I have no idea what to forecast- both sides should be highly motivated to kick start their season. A big test for the two most lauded young British managers around at the moment. After this week-end's results, a win for the Rovers will give us a four points breathing space ahead of what is beginning to look like the relegtion scrap and more importantly put us within one more win of joining the mid table group currently bunched round 10 points. A loss will confirm us as being in deep trouble alongside Southampton (thank you Mr D'Urso) and the promoted trio- all three of which I fancy will start getting wins very soon (like Norwich against us?). What I desperately hope to see is the beginnings of a well-organised attractive Rovers team. In many ways that is at least as important as the result as I remain convinced that well-managed and well-coached, our squad is not worse than the majority of the Premiership competition. Incidentally, I was able to watch the City and Spurs games simultaniously live yesterday. City played some great football and were fun to watch- had Anelka not been poor Arsenal would have dropped a couple of points. Spurs were disorganised and poor against the Mancs. Whilst he was fouled, O'Shea certainly made sure of winning the penalty by diving and bringing the spud down on top of him- hint to the Rovers' players. Back to Monday night, a 2-2 draw.

The answer to whether anyone is going would be provided if Stead were to score against Charlton and recover his confidence.

But he still said it needed sorting out. You could also read it as a subtext of: "OK I listened to all your wingeing and gave you a chance. You were fringe players when I arrived and you are still fringe players after what Bournemouth did to us. The only difference is you are going to be mentally and physically fit fringe players now."

"new manager Mark Hughes is fighting a battle for survival" "Walker bought Rovers the Premiership title in 1995" "Blackburn Rovers are up for sale" "John Cross is an idiot with no regard for journalistic ethics" One of the above four statements does not appear in the article and is the only one that is true.

Driving past the gardens of Malta's psychiatric hospital yesterday, there was a chubby guy walking round in voluminous pale blue baggy shorts, Rab C Nebitt string vest, what looked like a white tea cosy on his head and holding a fully open burbery umbrella aloft (the weather was hazy sunshine). For a moment I thought it must have been BRFCC paying me a visit.

This is timely! Eastern Eye have undertaken a survey looking at support for football amongst the Asian communities.

I completely agree MCMC. Le Saux was very good but hardly the stuff of legends. Bill Eckersley is one of the all time greats of this or any English club and it will be a sad reflection on our message board if a player who disgraced the club so badly in Moscow gets voted into the list of all time greats ahead of Eckersley.

Very disappointed by the result but not as bitterly disappointed as some of our players should be feeling this morning. No doubt in one-to-ones, Hughes has received many complaints about Souness' shut outs of certain individuals. Probably gave Sparky a conundrum- Should he play Saturday's side to keep a winning combination perhaps making one or two changes? But then, the much vaunted squad players would not get the first team run out Souness had been denying them and some heads would really drop. Bournemouth are only 19th in the third division so why not give them all a go and make them shut up or put up..... ? Sparky chose the latter option and they let themselves, Hughes and the Rovers down. No doubt some will not be seeing first team football again for a very long time. Only positive note is Sparky noting the relative lack of fitness in his players. I had long felt that there was somehing wrong with the Rovers in that regard. Hopefully over tthe coming months, this is something that will get sorted out.

Where did you get that from Neekoy? It is very different from the lists I have sen previously.

Fuller's yellow card for diving has been rescinded by the ref so we were extremely fortunate as I guess he would have given the penalty based on the video replay. Very good to see that not one Rovers player was given a yellow card on Saturday. Hopefully that is a side of Souness' inheritance the new management team will sort out quickly and that the hot headedness has gone to Newcastle (Nicky Butt made a promising start in that respect, whilst the rest of the zoo at St James will no doubt sink to new levels). It was never nice to see that the Rovers were always in the bad boys league for number of fouls and cards during Souness' time with us although to be fair we always just managed to avoid being fined for it. By and large the Rovers have always been club which played clean football and a bad disciplinary record means just that- indiscipline and forget Souness' reputation for being a disciplinarian.

Looks like Andy Cole will hve plenty of time for shopping with the wife. He is facing charges which will add up to an eight match ban. Plus Fulham face a £100K fine for not controlling their players.

I hope that the low crowd is because: Souness Rovers were pretty unttractive to watch at home Souness played Rovers' teams which mystified everyone in the crowd and confused the plyers Deep down, the faith in the team had gone under Souness (lots of posts about it being a chore to turn up, not a pleasure) However, the second lowest Prem crowd since the neew Ewood was complete greeted our new popular Manager. This has the horrible feeling of the '60s all over again when the Rovers' home crowd simply melted away despite the Rovers having a more than decent top division side. Very pessimistic about this aspect of the Rovers' future.

Ferguson and Jnsen both in the BBC's Prem team of the week.

There is always at least one Prem casualty at this stage in the competition. Plenty of reasons to fear it could be us- Bournemouth are the side with that kid who set some sort of scoring record last season aren't they? Bournemouth are probably in a false lowly position in the third division and will be buoyed up by their win at Sheffield Wednesday- if they can win at Hillsborough, 'little' Ewood with a much smaller crowd will hold no fears. The Hughes coaching set up will have had too little time to school the Souness errors out of midfield and defense- you can be sure Bournemouth will be lively and will have chances. Hughes has got to use this fixture as a serious game so I expect the experimentation to be limited only to players who have a realistic chance of starting at Charlton next week. I would love to see Jansen and Stead paired from the start- I see that combination being the future for the Rovers this season and very exciting it will be too. They must be given every chance to build their confidence. By all means double substitue them with Bothroyd and Gally half way through the second half if they are tiring or the game requires/allows it. MGP has to be starting if his injury is OK- this is much more the level of opposition he is used to so its a chance to show what he can do. He either produces the goods on Wednesday or has to be rested at Charlton- going to The Valley with MGP as a passenger is a recipe for losing three points from a game we might otherwise get something from. Apart from Enckelman, Gresko and Nissa to be given starts, I expect the rest of the team will be pretty similar to Saturday's. As for the result, a 3-0 win would be great but have a horrible feeling it will be a long night and penalties.

To take your argument seriously that Amo is useless beecause all the trophies won in the SPL are completely worthless and that MGP is a little gem because he did so well in the Tippeliege, I suppose one has to believe that the Tippeliege is vastly superior to the SPL. I know Scottish football is not particularly good but I think you are stretching it a bit far there.

On that basis, you had better start a campaign to sign Chucks Nwoko. He's pretty nifty in the Maltese Premier League and as he has just fallen out with the national coach would probably be glad of a move. PS Has Paul Jewell gone the way of Paul Sturrock?

Where is Collins John playing then? At fullback? In some remote corner of rover 6's imagination.

rover 6, when you are in a hole, it is not very smart to get a JCB excavator to help you out. I hope you are right about MGP but I have seen enough to doubt his ability both physically and mentally. If his ankle is OK, Bournemouth will be a massive game for him. As for Amo, yes he makes booboos. But for sheer presence, he makes NN look like a nancy. Amo will become a Rovers mega hero under Mark Hughes- just watch what happens.

If you are reading Matty, good on you. All of us always hoped even if our belief was fading. You know you have turned the corner and there is no stopping you now. As for all the other optimistic noises on here, lets see how many points we have after we have played Chelsea. As I posted before the season began, our first ten fixturees looked to be the toughest start to a seaon I could remember= seven games we could easilly lose even if we were on top form and three classic Souness trip over a banana skin (again) games. Well at least the Souness trait of loosing to relegation fodder has gone. No doubt you can get long odds on West Brom winning t St James's Park on 25 September- get your money on now!

We don't have Bournemouth thread but I'd hope that Hughes starts with Matty, Stead and MGP. All three need the confidence the start will give them. Matty to carry on where he left off on Saturday (how often did Souey fail to persist with him when he showed signs of recovery in the past?). Stead just needs a goal= I agree his place is at risk if he doesn't get the boost of scoring quickly and that would be a shame because he would then no make the u-21 international at Ewood. MGP will be playing against a level of opposition which at least will only be a bit better than he was used to facing in Norway so hopefully he can bring his Tromso form back for this game to kick start his Ewood career (shame he skied that chance against Man U). Have to say Saturday's crowd against Pompey was two thousand less than my worst projection. What's going on with our "support"? No doubt the Bournemouth attendance will be sub 10,000 despite reduced prices, new optimism and the new gaffer who deserves full support.

One of the papers this morning is reporting that Souness will bid for Duff from Chelsea in January.

So you are a coward who is running away then?

I tell you what, you answer the questins ill tell you if they are correct or not You are the one asking for our sympathy, not me. So go on, read through the thread and answer the questions people are asking.

I would support the inclusion of Keith Newton on the list. Would be hard on Eckersley if he wins it though and Le Saux is a very decent shout amongst the contemporaries.

Are you going to answer any of the other questions?