just noticed this link on a post from the official site: United Injury Time Investigation Petition It seemed like a good idea until the Manure fans found it and filled it with insults. Some of the responses were quite funny, shame it takes the shine of what is a genuine attempt to get the incident noticed...

I've voted for Brad for the same reason as CLB. Friedel has been superb for Rovers since his arrival on a free transfer. Since he's been here he's put in some amazing goal keeping performances - will we ever be able to replace him when he leaves ? An outstanding keeper who's excelled at the higher levels of both club and international football, and most importantly, who's played a vital part of the club's success in recent years along the way. Thanks Brad !

Rovers 2 - Manure 1 Ferguson Giggs Emerton ......which'll set us up nicely for our away win at Newcastle.

This is probably one of the only times I can't bring myself to predict a Rovers win and I'm usually stupidly optismistic (or just plain stupid). To come away from Highbury with 1 point would be a brilliant result - 3 points would be an absolute dream, but sadly I just can't see even the former happening. Arsenal are a football team a class apart from anyone else at the moment and we've got to face them bang on form in front of a home crowd on the night they can rewrite the history books..... The scary thing is, we could play really well and have a good go at them (like 'Boro did), but even then, if Arsenal turn it on and decide that they would like to set their record with a thumping win after all, we could still be well beaten. Remember this clip from one of the greatest films ever (Rocky III)? (Clubber Lang in a TV interview before his fight with Balboa) Interviewer : What's your prediction for the fight? Clubber Lang : My prediction? Pain. (before throwing the meanest MrT stare at the camera). That's probably gonna be Wenger tomorrow night before kick-off, if asked a similar question by the media. Let's just hope Souness can get the players fired up and that we can finish the match with a bit of pride, even if we take a good hiding.

Way to go Flopsy- it'll only cost the club approx. £1m+ from the sell on clause we had !

We still wouldn't get the penalty. There'd be more chance of Dickov getting booked for time wasting or diving as he lies dying on the floor, full of bullet holes. Feeling strangely optimistic, I'll go for a 2 - 0 win, with Ferguson and Dickov grabbing the goals. End to end stuff with both keepers putting in good performances, but the quality of Yorke / Bazza / Tugay shining through (and maybe even an Emerton dribble and cross from the byline for good measure!). Saints certainly don't seem to have a happy camp at the moment, so let's hope we can add to the misery. I'm praying Beattie won't have recovered in time (or will have been transferred), leaving just Phillips to carry the threat for them upfront. For all of Omerod's hard work and Crouch's height, I don't think they'll pose too much of a threat if we win the battle in midfield.

Picked up the following albums recently : "Who Killed The Zutons?" - The Zutons "O" - Damien Rice "GP & Grievous Angel" - Gram Parsons "Winning Days" - The Vines "28 Days Later" - Original Soudtrack Very impressed with The Zutons (especially 'Confusion') and Damien Rice. I loved "28 Days Later" as a film, and most of the music has been provided by Godspeed You Black Emperor (I think). Haven't really taken time to listen the Gram Parsons albums enough yet, but they sound OK. Was anyone else disappointed with The Vines' album? Winning Days and Ride are great singles, but the rest of the album seems very average - not as good as the debut album IMO.

No, I think there'll be a few teams who'll struggle to beat WBA (and Norwich and Palace as well), because they'll play defensively, get men behind the ball and try and make it as hard as possible to play decent, passing football against them. Do you think as many teams will field as defensive a line-up against them at home, knowing that they're one of the weaker teams in the league, though ? I don't think there will be. Without Koumas and Hughes, there was no need to play such a defensive midfield, we need to take the initiative in our home matches after last season's terrible form at home. I presume I'm one of the 'idiot posters' you're referring to above. I didn't say we were crap, I was just disappointed because we started the game so negatively. Anyone who saw the 2nd half can see we have the players and ability to play good football and also that we were capable of pinning WBA back in their half time after time whilst pressing for an equaliser / winner. I just wish we'd started the game in that fashion, rather than it taking a WBA goal to get us going. I honestly feel that if we'd set about WBA for a full game rather than for just the 2nd half, we would have created enough oppurtunities to claim 3 points. We're gonna be up against it this season, so we need to make the most of the chances we get to make sure we don't have another relegation scrap to worry about. I personally think we'll do enough to avoid a repeat of last season. Making the most of our games against the weaker teams will go a long way towards doing that.

But we were 4th at the start of the day, bob ! I've got mixed feelings of disappointment, relief and (slight) optimism after yesterday's game. Before the game I was optimistic about our chances of getting three points given that WBA had their star player, Koumas, unavailable, whilst we almost had a fully fit squad. On reflection after the game, I think that if we can keep playing like we did in the 2nd half we'll be OK this season. I don't want to even try and consider another season of football that we saw in the 1st 45mins. I spent the first 5mins of the match or so trying to work out who was supposed to be playing where. Fair play to Souness, though, if we can't see these baffling selctions / formations coming, what chance have the oppositon managers got? First game at home, opening day of the season, playing a newly promoted team and we put Gresko and Matteo in central midfield, whilst Tugay's on the bench and Flitcroft doesn't even get in the squad. We knew WBA were going to come to Ewood, try and snatch a goal and then hold on for dear life, so was such a defensively-minded Rovers team neccessary? I'd expect something like that against one the top 5 teams, not against a team we should be looking to take 3 points from. In contrast to a woeful 1st half, I thought we had a good 2nd half and kept WBA on the back foot, mainly down to Souness putting Tugay and Dickov on the pitch and giving the team more options going forward. I thought Gray, Ferguson, Short and Yorke were our best players, whilst Emerton and De Pedro struggled to do well. Dickov deserves a mention for getting stuck in straight away and being a constant nuisance for the WBA defence. He isn't going to dribble around defenders and hit a 25 yard screamer into the top corner, but his constant harrassment of the WBA defenders put them under pressure, stopped them from doing anything other than clearing the ball back to a blue and white shirt and won us plenty of possession in the final 3rd of the pich. Short played really well and his determination to get onto the cross for the equaliser was superb - we're really going to miss his enthusiasm when he stops playing for the team Emerton still hasn't regained the confidence he had at the start of last season (I'm a big fan of his, but I can see why other members of this messageboard are fast losing patience with his performances) and De Pedro looked a little out of sorts. He hit some terrible crosses, but hopefully he'll improve when he gets used to the premiership (if Souness can manage to field a balanced team for more than 45mins on a consistent basis). The ref was terrible and missed some very blatant fouls by their defenders, whilst spending most of the 1st half giving WBA freekicks everytime one of their players fell over or protested about suffering any type of physical contact. I can understand Glenn's point about the half-time booing sounding like it was for the team's performance, but it was only directed at the refereee from around where I was sat. The 2nd half chants of "you don't know what you're doing" and "you're not fit to referee" emphasised that I hope. This was maybe a disappointing result given the chance we had to take all 3 points, but there was enough in the 2nd half performances of several players to suggest we can still play some decent football if we want to and Souness stops playing silly buggers with the formation / team selections.

I'm confident about this one, especially since Koumas is suspended. Let's just hope the Baggies aren't able to finalise a deal for Carrick before the deadline for Saturday's kick-off. I'll go for : Rovers 3 - 0 WBA Dickov 2mins Ferguson 8mins Stead 83mins (with Roar getting the upper hand in the pre-match penalty competition). I think we'll get 2 early goals, but spend the rest of the match fending off pressure from WBA before getting a third near the end to claim the 3 points.

Just bought the album by The Black Keys 'Thickfreakness' which is really good. They're a guitar & drums combo (just like the white stripes), who play really basic blues/rock stuff. Which is nice.

NewsNow's just thrown the following up: Cole In Fulham Talks Surprise, surprise that man Nixon's the journalist ( ) in question......

No-one would disagree about him dropping Todd for his $1m purchase Amo, but did it really have to result in Todd leaving the club? Is that good management? I think it is good management to get rid of player who walked out on his team, manager and fans on the day of a game against close rivals in a relegation battle. What message would it send to players and fans if Todd hadn't been dealt with in such a direct and firm manner? Regardless of who was right or wrong - you can't have a player abandon his club when everyone is needed to pull together to get the necessary results. Souness' current actions at the club are under intense scrutiny at the moment and the departure of one of our better players under such alarming circumstances does not look good. Although it will be disappointing to see Cole leave, there is still time to try and find a replacement. I don't think anyone involved with the club would accept such a depleted/inexperienced forward line of Dickov, Stead, Gally, Jansen and Yorke would see us involved in anything other than a repeat of last year's relegation battle, so I'm confident that we will try and add another striker to the squad once Cole's financial sitaution is resolved. Whether or not Souness has the ability to find the right player within his allocated budget remains to be seen, but until then I won't be jumping to any conclusions. Remember how we doubted whether a young Jon Stead would be able to make an impact of the premiership after arriving from the 3rd divsion? Although I agree with USABlue's sentiments regarding player discipline and the manager being able to demonstrate his authority over 'prima donna' players, it still seems that Souness could start an argument in an empty room. I thought the way he cleared the deadwood out of the club when he arrived was exactly what was required. Showing the exit door to the moaners helped focus the sqaud on achieving positive results. It seems Souness is trying to do the same again. What's worrying this time around (you'd think he wouldn't be making the same mistakes again and again) is that some of the dissent from the players is fuelled by his stubborn and argumentative nature. Hopefully, once he's removed the current 'guilty' players from Ewood Park he can concentrate on re-building the team and improving on last year's disappointments. The fact that he can't seem to fix / work around these rifts, however, makes me think that as long as Souness is our manager, there will always be these type of problems at Blackburn Rovers....... I just hope the ability of the players, choice of team line-ups / tactics, youth academy developments and input from the other coaches are enough to push the team in the right direction and bypass this worrying trend.

Nice one, tchocky ! Shame the sarcasm will be wasted on Nixon and co... My concern would be that with disappointing ST sales, lack of player sales and a relatively small prize money income from last season - would the whole total of cash 'saved' by releasing Cole actually be made available? I'd rather Cole stayed and played 1st team football, than risk releasing him and trying to repalce him with whatever cash is made available. We're going to have to replace him one way or another next season (I imagine he won't be signing an extension to his contract!), let's hope Souey and co take the time to get it right. Another season of him playing alongside Stead/Gally should be a great help to their development as premiership strikers.

I've read the articles this morning - Nixon and co must be clutching at straws to fill some space with this kind of rubbish... Despite 'Fired Cole is Rover and Out!' & 'Rovers boot out £3m-a-year Cole on a free' headlines the SP doesn't manage to get a single quote about the situation from player or either club. The closest it gets is 'The SP understands..' before launching into some crazed transfer plot about us giving one of our better players away to a rival club for free AND continuing to pay 50% of his wages. Weaken our team and pay for the improvement of someone elses? Why not throw a few midfielders in and offer half the profits of shirt sales whilst we're at it? It doesn't make sense - it's the kind of transfer that only a desperate club Leeds would arrange. Fair enough, Cole's wages and end of contract bonus are looming over us, but unless we sign a replacement (I don't think Dickov's signing was meant as such) then we need Cole playing for us. As rover6 has said, if someone offers a reasonable price, it wouldn't surprise me to see Cole leave. At least then we'd have more money to look into a new striker (Stead, Dickov, Gally and Jansen wouldn't be enough). Personally, I'd rather he stayed, he's looked good alongside Steadinho and they formed a decent partnership towards the end of last season.

I've just watched the piece on SSN. Flitcroft did say he was upset and was looking to speak to the manager about it. Fair enough, a piece of news reported directly from the player's quote... ..but .....where did all the overshadowing 'dressing room unrest' come from? You'd have thought SSN would to least try to back it up with some quotes / ideas, rather than just assume things aren't going well at Ewood. Is this the same Sky Sports team who said we were looking to add Craig Short to the squad recently?

It depends what the relationship between Flitty and Souey is like, MB. From what you've said it doesn't sound too good If it's a Cole/Dunn type relationship, then it's no surprise that Flitty has found out about the change of captaincy through the media. If this is the case then it wouldn't surprise me to see Flitty sold onto another club or at least asking to transferred. If the relationship between them hasn't dropped to that level yet, then it's smacks of a lack of professionalism rather than Souey being ruthless. If Souness wants the players to respect him, trust him and give their best, then surely the best way is to be upfront and honest with them? The constant 'issues' that seem to arise between the players and Souness is starting to get a little worrying....... Like most on this 'board I think the promotion of Bazza to captain is a good move, but me me, it just seems like Souey's gone about this the wrong way. I hope this doesn't end up with us losing a player (who has given us 8 years of decent service) under such unnecesaary circumstances. Even if it is time for Flitcroft to move on (and I personally hope it isn't as it'd only leave Douglas as a central midfielder who can adopt the 'terrier' role and he's not experienced enough yet.) then at least he deserves to be dealt with in a professional and respectful manner.

For me this site was best way to keep up to date with all Rovers-related news, so I visited just about every day where possible (even if it was just to find out there's no news about a new kit!), because other sites just aren't as good. Over the last couple of years, I've found it's become more than just a good source of news, it's also become a great place to post and chat to others. Although I'd only registered in '03, I had visited the site regularly for a good 2-3 years before that before plucking up the courage to register and start posting. There are alot of posters on this messageboard who make visiting the site and reading the topics well worthwhile and it's been a great way for me to meet others at games for a beer and a chat. To get back to philipl's original point - I think the quality of the posts may have suffered recently but only because of the lack of things Rovers-related to get us talking. It's not the quality of the members and their posts that has deteriorated, it's just that there's not as much for people to talk/post about when it's the middle of summer and Rovers are fairly quiet on the transfer front. Roll on August !

I with Flopsy and chris - Flitcroft and Bazza would be my 1st choice partnership in the middle. De Pedro on the left and Thommo on the right would be my choice for a 4 man midfield. Hopefully, the return of Thommo will give Emerton the inspiration/kick up the backside he needs to start performing like he did early on in the season. That said, I think Emerton would have a better chance to perform in a balanced team if De Pedro settles in OK. I don't like the idea of Bazza being used as the sole defensive midfielder, because I don't think he's the Hamman / Keane type who will chase midfielders and throw himself into tackles time and time again. From what I've seen of Bazza, he strikes me as more the type of midfielder who can run midfield if there is someone with him to win the ball for him (and let him control the play when we're in possession), and stay back to let him push up. I'm not saying he can't / won't tackle, just that there are better uses of his ability and other players (Flitcroft / Douglas) who can fill the midfield terrier role more effectively. Bazza can be the link between midfield and attack without having to be an all out attacking midfielder. His passing abilty and determination to run with the ball and get into the box, means that he can provide this threat for us from a deeper midfield position. We just need to make sure that there's someone in midfield who's there to cover for him (on the off chance that Steadinho doesn't score ).

So that is Duffers new role now they have signed van Robben...? With Duffer's dodgy shoulder ? Doubt It It'd be more Chelski's style to bid £15m for someone else's doorman, then relegate them to a meaningless 'squad rotation' system

True, but Bazza was a very successful captain at Rangers and knows what is required to take on the responsibilty. The fact that he'll play an important part in the centre of our midfield means that he'll be able to have a massive impact on the game and is in the prime position to infuence the game and his team mates. I think this is a good move by Souey, because it'll force Bazza to lead by example, which by all accounts, he should be very capable of doing. By making Bazza captain, Souey isn't only making use of his experience as a captain at Rangers & Scotland, but also putting the onus on Bazza to respond and produce the goods. There'll be no hiding for Bazza now, he's used to being successful from his time at Rangers and this desire to win will hopefully shine through. Whether or not this benefits Flitty is another matter. I think it has more to do with the fact that Bazza will play all the games he'll be fit for within reason, whereas the return to fitness of Thommo and competition from Tugay and Douglas may hinder Flitty's appearances in the 1st team. I hope Flitty takes this positvely and allows it to help him focus on playing his game. He's always been a vocal member of the team and his tackling and defensive work off the ball have been of great benefit to the team. I think he still has something to offer to the team when he plays, so I hope this isn't the start to the end of his career at Blackburn.

...and we've still got 'Smile' to look forward to ! Xfm Article - 'Smile' release date Has anyone seen him 'live' recently ? The reviews he gets are really good.

Not a lot. I can't remember enjoying a goal scored in a neutral (to me, anyway) match so much - I thought it was great (probably added to by the fact it should take my Euro2004 team to the top of the office league!). It was pretty lucky (lobbing the keeper and defender on the line from a couple of yards out whilst being in mid-air with your back to goal ), but the intention was there so you've got to give him full credit for it. I wonder what goal the kids in the playground will be trying to emulate for the next few week's

It is appreciated LS, thanks Just when we thought signing a left winger was good news, it turns out he also comes with free 'shady, mysterious background' !! Plenty to keep the messageboard going until the next official PR blunder from the club.... Does anyone know if there's a registered Um Bomgo Rehab clinic in the North West?

Jolly well said, old chap. More tea and cake Mr FLB ?