I wonder about Hughes' 'comments' from Sky Sports today. Maybe we're not getting the full story. he says he won't give up the Wales job to join Rovers (after Saturday's debacle who can blame him ?) but he doesn't say he won't do BOTH jobs, the Welsh one part time. My money's now going on Strachan though. Please God, not Dowie. He's a one season wonder. Palace are truly awful right now. Whatever happens, can we be put out of our misey soon - we need to appoint someone quick for Saturday. Accyrover

I fully expect Hughes to be installed tomorrow. A fairly good source has told me he's down at Ewood today. We dont want Dowie. Palace were absolutely dreadful yesterday. I've gone off the idea of Houllier. Please God no Reid, Advocaat or Royle. Moyes would be ok but its not going to happen. Its Hughes for me. And quick after yesterday's shambles. Accyrover

I was getting texts and phone calls from Lancashirelass. She said we were bloody awful. Apparently the Geordies dont want Souness, especially after seeing what a mess he's left us in. Accyrover

I still have doubts about Hughes. Managing an international side and managing a club side are worlds apart. He's never had to deal with transfers or work with players and their over-inflated ego's day in day out. Having said that he's ambitious, well respected in the game and seems a genuinly straight and fair bloke in interviews. The squad seem to want him which is a good thing. If we don't go for him, and I don't believe for one minute he won't be appointed on Monday, I would prefer to see Houllier over Dowie. At least he has a lot of experience, and did relatively well at Liverpool given the pressure of the job. At the end of the day I'm as clueless as the rest of you. Funny how Souness has already started falling out with players before he officially takes charge Poor old Patrick. there's going to be some worried prima-donna's on Tyneside this weekend. Accyrover

My sentiments exactly. I said all that yesterday. As much as I hate to admit it, the French Clown has the right credentials and neccessary experience. Moyes isn't the manager he was at Preston and Hughes simply hasn't got the experience. My heart says Hughes. My head says Monsieur Houllier. Accyrover

Everton have called an Emergency Board meeting this evening, apparently to install a new chairman or something......something tells me the managers position may be discussed as well. Perhaps there's no smoke without fire. David Moyes for Rovers anyone ? Accyrover

Wouldnt mind Earnshaw or Giggs or even Bellamy but please not Robbie Savage! I'd absolutely love Robbie Savage. Cracking little player who gets stuck in, doesn't get sent off, can take set pieces, and winds the opposition up no end. He's just been sent off for Wales ! Accyrover

Ok, I've had time to think on this . Firstly, I reckon Souey did the honourable thing. Instead of us sacking him (which was definately an option) and having to pay him compensation, he buggers off up the A1, takes Saunders, Doctor Death and Murray with him. We get compensation from The Barcodes instead of having to shell it out to a sacked manager and Souness saves face in the process. Priceless. The inevitable war at Toon will mean Souness will quickly be turned on by the fans, Bellamy, Hair Dryer and Shearer will not appreciate Souey's managerial style and I predict they'll be in the managerial market again next summer (Souey will continue north and park his backside firmly on Ibrox's centre spot). Now, replacements. Mark Hughes is the favourite with the bookies. Will he leave the Welsh job until the end of the WC qualifying ? I doubt it. Will JW et al allow him to do both jobs simultaneously ? Who knows. Is he experienced enough ? No, in my opinion. Suprise contender today is Dick Advocaat (isn't that a type of Christmas 'alcoholic' drink given to kids to make them feel they're having a proper drink ?). Might introduce Hash Pies in the concourse pre-games and the half time entertainment could be interesting. You want shum Schmokes ? Definately a possibility. ) Mike Newall. No. Perhaps as a number 2, but not the main job. Paul Jewell. A possibilty but a big enough name ? JW reckons it will be someone with proven credentials. So, sorry to say that leaves : Glenda, Eilleen and the Salvation Army. Its possible. Apparently very interested but may need to get a road atlas out as he's not often seen north of the M25. Terry Venables. Used car anyone ? Do we really want Arfur Daly in charge ? Could attract big name players with the right 'wedge' behind him. Gerrard Houllier. Don't laugh, we could do worse. Ok, the guy had a cr*p time at Liverpool at the end and has a heart complaint, but doesn't that all sound familiar ? He won stuff at 'Pool but didn't win the Premiership. Lets face it chaps, neither are we ! He's actually a good coach, is well connected, if not a little volatile and perhaps a bit loony. Favours the long ball game but tactically astute and would sort our defensive problems out (selling Amo would be a start ?) Gordon Strachan. Hardly set the world on fire at Soton. Got Coventry relegated. Tactically good, but volatile. Its the red hair. Winds me up rotton but may be ok for us. Peter Taylor. Destroyed Leicester. Blackburn wouldn't be his style (ie : not by the sea and / or smelling of fish) Bobby Robson. Too old. Nice chap, mad as a bucket of frogs. Irony if he took it though ? Bryan Robson. Not even remotely. My gut feeling says Strachan. I wish it wasn't. I would like (crash helmet on) Houllier. Yes, I've changed my tune big time since yesterday. I just reckon with less pressure to succeed he would do a good job for us. Only draw back is he'd probably bring Pinnochio and Sammy Lee with him. Mark Hughes as his assistant anyone ? he could continue with the Wales job, and learn the club management ropes from Houllier. Accyrover (digs trench, jumps in it).

John Williams has said there's been over a dozen applications already. He reckons there'll be an appointment not earlier than the Newcastle game. My preferences :- Gordon Strachan Mark Hughes Chris Coleman Sam the Walrus from The Breezeblock Rather not see at Ewood : Steve McMahon David Moyes Houllier (pleas God, no !) Sir Bobby (sorry, great guy, too old) Colin Hendry (too inexperienced yet) Mike Newell (as with Big Col) Glenda Hobble, Eileen Drury and the God Squad Ginaluca Vialli No chance (but would love to see) : Otto Hitz-what's-his-name Phillipe Troussier Frank Rikjaard Luis Phillipe Scolari Claudio Ranieri Only in my worst nightmares : Sven (with attractive baggage) Houllier (again) Stanley Turnip Paul Sturrock Neil Warnock Craig Brown Grabbi as player manager Andy Cole / Dwight Yorke (as joint player managers) The Krankies Worries : Souness raiding us in the mid season transfer window (bye bye Ferguson, Stead, Neill and Brad ?) John Williams having a brainstorm and appointing Houllier Terry Venables Hopes : Souness takes Amoruso with him Positives : Refs might like us again and give us some penalties Souness has gone stale, lost the dressing room and any tactical nouse he once had has buggered off up Bolton Road. Playing Gresko in midfield FFS ! Dean Saunders and Phil Boersma (AKA Doctor Death) will bog off up the A1. Great ! Cheers ! Accyrover

Jesus...he looks like Stan Collymore's little brother. Well that makes me feel a hell of a lot better. If someone whacks the ball into the corner all we need to do is chuck a talentless Swedish bint onto the corner flag and he'll leg the length of the pitch to get at her. Lovely. On a lighter note, lets give the lad a chance. Anything is better than that lazy couldn't-hit-a-cows-arse-with-a-banjo Yorke. Accyrover

I really believe there is a conspiracy going on here. Souey didnt comment on the ref today, perhaps Williams et al have told him to stop moaning about the refs because.......(conspiracy coming up) Today we got nothing. Again. Everytime a Man Ure player went down they got a free kick. The sending off was debatable and the Smith goal should never have stood. The number of wrongly given throw in's and corner to Ure were unbelievable. They clattered our players and not even a card. Everytime we went near one of them the ref blew for a foul. Add that to D'Urso's disgraceful display at Soton and you have ask yourself - have the refs got it in for us because Souey is always publically blasting them ? Accyrover

I reckon D'Urso and Urs Meier were seperated at birth. I honestly thought I would never see amore incompetent refereeing disply after Euro 2004 but b*gger me if I didn't see one yesterday. D'Urso was a disgrace, not only for awarding the penalty but apparently he booked the wrong player in Ferguson the 2nd time round and that was his excuse for not sending him off ! The guy is an absolute idiot. He's a disgrace to the 'profession'. Accylad

I was as confused as everyone else. In the 1st half I was desperately trying to figure out what the heck was happening in midfield. At one stage we seemed to be playing a wing back system on the right, and a standard 4-4-2 on the left, in that Emerton was going forward from right back with the right sided midfielder tucked in, yet we were playing a conventional left back in Gray and left midfielder in De Pedro. What the hell Gresko was doing in midfield I'll never know and Matteo....well, I'm open to suggestions on why Souness has decided to play him in midfield in the first place. The problem was were were being horribly exposed on our right flank. I spent most of the 2nd half with my head in my hands. I didn't start doing that last season until mid October. Its going to be a long hard road again. At least Yorke seems to have been unshackled now his sulky mate has gone and I thought Dickov was awesome second half. Accyrover

2-0 to Rovers. Accyrover

We looked fairly comfortable at the back, although Nils-Eric made a couple of blunders. Amo looked solid. Matteo started off in midfield in the 1st half but dropped back into CD in the 2nd. Great run to set up 2nd goal. very impressed with his workrate. Fergy looked comfortable in midfield but Emerton is still an enigma. Gally looked lost on the left wing. Stead worked his socks off. I hate to say it but Yorke was our best player. Gresko looked good on the left wing in the 1st half and Gray was his usual industrious self. All in all a fairly comfortable win. Poor showing from the Stockport faithfull though. We made more noise than they did. Accyrover

There was one in Mellor at roughly the same time. Only for about 15 mins. What power cut ? I didnt notice that ! Accyrover

Clearly sales stats prove you are wrong. There's obviously a lot of people 'not in the right mind' then. Just let it go. It was a very sad moment in history and The Sun was out of order, but then they're not renowned for their journalistic scruples. There's nothing you can do to change what has happened and constantly bleating on about the Sun will not change history. I'm sorry you feel the way you do after all this time and I hope you can eventually come to terms with it. Accyrover

The only thing that worries me is our defence. With Terry out we are seriously down to the dregs, and no disrespect to King or Carragher - but they are not world calss in my opinion. Henry and Trez with rip them apart. I can see us losing to France, scraping a draw against Switz and beating Croatia. We'll probably then face either Portugal or Spain in the 1/4's - neither of whom I fancy our chances against given they are more used to the conditions (ie: flipping hot - look how we folded against the Brazilians in the last World Cup). Anything less than semi's is a bad tournament for Sven, but I cant see us getting there. Accyrover

Is there any concrete news on this ? Rumours are that pederson and Tromso have agreed a deal but the stumbling block is that tromso want to keep him until their season closes at the end of October. Rovers obviously want him for pre season. Accyrover

Probably just paper talk. We are apparently after Gary Breen from Sunderland as well. Accyrover

Rumours are that after Steve McMahon left Blackpool 'by mutual consent' on Thursday he could be on his way to Burnley. Stanley could be off to Sheff Wednesday. I for one will miss Stans tactical rantings on Radio Lancs every Saturday night. Accyrover

Tony Cassacarino can hardly get a sentence out let alone comment of football. Accyrover

No. We are relegated already. A sad situation and no mistake. Accyrover

Where does the blame lie ? Is it Souness and his obviously tactical ineptitude ? His baffling team selections (Reid on the left FFs when we have Gresko with a good left foot sat around idle) ? The players who obviously aren't good enough (I wont go as far as to say they are not trying, because they seemed to try to me today) The overpaid Prima-Donna's like Cole and Yorke (aka The Chuckle Brothers, Daisy and Dora-esque Blackpool beach donkeys) Souness's falling out with Dunn, Cole, Yorke, Gillespie, Taylor, Johansson etc The selling of Duff and the frittering away of the £17 million - Amoruso is a bloody disgrace to name but one. Too many old players at the twilight of their careers (Tugay, Short [who I think tried today to be honest]) ? Dean Saunders training ? The board for sticking their heads in the sand ? The players who just dont care because half of them will be off if we get relegated ? Thanks for ruining my season, whoever is to blame. Accyrover

Well, my mates not going today. He's only seen us win once at home this season - and he's a season ticket holder ! I spoke to him last night and he said he's going out with the family for the day ! He's having an attack of the superstitions. He's only seen us beat Wolves, was on his honeymoon for the Everton game and was moving house on the day we beat Tottenham. I take this as an omen. I reckon we'll win 2-1, but a nervy game nevertheless. Anything less than 3 points and I think its all over. Accyrover