Think some of the anti-Portugal posts are unfair, it wasn't their fault the referee disallowed the goal. Well, not unless a brown paper bag is on its way to the land of cuckoo clocks and Toblerone...Just kidding! So... Well done to the Portugal fans on here. Their had to be a winner and it was you so good luck for the rest of the tournament. Most of us English are gracious in defeat, certainly once the shock of the thing wears off anyway! For the last six months I've been saying Czech Republic will win it so I'll stick to that but who knows? Certainly not me after last night!

I'd say I probably feel the same supporting England as I do supporting Rovers. Personally I don't understand all this club over country or, on the other hand, country over club guff. Why choose between the two? The difference may be that it is over a much longer period supporting the club but that's no excuse. Rovers AND England for me, to be honest I can't for the life of me think of one sensible reason why I would ever bother to choose between the two. Rev- you answered your own question by saying those who have no interest in football yet wondering where they are for Rovers. Passionately supporting a club is for football fans whereas supporting your country once every two years is for everyone. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As for the comments mentioned about a good England run boosting sales. Well...it certainly did after 1966. Typical bloody Rovers though...they'd just been relegated from the top flight after losing fourteen (14!!!) home games and thus missed out on the post-World Cup boost that many clubs received. That was our worst ever total of home defeats and not even a World Cup win was going to tempt the fans back to Ewood. Makes the home form of last season seem not so bad after all...

If Portugal weren't at home I'd go for us withour hesitation. They are though, which makes it much more difficult... If however we do go out I do hope I'll at least be able to look forward to another drunken post from AESF.... ...he let us down after the Croatia game!

Very interesting thread. Personally I reckon lofty would make a great moderator, especially as he already made mates with Steb, Glenn and Paul. Not to mention putting Ste and his humour in his place. Wonder why he is called lofty though. Is he tall? Does he live in his mum's attic? Or is he a dead ringer for Lofty from Eastenders... I for one would love to know.

Haven't we already had this 'big teams' argument for the Champions League? When Porto and Monaco weren't deemed 'big enough' by some, who only want to see the likes of Real Madrid and AC Milan in the final? Seemed like a daft argument then and seems like one now. Personally I only wish to see 'star' names and big-name teams in the laster stages if they deserve to be there on merit. All this star struck stuff and big team guff seems a bit adolescent if you ask me (which nobody did so feel free to ignore me). The footballing equivalent of screaming at Take That. Or Blue or whichever rubbishy manufactured boyband they scream at these days...

Definitely, although he is quite new to it and may improve. Mark Lawrenson seems to me the best of the co-commentators outside of Sky. Although he is a prat he does know his stuff. Bit like Big Ron before he had his funny do. Think he'll be back eventually... One question - Why do commentators find foreign names so pant-wettingly funny? How many jokes do we have to hear about "wouldn't like to pronounce that one!?!". Why not? It's only a few syllables worth! Even now you hear some jokes about Macmanaman...although fortunately that's no longer about his name but how Keegan wasted a shedload of dosh on him...

I'm still disappointed we didn't get a drunken AESF post after the match. Hope Smithy sorts it out for Thursday!

There is always someone coming along saying it is fate that this is the time- no doubt some Italians and Spaniards said so this time last week. As for it being "one big upset"; not quite, it'd certainly be a bit of upset but it'd be a major suprise only to those who thought England had no chance at all in the first place. In other words, those who don't know their arse from their elbow. England have always had a decent chance but then so do a number of other teams and yes, that included Spain... It's still France's tournament for the taking though....

Welcome back lofty- we missed you. However, you still have said when that Fred Walker money you mentioned is coming into the club.

The LET seem to think that Matteo has set his heart on Ewood and will move in the next fortnight. Rovers move in on Matteo (think this link was also on the 'summer targets' thread so apologies if you have already read it. It's no wonder that Leeds are in such trouble when they were paying Matteo £40,000 a week. If they are playing that for some players, how much were their stars getting? I'm sure the likes of Dacourt, Ferdinand, Fowler and Viduka were on even more ridciulous amounts than that.

You could have knocked me down with a feather. Positive Jim. Not only are there little England flags on your Datsun Sunny but now you expect to win the thing. Is there any chance of this positivity being extended to Rovers for the upcoming season?

mode_m - your opinion matters just as much as the opinion of anybody else. We like to pretend we know what will happen but in reality each of us has to wait and see. That includes Souness/Wenger/Ferguson etc. They may be making educated guesses but they are guesses all the same. It's all predictions and opinions!

It doesn't get any better for Stanlehhh.....he's just been turned down for the Dunfermline job after throwing in his begging bowl. Poor lamb. No doubt he thought they were a "massive club" just like Burnley. They didn't want him either... Dunfermline unveil Hay

Well, cn174 will certainly be relieved that you have switched your attentions to Blue Phil. Go on - give him a 'big hug'. Another good point about your switching to BP is that there is a rumour that he is "easy". Admittedly it's not a very old rumour (I'm actually beginning it with this post) but no smoke without fire and all that eh? Sweden looked good against Bulgaria but I still like the look of Czech Republic. They didn't play too well but still won and teams like that always must be feared (read France as well). As for Spain- they look good but from now it starts to get tough for them. Portugal and (possibly) France in the next two games. If they get through those intact this may just be their long-awaited moment after all...

In all fairness, I've backed up why I have a downer on us signing de Pedro. In all fairness, it's guesswork on your part.

Don't think it'd be that crazy- Everton might just sell for the right price. They need half a new team so, as good as Rooney is, they may see it at as a good deal for them. If the bid is high enough.

Yes I agree but no way can these people be termed fans when they committed their actions. Thugs yes, English yes, criminals yes... but fans...it's utterly irrelevant when England are playing hundreds of miles away!!! I don't give a damn what tournament is on, the national team or the FA have nothing to do with the actions of these people away from the immediate area of the football ground. Now I know I'm probably preaching to the converted but ITV (not seen the BBC coverage) is putting forth that this is football hooliganism. It's only half right. It is hooliganism, simple as that. I'm not going to say they aren't proper football fans because many probably are (just because people like a fight dosn't mean they can't like football) but their actions cannot be connected to football just because they support a team. That is why I mentioned the absurd notion that Portugal should be chucked out because there have been murders in the country this year. It's unconnected to football- just my point! That was he joke! If some thug puts through the window of a bar don't blame football- blame that thug. Now that's personal responisbility, being responsible for their own actions. Next time I get a library fine maybe I should blame being an England fan? Yes I'm taking it to extremes but so much crap is spoken about hooliganism that it isn't that daft in this context. Personal responsibility. I'm sure most people would do this anyway but not all...some have selective prejudices. They find loathe racism, ageism and sexism but are happy to brand all who support England as brainless thugs. England fans deservedly have a bad reputation but it isn't helped when incidents of drunken holidaymakers (whether or not it has happened before in that area does not mean it is related to football) is thrown at their door. Blackburn Ender - I did mention before in this thread that England fans are headline news but it still doesn't excuse such biased, sensationalist and almost unethical journalism we see from papers and TV. They are supposed to report what happens but unfortunately they only ever report the juicy stuff, they don't even have a passing reference to the rest of the fans most of the time. Anything for those juicy sales/ratings.... OK, rant over....I'll shut up now for a change and give someone else a chance!

Sorry Oklahama- I think I got mixed up there and I am agreeing with you! Exactly- what do any crimes away from the stadium have to do with Euro 2004? There are more English fans in Portugal than from any other nation (apart from the Porugese obviously) and very, very few of those will be involved in any trouble. The vast majority will go, have a good time and be a huge benefit to the Portugese economy. Unfortunately in some parts of the media all we hear apart are the tiny numbers that do make trouble. It is irritating but a lot of people do think all football fans are thugs. Yes, they are ignorant but their ignorance is fuelled by the sensationalist reports in the press and on TV. Yet soueyisgod complains about it being "Funny how the english press are playing down what happened" in the first post in this thread. That's strange- he has previously said that nobody else knows about Spanish football because they don't live there yet he knows about the English press even though he is in Spain? Tales of football violence have dominating news schedules for a number of days and even before the tournament kicked off there were loads of stories about it. This is what people are getting irritated about- the actions of the criminal few are being rammed down our throats whereas the peaceful and friendly majority are ignored. I'm getting sick and tired of all the sensationalist reporting. Give a dog a bad name and he'll have it for life...it's about time we heard less about England fans having such a bad name. About time the good and decent people of England got their football team back.

How is it football related? Was it outside a stadium? During a game? Or was it in reality far away from where England are playing tonight and therefore not football related at all???

Where do these lies about possible expulsion come from? The head of Uefa has denied it...we will not be thrown out because of criminals! Why not throw the Portugese out? Are you telling me there were no murders in Portugal at all this year? Of course there were! So chuck the team out then, what's the problem? I'm sick of people (be it the newspapers or TV) using the criminal activity of a few to threaten a whole nation with thoughts that their national side will be thrown out.

Don't you mean where's Fred Walker when you need him?

What a suprise! After Lowe messed up yet again some other things came out??? You amaze me! I won't be so amazed again until the next time you need a manager and Lowe goes sniffing around Hoddle's arse once more... PS- liquidsaint, i'm not slating you- just interesting how these rumours came out after he turned your lot down and not before...

Sociedad? Where on earth is this place called Sociedad??? As for the chippy at the top of Shear Brow...it's a chinese now you know.. ..do you keep up you old fart/tart !!!....

According to this at Uefa.com , De Pedro has "educated left foot" so maybe when it's not needed on the pitch it'll be able to give some Spanish lessons to Lee. Paul Dickov maybe should attend as well, just in case he gets thrown in a Spanish jail again for something he didn't do. Hopefully De Pedro will be able to settle in sunny Lancashire. If he misses the sea of San Sebastian (home of Real Sociedad) we can always give him a game in the reserves at Morecambe. Morecame...it'll be just like being back in Spain for him.

The threat of expulsion is not a real one, Uefa chief Lennart Johansson has himself come out and said so. Apparently some minor official at Uefa got above his station and has been told his place. Why expel the England team when Uefa have been selling their fans tickets on their website which does not use the checks that the travel club of the FA does? Also- surely chucking out the team representing an entire nation because of a couple of hundred drunk idiots on holiday is tantamount to racism or is at least extremely prejudiced regarding a nation of 50 million people? It certainly suggests that all English people are like that if you follow that dubious line of reasoning.