It'll be 1 game in hand after tomorrow, where hopefully they will get beat. Then theyd be 6 behind with 1 in hand 397520[/snapback] Add to that Spurs next three games are Everton away, Man United home, Arsenal away. Points will be dropped - if we can get a point against Liverpool, beat Brum away and get a point atleast at Charlton, we'll still be quite close to them. United beating Arsenal for us tomorrow is absolutely vital. After that game they have a steady run in and if they win tomorrow up there I think we can start playing for 5th.

Unstoppable except that they lost 3-1 last week.

Champions League chances over? How?! We've just moved above Arsenal and they are away to the best team in the league at the minute tomorrow! Bolton need to win both games in hand to catch us, and they wont. We knew Pompey away was going to be tough, we've done well to get a point out of it, whereas Spurs have just played possibly their easiest game of their run in. Chill out chaps, long way to go.

1-0 to Spurs...

Spurs - City game is now about 20 minutes old, City have just missed an excellent chance. Spurs have started fairly well - big game for us, don't fancy Bolton or Arsenal to get too much from their games tomorrow, so if Spurs slip up we'll be in a strong position going in to the Pompey game...

That was never a one on one. Fair play for ignoring the rest of what I said though!

A one on one? You call that a one on one? How about early in the first half when he turned Chimbonda wide on the left and made him look a charlie? When he danced past De Zeeuw and drew the free kick that Pedersen nearly scored from? He gave Scharner such a torrid time that Wigan had to take him off at half time to stop him getting sent off! Bellamy was a constant threat - Kuqi was constantly pathetic.

Did more than Bellamy? You must be kidding me?

Kuqi when he came on was embarrassing. If he hadn't scored we'd all be united in that view. The first 7 or 8 headers he went up for he missed them all. He screwed that "cross" wide - there was even one situation halfway inside the Wigan half when the ball came towards him and it looked as though he deliberately moved in the opposite direction. The guy was awful, a tap in and a flick on can't hide that.

If we were called Blackburn Rovers Headball Club that would be a relevant comment.

Yeah, its amazing how good a teams record can look if you take the defeats out... Disappointing last night, we started very well and if Pedersen's goal had stood I'm positive we'd have won.

Got a similar feeling in the pit of my stomach about this one as I did about Sunderland away. Hopefully I'll be just as wrong in suspecting that we'll slip up!

Leon Osman.

As a point of interest, Duff's record for Chelsea this season reads as follows (all competitions) - Starts - 35 As Sub - 10 Goals - 3 Compare that to Chelsea's biggest names - Lampard Starts - 43 As Sub - 2 Goals - 17 Terry Starts - 44 As Sub - 0 Goals - 5 Drogba Starts - 35 As Sub - 12 Goals - 13 Cech Starts - 37 As Sub - 0 Goals - 0 Joe Cole Starts - 40 As Sub - 9 Goals - 9 Gudjohnsen Starts - 35 As Sub - 12 Goals - 3 Looking at that, you couldn't really say that Duff, despite not putting in great appearances, is being overlooked by Mourinho - infact he's retaining his place during a below par season. That would suggest to me that Mourinho sees him as an important part of his plans - mores the pity.

I know Pick - so is Jarosik, but to be on loan they must have a certain level of availability that can be worked with. Sorry guys, didn't know there was another thread. Also forgot about Forssel - wouldn't turn my nose up to that at all.

Before I start, I'll just point out that I'm not putting this in the Transfer Rumours thread as its pure speculation and will be discussion based on no more than opinion, therefore does not belong in there. So there So anyway, I was thinking (as I find myself doing so at this time every year) about the potential signings that could be made from the clubs that are relegated. Relegation usually sees some big names leave their clubs in a bid to stay in the Premiership, and is always an opportunity to pick up some good signings at good prices. So, my opinions, assuming a suitable deal could be brokered, candidate by candidate - Birmingham - Upson, Dunn, Pennant, Jarosik. Portsmouth - D'Allesandro, Taylor, Mendes, LuaLua. Sunderland - Lawrence, Arca. West Brom - Davies, Ellington, Kirkland. Pretty slim pickings to be fair. Didn't expect this post to turn out so disappointingly when I started it....

Another scenario then - Middlesbrough win the UEFA Cup and lose in the cup final. Surely then 7th place would get a UEFA place?

Sounds like we need another to kill this one off, I'm getting a bit anxious. Arsenal game called off - a win for us would pile the pressure on.

Fantastic start, just what we needed.

Got a baaaaaaaaaad feeling about this one. Please please please Rovers don't (Please don't use that word again) it up this time!

Its got nothing to do with rating him. Of course I rate him, he's an excellent player. Bottom line however is that every player has a value, and I'm of the opinion that £8m is close to being MGP's. In the buyers market that Rovers operate in, when you are able to get good value for a player it is always worth looking at. That aside - I don't want him to go anywhere. I would merely be able to cope with it better if we were to make a decent amount of money on the transaction.

We got £17m for Duff from Chelsea. There is no comparison to what we could get from Man Utd. Transfer fees that Chelsea pay cannot be used a indicators as to the state of the market. I'm happy we could replace Pedersen - we would be better off spending £2m on a left winger (or playing Peter?) and spending the rest on a top class striker who could score what Pedersen scores, if not more.

Anything above £8million should be snapped up before they change their mind.

The guy sounds top drawer, we can all talk about "it's only League 2" and all that nonsense, but you can only do your best in the league you're in, and he's certainly doing that. Its funny, in my years as a Rovers fan, we've only ever had Gallacher before this season as a striker that came even close to being quick, yet noe we potentially have 3 going in to next season with "lightening pace". It bodes well. Speaking of which, lest we forget that Gallagher the younger has done pretty well for Stoke this season. He must easily be in double figures, and although Stoke aren't struggling they haven't been in the top half of the league a hell of a lot either. Given the difference in standards they are playing at, Gallagher's performances for Stoke have probably been directly comparable to Derbyshire's for Wrexham.

Glad the game justified your effort dude