Must have a fair old wedge burning in his pocket then! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/g...ers/7211587.stm

You can make a case for or against keeping Beckham in the squad. Personally I would keep him in the squad though not necessarily start him, his experience could be required during the qualifiers. However, There is absolutely no way in a million years you can make a legitimate case out of including Phil Neville. The man has committed henious crimes against this country, one notable one was being born. WHY WHY WHY? It is ridiculous to recall him and drop a player of Beckham's experience, ability and 94 caps worth of fine service to this country, albeit slightly muted of late. Indefensible.

It's still 0-0 though Rooney and Ronaldo have since come on. Although it would be absolutely brilliant if Burton get a result as well as hillarious, anyone else think it will do our chances on Wednesday no favours at all? Stuck in two minds!

I know he's not everyone's cup of tea but I rather like Mouriniho. I don't think for one minute he takes some of the stuff he comes out with seriously and is doing it purely to wind everyone up! He's built this reputation up in the media and is completely playing up to it because he loves it (and himself!) so much. When he reads about people sounding off about him I bet he had a good chuckle to himself as a) it's working and he's having a good laugh at their expense. There have been several occasions where he's been extremely complimentry to the opposition, the F.A. cup tie with Shrewsbury (?) being a notable example. I don't think we're in his good books but hey, he's just having fun with us all and lets face it, he's put himself in the position to do so. As for the game, I'm encouraged with the performance. Riley was a disgrace second half and should be cited by the F.A. Emerton is so bloody frustrating it's untrue. Sadly MGP was quiet. Dickov shouldn't be playing, Kuqi did ok but is severely limited. I think the only thing we can till January is give Jansen and extended run in the team. Dickov contributes next to nothing these days apart from whingeing and doing wonders for our bad reputation. I'd rather have Jansen do nothing instead of having to watch it but I bet he'd have scored yesterday anyway. Forget a tugay replacement, that will have to wait. We need a striker in January or we'll struggle whenever Bellamy gets injured.

The best I could hope for when I saw the formation was a 0-0 draw. I guess I wasn't prepared for how shockingly bad Newcastle were but that formation was never going to produce anything. It might work with say, a John Hartson up front but Bellamy is never going to make much of punted balls from Neill at throat height. He made the most of a hard job but ultimately that wasn't much. I dispute the fact that we even played well for the first hour. We didn't create any noteworthy chances, there was no fluid passing. The first hour merely comprised of us punting the ball up the field and Newcastle heading it back. Our formation and tactics need to change or we'll score about as many goals as Chelsea will let in this season and that might end up as single figures Full strength team for Wednesday Mr. Hughes, 4-4-2 and the team should include Pedersen and Bentley in midfield and Bellamy and Jansen up front. If that means dropping Savage or Reid or whoever so be it. We need to get some confidence in our attacking play quickly or we're completely doomed.

Birmingham, for all of the reasons so far stated (Bruce, Brady, Big Club, Sullivan etc) but there are two more much more valid reasons that have been overlooked, both occurring during our promotion season. Firstly, after spending a large part of the season occupying second spot in Division 1 they also somehow fluked their way to the Worthy Cup Final. Despite getting largely battered by a profligate Liverpool side, fluked an injury time penalty but thankfully got beaten in the shootout. Post match came complete about how they proved "They were good enough/ready for the Premiership" You what?! They got completely owned. A month later we were due to play them at St. Andrews and the "big club" noise had reached deafening proportions by then. I've never wanted us to do over a team so much in ages. Neither it would appear did the Rovers as we TOTALLY outclassed them on their own pitch. Duff walking round their defence to score a wonder goal. Francis moaned about the pitch, well mate it was the same one we were playing on! Birmingham never recovered after that and went on a winless run that went into double figures. I had a ripping good laugh at that every week. No wonder they hate us, we ruined their season and took promotion to top it off! Second reason, Play off semi - final 2nd leg at Preston the same season. Game ended up going to penalties. Preston were building a stand at one end so it was decided somehow that penalties would be taken at the end where all the fans were. As it should seeing as they had all paid to see the game. Francis, the complete and utter ******** objected to this, and actually took his team off the pitch for a few minutes while throwing a tantrum. This behaviour is absolutely disgusting. Why should the penalties be taken at the dead end so your bunch of tarts aren't intimidated? I can't remember if they got through or not but they didn't go up that year and the Prem was a better place without them. Additionally... * Spurs mainly for the Worthy Cup comments, Hoddle, 99% of their fans. * El Hadji Diouf * Andreas Muller (scored winning penalty in semi final v england in euro 96) celebration made me sick * Oliver Kahn. Still has nightmares about Owen. OWN3D! * Man Utd. I could write a book as to why! I can generally find a reason to hate most people/clubs in England but there is your top 6. Don't show it to a Brum or Spurs fan, they don't know what a top 6 is!

I thought Pedersen had a decent enough game today and was probably our biggest threat. This was it has to be said on an atrocious pitch. He was very unlucky with that free-kick in the first half also. Set piece delivery was poor from everyone but MGP got three efforts on target (2 free kicks and a header) together with another header just over the bar. We desperately need re-enforcement up front in the summer thats a given but WHERE ON EARTH WAS STEAD!! Dickov should've scored. Gallagher looked pretty lost. Defence I thought was solid enough. Nissa does a job at left back but a specialist whould give us much more an option. Tugay wasn't in the game. Savage was all over the place in a typical performance. Emerton was just frustrating. LOOK UP MAN! You always wonder if the players are up for this game and thankfully they were. In a hostile atmosphere and on a dodgy pitch they were more than up to the fight and got a draw despite not playing fantastically well. On another day we might have got a goal but we're in the hat for tomorrow and should play better in the replay. Fans were quality

Pederson just dinked it over the keeper, 1-0 Rovers on their First attack!

EMERTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sounded a screamer on the radio though I was too busy going nuts to hear! 2-1 HT

Bothroyd get in! Only 1-1 but I was driving to the nearest bridge after 6 mins! COME ON ROVERS!

Personally I wouldn't be too unhappy with Dowie. He's more experienced than Hughes is! But for me, his main thing going for him is what he's done at Palace. He took over Palace along way into the season when they were in the bottom half and got them into the Premiership, with practically NO resources. If that's not weeing with the willy he has then what is? We can no longer go out and buy the best players, Dowie will be largely stuck with the players he has till January where he might lose some and get a meagre transfer budget. Oldham were nearly down to their youth players and he got them to the playoffs. His credentials would certainly indicate he can do a job on a limited budget, which has got to be one of the main criteria. If the board, after interview feel he's the right man then I'd be happy to back him. You certainly can't blame them for inviting him to the table.

Davros! Please lets get him!

Moyes has been on Sky sports News stating that he's happy at Everton. He was also going on about signing Djorkaeff Best steer well clear then! LINK

PS. Just to my neck on the line....... 1st Choice - Strachan 2nd Choice - Hughes - whilst he lacks experience, I'm not inspired by the other choices. 3rd Choice - Redknapp (Puts tin hat on) - I think he'd make some good signings that just might inspire some of the crowds back. He didn't do too bad at West Ham till they stopped backing him. Plus, his daughter in law is fit! No in general to Houllier, Jewell, Royle, Robson, Reid. Anyone else I'd give em a chance.

I disagree that Hoddle is a good coach. His strength is his tatical nous. Remember the comment to Beckham "I don't think you have the skill to do that..." . Thanks for the encouragement "Coach". Additionally Hoddle as a man is arrogant (he wasn't called chocolate for nothing), has zero man management skills and his personal views on football and other things stink. Who here is going to be happy when he appoints Eilene Drewery as his assistant manager! There is no way he could hold together a dressing room. I will back whoever gets the job, begrudgingly if it's someone like Houllier or just about if it's someone like Reid (though I will be FAR from happy) But....I will NEVER back Hoddle. Not in a million years.

I think Curbishley would rather stay put. He's building things slowly at the Valley and they have the potential to break the top 6 up consistently. We're still a signing or two of Duff's calibre away from that and it'll cost a fair amount of cash we don't have. I guess that does raise the question of a transfer budget for the new man? He'll want to make signings in January and it'll have to be a workable budget if we want a decent manager. I guess that will be another barometer of the boards ambition. Any prospective candidate will want funds for the transfer window, hopefully without selling any *good* players on.

Yeah but he's 12-1 on Skybet which might upset a few Charlton fans

I can't believe Curbishley is on such relatively short odds. Without wanting to do Rovers down I can't see what would tempt him from Charlton, a club of similar size and standing, argueably a little more established in mid table and certainly having a better time of it right now. Sure money talks, but it's not like he's going to get a bigger transfer budget or significantly more cash? Would be brilliant if we got him though. That asides I'd be cautiously optimistic of a Strachan appointment. Can't see Hughes jumping before the England qualifiers.

Do you mean Parkes will coach us and Souness will not be involved as Newcastle manager. Either way you can bet the Geordies will have the scoop. Sorry if someone already mentioned this. My understanding was that Souness has left this morning and no longer has anything to do with Rovers. Additionally he's taken his "coaching" team with him. Parkes was then installed as temporary manager around midday and is in charge for the Newcastle game. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.

Absolutely fantastic news in my opinion that. We need a real coach. Also 100% agree with Glenn on Hoddle. I wouldn't attend a single game during his tenure should it happen. Woodwards 33-1. Worth £3 I reckon.

Apparently Souness will NOT take charge until after the Newcastle Game according to the Guardian LINK Is that John Williams stepping in or a mark of respect? More worryingly, does that leave Saunders in charge for Saturday??

This is starting to appear around the net now like wildfire! BBC Link Newsnow Link I'd like to join in with those thanking Souness in what he's done for the club. Overall he has been an excellent manager, though I was starting to feel he'd taken us as far as he could go. The next appointment is indeed crucial. Souness can buy Jansen off us for £10m as payback for getting rid of Cole claiming the club wasn't big enough for both of them and then leaving!

Ok now I've calmed down I can post my comments. Firstly well done to Celtic, they deserved to go through. That was the biggest non - performance by a Rovers team I can remember. I'm only 22 and there probably has been worse but at the minute I can't think of one. We aren't that bad so there is no point over reacting but there are three main areas for concern. 1. Our defence. This is well documented so I won't go into it. 2. David Dunn. He is becoming nothing short of an embarrassment on recent performances. This has to change. The signing of Thommo is showing him up for what he is and his obvious response to it is put weight on and be a celebrity. He needs to sort himself out or he'll end up like the other circus act Joey Cole. 3. Scoring goals. I believe our league position is masking the most worrying deficiency. Our frontline, WHOEVER is in it has not been scoring goals this season. This is clearly illustrated by the gap between home and away form. Playing away, we keep it tight and attack on the break. With a high degree of luck we've got some results. We've had luck to some degree at Southampton, Arsenal, Birmingham and West Brom. At home or in away games we've dominated (Man City, Middlesborough) we just haven't been scoring goals. (Perhaps rule out the Liverpool and City games) The team flatters to decieve, we do not turn our pretty passing play into the goals we need to win the games. Look at the games we have won, Leeds, Newcastle. All the goals came from midfield or Tiny! To make any progress we need a 20 goals a season striker. Andy Cole could still be that one but this season he's a pale shadow of last. The partnership with him and Yorke, isn't working. Maybe things will improve with Jansen back but if we want to get into Europe next season, can we afford to wait that long? I'm not going to have a go at Yorke in paticular because he has scored three times this season but the whole thing is summed up by the Celtic tie. Our great play in the first leg did not get us one single goal. All three problems highlighted by the second leg. Take away that lucky and undeserved equaliser at Southampton and we might not have scored in four whole matches! Something needs to be done because teams that don't score slip down the table as we all know last season.

While it's right to be annoyed at the performance lets try and remember one thing. Last season we would have lost this type of game 3 - 0. This season we haven't. It's the playing well and winning bit we have to sort out but in our last three league games we have stolen five points while being nowhere near our best. As I didn't see the game I cannot comment on individual performances. From what I have seen I can agree with most of the comments about Dunn. Since we've bought Thompson we have a new midfield idol whose shown Dunny up by a mile. Thats why, I suspect Souness had him on the bench for the Celtic game and by reckoning he should drop him a bit more till he pulls his finger out. The annoying this is he can do it when he wants to. As far as Cole is concerned give him a chance. His style on the pitch makes it easy for people to get on his back but he still scored, he was still in the right place to score when it mattered. His record last season was 13 goals in 20 games but if we remember he had a pretty slow start then as well.

Cheers Pete for your honest and well imformed comments. It makes a change. As well as we played last night the second leg will be far from a walkover. Celtic can't possbily be as bad and we have an awful record at home in the Uefa. Any kind of draw or single goal victory isn't going to get us through either. Having said that, forward players like Duff, Cole and Jansen are not match fit. When they are we should have more penetration and have our potential as an attacking force realised. On a positive note, the quality difference IS there. I don't expect Celtic to be as bad but we have shown we're the superior team so the players just have to go out there and demonstrate that. In the end I'll be disappointed it we don't go through but if they score once we have to get three. For all our quality going forward, we've only done that twice so far.