I don't know or care as niether really make any sense in context. Quite an ironic clichéd and childish reply though. My post was meant to be more jokey than anything Fife, and not necessarily aimed at you, it's just every thread is getting dominated by how poor little Rovers are being bullied by the big bad referees (even though sometimes they're applying the law correctly), yours was just the one that finally made me feel the need to write something. I hope not many other fans come in here and read all the snivelling, it would be quite embarrassing. The usual cry is 'big club bias' etc, which may hold some weight, but the incidents this season have been against clubs no bigger than ourselves...so this time it's just referees hate Rovers, which is obviously not true. We've just been unfortunate enough to be on the end of some poor decisions by incompentent officials. We've also had a few in our favour, but lets not let those spoil the delusions eh. Would you care to expand on what the 'something else' mentioned in your other post would be, Fife? I'd genuinely love to hear it.

Oh no, it's something else for sure. There's no doubt whatsoever that the FA and the media have combined to prevent us from being successful. Only a fool would think that there aren't new instructions given to referees designed to hold back Rovers. In fact, it's entirely obvious that Howard Webb recalled the Ooijer penalty before making the decision in Sunday's game and based his decision completely around that...just to upset us that little bit more. It's disgusting, really.

Absolute nonsense. Lose next week and we won't go down. The pessimism here is stunning. We've had six or seven poor games (contributed to by a side constantly disrupted by injuries and suspensions), prior to that we had gone eight unbeaten. At that point people were talking about another top six finish. The truth probably lies somewhere in between those two, relegation talk at this point is absurd though, there are no 'must win/not lose' games at this stage of the season.

Why the horrible talk about our players having to 'battle'? It's only November for crying out loud, we're nowhere near having to contemplate scrapping our way to survival. We'll finish comfortably in the top half by playing good football, as we did last season. Calling for the ugly stuff already is ludicrous, and quite insulting to the talent of our squad, which is nowhere near relegation fodder.

Definitely. I dare say if Tugay was a local lad then he would be one of the first names on the teamsheet of a greatest XI.

Is it really so difficult for you to understand the rules of the game? Really, is it? I don't like the rules either, cards are given out too freely and the game is moving closer to a none-contact game. However, that doesn't mean they don't apply, or that the FA are 'out to get us' when the rules are applied to us. There was sufficient contact from Tugay on Ghaly to bring him down (I suggest you watch the replay again if possible, this part is unquestionable when you watch properly i.e. without blue and white specs). There was a very good chance Ghaly would have gone on to have a free shot at goal from inside the box, therefore Tugay was sent off. All this talk about intent etc. is meaningless in this situation as it is not mentioned in the rules. The job of the panel is to apply to law directly to the situation. Unfortunately for us, they did that. I think the fact that they didn't overturn Ghaly's either shows it isn't some FA plot against us. It's no wonder people can't judge the situation without bias if that's an example of the menaltiy on the situation. Admittedly, I know to take what jim says with a pinch of salt, but still...

Why? He plays a completely different role to Tugay. I don't think Dunn would sit in front of the back four. If you're on about central players then I'd disagree strongly. When Savage and Reid are both fit, they will be competing for that role...adding another player to it would ultimately mean someone getting upset at the lack of games. An alternative to Tugay is what we desperately need, Mokoena just isn't good enough, and I fear Tugay will burn out long before the season is over if he continues playing the same rate of games he is at the moment.

"Jose's self confident and people who have no confidence in themselves can't stand people like that. As for Rovers having £2.50 to spend I doubt it. The Walkers would not release that much." Is that all? I was expecting a big scoop there. You don't work for Panorama by any chance, do you? There are other people on here who are fond of Mourinho, it doesn't mean they support Chelsea. In fact, that post seems more designed to antagonise people on here rather than declare a love for Chelsea.

All of what you say there is completely irrelevent. There is nothing in the rules which states which leg you have to foul with, niether do you take in to account the ability of the player about to take the shot. There is no question about whether it was a penalty or not, it's pure unmitigated bias if you believe otherwise. I'll accept there could be a debate about whether it was a goal-scoring opportunity or not, personally I think Ghaly would have been able to get a shot on goal before a defender or Friedel had reached him, and therefore a red is correct. If you think either a defender or Friedel would have reached the ball before Ghaly then fair enough, anything else is just irrelevant nonsense though.

Tris...under the letter of the law it was a correct decision. What everyone (including myself) has a problem with is that law, under those circumstances a penalty is punishment enough. I didn't for a second expect Tugay's card to be overturned...I'm quite suprised Ghaly's wasn't though.

Our first penalty against Bolton never was a penalty. It's only because we failed to convert either of those two that it has slipped from the minds of everyone.

Two ridiculously biased opinions. There's was definitely a penalty, there are two camera angles that clearly show that Tugay took Ghaly's foot from underneath him with his trailing leg (albeit unintentionally). There were no theatrics on Ghaly's part, his standing leg was wiped out from underneath him, his eyes were on the ball all the time. The red card, however, was extremely harsh, I don't think many people will argue with that. As for 'ours', there is no way you can say it's DEFINITELY a penalty when even multiple television replays aren't entirely conclusive. It probably should have been a penalty, but it's easy to understand why it wasn't given. Not that it effected the game at all, but Ghaly never should have been sent off, he'll almost certainly get his card overturned. As someone else mentioned, I'm sure referees are doing their jobs honestly, the majority aren't just any good at it. If you look at the four major events today (two penalties and two red cards), one was right, two were definitely wrong and one borderline, but possibly wrong. It's certainly not a case of everything going against us.

I think the main reason is the lack of alternatives. Gray is battling directly with Neill for the left back slot so it's easy to understand why he will find it harder to have a sustained run in the side, especially whilst Hughes is trying to persuade Neill to sign a new contract. Despite the obvious potential, Peter wouldn't be an improvement on Pedersen at present (although you could argue his inclusion would benefit him/us more in the long run). If you think back to before he won a place in the side, Emerton was being used out there...but he's now found his best position so that rules him out. The best option we probably have is to bring Gallagher into the midfield, but that might not solve much as the issue about pace and strength wouldn't be resolved. Personally I'd go with Gallagher on the right and Bentley on the left for a few games and see how that goes, but it's not too difficult to see why Pedersen is keeping his place at present.

Gray and Jeffers have been as much a part of the England team as Dunn has, it was so long ago now that we can't really go along with that reasoning. Michael Ricketts would potentially be worth a £1 million gamble on that basis. As others have pointed out, I'm not really sure how Dunn would fit into our team. I think his best bet would be playing in either Bentley's or Pedersen's role, the fact that niether are playing as wingers, instead being given the freedom to drift inside, would suit Dunn perfectly. If he was fit he'd certainly be a better option than Pedersen at the moment. He's definitely not the answer the central problems we have though, especially as a Tugay replacement. You only have to watch Tugay's position in the first half to realise that they play entirely different roles. There just isn't a role in central midfield for players like Dunn anymore, unless it's part of a five (or a narrow diamond at a push). Even world class players like Paul Scholes have had to adapt because of this, he's playing twenty yards deeper this season than he used to. £1 million is the absolute maximum we should be willing to gamble on him if it is something we're thinking about, an alternative to our wide players just isn't high enough on the priority list at present to justify anything more.

Apart from him losing his place in the World Cup squad for not playing regular first team football.

What absolute nonsense. How on Earth can you call Beckham a primadonna? No-one works harder than him when he's on the pitch, he's obviously not as good as he used to be but that's not through lack of effort.

That's only a rumour though, wasn't the fee mentioned £2.5 million? Sparky has shown to be more prudent with cash than to throw that amount at a player who hasn't performed for a long time now due to injuries. If you take away the sentimental part of Dunn returning, he's nothing more than a midfield version of Jeffers.

Personally I use ImTOO Audio Converter. The free version requires you to press 'ok' after each song is converted, otherwise it's as functional as the paid for version. Am I right in thinking that iTunes will convert things into mp3 if you the preferences? Might be a worth checking out as a free option.

Well we got £2.5 million for Kuqi on deadline day, it would be terrible if the board didn't offer at least this amount to Sparky in the January transfer window. I'd be astounded if central midfield wasn't the priority, it was obvious we couldn't go through a season of four competitions with only three recognised central midfielders, one of whom is 36. My guess is that Hughes didn't anticipate two of them being out for long periods before the window came along.

Edit: Beat me to it, Fife. Incidently, is there any way to delete a post rather than just edit and remove the content?

Fletcher plays mainly on right for Man Utd, signing Hargreaves will just mean that they won't have to play O'Shea or Giggs in central midfield as often.

Oh...yes, so it does. Back to the drawing board then I guess.

1864 we'd get absolutely battered with that formation. Why are people still of the belief that a horribly defensive 4-5-1 formation is the way to get results? We were bold and played 4-4-2 at Old Trafford last season and won. This was without Bellamy at the time as well.

Thanks for the advice chaps. I think I'm leaning towards a TV Sender thingy as my television is a long way from television downstairs, it would be a lot of effort to get a cable up to it without tripping people up. I know people have suggested an alright one for around £40 but that's a fair bit of money at the moment...however, I found THIS on the last page. Now, as it sends to 4 rooms I could probably persuade other people in the house to chip in so they could get it in their rooms too. I just wonder though if it will work as it seems incredibly cheap for what it claims to do.

Friedel Emerton Ooijer Zurab Gray Bentley Neill Tugay Pedersen McCarthy Nonda Neill in centre midfield may look a bit crazy, but I think he's the only person who has the combination of going box-to-box whilst tackling hard we have with both Savage and Reid out. Tugay can make up for his lack of passing ability. Neill also has a decent shot on him, I wouldn't bet against a goal or two if he were played there.