David James has played up front more times in the Premiership!! Eriksson knows F all about Walcott! 0 starts 0 goals 0 point!

The various emotoions I'm going through upon hearing how that Swede has, with one final stroke of insanity, stolen our national team

Lennon is a gamble, fair play, but Walcott is insanity! I cant believe that anyone can be positive right now!!!

Lennon is a gamble, fair play, but Walcott is insanity! I cant believe that anyone can be positive right now!!!

I literally want to cry, but i just can't stop laughing!! WALCOTT??!!! Bent, Defoe, Beattie, Folwer, Johnson, Harewood, Bentley, even Kevin Davies had more chance of making the squad!! What really make me angry is that Sven will not be held accountable for his ineptitudes because he is foreign!! There should be a 100 journalists followed by an army of England fans making him explain what the hell he thinks he is doing!! But they know that all they will get is "Aaaa I think he is a good player" and can only shrug their shoulders! I'm sorry but can you imagine if an Englishman had picked this squad! he would be hounded night and day!! I can understand that we may all, as England fans, want to get behind the team and show we are united, but there comes a time when we have to wonder if this guy is on our side! He needs to be given the chop right now, its unacceptable and it is unacceptable if the FA and especially the newspapers dont force him out by the end of the week! If I was Darren Bent or Jermaine Defoe I would announce my international retirement now- they can not do anything more to warrant a call up!

Anyone got any photos from today in the Blackburn End? Looked absolutely superb at kick off! well done to the club supplying the balloons, a real party atmosphere!!

haha! like it!

Party time!! A record amount of loo rolls will be flying about I bet!! blue and white balloons everywhere, I know I have just bought twenty or so. I tell you what we need down at Ewood- a tifo. Now we are to become a firm fixture in european competition its time we started acting like it! The club, or BRISA should sort out the coloured card for each seat in the Blackburn End to be held up at kick off perhaps making a EU flag with ROVERS RETURN underneath? Its long been a thought of mine that Rovers need a more visual support that would add to the occasion like in Italy or France or the Kop at Anfield. What better time than when we are celebrating?!

It will be tainted, of course it will! I can't imagine anything more nightmareish than that insipid Swede getting his hands on the World Cup! It would never be him that won it, it would be the likes of Gerrard, Terry and Rooney. Put it this way- everyone wants McClaren and Boro to win the UEFA, you'll never here them being criticised for having too few Englishmen in their squad- why? English manager doing good against foreign teams

Precisely my point Flopsy, its not Scolari's fault we offered him the job! I applaud him for turning it down though! I can only praise him for saving some face and not being dragged into a job he doesn't want. There are English candidates that are suitable precisley because they are English. Why aren't we throwing money at the whole bunch of young Brazilians in order for them to play for England? Then we would be assured of winning with zero national pride!

Well lets go for Aime Jaquet, he can hardly speak English, would appear to be perfect!

I'll start by apologising for calling him a mercenary, the guy does have honour and it appears he decided the England job was not for him and recognised the clash of footballing cultures that Sven has been blind to over the years. I for one breathed a huge sigh of relief after the translations came on SSN. Scolari's track record was never in doubt, but then again the skills of Pele were never under question, but we can't pick and chose the players we play from a world pool- why should the "best man" get the job at the cost of the essence of national football?? It was never the case, prior to the arrival of Sven, that the England manager had be successful to the point that he had already won European tournaments or even the world cup itself, before he came to this country! Venables and Robson had moderate success at club level, yet their reigns proved to be as popular and successful as any of the post 1966 managers. What worries me now is that money will still talk. Something may have been lost in translation and David Dean might continue to go for his man. One thing that would put the final nail in the coffin of the national game as a source of pride would be if Scolari was hounded into the job. A line needs to be drawn under this fiasco right now. Scolari will not be the England coach now or ever, lets make our decision on the merits of the English candidates and restore the pride and heritage to our washed out, greed driven, tainted national set up

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! I REALLY WISH I COULD STOP SUPPORTING ENGLAND. NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE TO HOPE THAT THAT SMUG SMARMY SWEDISH SOD LIFTS THE WORLD CUP, NOW WE'RE GOING TO GET A MERCENARY TO WALK OUT ON HIS SECOND COUNTRY TO COME AND PICK THE SAME 11 FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS! HE'S BEEN COACHING RONALDINHO AND DECO, NOW WE WANT HIM TO PICK BETWEEN DARREN BENT AND DEAN ASHTON!! BLOODY JOKE! IS IT ME OR SHOULD SCOLARI'S NEXT JOB HAVE BEEN AT CAMEROON OR SOUTH KOREA?? IT CERTAINLY SHOULDN'T BE AS THE MANAGER OF THE FOUNDING NATION WITH ONE OF THE BEST DOMESTIC LEAGUES IN THE WORLD!! I REALLY DO DISPAIR FOR FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND, THE DAVID DEANS OF THIS WORLD ARE RUINING OUR GAME!

Time his run well did that squirrel, Riquelme just couldn't pick out the right pass

That explains it, well you are right, he put in some good incisive passes in our best moves last night and broke up the play well. Must have been told to get stuck in a bit more and that he did. Clarke looked lucky with both his finishes, especially the second, but he is damn pacey!!

Could have sworn he played in the last round against spurs- he was marginally better last night!

WILL THE LAST ONE OUT OF WEMBLEY PLEASE TURN OFF THE LIGHTS

The fact is that Charlton are a comparable club in stature, but the gulf in appeal between locations is huge!! Charlton can attract new fans very easily as they have a local population that attachs no stigma to charlton as a place. I dont know where it is- the stadium may be surrounded by the worst kind of urban derilict housing Britain has to offer! However it is in London, and therefore its location and nearby facilities do not matter as much. Blackburn cannot rival a club of the same financial and footballing credentials that happens to be in the capital. Until vast improvements are made to Blackburn as a town, Rovers cannot grow much more. What I believe BRISA needs to be concentrating on first is establishing a visual and vocal supporters group that works with the club to organise a more entertaining and enjoyable atmosphere that will make us somewhat unique in the Premiership. Rovers offer little more in the way of entertainment than our north west rivals, yet we expect the floating fan to attend. We are in a good position, we have the likes of Henry and Lampard coming to play at Ewood, what we need is to get those fans of football to become fans of football at Ewood! BRISA in my view is a definate step in the right direction, and therefore should focus predominantly on the fans role in the club, not on what, to be honest, we cannot have much effect on- the financial realities of a north west town club. The aim is quite clear- first and foremost, the spectacle should be established at Ewood

Highlight of the game had to be the presence of Eddie Murphy who did an excellent job of inpersonating the head steward. He was ably assisted by Jim Bowen too.

I don't think friedel has made a mistake so far this season. He has done nothing wrong, made some fabulous saves and this thread is incredibly pointless. We dont know how lucky we are we have him!

Just applied for an American Express card. Apparently its the card used to buy posh hotel suites for Ashley Cole. Bloody hell it didn't take him long did it!!!

Right then Hughesy, can we attack?? can we score when we need to, or are we going to settle for a 1-0 defeat?

But the problem is that when we play to our one strength we seem to hide the fact that we dont seem to have another way of playing. I guess what Im trying to get at, and Im sure we all agree, is that we have to make vast improvments upfront. We cant get carried away, as I think it is pretty darn clear there are no points coming from the next two games unless we can score.

Good defensive performance and a job well done. One thing is worrying me though- Had Baros not been flagged offside incorrectly early on, and gone on to score, would we have changed it? Would we are pressed for an equaliser. My inckling is that Hughes would have just stayed the way we were, and hoped to nick one, effectively settling for a 1-0 loss. Don't get me wrong, our tactcis tonight were spot on for what we needed. The problem is that I am starting to think that is the only way we can play. I mean, starting with a lone man upfront at home to a championship side is indicative of the way that Hughes wants us to play. It took him a while to realise that we had the superior attack against leicester and go 4 4 2. In what scenario wouold Hughes actually look for a goal in the first half? Accy at home? No maybe not, local derby, gotta keep it tight!! Happy with the display tonight, but luck may turn against us, do we have a way of chasing games Hughesy??

2-1 Rovers Stead Nalis Reid