Bit disappointed to see Keane pointed to his head after the second goal went on. Didn't expect him to own up to or anything but there was no need to keep on the charade after the goal had been given.

McEveley Suprise Inclusion Jay McEveley is on his way back.

You're a cup half-full kind of guy at the moment and usually I am too but only one loss in eleven? If football could be predicted that easily it wouldn't be so interesting or infuriating. After recent losses to West Brom and the ten-men of Everton I don't think we have the consistency to reach fourth spot. 7th place would be an excellent achievement and that is what I'll guess at, with whoever plays in the cup final deciding whether we get a Uefa Cup place or not. Hopefully I'm wrong and you are right on this though ... ...and there is also the Intertoto after all...better than nothing!

Is there any correlation between Stanley coming into the Conference and our falling gates? Obviously they wouldn't have taken that many fans off us but maybe a few hundred is possible. This is also at a time when Rovers need all the fans they can get. Improving TV revenue (not unreasonable to expect more of our games on TV next season if we finish in a good position as Sky name the games they will show for the first few months of a season before it even kicks off) and the place we finish (prize money) is all well and good but losing fans will partly cut into whatever cash we gain from a better placing. Stanley coming up to the league, as seems inevitable, may see them tempting a few fans. Not loads but a few the club could still do with at Ewood.

You might have meant that as a rhetorical question Dave but to Jan it probably isn't...

It's Pleckgate...and it's not the first time they have had games on this season by any stretch of the imagination. They are only one of many however. They are just doing what the other boozers are doing. There is obviously a market for it...but it's affecting Rovers. Stopping one pub showing it won't work as people will just go to another showing it. A few times I've seen people coming in and asking if the game is on only to leave to try somewhere else, albeit that was an away game so not so detrimental to the cash from Rovers. All the pubs would have to be blocked from showing the games on foreign TV...isn't there some way these channels could be blocked in the East Lancs area when Rovers are playing at home? Sky seem to be hammering down our gates this season...if they are scheduling the higher-profile games at crappy times (Bolton, Liverpool etc) they are portraying us as thugs. Fortunately the latter seems to be improving thanks to the likes of Charlie Nicholas and Andy Gray having praised us but the gates may take longer to solve.

It's a Catch-22 situation...bring them in on offers for the big games but then many will be wanting tickets that cheap for every game! Rovers can't really win to be honest.

We've just beat the team that won away at the Bernabeau. Superb result. These are heady times for Rovers. We should fear no team at home...and that includes Chelsea. If we can sort out the away form then we should be aiming for the top 4, not just a Uefa Cup spot. Hughes as a contender for Premiership Manager of the Year?

Fair enough, wasn't trying to have a go at all the dads and lads... and mums and young ladies too! Don't take it personally!

Do the drummers get free tickets from the club? Get rid. Not needed at the games and the utterly pathetic 'Gerrintterum' chant is an embarrasment to the entire club. As for the Family Stand - how about next to the BBE in the lower Jack Walker? Good atmosphere - near the most vocal section but allows more fans who would like to sing to get into the BBE.

True but there is more to it than that. The clubs have individual pay-per-view deals and that is suiting the big clubs just fine. They 'big three' of Jue-Inter-AC Milan are raking it in and probably wouldn't care too much about the rest of the league. It could be a worrying vision of the future here...rapidly declining crowds as everyone just watches it on telly. Not to mention an even greater disparity between the big clubs and the others than we have here at the moment.

Derbyshire enjoying loan "The 19-year-old said: "It's a lot more beneficial than playing in Blackburn's reserves because here at Wrexham there are points at stake and jobs on the line. "That's what you want and I'm really enjoying myself. There's a good set of lads and although I'm here for an initial month, I'd like to stay longer." "

Tugay is a class player and he was never all that consistent for us when he first joined so I don't know why people are blaming his age for it now. As for religion...I couldn't care less if he was a Mormon from Utah with six wives who were all also his cousins.* Many of the people saying Tugay should go are the same who didn't want us to given him another deal last summer. The Turkish Delight has already proved them once wrong. * Sorry to any people from Utah reading this who aren't married to eight wives who are all their cousins.

You said - "But there is a theoretical set of circumstances in which 5th in the Prem would not get a UEFA slot-" They would either be in the Champs League or Uefa Cup whatever happens. EDIT - Oh wait sorry - now I get it!

Has it been amended should that happen again that the fourth placed team loses the spot? Or is it like this season where there were five English clubs in at different stages?

It's been said many times but I cannot remember a promotion to any decent game. The board seem to try 'kid for a quid' against the likes of Villa...why not try it against a bigger side as a big one-off? People say these deals don't attract many fans...why not try it properly for once? Kid for a quid against Arsenal is a worth a try. Why bother with half-arsed promotions? Do it for a good game and then see if it works or not, as opposed to a dull-seeming fixture which won't even get the die-hards particularly worked-up. So these promotions get to see Ewood at its least vibrant. Smacks of shooting oneself in the foot to not promote Ewood in its best light. At least then they would know for sure.

Not sure about this but can't tickets also be booked over the phone then picked up from the ground on the night? Yet booking fee still applies??? I know it seems like only a couple of quid but a booking fee when you buy something as simple as a ticket is a bit much. Amazon may charge postage but they deliver the product to the door. With Rovers you have to still take the ticket and make your own way to the club to get the product. No big deal or anything, just a minor quibble.

Why have booking fees at all? Fans should be able to buy them by whatever means is available and not be penalised. Why should someone who can't make it down to the ground have to pay extra on the phone? The Kid for a quid against Villa? is a good idea however. Maybe letting in kids for a quid for all Category B games would be worth looking into - hopefully the parents will be coaxed into getting tickets for those. They are cheap tickets anyway for those games but maybe the 1quid option could be used in a marketing campaign. All this will be a losing battle however as most Rovers home games seem to be being shown in local pubs live. The pubs must be making a hell of a lot more money on matchdays...as opposed to the club. Some way to blank out the foreign TV coverage?

Didn't it used to be having to finish twelfth or above?

We're Rovers Jim...we should take whatever we can get. As for 'the sort of thing Newcastle or Villa do'....exactly. Are we to think of oursleves as being above them? Try telling that to one of their fans. The choice may be between the Intertoto or nothing at all. I reckon it's better than nothing...

How else are we going to get a Dunn or a Duff in their pomp playing for Rovers? We certainly can't afford to bring them in when they are delivering the goods at the top level. Not so long ago we were linked with Stuart Downing but what would he cost in a transfer? Young English winger - £5million? The Academy is just a modernised version of the old youth system that produced Duff and Dunn. If we scrap the Academy then what do we replace it with? We've just got to hope that the young players coming through now will do better than those over the last few seasons. I'd suggest though that the example of Danns and Beattie shows that just because we let them go early doesn't mean they aren't necessarily good enough and may still have a future. We got £1million off the Kevin Davies fee for Beattie. Even including the sell-on clause...we wuz robbed.

It's not the Intertoto itself which causes problems later on but how the manager utilises their full squad towards it. The are examples of teams going on to win their domestic league after entering the Intertoto. That shows that it can be used as a positive force. The games help with match fitness but if the same players are playing every minute of every game there is bound to some burnout later on. Certainly I'd be happier with Hughes taking us into this than I would have been with Souness. Souness would probably have done it half-heartedly as we aren't a big enough team blah blah... The Intertoto has become an excuse for underperforming managers to blame their season on and it seems fans have fallen for it. If used well the Intertoto could be a positive way to start the season, rather than just a lame excuse for everything that goes wrong in the next nine months. Hughes is a positive character so couldn't see him doing that. Besides...I'd just like us to win a few games in Europe...we've been waiting for long enough for Pete's sake!!!

Well I don't disagree with any of that. What I was disagreeing with was the suggestion that the reason we lost was 'lack of effort' and just using that as a catch-all excuse, although to be fair I think MB was just pee'd off like the rest of us. This side is light years ahead of what it was under the last days of Souness. Maybe misapplication of effort is more like it. They were running about with little to show for it. Everton's effort seemed all the more controlled. When they got the ball they immediately broke. They're a good counter-attacking team. They sit back, man-mark and wait for the ball to come to them...suddenly they then break with pace. Playing with ten men didn't really change their gameplan. Kuqi, for all his faults bless him, does offer a physical presence up front. Exactly what is needed against tall centre halves like Weir and Stubbs. We were ran out of ideas more than anything. If we'd played another ninety minutes I'd not expect us to score. They were so well-marshalled that something special was needed to break them down. We didn't have anything to do that. Other than hustle and bustle we had nothing. What worries is that Sunderland will most likely play a similar game. Men behind the ball, defending in numbers. We need to be able to break down a team who have no wish to go forward except in short stints. Hopefully Sunderland will be rubbish as usual though.

OK fair enough I agree with what you say. Certainly there was no lack of players running around, albeit like headless chickens at times. There was a lack of application. The 'didn't try enough' line is a stock response from fans whenever their team loses, unless against a big team when instead there is usually a wry shake of the head and 'they tried their best, we were outclassed' attitude, even if they didn't! thenodrog - there was plenty of movement off-the-ball but the only way we could see to get the ball played with speed forward was to pump it forward by which time Everton were back in position. Everton defended so deep that there was no areas for our forwards to run behind to get into space. It seems to be that you are suggesting effort is all that matters...well, how much more effort do we need to win the Premiership? Certainly agree though that we had no captain driving the team on. Todd may wear the armband but Savage is captain in all but name. He's the one running around and showing the team how to disrupt the rest. Today he was largely anonymous.

Yeah..that's what I think MB