It's a shame Duff won't get in because of Dave Wagstaffe or Mike Harrison.

Both were better than him.

Just another reason why people will vote Sherwood...how can they take your Forrest v Sherwood claims seriously now?

Why so ?

I'll wager you've never heard of Wagstaffe or Harrison, let alone see them play.

I've heard of both but, no, I've never seen them play. Were they considered one of (if not the outright) best left wingers in the World during their time at Rovers though? Did they go to World Cups and still look an absolute class act?

I guess it all depends on your definition of 'great'. Greatest player? Greatest contribution to the club? Don't suppose there's any right or wrong in that one, it's down to personal choice...however you did claim "Both were better than him" (Duff)....hhhmmmmmmm....

It's a shame Sellars won't get in because of the Irish Wizard.

It's a shame Duff won't get in because of Dave Wagstaffe or Mike Harrison.

Both were better than him.

Just another reason why people will vote Sherwood...how can they take your Forrest v Sherwood claims seriously now?

Edit: Back on the centre midfielder topic, I actually feel guilty that I didn't vote Latheron as I now feel he should be in there upon further reflection...however I think Sherwood should be ahead of Forrest so I feel quite happy with my vote in that sense.

I fell into the propaganda about De Pedro when he first joined. However from what I have heard he will never make an impression in this league. He is acutally enjoying the English way of life but he is unlikely to fit in our team especially in our present situation. He is a decent passer, crosser of the ball but that is all he offers.

I dont see why not for now put Reid on the left as he played well there in his days at Millwall.

Reid can't cross with his left foot, he looks a little bit lost when he's out there.

About De Pedro...that may be all he offers but that was enough to make him a starter in the Spain team at the last World Cup and consistently one of the best left midfielders in Spain in recent years. He may not reach those levels again but we won't know just how good he can be until he's given a chance...may not be impressing for the reserves, but niether was McEveley...he may just be a big game player. I'd hardly call his hype propaganda, they were hard facts.

Pedersen must be doing something wrong in training, I think Hughes has changed things and gets a good look at players in a competitive situation(games), he's not even getting on the bench

I don't disagree with what you say, I just think we need a left footed midfielder on the left after seeing how toothless we were down there on Saturday. If De Pedro is fit then maybe he could do it...

Rovers 2 - 0 Birmingham

Birmingham look pretty poor this season, then again any team relying on Heskey and Yorke is going to have problems.

Team:

Friedel

Neill Todd Johansson McEveley

Emerton Thompson Ferguson Pedersen

Dickov Stead

Think Colin summed it up pretty well there, we never looked threatening down the left, the cross was either poor or just not attempted and played back to McEveley. Tugay's passing was shocking, can't fault his commitment though, he put in some good tackles but none in telling areas, just mainly around the half way line after he'd lost it in the first place. In regards to Rover6's question about the left side, in the first half we seemed to have developed a new tactic of player two right wingers whenever the ball was over there, that stopped in the second and Reid spent the majority of the time out on the left.

Does anyone know if Stead picked up an injury? I thought he was looking very good, held the ball up well and went on a couple of runs that deserved better. Jansen looked very good when he came on though, didn't recieve the ball as much as he would like but when he did he showed he's still a class player, his first touch has improved greatly and it was fantastic to see him leaping for headers against Distin and Dunne...and occasionally winning...not something I thought we'd ever see again. Thommo looked sharp when he came in the centre of midfield, he has to start there ahead of Tugay now, we have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain if their respective performances today are anything to go by. Just add a quick mention to Todd and especially Nissa, those two should be the first names on the team-sheet at the moment irrespective of Short's fitness.

Might as well do a player rating...

Friedel - 6 - Not much to do, few kicks that could have gone further but otherwise solid.

Neill - 6 - Looked solid defensively for a change, couple of wayward passes but an improvement on recent showings.

McEveley - 6 - Couple of uneasy moments but made some good challenges and supported the random wide man quite well although his final ball was poor at times. Needs to stay in the team though.

Todd - 7 - Calm, composed and distributed the ball well.

Nissa - 8 - Excellent in the air, made some great tackles on the ground and appears to have stopped lumping the ball forward. Has the potential to be a very good player for us I feel.

Reid - 6 - Very willing, contested well in the air but his first touch and crossing let him down, this probably wasn't helped by position swapping though.

Tugay - 5 - Still trying and you can see he still has the desire to do well but it's just not there anymore. Seems to have decided to pass the ball through people rather than round them...

Ferguson - 6 - Nice and tidy but frustrating today, a few times he sent the ball backwards when we should have been looking to be more aggressive, although the few through balls he tried never came off so maybe it was for the best...

Emerton - 5 - I'm a big fan of his but he was poor today, like Reid probably not helped by switching positions but even in his more familiar right side role he rarely threatened.

Stead - 7 - Was involved quite a lot from the start, some nice touches and some mazy runs troubled the city defence, he's still a wonderful talent and I'm positive once he gets one goal they'll start flowing again.

Dickov - 8 (MOM) - I've criticised him in the past but he was great today, kept hold of the ball well and was a general nuisance to the City defence...really looked determined to put in a good performance against his old club.

Jansen - 7 - Some neat touches and close control almost unlocked the defence, moved well and was looking for balls in behind...set up a late chance for Dickov by beating Dunne to a header.

How many players were around for all 5 of those conquests though? At first I didn't have a problem with Forrest winning it but the fact that some of his votes are tactical has made me not want him to win.

Medals aside, there isn't a good case for putting Forrest forward as our second greatest midfielder of all time. Sherwood just happens to be my personal choice but I think some of the others who have had personal qualities put forward should be ahead of him too.

How can you compare Forrest and Sherwood (for example), the game is completely unrecognisable from when Forrest played, for good and bad reasons.

I'm asking myself the same, nobody knows a damn thing about Forrest other than he won some medals, we haven't the slightest clue what kind of player he was. My vote was torn between Sherwood and Latheron because there was an extremely good case for Latheron being a great player and not just a member of a succesful side.

Again, not saying Forrest wasn't great, but we don't know...people who are 'tactical voting' to keep Sherwood out are making a mockery of this entire thing. How can the captain of the greatest Rovers side in this generation, and for one year the whole country, at a time the league is at a far higher standard be so unworthy of a place in the team that tactical voting is required to keep him out?

tend to prefer not to pay so much on clothes (clever) as I'd rather save it for drink and socialising (not so clever). Ah well, who says wisdom has to come with age?...

It's a fantastic theory, I'm still in my teens (just) and I work by that one...won't pay more than £10 for jeans (I'll think twice about that even) or £5 for a t-shirt...probably stretch to a tenner for a jumper but it would have to be worth it.

Expensive clothes make no sense to me at all, they don't even look good I don't think.

Same here...even if he didn't want him as part of his first team coaching set-up he could have kept him on at some level, maybe the youth teams.

Nah, Jimmy Forrest. C'mon 5 FA cup winners medals! No Rover will ever do that again.

No Rover will ever captain us to the Premiership title again either...

Youri's not a popular choice anymore it seems

Useful to bring on if we need a goal but shouldn't be starting, you have to mess with the system to fit him in and he's not good enough to justify that.

Friedel

Neill Todd Johansson McEveley

Reid Thompson Ferugson Emerton

Dickov Stead

I'd love to see a match fit De Pedro on the left but I'm doubting whether it's going to happen now.

The problem with Forrest is that we know sod all about him except he won lots of medals and played for England...in the same way Phil Neville has for Man Utd. Not saying he was a bad player, just saying I don't really know enough to put him above some of the others.

It's between Latherton and Sherwood for me.

I'm suprised at how many people are dismissing Sherwood so easily, surely the captain of what is likely to be our only Premiership winning team deserves to be somewhere near the list.

United: Harper, Hughes (Robert 56), Elliott, O'Brien, Bernard (Ameobi 68), Jenas, Butt, Bowyer, Bellamy, Shearer, Kluivert

Not sure what kind of formation you would get from that, well done on Souey for contuining his baffling tactics though.

I know that Arsenal sacked him for dissing Don Howe (of courderoy trilby fame ), Coventry for falling out with Strachan, but does anybody know what went on at Perugia? Could Bothroyd be the new Collymore?

Coventry bought him for £1 million I think, he wasn't sacked by Arsenal. I think his contract ran out at Coventry and he decided to take advantage of the Bosman rule and chance it in Italy...he did ok with Perugia but they were relegated so I imagine they were needing players off the wage bill.

Norwich 1 - 3 Blackburn

Team:

Friedel

Reid Short Johansson McEveley

Emerton Tugay Ferguson De Pedro

Bothroyd Stead

So...would the people wanting Emerton out please slag him off again? And the Neill lovers can follow...

I'm not sure what it is...but I've got a feeling that De Pedro will be involved tomorrow.

We'll still get beat though.

I hope it doesn't take Hughes too long to sort out his tactics.

The problem is...these ARE Hughes' tactics, he used them for Wales...I was hoping that that was down to the fact that Wales had a limited number of players and he wanted a way of fitting them into one team...but our tactics are starting to mirror those that he used for Wales. He would often play just Hartson up front on his own (Dickov), mess with his wingers which included Giggs playing right sometimes (Emerton).

If we stay with one up front we will go down, we won't magically stop conceding goals so we have to make sure we're a threat at the other end...if we stick with one up front we'll have to the worst attack in the league as well as the worst defence. Relying on a First Division quality striker like Dickov to fire us to Premiership safety is nuts.

The Sunday Mirror is reporting that . If we could get the same price we paid for him then I would snap their hands off and use all the money to buy three players - two midfielders and a central defender. Barry is good but not good enough to compensate for the problems elsewhere, if we could get two midfielders to replace him then I think we should do it.

"rover6 is right" - oh yes. He's the ###### dogs that lad. I bet Wenger is ###### himself with him about.

Really? Not sure why someone having an opinion would worry Wenger, each to their own I guess.

Hughes' selection choices have been questionable.

You are a complete tosser

Rover6 is right, the team selection is terrible. Dickov up front on his own? You'd struggle to survive and Division One with that. Emerton on the left after regaining his confidence? Reid walking straight back into the team?

Pretentious fans, on the other hand....I'm looking at the Libertines worshippers here.

I know a Libertines fan, I know what you mean.

I know a...wait, I AM a Libertines fan and I certainly wouldn't consider myself pretentious. To be honest, having pre-concieved ideas about fans of a certain band is far worse than anything you can choose to label those people.

I wondered how long it would be until people started doubting and wishing we had appointed someone else.

I'm already doing it, not because of the results because these are still mostly down to the fact that Souey left a crap squad...it's because of Hughes' terrible team selection and his obsession with playing midfielders out of position (something he did a lot with Wales).

We have the worst attack in the league with Dickov and Djorkaeff supporting, even Crystal Palace and Norwich have a more threatening attack. I can't be bothered even starting a rant about Emerton, it's just stupid. You would have thought being the type of striker he was, Hughes would have appreciated midfielders on the right side so that they could cross the ball.