Great idea Aggy. Everybody who doesn't smoke should get their income tax increased by 10% and folk like me who already contribute through tax on fags should not get the increase. Perfect.

I must remember that next time someone calls me a Brit! On the question of what anthem we should use for England games, Land of Hope and Glory, God Save the Queen, Jerusalem etc etc, the FA have now decided that the best chioce would be the theme from Bob The Builder. (Or should that be Bruce?)

Quite right, ban alcohol at Ewood. The number of alcoholics that sit in the same row as me, who come in after kick off, leave 15 mins before half time and then come back in 10 mins after the start of the second half, rally annoy me. Do they want to watch live football or is it the plastic glasses that they have a fettish for? Once the smoking ban comes in I will just invest in Sky TV and watch my football from home and leave all you sanctimonius folk on here to your clean air. I certainly hope that you will all be walking or cycling to the game in future so as not to polute my air space with carbon monoxide fumes that I haven't chosen to breathe either.

Just love this paragraph. It would almost be worth losing to Crap, just to see the inbreeds putting twinning signs on the outskirts of Padiham! Thank you so much Bob for a great read.

BBC site says Ref. is Phil Dowd. Would rather have had Clattenberg myself.

As Shillito quite rightly says, there are some good points you make there Brownie. However I feel that all those players you have mentioned have made great strides forward under the Huges regime, especially regarding fittness levels. I don't think that they would have been in this situation had Souness stayed nor more to the point his backroom staff like Saunders etc. The problems we had with players fittness are now echoed at St.James' Park, and the Toon Army are berrating Souness on this aspect along with him playing certain players out of position. Seem to have heard the same moans somewhere much closer to home before don't you think?

It's all obviousley part of the FA plan to make fans travel the longest distances over the holiday period and the poor refs the shortest!

A very pertinent point you have there Revidge. My personal opinion is that the draw is a total fix and I can just see the Football League top brass creaming themselves over the thought of a Manc v Arse final. Come on you Blues!!!!................................and you Pie eaters. Lets hope we can both get to the final and do some good for football and not TV.

According to Millenium Stadium web site the final is Sunday Feb 26th.

Top class preview and a very enjoyable read. Many thanks for the effort on our behalf.

Sorry Cocker but you must be having a laugh. Reid thinks the ball is a hot potato, and in my opinion it does not matter in which position he plays.

And here was me wondering how the club are going to male ends meet?

Can anyone fill me in with the rules re kit colour clashes. How is it when we play a team whose shirts are white eg Bolton or Spurs, we have to wear our away strip. Yet Brum were allowed to wear a white shirt against us today?

More Udders than Rovers. Darwen end has more Udders that there were barcodes at the weekend. They estimate gate of around 8000

Booked for kicking ball into net when he had been flaged offside (According to Radio Lancs)

What a memory Den lad. The one and only Denis the menace Law. I wonder how many folks will know who the manager of Town was when Denis started at Leeds Road? Great peview as always. We are truly blessed on this site with excellent previews.

It is noticeable that the question asks for four Englishmen (Born in England?) but not necessarily capped BY ENGLAND. May not help but just a thought.

Great new look. Well done. By the way, why do only some avtars appear on my screen and some of the clickable smilies are missing on the enter post page?

Might be better to look at next seasons fixtures before we contemplate signing Bellamy. Just think if we signed him in the summer only to find the first match of the new season was the geordies at St.James'. "Bellamy's season cut short as he has lost his head" On a personal point I think he is a good player but I feel the dissruption caused by him in the dressing room would be a terrible price to pay after all the good work this term. You never know though. Spending some time in Glasgow where in is not too beneficial to your health if one goes around saying stupid things in the wrong places, might have actually done him some good.

Having had a few days to compose myself since the semi final games last weekend, I have been left wondering whether the Millenium Stadium or indeed the FA are both fit bodies to be in control of such big games. Although our beloved fans were extremely well behaved, I noticed that in the game on Sunday both the mancs and the geordies were stood up during the whole match. Not just the exiting bits but the whole 90 minutes. This on the anniversary weekend of the Hillsborough disaster, the repercussions of which have affected all of us and the stadiums of this land. If the result last sunday of the standing crowds had led to another crowd problem, then where does the buck stop? Am I the only one who noticed this? The press were to caught up in the relentless persecution of our Andy to notice such things, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they would have been wringing their soiled hands in mock horror if such an event had happened, and pointing their slings and arrows in all directions.

The best feeling for me at the moment is that even though the gutter press and their reptillian reporters, Chelsea, Arsenal, the FA, the BBC, Lawrenson,Hansen etc. etc. etc. hate us, THE ROVERS WILL BE IN THE PREMIERSHIP NEXT SEASON, so they will just have to lump it. Meanwhile I will just get on with supporting my team as I have for the past 45 years and sod the press. Woo them indeed? I know what I would like to do with them!!!!!

I have been reading many of the comments and I think there are many fair points raised for and against going to Cardiff. My position is that both the wife and I are season ticket holders in the Blackburn End. I myself have been a season ticket holder for 40 years. We are going to Cardiff and taking a 12 year old lad, who we have managed to get interested in watching Rovers, and I am sure will become a fan for the future. He is not a season ticket holder. So,because he is not a season ticket holder, we have to wait until Saturday before we can all get tickets together, hopefully in the family enclosure, thereby enabling the boy to get a half price ticket. So first point: Enough of this sanctimonious crap from some of the posters on this board about "you should have done it earlier" Here is a situation where both the club and board members have encouraged fans to bring along a friend. Well I have and now, to be able to sit together, we have to wait. I am not complaining to the club, I just accept the situation. I don't like the venue, I don't like the KO time, I don't like the journey I don't like the prices. So ****** what. It's a semi final. Come hell or high water WE WILL BE THERE. COME ON YOU BLUES.

Fair point Eddie. Pity that neither Manure nor Arsole are still in the Champions league as it would have been interesting as to what day each of the semis would have taken place then.

Strange is it not, that all the talk of our Day/KO time is based around wheather Newcastle get through to the next round of the UEFA Cup, where the tie will be played on the previous Thursday to the semi finals. Are they not playing this leg tonight WEDNESDAY, so why the hell can UEFA not play the next round on the Wednesday also? Just a thought, but too logical I suppose!

I used to hate George Courtney as well until Speedie tripped over that long blade of grass at Wembley and good old George pointed to the spot. For the record my 5 most hated: in no particular order: Rodney Marsh ( Talks a load of ###### all of the time) Alex Ferguson (Spitting chewing gum everywhere) The sons of Neville Neville Christiano Ronaldo (For being a member of the Port & Cheese Diving Team) El Hadj Diouf ( For spitting and diving and playing for the Notlobs) Big Fat Sam (For wearing that stupid bloody earpiece all the time) Must stop 6 already and I can thing of so many more.................................