To say that England are favourites to beat Australia on their own turf to win a World Cup, I am completely under-whelmed by the vwhole thing. Have to say I have found this RU World Cup very sterile and a huge amount of the sterility has come from the man mountains in white. Football (soccer) remains thoroughly democratic. Any ordinary looking person with the requisite skill can play it. You don't have to be a physical freak to reach the top unlike rugby, american football, basketball etc etc

I notice that Paul Sturrock's Plymouth have been losing consistently since someone started linking their manager with the Rovers' job.

That ever so reliable web site Tribal Football are reporting that the Rovers board are monitoring the availability of Mark hughes in case Souey does not turn things round by Christmas. They are also saying that in order to meet the £5m asking price for sean Davies, Everton will offload Radzinsky to Rovers for £3m. I'm only the messenger...

rover6, you are becoming tiresome. By the same logic you are advocating, ManU should have dumped Ferguson in 91/2 and presumably Bobby Robson should have gone from Newcastle in mid-September when they were out of the Champs League, in a relegation spot and that bunch of scoundrels he collected up there were spending as much time in Police Stations as on the training ground? It is not inconceivable that Souness could be dismissed deservedly. But now is not the time to be debating the point. Souness and the club deserve our total support to cheer them through this rough patch. PS Roversactive, Sunderland fell one short of equalling Darwen's record run of consequetive defeats. Rovers are twelve defeats short of equalling that record! Even if we do, equal that record, there would still be 15 games left and 45 points to play for this season.

rover6, I have read most of your posts with incredulity but now you are talking complete and utter cobblers. Souness is flawed. He is no tactical genius and his man management skills are neanderthal but he has mellowed a bit. He also had a phenomenal record at Rangers, is worshipped in Turkey and achieved a miraculous recovery for the Rovers. Compared with Hoddle, Souness is a model of new age enlightenment. Hoddle is a walking disaster, a complete mess of complexes and finds it impossible to contemplate that he could in any way be wrong. Thankfully, there is no way Hoddle will ever be coming to Ewood. Hoddle may show more tactical awareness, sometimes, but he is totally out of his depth as a Manager.

Let us assume Souness does get dismissed from Ewood. Does anyone think he will be unemployed for long? Given the number of ex-Rangers and Galatasaray players we have seen at Ewood, where do you think he will do his shopping for his new employers? And, Grabbi apart, is he going to pay over-inflated prices? For all the reputation Souness carries with him, do you think many of our players would ignore him if he came calling from another club?

Today's game is rather important. We didn't play badly against Charlton- we just weren't very smart against them and Souey certainly wasn't "cute" about how he handled it. Didn't see the Glencer game at Ewood but by all accounts it was a decent performance and unreflective result. So here comes the crunch. A bad performance, a convincing defeat, bottom three position and yes we have a full-on crisis. Another OKish performance, no win, and we are still where we are now. Another OK performance, Saints don't improve on recent form, miss their only chance in the game (unlike Charlton) and we get a scrappy win. Lo and behold, we will not be that far behind 4th place! My best guess is that we will lose the next three then slowly turn things round. Souness has achieved remarkable things at Ewood but I agree with Jan, he would not neccessarily be my choice as a dinner guest. That doesn't matter compared with what he has done so far. However, if he is unable to maintain the Rovers' Prem place, he will be vulnerable if come early next year there is time to save the situation and Souey seems bereft of ideas.

Rev, sorry you have lost your column. Thought it was always well written and interesting and that you always got the better of the dingle. Sadly, much of what you posted on here this summer and the comments you made on local radio were total ******* or something similar. The new guy has made a very inauspicious start and I would be delighted to see you back at the typewriter (I assume no ENG at t'Telegraph. :'> )

From the absence of feed back, I take it you guys had a great night last night

Tarka, recommend any good books about Peru?

It has been the Maltese General Election and the victorious PN used "The Final Countdown" as their campaign theme (remember the Rovers using that song the season we won the Championship?). The whole island has gone mad- claxons, flags, convoys of wagons carrying PN supporters and impromptu gigs everywhere. Practically every five minutes I think I'm back at Ewood watching the Rovers run onto the pitch again!

If we are talking punk, what about Gordon is a Moron and Sharron and Me from Jilted John?

All this Celtic working out of C beat V who beat L who beat R nonsense reminds me of how Burnley supporters used to justify how they were a bigger club than the Rovers. Thankfully 1 April 2001 put an end to all that and hopefully 14 November 2002 will silence the Celtic wannabes as well. Incidentally, Pete1888, ever noticed how teams which score seven hit a barren run afterwards? Its happened to the Rovers every time after we tonked an English Premier League side for seven. (There you are, given you an excuse already-I am very kind)

After two results where reality was better than we could have dreamt of (shades of 94/5?), here is a game which we can and should win. Just a matter of the Rovers wanting it as much as the Bhoys.

Not having Duff at Celtic Park is a huge blow- they are terrified of him and I´m sure the noise of the crowd would have changed once Duffer had a decent run at their defence up at Parkhead. Having said that we can now play Dunn, Flitcroft, Tugay and Thompson which should give us control of midfield possession and begin to quieten the crowd. The crunch will come in defence where we need Short to have one of his massive games and play Larsson out of it. More defending like we have at times in the Prem this season and Celtic will put three past us in no time. However, whilst we are playing Arsenal at Highbury, Celtic are at East End Park against the team lying third in the SPL (yes, the might of Dunfermline Athletic). When Celtic this week-end strolled 4-1 past a Hearts side that would struggle in English div 1, we beat a team which (unlike Celtic) have qualified for the group stages of the Champions League 5-2; an equally large margin. That difference in opposition class week in week out gives the Rovers a huge advantage. Just as players such as Curtis and Clement and half the Man City side look world beaters in Div 1 and are found wanting at Premiership level, so Celtic have a number of significant weaknesses which the SPL does not expose but a half-decent Prem outfit will relentlessly find. I´m going for a 2-0 win for the Rovers at Parkhead and Souey out-psyching O´Neill.