den

If John Williams is guilty of anything, it's backing his manager too far. Maybe a wiser C.E. would have realised a little earlier what was happening.

Talking about HK, he came into the club and decided straight away that we needed to become harder to beat. Is he doing anything these days?

But we've nothing else to judge Hughesy on Den! And thats precisely why given our squad and position I was against his appointment. The choice of Hughes as manager represents a huge gamble by the board, and given the options available maybe too big a gamble. Howard Kendall worked out OK though. Before you say it, it was the third division and he was quite a good player himself.

C.M, unless you have a reason to want another one?

Aha - touche'

Adopted Scouser approaches judge after recieving custodial sentence for fraudulent chocolate scam.

Al.

Oh, come on guys cheer up. If the club is in your heart, it wont take much of an upturn to bring the enthusiasm back. I suspect a lot of this down-heartedness is a fall out from the backward thinking that became all too familiar under Souness.

Well Duggie's on his way to 100 votes. Previously Colin Hendry had the most with 89.

I wouldn't judge any manager by their international record, it's totally different to club management. Just look at Peter Taylor's record as under 21 manager - excellent, club manager - useless.

We're allowed 15 options on a poll, I could think of exactly 15 wingers, so not being a believer in censorship, [gulp] decided to let 'em all have a chance.

Thought you were doing well until those last two sentences, Brownie. We're not in Europe now and we look more like going down, than ever before. If you get a chance in Europe - go for it. Fortune only favours the brave.

I think so. Thankfully most people are prepared to give a little input to the topic, while others presumably, just want to destroy. We'll cope.

LET I assume these are from the letters page of the lancs evening telegraph.

I'm not certain about the year, Tonyoz. You could be right. Norwich - I went to that one. Caught the Cliff Owen's coach from Chorley about half past six in the morning. Don't think there were any motorways then. 2-2, spot on. Lots of trouble on and off the pitch. Rovers fans caused trouble around the town centre and rovers refused to have the same ref for the replay. Oh, happy days!

What I said Abbey, was that we shouldn't get confused between the events of last Saturday and the general standing/sitting argument. Of course you can discuss whatever you want on here. As for the lad 2 rows in front, I take your word about that. At the end of the day, what is the clubs position on this? It is a very difficult one. Fact: the club must ensure that the home fans sit down. If they don't do that, the authorities can close down the stand. Does anyone in the BBE want that, because any concerted attempt to stand up continuously during games could result in this. What does the club do about away fans standing continuously? Well, they could wade into 8000 scousers on Saturday week. Or, they could do as required by the authorities and report the situation. Which is the sensible solution? If it was me, I would take the second option. I think, after taking most of this thread into account, that rovers are taking the correct decisions. However what I've said all along, is that they must do everything in their power, to approach the people in the BBE, with a lot more respect. Persuasion, not provocation. I wouldn't want to see anything like the events last Saturday re-occur. The club must reconsider their approach. Any stand up protests on the next home game will only make the clubs position even more difficult.

With all respect Den IMO this interlinked and was the basis of the problem -including what was happening on the pitch. The club insist that no-one has been ejected because of standing. I suspect that as long as the fans in the BBE don't start to stand en-masse [like that? ], that particular problem wont crop up. But if they start ejecting people again on the slightest whim of misbehaviour, then big trouble awaits. That's all I'm saying, the club must tread very carefully and the fans must also behave.

We should be careful on this thread, that we don't confuse the situation. I don't think we should be discussing the issue of standing/sitting during games. The issue is what was going on in the BBE last Saturday. The club must realise that at this time, with the fans pretty much up to the teeth with the so called football on display for the last couple of seasons and drifting away in hordes, that even THREATENING to throw the fans out, is counter productive to the extreme. Hopefully, during the Liverpool game, the stewards will take a much more tolerant view and we wont see a repeat of last weekend. That's my viewpoint, anyway.

The best answer to all this, is simply to instruct the stewards in the home areas, to use as much common sense as possible. i.e, NOT to throw home fans out. To use friendly persuasion, not what is essentially violence. That will calm the situation at least for the immediate future. They don't see the need to throw away fans out at this moment in time, so they shouldn't see the need to throw the home fans out.

The club are in a VERY difficult position. One simple question that they haven't answered is: What action will the club take when fans in both the home and away areas are seen to be standing. It's a question that they are, not surprisingly, avoiding.

Tom Finn explains the pressure rovers are under, to ensure all fans remain seated during games. LET I can't argue with that, but IMO, what he will have to be careful about is that they don't start throwing rovers fans out during the Liverpool game. If they do and the 'pool fans are standing there could be real trouble. One possible problem rovers will face, is that some of the home fans could be ready to actually START trouble, even if they're not provoked.

Link doesn't work.

Give us an "R", give us an "E"

but the club say they haven't thrown anyone out for standing up.

You thought we'd all forgot, didn't you!