Where did you find that?

I think I have been priced out of this one. Have to wait for the group stages, shame we couldn't have had Belgium or France as that would have been much cheaper to get to.

Shoot. Tough team and quite expensive.

Yeah, that is probably a good idea. You can fly to Strasbourg from London, so if you are looking to fly it is is probably your best bet. Around 1-1:15 by train between the two.

If we get Nancy you could fly to Paris and then fly to Metz-Nancy Lorraine or you could take the train there. Unfortunately I don't believe that the TGV line is yet finished, so you'd be looking at a 2-2:30 hour train ride (not that bad really). If you're up for driving that would be pretty simple. Taking the train to Paris or Lyon and then taking the train to Nancy might also be the simplest. If we get them I'll contact SNCF and see what they say.

Salzberg would be the toughest trip so I wouldn't mind avoiding them.

Not really. Certainly we would be favourites. They are a pretty average ligue 1 team and they have looked ok at the start of the season (won two, lost one). I guess you would rate them as a Blackburn of Ligue 1 in many ways, but as it is a weaker league they are not as good of a side.

Please let us get Nancy.

I'd love France. Some of the places in Eastern Europe would also be quite nice. Hopefully nowhere too expensive to get to so that I can fit it into my student budget, bringing a couple of rovers converts with me.

Thank you, I'll give it a go, I do have it in writing.

Bit of a different issue but I am having huge problems with Orange at the moment about getting a charge back. They took £150 from me when I started my contract on the premise that they would give it back after 3-6 months of my phone contract. This was because I hadn't lived in the UK for the last 3 years and so I suppose they had fears that I would run off with their phone. Well it has now been about 8 months and depiste talking to them on the phone and having them say about 3 times that they have put the money back into my account it still isn't there. Very annoying.

Rovers 0-2 Chelsea (we always win when I predict a defeat)

I thought we looked pretty decent. It is still early and only United have taken full points from their first two games, though Newcastle could join them. What could have been a good start will probably produce 1 point from 3 games, but we will always have a poor patch at some point, we just have to pick things up so that this is a poor patch rather than the season norm.

chill out

We were awful against West Ham last year. For that matter we were awful against Pompey last year and they could easily have had a 6 last time we went down there. Until we play another game we have to write it off as an off game.

I forgot how depressing this place can get after a defeat. Come on guys, it was one game and we usually start badly. There is no reason to blow this out of proportion and say that we are favourites for relegation, we are still good candidates for Europe and we should bring in a few more players in the next couple of weeks to make us even better. As has been pointed out, several teams have done poorly this weekend and not all of them have suddenly become favourites to go down. It isn't the end of the world, but like all but the top 4 we have to be worrying about relegation and bottom half finishes for a good part of the season, it is up to the squad to play the way that we can. One game doesn't change our plans for the season, I'm sure Hughes will be working hard to get everything right and hopefully there will be players comig in to plug some gaps.

Pro evolution soccer 5

Certainly need more players, but people are right to say that it is only the first game and we were awful in the first game last season as well.

I thought Roberts looked like he held the ball up well. Always difficult to tell just from the highlights, even the hour long package.

Nice preview. The problem I have this season is that in previous years I have always been of the belief that if I predict a victory then we lose, but I wan't to do well in the prediction league! I'll go for a 2-0 victory like I did for the Pompey game, hopefully the boys will actually turn up this time.

Well, how depressing is that. I just sat in the car with a few French people who were laughing everytime the update came from Fratton Park, pretty much wanted to cry by the time they got out of the car! We start every season badly, so I guess this shouldn't really be a surprise. The only good thing about this is it might prevent Hughes and the board from thinking that we could make it through this season with the current squad. I really, really hate football.

I actually quite like that for some reason, would also inject some pace into the midfield.

Similar story for me, though this was combined with watching my horse blow it in the national (it was the national wasn't it?). Not a great 30 minutes or so.

Right, I'm going to be bold with this one, I never do that well on this anyway: 1. Manchester United 2. Chelsea 3. Arsenal 4. Liverpool 5. Rovers 6. Spurs 7. Everton 8. Newcastle 9. Bolton 10. Manchester City 11. West Ham 12. Charlton 13. Aston Villa 14. Middlesbrough 15. Fulham 16. Portsmouth 17. Wigan 18. Reading 19. Sheffield United 20. Watford

Either that or they were playing without a keeper, which means they did quite well.