Well for what it's worth [not much], that midfield would struggle to get a kick against a bolton side who are very direct. Getting the ball on the ground long enough to play, is difficult against the trotters. Gray has no chance and to be fair to Matteo, he hasn't done too badly recently. There may be an argument to include Amoruso against Bolton, because of their insistence at getting the ball into the oppositions area, but Nissa has done nothing wrong - yet! It's only a matter of time though.

Warning to everyone travelling by car This is lancashire "Police are warning that, along with football fans, thousands of shoppers are also likely to be heading in the direction of the Middlebrook to take advantage of sales. Roadworks on De Havilland Way have been suspended over Christmas to allow for better traffic flow and police have been given assurances that extra trains have been scheduled to run between Bolton Station and Horwich Parkway. A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "Anyone going to the game should remember it will be busier than a normal matchday. "Not only do we have extra traffic coming from Blackburn, but we're also expecting a high number of shoppers. "If possible, we would urge people to consider taking a train."

Roberts' goal was the fault of not having enough people in the wall. The guy hit a fearsome shot, and Friedel had no chance. Who's responsibility is it to organise the wall - the captains?

Alan, I've got to agree 100% with your assessment of Dickov. However, he really is the first striker to go onto the teamsheet at the moment, and that speaks volumes for the situation. I can't see any other combination of strikers that would be good enough to lead us out of the "championship", never mind save us from the drop. Looks to me as if Bothroyd will have to go back to Italy as well. A non scoring centre forward, is what nobody wants.

That's an excellent preview Bellamy11 and Mark. Thanks very much chaps.

I left rovers in good shape - Souness.

Rovers fans can book tickets online for the Darwen end lower via the official site, so I assume they have only given Newcastle 5500 tickets.

Sounds like Shearer may not play. Shame, I'd have loved the rovers' fans to have the chance to say goodbye. LINK

Everton's official site reckon 40% of the crowd on Saturday will be Everton fans!

Be careful, the main line is undergoing about 6 months of severe disruption.

Interesting. A thread descending into all kinds of abuse and bickering. A thread that has no substance whatsoever. Nice one Waggy.

After the Spurs and Palace games, anyone still think the priority is a centre half or midfielder?

Whatever you like. What about a greatest ever club benefactor poll?

I think to be fair to everyone, a Christmas break after this left winger poll, is the way to go. I'll let this poll go until the end of this week and then close down until January. There's more than enough footy over Christmas to keep everyone busy. Then in January we can have the two strikers and the poll for the best of the lot.

I think what you are seeing, is the academy under 19 side replacing the reserves. Seems the right way to go, to me. If the reserve side was full of first team squad players, the over 18's wouldn't get a game at any time. On top of that, not many of the big clubs play their first team squad players in the reserves. There doesn't seem much point, the reserve games are usually the last place to make a judgement of a player.

I understand the clamour for a centre half, but one new central defender isn't going to sort out the defence. We'll still be shaky. Whereas one striker could keep us up, virtually on his own.

The defence, while certainly not being the best, is performing better because of the improved fitness of the whole squad. Bothroyd, Jansen, Gally, Stead or Dickov haven't proved that they will score enough goals to keep us up. So, to me, it's vital that we find someone who is going to score 10 goals or more between Jan/May.

Didn't include all positions, I reckon these are the ones Bob is thinking about.

I'm not sure without going back through loads of pages. Are you thinking about subs? [i will go back through all this thread, when we've finished].

Yes Waggy, without wading back through all the votes again, this is by far the most overwhelming victory. Whether that's because of the quality of Duff and/or the quality of the opposition, you've got to work out for yourself. BTW chaps - shall we plough through Christmas and new year with this poll, or take a break and come back in January with the striker and best ever player polls? What does anyone think. I'm leaning towards a mid winter break.

Your joking aren't you? Nice sunny morning? Remember this year? Yeah, but I didn't want to tell Paul it's crap if it rains. There's always Weatherspoons though.

Did they check the 2 tickets history or did they just ask and then proceed with your tickets without checking?? they asked for the account numbers and then checked which matches we had attended.

I thought Saturday was a day, where we were crying out for an Andy Cole. BIG BIG mistake.

That's the busiest the lines have been for a long time. I got two £27ers after being number 28 in the queue.

p.s. get there early, watch some of the warm up, the toss and generally soak up the atmosphere.