By now Dunn must be aware now of The Rovers interest, if he wants to come to Ewood then he has to fend Bolton off himself and not sign anything too quickly. I think the longer it goes without Bolton completing the deal, the more likely it is that Dunn will become a Rover. Maybe this is the reason that 'a scan couldn't be completed over the weekend' ? It also looks as though Birmingham aren't going to be too encouraging towards The Rovers. (Bruce's comments about not suiting Dunn seem to be a thinly veiled threat to this effect). However, I am not sure about how transfers are negotiated; Bolton have made an offer and Birmingham have allowed the player to go and speak to them. I understand that if The Rovers offer less than Bolton, then Birmingham can and will knock them back. But if they match the deal that Bolton have made, are Birmingham obliged to grant The Rovers permission to speak to Dunn, or can they still block it because they don't like The Rovers?

Sadly I can only add to the list of people who have 'put stuff back' after not being able to hand over my money. I used to spend quite a bit fairly regularly in the old Roverstore/Rover The Moon, but find it increasingly difficult now to find stuff to buy. That is why it is annoying that when you do finally find another LONSDALE sweatshirt (why can't we have them with a Rovers badge on like we used to?) in a colour that you haven't already got, the counter service is such that it's hit and miss as to whether you actually get purchase it or not. I still go in the store regularly (not as often as I used to though) but very rarely buy anything at all. The store went downhill dramatically when the first manager left (Duncan ??). The decline continued under the next magager(ess?) until it fell off the radar completely when Sportsworld got their hands on it. I suppose The Club must be happy with the financial benefits they receive from it, although it is hard for them to criticise fans for not being bothered to turn up to watch the games when they can't be bothered to run a decent merchandising operation themselves. Seemingly sitting back and letting someone else take care of the merchandising is OK for the store, but fans who adopt a similar attitude and sit at home to let someone else take care of the supporting is seen differently by The Club. Still, hanging around the tills is a good place to catch up on what the various assistants really think of the various store managers............

There's a copy for sale on ebay (here) currently at £7.50. I managed to get the sleeve of my copy signed at one of The Rovers open days. Football players used to have legible signatures in those days (unlike the squiggly lot of today) and you can decipher them all ( John Lowey, Vince O'Keefe, Ian Miller, David Mail, Terry Gennoe, Jim Branagan, Bobby Saxton, David Hamilton, Mick Rathbone, Glenn Keeley, Derek Fazackerley, Peter Devine and Norman Bell ). Probably not worth much more than the £7.50, though. I also remember seeing FRENZY live at the KGH. They were one of the supports (along with Bernie Marsden) to those wonderful Scouse boogie merchants 'SPIDER' ("The only pub band with a laser light show...."). .....Happy days !!

I'd have said the player their team has most missed this season was Robbie Savage....

If Ewood Park is 5.5 miles from The Crown Ground and the Turd is half a mile further (from The Crown Ground than Ewood is) that would make The Turd 6 miles from Stanley (5.5m + .5m). The Turd would, therefore, be 11 miles from Ewood (the nearest they'll get to The Premiership) as 6m to The Crown plus 5m from The Crown to Ewood = 11m. I think. (sorry to but in).

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but in Hughes' post game interview to Radio Lancs he said that Bellamy was taken off as he 'had a tight back' (??!). He indicated that this was nothing to be concerned about, that the medical team would sort it out and that Bellamy would be available for the next game. Probably true, although it could also be a cover for a possible 'cooling off' substitution.

I think that Mettomo wasn't signed because of a problem with his knee. He did turn up a while later at City, however (then managed by Keegan). Not sure where he is now though. Maybe the 'executive contol' of John Williams as far as transfers go was the reason why we were always linked with these players, but hardly signed them (Mettomo, Adrian Ilie, Saloman Olembe, Kaba Diawara, Edouard Corridon, etc.). Possibly such restraints weren't in place at Newcastle where the unleashed Souness spent £8m on Boumsong (from the MacKay) stable........ MacKay does appear to be squeaky clean, though.

Hang on ! Mike Newell is a Football League manager. He spoke out about his concerns regarding transfers which (given his managerial experience) must have taken place amongst Football League teams. Why is the inquiry, therefore, only restricted to The Premiership which, presumeably, Newell has no knowledge of ? There may have been purchases/loans involving Premiership teams and those from the lower leagues, but he is suggesting that the 'bung culture' soley involves top tier clubs. Under Souness we did seem to be linked with a lot of French African players offered by an agent called Willie MacKay. Don't think we bought any, but it is interesting to note that Mr.MacKay was again dealing with Souness at Newcastle, (comment on one of their messageboards was along the lines of 'are they related?'.....).

Less hypocritically perhaps, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have not joined in the campaign.

The Roverstore is usually open before all games as well as after the Saturday games. It isn't open after night games (probably too late) and Sunday games (probably something to do with the Sunday trading laws).

I reckon 1-0 to The Rovers, for no other reason than Everton usually provide the means for our players with no luck in hitting the back of the net, to finally poke one home. Following on from the likes of Georgious Donis, Corrado Grabbi, Jonathan Stead....step forward Robbie Savage !

From what I could see the spark to the incident was as described above (Colin). Brad made the save and words were exchanged between the players as to, presumeably, whose fault it was. Savage seemed to want to continue the 'discussion' whilst Brad was trying to clear the ball back into play and, much like an opposition forward would do, stood in front of him preventing this. Brad then got a bit fed up with it and pushed the ball into Savage's chest. Once this happened Savage looked fairly surprised and I think realised that marks had been overstepped. Good to see the handshakes afterwards, although the referee had words with both players on the quiet too. (Search for 'Blackburn Rovers' on the Getty Images website for pictures of the incident/game)

It's up to 74 minutes on my screen.

Probably is Cole (and a free transfer is obviously better than the £750k that was originally mentioned), but according to THIS LIST (first one that came up on a search for 'Premiership goalscorers 2004/05') then there are three players who are equal 6th. Tim Cahill, as has been mentioned, is unlikely, as is Wayne Rooney but Robbie Earnshaw could be a possiblity.He does seem to be out of favour at WBA (although I don't think they would let him go on a freebie after paying Cardiff £Ms so recently....but you never know). Hughes could see him as the Bellamy type player in a partnership, with Kuqi adopting the Hartson role?

Off the top of my head; Bradford City renamed Valley Parade to The Bradford and Bingley Stadium during their time in The Premier League following sponsorship from the local Building Society (not sure if they have changed it back since, though). York City renamed Bootham Crescent last season to The Kit-Kat Stadium (the rather splendid confectionary being produced in the city by Nestle/Rowntree). ....and of course Seamer Road, Scarborough has been The McCain Stadium for several years now (again, local sponsorship, this time the makers of oven chips and pizzas). It may just be a Yorkshire thing of course, but I can't think of any southern grounds to have made a switch.

I bet it's Sunderland for the first game.

Apologies if this has been mentioned before. I have been trying Mozilla for a while now and discovered this tweak by accident. Firefox seemed to be faster at loading pages than IE anyway, but following those instructions has given me a further, noticeable boost in speed!

Changed my mind now......I don't want Nob End to come up. I'd forgotton how annoying it is that whenever Preston have an important game, they drag Tom Finney out to pap on about how things have changed. He's been on every tv and radio station I've caught this morning saying the same old things he usually does. I don't think I could stand a full season of 'playing in miner's boots', 'going to the game on the tram with the fans', or the classic 'crossing the ball so the laces faced the right way'. 'up the Irons!' (as Steve Harris would say.....)

Unfortunately I can't find the article I was reading (I'm sure the figures are out there somewhere) but The Times had a list of all the Premiership clubs and their shirt sponsorship deals around the time that Chelsea announced they were getting squillions for their new deal. It reported The Rovers deal with HSA as being worth £1m to The Club, whilst the Birmingham deal with FlyBE was listed as £750k. (I think they were 'per season' figures). I know it seems odd that our owners company is financing another club, but I'm sure the holding company, or whoever, decided that it was better all round for the airline part to shell out less money for their sponsorship package, whilst the football side received more from theirs. This would be in addition to the already stated facts about lack of airports etc. in Blackburn area.

I'd like Preston to earn the honour of relegation from The Premiership in 2005/06 I appreciate what has been said regarding the 'poaching' of fans from similar areas, but that has been a problem over the last few seasons with Bolton and, to a further extent, the Manchester and Liverpool clubs. Wigan/Preston could be some of our better attendances...I'll bet Fulham (for example) are ecstatic that Wigan have been promoted and totally joyous at the thought of the Nob End coming up too; they will probably be rooting for West Ham and another London derby to help fill their coffers. Over the last couple of seasons The Rovers seem to have taken a policy of allowing the visiting support as many tickets as they want. With more than half of The Premiership 'northern' (3 Birmingham clubs, 3 north east clubs, potentially 8 from 'Lancashire'), Ewood should be a little more full for more games next season, even if it is with more away fans. It's all money over the turnstile at the end of the day. The Rovers support seemed to be woken from it's slumbers for the burnley games last season, only to fall back to sleep afterwards and dwindle away. I think our support is there, but needs motivating. Maybe a season of 'derby games' could be the stimulus needed ?

Thank goodness that The FA have seen sense over Todd's part in the incident. Perhaps they should now be asking Arsenal to explain their player's motives with his reaction from such a minor and accidental collision........

First time I've seen the incident (don't watch tv when we lose....) so thanks for that Glenn. It seems fairly obvious to me that both players are watching the ball go into the net. Their player runs into Todd and contact is made. Maybe Todd thought that he was the victim of someone punching him when he felt the blow as it appears only after contact does he react with his arm. The damage to their guy's face was probably received when he initially ran into Todd, and Andy's reaction seems to be more of a 'push away' rather than something that would cause that level of injury (Alan Green's 'punch' for example). Todd's reaction should not, in any case, have warranted the feet off the ground/poleaxed performance from their player. Hopefully the FA will be equally keen to bring a further charge of disrepute towards Arsenal in the light of the supposed clamp down on acting/diving........... Despite the referee not reporting it, some Arsenal players (including the injured guy) saying that they didn't think it was deliberate, and ex pro's on various tv and radio shows during this week being convinced that it was accidental, the FA seem determined to press home their charge. Innocence is no excuse........

Whilst not wishing we hadn't gone, I think this game came twelve months too soon for us. I would like to have played this game following a summer of Sparky's improvements to the team and, if they prove to be as effective as the work done on the defence so far, I am certain that we would have a much more favourable result. Alan Green was giving it the usual twaddle on 5Live, and said that it was good for football that The Rovers would not be in the Final. He papped on about our 'style of play' (which is very similar to the style adopted by Everton and Bolton both of whom he seems to think have done very well this season). Much of the current criticism stems from the comments by Mourinho following a more difficult than expected game at Ewood (in which Chelsea were as much sinners as sinned against). Green is always one to adopt the Emperor's new clothes, and Mourinho does know what he's talking about after all............ The sad thing about Green is his willingness to make sweeping, self opinionated statements ('I speak my mind, me') only to back down under the slightest challenge. He's like the bloke in the pub from the Fast Show. The beginning of the program had all Blackburn fans 'hanging their heads in shame' and our team being 'a bunch of thugs'. Halfway through the program, following calls from a couple of Rovers, we were fantastic fans who outsung Arsenal, had a decent turnout considering, and were playing an effective style given the options open to us. A couple more Arsenal callers and we were back to being a disgrace and should not be let anywhere near the Final. Personally, I think we have done exceptionally well this season. I would have been very disbelieving had someone promised me an FA Cup Semi Final and Premiership Security during our last games under Souness.

Would have thought that will be straightforward 1- St holders who went to cardiff 2 - st holders who didnt 3 - anyone else. It's probably in the small print that all season ticket holders get priority regardless, but I think that should we get to the Final then the fairest sales order should be ; 1/ Season Ticket Holders who went to the Semi, 2/ Non Season Ticket holders who went to the Semi, (so everyone at Cardiff on Saturday should be sorted) 3/ Other Season Ticket holders, 4/ Anyone else ...but let's get to the Final first !! Roll on Saturday !

I must admit I was a bit surprised last night. After the England game I was scouting about the 'other channels' and came across BBC Wales. I was hoping to catch a bit of the game, but for whatever reason they weren't showing it. They did, however, have their equivilent of Final Score with some Welsh bod and Leighton James stood outside the Millennium talking about the Wales game. James was saying that, despite the defeat, Toshack's managership was like a breath of fresh air to the team. He seemed to be very critical of 'the previous regime' who employed negative, long ball tactics and their team had little flair. Better, said LJ, to lose whilst trying to play good, attractive football, than have to endure some of the stuff played in the last few years (when, I thought, Wales were more competitive internationaly....). Things to be much better with Toshack, predicted Leighton. Now, I thought that Sparky & Co were the good guys. I thought that the Welsh were pleased with Hughes' work and his elevation of their national team to genuine Championship qualification contenders. Is LJ simply having a go because of The Rovers connection or to some loyalty towards friend? (he would have played with Toshack...probably too old to have met up with Hughes). Or is his apparent 'speaking on the behalf of many', (anyone who has heard LJ on Radio Lancs will appreciate his use of the burnley tactic of 'talk crap with enough authority and people will eventually believe you') actually vindicated and the Welsh now see Hughes' reign as a boring and negative period in their football ? I know that tactics at Ewood have changed recently, but I thought that this was a case of needs must. Given the players available to him, Hughes has altered things to make us harder to beat and to stave off relegation. I was hopeful that next season (following a summer of improving the team quality), The Rovers would be able to play a more attractive, flowing style.