion and determination; qualities which had been in short supply before the Newcastle exodus.

A fully recovered Jansen is of far greater significance to the Rovers. Jansen played a game which showed he is fit and rapidly improving in confidencee and capability so quite rightly was given the chance to show he can last 90+ high tempo minutes. MGP, based on his Man U and Pompey form, would have been destroyed by the Charlton pressure tactics last night and even though he scored against Bournemouth, I didn't read any reports exhonorating from that particular debacle. Yes I desperately hope MGP also comes good but he is still not close to Premiership level at the moment.

He has just signed- Lee has posted it on the official site. Contract until January. I'd forgotten he scored for Notlob against us home and away last season.

Djorkaef was in protracted negotiations with Bolton to extend his contract this summer. They wanted him, he over-played his hand trying to get too much money and he ended up with nothing. Since then, there has been plenty of contact with Prem and SPL clubs and no doubt he is getting a bit anxious to actually do a deal. I like the idea of a contract until January which is what the Rovers are reported to be negotiating. No doubt it will have a heavy performance weighting and it will keep him hungry to extend his last big pay day. He was inspired for Notlob last season especially as Jayjay was not producing the goods for them at the time. If fit, he could have a last Hughes-like hurrah. Here's hoping.

Very important we don't lose this one. Last season's away form (which saved our skins) seems to be out of the window so we need some semblance of fortress Ewood. Probably more depends on which Villa side turns up- they can look world beaters then lose 3-0 at Charlton. Going for a 0-0. One of our long running records has to go so I'm opting for the one we are not complaining about rather than the lack of penalties.

Captain you are a very lucky boy if last night's game was one of the worst you have ever seen. I thought the match was always interesting and as always in an English Prem game, the players for the most part showed outstanding skill and speed of reaction in reacting to challenges. Of course there were far too many misplaced passes and wrong selections of attempted pass but there will be far worse games than that in the Prem this season. For the worst games I have ever watched involving the Rovers, I hope never to have to endure the likes of Oldham and Bolton at home over easter 1982 ever again. Those games were DIRE! Swindon 1-2 away in Div 1 in 1999 was the worst performance by a Rovers team I have ever seen- even the 0-6 at City and 0-5 at Coventry were honourable defeats in comparison (although I did not see the 1-5 at Barnsley). As for quoting the press, I was only trying to show that the normally hostile football press did not see the Rovers performnce as that bleak.

Bob Fleming... Good or Bad? Discuss.

Good- lets see if Sparky gets his man!

The Guardian report. Another report in the much derided press which does not slam the Rovers' performance the way many on this mb have done. The telling line is where it says that there probably is little difference between 7th and 16th in the Premiership this season. I remain extremely concerned by Ferguson's failure last night (this was a game he should have bossed but his long and short passing looked all wrong and he seemed to wilt under Charlton pressing), resigned to the fact that we will have an unreliable defence until 1 January at the earliest and cannot see Dickov and Stead becoming an effective attacking unit. Yes we are one point away from a relegation slot and the next three games at least are going to be massive nail biters with defeat in any of them precipitating full on crisis reactions from the supporters. However, there are very encouraging signs from last night: Look at what Jansen did well - he looked physically stronger, lasted the 90 minutes as well as anyone and not one skill was consistently missing from his repertoire- and also remember he could be frustratingly eratic BEFORE his accident. This now encourages me to believe that the percentage of good play by Jansen will increase the more games he gets and that a Jansen/Stead partnership will emerge as one of the most potent strike forces in the Premiership. Competition for places from Bothroyd, Dickov and Gally will be intense but I think the goals will begin to flow again. Emerton also just needs to keep on lifting his confidence level. Not so much the touchline dragon neeeds slaying but what about the by-line bogeyman? Had Emerton driven for the by-line on four occaisions last night when the opportunity was there, I am sure he would have set up at least two golden chances. Emerton blossoming into a player opposition managers worry about will give Hughes the opportunity to blood MGP/de Pedro on the other side but they will remain a luxury item until Emerton and Jansen are fully restored to self-belief. Hopefully his dead ball and crosses delivery will suddenly click into gear as well- we have seen him deliver fantastic corners, its the problem of the ten duds before the one with menace that Hughes and his team need to sort out. Most importantly, Hughes seems to be a much smarter motivator than Souness. I was really impressed by the way Rovers put enormous pressure on Charlton for 15 minutes after conceding that goal and kept creating goal threats after Charlton had weathered that initiial storm. Lets also be grateful that Pompey, Saints, Baggies and Palace are in the Prem this season and that Norwich have played so well for so little reward.

Neither tcj nor myself are in the happy clappy everything is rosey camp.

No mjs, you are over reacting and enjoying wallowing in negativity. Read my post about four pages back. Believe me, if we were "very very poor", the Evening Standard (which is produced even closeer to Charlton's ground than the LET is to Ewood) would have said so loud and clear.

I agree tcj that the negativity has beeen way over done by some of the posters on here. Also completely agree with your comments about individual players. This is the london evening standard's report. Hardly the same game as some of the more negative posters purport to have seen!

Sorry cuidado, Charlton weere doing everything MGP is showing he struggles against at present. They press, close down and make the player on the ball think and move quickly. Based on the Man U and Pompey games, MGP would have been a passenger out there tonight.

I thought the Rovers made a decent fist of it tonight- a lot of clubs will lose at the Valley this season. Yes it was a sure penalty which was not given but so was Brad's foul on Fuller at Ewood last week- had both penalties been given,chances are we would be one point worse off and still waiting for our first league win. Unfortunately the two best chances fell to Flitty- 10 out of 10 for him getting there but the usual 0 out of 10 for composure and technique in front of goal. I was impressed with Bothroyd when he first came on, was relieved that Matty lasted the full 90 minutes and looked fit and fresh at the end and I felt he looked rusty rather than incapable. The two free headers at the end should have been much better directed but he was there to win them. Stead had some goood moments. Major concerns: Dickov and Stead do not work as a unit. Did Stead receive any useable passes from Dickov all evening? A few did go the other way. Its own up time, Matteo is a bad acquisition. Amo will always drop us in it two or three times a game whilst Lucas will position himself by the Southern Cross (not visible on any ground the Rovers are likely to play at) and Mickey Gray will get skinned at least once every game. In summary we have a seriously wonky defence which may or may not be improved by the return from injury of Todd and Short. Ferguson was poor. For a £7.5m midfielder, too many passes were woeful and he totally failed to impose himself on a Charlton midfield which was organised and pressed well but was short of the quality at least eight Prem clubs will show against us. Parting thought: Pompey, Saints, Baggiees and Palace are worse than us- phew!!! It is a relegation scrap now for the Rovers but one in which we hold a lot of the advantages. Norwich are rather unlucky not to have won yet- I am seriusly worried about our visit to Carrow Road which is probably going to be at the worst possible time for us to go there.

Huge amount depending on Flitty performing well. On that basis, I am feeling pessimistic. If Flitty doesn't go AWOL, that is a side well capable of winning tonight.

I have to say that I find this left back thread bizarre in the extreme. For right back, Bob Compton won at a canter but I doubt even the grand fathers of the vast majority of contributors to the MB would have seen him play at his peak. So what's this nonsense about a generational divide and having to havee seen the player to be able to vote for him? Yet at left back we are busilly voting for a player who will be resoundingly booed by three sides of the ground when he comes to Ewood with Southampton. Whilst Sauxy is a great player, he will certainly deserve those boos far more than Alan Shearer ever did. At the same time we are ignoring the claims of a true great of the English game who was Blackburn Rovers through and through and whose mortal remains are even at Ewood.