and he always scores against us.

Tugay's shooting is pretty awful, he's just always good for one cracker a season. He's met his quota this year so he may as well stop shooting now. Reid hasn't scored many but Tugay isn't exactly streets ahead of him. Tugay has only scored 7 in 178 appearances while Reid has 3 from 74. So in terms of ratios Tugay is fairing slightly worse, especially when you consider that 22 of Reid's appearances have been from the bench while of the 178 games Tugay has played he has only come off of the bench 24 times. This season they both have one from 21 starts, though Reid has come on as a substitute 5 times while Tugay has only done this twice. In his entire career Tugay has scored 50 goals in 478 appearances, 51 of those being substitute appearances. Steven Reid has scored 22 in 241 appearances with 49 of those being as a substitute. So even overall they are fairing just about the same, though given the number of times he comes on as a substitute you'd have to say Steven Reid is probably doing just a bit better. I know most of this was pretty pointless but I was bored with nothing to do so thought I'd clear up the Tugay versus Reid shooting debate. The real answer to the question though would be in seeing number of shots and how many of those are on target. Steven Reid has a better shots on target percentage at 24%, which isn't too bad, total number of shots I can't be bothered to find.

1. Pearce - nowhere near enough experience. He's done a pretty good job with City but really gets more praise than he should because of his overall popularity and the media attention both he and City get. They are afterall only just above us and we have a game in hand, a good position, but given the cost that the city squad was assembled at not an amazing achievement. Maybe a future England manager but he has a while to go yet and a lot still to prove. 2. Curbishley - In my opinion of the five he's the best bet, but it's a poor bunch. Turning Charlton into a secure premiership side was an amazing achievement, but then since then where is the progression? They promise so much at the start of each season and then simply fade away, perhaps not a characteristic we want the England team to have. 3. Allardyce -No, just no. Couldn't stand the man though he does have an eye for a good deal and the ability to bring the best out of his side. However, his success at Bolton hasn't shown he can either handle the pressure of a big job or manage a talented side. Do we really want to see England with Davies up front and 11 men behind the ball just hoping someone will fall over in the penalty area and we scrape an ugly 1-0? 4 and 5 - One is probably a great coach, the other, well, disloyal moaner pretty much sums him up. Neither have the ability to manage a national side. England would be forced into picking a foreign coach, not that there is anything wrong with that. The failure of the English leagues to produce top quality managers who get the chance to test themselves at the highest level has left the FA with little choice. While the fact that the England set-up doesn't allow there to be coaching staff surrounding the current manager and having a great deal of input and involvement in a way that could lead them to be potential candidates for the role of manager when the current one leaves has meant there is simply no option but to look abroad. Then again, I don't think sven has done all too much wrong other than the fact that he made a few mistakes in Euro 2004 in the Portugal game and then had a bit of bad luck to be knocked out and also lost in a close match to a Brazil side that just seemed to have the mental edge over England.

Agree Neill probably is the best vote, not a chance I'd vote for Gray, there are a few that would come before him in my book, including Nelsen, Tugay, MGP and Friedel. I don't actually believe MGP should win it, having said that, there's a long way left to go so who knows what I'll think after Todd has scored the winners in two cup finals and captained the team to a European spot.

It's all relative isn't it? Good signing for the championship is a good signing for the championship. If we had a crap striker who was second top scorer in the premiership I wouldn't complain.

I've already mentioned this and I don't want to repeat myself too many times but I actually find the french version to be quite useful. For travel within the EU and daily use it's much more useful than a passport or even a drivers license for the reasons I've already said: everyone will have one regardless of age and it is easier to carry around than a passport and you can always have it on you.

I don' t think it would be smart to do it, but could he not take them to court? Surely it is illegal to impersonate the representative of an organisation and to make a job offer to someone? If the FA really had some luck they might be able to get Villa (that was the club wasn't it?) to take the NOTW to court.

I think they are nonsense when it comes to counter terrorism, agree with everyone on that, but I just think as a basic idea they are quite useful.

So before we have the chance to see if we can earn another trip to Cardiff we face an interesting trip to the North East to face a struggling Newcastle side. Things haven't really gone well for Newcastle since they did us the honour of taking Souness off of our hands. The team has gone from potential champions league qualifiers to potential religation candidates, all for the tidy price of 1.3 million to us and a further 50 million to a variety of other clubs. Souness' saving grace seemed to be the signing of Michael Owen, having said that, just about anyone could have probably told him Owen would have scored goals wherever he went. However, with Owen out, as well as eight other first team regulars, the Newcastle league looks a shell of a side that was struggling to even make it even into the top half. If there was ever an opportunity for us to get one over an old manager, surely this is it. Recent history against Newcastle isn't great, with perhaps our most dissapointing performance of the season coming in September at Ewood Park when we lost 3-0 to them, with Owen scoring his first Newcastle goals. A more worrying fact though is that Alan Shearer has made it a habbit of scoring against his former club and with the Newcastle goal record only a single finish away this seems the most likely game for him to get it in. Our own form though points to us being a tough defence for him to score against and a difficult team for Newcastle to beat. Having not let in many league goals since our 2-1 defeat at Fulham our goal production has been fairly regular, with the 0-0 draw at Bolton on Saturday being one of the few blips. My own opinion is that this could be a more difficult game than it seems. With Shearer almost destined to score we'll need to find at least two and it seems our team has the taste for the spectacular rather than the conventional when it comes to goalscoring. With Bellamy out, the threat of pace that would have frightened a weak Newcastle defense is gone and unless the likes of Kuqi and Dickov prove effective with their tireless running and a few intelligent runs we may well have to rely on a piece or two of magic from some of the usual suspects. League form going in past five games - Newcastle - LDLLL Blackburn - LWWWD Potential Position at Full Time - Newcastle: Highest - 10th Lowest - 15th Blackburn: Highest - 6th Lowest - 11th Who knows, perhaps Souness will be able to get Fat Freddie's cheque book out between now and are game and we could see the likes of Anelka in the barcodes line-up. If not ,then surely we have to be looking to continue our goo d form.

It would be interesting to see what you think now Waggy. Kuqi has almost outscored the entire Sunderland team.

Totally agree, but to be fair to the guy, none of the attacking players would be worth signing based on second half performance, we simply weren't in that match second half.

Majority of the first half, other than during a quiet 15 minute patch from about 20-35, we were excellent I thought. Second half, probably best not to talk about. We hung on though and that is all that matters.

The reason why I'd like a Wigan-Rovers cup final is because I could really see us winning it. Somehow another trip to Cardiff to face Arsenal, though it would be great and we'd stand a chance, doesn't fill me with the same confidance as us against Wigan.

Beware the Welshmen

It's an ID Card Glenn. It won't be telling people who you sleep with, what you do on weekends and if you happened to do drugs while you were in high school. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Tiny little card that you stick in your pocket and will offern another form of identification that everyone will have and is also a new government database. It will cost a bit just like everything else and I can understand being opposed to the cost but beyond that don't really understand the problem. Works fine in several other major countries and you never hear a complaint. My only slight problem would be that I don't think they should be optional, defeats the purpose, and I don't think you should have to pay for them when you pick them up. I know through tax payments you'll pay for them anyway but it would make more sense to me if it was just done quietly that way rather than make you stump up the cash on the day which will prevent many people from taking them and also will make people more opposed as they actually have the pleasure of handing over the money.

A very sad day for the club and everyone involved, though it probably had to come. Wish him all the best in wherever he goes next, just hope we never see him scoring against us! If he does manage to get back to his old best then I hope we see him back at Ewood playing for us again someday.

Yes but you could see a veryweakened looking starting line-up from that. Van de Sar Bardsley, O'Shea, Brown, Richardson Ronaldo, Fletcher, Smith, Giggs Rossi, Solskjaer Somehow don't think that's what it will look like though...

Yes Flopsy, but most don't. I think the British are overly obsessed with the potential problems there could be. The ID card will create no new risks, perhaps a new thing for criminals to use and a new area for errors to be made, but the same ones could still be done today through passports, credit cards and a variety of other databases and sources. I'm not saying that the transition to ID cards will be entirely smooth, nor do I think you should be required to have one on you at all times or anything like that, but the actual basic concept is logical and is used throughout the world. I'm amazed in many ways that it doesn't already exist as it is more useful than a passport as it is easier to carry and than a drivers license as everyone can have one from birth. It just seems like the scare mongerers are out on this one and everyone is paying attention, I'm not exactly sure why.

I actually think ID cards are quite useful, have them here over in France and basically always have (obviously not but they have had them as long as I've been around) and I'm not sure what the problem is. It's a useful form of identification if you don't have your passport or drivers license on you and if it is the same as the French system you can use it for travel within the EU and it can fit into your wallet, which is quite nice. Don't know what all the fuss is about really? Being put onto a government database? You're probably already on one. Waste of money? It's a proposal with quite a few benefits and so it isn't that much of a waste, no more so than most things other than health, education and the few basic fundamentals. Infringes upon your personal liberties? Not really unless you are going to do something stupid.

Those aren't good odds at all. If you consider the number of times he's tried and has yet to do it in any competition for us I wouldn't be tempted into that bet until the odds reached around 100/1.

I'm sure more people will have bought there ticket on matchday and also will in the few days building up. Perhaps the result on Saturday will help sales as well.

Xbox man myself so I know my money is going towards an xbox 360. Only problems I have with getting one now is the reported problems they are having and the fact that microsoft seem to intend on bringing out lots of improvements to the current model in a year or so.

Not a chance. In Tugay and Friedel he not only found players who do a great job for us but who would of, in their day, made basically every Premiership team. Dickov is effective, glad to have him, but despite the good work he's doing I think we would all like to get someone better in. He's turned out to be a good signing, but not in the same class as Neill, Tugay, Friedel or a few others.

According to an interview I was with Hughes this morning, though obviously it will have been done yesterday, he has not left yet and a decision will not be made until after the board meeting on tuesday.

I think that's about the second time in a month you've corrected someone's spelling Flopsy...how things change!