Personally I thought he would be a good if not exceptional forward for us when we signed him. Now I find myself agreeing with you. He has all the raw pace of Owen combined with a Rooney like ability to pick the ball up deep and pick players out with passes. His finishing is excellent too. The only British player I would swap him for would be Rooney. Owen does not have that ability to create. It is no exaggeration to say that the player he most closely resembles in style is Henry. f we are to keep him we need European football!

A backlash is coming. Rovers 3 Villa 1 Bellamy, Bentley, Pedersen

What did Zurab do?

He actually had a great couple of dribbles along the left side before putting crosses in, so he can do it if he wants to. The midfield next week has to be: Pedersen Tugay Savage Bentley I am excited to see what that can do, even if it is a bit harsh on Reid. It should be pretty!

In light of Hughes' comments there is an added dimension to where we finish. If we don't get European football I would be very wary of losing Hughes. And if Hughes goes I think we would be in trouble. Today result was a real kick in the teeth bu we are still well in line for sixth. We need to win our next two games.

After today I think Bentley may well be up to the job. He was brilliant in the middle when retaining posession and spreading the play, he has an excellent shot, a few tricks and he can use his left really well too (he crossed better with his left than Pedersen does for Christ's sake!) His nofty little tuns shows he has been learning off Tugay too. Now if he can learn to tackle and work like Sav (and to be fair to the boy he was no slouch at all) we have a real prospect. What was Wenger thinking?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! How did we manage to lose that! I don't think I have ever been this ###### off about football. I don't think I have ever seen Rovers play so well and lose! Every player had a good game apart from Fridel, Emerton and Gray who were certainly not terrible and we lost. How? How? How? How? Great bit of skill from Keane for the firsr, Gray done for pace for the third. Perhaps the second could have been prevented by someone picking up Keane or Fridel for cing the ball wide. APrt from that? Bentley, Bellamy, Niell and Nelsen were all excellent. Even Pongo came into it after bouncing everything off himself in the first 30 minutes. Kuqi won stuff in the air and caused problems- personally I would have got him on 5 minutes earlier. Christ! Fing Jesus Fing Christ. We shall thrash Villa next weekend. Thrash thrash thrash them. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I am getting extrmemly excited about this game, even more so than the Arse in the semi last year (mainly because I thought we would lose it). Two similar sides, masses at stake for both clubs, on the telly so I can actually watch it over here, and we have quite a few players (tugay, Bellamy, Bentley, Todd, Niell) playing really well. I am looking forward to seeing how Bentley does on the left. I am a little suprised so many people have been leaving out Dickov in favour of Pongo. The little scot has been our second best striker by a long way this season.

Apparently he wasn't injured, from bbc: But manager Steve Bruce's decision to withdrew his most effective attacking player Dunn just before the hour did not help the visitors' cause. After Dunn's departure, Birmingham lost much of their invention and as they increasingly ran out of ideas the visitors were reduced to speculative shots. It was a surprise when Bruce replaced Dunn just before the hour, sending on striker DJ Campbell, with the former Brentford forward making little impact. I have rooted around on a few brum message boards- he dfinately wasn't injured, merely taken off to put on a striker and to protect him from injury.

Certainly strikes me as a bit conversational. I thought the guy who writes Rovers for the LET posts on here?

I never suggested that a college year in america makes me a smart person, the standard is almost identical to Britain. Indeed, I am not sure that university affects 'smartness' at all. The reason I brough it up is because you were busy insulting me as if I was American. I thought if you wanted to insult me you might as well be accurate about it. And I meant colourful as in varied and bizarre.

This may well be a bit boring for everybody, but One Post wanted me to substatiate why I found it ironic that he called Mr Boise a 'poo stirrer'. He sent me a PM about it and was very upset. A good example is in the recent thread where an American poster suggested making his own kit. Pointless antagonism against his own fans? I would define that as looking to cause unnecessary trouble. And to JansenPrestyWales defence of Friedel in a different thread he, without provocation, threw in a: And when Flopsy accused him of being sarcastic (nothing more or less) he replied: All of which strikes me as looking for a bit of an argument, hence the comment which I think is justified. Anyhow, compared to the abuse that is handed out around here on a regular basis, including by Onepost himself (he sent me a very colourful and amusing second PM), it is pretty small beer.

I know I watch a lot less foreign footie than you scandinavian lads but wouldn't you say that was a bit erroneous when we have three teams in the last 16 of the CL, two of whom look like they will get through to the last eight. The UEFA performance has been a little weak, Borough will struggle against Roma, so I suppose you could say outside the top three we are probably lagging behind the Spanish standard. But we are not that far off. I would fancy Rovers to give Celtavigo or Sevilla a game.

I'm not sure about 1. It strikes me as being more than a little bit sneaky and if I was an away fan I would be more than a little cheesed off. I know when Utd did it to us there were a lot of complaints. And 2. is a good idea but wouldn't it mean that Season Ticket holders, such as yourself, would end up paying more per game than the casual fan? However, the recently promoted membership scheme and accosiated discounts suggest people are on your wavelength.

Why not? THe only thing you musn't do is make more than one, and you certainly shouldn't sell them. And if you take the crest off an old shirt I don't think you would be breaching contract. Exercise your creativity! Just make it look good or expect to be slated if you make it over to Blackburn!

Ironic anybody?

I wouldn't personally go for a 451 for this game but I don't think it would be a ridiculous suggestion. It would certainly make us more secure, and a point is excellent work if we are after sixth. The game would be dull though, and why not indulge our dreams of fourth?

I would take Jenas for the right over what we have, much better player there than any of ours. Lennon is even better but lacks experience. Savage has been exceptional to the point where I actually would have him over Davids. The Murphy/Tugay comparison is interesting as while Tugay is certianly the more classy player Murphy has the legs. Same goes for Carrick. My combined side would be:

I ddon't think they actually spent any of the Champions League money (just as well as they didn't really get any). What they did spend was from the Rooney transfer.

He would quite easily fit in on the right or as a supporting striker in the hole. The latter would be more likely, but it would have to be weighed up against the relative merits of signing a geniuine striker or, indeed, just using Bentley there. He would also provide cover on the left and allow us to switch to a 451. One place he could not play is in central midfield, not unless we signed a Parker/Hamann kind of sitting defensive player, and that ain't going to happen because we have Robbie and Stevie.

I do agree that more than likely just Journos spinning a line while we are in the limelight. Good to see you ahead of the game too! That last bit about operating profit, I apologise for being an accounting numbskull, does that include the subsidies from the Walker trust?

Best thing for this would be to raise it, in a non dramatic fashion, next time BRISA have a meeting with JW.

For a side like us a goal every two games is fantastic. Cole didn't get any where near that, I think. He must have a fair few assists too. If only he had played a few more games...

Blueboy, I don't think Hughes will look at it like that. If Dunn makes it known that he is willing to come then Sparky will, of course, give him a once over rather than discarding it out of hand. If we were shy of players subceptible to injury we would not of signed Bellamy. I agree he is probably not Sparky's ideal type of character generally, but I also think the manager will judge it on the merits of the situation in the summer. THere are a huge number of variables- how many games he manages until the end of the season, whether Brum go down, how much cash he would be looking for a week, how much cash Brum are looking for, the results of a medical. Hughes is not daft. A fully fit Dunn would offer a massive new option to Rovers that we would not have unless Bentley comes on. He is a very good player potentilly available on the cheap. Signing him would make Hughes a popular man indeed too (although this should never be a factor in the decision itself). It would be madness to not consider it. However I do agree that him coming back is unlikely.

We could get a 7,000 piece orchestra and then the stadium would be full. And they could pump out the Ride of the Valkeries as MGP, our little viking legend, wheels away after scoring against another top four club!