The sooner we get 2 full backs who can pass the better. Neill has had about 3 good games this season…. However, he has had 3 poor YEARS!! I’d rather we play a 17 year old from the academy for the remaining games. He is clueless!!! Emerton is one of the most frustrating players I have ever seen – instead of using his pace and strength he continuously passes it backwards and cuts inside or goes right to the wing – basically ANYTHING to avoid taking the opposing full back on. Frustrating!!! Stead worked hard – cant really expect too much from a lone striker, 20 years old against a relegation-threatened side battling for their lives away from home. Mokoena was dire, Savage played well last night – kept hold of ball fairly well.

From bluesmad: - Darren Porter, Blues representative on Sky Sports fanzone, gives us his take ahead of this weekends match against Blackburn Rovers. Picture the scene. Your beloved club battles its way through to the semi final of the famous FA Cup. They are drawn against the mighty Arsenal who are full of some of the finest players in world football and the match is to be played at a national stadium to accommodate the hordes wishing to see the contest (forget the corporate prostitution!). You know your team are the underdogs and defeat is likely but the next day you want to be able to hold your head up high and say ‘if it be a sin to covet honour I am the most offending soul alive’. Twenty four hours later you pick up the Sunday papers and they describe your losing performance as follows: “Why would you even cross the road to watch this mixture of the moronic and the musclebound masquerading as football..? …Rarely can there have been a more unlikeable bunch of miscreants to darken the FA Cup’s door… and not once in the whole game did one of their players produce a piece of skill that brought a smile to the face.” Sunday People. “The club is the only one of the four semi-finalists not to sell its allocation … - who would want to watch this every week?” News of the World “Only 18,000 supporters made the trip – less than the number Southend brought to the LDV Final” Sunday Mirror Welcome to Blackburn Rovers! No honestly, you’re welcome to them. Nobody knows as well as we do that to survive in the toughest league in the world you have to fight and battle for every point. But not literally! The semi final was embarrassing to watch at times with the constant petulant fouling. The worst scenes for me though were the transgressors standing above the victims they had just knobbled with an illegal challenge and berating them for either not getting up or for play acting. Rarely will any football fan support the plethora of simulators from the capital, that’s the London ponces that dive to you and me, but the replays clearly showed aggressive contact and the tirade of abuse over an injured fellow professional was distasteful. Shameful. I hope you noticed though that the thugs clattered Fabregas and van Persie and then later Palace’s Routledge. All are teenagers without a reputation for violence or aggression. As Ian Dowie said recently the Blackburn hard men never seem to want to pick on the players that can look after themselves. That doesn’t make them hard, it makes them bullies. Good luck to Mark Hughes in his quest to assemble the Welsh national squad at Ewood Park. The Premiership will certainly be quaking at facing a team that currently stand behind Qatar, Oman and Libya in the world rankings. Perhaps to acclimatise them to the crowds at Ewood, Hughes will take them to a car boot sale. He might get a few pounds for some of them. But then again he might not. This match gives us the chance to exorcise some ghosts that seem to have left a foul and repulsive smell when they left. There are points still to play for and at around £½ million a position at stake there is a great need to finish as high as possible. Keep Right On and remember, “when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger … Cry God for Brucie, England and Saint George” A few questions then: - How big is Birmingham? How big is Blackburn? Wasn't Bruce tapped up from Palace before he joined Brum? What have Birmingham ever won? Who are higher in the table? Who have lost more games? Who paid ££ for Taylor? And what has he done? Who paid ££ for Dunn? And what has he done? Who took Yorke off us? And what has he done?

Souness record at Newcastle… · Falls out with Bellamy and has to get rid of him. · Robert slates Souness after about 1 week in charge, slamming training regime. · Dyer and Bowyer have a scrap, sent off and fined – Souness has to make them apologise. Newcastle lose to Villa. · Knocked out of UEFA cup by Lisbon after being 2-0 up on aggregate · Knocked out of FA Cup with shocking performance v United in same week as above. · Robert slates Souness for the 2nd time saying Newcastle were better off 1 year ago · Souness makes Nicky Butt apologise to fans after storming off following defeat to United in fa cup. Football genius!!

I'm just trying to outline how many ''supporters'' we have lost... Yeah I suppose your right - i mean, none of the other teams in the semi finals have sold all their tickets have they? I honestlly believe that 99% of other premiership would have sold all their tickets for a semi final of the FA Cup - no matter what time the kick off or where it was being played!!

In 1995 we played Spurs away & lost… 3-1. If you see the coverage of the game – we must have had 3,000 behind the nets (at least) The ticket prices will have been one of the most expensive in league (London team) + it was on Sky… so why did we not only take a few hundred then?

I see John Williams is asking fans to sing ''only one Jack Walker' on Saturday.... Personally, I think he will be turning in his grave at the amount of tickets we have sold. If he had the same frame of mind as our stay away ‘’fans’’ we would be languishing in the 2nd or 3rd division (at best) now. Jack Walker never moaned or complained and got on with things; showing passion for his work and his team. Can the same be said about all these excuse makers that can’t make the final? NO. Its a poor excuse blaming the kick off time etc for the ''no show'' - our home and away attendances have been poor for years... especially away! Everton away is 40 minutes drive; we only took 800 didnt we? POOR GOD BLESS YOU JACK – Thanks for the memories.

<< Todd proud to be skipper >>

Information for Friday / Saturday night revellers in Cardiff: - 'The Yard' is an alright place to start. It’s the old 'Brains' brewery, there's lots of space etc. That is on High street. The yard is just across the road from o’neills. There are quite a lot of good pubs and bars along there. If you go up the street from the yard (away from o'neills etc) you'll come to Sam’s bar (? i think) at the end, and then along that street (Mill lane) there are some really nice bars - Moloko is a really great place to go. If you carry along that street you can turn left into a little arcade that take you back to high street. In the arcade is a great little pub called kiwi bar (or something) - that is definitely worth a go. Further up high street (towards the castle) there’s a funky little place called the toucan bar. There's loads more places on high street, but I’ve forgotten their names! So - if you get to the top of high street you'll be facing the castle, turn right and carry on to Queen street - the main shopping area (pedestrianised), carry on going, and on a street called the priory (or the friary, not sure) there’s a bunch on bars like the ‘Ha Ha bar’ and ‘slug and lettuce’ etc, they're quite nice. If you keep going down queen street for a bit, on one of the streets off to the left you'll see a big old red brick building saying 'Evolution' on the front. That’s just a generic club/bar type place - there's two parts. If you go in the front it's just a club/bar type thing, does mainstream pop/dance till 3 ish; round the back is a bigger club (it's all part of the same thing) and that’s more dance etc. That place is vaguely entertaining, but watch for fighting because it's frequented by valleys thugs. Also - there’s a big, huge place called Dewi's on Mary Ann street (or somewhere round there). There’s also a big walkabout on high street (but I’m sure you'll see that anyway).

SUPER DUNDEE, SUPER DUNDEE WOOOAAAHH WOOOAAAAH!

Up to 15k now apparantely - still poor. I think its PATHETIC we cant sell out for our biggest game in YEARS.... What bigger game is there apart from the final? I don’t care what time its on at or at where it is - EVERYONE should be going!! ffs

<< Hughes targets 5th win >>

Arsenal, Man United and Newcastle have all sold out for the semi final of the FA CUP Blackburn Rovers have got about 17,000 thousand left Many thanks to those Rovers fans who are watching it on the telly instead of going – your support is incredible.

I’m not going to the semi final on Saturday; 1.) It’s a bad forecast 2.) The tickets are too expensive 3.) Its too far 4.) The Bovril is thicker than at other away grounds 5.) The match programme is too expensive 6.) There’s a sale on at B & Q and I need a strimmer. 7.) Saving up for the final 8.) Its on the telly 9.) Dragnet is on 7pm and I wont be home for that if I go 10.) I’m a lazy, unappreciative T0SSER

Stopping Rooney (strength-wise) and Scholes (running through middle / edge of box) are the key areas. Also, Giggs – he has ran riot v Neill last 2 years @ Old Trafford. Heart says 1-1 Head says 3-0

Is anyone getting the train from Manchester to Cardiff on the Friday? its direct, without any stoppages / bus journeys... :0)

How come United or Newcastle fans arent complaining about the ticket prices?

I am absolutely ashamed to be a rovers fan at the minute – the ticket sales for the semi final really do upset me. So latest estimates suggest only 8,000 have been snapped up… I go to every single home and away game, no matter what the kick off time is or whether it is on sky or not. I understand that people with young families or people that simply cannot afford to go to every game can’t… but it seems the excuses for people not going to games recently are a shambles. What bigger game than rovers in an FA Cup semi final? Apart from the final itself?! I just wish people would stop f ing moaning!! These fans are the same that moan for years about us being rubbish in cup, small club etc etc then when we get to the semi’s at a top quality 70,000-seater stadium all they can do is moan about how far away it is, the kick off time and how expensive the tickets are! GET A GRIP! I’m not very happy about the kick off time, or the journey time but hey – I’m still going. Blackburn Rovers need every single supporter they can get and need cheering on. Do proper Blackburn Rovers fans think it will look good on the television when all you can see are red empty seats?! No doubt some fans are waiting for the tickets to go on open sale to they can sit together with friends and family, but I very much doubt there are tens of thousands waiting for this opportunity? I hope the people that don’t bother going to Cardiff really regret it come the morning of Sunday April the 17th GET BEHIND YOUR TEAM, AND YOUR TOWN!!! SHOW SOME PASSION!!!

It's on foreign television this weekend, on the following channels: - UBC ESPN Supersport 3SA TPS Star Sport TV RTE2 Canal+ D/F/N/S C+ Deporte 1 C+ Blauw (Delay 16:25)

Recently bought - doves, kaiser chiefs and queens of the stone age albums -all are excellent and well worth a listen

Is anyone else getting the train to cardiff on Friday afternoon? 1 --> 2pm ish?

try www.laterooms.com

Anyone looking for rooms in cardiff, try www.laterooms.com

There is still room in this hotel for the Friday night: < click me >

Booked 4 rooms in the Future Inn (Cardiff) for the Friday night. £20.20 each - 4 to a room

I bet everybody who went to Shrewsbury when we were bottom of the third division will be going. They don't know how priviliged they are. GET DOWN THERE !!!!!