philipl

I feel utterly let down by that admission by Souness that he did not take the UEFA Cup seriously at Blackburn. I was unable to get to Sofia, Glasgow or Ankara. I am sure the Rovers supporters who made those trips are nauseated by those comments. Boxing day at Ewood is working up to be a grudge game par excellence. If we don't get 30,000 on for that game, the passion for Rovers football will be seen to have died.

Danns has just scored again for Colchester. Before the bring back Danns campaign gets into full cry, Jimmy Corbett has just scored for Southend as well.

A couple of sympathetic but starkly realistic reports here: The Independent The Guardian The point that our regular crowds are 2,000 less than the lowest gate in our, dare I say it, previous relegation season is a huge worry. One of the reports points to the Boro fans having players they can identify with whereas we have nobody. Fair enough. But surely the key issue is that the Rovers have been playing unentertaining non-winning football at Ewood for over 18 months now and that must be driving people away. I had hoped the entertainment factor in the Villa game was a pointer to the future. Obviously it was all too easy for McLaren to watch the video and snuff that out allied to the self-inflicted blows of playing Emo on the wrong side and Tugay leaving his brain in the dressing room.

i have just about summoned enough good humour to look at the message board and what do I see? Rover6 has been responsible for the last six posts. I am going to lie down in a dark room again.

Other fans' responses It seems that some grounds are beyond their own fans' defendinng them... but not Luton.

Into the bottom three because of the Baggies Norwich draw.

Looks like two through Neill getting skinned, one from an outswinging corner going all the way for a player to shoot and one passed through the middle of the defence. Where do you start?

JFH hattrick

Sorry to say it but looks like Wigan will be replacing us in the Premiership.

We are left hoping West Brom and Everton will grab winners to keep us out of the bottom three.

Short has replaced the injured Amo.

This is a full-on crisis now with Chelsea and Liverpool next up followed by a trip to Norwich who are bound to fancy their chances gainst us.

I am afraid we are in for a thrashing this afternoon. Four or five? Just heard Downing destroyed Neill for the first one. Boateng scored his first goal in 119 games today. So we are bound to get a penalty today?

0-0 is the very bes we can hope for. With all the players back to fitness, its going to be a bad time for Tugs to be suspended.

Downing deliberately handled and didn't geyt booked (Tugay's first booking)

It read like Boro were well on top before that happened.

Seems thart Mike Roiley is card happy today. Two bookings already.

Chatroom was OK atwo hours ago when I tested it. Anyone got an alternatrive?

I just got into chat OK and was able to talk to myself!

Sounds like Amo approves of Sparky.

I have been trying to find the statistics for Bryan Douglas' career with Rovers to do a comparison with Ripley. The youngsters need to be aware that most of Bryan Douglas' career with the Rovers was spent in what is now the Premiership but that both he and Clayton were established England regulars BEFORE Rovers won promotion. In broad terms, Douglas played over 500 Rovers games compared with Ripley's 200. Douglas scored more than twice as many goals as Ripley did. Douglas won 35 England caps and scored 7 England goals (I think) to Ripley's 2 caps and no goals. Don't get me wrong, Super Stu was a fabulous player but those statistics are but the beginning of the story. Imagine a vote between Ripley and Duff, who would win? This is a vote between Ripley and a player who was better than Duff and consistently kept that standard for a dozen seasons. Does this help?

It appears Motherwell have the best academy in Scotland. However, the article suggests that they spend only 10% of what it costs to run the Rovers' Academy.

A few thumb nails: Bryan Douglas. Even though I saw him at the end of his career after he had been clattered many times, he was the consumate silky skilful footballer. The ball did as it was told for Bryan and the rest of the football was in awe of him for more than a decade. Over 500 appearances for his one and only club- his home town. 35 caps for England, 7 of which were won in World Cups. And a thoroughly nice guy. He gets my vote. Mike Ferguson. Signed from Accy Stanley. An extraordinarily skilful and strong player. In many ways a fore-runner of today's professional- he would have been very much at home in the Premiership. Moved onto Aston Villa where he gave many years of excellent service. John Connelly. Signed from Man U for £60K with some of the money from the Mike England transfer. Was in the 66 World Cup winning squad playing one game. A more than useful operator= on his day was unstoppable and could provide slide rule accurate crosses at will. Windy Miller. An absolute flyer. Regularly destroyed second and third division fullbacks. Had a tremendous shot on him. Remember a cracking goal at Craven Cottage where he picked up a ball on the half way line,caught the Fulham rearguard for speed then surprised the keeper with a 25 yard blast- a bit of a trade mark Windy goal. Was a very handy source of supply for Garns and he and Noel Brotherston made for an awesome wing pairing in the early 80s and a lot of hugely entertaining football. Gordon Taylor. Went a very long time without scoring for Rovers but managed to crack the woodwork at regular intervals and leave defenders winded on the ground who had the temerity to get in the way of his thunderbolts. Was past his best when he joined from Brum (where the white fronted Brum shirts made him look like a cuddly toy- never svelt) but he and Waggy made for golden oldies on the wings in the mid eighties. Stuart Ripley. Had enormous misfortune- both with injuries for Rovers and England then a ridiculous long run without scoring. An outstanding member of the team which went 4th 2nd 1st in the first three years of the Premier League, quick and direct and a lot more skill than given credit for. I am sure Kenny told Super Stuart Ripley just to go out and do his tricks running up and down the half way line to terrify the opposition in the warm up. Certainly worked a treat at Swindon where the crowd were spellbound and the Swindon players nervously abandonned their kick around and just stood and watched! Stuart's misfortune to be up against the all time great, Bryan Douglas. Howard Gayle. A huge favourite, one of those players who was everybody's pal even if he missed a penalty. Any other player who missed a penalty as badly as the terrible scuffed effort against Palace would have been demonised for effectively loosing us promotion back to the top division (we would have gone 3-0 up in the play-off final) but not Howard. Not the most gifted and not truly a winger but a thoroughly genuine player. Jimmy Mullen. Was he right or left wing? What a super star- a more complete wing performance I have never seen from a Rovers player and that includes Duff. Got very badly injured after six games and never recovered but deserves his mention here. A word for John Aston, whom we signed from Luton. Aston was a major factor in Man U beating Benfica to lift the European Cup in 68 so was well past his best in his two spells at Ewood but despite lacking the pace, could still pass accurately, cross sublimely and was rarely bettered in close quarters with a full back.

Not sure that there are Scottish players good enough. The Scottish Leagues at all levels are full of non-Scottish players and Scottish- qualified players in the English game are a rarity at all levels, particularly in the Premiership. This article lists 210 Premiership players who reported for international games this week. Only three are Scottish- Ferguson, Dickov and Fletcher. It must be over a year since I last watched any action involving a Scottish club side. But is Caldwell the best right back available?- he is outstandingly bad. This BBC article sums up the sorry state of Scottish football. The old firm come in for some criticism.

daviemac, I am afraid I agree with you. I always saw this as a horrible fixture when the list first came out- a desperate must win at the end of the sandwich between that run of Arsenal, Manu Newcastle games and the Chelsea, Liverpool duo with every prospect the other "easier" games in the sandwich wouldn't yield much. Boro on paper have the most improved squad in the Prem from this summer's transfer activities yet they have not been producing the goods on the pitch. They will see the visit to Ewood as a must win to get their season finally moving and to be honest, this looked a possible home defeat for the Rovers even if we were doing well. The good news is that Boro seem to conceed one goal in every game they play. The bad news is they hardly ever conceed more than one goal. The even worse news is that regardless of recoveries from injuries, our defence will find it impossible to keep Boro to a nil score line. So 1-2 and our home record down the pan. Of great interest will be whether the Rovers continue playing very attractive football and which of the many nearly playing well Rovers players actually start to play well. At the moment, we have a squad of 20 showing promise of better form but not yet delivering anywhere near consistently enough.