Gallagher's record this season for Stoke - Appearances: 35(plus 5 as sub) Goals: 12 Yellow Cards: 10 Red Cards: 0 Minutes on Pitch: 3082 12 goals means more than one in every three starts. Not bad at all, especially as plenty of time was spent on the left wing rather than up front.

Of course we don't score much from corners...MGP is crap at taking them! MGP could try the approach of forgetting his goals for Tromso under-13s (or whoever) direct from free kicks and instead knocking in corners for them big buggers who have come up from defence to creat havoc! Of course I won't be annoyed if he puts one in but it'd hardly make up for a season and a half-worth of trying!

The obvious solution may be to use Peter a bit more, allowing MGP a bit of rest-time as well. How many games has MGP missed this season? I'd be surprised if wasn't tired. Time to blood in young Peter while not burning out MGP.

4 points will still see us getting 6th I expect. Can't see the Toon getting more than three points from Birmingham away and Chelsea at home. Shades of the 1997/98 season from our point of view... ...hopefully we won't be required to win on the last day to keep sixth. It'd been such a great season until Portsmouth away that losing out on Europe will seem like a disappointment. All in all though, it's been a far better season than the previous two.

I'm amazed nobody has mentioned this one yet, maybe it is just too obvious? Blackburn Rovers 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1. League Cup Final, Millenium Stadium, Cardiff. A sea of blue-and-white across half the stadium as 30,000 Rovers fans made the journey down. Tottenham started the better but a lightening-quick reaction by Jansen to a ricochet of a ball fed in by Keith Gillespie saw us take the lead. Superman in our goal was man of the match, keeping Spurs out time after time. Although he couldn't keep out their equaliser, although I can't even remember who scored it. Second half...and despite Spurs again having the best chances our new hero, Andy Cole, pounced on an error by future England international Ledley King. It seemed only a half chance yet it crept into the corner past the Spurs keeper, not sure who was in goal for them. Kasey Keller? If there was one defining moment of the game though it took place in the last minute. Right in front of the referee it looked as if Sheringham had been sent flying. Fortunately Teddy made too much of a meal of it and the ref played on... ...and that was it. 74 years since our last major cup win and Rovers were back in the medals and back in Europe. Looking back...although it was a great day there was a nagging reminder at the back of the mind that relegation still had to be battled against. We were well in the drop-zone IIRC on the day of the match. The celebrations didn't really begin until the last match of the season when we were by then safe...and we even sneaked into tenth place, and top half, thanks to our late season run. However...worrying about relegation didn't stop Rovers fans painting the city of Cardiff blue and white one February weekend back in 2002.

True, I voted for Bellamy almost instinctively. Having thought a bit more about it I'd change it to Nelsen if I could.

4 points should be enough for sixth place. If we can't win one game out of the last seven then it has nothing to do with 'finding our level'...it's just a God-awful run that any club in the Premiership other than Sunderland would view as quite simply not good enough.

After their derby loss Birmingham will be up for this. Our away record all season has been pretty average so I think we'd have to be happy with a draw. Hopefully I'm wrong though!

They were also very lucky to get past Lyon in the previous round. If Arsenal do make it past Villareal (and there is a good chance they won't) then they would have a chance in a one-off match against anyone, even Barca. Although I have to be honest and say my money would still be on Ronnie to lead his team to victory.

To be honest, it's been three seasons since McEveley looked a bright prospect. Since then he's either been a) treading water or going backwards depending on your point of view. Doubt we'll get much for him, just have to hope he comes good and we profit via a sell-on clause.

Re: Broomes. Didn't he also have a shocking injury just as he'd broke into the team and was showing a great deal of promise?

Nothing wrong with Bellamy's "outburst" and I wish more footballers were so honest. Besides it was funny and true, both the bit about the defending and his pop at Souness. Unfortunately the man well-blessed in the nose department, Ian Rush, seems to be trying to talk up a Liverpool move for Bellamy in the summer here... Rush hoping Rafa signs Liverpool fan Bellamy

Even with??? Surely they are hindrance rather than a help to the atmosphere? They have been there too long and are way past their sell-by-date. However, not to distract from the gates...GAV should win the bet but it may be close. Wigan may still be in the chase for a place in Europe themselves for the Villa game.

Lancashire Hot Pot

Do they still play 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' before games at 'The Hawthorns'? They sang more before the game than they did during the match itself!

I agree - stick this at the top someone! Great posts from dillo_dillo on here - an excellent read.

Pedersen targets fourth place

An oldie but a goodie. If it was Sunderland in 79 and Villa in 81 then who was it in 1980? Also... Which is the only club to relegated the year after winning the league (top flight)? Oh and name the clubs other than Rovers that were both founding members of The Football League and also The Premiership. Without cheating or Googling.

Hate to say I told you so but...well...I did tell you so! Couldn't help comparing it unfavourably to the superb 'I Claudius' books.

Both 'Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time' and 'Birdsong' are good reads. 'Birdsong' has a part that is extremely erotic - I wouldn't reecommend reading the first 100 or so pages on a bus or train! As for 'His Dark Materials", I read the first book and didn't bother with anymore. Don't know why but I expected a bit more, maybe it improves in the later books. Recently I have been reading... 'Frost on My Moustache: Travels with a Lord and a Loafer' by Tim Moore. The title comes from a joke...a guy is driving around Iceland when his car breaks down. When the mechanic comes to fix it he says "I've think you've just blown a seal..." whereupon the guy replies "No, It's just frost on my moustache." Moore tries telling this joke through a journey in Iceland, the Faroes, Shetlands, Norway and onto Spitzbergen, retracing the steps of Lord Dufferin, one of those eccentric explorers that Britain used to produce in shedloads. After a slow start it becomes a very funny journey and is highly recommended. 'The Fourth Estate' by Jeffrey Archer. Real airport-lit...literally! It's where I found it in the bargain bin! Interesting tale of two media barons unashamedly based on Murdoch and Maxwell. It's diverting enough but feels like it was produced on a conveyor belt. Although not an Archer fan I must admit that his 'Kane and Abel' was a good read, this was just a poor imitation. OK though for the beach. 'Disgrace' by JM Coetzee. Brilliant Booker-prize winner set in the turbulent post-Apartheid South Africa. The best book I have read in the last year without doubt. Coetzee is one of the world's greatest authors...and that is no exaggeration. 'How to Be Good' by Nick Hornby. Not one of his best and one heck of a slow starter but the second half is excellent, thanks mainly to the appearance of GoodNews, a happy-clappy space tripper of a dropout. Deception Point - Bit tedious really, with the same Government conspiracy/big business/paranoia themes, this time centred around NASA and the NRA. Not good but acceptable enough for a no-brainer read. Poor compared to his others though. 'The Rule of Four' by Iain Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Utter crap. Says on the cover " If you loved The Da Vinci Code - Dive into this" but even for the biggest fan of that book, this is poor stuff. Awful prosse, dumb plotlines and cardboard characters. Awful book. 'The Woman who walked into doors' by Roddy Doyle. Excellent tale of domestic violence by the ever-excellent Doyle. 'The Last English King' by Julian Rathbone. Excellent, wordy retelling of the final days of King Harold...before he took 'one in the eye' for Ye Olde Englande. Recommended to any history buffs or those who enjoy historical literature. It is rather a literary work however and so expects more of its reader than am 'Emporer' book. There's certainly a few good (and not so good) choices there. Good to see this topic being brought back to the top...yet again!

Certainly I can only remember Leppings Lane End as being in desperate need of a bit cash being spent on it. No beer available in the ground, pillars aplenty to obscure the view and the people selling the overpriced beer/pies/bovril etc were behind metal cages! A great ground to watch football, a throwback to an earlier age and the facilities were having no problem in matching those fifties standards!

Can't argue with that. Didn't most people think he was a bit of a prat before he joined? Likewise Savage? Still...as long as they are at Rovers they're OUR prats! PS - Add in Brad Friedel to those who have had good seasons, while not up to his Superman form some of his performances this season have been match-winners. Last Saturday's stop at Sunderland from Chris Brown being a case in point, as was some of his saves against Villa a few weeks ago. There have been times when people have suggested he was past it in Premiership terms but I think he's still one of the best around.

The UEFA Cup started life as the Inter-Fairs Cup, a competition for those cities that host a trade fair. Bit bizarre I know and shows why London and Birmingham had teams. The Cup Winners Cup just ended without much of a sendoff and they gave the cup winners from then on one of the Uefa places. The cup winners have been getting a place in Europe for almost 50 years...no need to change that now (as ihateburnley suggests), there has been enough downgrading of the FA Cup as it is. Certainly he wouldn't be complaining if it meant Rovers got in that way...as we were all hoping for last year until Arsenal ruined that little dream.

Bit worrying to see that Stoke City dropped Gallagher to the bench last night, not sure if it was tactical or lack of fitness, and still won away from home. QPR 1 Stoke 2

Other good 'uns - Martin O'Neill, James Richardson (fella who presents the Italian football) and Gab Marcotti. Bad 'uns - Le Saux, Lee Dixon and Paul Gascoigne...remember his almost totally incoherent stints at the World Cup for ITV?